The taste of the [Heart of the Monarch] was vile.
It tasted like rotting iron and ozone. As Kael swallowed the pulsating organ, a burning sensation tore through his throat, spreading into his veins like liquid fire.
"Argh!"
Kael fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
This wasn't just power. It was a complete reconstruction of his existence. His muscles spasmed, tightening and tearing, only to knit back together instantly, denser and stronger than before. His senses expanded—he could hear the heartbeat of a rat in the walls; he could smell the metallic tang of blood from the floor above.
[Assimilation Complete.]
[You have been reborn.]
Kael gasped, sucking in a lungful of dusty air. He looked at his hands. They were trembling, not from fear, but from an overflow of energy. He felt... hungry. Not for food, but for life.
[Status Window]
Name: Kael
Class: Predator (SSS)
Level: 1
Strength: 10 (Average Adult Male: 5)
Agility: 12
Mana: 0/0 (Locked)
Innate Skill: [Absolute Predation (Rank SSS)]
Description: The user does not gain experience points like a normal player. The user gains power by consuming the essence of the fallen.
Effect: Killing an enemy automatically absorbs 1-10% of their total stats. Low chance to steal a Skill.
Kael smirked. A cold, cruel smile that didn't reach his eyes.
In his past life, it took him three years to reach 10 Strength. He had just done it in three minutes.
CRASH!
The metal door of the maintenance room buckled.
Kael's eyes snapped to the entrance. The heavy steel door groaned as something slammed against it from the outside.
Screee!
The screech was high-pitched and grating.
Goblins.
The cannon fodder of the System. Weak, cowardly, but vicious in packs. In his past life, a single goblin had nearly chewed his arm off during the first hour because he was too frozen with fear to move.
But Kael wasn't the trembling porter anymore.
He scanned the room. No swords. No guns. Just cleaning supplies. He grabbed a rusty pipe wrench left on a workbench. It felt light in his hand.
BANG!
The door flew off its hinges, clattering onto the concrete floor.
Three small, green figures stumbled in. They were hideous—leathery skin, yellow eyes, and jagged daggers dripping with questionable fluids. They stopped, sniffing the air. When they saw Kael, they grinned, revealing rows of needle-like teeth.
"Kiek! Human!" one shrieked in their guttural tongue.
To a normal student, this was a nightmare come to life. To Kael, it looked like a buffet.
"Just three?" Kael asked, his voice steady. "I was hoping for an appetizer, not a snack."
The lead goblin screeched, lunging forward with its dagger raised. It was fast—faster than an average human.
But Kael had spent ten years dodging attacks from High-Rank monsters while carrying eighty pounds of gear. He knew their attack patterns better than he knew his own mother's face.
Step.
Kael pivoted slightly to the left. The rusty dagger sliced through empty air, missing his neck by an inch.
Before the goblin could recover, Kael's hand shot out, grabbing the creature by its throat.
[Stat Check: Strength 10 vs Strength 3.][Overwhelming Success.]
The goblin's eyes bulged. It clawed at Kael's arm, but his grip was like a hydraulic press.
"Die," Kael whispered.
CRACK.
With a sickening crunch, he crushed the goblin's windpipe. The creature went limp instantly.
Then, the magic happened.
A black, shadowy mist erupted from the goblin's corpse. It didn't dissipate. Instead, it swirled violently and shot straight into Kael's chest.
[You have killed a Level 2 Goblin Scout.][Predation Activated.][You have devoured the target's essence.][Strength +0.2][Agility +0.1]
A rush of dopamine hit Kael's brain. It was intoxicating. He felt the increment of power instantly. It was small, but it was permanent.
The other two goblins froze. Their simple AI brains couldn't process what they were seeing. The human wasn't running. The human just ate their leader's soul.
Kael dropped the corpse and stepped over it, swinging the heavy pipe wrench onto his shoulder. His shadow seemed to stretch long and jagged against the wall, looking more like a demon than a man.
"Next," Kael said.
The goblins shrieked in terror and tried to scramble back through the doorway, but they were too slow.
Kael crossed the distance in a blur. SWISH. THUD.
The wrench connected with the first goblin's skull, caving it in with a wet squelch.
[Agility +0.2]
The last goblin tripped over its own feet, cowering against the doorframe, chattering for mercy.
Kael didn't hesitate. He brought his boot down on its neck.
SNAP.
[Strength +0.1]
Silence returned to the basement, broken only by the distant screams echoing from the upper floors.
Kael stood amidst the carnage, checking his status. In less than thirty seconds, he had gained stats that would take a normal person a week of training to achieve.
"It works," he muttered, looking at the black mist fading into his skin. "The 'Gluttony' trait... it really works."
He walked over to the first goblin and picked up its dagger. [Item: Crude Goblin Dagger (Rank F)][Durability: 5/10]
It was trash. But it was sharp trash. Better than a wrench.
Kael gripped the dagger, testing its weight. He looked toward the stairs leading up to the main campus. The screams were getting louder. The smell of blood was drifting down.
The "Grand Game" had begun. The "Heroes" were currently wetting their pants in the cafeteria. The professors were being eaten alive in the lecture halls.
It was time to go hunting.
Kael started walking up the stairs, a predator entering a pen of sheep.
But just as he reached the landing, a sudden, piercing alarm blared directly inside his head, followed by a red screen that blocked his vision.
[WARNING!]
[A 'Unique Monster' has sensed the death of its kin!]
[The 'Goblin Champion' (Level 10) is charging toward your location!]
Kael froze.
A Level 10? Here? That wasn't supposed to happen. In the original timeline, the strongest monster in the starting zone was a Level 5 Hobgoblin.
The butterfly effect. By stealing the Divine Item, he had changed the difficulty of the tutorial.
The metal door at the top of the stairs bulged inward as something massive slammed into it.
BOOM!
The steel warped.
Kael tightened his grip on the crude dagger, his eyes narrowing.
"Good," he hissed. "I was still hungry anyway."