🜚 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐀, 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐒 🜚
Many claim it was the shards of a dying star that reshaped the lands, that scattered fragments of celestial fire forged the new age. But they were somewhat wrong.
The truth lies deeper, hidden in shadows older than the oldest cities. The Devas—beings both revered and feared—in the old world known as gods, devils, or demons of many religions, were the unseen architects of this reformation. Due to their insistent interventions with humans, they caused the premature descent of the pathways to Evolution. But now, some of them regretted their actions, realizing that they had created a threat.
---
The moment Derick plunged into the pit, the world dropped out from beneath his feet.
Wind roared past his ears. Darkness swallowed everything.
Focus.
Derick snapped his wings open—just enough to slow his fall. Jagged stone walls blurred past him, cold air whipping against his armor. Above, screams and panicked shouts echoed as the others plunged into the abyss—some falling in controlled dives, most simply tumbling to their deaths.
Then he saw it.
A faint blue glow at the bottom of the pit, growing brighter with each passing second.
Before he could focus on it, a shadow flashed across his peripheral vision.
His instincts roared.
Derick twisted mid-air—just in time to avoid a massive pincer that sliced through the space where his torso had been. A Lethal-Backed Crab, clinging horizontally to the wall like a spider, lunged again with unnerving speed.
Derick folded his wings, dropping several meters in a freefall, then flared them open—a precisely timed maneuver that made the crab's pincer miss him by a hair's breadth. As he stabilized, he separated his short blade into the black-and-white twin daggers.
His eyes sharpened—finding the crimson line glowing faintly beneath the crab's shell.
He hurled the black dagger.
Puchi!
It buried itself deep into the creature's soft underbelly.
Derick yanked the chain connected to his wrist. The crab jerked downward toward him. Using the pull's momentum, he flipped backward, landing directly on top of the beast, its underbelly now facing upwards.
With a violent wrench, he tore the dagger free, merged both blades back into the short sword, and rammed it down—right through the weak spot on the crab's underside.
The beast spasmed once… then went limp.
Two seconds. That was all it took.
A familiar chime echoed in his ears.
---
Ding
Lethal-Backed Crab slain.
No Beast Soul gained.
Consume Beast to gain Aberrant Points.
---
Derick exhaled shakily. Finally—finally—he had a moment to breathe. Notifications flickered insistently at the edge of his vision:
---
{Active Skill: Superior Body — nearing overload}
{Active Skill: Superior Sense — nearing overload}
{Warning: If host does not deactivate both skills within two minutes, forced shutdown will trigger a 5-minute cooldown.}
---
"Not happening," Derick muttered.
He immediately deactivated them. The jade-like veins glowing beneath his feathered plates dimmed and went still. A sudden weakness washed over him as the enhancements faded.
---
{Skill Deactivated}
Manual interruption detected.
Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
---
A new line of text appeared, carrying the smug tone of a spirit that had seen too much:
---
---
Derick opened his system interface and navigated to the Beast Soul tab.
---
{Beast Souls}
[Aberrant Grade]
— Lethal-Backed Crab (Summon)
— Lethal-Backed Crab (Possession Soul)
---
He focused on the second one.
---
[Beast Soul: Lethal-Backed Crab]
Type: Possession Soul
Grade: Aberrant
► Soul Possession — Crab Form
Temporarily summons the soul of the Lethal-Backed Crab to merge with the host.
Transforms the user into a Crab-Man hybrid, drastically boosting:
• Physical strength
• Durability and armor density
• Grip power and crushing force
► Active Skill — Crab Scent
The host releases a special pheromone unique to Lethal-Backed Crabs.
Nearby crabs instinctively mistake the host for one of their own, reducing hostility and drawing their aggression away from the user.
Note: The more points the user has, the longer the transformation lasts and the faster the cooldown period.
---
"Now that's what I call a beast soul…" Derick muttered, a hint of excitement flickering in his eyes.
With the immediate danger gone, he finally turned his attention to the eerie blue glow spreading across the bottom of the pit. As his senses steadied, the truth clicked into place—it wasn't light from a monster or an artifact.
It was water.
A river glowing an unnatural shade of blue.
Derick's hand froze mid-movement, stopping just before he could activate Consume on the crab beneath him. Instead, he bent his knees, bracing himself on the corpse as the ground rushed up to meet him.
SPLASH!
The beast crashed into the glowing river first, splitting the water like a falling boulder. Derick followed right after, riding the impact as the shockwave sent glowing ripples exploding outward.
Dozens of bodies hit the water behind him—some screaming as they fell, others limp and silent, already killed by the ambushing crabs during the descent.
Derick resurfaced with a sharp inhale, whipping his head around to take in his surroundings.
What he saw stole his breath.
The underground world was a massive, continuous river system, its waters carving through a labyrinth of caves. The cavern walls were rough and jagged, layered with streaks of glowing blue ore that cast shimmering reflections over the flowing current. Some tunnel passages were narrow enough for a single person to squeeze through, while others rose so high they vanished into darkness—cathedral-like chambers echoing with distant drips.
The river didn't end here. It stretched endlessly, weaving through chamber after chamber like a living vein beneath the mountains. Every cave he looked into had the same glow, the same flowing water, connecting the entire underground world into one vast, shifting network.
What are they really after…? Derick wondered, just as a skittering roar echoed through the cavern—dozens of rapid taps like countless insects crawling over stone.
He snapped his gaze toward the sound.
From the shadowed tunnels, a swarm of crabs poured out, their armored bodies scraping against the glowing-blue stone as they rushed in like a tidal wave of chitin.
Before Derick could warn the others, the survivors around him panicked and splashed into motion—activating their classes, their Beast Souls, and swimming toward the tunnels that had no crabs emerging from them. Within moments, they had scattered, each fleeing into whatever cave seemed safest.
Derick remained where he was, standing alone at the crossroads of the cavern river—an intersection where several cave mouths opened into darkness.
He breathed steadily, forcing his heartbeat to calm as he studied each path.
Then he saw it.
One of the tunnels—narrower than the rest—bore faint, fresh sword marks carved into the stone walls. The edges of the cuts were still sharp, untouched by moisture or erosion.
Someone went this way… recently.
Someone strong enough to carve through beasts.
His eyes narrowed.
Oskara… and his group.
This was their trail.
Deactivating the twin daggers, Derick activated the Lethal-Backed Crab Soul possession. His body surged, growing a foot taller as muscles thickened and his hands twisted into massive pincers. Jagged crab plates formed over his back, elbows, and knees.
Then the Jade Phoenix Carapace materialized, perfectly coating his new crab form like a second skin, the emerald feathers glinting over the exoskeleton.
He flexed his claws, feeling the surge of strength and agility. The armor didn't merge—it amplified his hybrid form, making him a deadly, fully armored humanoid crab.
Swimming toward the cave marked by faint signs of battle, Derick activated his Beast Soul's active skill.
"Crab Scent!"
A pungent aura radiated from him, confusing the nearby crabs and diverting their attention as he dove deeper. The water grew shallower with each stroke, dropping to knee level, and he shifted into a sprint.
Deeper in the winding cave, the clash of steel and beastly cries echoed. Derick froze, pressing himself into a shadowed corner, every sense on high alert.
Peering around the corner, Derick's eyes fell on a corridor where Oskara and his team were locked in a fierce battle with a massive, black-carapaced crab.