As the door behind him closed, Cain gulped as tension began to build up in his core. The red neon hanging on the ceiling flickered, a foreboding sign that danger was approaching.
He exhaled, seeing numerous red eyes flooding the narrow hallway. The sound of their creaking footsteps scraping the floor twisted his expression.
Initially, when seeing the horde of virus beasts on the screen. Cain's heart pounded, pumping hot blood that reached his brain. He was angry, so angry that he wanted to demolish them all into scraps.
'How dare you interrupt my time to evolve!'
Although the boy faced enemies who could swallow him with sheer numbers, his black eyes showed no fear, only the raw emotion of anger and impatience to immediately assimilate the attribute power into his body.
For a moment, he peeked behind him. Cain was worried that Rika, with her impulsiveness, might ignore all the prohibitions he had instilled in her and choose the black attribute.
'Well, I can't do anything but have my faith in her.'
The grey-haired shifted his attention, watching the horde of virus beasts approach. And when the distance between them was only tens of meters, his body disappeared.
Cain moved like a shadow, leaving afterimages. With every swing of his katana, one monster fell, followed by another. A flurry of crimson lines dances across the crowded hallway, bisecting the body of the monster into two.
[Integrity +1%]
[Integrity +1%]
[Integrity +1%]
...
The blue panel continuously appeared on the edge of his vision; the system knew its user state, who desperately needed a broad perspective to gauge the entire battlefield.
Several cable tentacles rushed at him from above, intertwining and neatly arranged like a net trying to ensnare him. But the descending net felt slow in Cain's eyes; their movement was like that of a snail.
He stopped briefly while taking a deep breath. One swing of his hand split the net, creating a large gap that allowed his body to enter deeper into the enemy line.
And despite the constant notification that popped out in his gaze, none of that actually caused an effect in his body or the system.
'This is getting annoying!'
Cain swung his katana sideways, cutting two virus beasts' bodies that were about to launch their tentacles. He then shifted his body sideways, dodging the approaching strike from another monster behind the two.
The boy glared ahead, his pupils swept through the remaining common-rank virus beasts that persistently chased after one goal: to devour the elemental attributes.
"Like I'll let you!"
A downward swing split the monster's iron body, no, it split all the emotions that overflowed in his chest. There were no more ripples in his black eyes; his pulse and breath were steady, like the surface of a pond, radiating emptiness and deep focus.
With one small breath, Cain utilized his footwork to bring his body and move smoothly as if dancing on top of the iron scraps scattered around.
He dodged every attack directed at him by a paper-thin margin while swinging his sword and decimated the remaining monster until nothing was left.
[Integrity +1%]
...
[Basic Kenjutsu data proficiency up!]
[Student > Advance]
[Basic Kenjutsu > Kenjutsu]
Without knowing what had happened to his own body, Cain expelled all the air in his lungs, making his tense muscles go limp.
He raised his gaze to the silver ceiling, adorned with deep scratches. Thanks to the monster tentacles that writhed erratically in the air, accidentally damaging the surrounding facility.
'With so many enemies, I cut. I still haven't levelled up.'
The boy looked down, his brows raised in shock when he realized there was an update within him. Cain parted his lips, satisfied with his progress.
'It's time for me to go back to them.'
Yet after the effort Cain exerted, the world seemed unwilling to give him a moment to bask in his glory. Behind him, there was a sound of a sharp object whistling through the atmosphere, as if something was being clamped. A large shadow emerged, swallowing his body.
He turned and saw four lower-rank virus beasts also entering the facility. Their tall, shiny bodies were wrapped in an exoskeleton that could withstand his sword. Their upper limbs were steel pincers, and a sharp gleam on their chest sent chills down his spine.
The atmosphere turned heavy; every breath he took was thick with palpable tension. Cain's right hand, trembling from fatigue, unknowingly tightened the grip on the katana hilt.
Time seemed to stop as one of the tall monsters faded and reappeared in front of Cain with its pincer wide open, aligned with his neck.
'Wha!?'
The boy sucked a cold breath, then a jolt of adrenaline surged through his narrow veins, pumping raw power that snapped his upper body back to dodge the pincer attack.
Schip!
Before his mind could catch up, the boy let gravity pull his unbalanced stance while swinging his katana upward.
Cain sliced through the monster's joints, separating the massive scythe from its limb. Black blood spurted, staining his visor and causing temporary blindness.
No scream, only a red eye on the monster's chest shimmered with malevolent intent.
He rolled his body to the side before being crushed by the seemingly heavy iron pincer. And, taking advantage of that momentum, the boy pushed himself to his feet and set his middle stance.
A deafening silence descended into the hallway. Suddenly, the iron crab with a human body appeared in front of Cain with its pincers gaping. Different from its seemingly heavy body, the monster had agile legs.
The enemy was fast, but its speed was evident to his eye. A diagonal attack from above that was intended to cut his right shoulder made Cain step back and avoid it.
He took advantage of the wounded monster, then pulled his katana to prepare a stabbing motion aimed at the crab's chest.
However, a shadow loomed over him from the side. This instantly made him abandon the intention to attack and leap far back.
"Tch!"
Cain clicked his tongue. Not only that, from above, another crab jumped while opening its pincers wide. He knitted his eyebrows. The moment he landed on a pile of scraps, his foot slipped and made his stance crumble.
With a do-or-die spirit, somehow he managed to roll to the side while pulling the pistol from his left thigh. Cain started shooting at the virus beast beside him, the bullets hitting its iron skin bounced off, making his expression harden.
After getting a slight chance to attack, the other three crabs started attacking Cain from various directions.
'Oh, come on!'
A battle of attrition began. One human kept jumping, avoiding every pincer attack that could cut him in half. This was no longer a fight, but a hunt.
As time went by, Cain, who was just flesh and bone, had to feel his lungs burning every time he breathed. His limbs shivered, at the breaking point. Meanwhile, the iron crabs chasing him were getting fiercer.
Cain's eyes narrowed as he noticed the strange things happening between them. One crab tried to attack, yet the other three followed behind in a coordinated manner, leaving no room for the boy to counter.
'This is weird?'
The horde of common-rank and now lower-rank virus beasts that were constantly obsessed with what was inside might hide a more profound mystery than Cain suspected.
Initially, he thought it was their pure instinct to prey on elemental energy and, if lucky, evolve to the next level.
However, from this fight, Cain realized. These monsters did not just attack blindly, following instinct. They moved in command.
If what he suspected was correct, it meant there was an entity out there observing all of this.
Who? And where might they be?
Cain's left side received a direct hit from the back of the pincer; it shook not only his physique but his mental state as well. The attack came from the iron crab whose pincer he had cut off.
He was thrown several meters from where he stood and lay motionless.
The four virus beasts stopped briefly, then one of them walked closer to the supine boy. It stood in front of the lump of flesh, and the desire to fight seemed to vanish from the crimson gleam on its chests.
Their negligence had to be paid dearly when Cain took a piece of the virus beast's body and threw it up.
The thrown object attracted the crabs' attention, who looked up and were slow to realise a black liquid showering them and temporarily blocking their vision.
Cain's body jolted upward, both hands clenched tight as he slammed the tip of his katana straight into the monster's red core.
"My turn!"