Daemon had been walking for hours, but hadn't found anything, until a horrendous smell had hit him
"What the actually fuck is this smell, how can there be something out there that smells worse then a goblin."
Then, from somewhere behind him, a thundering noise split the silence.
He turned.
He couldn't see it clearly in the dim light, but whatever it was, it was big. Then the creature unfurled its long frontal limbs and rose, and Daemon understood that "big" was an embarrassing understatement. The creature was large. Grotesquely so. It towered over everything he had ever seen in his life.
His eyes adjusted, and he wished they hadn't. "What is this abomination?"
It was not a single entity, but a conglomeration of them. Dozens of human figures fused together in a macabre tapestry of suffering. Their limbs were woven like wicker to form its massive, pillar-like legs; their torsos compressed into a dense, heaving chest that pulsed with a dull, sickening light. Where a head should have been, there was only a jagged spire of exposed ribcages and interlocking skulls, their empty sockets staring blankly into the void.
The first that disturbed daemon wasn't the grotesque sight or the smell that was worse than that of the goblins— it was the sound. A rhythmic, wet shifting that had no business existing.
Every time the thing moved, a chorus of muffled, dusty wails escaped from the bodies trapped within its skin. Some of the faces on its surface were still moving, mouths hanging open in a silent, eternal scream as the creature's sheer weight crushed the life from the earth beneath it.
The thing stood at least four to five meters tall — possibly more. It was very difficult for Daemon to measure something that wrong.
Daemon stared up at the mountain of twitching limbs, something deep within himself recoiling in instinctive disgust and every instinct in his body going crazy.
"Great," he thought, a cold stillness settling over him. "Just great. Because one creature wasn't enough — my luck decided to give me dozens of them, all glued together."
"Whoever made something like this was a sick bastard. This thing looks like it was pulled straight from a nightmare."
He considered his options.
"Should I engage in battle with such a monster?" The monster looked overwhelmingly strong. But the old officer had told him the trial was passable — and Daemon , despite everything had chosen to believe him, and he wasn't in the habit of changing his mind simply because reality turned out to be uglier than advertised. That was how the world had always worked for Daemon.
"I am an A-rank talent. I am meant to battle monsters that most awakeners can't even hope of surviving. Even if I can't beat this thing with my own strength right now, I have the copied power of someone who can kill an Orc in a single strike. Even If that same strike cannot kill this thing, it will at the very least wound it to a degree where I can follow up and finish it with my own strength."
"And even if that can't be done. I refuse to believe that it couldn't at minimum wound it enough for me to retreat."
It may sound like a gamble but it wasn't and it wasn't optimism either. Daemon was positive the strike has the power to kill it and if it didn't it will still wound it.
And beyond that — the creature was slow. It had to be. Something composed of dozens of fused bodies, each fighting the others for movement, couldn't be fast. Its sheer mass was its greatest strength but also its greatest liability.
This place might have been built specifically to imprison this monster. After all, it is perfect for that. And the matter of the rewards. A monster like this almost certainly dropped something valuable. An item. Maybe even a skill.
The thought settled with a strange certainty. Daemon had one shot at success and he intended to use it. "I need to level up, and if I beat this thing there will be a big chance of a good reward dropping.
Calm and collected, Daemon gazed down the corridor at the dim shape of the abomination and took one measured step toward it. He set his backpack on the ground, his shield, his axe, and his sword — anything that would slow him down. The only thing he kept was the gun, holstered at his side. Not because he planned to use it, but because leaving it behind felt like tempting fate.
He stepped out of the darkness and into the dim light at the center of the corridor. "You are just a poor and broken existence, cursed and imprisoned," he said hoping to affect its state, his voice carrying easily in the heavy silence. "So, come I will set you free."
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, as if something deep within the mass had registered the words, the creature roared — a sound like a collapsing building — and lurched forward.
It moved faster than its size should have allowed, the ground shuddering beneath it with each lurching step. Still slower than Daemon had feared.
"Slower than I thought. That's good."
As the abomination approached, Daemon also walked towards it at an almost leisurely pace — though only he knew he was moving slowly out of necessity, not confidence. He needed to time this perfectly. Activating the ability too early or too late meant death.
The abomination closed the distance and raised one of its massive woven limbs to strike. Daemon launched himself forward.
The ability ignited in his right eye — that copied power surging through him all at once. For one brief, suspended moment, he felt larger than life — his stance a perfect imitation of the Ascender in the plaza, down to the last detail, his body moving with a borrowed precision that did not belong to him.
The strike tore through the creature's grey flesh like it was nothing. The impact didn't just wound it — it caved inward, opening a cavity deep into the creature's chest, scattering fused limbs and sending a shockwave of force rippling through its mass.
The monster fell as though struck by lightning — and honestly, the monster would have preferred to be struck by lightning than to have the force of a level-19 Ascender's full-strength blow detonating from the inside.
The tunnel shook for the impact of the fall.
"I… it got down so easily?"
Daemon climbed the crumbling wreckage of its body and found, deep at the center of the impact, a red gem. Slightly cracked, but still pulsing with a faint, steady light. The moment his fingers closed around it, the creature began to deteriorate at a visible rate — collapsing inward, the wails fading one by one into silence.
Then the notifications came. And he heard something he crash his world views
[Congratulations — you have killed a Rank-7, Level-30 Corpse Golem. +201 EXP]
[Congratulations — you have leveled up.]
[Congratulations — you have leveled up.]
[Congratulations — you have gained a Title: The Courageous Fool]
[Congratulations — you have gained a Title: Doubtless]
[Congratulations — you have gained a Title: Inconceivable Victory]
[Congratulations — you have made an Accomplishment]
[Congratulations — you have made an Accomplishment]
[Congratulations — you have gained an Item: Blessing of an Abomination ]