“Once, a farmer was commanded to offer one of his sons as a sacrifice by the Dark King himself. He chose the gluttonous small son, hoping to save grains for the coming winter. When the snows finally fell, the sacrificed son returned, and…devoured the heart of his brother, and so rose... the undead,” exclaimed Ms. Glutton, staring intently into a bowl of meat.
“And that,” She concluded, pointing at herself, “is exactly why you should feed me!”
— The glutton claims to have witnessed the event firsthand. However, official records list her as a twenty-year-old human from Shanghai.
***
Raka dashed to the depths of the desert, leaving trails of sand snaking behind them. The raging wind slammed into Zayn, turning his hair a dishevelled, wild mess. That didn’t faze him.
All he did was grin like a damned fool. A happy fool.
Raka had never gone to hell for leather like this—not like the old punk could have with its dinosaur-age engine. The apocalypse changed it all. It casually gained the ability to mouth off and suddenly hurtled twice as fast as before. Perhaps faster.
“Where are we going?” asked Zayn, despite a great risk of swallowing sand. But all he received was crickets. Strange… had Raka not heard him through the roaring wind?
“Where are you—”
“Stop yapping! Who questions an old machine on the run?” Raka snapped at him, its engine growling louder with each passing second, as though it was in a rush.
So you admit you are old. And ‘yap?’ Where’d you even learn that word? From Reddit? Zayn shot it a deadpan stare. “Just tell me what’s going on, you prehistoric bastard!”
Raka grumbled, pretending to have no time to speak. It wound through the sand until a blurry, golden line slowly peeked out on the horizon, brushing against the distant dunes.
Zayn zoned out. His fingers loosened from the handlebars as he stared at the pulsing golden sphere rising from the depths of the desert. It drenched the sand in a feverish, otherworldly hue.
He exhaled, eyes glassy.
When had he stopped appreciating the sunrise? It had been a while since he’d seen one. Still, as he sped toward the light, his eyes greedily drank it in. He felt its warmth on his skin. The wind was roaring in his ears.
For the first time in forever, he was grateful to see the sun again.
Lost in a trance, he didn’t notice Raka coming to a sudden standstill. His attention was all caught by the rising sun and the small green spot below it. He squinted and frowned. Is it getting closer?
At first, it was a round thicket, a grove of trees that sprang within the heart of the desert, wrapped in a pulsing golden layer of light. Then the layer extended outwards—ramping up in speed every second, reaching him within seconds.
Eyes narrowed, he watched the layer of glittering light pass through him. Whatever the light touched turned green. Saplings sprang from the ground and grew into trees in a mere moment; vines and roots filled the land afterwards. Air shifted and turned fresh. It felt exactly like what he expected it to be: warm and full of life.
It was as if he were gazing into a time-lapse of forest formation.
He knew that magic and monsters were regular occurrences here. Nonetheless, watching a desert transform into a forest within seconds was still mind-boggling. What kind of power would allow such a large-scale transformation?
Was the System a god?
“Raka… you seeing th—” He turned, words freezing to his throat.
Raka was...fading. becoming increasingly incorporeal with each mote of light that passed through it—as though it were phasing into non-existence.
A bone-chilling shock ran down his spine. He could see the roots and grass rise beyond Raka due to its faintness. He could see it turn transparent, out of existence—fading.
His mind refused to accept what he saw.
Cautiously, he edged forward and pushed his hand out towards it. Faintly hoping that his eyes were playing tricks. But his hands passed right through Raka.
His heart bombarded into an erratic mess.
“We were… late,” Raka said, voice exhausted. Strained enough that speaking only made it phase away faster. Its head was turned towards the direction from which the light came. “But we got close enough. That’s where it all began. You need to go there and bring it out—”
“Will I see you again?” Zayn blurted out. At this very moment, he didn’t care about the dungeon, the quest objectives, the Feats, or getting out of here. All of that came second.
Raka froze in place, caught off guard by that question. Zayn felt his heart halt for a slow, agonising second, and after what seemed like an eternity, his motorcycle finally nodded—perhaps with a bit of force.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Of course. Don’t you dare die on me, or I will…drag you back from hell.”
Zayn hung in place, his gaze pinned on where Raka was just moments ago. Unlike his calm exterior, a vortex of emotions razed him on the inside.
Nodding, he took a deep breath and stepped forward.
***
It was a long while before Zayn admitted he’d lost the way.
At first, he thought he just assumed the distance wrong. It only made sense; deserts were deceptive enough, and the forest was a huge roadblock to his task. But after a few hours, he came face-to-face with the facts. With his current Dexterity, he should have reached that place by now.
Unless…he’d gotten lost.
Staring at the white-barked trees, his jaws set firm. Every single one of them looked just about the same. As he walked on the roots and grasses, he could barely determine whether he was even heading in a straight line.
“Fuck this,” cursed Zayn under his breath, moving deeper yet, still holding onto the vain hope that he was on the right path somehow. Not like he could go back and start over.
Life didn’t allow second chances like that.
And he wasn’t going to give up on Raka. Not this time.
***
Ever since the day had begun, he began to realise just how much he’d changed in one day. The stone golems? Not so much. They were fragmented, pieced together from many smaller pieces of slabs, equivalent to a house of cards to the current him.
Stone golem - Lv 12
Twisting his body, Zayn swiped a clean strike, bursting through the golem's head. Shards rained down on him as it dropped dead to the ground. He still couldn’t believe these were the small devils that’d almost killed him yesterday.
Today, he didn’t even bother using his skills. That would be…a bit overkill.
Level up!
Free points : 3
It was disappointing that [I’m a gamer] wouldn’t activate anymore. But the extra stat, two points, made up for it more than enough. For healing, he had the gravefruits as an unhealthy alternative.
He put one point in fortitude, constitution, and strength each. After a few tries, he had grown to have decent control over the mana. Having high fortitude made up for the lack of mana sensitivity, for now.
The energy brushed past his body. He stared at his cut, sculpted muscles. The more ‘aesthetic’ they became, the more he feared he’d turn into one of those muscle-men with biceps for brain.
The thought made him shiver.
The next points would go in intellect, he decided.
Scouring a gravefruit out of his storage ring, he bit down. Even more so than physical tear and weardown, they were strangely effective on headaches. Though it was only temporary.
Once the effect vanished, waves of fatigue would rush at him and turn him into a sleepyhead, making it hard to even move.
Despite their drawbacks, they were essential for him to survive here. Not just some medicine, they worked as food just fine. And many of the trees contained gravefruit, making food a non-issue for now. Water, however, was becoming a growing issue. He had already drunk five bottles from the supply and refused to buy them with his own money.
Instead, he started to peer at the swamps and ponds every time he passed one. They had a calm, still aura to them, and the water looked clear enough. It couldn’t kill him if he took a sip, right?
Right?
A sharp, cracking noise tore him out of his impulsive thoughts. By instinct, he shifted his body and moved. Pieces of shards rippled above him and struck a tree behind.
Where it had struck, it left a deep streak. Though from the angle of its attack, it became clear that he was not the target. Without a second thought, he moved his feet towards the source of the noise.
Licking his cracked lips, a diabolical idea slowly formed inside the rotting palace of his head. Yesterday, he had been getting sneak-attacked by these stoneheads. The world was giving him a chance today; it was his turn now.
He was going to give it the scare of its life.
What he found, however, was far too interesting to interrupt. Amidst the pitted, white-barked trees, two stone golems faced each other, doing what Zayn could only describe as a turn-based battle.
Stone golem Lv - 12
The smaller golem was in good shape, with all its limbs intact. It raised its stubby arm, and a fist-sized rock shard swished out of it and flew in an arc towards the bigger golem.
Stone golem Lv - 15
Size didn’t matter; the higher-levelled, bigger golem was getting bullied. Its right arm was missing everything down from the wrist, and the shard chipped at it again, taking off another few inches.
On the other hand, the big golem kept missing every single one of its attacks.
Zayn didn’t know what he expected the golems to do once they met, but he certainly hadn’t expected them to have such a life-and-death struggle. Then again, calling it a life-and-death struggle was a stretch; they were just throwing stones at each other.
He lost interest, feeling the drowsiness from the gravefruit get to him.
What a rigged fight!
Guess he had to show them how to fight.
Maybe the bigger golem sensed his intention, or it had finally lost its temper after getting bullied. It roared, stomped, and raised its left arm in retaliation.
Zayn stopped and pursed his lips. What could it even do? Shoot another shard?
Swish
It shot the entire arm out like a projectile.
Zayn felt his jaw drop. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry; he’d never seen a rock throw hands like this. Hell, he doubted anyone ever did.
The projectile arm pierced through the smaller golem like a hammer, leaving a gaping hole in its torso. It stared at the bigger golem with a look of betrayal. Clearly, this sneaky punk hadn’t expected this brand-new skill either.
Twitching, it shattered into numerous rock fragments.
The bigger golem grunted—as if it was acknowledging its opponent.
Zayn walked out.
Did he feel bad about sneaking up on an injured, handless golem?
Of course not.
In a weird impulse, he even introduced himself, “Zayn King.”
Instead of attacking him, the golem howled cautiously and skulked toward the remains of the smaller golem, almost as if it feared he would steal its loot. Zayn was unamused by such an accusation.
What could he steal from those piles of rubble? Pebbles? Dust? Wait… what? Is it eating the rocks?
Frowning, he stared at the golem as it started to absorb the fallen stone debris from the defeated golem. It was as if a light bulb lit up in his mind. Is that why they were fighting? Over the stones?
They were absorbing the stones.
A distorted mesh of writhing stones squirmed and shifted on the ground, like a mound of uncontrolled flesh. It was grotesque to watch.
It made sense that golems could reform and strengthen using fragments and slivers. That’s how they were born in the first place; from the broken parts of the Stone Ape. It was still weird to see it happen in front of his eyes.
He wondered whether he should stop it—if that was even possible anymore. In the end, he allowed his curiosity to win. The bigger debris and rock fragments repositioned to the joints and torso, fortifying them, while the smaller splinters went to less important areas like fingers. The final addition surprised him the most.
Stone Knight — lv 22 (Hostile)
Most of the cracks that had once filled its body were mended now. Its stubby joints turned longer and barbed; their ends protruding with jagged shrapnels. It turned around, holding an oval shield that was nearly as massive as its body.
