The creature lay still.
Its skin smoked where the fire had struck it, curling back from scorched muscle. The scent filled the cavern—burnt meat and something else. Bitter. Sharp. Wrong.
Thane sat slumped against the wall, breathing hard. His vision blurred at the edges, and his body buzzed with exhaustion. But the screen floated quietly beside him, unbothered by his condition.
[STATUS]
🧍 Name: Thane
🧬 Race: Human
🌍 Origin: Unknown Plane
❤️ Vitality: 4
💪 Strength: 3
⚡ Agility: 5
🧠 Intelligence: 6
🔥 Mana: 3 (0/30)
🔁 Passive:
Law of Absolute Repetition (Active)
🎒 Skills:
[Firebolt – Untrained]
• Level: 1
• EXP: 22 / 100
• Mana Cost: 10
📈 Level: 1
🧪 EXP: 30 / 100
He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, still staring at the corpse.
It had tried to kill him... but now, it was the only thing in this place that resembled food.
His stomach twisted violently.
He stood, slowly. Each step toward the body felt like a betrayal of sanity, but the hunger had stopped whispering and begun screaming. It roared through him like fire in his blood.
He knelt beside the thing, pushing it slightly with his foot. No movement.
It was dead.
The flesh was gray, rubbery. Burnt in parts. Sharp bones jutted from its limbs. He couldn't imagine what kind of creature it had once been. Humanoid, but wrong. Maybe once a man... twisted by the dungeon over time.
He didn't know.
Didn't care.
He needed to eat.
Thane hesitated, then reached toward the least-burned part of its shoulder. He tore a strip of meat free. It was tough, sinewy. It stank.
He gagged before it even reached his lips.
But he bit down.
The taste was worse than the smell... sour, coppery, and clinging like rot. His mouth flooded with saliva that didn't belong. His body tried to reject it before it even hit his stomach.
He swallowed.
The pain came instantly.
His stomach clenched like a fist. His head swam. Sweat broke out along his skin, and his knees buckled. He collapsed onto his side, groaning, curled around the burning in his gut.
Then the screen reappeared.
[NEW PASSIVE SKILL ACQUIRED]
🛡️ Poison Resistance – Lv. 1 (Passive)
You have ingested a low-grade toxin.
Your body has begun to adapt.
• EXP: 1 / 10
He coughed and laughed at the same time.
Of course it was poisoned. Why wouldn't it be? The world wasn't giving him a choice. But it was giving him... something.
Not healing.
Not relief.
Adaptation.
His body hurt. His vision blurred. But inside the pain, something else stirred. A sliver of strength... the same kind he felt when his mana had returned stronger than before.
Not a reward.
A consequence.
He pulled himself into a sitting position, every joint screaming, and stared at the corpse again.
His lip trembled.
Then he tore another piece of meat free.
He chewed.
Swallowed.
Collapsed again.
The screen flickered.
[Poison Resistance – Lv. 1]
• EXP: 2 / 10
Thane groaned into the stone.
This was how the world worked.
Pain, then gain.
He forced himself to sit upright again, vision swimming, heart pounding.
His hand shook as he reached out for a third bite.