Chapter 48: I Devoured My First Elite and Unlocked a Second Authority

Raven didn’t need long.

Blood Furnace was powerful.

It was also destroyed.

And it depended on magical blood to function at full capacity.

Obsidian Carapace could improve his defense, but Stonehide already filled that role.

Mana Scent was excellent.

Tyrant Frame would probably be useful eventually too.

But Raven had spent days accumulating injuries.

Bites.

Broken ribs.

Claw wounds.

Blunt trauma.

And every serious fight left him needing time, bandages, or outside help.

A creature capable of regenerating from wounds that would’ve incapacitated almost any Common had just demonstrated exactly why that ability mattered.

Raven selected:

«"Predatory Regeneration"»

Valeria was watching him.

"You already chose."

"Yes."

"Which one?"

Raven approached the corpse.

"Regeneration."

Valeria didn’t make a joke.

That told Raven she approved.

"Sensible."

"I’m getting worried. That’s the second nice thing you’ve said."

"I didn’t say it was nice. I said you finally made a decision that doesn’t seem specifically designed to make you bleed more."

Raven drew his knife.

"Give me five minutes."

"For what?"

Raven pointed toward the corpse.

Valeria understood.

"Ah."

Roland approached.

"Is he going to...?"

Valeria raised one hand.

"Don’t ask."

"I think I already know."

"Then definitely don’t ask."

Raven opened the Blackmaw’s side.

The flesh was extraordinarily dense.

Even dead, cutting through it required force.

Predation marked the path.

«"Required source located."»

The regenerative marrow wasn’t contained only inside ordinary bones.

There was a long structure running along both sides of the spine, resembling two cords of dark red tissue connected to the ribs and organs.

The second component was worse.

The hepatic reservoir.

A large mass beneath the liver, black on the outside and bright red within.

Raven cut off a section.

Valeria watched from several yards away.

"Does it have to be raw?"

Raven looked at the tissue.

Then at the system.

«Thermal processing may reduce Trait integrity by 48–67%.»

"Yes."

Valeria’s expression became genuinely sympathetic.

"For the first time today, I think I prefer my magic."

Raven put a piece into his mouth.

Chewed.

Stopped.

Valeria waited.

"And?"

Raven swallowed with visible effort.

"Tastes worse than the human."

Roland stopped looking.

Valeria remained silent.

"I don’t know what answer I expected, but it definitely wasn’t that."

Raven took another piece.

"You asked."

«Assimilation: 16%»

"Of course."

He ate more.

The texture was rubbery.

Then soft.

The flavor combined iron, old fat, and something bitter enough to numb his gums.

«Assimilation: 34%»

Raven chewed.

Valeria crossed her arms.

"Are you absolutely sure I can’t cook it a little?"

"Are you eating it?"

"No."

"Then your opinion carries less weight."

«Assimilation: 57%»

The next piece caused a strange sensation.

Not in his stomach.

In his wounds.

Raven felt warmth across his arm.

Then his ribs.

Shoulder.

Back.

«Assimilation: 73%»

He went still.

One of the smaller wounds on his hand began to itch.

The bleeding stopped.

Valeria saw it.

"Raven."

"I know."

He ate another piece.

«Assimilation: 91%»

Pain.

Not sharp like Burst Step.

Deep.

Everywhere.

As if his bones were heating from the inside.

The system appeared.

«"Predation assimilation threshold satisfied."

"Elite Trait integration initiated."

Warning: Trait exceeds current host biological grade.

Adaptive restructuring required.»

Raven dropped to one knee.

Valeria stepped forward.

"Is that normal?"

"I don’t have a large enough sample size."

"What a reassuring answer."

The heat increased.

His wounds began to burn.

Raven watched fresh blood emerge from a cut on his forearm.

Then stop.

The surrounding skin tightened.

It didn’t close immediately.

It contracted.

The edges slowly drawing together.

«"Predatory Regeneration acquired."

Function: Converts mana, stored nutrients, and compatible biological energy into accelerated tissue repair.

Current limitations:

— Cannot regenerate destroyed major organs.

— Cannot regrow lost limbs.

— Severe injuries require substantial energy.

— Regeneration speed reduced while mana-depleted.

— Excessive use may cause starvation, metabolic collapse, or biological instability.»

Raven read it.

"Good."

Valeria crouched in front of him.

"What does it do?"

"Regenerates."

"I managed to deduce that."

"Uses mana and nutrients. Can’t regrow a limb or reconstruct destroyed organs. Serious injuries are still serious."

"But?"

Raven looked at the puncture wounds on his arm.

The bleeding had stopped.

The edges weren’t fully closed yet.

But they already looked hours old.

Not minutes.

"I’m going to spend less on bandages."

Valeria closed her eyes.

"Of course that’s your conclusion."

"Also food."

"That at least makes sense."

Raven felt his stomach.

Hunger.

Sudden.

Intense.

"A lot of food."

Valeria smiled.

"Finally, we’ve found a weakness I understand."

"Which one?"

"Your budget."

Raven looked at her.

"Cruel."

"Thank you."

The system appeared again.

It wasn’t finished.

«Experience gained.

Elite target defeated.

Significant level disparity bonus applied.

Shared combat contribution adjustment applied.»

The bar began rising.

Raven watched.

«Level increased.

Raven Ashford — Level 6»

Again.

«Level increased.

Raven Ashford — Level 7»

It continued.

«Level increased.

Raven Ashford — Level 8»

Then stopped.

Three Levels.

Raven exhaled.

Still Common.

But much closer to the threshold.

Then another notification appeared.

«High-value Predation event registered.

First Elite organism successfully devoured.

Authority growth threshold satisfied.»

Raven stopped paying attention to anything else.

Valeria noticed.

"What?"

"Predation."

The interface changed.

«"PREDATION LEVEL INCREASED"

Predation Level 2 → Level 3»

The previous lines disappeared.

New ones appeared one by one.

«Advanced Trait compatibility analysis improved.

Biological conflict prediction improved.

Harvest integrity analysis unlocked.

Trait-source preservation data unlocked.»

Raven frowned.

Harvest.

That was new.

«Predation no longer recognizes all compatible biological material solely as consumable.

Compatible biological Traits may now be evaluated for external integration.»

Raven went completely still.

Valeria tilted her head.

"That looks important."

"It is."

Another line appeared.

«Evolution condition satisfied.

Predation Authority has reached required complexity.»

Then the screen darkened.

It didn’t disappear.

It changed.

The usual red lettering of Predation was partially replaced by white and black lines that seemed to assemble themselves like pieces of a mechanism.

Raven felt something inside his body respond.

Not a Trait.

Something deeper.

Predation.

The Authority.

And beside it...

Something else.

«"SECONDARY AUTHORITY DETECTED"»

Raven stopped breathing for a second.

Valeria watched him.

"Raven."

He didn’t answer.

The words continued.

«Authority derived from accumulated predatory adaptation, host technical knowledge, and externalized biological integration.

Function compatible with host conceptual framework.

Secondary Authority available:»

The final word appeared.

Large.

«"FORGE"»

Raven read it once.

Then again.

«"FORGE"

Convert harvested biological Traits, compatible magical materials, and understood mechanical principles into artificial vessels.

Current Status: LOCKED

Initialization available.»

For several seconds, Raven didn’t hear the quarry.

Didn’t hear Roland.

Didn’t hear the water.

He only read one phrase.

Understood mechanical principles.

Valeria was staring at him.

"What just happened?"

Raven slowly raised his eyes.

Looked at the Blackmaw corpse.

The plates.

Bones.

Organs.

Then the Crimson Mirehorn.

Horns.

Blood Core.

Materials.

Until now, he’d seen monsters as food.

Skills inside bodies.

Traits inside organs.

Something he could cut out, consume, and turn into part of himself.

FORGE had just offered another possibility.

Don’t eat the ability.

Build something with it.

Raven looked back at the metal bar buried through the Blackmaw.

A primitive tool.

Heavy.

Inefficient.

It had required an immobilized creature, the Blood Magic of an extremely powerful woman, and an opening of less than two seconds to turn it into a weapon capable of killing an Elite.

But Raven knew weapons designed to do exactly the opposite.

Concentrate force.

Accelerate metal.

Penetrate targets at range.

He couldn’t build anything from scratch.

He wasn’t a weapons engineer.

But Black Hound had required its operators to understand considerably more than simply aiming and pulling a trigger.

Handgun operation.

Rifles.

Gas systems.

Chambers.

Breeches.

Firing mechanisms.

Ammunition.

Pressure.

Maintenance.

Field modifications.

Raven looked at Kinetic Acceleration in his Skill list.

Then at the Blackmaw’s plates.

Then at Veyr’s magical materials.

Valeria followed his gaze.

"I don’t like that expression."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"What expression?"

"The same one you had before deciding to use me as bait."

"This is different."

"That worries me even more."

The interface remained waiting.

«Secondary Authority available: "FORGE"

INITIALIZE?»

Raven smiled.

This time, it wasn’t sarcasm.

It wasn’t humor either.

It was the small, dangerous expression of someone who had just discovered that the rules of a world might be more flexible than its inhabitants believed.

Until now, Veyr had given him monsters.

Magic.

Bloodlines.

Traits.

Materials that didn’t exist on Earth.

And Raven Ashford came from a world that had spent thousands of years perfecting different ways to throw a piece of metal at something fast enough to kill it.

He looked at Valeria.

"I think I just found a way to stop fighting things this close."

She followed his gaze toward the bar buried inside the Elite.

Then looked back at him.

"I don’t know what that means."

Raven looked again at the word floating before his eyes.

FORGE.

"Neither do I."

The smile remained.

"But I’m going to find out."