Chapter 45: Hellforge

Eden was sitting on top of a mountain.

A mountain made of corpses.

His breathing was heavy.

His clothes were torn.

His black hair was soaked in sweat.

Blood ran down from his nose.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand.

Then looked at the corpse beneath him.

Eden looked around.

The entire dungeon was silent.

Dead Abyss Creatures covered the landscape.

Dozens.

Then hundreds.

Some were stacked several bodies high.

Eden had spent the better part of the day fighting.

And he had reached another milestone.

He opened his System.

[Level: 129]

Eden stared at the number.

"Twenty-nine levels."

He had gained twenty-nine levels since Devour evolved.

Twenty-nine.

And yet...

He opened his skill list.

[Devour — S-Rank]

His expression darkened.

He activated it.

Nothing happend.

A System notification appeared.

[Activation failed.]

[Insufficient Attributes.]

Eden’s eye twitched.

"Still?"

The notification disappeared.

He tried again.

Nothing.

"You’re kidding me."

He looked around.

The corpses beneath him were proof of his progress.

His attributes were absurd.

He had reached C-Rank.

He was level 129.

And Devour still refused to activate.

Eden leaned backward.

"This skill better be worth it."

He rubbed his face.

His body felt heavy.

Way too heavy.

His arms trembled.

His vision blurred slightly.

He hadn’t slept properly in days.

His stomach hurt from the awful combination of minimal food and constant potion use.

His Essence reserves were constantly being drained and replenished.

His muscles were exhausted.

His mind was exhausted.

Even his breathing felt difficult.

But he didn’t stop.

Because every time he closed his eyes, he remembered the same thing.

Being powerless.

Being unable to fight back.

He hated that feeling.

He would never experience it again.

He took one step.

Then another.

His vision darkened.

He shook his head.

His eyes stared at the dark ceiling.

He could barely move.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"Level 129..."

His eyes slowly closed.

"Not bad."

Silence.

Eden passed out.

Right there.

On top of the corpses of everything he’d killed.

---

Eventually, the last day of Hellweek had arrived.

Eden stood before the entrance of another Gate, staring at the swirling distortion in space.

His body felt like it had forgotten what rest was.

His eyes were sunken from days without proper sleep. His hair was a mess, his clothes were stained with blood and dirt, and there were dark circles beneath his silver eyes that made him look less like a nineteen-year-old Awakened and more like someone who had spent the last month fighting for his life.

Which, admittedly, wasn’t entirely inaccurate.

He rolled his shoulders.

Pain shot through them.

Eden ignored it.

He had already learned not to listen to his body during Hellweek.

If he did, he’d stop.

And stopping wasn’t an option.

He glanced at the Gate’s Essence output.

It seemed a bit strange, but shouldn’t be above a peak C-Rank.

"Last one."

His voice was hoarse.

Eden reached into his backpack and pulled out a small bottle.

He stared at it for a few seconds.

A stamina recovery potion.

There were only three left.

He’d started the week with enough supplies to last him comfortably.

Comfortably.

That word felt almost foreign now.

He uncorked the bottle and drank it in one go.

The liquid tasted disgusting.

"Ugh."

He grimaced.

He shoved the empty bottle into his bag.

Then he stepped through the Gate.

The world changed instantly.

A cold, damp atmosphere surrounded him.

The interior of the Gate resembled an enormous underground fortress. Gray stone walls stretched into darkness, illuminated only by faint blue crystals embedded throughout the dungeon.

Eden took one step forward.

Then another.

Nothing.

’It’s too quiet.’

His hand instinctively moved toward the sword at his waist.

The blade had been through hell with him over the last few days.

So had he.

Eden narrowed his eyes.

"Come on."

Something moved.

He turned.

Too late.

Two enormous figures erupted from the darkness.

Boom!

The ground cracked beneath their feet.

Each creature stood several meters tall, their bodies constructed from dense gray-black stone. Faint blue Essence flowed through cracks across their armor, pulsing like veins beneath rock.

One swung a massive stone sword toward Eden.

The other attacked from behind.

Eden didn’t even flinch.

He stepped forward.

Shing!

His blade flashed.

The first knight’s neck split apart.

Its enormous head slid from its shoulders.

Eden immediately pivoted.

Another swing.

The second knight’s torso split diagonally.

Both creatures collapsed with thunderous crashes.

Silence returned.

Eden stared at them.

"...Huh."

He crouched beside one of the corpses.

The stone wasn’t ordinary stone.

Essence was embedded throughout its body, forming an artificial structure that almost resembled a biological system.

Eden touched one of the cracks.

His eyes widened slightly.

"You’re kidding."

He knew these.

"Essence Knights."

His exhaustion disappeared for a moment, overridden by curiosity.

Essence Knights were rare.

Very rare.

They were essentially the inferior cousin of a much more infamous creature.

Death Knights.

Compared to Death Knights, Essence Knights were weaker, slower, and considerably less intelligent.

But they were still troublesome creatures.

And they almost never appeared in ordinary Gates.

In his entire first life, Eden had only heard about a handful of Gates where Essence Knights had appeared.

One in particular had become infamous.

A B-Rank Gate.

A Gate that humanity later discovered contained something far more valuable than the dungeon itself.

The key to the Hellforge.

Eden slowly stood.

"Hellforge..."

The word alone made his heartbeat accelerate.

The Hellforge was one of the greatest secrets buried within the Abyss.

A sealed mechanism.

An ancient structure capable of initiating something known as Body Reconstruction.

The process was simple to describe.

Surviving it was anything but.

Body Reconstruction essentially fused an Awakened’s Essence with their physical body.

Their biology didn’t completely change. Their appearance remained largely human. Their organs, bones, skin, and other physical traits remained recognizable.

But Essence would become fundamentally intertwined with the body itself.

An Awakened who completed Body Reconstruction was no longer entirely human in the conventional sense.

They became something closer to an Abyss Creature wearing a human body.

And the results were absurd.

An A-Rank Awakened who successfully underwent Body Reconstruction could contend with S-Rank opponents.

That was the kind of difference it made.

The problem?

The process was incredibly dangerous.

Anyone below A-Rank simply couldn’t survive it.

Even A-Ranks weren’t guaranteed to.

Eden stared at the corpse.

A grin slowly appeared on his face.

"If this place has the key..."

He could monopolize it.

A Hellforge wasn’t something you casually told the world about.

If he could reach it early...

The advantages would be enormous.

He could prepare.

He could control access.

He could make sure the process went to people he trusted.

More importantly—

He could use it himself.

Eden’s grin widened.

Then he paused.

"...Wait."

His expression flattened.

The Gate from his memories wasn’t supposed to appear yet.

Not for several years.

And it had been classified as a B-Rank Gate.

Not C.

He looked around.

"This doesn’t make sense."

Maybe it was just coincidence.

Maybe this wasn’t related to the Hellforge at all.

Eden sighed.

"Yeah. Getting ahead of myself."

He stood.

There were more important things to worry about.

Like surviving the dungeon.

He continued deeper.

Ten minutes later, Eden stopped walking.

"..."

He stared into the darkness ahead.

Dozens of blue eyes stared back.

Then hundreds.

The sound of stone scraping against stone echoed through the corridor.

Eden’s eyelid twitched.

"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me."