Free Web NovelChapter 25: Chapter 25: The Chosen One
Night checked his status.
[You have slain Lvl 3 Mountain Wolf (x2) | +50 EXP]
[You have slain Lvl 4 Mountain Wolf | +40 EXP]
Level: 4 (EXP: 185/500)
The shadows extended from Lucy, quickly devouring the corpses; both the heads and the bodies.
[Energy Value (EV): 791]
Night mentally calculated his current reserves. The EV consumption rate to keep Death, Eve, Lilith, and Lucy out in the physical world was still slightly faster than his passive regeneration.
For now, he had the highly nutritious meal Sara had given him, plus the four freshly stored corpses acting as a battery for his regeneration.
He was safe, but he couldn’t afford a prolonged battle of attrition.
As they went ahead, they saw a pack of wolves with more than fifteen of them seeing this he wisely chose to back out.
He wondered if this was still a Level 5 dungeon. A pack like that should be enough to wipe out an entire group. Compared to other people at his level, most wouldn’t even survive the three wolves from before.
Though he was physically weak, he had Death and Lucy with him, who were excellent fighters. Eve and Lilith were also pretty strong considering they were just cleaning robots before.
As he reached Level 4, their structure had started to change from a blocky, tin-can shape to a sleek, humanoid form. In fact, even without leveling up, their bodies kept adapting. One thing to note was that it had only been two days since they became bonded to him, and this was just the second day.
He had a feeling they would soon look entirely human.
He glanced up at Death. Her height seemed to be reducing, albeit slowly. When she first formed, she was a terrifying seven-foot-tall skeletal giant. Now, she was closer to six-and-a-half feet. Her bones were no longer a brittle, bleached white; they were compressing, becoming denser and glowing with a polished sheen like indestructible white jade.
He didn’t know what changes Lucy would experience, but he guessed she would evolve as well. The environment of his Nightmare Domain seemed to have an almost divine evolutionary effect on them due to them being tethered to it.
He wondered how he had even acquired such an overpowered Unique Skill.
Was he simply born with it? Did the horrifying experiments at the facility awaken it? or Did it have something to do with his past life?
He was curious.
Looking at the bright side and seeing his future prospects, he got pumped up.
He was suddenly woken from his daydreams by a sharp tug. He looked down and saw Lucy using her tiny teeth to tug at his pants. ƒrēewebnovel.com
He smiled, looking at her comical act.
....
Far away, beneath a sky choked with crimson clouds and falling ash, stood a man holding a long, silver-bladed sword. He stood alone outside a massive, violently swirling purple portal. It was a high-level Dungeon Outbreak.
You could see bodies upon bodies of grotesque, humanoid-looking monsters piled around him in literal mountains. Each and every one of them carried the exact same, flawlessly clean cut-marks from a sword. The dark, corrupted blood of the beasts pooled into a literal lake around his polished boots.
The air itself seemed to be filled with a dominating, suffocating sword intent.
The intent was so fierce, so overwhelmingly heavy, that anyone in the vicinity would feel the irresistible urge to fall to their knees.
It was an aura that declared the man an apex predator; no ordinary mortal was worthy to stand tall before him.
Beep... his device rang.
He checked his device and picked up the call. The voice on the other end started immediately.
"Chosen One, one of our facilities near the Desert City was destroyed."
He raised his eyebrows. "Oh? How did it happen?"
"The whole facility was turned to ruin. The destruction carried traces of the Wind of Desolation. It is most likely the work of the Ghost, or someone is trying to frame him and using us to get rid of him."
Not bothered, he asked, "What did we lose?"
"We lost one subject, ’Project Nightmare,’ and the remains of ’Project Death.’ But according to the lucky survivor, Dr. Isaac, both subjects were duds. Project Death was discarded recently, and Project Nightmare was also supposed to be discarded soon due to repeated failure to show any positive results."
The voice paused heavily. "But the most devastating loss was the Nightmare World Seed."
The man called Chosen One simply replied, "Don’t worry about the Nightmare World Seed. It is of no use to anyone on Earth. It possesses a will that hates humans and anything related to humanity. Which means it’s not something that can be used by us. Whoever has it will keep it safe until then. I will retrieve it when I return."
He cut the call without waiting for a response and looked up.
The purple portal suddenly flared violently.
Soon, even stronger, more massive monsters that looked like towering Abyssal Behemoths started pouring out of the rift, their roars shaking filled the air.
The Chosen One gripped his sword tighter. A brilliant, blinding white light erupted from the blade and the slaughter resumed
....
In a pristine white lab room, a man wearing a doctor’s coat was downing an intoxicating drink.
For outsiders looking at him through the reinforced glass windows, one would think he was a man drowning in despair, relying on expensive alcohol to cope with the tragic loss of his colleagues.
But the truth couldn’t be further from that.
Finally... I successfully dodged a calamity, Dr. Isaac thought with a manic, hidden glee as he took a long sip of the fifty-year-old scotch. The burn in his throat felt like pure victory.
Years ago, when he received the Death Stone in secret from the Leader to perform experiments, he was ecstatic.
A chance to passively gain levels while doing the work he loved in peace had dropped right into his lap.
After two or three messy and fatal failures, one young female subject had actually managed to integrate with the stone.
She showed brilliant signs of awakening an extremely strong Death Aspect-related class.
Due to his profession he evolved and gained so many levels because of that success.
And when he received the Nightmare World Seed to experiment on top of that, he was over the moon.
But who would have thought? Just weeks into the research, the stupid Seed vanished. It simply disappeared.
To cover it up, he kept doing mundane experiments and ruthlessly killing off the other less-noteworthy subjects just to hide the fact.
He even had to get rid of his favorite, Project Death, to maintain the cover-up.
Just when he was about to finish off the final weird project, that idiot Ghost came and destroyed the facility, giving him the perfect excuse to officially report the loss of the Seed.
He had even named the weird kid ’Project Nightmare’ as part of the plot.
Who would have thought he would escape, completely dodge the Leader’s guillotine, and save his own head?
Still... Isaac thought, swirling the scotch in his glass. That kid did give me the weirdest vibes.
Despite putting him through mind-breaking experiments, the boy went about it smiling. He was basically a perfect subject if you ignored his weak constitution.
But I can always find new subjects to work on, Isaac thought with a cold smirk. I only have one life. Sorry, kid. Your sacrifice bought my freedom.
He made the sign of the cross as a mock offering to the kids’ sacrifices.
Just like that, after finishing his expensive alcohol, Dr. Isaac went to bed and had the best sleep he had experienced in years.
He fell into a deep ignorant slumber, completely not knowing that the very things that had taken away his sleep - the Nightmare World Seed was currently resting peacefully inside the soul of the exact same ’failed’ experiment he was missing.
...
Achoo!
Back in the damp, moss-covered Level 5 dungeon, Night sneezed loudly, hastily rubbing his nose.
He froze, his heart skipping a beat as he waited in the shadows for the pack of fifteen wolves to split up.
Luckily, he was far enough away that they failed to hear him.
Was someone missing me? I know I am good-looking, but this is clearly missing me to death, Night muttered in annoyance.
From the shadows at his feet, Lucy let out a soft, telepathic huff that sounded remarkably like a teenage girl rolling her eyes.
Focus, Night, her voice echoed in his mind. Two of the wolves have separated from the main pack and are heading toward the stalagmite cluster on our left. They are entering our strike zone.
Night’s playful demeanor vanished instantly. He tightened his grip on his simple black knife, his blue eyes focused on his targets as he anticipated the next clash.
His previous kill had given him enough motivation to become even a hunter and hunt his targets instead of playing the role of a defender.
"Death, Eve, Lilith," Night whispered to his friends inside his domain."Get ready."
