Free Web NovelChapter 31: Natural Contempt
The giant roared with pure frustration, a bellow that shook the runes on the floor and raised clouds of bone dust.
Gabriel dodged the attacks of the remaining Pseudo-Tyrants like a wounded shadow, but his body was beginning to fail. His HP bar slowly dropped with every heartbeat, sending sharp stabs of pain.
He felt a deep ache from his broken ribs and the cut on his thigh.
He had to finish this now.
With a perfect feint, he tricked two beasts charging from opposite flanks. They collided into each other with a disgusting crunch of bones and flesh, flying backward with battered bodies and confused growls.
He seized the opening of the third, which had been isolated behind a shattered table. He leaped like a predator, driving both daggers straight into its brain. The liquid sprayed and flowed toward him in a hot torrent.
But the price came immediately.
Sharp claws sank into his back, opening a deep wound that ran from his right shoulder blade to his left hip. The pain was blinding. Hot blood gushed out, soaking his torn clothes.
Gabriel clenched his teeth until they creaked.
The giant’s thundering footsteps approached like an earthquake. The monster charged desperately, determined to crush him once and for all.
"Come here, you son of a bitch!" Gabriel growled, retreating toward a narrow corner between nearly collapsed columns. frёewebnoѵēl.com
He lured the titan with calculated movements. At the last second, he threw himself to the side. The giant slammed into the column with all its mass, becoming momentarily trapped. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Gabriel’s left shoulder cracked as he used it as a shield, dislocating violently.
The pain was hellish, but the adrenaline kept him on his feet.
In the midst of the monster’s confusion, he jumped onto its back. He bit furiously into the leathery shoulder and drove his main dagger deep into the base of its skull, searching for the brain.
The giant reacted like a maddened bull.
It roared with unleashed rage and began to spin and shake violently. Gabriel’s body slammed again and again against the walls and floor. Each impact sent waves of agony through his spine.
His bones creaked in protest, his vision failing for brief seconds.
But he didn’t let go.
He kept the dagger buried, twisting it with hatred. The giant’s movements grew slower, weaker. Its roars turned into guttural moans.
Finally, its enormous legs gave out.
The colossus fell to its knees, then completely, with a crash that raised a cloud of debris.
Dead!
Gabriel rolled off the corpse, covered in his own blood and the dark blue blood of the monster. He panted like a wild animal.
Without wasting a second, he placed his hands on the shattered head and activated Leviathan Gluttony.
The essence of the Giant Pseudo-Tyrant flowed into him like volcanic ash.
It contained boundless power, brute strength, and the wild vitality of a monster. Everything flooded his body in a painful and glorious ecstasy.
His veins burned, his muscles swelled momentarily as the energy saturated him.
He didn’t notice that the remaining Pseudo-Tyrants were timidly retreating, growling lowly and backing into the shadows. Fear filled the air.
When he finished absorbing the giant’s essence, something inside Gabriel broke.
The hunger took over.
His eyes turned savage. He rose like a maddened predator and began the hunt.
The remaining monsters tried to flee, but it was too late. Gabriel pursued them one by one, moving with inhuman speed despite his wounds.
He destroyed brains, absorbed their blood, and left mutilated bodies scattered throughout the laboratory.
Each absorption fed his frenzy even more.
Growls of terror filled the hall as the last beasts fell.
Finally, silence returned.
Gabriel dropped to his knees in the middle of the carnage, breathing heavily. His wounds still hadn’t closed, causing constant blood loss.
But his boosted regeneration was at its peak. With a sharp, painful movement, he reset his dislocated shoulder.
The adrenaline still prevented him from feeling the full pain.
The laboratory, which just minutes ago had been a hell of roars and blood, now seemed like a sacred tomb, far removed from common sacrileges.
Shards of broken glass covered the floor. Overturned tables formed a unique scene under the bluish light of the runes.
The acrid stench of blood was so intense it was almost suffocating.
Congratulations!
The system interface glowed with imposing silver letters.
________________
Dungeon: The Hidden Alchemist completed in solo mode.
[Reward Multiplier: X5]
Achievement Unlocked: "Butcher of Pseudo-Tyrants".
—The system has recorded your performance as extremely exceptional. Congratulations, user.
________________
He stood up weakly, spitting blood.
"Should I be surprised...?" he muttered.
Gabriel expected to feel relief, but it didn’t come.
Something still bothered him, a difficult sensation to describe.
As if invisible eyes were watching him from some corner of the laboratory.
A mysterious call resonated within him, like an ancient whisper tugging at his soul. As if destiny itself were acting beneath his freedom.
Staggering, he began searching the dark corners. He moved overturned tables aside and checked beneath piles of yellowish documents written in an unknown language.
The further he advanced through the destroyed laboratory, the weaker the rune lighting seemed to become. As if the energy was slowly fading.
There, buried under debris and oblivion, he found it.
A female statue.
The call grew stronger. It came directly from the sculpture.
Fine inscriptions in blue paint ran across it, identical in stroke to the runes drawn in the laboratory.
Its details were magnificent despite the passage of time. An ornate helmet surrounded by carved jewels, a face chiseled with ethereal perfection. Gabriel felt a strong pull in his chest, an almost religious tug.
He immediately connected it to his latent title: Potential Divine Herald.
"Interesting..."
Gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder, he used all his remaining strength to unearth it. The statue emerged with a horrible, dusty screech. It had no arms or legs. Only a broken, incomplete torso.
He hoisted it onto his good shoulder and climbed the stairs toward the exit. Once upstairs, he lifted it with contempt and hurled it forcefully against the stone floor.
The statue smashed violently.
It shattered into dozens of pieces. Only the head survived, rolling several meters with an almost pathetic sound, as if trying to escape in one last cathartic effort.
The moment the head separated from the torso, the immutable runes flickered weakly before finally going out.
Gabriel looked down at it, breathing heavily.
"Divine trash," he said with a instinctive contempt that rose from the deepest part of his being.
For an instant, he felt an alien will trying to influence his thoughts, attempting to bend his character and plant seeds of devotion and submission. It was weak and pathetic.
He rejected it effortlessly.
The statue’s head stopped rolling. Its carved eyes seemed to lose their shine, as if the last spark of power had been extinguished.
Gabriel spat on the ground beside the remains.
"A small statue... possessing so much energy."
The laboratory fell into absolute silence behind him. The dungeon had been completely conquered.
He wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand and advanced toward the exit.
"I don’t need broken gods," he said in a cold voice.
