Levi's hands were numb from the repetitive motion of crushing larvae, his fingers sticky with their viscous remains. The eerie green glow of the trees had dimmed considerably as he methodically cleared them of their parasitic inhabitants. Hours had passed since he'd found the Essence of Lunacy, but no other artifacts had appeared. The forest was now littered with the crushed remains of the larvae as if a grotesque carpet had been rolled out across the ground.
"The probability of the providence is fucked up!" Levi cursed, feeling depressed at the fact that he hadn't been able to find another artifact after the Essence of Lunacy, even after killing at least three times the number of larvae.
Levi was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Fatigue weighed heavily on him, and doubt began to creep into his mind. "Is this even worth it anymore?" he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow, leaving a streak of larval residue across his forehead.
Just as he was questioning the futility of his actions, a faint sound caught his attention. It was barely audible at first, like a whisper on the wind, but it grew steadily louder. Levi strained his ears, trying to pinpoint its source.
The sound seemed to be coming from deeper within the forest, beyond the trees he had cleared. It was an unsettling noise—a mix of chittering and scraping that sent chills down his spine.
Levi's instincts screamed danger. He knew he should run, put as much distance between himself and whatever was making that sound as possible. But curiosity, that dangerous companion of desperation, kept him rooted to the spot.
As he waited, the fog thickened, swirling around his ankles as if trying to hold him in place. The blood-red moon overhead cast an ominous glow, turning the mist into a sea of crimson. Levi gulped, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
Suddenly, the chittering stopped. An unnatural silence fell over the forest, broken only by Levi's ragged breathing. Then, without warning, a massive shape burst through the trees with explosive force, showering Levi with splinters and debris. He stumbled backward, his eyes widening in horror as he beheld the monstrosity before him.
The creature was enormous, its grotesque form easily twice Levi's height. But it wasn't the size alone that struck terror into his heart. The beast's body seemed to be composed entirely of the glowing larvae he had spent hours destroying. They writhed and squirmed, constantly shifting to form grotesque appendages that reached toward him.
"What the hell is that thing?" Levi gasped, his voice barely more than a whisper.
As if in response to his question, familiar runes shimmered into existence before his eyes:
[Lunacy Incarnate]
[Rank: Nascent-Vile (Evolving)]
All blood drained from Levi's face as he read the classification. "Nascent-Vile?" he whispered, his mouth dry with fear. In all his short life of 18 years, Levi had never encountered a Vile monster before, but he knew one thing—they were far more dangerous than Dormant ones.
And to make things worse, it even had a classification of its sub-rank! But thankfully, it seemed to have just evolved from an essence monster and was still in the process of evolving.
Levi didn't need to be an expert to know what would happen if he fought the creature. As the beast crawled toward him, Levi felt a sharp pain in his mind—like needles piercing his brain!
Without a second thought, Levi ran. He didn't even wait to see what was affecting him; he just sprinted in the opposite direction of the creature. As he put a certain distance between himself and the monstrosity, a message materialized in front of him.
[You have resisted - 'Lunacy']
A cold chill ran down Levi's spine.
This was the second time he had seen this kind of message. The first was when he had actually been infected by Lunacy and had somehow managed to break free. But right now, he had resisted it in a different way—he had simply run away from it.
"So those tiny worms are constantly casting a mind attack?" Levi finally realized the truth.
When he had broken free from the Lunacy before, he had assumed it was the doing of the sanctum itself. But he had been wrong. It was these creatures attacking his mind! One worm was too weak to affect a human, but when thousands of them combined their mind attacks, Levi had easily fallen victim to it. Once he had broken free, he had unconsciously built some kind of resistance to Lunacy at that level. But now, facing this high-level grotesque creature using the same skill, he couldn't resist it because he was weaker than the creature itself.
"This…" Levi was shaken as he came to this realization, only snapping out of it when the creature let out a bone-chilling screech. Its form is undulated as the larvae that compose it shift and reorganize. Levi realized with growing dread that this must be why these small larvae were classified as Dormant Monsters—they were merely parts of a greater, more terrifying whole that even had a mind hex ability.
Levi now felt that these small creatures should be ranked higher than Dormant Monsters.
How could these small worms turn into something that terrifying? But what could Levi do? He just watched as the Lunacy Incarnate lumbered toward him. Thankfully, the worm was slow as hell! But midway, the creature suddenly stopped, as if losing all interest in Levi, and turned toward a nearby glowing tree, crawling toward it.
"Huh?" Levi watched in surprise as the creature swirled around the tree and then lay motionless. A bad premonition washed over him as he instantly realized what was happening.
"The fuck? It can absorb more?"
'Absorb' wasn't the correct word, but the moment the creature swirled itself around the tree, the larvae attached to the tree started to detach themselves and join the link of larvae that made up the creature!
"This is dangerous." Levi realized at just a glance that the monster was in a state of evolution. It hadn't completed its evolution, but it was already at the Nascent-Vile stage. But if the monster was concentrating on absorbing larvae, that meant it had something to do with its evolution—could it be that it could evolve to the next rank after consuming enough larvae?
Levi's face paled as he realized the implications.
'I have to do something,' he thought. The monster didn't seem to have any physical abilities, but its mental powers were a pain. If he got affected by Lunacy again, he would surely be killed by the larvae. His mind went wild, imagining the larvae burrowing into his body, and he instantly shook his head to clear the thought.
"I must stop it from evolving."
The Nascent-Vile monster was already more than he could handle alone. What if iy evolved into something stronger, like an Inept-Vile or even a Wicked-Vile monster? Just the thought sent chills down his spine.
At that moment, Levi's hand instinctively went to the pocket where he had stored the vial of Essence of Lunacy. He took it out and hesitated, weighing his options.
"Damn it," he cursed, realizing he had no choice. It was either taking a chance with the mysterious essence or facing certain death at the hands of this monstrosity.
With trembling fingers, Levi uncorked the vial. The green liquid inside seemed to pulse more urgently now, as if sensing its moment had come.
"Here goes nothing," Levi muttered, taking a deep breath. Silently hoping he wasn't making a terrible mistake, he downed the contents in one swift gulp.
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