The future that awaited me was bleak. The darkest possible ever, and the only way I had to possibly survive was to get stronger.
To do that I realized I had to utilize whatever means that I could. In this life, I may have been casual and dismissal about the impending calamity, but that was probably because I was just ignorant and didn't know too much then.
But it was different now. The Demon King is descending. The world will be wiped out and the hero will lose.
Fuck the bullshit he was saying about how if his flames still burn, he will never give up.
The bastad already lost the moment everyone in the world died!
I at least know I can't rely on the hero for my survival now. In the first place, that wasn't even an option because of the system. I had to survive by my own means, by my own power.
"Hehe... "A hollow laugh left my lips.
I used to cry about how unfair it was for me and how the universe seemed to enjoy putting me through all this torture, but wasn't the Hero having it much harder than I was?
I only had to think of my survival, while they had the entire weight and existence of Aethoria on their shoulders.
"Ah, I've been selfish." I chuckled.
But that was what has kept me alive this long at least.
'Technically, I already died a few times.'
If only the blasted Hero was at least competent enough, maybe I wouldn't even be in this situation. I wouldn't have to be under the threat of existential wipeout.
In the end, it all boils down to me and my strength.
That was why I couldn't disregard the Murmur's Mask no matter how diabolical it's flaws were.
It was an Artifact, and an artifact that was and could be an aspect of my power. At this point, anything that would remotely increase the chances of survival during the Calamity, I would take it, whatever they were.
I looked at the figure in an onyx black fiendish mask and slightly longer swept back white hair that was staring back at me.
The whispers and murmurs weren't entirely gone, they were just momentarily suppressed. I could still feel my mind slowly become corrupted and swell.
Putting on the mask gave me a strange impression now that I had Immersion activated. It was like being a whole different person. Aside from the haunting whispers I heard, and the throbbing headache in my head, everything else felt cool and detached.
I gave a depressing laugh from behind.
This self of detachment...was it what it meant to loose my 'humanity'? Murmur's Mask really was a diabolical artifact.
Without wasting any more time, I took the mask off with a little resistance. After all, the longer I kept it one, the more corrupted I'll become and the more of my emotions and humanity is erased. And the closer I'd plunge into depravity.
As soon as I did it, I watched my hair revert to its original colour and form: brown and messy.
"Huuu. Wearing the mask really makes me seem like a different person in both appearance and demean."
I looked at the mirror and studied my appearance. My eyes were bloodshot and my face was pale with a crooked smile. My head was still throbbing painfully but it was something that I could handle.
It seemed like a small backlash to wearing the mask but I was fine.
I sighed and with a mental command, dismissed the Immersion skill. Then I glanced at the black mask I was still holding and smiled.
"Success."
With this, I had grown stronger again.
***
After that, I took a small bath to refresh myself and set out like I intended to since the beginning. I confirmed the Murmur's Mask could still be usable despite it's flaw so there wasn't a reason keeping me back at the mansion until sunset.
"Since it's been a while, why don't I go hunting a little...and besides, I had an old friend to visit."
A little different from my usual hunting get up, I wore a black long coat over a black shirt, and black pants. Since there was no reason to carry my luggage and weapons with me any longer, I shoved them all down Hamlet's stomach!
It was at times like this the blasted Slime was at least useful.
[Shouldn't you be nicer to your familiar?]
'Try getting killed a few times and you be nice.' with a snort at Meta's unreasonable comment, I closed the door behind me.
The afternoon was slowly drawing to an end, and letting the evening breeze blow through.
Somewhere in the forest, I just decimated an entire hunting pack of Dire Fanged Wolves.
[Ding! You have slain a level 17 Dire Fanged Wolf]
[Ding! You have slain a level 17 Dire Fanged Wolf]
[Ding! You have slain a level 17 Dire Fire Fanged Wolf...]
[...19 Dire Fanged Wolf...]
The system messages dinged and buzzed in my head, but I couldn't feel even the slightest trickle of energy or essence fill my body.
No, it was there. But it felt even more meager and underwhelming than before.
With a disappointed sigh, I pulled the head of my spear out of the punctured skull of the dead beast while muttering silently to myself....
"I remember when I used to have so much trouble with thes guys. It wasn't much, but maybe I really have come a long way."
The four weeks I spent in the dungeon had made me a lot stronger than it seems. But things were only going to get harder from here.
I stared at the piled corpses of the wolves. They had silver, steel like fur and blade like fangs protruding from their mouths. Tight rolls of powerful muscles were hidden beneath all that fur and yet each of them died with a single blow from my spear.
They weren't the first pack of beasts or monsters I encountered. It was the same for most others from before, but no matter how much I killed and killed for the last two hours, not a single level up message.
"Haa... I'm too high level." I never thought the day would come when I'd say that.
'No. I never wanted the day to come when I'd say that.'
But in the end I was still only Mortal Rank, roaming about the bottom of the food chain. In the face of higher ranked entities, I wasn't much different from these wolves.
Shaking my head despondently, I spun my spear and walked away from the corpses, before glancing at Hamlet that was next to me.
Then I grinned and pointed.
"Eat."
Of course I was pointing at the corpses. They might not be worth much as experience, especially for someone like me who's body is imbued with higher Aether or Ether now, but they could still be useful. Yes, even while after they were dead.
Hamlet had an interesting skill after all.
But totally aside from that, I just really enjoyed putting this slimy bastard through misery.
Hamlet quivered a little before approaching the wolf corpses. Then it's blob like body that was the size of a football suddenly enlargened and expanded.
Hamlet spread open like a wide and devastating maw that instantly devoured all of the bodies and blood in one fell swoop, leaving not even a single trace behind.
In a second it was over.
My grin turned crooked and wry.
I can never get used to seeing that.
"What a terrifying slime..." I muttered weakly.
And that slime was my familiar.
Hamlet's form reverted to its usual small, round and unassuming appearance, as he gingerly bounced across the ground and reached my feet.
It was hard for me to forget that Hamlet was in truth a Rank Hero evolved monster of the Slime sequence, the silver sentinel from the dungeon; but it was once in a while like this Hamlet really proved that to me.
"...I bet you enjoyed that, huh." I was at a loss for words to be honest, but I had to act pompous to identify who was the boss between the two of us, although Hamlet could easily do to me like he did to the wolves.
I pried my gaze off the slime and turned back to the forest.
'Damed monster!'
"Alright let's get going, you bag of slime." I clicked my tongue and said as I continued into the forest.
***
Deep within a dark cave where the light failed to penetrate the thick carpet of gloom that shrouded it, a resting monster with pitch black, lustreless fur that blended with the darkness suddenly moved.
It raised its long snout then rose from the ground, looking ahead.
It had lightless black eyes and stood slightly over fifty three inches, with four furry tails blooming behind it like enthralling flower petals.
Something... something had infiltrated its territory.
The Midnight Fox could tell.
The darkness deepened around it's body. And just then, a figure in black stepped out of the heavy shadows.
It was a young man wearing a long black coat, who's features were shrouded by the gloom. His pair of striking golden eyes glowed and glinted brightly in the unceasing darkness that filled the cave. They were cold and distant. And most of all, they looked down at the king of the Den.
The king bared it's fangs and growled as the darkness turned deeper around it's tails. It lounged forward to attack and pounce against its invader when a cold voice suddenly rang out a single word.
"Hamlet."
Then something in the darkness surged.
It was like a wave. An indistinguishable mass spread open from the feet of the young man and devoured the darkness, along with the King without a trace.
It happened so suddenly that the Midnight Fox was unable to react in time. Out of nowhere, something swallowed it and it was devoured.
And as the king of the Den was taken care of, the heavy, impenetrable darkness that filled the cave became lighter and more natural.
It was still deep inside the cave, but at least now, the young man felt that the light of the day could at least finally spread its rays inside.
As the darkness lifted, Victor's lips tore a slight smile as he looked at Hamlet. Then he said meaningfully to his familiar.
"Do that thing."
The next moment, Hamlet melted and expanded outward. It's slime body shapeshifted and adjusted like viscous molten silver as it took a familiar form.
It was of a menacing dark silver wolf, with lightless black eyes and long furry tails like flower petals. The ceasing darkness and shadows of the cave seemed to converge and bow towards its feet and the smile on Victor's face turned into a wider grin as he patted and praised ecstatically.
"Good boy."