The hologram flickered in Ethan's vision as information crashed through his mind in violent bursts.
"Did I get the famous system?" Ethan muttered, with excitement rushing through his veins.
'I might be able to escape,' He thought, as he quickly studied the system.
He had always read about systems, the golden finger of every transmigrator, and it seemed like he had also unlocked one. Back in his previous life, he had wished that he would unlock a system in the modern world, become rich, marry the most beautiful woman and retire his parents, unfortunately, fate stored something else for him.
He had always thought.
'Where is my Damned system.'
"Devour?" The word tasted foreign on his tongue. The system prompt hovered before him, waiting for a response.
He pressed it, he didn't have time to second guess.
Suddenly, Power surged through his body threatening to consume it.
Different from anything he'd experienced in either life. The world changed, his eyes seemed to become sharper, and he could almost feel that the world had become slightly slower.
< +3 Agility >
—
—
Ethan's mind raced as he processed the information.
The Enhanced Speed talent's grade had downgraded from F+ to F-, but that hardly mattered.
He could take abilities from creatures he killed. Build an arsenal of talents, one kill at a time. He could also take some of their stats, which was an icing on the cake.
The transform option pulled his attention.
Ethan immediately selected it. He had a hunch on what it could do.
'If it's what I think it is, I might have a chance of surviving.' He thought.
The change wasn't painful. His body flowed like water, his bones and muscles rearranging themselves with liquid grace.
His view became lower, and his senses sharpened beyond human limits. He could smell all kinds of scents, blood, and sweat. His new body felt oddly natural as if he'd worn this skin his entire life.
'This...is incredible.' Ethan thought as his eyes landed on his claws, and fur. But before he could inspect it further, another howl split the air, incredibly close to him.
His eyes darted in the direction it was coming from. It was another Shadowfang Wolf, drawn by the scent of death. It emerged from behind a tree.
'It's massive when standing upright.' Ethan thought.
Ethan's body tensed as it prepared for fight or flight. But looking at it carefully, its eyes passed over him without recognition or hostility.
To it, he was just another wolf. The beast padded toward Ethan's dead teammates, hunger overwhelming its caution.
Ethan watched as it began to feed, bones crunching between powerful jaws.
He approached slowly, his paw steps silent on the forest floor. The feeding wolf remained focused on its meal, unaware of the threat.
At the perfect moment, Ethan lunged.
His teeth found the wolf's throat with precision. The knowledge of where to bite, and how to tear, flowed through him like water, as if he was born as a wolf.
The other wolf tried to fight back, but Ethan's jaws had already torn through vital arteries. He quickly finished off the wolf by puncturing the wolf's chest.
His wolf-like hand felt a sharp thing inside near the chest. Curious, Ethan grabbed it and removed his hand from the beast as it collapsed on the floor
"Is that a crystal?" Ethan thought with some interest, as he glanced at the thing in his hand.
Suddenly, more memories appeared from his predecessor. The crystal in his hand was a core that could be used to strengthen the body up to the peak of Iron Rank.
People used it to absorb the energy stored within to improve their rank slowly. Usually, the higher the grade the core was, the purer the energy you could devour from the core.
For example, using a low-grade iron core will increase a person's attribute by one point, whereas a high-grade iron core, will increase a person's attribute by three.
The attribute you gain depends on the species you got the core from. The number of attributes is also scaled depending on the rank of the core.
Seeing the devour option on the crystal, Ethan did not hesitate before immediately agreeing.
The crystal in front of him disappeared, and wisps of energy flowed into his body with a cooling sensation that made his tense body relax.
< +5 Agility>
Seeing the immense amount of stats that he received, Ethan did not hesitate before immediately heading to the previous corpse and looking for the same crystal.
After finding it, Ethan devoured it without hesitation and the same lines followed once again.
< +5 Agility >
Feeling a burst of energy, running through his body, Ethan ended up checking his status.
His rank had become mid-iron. Glancing at the attribute values, Ethan evaluated that mid-iron rank had a threshold of 20 attribute points in any of the four attributes.
Ethan also realised that what takes other people ten or so, low-iron cores, took him only two. And, he did it almost instantly. Unlike others, who need time to slowly extract the pure energy from the cores.
Glancing at the second wolf, that he had recently just killed. The devour prompt once again appeared before his eyes.
However this time, he didn't need to touch the wolf for it to appear.
Ethan's body vibrated with anticipation. Two wolves in one day. Two opportunities to grow stronger. The forest around him held countless beasts, each one a potential source of power.
He selected Devour without hesitation.
<+3 Agility>
Ethan felt his body grow stronger, he could feel that his speed had indeed increased. But glancing at the status screen, his talent grade did not change. Even though the talent grade did not change, he felt that it was more powerful than before.
Nonetheless, Ethan was immediately excited. The golden finger he had received, was incredibly powerful.
'I transmigrated with the strongest talent' Ethan thought with a smile on his face.
The talent he had received made him feel slightly better. He felt bad for leaving his father and mother, they were in their late forties and they only had him as their single child.
"Father... Mother... I hope you live a better life and get a better child. Hopefully, when I get stronger, I will try to get back to earth. This world seems to have endless possibilities and maybe there is a chance..." Ethan muttered, feeling emotions overwhelm him for a few seconds before he oriented himself using his predecessor's memories.
"The city should be towards the north, about half a kilometre away," he muttered, analyzing his position.
Strategic considerations demanded a swift return—remaining in beast territory alone invited unnecessary risk.
He reverted to human form, the transformation flowing smoothly in reverse. Without pause, he activated his Enhanced Speed talent and began his sprint toward the city.
'What if I was caught by some random hunter from the city that would hunt me down, it's better not to risk it.'
The talent manifested immediately. The world blurred around him as he achieved speeds beyond normal human capacity, surpassing any Olympic athlete from his previous world.
The forest became a green smear in his peripheral vision as he covered the ground in rapid succession.
Two hundred meters disappeared beneath his feet. Then three hundred. At four hundred meters, the city's defensive walls emerged from the tree line, their grey stone facades stretching skyward.
Guard patrols maintained their vigilant watch from the ramparts, their silhouettes were distinct against the cloud-streaked sky.
A guard captain spotted his approach, immediately raising his hand in a halt gesture. "Hold fire! It's one of ours," he commanded. The defensive unit responded with military precision, lowering their array of rifles and composite bows.
"Open the gate," the captain ordered.
The massive gate opened slowly.
Inside the gates, Captain Morrison awaited him. The officer's E-Grade Enhancement talent had earned him his command position, though it wasn't powerful enough to secure him a more prestigious posting.
"Aren't you from the seventh squad?" he stated, his frown deepening. "Where are the others?"
Squad Seven's casualty rate was well-documented—an information gathering unit composed entirely of talentless soldiers, assigned to patrol the dangerous 500-meter perimeter beyond the walls.
"They're dead," Ethan confirmed. "We encountered a Shadowfang Wolf. The others..." He paused, crafting his narrative carefully. "They engaged while ordering me to seek reinforcements. By the time I could return, it was too late."
Captain Morrison nodded, accepting the report with detachment. The death of talentless soldiers was a daily occurrence, a statistical reality that the military had long since normalized. "Take the remainder of the day for recovery," he ordered. "Report tomorrow for reassignment to a new unit."
As Ethan departed, Morrison released a heavy sigh. The burden of command weighed particularly heavy on days like this.
His E-Grade talent had elevated him above the ranks of the talentless, but not high enough to effect meaningful change in the system. He remained caught in the middle—high enough to see the injustice, too low to reform it.
A reminder of his own limitations. His position allowed him to assign missions, but not to challenge the fundamental structure that treated talentless soldiers as disposable resources. The system's efficiency relied on this arrangement—using those without talents to gather essential intelligence while minimizing risk to more valuable enhanced personnel.
The status window of Morrison appeared briefly in Ethan's vision before his departure.
Unlike the Shadowfang Wolf, the captain did not have a devour icon next to his talent. There were only two explanations, either Ethan needed a dead corpse to devour talents or he could only devour the talents of beasts.