Chapter 36: | Difference
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The currents warped under the Overseer's pressure, distorting around its bulk as it stared me down with arrogant stillness.
Then, without warning, the water cracked.
It vanished.
A second later, its massive tail came crashing down from above like a falling star.
I raised my tentacles to block, but the impact was too much.
Far too much.
A violent jolt ran through me as pressure tore through flesh.
My limbs shrieked with pain, tendons ripping, nerves screaming, as the blow crushed them like wet rope.
Impressive.
That was the only word that came to mind.
To think something so bloated could move with such force.
An oversized grouper, yet capable of this?
Impressive… but still pointless.
Blooming Wrath.
Heat surged through me as my body flushed red.
Adrenaline lit my veins on fire.
Pain became fuel.
I lunged forward.
Its tail flinched back as I struck with a blur of motion, my form splitting into afterimages that shattered through the water.
Blurstep Surge.
Thundercoil Descent.
Over and over,I slammed into it.
My muscles tore at the seams, bones grinding with every movement, but I didn't stop.
Every lash of my tentacles carried fury, my strikes rippling against its thick hide.
It held firm.
Even with all that force, I couldn't break it.
I closed my eyes and reached deeper, past the pain, past the instinct.
Into memory.
There it was, fragments of an old sword form.
The name was gone.
The shape?
Faded.
But the rhythm, the feel, I could still trace its bones.
Maybe enough for one last shot.
The Overseer loomed, lazy and unbothered.
It yawned.
Then blinked.
Thin lines began blooming across its skin, faint and pink like cracks in porcelain.
They spread fast.
A moment later, they burst.
Flesh split.
Blood sprayed in ribbons as its hide ruptured along the lines.
Its body convulsed with pain, flailing as the strikes tore through.
Razorfin Soarer.
Was still as reliable as always.
But I wouldn't be using it again.
The memory was nearly gone, just flickers now, slipping through my fingers.
Then, impact.
A blunt strike crashed into my head.
My skull cracked like glass.
Searing heat bloomed behind my eye, and then I felt it rupture.
Just like that.
I stumbled, half-blind, pulse thundering in my ears.
How?
How did that bastard get through?
I hadn't sensed it, not a flicker, not a twitch.
Unless… its speed was faster than its bloated form let on.
Faster than my instincts could keep up with.
That thought hit harder than the blow itself.
Then I looked down.
My own strikes... They were shallow.
Barely skin-deep.
Superficial.
Is that all I am?
Am I really this weak?
Before I could regain my composure.
Pain struck my nerve.
It rattled through my skull, numbing everything.
All I could see were blurred afterimages, shadows of its tail moving in a vicious flurry.
My nerves screamed.
Each strike was a hammer blow.
I was being thrashed, helpless under its one-sided assault.
My fractured skull throbbed with growing pressure, until at last, darkness consumed my sight.
Useless.
Everything I threw at it.
Nothing worked.
Its flesh warped under my blows like malleable gold, yet resisted like diamond.
An absurd contradiction.
A cursed match-up.
For a moment, my mind drifted, somewhere hazy and cold.
Death brushed against me.
Then it came, pain, searing and raw.
My body convulsed.
Crystals exploded from within, jagged and blazing with violent light.
They weren't just forming, they were consuming, reconstructing.
My flesh shifted, hardened, and reshaped.
I swelled.
Muscle, crystal, bone.
Towering.
Blooming Colossus Bastion.
Forcefully awakened.
I stood like a behemoth, my frame now rivaling the Overseer's in size.
The ocean trembled with my emergence.
Terror flickered in its bulbous eyes.
Of course it was afraid.
How could it not be?
The prey it had battered to pulp was now reborn, larger, harder, and filled with molten wrath.
What nonsense is this?
That's what its expression screamed.
But fear passed swiftly, and the beast struck again.
It didn't matter.
Time slowed to a crawl as I lunged forward, tentacles shimmering with refracted light.
Each slash carved into its flesh with precision.
Pink and crimson lines bloomed across its hide like cursed tattoos.
Then time snapped back.
Afterimages danced in the water.
The lines ruptured.
Blood geysered from the fractures, flesh peeling like torn silk.
It howled.
A sound that echoed through the depths in primal desperation.
I cackled.
Loud.
Ruthless.
Triumphant.
You're fucked now.
My form vanished.
Not blurred, gone.
Then, with a quiet flicker, a single red line traced across its forehead.
I stood behind it, still and silent, drawing in a single long breath.
Futile.
Its head tilted, then slid from its shoulders.
It fell like a meteor, crashing to the seabed with a deafening splash of gore.
Blood billowed like smoke in water.
To push me this far…
It deserved some respect.
But I had no time for sentiment.
My maw opened.
I tore into the carcass.
The flesh was dense.
Even after death, its body was stubborn.
It fought back with sheer toughness alone.
Minutes passed.
Then hours.
But I continued, devouring it piece by piece.
At last, a pulse echoed within my mind.
A notification flickered into being.
Victory.
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[You have slain the Overseer of this floor]
• [King Brackish Grouper 5★.]
[Flawless Victory achieved.]
[You have let the Overseer feel despair.]
[You have gained 15 levels.]
[You have gained the title.]
• King Slayer
[Access to the next floor unlocked.]
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I couldn't help but marvel at the sheer magnitude of my level gain from just a single opponent.
Fifteen levels?
How?
How was that even possible?
A breathless laugh slipped from my lips, then another, until I was grinning in stunned triumph.
The raw absurdity of it settled in my chest like wildfire.
So this was the truth, then?
The Overseer's despair… its fear, its humiliation, that was the key.
Letting it feel everything.
Breaking it beyond death.
If that was what fueled my growth, then I could ascend faster than any creature born of this world.
Ascend into the domain of Emperors.
The very thought sent a ripple of electricity through me.
My grin widened into something cruel.
If this is how the system rewards suffering…
Then my rise would be swift.
And merciless.
But there was still a puzzle, one I hadn't cracked.
I turned my gaze toward the mural etched into the stone below.
The ancient surface pulsed faintly with glyphs and spiraling symbols, like forgotten memories trapped in still life.
It wasn't merely art, it was testimony.
A chronicle of greatness carved into the bones of this dungeon.
When I devoured the grouper earlier, I felt it, something was wrong.
It was... incomplete.
Something vital was missing.
Yes, it had a soul, one far beyond the normal prey I'd consumed.
But no matter how deeply I dug, something eluded me.
Something essential.
It wasn't weakness.
I was certain of that.
It was like chasing a name I once knew… just at the edge of memory.
A phantom truth, slipping from my grasp the moment I reached for it.
And then the realization struck like a whisper in the dark.
Perhaps… it is the myth.
Based on my hypothesis.
If I'm not wrong, myth is the true memory, an immortal script etched into the soul, carried from life to life, defiant even against death.
And my bloodline, Harbinger of Myth, was forged to devour that very essence.
So why… why couldn't I devour the myth of the Overseer?
Not entirely, not cleanly.
Something blocked me.
Something interfered.
It wasn't me.
It was the dungeon itself.
A force deeper than bone or magic.
A presence that refused to let me take the true essence of those within it.
There could be only one explanation.
The dungeon is protecting its records.
Which means if I want to claim the myths of these creatures, I must devour the dungeon itself.
A feat that, for now, teeters on the edge of impossibility.
I was still too small.
Too weak.
A fragment of what I could become.
The realization left a bitter taste in my mouth.
So be it.
For now.
I'd let the dungeon win this round.
I chuckled softly, the sound hollow in the cavern's depths.
Truly, weakness is a sin.
With a slow breath, I forced myself to refocus.
I turned back to my gains.
To the raw harvest I had torn from my enemy.
The path forward would begin here.
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[You have successfully devoured:]
• [King Brackish Grouper 5★.]
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[New Skills Acquired:]
• Bloom-Crystal Heart
• Bloom-Fed Slam Frenzy
• Bloom-Field Pressure Veil
• Fungal Coral Overgrowth
• Hollow Muscle Cavity System
• Moss-Hardened Gut Wall
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[Your grotesque physique would like to devour.]
• Bloom-Crystal Heart
• Bloom-Fed Slam Frenzy
• Bloom-Field Pressure Veil
• Fungal Coral Overgrowth
• Hollow Muscle Cavity System
• Moss-Hardened Gut Wall
[Yes] / [No]
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I couldn't help but sigh, it was finally time to fuse my skills.
With a contemplative breath, I lingered for a moment, weighing the echoes of battle still pulsing through my blood.
Then, with steady resolve, I dragged dozens of skills onto the fusion table, each one gleaming with hidden potential.
My tendrils hovered for a heartbeat, then I confirmed my decision.
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[Would you like to combine these skills?]
• † Avatar Synthesis + † Blooming Flesh
• † Blooming Wrath + † Bloom-Fed Slam Frenzy
• † Bloomstone Shell Dome + † Bloom-Fed Chitin Veins
• † Bloompierce Dash + † Arcing Burst Dash
• † Mirage Veil + † Transparent Organ Array
• † Fortress Physique + † Hollow Muscle Cavity System
• † Shock-Mass Skull + † Moss-Hardened Gut Wall
• † Snapjaw Clamphold + † Jawlock Slam
• † Neurotoxic Bloom + † Static Bloom Veil
• † Stormkind Mana Core + † Bloom-Crystal Heart
• † Abyssal Brood Core + † Crystallized Titan Core
• † Fungal Coral Overgrowth + † Reactive Shell Moss
• † Bloom Burst Gasp + † Silt Inhalation Gills
• † Hydraulic Limb Piston + † Thrash Reflex Nerves
• † Bloom-Field Pressure Veil + † Micro-Vibration Sensors
• † Bloomlight Streaking Veins + † Kinetic Anchor Fins
[Yes] / [No]
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