Auren wasn't sure what exactly had happened. But he knew that, at some point, the pain had been so devastating that his consciousness had simply collapsed.
It was as though something vile had been wrenched from the depths of his soul in the worst possible manner. That thing—it had filled every fiber of his being with a corruption beyond words, a presence so ineffable that even now, in its absence, echoes of its taint seemed to linger beneath his skin.
Yet waking up now, the pain was gone. Not a trace of it remained.
And there was nothing Auren wished for more than to never experience it again.
He sat amidst a mound of brittle bones, the air thick with the scent of decay, having claimed the Chasm Dweller's feeding ground as his own. Strangely enough, in this graveyard of broken remains, he felt a fleeting moment of peace.
For the first time since plunging into this accursed trial or whatever it was, he could finally rest.
But he didn't. He couldn't.
Dangers still lurked at the edges of the chasm, shadowy presences watching, waiting, calculating. And those abominations—damned be their vigilance—if they noticed the absence of the Chasm Dweller, then his reprieve would be short-lived.
Only more deaths awaited him.
Gruesome, wretched, grotesque deaths.
The thought of dying again ripped through Auren's mind like a jagged blade. He had not lost count of how many times he had perished and clawed his way back, but each death was a nightmare that refused to fade. And he sincerely hoped that he won't lose count.
'Wait—no, that's not what I mean, I won't die that much. Not enough to lose count? Right? No—what am I even—dead Archons, how many times can I die? There has to be—no, there should be a limit. There is, isn't there?'
He shook his head and sighed. What matters was that he was still alive. Still breathing.
But for how long?
He knew, had been taught, that some monsters—especially those from the Major tier and above—were fiercely territorial. The Chasm Dweller's absence wouldn't go unnoticed. Others would come. They would smell the vacancy, the shift in power, and begin their silent battle to claim the empty domain.
Which meant he had limited time.
And he had to use that time wisely.
The first step? Understanding himself. His ability.
He couldn't afford to chalk the Chasm Dweller's death up to sheer luck. He had survived, yes, but luck was fickle and untrustworthy. If he wanted to avoid dying again, he needed to be meticulous, calculated.
That meant understanding his weapons.
Surprisingly, that wasn't as difficult as he expected.
The moment he had risen from that torrent of pain, something had changed. Auren felt an uncanny familiarity with the runes now, an intimacy that hadn't been there before.
He barely needed to think about them.
They simply appeared in his vision—white runes inscribed against a backdrop of blackness.
Clear. Precise.
More vivid than before.
And he could already tell—something about them was different there.
Name: [Auren Veyne]
Soul Name: [Not Attained]
Curse: [Requiem of a Failed Hero]
Tier: [Divine]
Soul Rank: [Nascent]
Soul Heart: [Minor]
Absorbed Curses: [10/10,000]
Curse Abilities: [Devourer…]
The first thing he noticed was his Soul Heart. Where once it had been unformed, now it bore a designation—Minor. And there was now a new runes displaying Absorbed Curses?
Auren frowned. He had never heard of a Soul Heart being labeled as Minor. It seemed to be following the path of a Cursed Creature, which, he supposed, made sense. After all, he bore a curse instead of a blessing.
But at the same time…
The tier of his curse did not align with the nature of Cursed Creatures. By all conventional logic, a Divine Curse should not exist. If it followed standard classifications, it should be labeled Abyssal. But it wasn't. It was Divine.
A contradiction.
The question loomed in his mind, but strangely, some part of him already felt like it knew the answer. He was Nascent. Soon, he would become Devout. Hopefully, if he made it through this nightmare.
Perhaps the curse was divine because—despite being cursed—some part of him was still tethered to the divinities.
Or maybe he was wrong. He couldn't say for sure. And that uncertainty made him scratch his head in frustration.
Then there was the fact that he could absorb curses. Auren suspected something else at play here.
He shifted his eyes to the only curse ability he has.
His gaze locked onto the three dots trailing after Devourer. Those hadn't been there before. That meant there was more to the ability than what had originally been revealed to him.
Focusing on it, another set of runes ignited before his eyes.
Curse: [Devourer]
Description: Due to your Divine Curse, your soul is imbued with the property of gluttony, allowing you to consume a corrupted soul should they dare to extinguish the fickle flames of your own. When a fragment of their soul is consumed, you gain a fragment of their abilities.
Current Abilities: [Metal Skin]
[Metal Skin]
Description: Upon close contact with a steel weapon, the cells of your skin undergo minimal metalization.
Auren folded his arms, studying the skill.
Now, he understood.
Whenever he died, he absorbed an ability from the Cursed Creatures that had killed him.
'And it seems this only applies to Cursed Creatures… because they have corrupted souls. Unless someone like me exists.'
Auren exhaled. He was probably right in that regard. And he highly doubted that someone like him existed.
If they did, they would have been executed.
If another like him had ever surfaced, even in a distant Archon province, the entire world would have heard of it—just as it had likely already heard of his execution.
For now, his only acquired ability was [Metal Skin]—but as long as he had [Devourer], that would change.
Still…
The process disturbed him.
Death was not a likable thing.
He exhaled shakily, feeling as though an impossibly tall wall loomed before him—a climb that stretched far beyond his reach.
Then, without warning, the night's cold fangs sank into his bare skin.
Auren shivered. The wind bit deep, whispering against his raw flesh like unseen teeth gnawing at his bones.
Shaking off the chill, he refocused on the runes.
There was more.
More to understand. More to question.
When he had died, that strange, detached voice had uttered, "His body grows stronger."
And when he resurrected, he had felt it—a subtle increase in strength. Not drastic, not overwhelming, but real.
But when he had killed the Chasm Dweller, the same voice—colder this time—had murmured something different.
"He has devoured a curse, and the curse of his soul grows stronger."
Then came the agony. The gruesome, soul-wrenching torment that nearly tore him apart from the inside out.
And in the aftermath… his Soul Heart had been formed.
That led to a disturbing realization.
If Devourer worked both ways to his advantage according to its description, then—
When he killed a Cursed Abomination, he devoured their curse completely, reinforcing his already accursed soul. Hence the counting of the Absorbed curses.
But when they killed him, Devourer still hijacked a fragment of their cursed soul—granting him a weaker version of their abilities.
But then…
"How do I make these abilities stronger? And what happens when I finish the counter and absorb ten thousand worth of curses."
Only one answer came to him almost immediately.
"Likely by dying to the same kind of Cursed creature multiple times."
The thought made his stomach turn.
Letting himself get killed deliberately? Over and over again?
What if one of those deaths was final?
What if he didn't wake up?
His fingers curled into a fist, knuckles paling.
To the second question though, Auren felt quite powerless and confused. First he doesn't even know what boon he now has thanks to having a Minor Soul Heart, or even if he has any.
And second, ten thousand Curses? It felt like something that'd take eternity to fill!
It was so frustrating and he hadn't even started.
Auren sighed and shifted his focus to something else.
There was one more thing he wanted to check. A Shard.
Letting free a sigh, he smiled.
Auren knew what a Shard was and how difficult they were to come across.
And he had received one on his first kill!
Excitement flickered through him like a spark in the void.