Chapter Five: Hunger’s Shadow
The village lay quiet beneath a blanket of morning mist, nestled in the crook of a winding river and ringed by the stunted trees of a dying forest. Its chimneys breathed pale smoke into the grey sky, but the roads were still and the windows shuttered.
Malric watched from the hill above, cloaked in the stolen garb of the fallen hunter. Her scent lingered faintly on the fabric—ash and lavender. He pulled the hood lower.
> [Hunger: 13%]
[Level: 3 | EXP: 15/150]
The system's numbers scrolled across his vision like dry whispers on a grave wind. The hunger had grown. It wasn't just in his stomach anymore—it pulsed in his muscles, clawed at his nerves. It made him dream of bone and blood and teeth.
He breathed slow and deep, trying to push it down.
Veilpiercer sat light on his hip, pulsing faintly with stored energy. The Bonefang dagger was gone now, its strength devoured. One more part of him erased. And yet... he felt stronger, sharper. More than human.
He couldn't decide if that was comforting or terrifying.
The path down to the village was muddy, rutted with cart tracks. He moved with care—shoulders hunched, pace slow. He didn't want to be noticed. Not yet. Just a traveler, a sellsword maybe. Nothing more.
The first people he passed didn't even look at him. A boy hauling firewood, his eyes downcast. A woman beating dust from a rug. A hunched old man staring into nothing. No soldiers. No banners. No danger—yet.
The tavern was the heart of the place. It always was.
He stepped inside.
Warmth hit him first—smoke, meat, sweat. A fire roared in a stone hearth, and a few men sat at scattered tables nursing morning mugs. The tavern keeper, a thick woman with forearms like cured ham, gave him a glance but said nothing.
He approached the bar.
"Coin?" she asked.
He placed a silver shard on the counter. Stolen from Darran's corpse. Still bloodstained at the edges.
She grunted and poured a bowl of thick stew. "Name?"
"Don't have one," he said.
She snorted. "One of those, huh?"
He ate in silence.
The food was hot and heavy with root vegetables and over-salted meat. It filled his gut, but didn't quiet the system.
> [Hunger: 11%]
Not enough. Not real nourishment. Not what it craved.
He sat in the corner, watching. Listening.
A pair of old men spoke in hushed tones near the fire. Words drifted to him between gulps of ale.
"…another body found near the old shrine…"
"…stripped clean, bones like wax…"
"…Light preserve us…"
He stiffened.
He hadn't been subtle. That woman—Selira, she'd said nothing of her name, but it was in his memory now, deep in the cracks. Her pain. Her fury. Her knowledge. All pieces inside him now.
And something else.
> [Memory Fragment Detected – Inaccessible]
[Devour Mind Requirement Bypassed – System Mutation Confirmed]
He hadn't meant to take it. But her soul, her will—it had bled into the system when she died. Too much essence, too focused a memory. It had forced its way in.
He still saw it sometimes. A tower. A falling star. A child's scream.
The system had changed because of it. The Hunger had twisted something inside.
> [Next Ability Unlock: Level 5 – Devour Mind (Access Unlocked via Mutation)]
He left the tavern as the sun rose over the thatched roofs. The world felt brittle, ready to crack.
A child bumped into him as he stepped out.
"Sorry," she mumbled, stepping back.
He saw the fear in her eyes.
Not of him. Of something in him. Some scent or shadow. She ran.
He walked faster.
Outside the village walls, he knelt in the frost-thick grass. The system buzzed.
> [Status – Malric Ashen]
Level: 3
EXP: 15/150
STR: 11
AGI: 9
VIT: 6
PER: 6
MIND: 5
Devour: 1
Devour Efficiency: 10%
System Hunger: 11%
Weapon: Veilpiercer (Ghoststep Passive)
Something flickered in the edge of his vision—an alert he hadn't seen before.
> [New Trait Available – Mutation Path]
[Cause: Hunger Threshold Exceeded | Unstable System Core]
He selected it.
> [System Core Mutation Active: Threshold 1 – Glutton Seed Awakened]
New Effects:
– Early Access: Devour Mind (Level 5)
– Passive Effect: Hunger Bleeds – Hunger increases passively with system use or time.
– Soul Catalyst Detected – Soul Devour will unlock as next ability.
He staggered. Soul Devour?
The system wasn't done changing him. It couldn't be. Not now. Not when he was barely beginning to understand it.
Footsteps on gravel.
He spun.
A figure approached down the trail—robes of yellow and white. A golden sun pinned to her chest.
A priestess.
He stepped back, hand on his weapon.
But she wasn't alone.
Three armored knights followed her, cloaked in light-stitched tabards. Paladins of Aurelion. Sunforged blades. Eyes like fire.
He backed away.
Too late.
The priestess raised a hand. "Malric Ashen."
His name felt like a curse in her mouth.
"The Light has seen you. You wear death like a cloak."
He drew Veilpiercer.
"Stand down," one of the knights growled. "There's no need for blood."
"There always is," Malric said.
The fight was short. Brutal.
The system guided him, enhancing his instincts, predicting their movements. But the paladins were disciplined, blessed. Their blades burned on contact.
He killed two.
The third severed part of his arm with a holy strike.
He devoured him anyway.
> [Devour Successful]
[+2 STR | +1 MIND | EXP Gained: 40]
[Level Up – Level 4]
The priestess screamed and fled, light flashing in her wake. He let her go. For now.
He stood in the snow, blood steaming on his clothes, eyes distant.
> [Hunger: 15%]
The system pulsed inside him. Growing. Changing.
And deep in his bones, he felt it.
He was becoming something else.
No longer a man.
But a shadow made of hunger.
A weapon waiting to be unbound.
He looked toward the northern sky, where the gods still sat on their thrones of flame.
"I'm coming," he whispered.
And the wind carried his promise through the waking world like ash on fire.