Paths of Bone and Dust
The first thing Yeon-woo noticed was the air.
It was dry—achingly so. Each breath scraped his throat like broken glass.The sky above was a bruised violet, clouds stretched thin like old scars across the heavens.
The land itself was a graveyard.Broken pillars jutted from the cracked earth like the ribs of some colossal, long-dead beast.Bones littered the ground: human, beast, things in between.
A soft wind howled low, carrying with it the sour stink of old blood and rusted iron.
Yeon-woo stood still for a moment, adjusting.
This wasn't Marrow Fen anymore.
This was deeper.
Worse.
He pulled up his Profile, needing confirmation.
[Name: Yeon-woo][Level: 38][Class: None][Title: Regressor, First Explorer][Unique Skills: Greed (Lv.2), Bloom (2nd Cycle)][Traits: Resist Death (Low Grade)][Skills: Dagger Mastery (Intermediate), Evasion (Advanced), Swift Footwork (Intermediate), Danger Sense (Intermediate), Command Dead (Intermediate)][Stats:]Strength: 83 → 85Agility: 97 → 100Endurance: 79 → 82Intelligence: 60 → 61Perception: 93 → 96
The recent fight and exploration bonuses had nudged him forward.
Good.Agility hitting a hundred was a minor threshold.Movement skills would feel lighter now, more responsive.
The system chimed faintly again:
[Area: Valley of Silent Kings][Warning: Predators present beyond recommended challenge level.][Bonus Objective: Survive for 24 hours to receive Hidden Reward.]
Yeon-woo exhaled quietly.
No choice but forward.
The broken land stretched in every direction.Here and there, massive stone sarcophagi lay shattered, leaking faded auras into the air—like dying echoes of once-powerful beings.
Movement flickered at the edges of his vision.
He didn't react immediately.Training, instinct, and regression blended together.
In this place, most things wait for panic.
Instead, he moved at a steady pace—swift, but measured—sticking to the shadows cast by broken columns and sunken ruins.
Every few steps, he triggered "Bloom" at low intensity.
A soft, invisible surge of life energy flushed through his veins, repairing microscopic tears in muscle, easing the steady fatigue in his joints.
Not full healing.Not wasteful.Just maintenance.
It was the small edges that made the difference between surviving and dying an ugly, pointless death.
Minutes blurred together.
The world around him remained eerily silent, save for the endless dry wind.
Until he reached the fissure.
It was a deep scar in the earth, stretching across the landscape like a wound that had never healed.
From its depths rose a faint, rhythmic sound—almost like breathing.
Yeon-woo crouched at the edge, peering down.
Far below, something moved.
A beast the size of a house, covered in pale, translucent skin that clung too tightly to bone and muscle.Its face was a featureless maw, pulsing open and closed in slow rhythm.
He recognized it immediately.
Gravemauler.
A predator that fed on both flesh and soul essence.Slow when dormant, brutally fast when hunting.
In his first life, parties of ten had died trying to bait one out.
Now, alone.
Yeon-woo felt a grim satisfaction settle in his chest.
He wasn't the same desperate fool from his first climb.
He had Greed now.
He had Bloom.
And more importantly—he had time.
The Gravemauler shifted below, tail slamming into the rock with lazy force.
A plan formed quickly.
First: bait it into chasing.
Second: bleed it slowly with Bloom-enhanced mobility and precision strikes.
Third: when it was weak, trigger Greed and tear out its core.
He descended carefully into the fissure, using narrow outcroppings as handholds.
As he moved, notifications whispered quietly:
[Danger Sense active.][Bloom sustaining minor regeneration.][Mana 91%.]
The Gravemauler twitched, sensing his presence.
Yeon-woo hit the ground running.
A single stone flicked from his hand, striking the beast's pale hide with a soft thud.
Instantly, it roared.
The sound wasn't loud.It was wrong—low, vibrating, gnawing at the bones.
Yeon-woo sprinted sideways as the creature lunged, its maw opening into a perfect black hole.
Stone exploded behind him, shards slicing the air.
He twisted, sliding under a jagged arch, Bloom accelerating his muscles just enough to clear the impact zone.
The Gravemauler barreled after him, massive claws shredding rock and bone alike.
Each step it took cracked the ground.
Yeon-woo didn't try to stand and fight.
That was suicide.
Instead, he lured it along a broken path lined with ancient, half-buried weapons.
Swords. Axes. Spears.All relics of challengers who had failed here centuries ago.
Exactly what he needed.
He slid past a shattered pike, grabbing its shaft as he passed.
The pike cracked in his grip, half-rotted from age.
Still enough.
He spun, planting it into a weak spot in the ground—baiting.
The Gravemauler lunged again.
This time, when it struck, the ground beneath it crumbled.
A sinkhole opened instantly, swallowing its front legs.
The beast roared in confusion, struggling to pull free.
Yeon-woo didn't waste the chance.
He activated Bloom fully.
Mana surged.
The world slowed.
Each heartbeat stretched.
Each breath felt like a lifetime.
He crossed the distance in a blink, dagger flashing down in a precise, vicious arc—aiming not for the creature's body, but for the exposed tendons along its trapped forelimb.
The blade sank deep.
Black ichor sprayed, hissing where it touched the air.
The Gravemauler screamed again, thrashing wildly.
A claw the size of a wagon wheel barely missed tearing Yeon-woo in half.
He retreated instantly, flowing backward with Swift Footwork.
Not pressing the attack.
Not getting greedy.
Patience.
Small cuts first. Big kill later.
[Greed activated: analyzing target Gravemauler.][Absorption available: Bone Reinforcement (Passive).][Chance of successful steal: 42%.]
Not yet.
He needed the Gravemauler weaker.
Another pass.
Another strike.
Minutes blurred into a brutal dance: lunge, evade, cut, retreat.
Each time he wounded it, the Gravemauler grew slower.
Its movements grew jerky.
Desperate.
Finally, when it stumbled, Yeon-woo struck.
Bloom flared.
Dagger rose.
Greed howled silently through the air.
He drove the blade deep into the Gravemauler's maw, straight through soft tissue into whatever passed for its brain.
There was a moment of stillness.
Then—
[Gravemauler defeated!][Level Up!][Level Up!][Greed successfully activated: Bone Reinforcement (Passive) absorbed.][Bloom skill experience increased significantly.]
Yeon-woo sagged slightly, breathing hard.
Sweat ran down his spine, cooling rapidly in the dead air.
He checked the updates mechanically.
[Level: 38 → 40][Strength: 85 → 88][Endurance: 82 → 85]
Bone Reinforcement was simple but potent: a flat boost to physical durability.
Exactly what he needed for deeper layers.
He straightened slowly, retrieving his dagger.
The Gravemauler's corpse was already dissolving into fine gray dust, carried away by the ever-present wind.
Yeon-woo wiped the blade clean on his sleeve, then looked upward.
The fissure walls stretched high above.
He could climb out.
Or—
The ground where the Gravemauler had lain shifted, revealing a new portal: a swirling black gate rimmed in bone.
The system confirmed it a moment later:
[Secret Gate Discovered: Passage to Depths of the Valley.][Enter?]
Yeon-woo stared at it for a long moment, feeling the familiar tug of caution and ambition warring inside him.
He knew the next region.
More rewards.
More danger.
He smiled faintly, adjusting his grip on the dagger.
Regression or not... if I hesitate now, I might as well die here.
Without another word, he stepped through the gate.
The world twisted—and the deeper hunt began.