Chapter 26: Threshold
Chapter 26: Threshold
Even though he knew the result, he kept jabbing the question marks like a lunatic. Tap-Tap-Tap. He gritted his teeth harder with each press. Still nothing, just [???].
Then a word within the phrase popped into his head—[New Class Tree Option Unlocked].
"Option...? When do I unlock my class?"
[Level ten.]
"Will I have more than one?"
[To use? Negative. To choose from, Affirmative.]
His mood soured. He'd hoped for more. Going through all that with the flower, and the reward was… a choice? Didn't feel like enough.
"Wait…"
If he had the ability to blush, he might've gone red. All this noise he'd made about getting a class and he wasn't even sure what one was. What it did or what it truly meant.
Snorting, he wiped his nose and tried to play it cool, tapping a claw against the word Class.
[System // Definition]
[Class]
[A foundational system designation granted to qualifying entities that meet specific prerequisites. Classes define behavioral patterns, combat style biases, and compatible skill growth paths. Once granted, a Class cannot be removed, only evolved.]
[Note]
[Each Class modifies stat scaling, unlocks exclusive skill types, and may influence available mutations, profane contracts, or system territory functions.]
"So, what's a class tree, then?"
[System // Definition]
[Class Tree]
[The structured evolution path of a Class. Progression occurs through experience, mutation, system milestones, or environmental adaptation. Each branch of a Class Tree represents a specialized upgrade or divergence of the original Class.]
[Example // Squire -> Knight -> Swordsman -> Flame Knight]
[Note]
[Not all Class Trees are linear. Some branches are locked behind rare materials, world events, or System Administrator access. Others mutate unpredictably based on the user's biology or soul structure.]
He read it twice. Maybe three times.
The idea made sense, grow into something new by surviving, but the details still felt distant. He didn't have the experience yet to imagine the possibilities. Like holding a book full of secrets in a language he didn't know.
He grunted and shoved the screen aside.
"What class options do I have so far?"
[Unknown. Data is still being gathered. Once User has reached the required level, system operations will begin to create your personalized list.]
Of course. He rolled his eyes. Logical, but still tasted sour in his mouth. He wanted to know now. His eyes drifted to the cleavers. For all the agony they'd caused, they at least did what they were built for. Unlike the system, they were very reliable.
"Alright. Let's find your reward."
The tendons binding his arms to the hilts tensed, pulsing. The blades approved. He rose slowly. Body whole, but sore as his bones itched, his skin pulling tight like it hadn't settled in. Didn't matter.
"Let's make this quick."
Muscles coiled, his weight dropped. Then he launched, no pause, no buildup, just a streak of red and black tearing across the ash.
Like a loosed arrow, but one with teeth.
----
CHNK!–SPLGGT!
"Done!"
He yanked the cleaver free from the corpse worm's ruined body. Bringing the blade up, he licked it clean with a slow swipe.
"Too bad there aren't more. I'm so close."
His eyes flicked to the UI, grin splitting his face.
[Level // 8]
[Exp // 887/949]
Health full. Soulmass topped off. He dismissed Hellfire with a thought, the cold black flames crawled back into his gut and vanished.
He scanned the field...littered with mangled worms. Steam and stink everywhere.
"Should be enough."
Butcher's Wrath twitched in his grip, still hungry, but calmer. The trembling that ran up his forearms had stopped. Their rage had been fed. For now.
With another thought, his forearms split open. The blades shuddered, grinding as they pulled back inside. Bone snapped. Flesh knitted. It still hurt, but less than before. Tolerable. Predictable.
He spat blood. Wiped his mouth with the back of his arm.
"Getting easier."
He didn't need to eat for health right now, but he still bent, tearing off a strip of the worm's pale skin. Slimy and thin as wet silk. He slurped it down in one pull.
"Best part."
He ripped another piece to chew as he started to move. Dropping to all fours, he intended to sprint at full-speed, no more training on two legs. No more delay. He kicked of the ground hard—
"What the—?!"
The world blurred.
His limbs slammed in rhythm, tail whipping for balance. He shot forward like he'd been fired from a cannon. Each stride cracked the ground, ash spraying behind him in a gray wave.
'Fast...!'
It wasn't subtle. It wasn't slight. His speed had nearly doubled. He felt it in every muscle, every tendon straining to keep pace with the demand he was putting on them.
He didn't stop. He didn't want to stop.
Leaping, he hit a curved rib and didn't even think. He ran along it sideways, claws scoring deep for grip. He kicked off, twisted in the air, landed on another spine, upside down, legs pumping. Gravity didn't matter. His body just moved.
Bones cracked underfoot. Ash erupted where he landed. Nothing slowed him. He barely felt the wind howling in his ears. He couldn't even process the landscape rushing past, it was just a smear of pale bone and blackened pits.
'Feels good...'
Running on two legs had been training. Discipline. But this? This was him.
He grinned, teeth bare, a growl rising from deep in his chest as he tore across the Maw without slowing. No hounds. No worms. Nothing would catch him now.
'If I keep this pace, I'll get there twice as fast. Would be nice to level again but...no more risks. I can level when I get to Earth.'
He locked that thought down. Only forty-seven hours left, no more distractions, no more wandering hunts.
He dropped his head lower, muscles coiling, tail lashing. A blur of tooth and claw tearing through the Boneyards. He didn't slow. He didn't hesitate.
He was done playing the Maw's games.
He was getting out.
----
The Boneyards stretched silent and dry, a sea of ribs and split skulls jutting like rotten fence posts. Ash drifted in lazy currents, collecting in hollows where marrow had once run thick. Here, the wind didn't howl, it scraped, dragging bone dust in thin, whispering sheets.
And half-buried in the pale grit sat a cracked jawbone, red light pulsing from within. Each beat spread black veins across its surface, crawling outward like a sickness.
When the glow turned pure black, the bone shivered, and slowly, as if it was savoring the moment, a sickly plasma seeped out. Swirling like smoke, it started to form the shape of a skull, empty eye sockets flaring–
CRACK!
"Ow! What was that?!"
The jawbone shattered, shards flying. The glow snuffed out. The imp barely glanced back, shaking out his hand before slamming forward again. He grit his teeth. Thought he'd adjusted to this new speed, but the throbbing in his knuckles said otherwise.
"How much further?"
He shot over a massive chasm like a bolt, the system's voice crackling in his ear against the wind.
[At current speed, User will arrive in approximately one hour and twenty-seven minutes.]
His brows lifted.
"I've still got nineteen hours..."
[Affirmative. User's species typically relies on short bursts of speed. Running on all fours is a natural advantage, but with recent changes to User's physiology, endurance no longer becomes a limiting factor.]
He scowled. His endurance used to be tied to hunger. Now, it was tied to stats and the system. No debuffs, no slowdown. Peak ability at all times.
Except for Soulmass.
Depleting naturally at 1SM every two hours, he'd already had to stop a few times to kill and refill.
But even as he went over the numbers, reviewing stats and quirks, he knew it was just a distraction. A way to ignore the pounding in his chest. And the closer he got, the harder that became.
'Earth... leaving the Maw. Don't get distracted, slipping past a warlord isn't gonna to be simple... simple?'
He felt the grin creep up even as he ran, some half-baked plan forming in the back of his mind. But he shook his head hard, forcing it away.
No point guessing. He'd figure it out when he got there. He dropped low, claws digging in and pushing harder. Focus on the run. Nothing else. That focus shattered the moment he cleared the next rise of ash.
[Proximity Warning]
Slowing slightly, his eyes narrowed.
"Imps? Out here?"
Ahead, a cluster, twenty at most. Them being out this far was strange enough, but as he closed the distance, the real wrongness hit him.
He slowed to a crawl.
"System? Are they... dead?"
[Affirmative. No lifesigns detected.]
He squinted.
"Where is their skin?"
[Unknown.]
The wind cut across the landscape, silent except for his own breathing. And for the first time in hours, he felt cold.