Leon POV

  I woke into darkness.

  My body ached. Every muscle felt bruised, every joint stiff. I tried to move and immediately regretted it.

  *Where... where am I?*

  Memory returned in fragments.

  The Skynels. The fight. The venom burning through my arm. Crawling into the narrow crevice, using their corpses as a barricade. And then-

  Nothing.

  I must have passed out.

  *How long was I unconscious?*

  I forced my eyes open fully, blinking against the gloom. The crevice walls pressed close on either side, rough stone scraping against my scales. The air was stale, thick with the smell of dried blood and decay.

  I looked toward the makeshift barricade I'd built.

  The Skynel corpses were still there.

  Or what was *left* of them.

  Only bones remained—picked clean, bleached white in the dim light. The flesh had rotted away completely. Even the ichor had dried into dark, crusty stains on the stone.

  *How long was I asleep?*

  Days? Weeks?

  *How am I even alive?*

  I tried to push myself up, bracing my claws against the ground—

  And immediately slammed my head into the ceiling.

  "Ow! What the—"

  I froze.

  The crevice felt... *smaller.*

  No. Not smaller.

  I was *bigger.*

  I looked down at myself.

  My body had changed.

  The scales along my limbs were thicker, harder, gleaming faintly even in the low light. My claws were longer, sharper, more like blades than the dull talons I'd had before. My wings—I flexed them experimentally—felt stronger, more muscular.

  And I was definitely grown more in size.

  *I grew. While I was unconscious.*

  I touched my side where the Skynel's stinger had pierced my wing. The wound was gone. Not scarred. *Gone.* Smooth scales had grown over it, as if it had never existed.

  *What... what's happening to me?*

  I squeezed through the crevice opening, forcing my now-larger body through the gap. Stone scraped against my scales, and I had to twist awkwardly to get my wings through.

  When I finally emerged into the open cavern, I stretched.

  And it felt *amazing.*

  I spread my wings wide, feeling the membrane pull taut. They were bigger now—strong enough that I could almost imagine actually *flying* with them. My tail lashed behind me, whip-fast and powerful.

  I felt... *good.*

  Better than good.

  *Strong.*

  For the first time since hatching, I didn't feel like prey.

  ---

  The place was eerily quiet.

  No hissing. No skittering claws. No distant roars echoing through tunnels.

  Just... silence.

  I stood there for a moment, listening.

  *Where did all the monsters go?*

  The blood and corpses from my earlier fights were still scattered around—dried and rotting. But no scavengers had come. No other predators had moved in.

  *Did they leave? Or...*

  A darker thought crept in.

  *Am I the reason they left?*

  I pushed the thought away and focused on more immediate concerns.

  *How do I get out of here?*

  I needed answers. About this world. About what happened to me. About where Alice was.

  But wandering randomly through these tunnels would get me killed.

  *I need to understand my abilities first.*

  I thought back to the fights. The system messages that had appeared. The skills I'd gained.

  *Devour. Venom. Piercing Claw.*

  But how did I *activate* them?

  The screen had appeared automatically before—when I killed something, when I ate something. But could I *summon* it myself?

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I looked around for something to test on.

  Moss grew in patches along the cavern walls, faintly luminescent. I scraped some off with a claw and ate it.

  Nothing.

  No screen. No message.

  *Why didn't it work?*

  I tried again, focusing harder. *Come on. Activate. Open. System. Menu.*

  Still nothing.

  Frustration bubbled up in my chest.

  "Open!" I said aloud, my voice echoing through the cavern.

  Nothing.

  "System! Status! Devour!"

  The moment the word *Devour* left my mouth—

  ═══════════════════════════

  [UNIQUE SKILL ACTIVATE: DEVOUR]

  ═══════════════════════════

  ACTIVE ABILITIES:

  [VENOM SECRETION]

  - Produce and expel corrosive venom.

  - Mild resistance to venom

  - Potency: Moderate

  [PIERCING CLAW]

  - Launch detached claws at high velocity

  -Range: 15 meters

  LOCKED ABILITIES:

  [CURSE ATTRIBUTE] - LOCKED

  "All power demands sacrifice."

  ══════════════════════════

  I stared at the floating text, heart racing.

  *There it is.*

  *So I need to say "Devour" to open it.*

  I read through the list carefully.

  Venom. Piercing Claw. Resistance.

  All abilities I'd gained from the creatures I'd killed.

  *So Devour doesn't just make me stronger. It lets me take their abilities.*

  *How far does this go? If I kill something with fire , do I get fire? If I kill something that flies, can I fly?*

  The possibilities were... dizzying.

  And terrifying.

  I looked at the [CURSE ATTRIBUTE] line.

  "All power demands sacrifice."*

  *What does that mean? What am I sacrificing?*

  I thought back to the fights. To the way I'd *enjoyed* killing. The hunger. The thrill.

  *My humanity?*

  The thought settled in my stomach like a stone.

  I shook my head, pushing it away.

  *Focus. Test the abilities. Learn how to use them.*

  ---

  I spent the next hour experimenting.

  Venom was easy. I could feel the glands in my jaw, just behind my fangs. With a thought, venom pooled in my mouth—bitter and acrid. I spat it at a nearby rock.

  *HISS.*

  The stone smoked where the venom hit, surface bubbling and melting.

  *Okay. That works.*

  Piercing Claw was trickier.

  I focused on my right foreclaw, willing it to... *launch.*

  Nothing happened.

  I tried again, concentrating harder.

  Still nothing.

  *How did I do this during the fight?*

  I thought back. The Skynels had been attacking.They just *wanted* the claw to shoot, and it had.

  *Instinct.*

  I stopped thinking and just *acted.*

  I extended my claw toward a stalagmite across the cavern and *pushed* with my will.

  *CRACK.*

  The claw shot forward like a bullet.

  It slammed into the stalagmite with enough force to shatter stone, embedding itself deep.

  A second later, the claw tore itself free and shot back to my hand, reattaching with a wet *click.*

  I stared at my regenerated claw.

  *Holy shit.*

  *That's actually incredible.*

  ---

  But I wanted more.

  I looked at my claws. Then at the venom.*Can I combine them?*

  I coated my claws in venom, watching the dark liquid drip from the tips.

  *Okay. Now launch.*

  I fired the claw at another rock.

  It hit—but the venom sprayed off mid-flight, splattering uselessly on the ground.

  *Damn it.*

  I tried again. And again.

  Same result every time.

  The venom didn't *stay* on the claw when it detached.

  *Why not?*

  I focused, trying to *will* the venom to stick. Trying to imagine it coating the claw, staying attached, hitting the target as one combined attack.

  Nothing.

  *There has to be a trick to this.*

  I sat down, frustrated, staring at my claws.

  *During the training, I used venom as a spit it. And I used the claws as projectiles. But separately. Why can't I combine them?*

  And then I felt it.

  A strange sensation. Like... *warmth.* But not quite. More like a current. A flow.

  It was everywhere.

  In the air. In the stone. In the moss. Even around my own body.

  *What is that?*

  Maybe I need to understand the strange energy around me — the sensation flowing through everything.

  After growing stronger, I can feel it now more clearly than ever.

  I tried to pull on the sensation, to draw it into my claws.

  For a brief moment, I felt something shift—

  Then it slipped away.

  *Not yet.*

  *But maybe... eventually.*

  I filed the thought away for later.

  *One step at a time.*

  ---

  After what felt like hours of practice, I finally stopped.

  My body was tired—not from injury, but from exertion. Using the abilities over and over again had drained something inside me.

  I needed to move. Staying in this cavern wouldn't help me find answers.

  I looked around, studying the tunnels branching off in different directions.

  Most were dark. Silent. Ominous.

  But one—off to my right—echoed with a faint sound.

  *Water.*

  Running water.

  *A stream?*

  I moved toward the sound cautiously, senses sharp.

  The tunnel sloped downward, walls narrowing as I descended. The air grew cooler. Damper.

  And the sound of water grew louder.

  After several minutes of careful walking, I saw it.

  *Light.*

  Not the faint bioluminescence of moss. *Real* light. Pale and silver, like moonlight.

  My heart raced.

  *Is this the exit?*

  I broke into a run, claws clicking against stone.

  The light grew brighter. The tunnel widened.

  And then—

  I emerged.

  ---

  I stopped.

  Stared.

  *What...*

  This wasn't the outside world.

  This was something else entirely.

  I stood at the edge of a massive underground chamber—so vast I couldn't see the far walls. The ceiling stretched high above, studded with enormous crystals that glowed with soft, pale light, casting everything in silvery hues.

  And below—

  A forest.

  An actual *forest.* Underground.

  Trees with dark bark and luminescent leaves grew in thick clusters. Vines hung from stone outcroppings like curtains. Flowers I'd never seen before bloomed in vibrant colors—blues, purples, deep reds—their petals glowing faintly.

  A river cut through the center of it all, wide and clear, its surface reflecting the crystal light like a mirror.

  The air smelled different here. Fresh. Clean. Alive.

  *How is this possible?*

  The cavern I'd come from had been dark, oppressive, filled with rot and death.

  This place was... *beautiful.*

  *How can both exist in the same place?*

  I took a tentative step forward, claws sinking into soft earth instead of stone.

  The change was so sudden, so complete, that it felt *wrong.* Like I'd stepped through a doorway into another world entirely.

  *Where am I?*

  *What IS this place?*

  And more importantly—

  *What else is down here?*

  ---

  I stood at the forest's edge, wings half-spread, every instinct screaming at me to be cautious.

  The weight of everything pressed down on me.

  And just what kind of world have I been reborn into?