NOVPUBThe monster let out a loud screech.
A mental pulse shot into Nameless Death's mind.
The mental attack didn't hurt him at all, but it served its purpose as a distraction.
In that split second, where Nameless Death was distracted, the monster pulled its World back into its Core and turned to run.
"Did it just… run away?"
Nameless Death stood frozen for a heartbeat.
He 'stared' ahead, watching the creature disappear into the trees with wild speed.
He didn't remember ever seeing a God flee, though to be fair, he didn't remember much at all.
But it revealed something.
The monsters here may have reached divine levels of strength, but they were still monsters that followed instincts.
They acted like beasts, and ran away when they encountered someone strong.
Nameless Death chased the monster.
Gap Movement allowed him to enter Pseudo Gap and covered thousands of miles with a singe step.
His body vanished and reappeared, again and again, chasing after the fleeing monster.
His use of Time Dilation made his senses stretch the world longer with each movement, allowing him to track it more clearly.
He was slower than the monste, since it was also using Time Dilation to escape, but he didn't need to catch the monster directly.
He only needed it within range.
Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath
A thick stream of purple flames erupted from his mouth, blazing forward and swallowing the monster's escape path.
The trees caught fire, the sky above twisted under the oppressive heat, and the ground cracked beneath the shockwave.
The monster screeched as the flames licked across its back, searing its skin.
It didn't stop running, but the damage slowed it.
Nameless Death kept using Gap Movement, weaving between the trees and debris, continuing his pursuit.
The monster zigzagged, leaped over mountain valleys, and smashed through stone cliffs.
It even unleashed a barrage of time-slowing pulses to create distance, but Nameless Death closed in steadily.
And then… the distance vanished.
Nameless Death appeared above the monster.
He used Abyss Mirror and summoned the Death Sword stored within it.
The black blade pierced downward, faster than the monster could react.
It stabbed through its back, tearing through its soul and slicing its Core.
The monster twisted, trying to use Time Dilation to slow the attack, but it was too late.
A single, silent second passed.
Then the monster's body collapsed, lifeless.
Nameless Death didn't waste time. He knelt beside the corpse, and called upon Darkness.
The monster's head was the first to be devoured, along with a portion of its soul.
Nameless Death devoured only parts where the memories were stored.
He didn't know how he knew such information that someone should only know after devouring billions, perhaps trillions, but he didn't complain either.
Flashes of images poured into his mind.
A young creature crawling on a quiet planet… training, evolving, hunting… eventually reaching the Site–
"What the fuck are these memories?" Nameless Death stopped the memories.
He waved them off like smoke.
"I don't give a fuck about your upbringing. Show me the important parts."
The memory flow obeyed.
The pointless childhood sequences vanished.
The scenes jumped ahead, focusing on the monster's exploration of this Site, its hunts, and its encounters.
Information began forming clearly in Nameless Death's mind.
"So this jungle is called the Jungle of Red Silence."
He muttered to himself as more memories unfolded.
"Right now, I'm in the outer ring of the jungle. The ants live at the border of outer and inner ring of jungle."
Apparently, the closer to one was to the central ring, the stronger monsters one could encounter.
It seemed the central ring has some kind of precious resource that allowed these monsters to grow stronger, and thus the stronger were located near the central ring of the jungle.
The outer ring where Nameless Death was the home of 'weak' monsters.
These monsters were at the bottom of food chain.
Generally, their rank world be Stage-4 Grade 5, Level 1 to Level 2.
Levels were sub-ranks of a Grade that began from Stage-4.
Each Stage had five Grades, and each Grade had ten Levels.
Even two beings at the same Stage and Grade could have a massive power difference depending on their Level.
The one he had just killed? It was Stage-4, Grade 5, Level 1, and among Level 1 monsters, it was average at best.
And the ants that were the target of the Quest?
"All of them are at least Level 1. The strongest among them is Level 3."
Nameless Death slowly exhaled.
"I'm supposed to kill thousands of these ants, and reach and kill their Queen."
The monsters were in constant territorial war so it was common for them to kill each other.
The stronger monsters would move closer to central ring while the weaker ones will be pushed to the outer ring.
The competition was so harsh that only God monsters survived in the forest.
"I need to get stronger fast if I want to live here, and escape this damned place."
He stood over the corpse of the monster.
The devouring process had ended. Now came the tricky part.
"What should I take?"
Stage-4 monsters were too strong for him to consume fully.
His existence was currently Pseudo Stage-4, and he couldn't devour the entire corpse to take everything it had.
"I need to choose what to keep and what to discard," he muttered.
He hated the idea of discarding anything.
Right now, he needed strength. Every scrap of it.
He was going to fight thousands of ants, all of them as strong as, if not stronger, than the monster he just killed.
He stared at the corpse for several seconds, grinding his teeth.
Finally, he made a decision.
"I guess there's only one choice," he said. "I'll corrupt my Darkness Seed."
He raised his hand. Purple energy swirled over his palm.
"Let's use Void.
"I'll create a new Divinity. If this works, my Darkness should evolve, and theoratically it should gain gain the ability to devour existence of others and use it to boost my existence, just like how I devour their Concepts and techniques."
Right now, Darkness couldn't devour existence.
It wasn't his limitation, but rather the way the element worked.
It could devour energy, memories, life, but not existence.
