Outworld: Awakening

The same moment the Familiars appeared, the beasts stopped in their tracks. They couldn't mask their fury as they stared at Adam. The fyro warthogs and the necros jackals foamed in the mouth like dogs inflicted with rabies, while a viscous, foul-smelling liquid seeped from the sides of the spiders fangs. On the other side, dozens of chameleons made their way out of the first tunnel. Just like the beasts blocking Adam's path of advancement, they shared the same rage as they glared at Adam's trembling body.

Surrounded by his Familiars, Adam's body trembled slightly while an eerie laugh escaped from his mouth. With Cataclysm in both hands, and with his eyes black as night, he had the visage of a demon from the fiery pits of hell. Unlike the beasts who couldn't mask their rage, Adam's glare was that of a superior being standing among mere beasts.

Just then, the jackals unleashed a sickening howl, ending the silence in the area. Within seconds, the maddening squeals of the warthogs followed, and soundlessly, the chameleon and the black spiders dashed towards Adam.

"Rip them to shreds. Make it quick."

While Adam's words still echoed, Nokum and Salma had already gone to greet the charging beasts. With both possessing the powers of Disaster ranked Demonkins, blood flowed wherever they passed. Salma impaled some unfortunate jackals from different angles with its mace-like tail. While it vomited a crimson flame, which obliterated everything that stood in its path. Heat waves seeped out from Salma's large body while it cheerfully massacred the beasts.

Nokum, on the other hand, glided trough the area with the finesse of a seasoned warrior. Using the bones of a slain chameleon as a sword, it massacred its way into the chameleons and spiders. With one swing, it eliminated over six spiders or chameleons, and unlike Salma, neither the blood nor the fluids of the beasts fell on its body.

While Nokum and Salma massacred with atavistic delight, the other Familiars also engaged in the battle, drastically reducing the number of beasts. Although their destructive powers paled compared to Nokum or Salma, they were vastly superior to the beasts.

Meanwhile, Adam watched the scene with an eerie grin on his face. If one looked closely, they would notice he looked far into the distance rather than the one-sided battle. Unlike the Familiars who massacred with wanton abandon, Adam could sense the minute trembling of the earth. He knew that a new and much larger horde was approaching their location.

'They should be here at any moment? Should I go over there myself or wait for them?'

Adam's smile suddenly became more brilliant.

Within seconds, his body slowly disappeared. At that same moment, however, the rumbling intensified, alerting the Familiars and what remained of the first wave of the beast horde.

Unperturbed, the Familiars kept their positions while staring ahead. Unlike Nokum who had a charismatic visage, Salma's tail swung vigorously in all directions while eagerly await its next victims. A moment later, they could hear the howls of hundreds of Jackals while rumbling caused by an equally large number of chameleons came from their rear.

Salma couldn't hide its excitement as its tail swung with even greater momentum, smashing the corpses surrounding it. Meanwhile, Nokum nonchalantly removed the spine of a warthog's corpse. Meanwhile, the other Familiars slowly cleansed their blood-soaked claws with corpses of the beasts. Neither of them could wait to begin another massacre.

Unable to watch any longer, Salma charge towards the approaching horde with Nokum heading towards the opposite end. At that same moment, however, a red blur flashed passed the two Demonkins. And, instinctively, both Demonkins came to a stop.

Within seconds, soul shaking screams echoed in all directions, while blood flowed like a river. On either side, the jackals and chameleons were being mummified, or they imploded into bits of flesh and bones, while a torrent of blood bathed the walls and ground of the dungeon.

Nokum couldn't hide its delight as it stared at the chilling massacre. Unlike their actions prior, a horde of over two hundred had reduced to less than fifty within ten seconds. No matter how much the Familiars stared, all they could see was the red blur. However, with their connection to the Omen via Adam, they could detect his presence on either side. Despite being higher ranked Demonkins, neither Nokum nor Salma could follow Adam's speed.

Five seconds later, corpses littered the area, and only the Familiars remained. Unlike before, Cataclysm had become visible again, hovering over Nokum and Salma's head. Unlike Salma who tried to eat the axes, Nokum didn't spare it a glance; instead, its eyes roamed the area, patiently searching for something.

Just then, the air distorted soundlessly behind the Demonkins, revealing Adam who had a dazed expression on his face.

Nokum and the unranked Demonkins immediately fell to their knees with their heads lowered. Unable to mimic their actions, Salma lay flat on its stomach while stealing glances at Adam and Cataclysm. It couldn't stop itself from wagging its tail.

Adam, on the other hand, didn't bother himself with Salma's antics or the respect shown by the others. Instead, his gaze focused on the series of system notifications before him.

[Title: Devourer deactivated!]

[You have devoured 120 Omen beings!]

[You have gained two new skills!]

[The dungeon has recognized you as a being favored by The Omen!]

[You have eliminated all the creatures in the dungeon!]

[The Omen has permitted you to upgrade the dungeon!]

[You have begun the path of ???!]

[Connection to The Omen has strengthened!]

[Establishing Connection to The Omen]

[Connection Established]

Name: Adam Staples.

Age: Seventeen.

{Race}

- Human.

- Demonkin (Plague).

{Stats}

Constitution: 11. Agility: 17. Endurance: 23. Luck: 2.5

Dexterity: 16. Strength: 19. Charisma: 10.

{Skills}

- Summoning.

- Illusion Inducement.

- Regeneration (Passive).

- Poison Resistance (Passive).

- Invisibility.

{Title}

- Manipulator.

- Illusionist.

- Devourer.

- Dominator.

- Slayer (Passive).

- The Hated One (Passive).

???

{Status}

Awakened!

{Omen Points}

- 8.

{Inventory}

- Cataclysm, Runed Blade of Delusions.

- Familairs (8/???)

- Transmission Crystal (1/1)

- Worn Half Mask (1/1)

{Level}

- C.

???

{Omen Permission}

- Upgrade the Tunnels of Beasts.

"Adam, don't even think about upgrading the dungeon. Unless you want a repeat of what happened the last time. If you make a stupid decision, we won't be able to escape this time around…"

"You don't need to remind me, I'm not an idiot. Tell me more about this path thing I have entered," Adam retorted.

However, silence greeted his words.

[You have expressed no interest in upgrading the dungeon]

[Omen Permission Revoked!]

For a moment, Adam continued to stare at the system's notification. Although he didn't know why, he felt he had unintentionally chosen a path that would bring him countless troubles.

'Poison resistance should be from devouring the Jackals, while Invisibility resulted from devouring the chameleons. Just like when I devoured the magma salamanders… if that's the case, what would happen if I devour another—?'

Mid-thought, Adam vigorously shook his head. He didn't want his imagination to run wild. At that same moment, he noticed the Familiars staring at him.

'Oh? I almost forgot about them. Even if I did nothing earlier, they could have eliminated the horde themselves… in fact, one Unranked Demonkin was enough to handle the mob. Maybe I went a little overboard summoning all of them…' Adam smiled lightly as he parted his hair.

Unlike Nokum and the other humanoid Familiars who looked bothered by Adam's smile, Salma continued to wag its tail while staring at Cataclysm.

"Good job. You can devour—"

[Potential Sources of Danger Detected!]

'Huh? If I killed all the creatures, then what the hell is approaching?'

Adam's brows creased as the Familiars and Cataclysm soundlessly disappeared into his inventory.

'System, activate the skill Invisibility.'

[Skill: Invisibility activated!]

Like a kaleidoscope of shifting colors, starting from his lower half, Adam's body slowly disappeared.

The same moment the skill activated, he could hear footsteps and several incoherent voices approaching his location. A few seconds later, a group, ten-man strong walked out from the rainbow chameleon's lair. Clad in various armors, their eyes bulged as they stared at the corpses littering the ground, and the mangled bits of flesh and fresh blood painting the dungeon's walls.

"What could have done this? Did they have a territorial clash?" The leader of the party muttered.

Among the group, he was the brawniest and tallest. His grip around his broadsword tightened as his eyes scanned the macabre scene. Although a veteran in dungeon exploration, he had never encountered such a gruesome sight.

"Sir Luka, I believe it was a territorial clash. I can see corpses of the rainbow chameleons, black spiders, and fyro warthogs. This—"

"Andre, look carefully. Necros jackals are there, too…" Luka said while pointing ahead.

Luka clicked his tongue as he stared at the almost unrecognizable corpses of the necros jackals.

Meanwhile, Andre and the other men gasped as they followed the trajectory of Luka's fingers.

"I don't know what happened, but this isn't normal at all. Even while we hunted them earlier, they totally ignored us, while rushing here. Something either called them over or they detected an adversary they hate more than us Awakened…" Luka said.

"Sir Luka, I don't know what happened too, but isn't this situation fortunate for us? Since the Chameleons are all dead, we can easily extract their hearts. We have a chance to help the Master's son, if we hurry, we might arrive before Sir Galien's team. As an additional bonus, we can harvest a lot of loot from these corpses," Andre said.

Most of the men nodded as Andre spoke, none of them bothered to mask their greed as they stared at the corpses. Each corpse was a treasure trove in their eyes, and none of them expected fortune to smile on them so handsomely.

'Hmmm… something isn't right here. Some of these corpses look mummified while others look as if they exploded. None of the beasts here are capable of such abilities. Even the corpses with burn marks, there's no way the flames from the fyro warthogs could cause such destruction…'

While Luka inspected the strange nature of the corpse's injuries, Andre and the other men had moved closer to the treasure trove. With their daggers already unsheathed, they couldn't wait for Luka to give them the go ahead.

'Some of them also have deep claw and bite marks… this is definitely not normal. Something more terrifying might have caused this. We have to get out of—huh? What as this idiots doing?'

Noticing that his men had broken formation, Luka's expression darkened as he said, "What do you think you're doing? Do you think this is the time to get carried away by greed? Can't you use those heads of yours? As members of Raventhorn, do you think—"

Before Luka could finish his statement, a loud and cheerful laugh accompanied by slow claps interrupted him. Luka and his men unsheathed their weapons while searching in every direction, however, they couldn't identify the source of the laugh.

"Who's there?! Show yourself! Do you know who we are?! Don't mess with—"

"Hahaha… of course I know who you are. The big fella already said you're members of Raventhorn. I don't know about you, but I'm glad to meet you guys."

Confused and scared out of their minds, the ten-man party watched as the surrounding air distorted. Within seconds, they found themselves in a throne room devoid of the previous corpses.

"Huh? What the hell is this? Did we enter a…"

As Andre's words trailed off, he realized that Luka and the others had their gaze focused on the opposite direction. He could see Luka's eyes quivering while several of his colleagues had their mouths opened while staring in absolute terror.

'Why do they look so scared?' Andre swallowed hard.

Instinctively, he turned his head. At that same moment, an aghast expression covered his face.

Just ahead, seated on the golden throne was a white-haired youth less than eighteen years old. Dressed in all black, he sported a sadistic smile while drumming his hands on the armrest of the throne.

Andre could feel his legs wobbling as he stared into the youth's glowing blue eyes, however, the demonic beings towering over the youths throne sent him over the edge. In his life, he had never seen, heard, neither could he ever imagine the existence of such creatures.

"Now, gentlemen, shall we begin?"