"Leo?" Nyx said, coming forward and nudging him with her snout. "Is everything good? You froze there for a moment."

"Better than good," he grinned. "The System contacted me. I can use Ruination again… well, at least more than before. Our chances of surviving the next two layers just rose significantly."

The feline tilted her head. "Contacted you? How?"

"Intercepted one of my notifications and added a note below it. Looks like we have our own guardian angel now."

Nyx snorted. "More like a personal stalker. It isn't doing much guarding for now."

"At this point, I will take whatever it can give, even if it's just a passive support like that message," he shrugged, summoning his status. "Huh. Would you look at that… I'm already at full D rank, no minus."

The feline bumped into him as she approached one of the Nightmare corpses. "Don't sound so surprised. With so many attribute effectiveness boosts, it was only a matter of time before this happened… Now, can we finally eat? Stop wasting time."

That got Leo to move. "Wait! I want to harvest a few body parts first."

"Oh? Found another mutation you want?"

He nodded. "Final two from the Gamma tier. The rest is pretty useless for me. Gotta wait for Beta ones afterward."

"With the speed we're going, it won't be long."

"Maybe…" he said dismissively as he cut into the nearest corpse. "You can help, you know? Check their hearts while I gather the limbs. I need at least ten of each. They need to be whole, not crushed into a paste."

"Fine, fine…"

----------------------------------------

The Bladeform stilled in his grip, its wails going silent. Leo clicked his tongue, letting the beast fall. He flicked the blood off his blades and turned away to inspect the rest of the battlefield.

Water filled the entire chamber, this time almost reaching his waist. However, there was no one to command it any longer. All of the Nightmares—almost a dozen of them—lay dead, their corpses drifting in the waters and slowly painting it in red.

Even in an open battle without any traps or earlier preparations, the Trench Bladeforms stood no chance against Leo and Nyx. The constant water attacks from all sides made the fight harder, but at this point, everything the Nightmares did was just too slow and too weak. Not even their number advantage could save them.

"That went well," he muttered with a small smile. He could feel the few injuries he gathered during the battle already healing. "Only the Trench Tempest remains now."

Before entertaining any of the new System notifications, he went from corpse to corpse, devouring them. He also spotted Nyx doing the same, already claiming two bodies for herself. Though, with how much Essence she used here, she would probably need another one to fully recover.

I will leave this one, then. Leo decided and pushed the corpse before him toward the feline. Afterward, he returned to his task, gathering two more Greater Crystallized Essences, one Water Core, and even a single Eternal Heart from the dead beasts.

While he didn't have much use for the elemental cores—at least not now—the other two items were real treasures. He had already run a few tests, and a single Greater Crystallized Essence could create an explosion almost equal to the bomb made by survivors in London. Even if he didn't use them in the next layers, the people back on Earth would definitely be happy to get a few.

As for the Eternal Heart? Those were free attribute points, and unlike its inferior variant, the chance of getting them was higher. By how much? He had no idea, but it didn't matter. As long as he got something from the small stash inside his soul, he would be happy.

"Nyx!" he called out. "I'm going back to the tunnel. Find me once you finish here."

'I will,' she responded in their bond. Her mouth was currently busy with a big chunk of a fallen Bladeform.

Glutton. Leo shook his head, heading toward the nearest tunnel. You remember you have a skill for faster consumption, right? You really don't need to eat them all piece by piece.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The feline huffed internally. 'You wouldn't understand.'

I don't think I want to. He rolled his eyes and closed the link. Let's see…

Multiple enemies slain | Bonus Experience awarded | 4385 Ether gained.

Congratulations! You have reached level 68. Class and Racial attributes have been distributed.

Two levels. Nice. Thought I would get only one. Must have been close to the previous level up then. He concluded in his head and called forth the next notification.

Devour consumed: +2 Might, +1 Grace, +3 Vision, +2 Soul.

Less and less than before. Can't complain, though. I'm still getting something, after all.

Congratulations! Your Mind has ascended past the Supernatural Tier (500). Fourth Transcended Tier obtained. The effectiveness of all Mind-dependent skills has been enhanced. Your natural resistance against mental attacks has been improved.

There we go. Leo smiled. Only Vision remains now, and it's close to the breakthrough, too. A level or two should be enough.

Yet, despite the good news, he couldn't help but worry a little. This was the first time the System ever mentioned something about mental warfare. Similar, he also never even thought about it—there was too much other stuff to consider first.

Hopefully, Naz'Tor can help. Leaving my mind unprotected is a big no. Might as well ask about soul protection while I'm at it. If two pillars can be attacked directly, the third one probably can, too.

He nodded and added this to his mental to-do list. It was getting longer and longer with each day, but there wasn't much he could do about it now.

And final notification.

Congratulations! Task, Extermination: Nightmares (LVL 50+) finished successfully. Do you wish to receive your rewards now?

Yep.

Distributing task rewards. 10000 Ether awarded. Bonus experience transferred. One small bundle of Inferior Eternal Hearts and one Inferior Ether Grenade has been delivered to your Soulscape.

Wonderful. The grin returned to his face. All this for killing thirty-five Nightmares sounded like a great deal. I'm so glad Nyx reminded me to accept a new task…

He reached into his soul and summoned one of his new items. It appeared in his hand in a bright flash, washing the entire tunnel in a golden glow.

Ouch? He winced, glaring at the perfectly round, yellow orb in his palm. It couldn't be bigger than a basketball but weighed at least ten times as much.

Inferior Ether Grenade (Uncommon):

A simple System-made explosive filled with processed Ether. To activate it, infuse it with some Essence and throw it at your target. Please don't stand too close to the explosion radius, or the wave of Ethereal fire may harm you. Works best against: Nightmares and other natural denizens of the Void.

Simple, I like it, Leo summed up and returned the grenade to his soul. He doubted the item would survive the rest of his journey through this rift.

He walked for a bit more, passing another empty chamber and entering the next tunnel. There, he finally stopped and sat down. Only the Trench Tempest waited ahead, and he still wanted to consume the Eternal Hearts before going there.

Okay, what do we have…

In another flash—a much weaker one than before—nine black and still beating hearts landed on the floor before him. Four of them were slightly larger and somewhat less deformed but still as disgusting as the rest.

Well... it's dinner time.

Slowly, Leo took one of the smaller hearts—the inferior one—and placed it inside his mouth. Then, like ripping off the band-aid, he swallowed it whole. For a few seconds, nothing happened. He didn't feel or taste anything. It was like he had never consumed the heart.

Thankfully, the System came to the rescue.

Inferior Eternal Heart devoured. No attributes gained.

Of course… Can't be too lucky, after all. He frowned and grabbed the next heart. This time, he decided to bite it out of pure curiosity, nothing more.

Huh. Not bad, he admitted as he continued to chew. While far from the level of some restaurant dishes, it easily beat a random frozen food from a local supermarket. Not pizza, though.

Yet, despite the surprisingly good taste, the System again delivered the same notification. His frown furrowed as he swallowed another heart.

Inferior Eternal Heart devoured. +5 Vision, +4 Mind.

Much better. With that, he threw the remaining two smaller hearts into his mouth. And… nothing. One out of five. Could have gone better…

Finally, Leo grabbed the first normal Eternal Heart and bit right into it.

Now, this one is almost as good as frozen pizza.

Eternal Heart devoured. +4 Might, +2 Grace, +3 Vision, +2 Soul.

Another one.

Eternal Heart devoured. +1 Might, +4 Grace, +2 Vision, +1 Mind.

And one more.

Eternal Heart devoured. +5 Grace, +3 Vision, +5 Soul. Warning! Your body cannot handle any more toxicity. Please refrain from consuming any unprocessed items for at least two weeks.

Dammit…