Lucius stood perfectly still, instinctively focusing on his aspect. Making sure that his most important skill was activated had long become second nature when danger loomed, doing this always boosted his confidence to face what was in front of him.

Returning his attention to the creature, his brows furrowed as he listened carefully to its labored breathing. The breath moving in and out of it's chest was anything but smooth; it seemed to struggle with every small portion of air it drew in.

Walking closer, he cast his gaze over the insect’s massive form with a more discerning eye. Upon closer inspection, he spotted a perfectly circular wound on the upper right portion of the insect’s chest. Lucius drew in a sharp breath through his teeth as his eyes locked on the wound.

He was no stranger to puncture wounds of this nature, having created many similar holes in his enemies with the piercing power of Matriarch's Fury. But whatever had damaged this creature was most likely not a sword—unless there happened to be a giant nearby wielding a blade six inches wide at the base.

Even being so wide, the puncture shouldn't have been enough to put such a powerful creature out of commission. In fact the wound was relatively minor for a creature so large. That one wound alone did not explain the oversized caterpillar’s current state.

Lucius stepped closer to the dying insect, pressing the tip of his sword against the thick, leathery skin on its large back. He wasn’t interested in attacking the creature, merely testing how much power it would take to pierce its hide.

Matriarch's Fury was much smaller than whatever had caused this wound, so it should, in theory, have an easier time cutting through. Leaning forward, Lucius steadily increased the pressure he exerted, observing intently.

One of his eyebrows rose high as he realized he was using more than half his strength, yet the tip of his sword had still not passed through the creature’s skin. Relaxing his arm, he took a step back, rubbing his chin as he stared at the ugly hole in the creature’s chest.

"This thing is almost certainly a C-Class creature," Lucius muttered. "That narrows down what could have happened to it quite a bit. Between the puncture wound on its chest, the paralysis that makes it seem poisoned, and the fact that only a C-Class creature or higher could have caused this, I’m pretty sure I know what happened here. Want to take a guess?"

Whisper fluttered over to the large caterpillar, landing near the wound. He took a few small steps forward and sniffed the air above the puncture, his big round eyes going wide as he turned back to Lucius.

"Smells like the C-Class hornet!"

Lucius nodded at Whisper's guess as he started to walk around the cave, inspecting the piles of mushrooms and the perfectly round eggs stuck to the walls. The cave ran deep into the stone surface of the cavern, but the far end appeared to be empty, at least as far as he could see from here.

"My guess is, the caterpillar must have been attacked by the hornet, and after getting stung, it escaped somehow and sealed itself up in here with the last of its strength before collapsing."

After running a hand across the glasslike surface of one of the eggs, Lucius turn away from the wall and stepped back toward the creature, a grin creeping across his face as he looked at Whisper.

"This thing is probably going to die anyway, so let’s not let this opportunity go to waste. We can’t afford to pass up a high-level C-Class kill."

Whisper nodded rapidly, his face splitting into a toothy grin as he looked down at the creature, a familiar hunger rising within him.

"Luckily, the hornet already broke through its defenses for us. Otherwise this might have taken a while."

Lucius laid his hands on the creature, leaning against it as he pressed his ear to its skin. Moving slowly across the floor while keeping his ear to the caterpillar, he narrowed down the location of the heart, stopping a few feet away from the large wound.

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"There it is."

Without hesitation, Lucius retrieved Matriarch's Fury and climbed onto the unmoving caterpillar. He placed the tip of his sword over the open wound, aiming toward the heart as he directed a few words toward the monster’s unmoving face.

"I’ll make it as painless as I can. Sorry about your bad luck."

Even with every advantage on his side, it still took more that ten full strength attacks to finish the job. Thankfully Assassinate kicked in, helping things along.

You have slain Eruca Terra, level 36.

You have reached level 25. You have 10 attribute points available for distribution.

You have reached level 26. You have 20 attribute points available for distribution.

As a reward for defeating a powerful Abyss creature, you have been awarded two equipment upgrade tokens [rare].

"Hmm, still only [rare]... Well, it was free, so I won’t complain. I guess we did end up leveling up before reaching forty Vitality like you thought, Whisper."

Whisper didn’t respond, having already disappeared into a pool of shadows that flooded toward the corpse. Lucius felt an incredible surge of Vitality spreading through his body as his companion began consuming the powerful C-Class creature—many times more intense than anything he had experienced before.

Lucius sat down, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he waited for the sensation to pass. What usually lasted only moments stretched out to an entire twenty minutes before it finally ended.

When he opened his eyes again, the caterpillar’s long body looked like an empty tube of toothpaste, as though someone had done their best to get the last drops out.

"Heh, what do you even do with all that blood? There’s no way it’s all going inside that small body of yours."

Lucius smirked as he commented on the strange inconsistencies of his companion’s ability, his eyes narrowing when he didn’t hear a response.

"Whisper?"

Rising to his feet, Lucius stepped forward, still receiving no reply. The pool of shadows that had retreated from the corpse moments ago was now rolling and twisting over itself repeatedly, as though struggling to resume its form.

Whisper’s face briefly emerged from the shadows, just long enough to show a pained expression, before dissolving again into the shifting pool of darkness.

"That’s not good. Did the hornet’s venom affect you as well?"

Lucius’ concern deepened as he knelt beside the shadows, his brows furrowed in worry as he tried to think of a way to help his friend. A few seconds later, Whisper’s face appeared again, this time remaining stable a bit longer. The small creature’s mouth opened wide as its head shook back and forth in distress. Lucius leaned closer, holding his hands open on either side of his tortured friend’s face, desperate to help but utterly powerless.

Then...

BUUUURP

A putrid green vapor jettisoned out of Whisper’s mouth, hitting Lucius squarely in the face. The stench was so vile it nearly made him vomit as he staggered back, covering his nose and mouth with his hand.

The tortured look on Whisper’s face eased slightly as the frantic stirring of the shadows slowed. A moment later, another loud burp escaped the small bat, followed by another. Finally, Whisper’s body fully materialized, and the creature leaned forward to expel a jet of green liquid from its mouth.

Whisper rolled onto the floor, staring up at the ceiling as he took heavy breaths, his tiny face displaying both exhaustion and relief.

Lucius approached his companion, kneeling down to lift the tired creature into the air.

"What just happened exactly?"

"I... d-didn’t want to waste such good food. So I ate the parts containing the venom too. That... may have been a mistake."

Lucius rolled his eyes, realizing Whisper’s suffering was entirely self-inflicted, the result of the mythical creature’s own greed. Shaking his head, he replied,

"Are you okay now? I’ve never seen you this weak—not since you were born."

"I just need a few minutes. I should be fine now."

"Good. Take a break while I use these new attribute points."

Lucius sent Whisper into his storage ring to rest before quickly pulling up his status screen to check how close the last boost had brought him to forty Vitality.

Strength 40(45) Vitality 39(44) Dexterity 40(45) Intelligence 5(15) Creativity 6(16) Luck 1(6) Stamina 23(26) Magic Power 12(17) Magic Resist 6(11) ... ... Free Attribute 20

"Damn, one point short!"