His distraction nearly cost him his life.
The first zombie lunged out of the dark, jaws snapping just inches from Jace’s shoulder.
He stumbled backward on instinct, adrenaline surging as a second zombie’s bony fingers clawed at him from behind. His body reacted without thought—an animal urge to survive taking over. He ducked low, narrowly avoiding the swipe, and clenched the rusted sword tighter in his grip. He didn’t have a plan. He didn’t have a strategy. He just moved.
The second zombie advanced, jaw hanging loose, dead teeth gnashing together with a wet, hollow click. Jace let out a panicked yell and swung the sword with all his strength.
The blade connected with the creature’s arm—bone cracked with a sickening snap, the limb falling away. But it didn’t even flinch. It kept coming. Jace pivoted, but the first zombie was already there, raking sharp, bone-like claws across his back.
A scream ripped from his throat as pain flared through him, hot and searing. He struggled forward, barely catching himself. His vision blurred. He shoved himself sideways as the two undead collided behind him, their mindless hunger betraying them.
He could hardly believe his luck. “Seriously?” he rasped, breathless. “Dumbasses.”
Fueled by sheer terror, he turned and drove the sword down into the nearest skull. The bone resisted, but he kept smashing, again and again, until the skull caved in far quicker than the first time.
He turned to the other, ready to strike again—then the notification hit.
You have killed a Level 10 Undead Zombie.
Massive XP Earned!
ERROR…
Class unable to gain XP…
Massive XP forfeited…
Reaper’s Touch Skill activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
You have gained +4 Strength, +4 Endurance due to level discrepancy.
Soulreaver Core Progression Activated.
Soulreaver Core: 2/100
New Skill Acquired: [Soulrend] (Rank 1) – Draw a fragment of a soul upon striking a foe, dealing additional damage and restoring a portion of health and stamina. Potency scales with soul strength and corruption.
“What the hell—”
Before he could finish, the second zombie latched onto his leg, snapping its teeth inches from his knee. His boot took the brunt, but it held tight.
Jace fell backward with a grunt, the air rushing from his lungs. He scrambled, trying to shake the creature loose—but it had already torn the boot from his foot.
Panic rising, Jace shouted the only thing he could think of. “Soulrend!”
Crimson light burst from the zombie’s chest, and it shrieked, thrashing violently. Jace gasped as warmth flooded into his limbs, dulling the pain in his back and healing the gashes. He could feel the soul fragment being ripped from the creature and into him.
Still burning with that power, he pushed it into the sword, willing it to do more—be sharper, stronger.
The rusted blade glowed faint red.
He didn’t wait. He swung.
The sword cleaved through the zombie’s neck like it was paper. Its head rolled across the floor, the body collapsing into a twitching pile atop the first.
You have killed a Level 10 Undead Zombie.
Massive XP Earned!
ERROR…
Class unable to gain XP…
Massive XP forfeited…
Reaper’s Touch Skill activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
You have gained +4 Strength, +4 Endurance due to level discrepancy.
Soulreaver Core Progression Activated.
Soulreaver Core: 3/100
He stood over them, chest heaving, blood dripping down his face.
A third groan echoed from the darkness.
“Of course there’s another,” Jace muttered.
The third zombie lunged. Jace caught its arm mid-swing, pivoted hard, and flipped the creature over his shoulder. It crashed into the pile of corpses. He didn’t hesitate. Boot met skull—again and again—until it caved in.
You have killed a Level 10 Undead Zombie.
Massive XP Earned!
ERROR…
Class unable to gain XP…
Massive XP forfeited…
Reaper’s Touch Skill activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
You have gained +4 Strength, +4 Endurance due to level discrepancy.
Soulreaver Core Progression Activated.
Soulreaver Core: 4/100
Power surged through him. It wasn’t subtle. He could feel his muscles tightening, his heartbeat slowing into something steady and sure. His breathing evened out. Every part of him was adapting—evolving.
Jace opened his status sheet.
Name: Jace Halloway
Race: Soulborne (Unique)
Class: Soulreaver (Unregistered)
Level: ERROR
Health: 296/296
Stamina: 143/143
Mana: 89/89
Strength: 26
Dexterity: 8
Endurance: 27
Intelligence: 9
Wisdom: 8
Soulreaver Core: 4/100
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
He didn’t know how, but the System was still responding to him. Even broken. Even bent.
The door at the far end of the hallway groaned open.
Six more undead shuffled into view.
Jace’s heart dropped for just a moment—then steadied.
“Let’s see what Soulrend can really do,” he whispered, stepping forward.
The air thickened. The groans became a chorus. The stench hit him full force, decay and rot and hunger.
And he smiled.
This time, he ran toward them.
The stone floor groaned beneath their feet as the zombies shuffled forward, dragging their rotting limbs in a rhythm that felt deliberate—predatory. Their stench hit first, a wave of sour rot and damp decay. Jace stood his ground, rusty sword in hand, his muscles tense with anticipation.
Six. Bigger than the last batch. Their decomposing forms towered over his five foot ten frame, their stiff movements no less threatening.
The pressure in the room mounted with each step they took, a suffocating weight pressing down on his chest.
“Focus,” he muttered, tightening his grip on the sword. “You’ve survived worse today. Time to have some fun. SOULREND!”
Power stirred within him—Soulreaver’s Touch pulsing like a second heartbeat. The souls he’d claimed before whispered in his mind, distant echoes feeding him strength.
The first undead lunged. Its gnarled arm shot forward with jarring speed, jaws unhinged. Jace twisted and struck, the blade slicing through its ribs. Bone resisted, but he powered through, carving a brutal line through the spine. The corpse dropped, still twitching. A swift kick to its skull silenced it.
You have killed a Level 10 Undead Zombie.
Massive XP Earned!
ERROR… Class unable to gain XP…
Massive XP forfeited…
Reaper’s Touch Skill activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
+4 Strength | +4 Endurance (Level Discrepancy)
Soulreaver Core Progression: 5/100
“Damn notifications…” Jace spun just in time to deflect the claws of the second attacker. The impact jolted through his arms, but he absorbed it, countering with a precise slash to its neck. The head hit the floor with a heavy thud and rolled to a stop.
You have killed a Level 10 Undead Zombie.
Massive XP Earned!
ERROR… Class unable to gain XP…
Massive XP forfeited…
Reaper’s Touch Skill activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
+4 Strength | +4 Endurance
Soulreaver Core: 6/100
Jace’s heart thundered as something unseen stirred in the distance—some presence, watching, waiting.
“I’ll deal with that later,” he muttered, forcing the fear down. “One horror at a time.”
The third zombie came fast. Jace stepped left—too slow. Its claws raked across his arm, tearing into his skin. He hissed in pain, but his body was already reacting. The wound knit together faster than it should have. With a shout, he triggered Soulrend.
Crimson light flared. The undead wailed as its energy siphoned into him. Fueled by the transfer, he drove the sword into its skull, silencing it.
You have killed a Level 10 Undead Zombie.
Reaper’s Touch activated.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
+4 Strength | +4 Endurance
Soulreaver Core: 7/100
More strength surged into him. His fingers trembled with power—not from fear now, but readiness. Something inside him hungered for this.
“I need to disable notifications during combat,” he growled—then the fourth lunged.
No time to dodge. Its claws ripped across his ribs, pain erupting like fire. But the warmth of Soulrend pushed back. His body adapted. The pain dulled.
He shoved the creature off, turned, and severed its head in one clean strike.
You have killed a Level 10 Undead Zombie.
+1 Soul Fragment Reaped.
+4 Strength | +4 Endurance
Soulreaver Core: 8/100
Five down. One left.
This one was a brute—bloated, massive, rotten flesh sloughing from its oversized frame. It charged, mouth wide in a grotesque scream.
Jace braced himself, the rusted sword clenched tightly in both hands, and then surged forward with a roar.
The blade bit deep into the bloated chest of the final zombie, cleaving through flesh and crunching against bone—but the thing didn’t even flinch. It snarled, ichor spewing from its ragged mouth like a burst pipe. Jace yanked the sword free and drove it in again, harder this time. A rib snapped with a sickening pop, but the undead brute didn’t fall. It stood there like a decaying wall of meat and hate.
It swung.
Jace ducked just in time, the rotting fist whooshing past his ear. The sheer force of it was enough to rock him off balance, but he caught himself, pivoted, and brought his blade down in a wild arc. The sword sliced clean through its arm, sending the limb flying across the room and slapping against the wall with a wet smack.
Still, the monster didn’t stop.
It came back at him with its remaining arm, faster than something that rotten had any right to be.
The return blow slammed into the side of Jace’s head like a sledgehammer. His skull rattled, ears ringing. His vision fractured into starbursts of color as he was launched backward, his body skidding across the stone like a rag doll. He hit the floor hard, rolled once, and came to a stop with a groan.
The world tilted.
His vision swam.
The iron tang of blood filled his mouth.
When his eyes finally focused, he saw the zombie lumbering toward him, its massive foot raised high—aimed straight for his skull.
Adrenaline kicked in.
Jace rolled, the foot crashing down where his head had been a heartbeat before. The stone shattered beneath the impact. He scrambled up on unsteady feet, swaying slightly, and slashed blindly. The blade caught the creature’s shoulder, tore through sinew and muscle—but it retaliated with another brutal swipe.
It connected.
Pain exploded across his ribs as he was hurled sideways like a sack of meat. His back slammed into a pillar.
“Son of a bitch!” he spat, coughing blood onto the stone floor.
The zombie dragged itself forward with one arm, oozing ichor from half a dozen wounds. Its soulless eyes burned with relentless hunger.
Jace’s gaze locked onto his sword, still buried in the zombie’s collarbone.
"Alright, bastard..." he hissed through gritted teeth.
He ducked under another slow swing, rolled forward, and with a desperate lunge, he grabbed the hilt. With every ounce of strength, he yanked it free in a spray of gore. Black ichor splashed across his chest and face as the blade tore free.
No time to think.
He twisted his hips and drove the sword down into the zombie’s leg, aiming to bring the beast down.
CRACK.
The femur shattered. The leg folded inward like paper. The monster roared and toppled forward with a thunderous crash.
But Jace didn’t have time to celebrate.
SNAP.
His sword broke in half.
The blade clattered uselessly to the ground, splintered beyond repair.
"Of course you break now," Jace muttered, eyes narrowing.
The zombie was still moving. Still snarling. Its mangled leg now a bloody stump, but it clawed forward anyway, rage propelling its decaying body toward him.
“Oh, now you wanna play dead?” Jace sneered, staggering to his feet. “Fine. Let’s try this old-school.”
He raised his boot and brought it down hard on its head.
CRACK.
Again.
CRUNCH.
Still twitching.
Again.
Black cracks spiderwebbed across the skull.
“Why… won’t… you… fucking… DIE!?” Jace roared, stomping harder with each word. The stone beneath the zombie cracked from the force.
Then—
The hand snapped upward and latched around his ankle.
“Shit!”
He fell back hard, leg wrenched out from under him. Hitting the ground hard with a jolt, his spine slamming into cold stone. As he kicked to get free, his boot ripped clean off—still clutched in the creature’s death grip.
Panting, wide-eyed, he scrambled backward, barefoot and bleeding.
"Okay. This ends now."
His eyes scanned the battlefield, desperate for anything.
That’s when he saw it—the zombie’s severed leg. The skin had torn away in the fall, revealing a thick, clean femur, almost comically pristine amid the carnage.
Perfect.
Jace lurched forward, grabbed the bone with both hands, and wrenched it free with a grunt. The remaining bits of sinew snapped with wet pops.
He quickly stripped off the last shreds of rotting flesh and wrapped the base of the bone in torn cloth from his ruined shirt. He tested the weight in his hand—it was heavy, solid, brutal.
And it would do just fine.
New Skill Acquired: [Makeshift Bone Weapons] (Rank 1)
Use nearby bones to craft temporary melee weapons.
“Thanks, you glitchy ass System,” he muttered.
He stepped toward the creature.
“You fought hard,” he said. “But I’m not dying in this hole.”
The femur came down hard.
The zombie’s skull exploded like a melon.
Jace gagged as gore hit his tongue. “Oh come on! This has got to be how the virus spreads.”
The twitching finally stopped.
Jace staggered back, catching his breath. A twisted laugh escaped him.
XP? Who needed XP?
This… felt better.
His gaze drifted across the ruined hallway. Corpses everywhere. His body burned. His skin stung. But he was alive. Stronger.
This was power.
Then—just as the tension ebbed—a voice whispered in his mind.
Soft. Melodic.
"You progress faster than I hoped. You truly are my Paragon."
Jace turned, heart hammering. “Who the hell are you?”
He waited for the voice to return, but was met with nothing but the still silence of the room. The presence—the one that had been watching him this entire time—was suddenly gone. The weight of its gaze had vanished, leaving behind only an eerie stillness.
Jace took a slow breath, his grip tightening on the makeshift club. "...Well, that's not creepy at all."
He turned to scan the empty hallway. This was the first chance he felt he'd had since coming here. The corridor remained silent as the grave. Only the slight sound of water dripping, and the flickering of the eerie green torches.
He turned his thoughts inward and it all hit him at once as his adrenaline began to slow. His life from before. He was no longer in his own world. He was somewhere new and terrifying. His old life was gone. His wife and kids, his family, his friends. Even though he knew he was technically dead in his old world. He was alive here to remember it.
Grief from the life he lost collided with the terror of the one he’d fallen into. The dam cracked. Then shattered.
What’s your theory on the voice in the dungeon?
