CHAPTER 134: MEMORY EATER

But then, as his eyes reached the last line, his smirk faltered. His brows furrowed slightly, his pupils dilated again.

"...What?" he whispered.

His eyes widened.

[Effect 5: Memory Eater] — Whenever you consume a creature, you absorb their recent memories along with them.

For a moment, he just stared. His mind stalled, caught between shock and disbelief.

He hadn’t expected this. Not at all. This was nowhere near what he imagined Gluttony’s next evolution would grant him.

Attributes, talents, skills—yes, that he could understand. But memories?

He blinked hard, shaking his head slightly as if to make sure the glowing words weren’t some kind of illusion.

But they didn’t vanish. They remained fixed, pulsing faintly.

"...Memory eater," he muttered under his breath, the words tasting strange on his tongue.

The more he thought about it, the more the weight of this effect began to sink in.

At first, the shock left him stiff. Absorbing memories wasn’t like gaining raw strength or a new skill—it was something entirely different.

It meant taking a piece of another being’s existence into himself. Knowing what they knew. Remembering what they remembered.

And then, slowly, a realization began to spark in him.

His lips parted, and his breath escaped in a quiet, shaky laugh. "This... this is actually..."

His smirk returned, sharper than ever.

"...Great."

His eyes flicked to the side, falling upon the demon’s corpse sprawled on the ground.

The blood, the twisted horns, the scales now dull in death. His smirk deepened, and his gaze turned predatory, the hunger in his veins igniting anew.

’That means... if I devour him now...’ he thought, eyes narrowing, burning with anticipation. ’I’ll get his recent memories.’

The thought made his pulse quicken. His heart thudded against his ribs like it was desperate to break free.

This would be a huge step forward in uncovering the truth behind the demons’ plans.

By devouring the demon, he would be granted a glimpse into their recent memories, and would be able to uncover the secrets of the demons.

The smirk on Riley’s face twisted into something sharper, hungrier, almost cruel. His eyes burned with cold satisfaction as he realized the truth.

"It’s good I didn’t devour him before evolving my talent..." he muttered to himself, his voice dripping with amusement.

Because if he had consumed the demon before now—before Memory Eater unlocked—he would have lost this chance.

He would have devoured flesh and attributes, yes, but the true prize—the memories—would have slipped through his grasp forever.

He exhaled a low chuckle, almost shaking his head. "That would have been a waste..."

Now, though...

Now he had the perfect opportunity.

Riley’s lips twitched, his jaw slowly opening wide, wider than that of any normal human being.

Shadows rippled at the edges of his mouth as though assisting him, stretching the opening unnaturally.

The corpse of the demon—massive, scaled, bloodied—trembled on the ground. Then, piece by piece, as if being torn apart by invisible hands, the body lifted into the air and was pulled toward Riley.

A long strip of flesh tore free first, sliding into his gaping maw and vanishing the instant it crossed his lips.

Then the legs, the torso, the twisted horns.

Bones cracked and splintered, skin ripped apart in chunks, and every piece of the once-proud demon was sucked into Riley’s mouth like meat into an endless void.

The sound was grotesque—wet tearing, bones snapping, the faint whoosh of flesh being devoured by a force stronger than gravity.

Riley didn’t stop, didn’t falter, didn’t even blink. His eyes remained locked on the body as he consumed it, bit by bit, until nothing was left.

When the last fragment disappeared, Riley’s mouth snapped shut with a sharp click of his teeth.

He exhaled deeply, a slow release that sounded almost satisfied, like a predator after a successful hunt.

His chest rose and fell rapidly, but the smirk on his lips hadn’t vanished.

Then, suddenly—

His head swayed. His vision tilted.

"Urgh..." Riley grunted, clutching the side of his skull with one hand.

His fingers dug into his temple as dizziness stabbed through him like knives.

His sight blurred, spinning violently as if the entire dungeon was being twisted and pulled away. His legs buckled, forcing him onto one knee.

Darkness flooded his eyes.

The world vanished.

He blinked hard, but it didn’t help—the void swallowed everything.

And then...

When his eyes opened again, Riley realized he was no longer standing in the dungeon at all. He wasn’t even himself.

He found himself sitting down, hunched slightly forward, staring blankly at the floor.

He blinked again, slowly raising his hands. Except—these weren’t his hands.

His breath caught.

They were pale, skin stretched taut over long, clawed fingers that glistened faintly in the dim light.

Riley’s heart skipped a beat.

’This isn’t me...’ he thought.

And yet, he could feel the weight of the body.

The movement of its muscles as he flexed the claws experimentally. His perspective wasn’t detached, like watching through someone else’s eyes.

It was as if he had been dropped into this body entirely, living through it.

Without his control, the body he inhabited rose from the chair.

His legs—longer, heavier, unnaturally strong—straightened as he pushed himself upright.

His movements were fluid but carried a lurking aggression, a quiet predator’s confidence.

The body turned, walking with slow, deliberate steps until it came to a stop in front of a mirror propped against the far wall.

And there—staring back at him—wasn’t Riley.

It was the demon.

The face reflected was pale and sharp, the skin stretched tightly over angular cheekbones.

Two curved horns jutted proudly from the sides of his head, their surfaces glowing faintly red as if veins of molten fire ran through them.

His lips curled into a faint smirk, exposing long, sharp fangs that gleamed in the dim light.

Riley’s breath hitched inside this vessel.

’...Yeah,’ he thought grimly to himself. ’This is the demon’s memories.’

Though he already had an inkling to how the [Memory Eater] would be, something like this was still very shocking to him.