CHAPTER 38: SURVIVE!

His path wasn’t one he could turn away from now. Too much was at stake.

Too many promises burned behind his eyes.

Then—

SWOOSH!!

The Raven tore through the air like a falling meteor.

And then—

KWAAAAAAAAABOOOOM!!!

A thunderous crash shattered the dungeon’s silence.

The ground cracked and split. A crater, massive and jagged, erupted from the impact point.

Dust and blood exploded upward like a geyser, coating everything.

Leon coughed violently, breathing in dirt and ash, but his eyes never left the monster beneath him.

The Raven twitched in the pit.

Its neck... broken.

Its wings... mangled.

Blood pooled around it, thick and black.

He saw its HP bar drop below one quarter.

Good.

But not enough.

Leon dropped beside it, raised his fist—Mana pulsing—and began to punch.

BAM!

Then again.

BAM!

Over and over. Fist to flesh. Bone to bone.

He targeted its wing joints. Its throat. The base of its skull.

His punches weren’t pretty—they were wild, fueled by pain and rage. But they worked.

The Raven shrieked, thrashing, but it couldn’t move properly. Not yet.

Leon punched again. Again. Even as his knuckles split open. Even as his body screamed that it had nothing left to give.

He punched through the exhaustion. Through the fire in his muscles. Through the fog in his mind.

He didn’t care how slow its HP dropped. As long as it dropped.

"DIE!!!" he screamed internally, his teeth clenched, his lungs heaving.

"JUST DIE!!!"

Then...

The Raven’s eyes—blood red—flared.

Wider.

Brighter.

A surge of dark energy surrounded it.

[Berserk] Activated.

Leon’s eyes widened in horror.

No.

"No, no, NO!"

He stumbled back, voice raw and shaking.

The pressure in the air shifted again—heavier now.

Breathing became a task in itself.

Leon backed up, one step. Two.

"NO!!! I MUST SURVIVE!!!"

He roared like a cornered animal.

The Raven wasn’t done.

Neither was he.

The real fight...

Was just beginning.

"NO!!! I MUST SURVIVE!!!"

Leon’s voice rang with ironclad resolve. This wasn’t some boss beast—this was a Dungeon Boss, and that meant one thing: it was on an entirely different level. While regular beasts ruled by instinct, Dungeon Bosses ruled by dominion. And dominion meant overwhelming force—power dozens, even hundreds of times stronger than anything else in their domain.

He had tried to end the battle before the beast could activate its Berserker’s Command, but it was all to no avail. And now... it had entered that terrifying state.

Leon knew what scared him wasn’t just the beast’s base strength, but the skills it wielded—refined, advanced versions of what he had seen from the lesser boss. He remembered the floating stats he had glimpsed mid-fall. Now, he opened the prompt fully, eyes wide with disbelief.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

┏━━━━━┓

[ Filled ] ← [Bar of Stored Life Force]

┗━━━━━┛

MUTATED RAVEN (BLACK)

(Dungeon Boss)

─────⋅☾ Boss’s Details ☽⋅─────•

LVL 7 [Power Level Equivalent t: LVL 13]

[HP: 2500 / 6110]

─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•

[Strength: 156]

[Stamina: 151]

[Agility: 165]

[Defense: 139]

[Intelligence: 7]

─────⋅☾ Skills ☽⋅─────•

[BERSERKER’S COMMAND (RANK B) – ACTIVE]

[The innate ability of every true boss monster: the power to enter and exit Berserk mode at will. When activated, the beast gains additional skills and enhanced capabilities. It’s the embodiment of a predator fully unleashed.]

[FLOCK OF THE FALLEN (RANK B)]

[A rare and deadly skill. When any beast in the dungeon dies, their life force is partially absorbed. With this reserve of power, the Raven can prolong its Berserk state and grow even more powerful.

→ Absorption Rate: 2% per death]

[WIND SLASH (RANK B) – COMPLETE]

[A refined elemental technique gained from the Chicken Boss. Sharp blades of compressed wind fire out with deadly precision. The technique is now complete.]

[SPEARBEAK LUNGE]

[A brutal, spear-like beak assault aimed at the victim’s stomach, designed to pierce through flesh and gut the enemy. Grants +1% speed when executed.]

[REND TALON]

[The Raven’s claws extend by three inches, enhancing speed and agility by 1% each. The beast dives to rip through weak points in a blink.]

[RAVEN KING’S MANDATE (RANK B)]

[An aura of absolute dominance. All beasts with lower Strength immediately submit and offer themselves as minions upon sensing this force.]

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

Leon’s heart thudded in his chest. He was gasping—not from exhaustion, but pure dread.

This wasn’t a battle anymore. It was suicide.

He stared at the beast.

"No... I can’t keep using my fists. Damn that mission... to hell with it!"

With a growl, he reached into his storage and yanked out one of his daggers. His fists had become useless—they barely scratched the beast anymore. His right hand throbbed painfully from overuse, blood seeping between his fingers. Even the pseudo-refreshment he got from leveling up hadn’t dulled the pain. It was like his bones were cracking from the inside.

He imbued mana into the dagger, preparing for one final push—but then paused.

Something on the system panel caught his eye.

The Stored Life Force Bar...

It was decreasing.

"What...?"

At first, he felt a rush of hope—was the beast bleeding out? Was something working?

But that brief joy was cut short as a chill crawled down his spine. His instincts—sharpened by battle and honed by pain—screamed at him.

This is bad. Very bad.

And then he saw it.

The beast’s injuries—those deep neck wounds and cracked bone—were beginning to mend. Not slowly. Not naturally. But rapidly.

Bone snapping back into place. Flesh stitching together in real time.

It was healing, drawing from the stored life force.

Leon’s eyes widened. "Shit! That’s what it’s using it for...!"

He cursed under his breath, understanding the system’s warning too late.

But instead of panicking, he used it. A cold idea formed in his mind.

"If it’s burning its stored life force to heal... I just need to keep hurting it faster than it can recover."

No hesitation.

He gripped the dagger tighter and slashed viciously at the same spot on the neck. A deep gash reopened, and blood sprayed across his face.

***

A/N:

Vote with your powerstones and goldentickets please, it’s very much appreciated. This book really doesn’t need those