Chương 40: Horror that Awaits

After resting for about fifteen minutes, Levi recovered about half of his meager essence.

"This is seriously concerning. I have to find a way to recover my essence faster."

Right now, it was manageable because Levi was not in any immediate danger, and the surrounding monsters were unable to move. But that wouldn't always be the case. If he didn't find a way to recover his essence faster, sooner or later he would find himself in a fatal situation.

For now, however, Levi pushed that thought aside and walked toward the tree where the cocoon was hanging. It wasn't at a height he could reach easily, so he began to climb, using the tree's ample branches without much difficulty.

Once close to the cocoon, Levi noticed it was attached to the tree with a kind of white gel that had long solidified. He strongly suspected this was the mucus of the larvae he had seen before.

"This must be its evolved form," Levi deduced. Now that he thought about it, the Lunacy Incarnate he had faced was in an evolving stage. How exactly did these things evolve?

His question was answered sooner than he expected as he examined the cocoon more closely. What he had initially thought were black feathers covering the cocoon weren't feathers at all—it was countless larvae arranged in the shape of feathers. All the larvae seemed to have been burned alive, which is why they looked black.

Levi suddenly felt a surge of regret about his fight with the Lunacy Incarnate. Had the monster become a cocoon because he left it alone? Wouldn't it have been much easier to fight it then?

"Well, who knew it was going to become a cocoon. No use crying over it," Levi told himself as he plucked the cocoon. It was oval-shaped, resembling an egg more than a cocoon, and about 30 cm in diameter.

Levi freed the spear stuck to the cocoon, which was already beginning to snap. It seemed the wood couldn't handle the essence he had forcefully poured into it.

Ignoring the spear for now, Levi peered inside, and what he saw sent shivers down his spine. A small creature that looked very similar to a newborn bird, with flesh still forming and in a half-liquid state, lay there. Purple-colored liquid, which seemed to be its blood, oozed from the wound where the spear had pierced it.

"Don't tell me this larva is evolving into some kind of bird…"

Levi felt extreme despair as he realized the truth—the larvae were already a significant threat, and now this cocoon, though not dangerous, was incredibly hard to kill. He discovered that these were just the initial forms of the monster and that something fully evolved and capable of flight existed.

To be honest, Levi had an idea about it since the Sanctum [Lunacy of the Black Wings] literally had "wing" in its name. He had guessed he would at least face a monster capable of flight. But the horror that this monster could potentially use both lunacy—the larvae's ability—and the telekinesis the cocoons employed, along with flight, sent shivers down his spine.

"Isn't that technically unbeatable?"

Levi hadn't even considered the rank of the monster, which would most likely be higher than Vile. The more he thought, the more hopeless the situation seemed, and the greater the horror that awaited him on the next floor.

But Levi knew there was only one thing he could do.

"Get stronger."

That was the only thing he could do. Whether he could defeat the monster waiting on the next floor or escape the sanctum depended on his ability to evolve to the next rank.

As he thought, Levi's eyes landed on a small demonic crystal inside the underdeveloped bird-like creature. He took it in his hand and pushed all other thoughts aside. For now, he would absorb the essence and think about other matters once he evolved.

He jumped down from the tree along with the cocoon, set the cocoon aside, and sat down.

With his concentration maxed, he crushed the essence crystal and activated Lunacy. The amount of Lunacy that came out of the crystal was much less than what he had received from the Lunacy Incarnate.

Levi focused on the essence and pushed it inside him. There wasn't much pain as he had expected—only a slight uncomfortable feeling that lasted for a moment before the essence settled into his soul core. Levi opened his eyes and checked his status.

[Demonic Essence absorbed: 53/200]

The essence count had increased by two, a surprise since Levi only expected it to rise by one point as it did the first time. What Levi didn't know was that the first time he had absorbed essence with the help of Providence, which was how all humans did it. This time, he used his own ability—Lunacy—which was better than relying on Providence's help.

And the reduced pain was actually normal.

This was the typical amount of pain humans were supposed to feel when absorbing an essence crystal. But Levi's earlier attempt to absorb an enormous amount of essence into his body, before his essence paths had even fully formed, made it incredibly difficult and painful.

In reality, someone at the Follower rank wasn't even supposed to absorb a core from a Vile monster, their body couldn't handle that burden. But Levi, being the reckless slum retard he was, tried it anyway. If it hadn't been for his Lunacy ability, which helped him control the essence, he might have ended up as little more than a vegetable.

Nonetheless, now that there were hundreds of cocoons around him, each providing one core, which meant two points to his essence. Levi could fill his core faster than he had calculated, and that thought excited him.

His gaze involuntarily turned toward the hanging cocoons, and suddenly, a glint of Lunacy passed through his eyes.

"Such a nice hunting ground," Levi smiled, gripping the crude spear. He wasn't going to stop until he filled his core!

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