Coping mechanism

"...rapist... he called me a rapist..."

Viria murmured furiously, clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"...he asked did I found another victim... dumb fuck knows about me and he still dares to ask something like that... corrupted piece of shit....!"

The string of venomous words kept flowing out of Viria's mouth, and every single one enraged him even more instead of calming him down.

Before he knew it, his legs lead him to the second gate of the monster spawning grounds.

"Huh? Weren't you called by the warden?"

The other half of the pair guarding the gate raised his brows and asked in a tense voice, about to materialize his soul artifact.

"Your colleague already took me to him. Nothing much. I just learned a valuable life lesson."

Viria came to a halt so suddenly that the guard backed off subconsciously. Unnecessarily of course, at the moment the young man wasn't angry enough to try to vent his anger on another human who did not wronged him.

Yet.

"Speaking of your colleague, he should return here too, unless he went to get something to eat. I can wait here until he comes back to confirm my version if you want – but it's not like I can run away after entering the spawning grounds anyway."

Viria added with a dismissive shrug, although he was as tense as it gets from holding back the rage boiling inside of him.

"Don't try to get smart with me, prisoner. Go. Just know that if you are lying, things won't end well for you."

The guard scoffed before waiving his hand dismissively towards the second gate

"I know. Warden already warned me."

"...?"

The young man breathed out through his teeth and opened the gate without checking the hatch, moving past it while the guard's confused look followed him until he closed it.

Viria was walking so fast that an average person who wasn't serious about their cultivation would have to run to match his pace. The first time he met other prisoners returning with their prey was right by the first gate.

"Hey! Don't close it yet!"

As the female prisoner Viria did not meet yet hurriedly threw the two mole-rabbit corpses to the side and was about to slam the gate close, the young man called out.

"Wha...?! No way! Three monsters are on their way here, just wait a bit."

She raised her brows and scoffed, shaking her head about to lock the gate.

"I wasn't asking. Get the fuck away from that door."

"!!!"

Viria frowned, already a few steps away from the female prisoner. He already summoned his soul artifact into his right hand and put it in a reverse grip, to which the other prisoner tensed up and paled.

The first floor wasn't supposed to have anyone truly dangerous – but on the other hand, she had never seen the young man before.

"Open it."

Viria demanded, slowing down but not stopping.

"But...! The three mole rabbits...!"

The woman gulped down her saliva – she could already hear the muffled screeches of the charging monsters

"OPEN. IT."

"Hiiii...!"

Viria's voice lowered to a growl and the female prisoner let out a panicked noise while pulling on the gate, using it as a shield...

"SKWEEEE!"

"SWEEEEEEE!"

"SKWEEE!"

As she did that, three mole-rabbits flew past it, straight at the bloody-black-haired man.

They weren't too synchronized, the middle one was definitely in the lead...

*WHOOSH* *WHAM* *CRUNCH*

It was also the first one to die, as the left uppercut to the chin ended up breaking its jaw and shattering its skull to the point of the creature's eyeballs popping out of its eye sockets.

*SHING*

"SKWEEGH...!"

The second-fastest one got its throat slit by the tin prison shiv and let out a shocked screech interrupted by the gurgling of blood forcing its way into its mouth.

*thump*

"SWEEEEE!"

As for the last one, its charge got interrupted by the body of the first mole-rabbit that died from a punch and landed – just so it could climb over the corpse of its brethren and let out a furious screech only a moment later...

*WHOOSH* *THUNK* *CRACK*

..but it has given Viria more than enough time to regain his poise and throw another attack – an overhead stab with the tin prison shiv that pierced the creature's skull and shattered inside of it, turning the beast's brain into a goopy mass...

...that is, more goopy than it was to begin with...

"Hey. If you help me get the bones out of this one's legs, I will give you all of them."

Viria glanced at the pitiful remains of his shiv's blade and called out to the female prisoner holding the gate open.

"Wh-wha...?"

She gasped wide-eyed as the time it took Viria to deal with all three creatures was ridiculously fast for the strength level of an average prisoner from the first floor.

"I need help with extracting the bones. They can be broken, I don't mind. In exchange, you can take those three monster corpses for yourself."

Viria repeated himself with a grim expression, making a peaceful offer sounds like a threat.

"...I... are you serious...?"

"Serious and pissed off."

The woman stuttered, glancing down at the mole-rabbit corpses, to which Viria closed his eyes and scoffed in anger.

The female prisoner gulped down her saliva.

She spent almost a whole day picking up two weak monsters and luring them out of the larger group, but now she had a chance to multiply her haul with minimal effort.

"Don't try to get back on your word...!"

In the end, she did agree, walking towards the nearest corpse – a small hunting knife appeared in her hand and she carved out the bones out of the carcass and threw them at Viria's feet before struggling to hold up five mole-rabbit corpses at the same time.

Viria didn't even respond, too preoccupied with the bones.

He picked them up and then smashed them with a rock without hesitation.

"The hell are you going to do with that...?"

The female prisoner furrowed her brows and sent Viria a confused look.

"Remake. Mole-rabbit bones."

Instead of answering her, Viria spoke up the command and picked the trash in his possession before the dialogue window could open in his vision.

As he did, the faint light enveloped the remains of the tin prison shiv in his right hand and the broken mole-rabbit bones in his left hand before they merged into an upgraded prison shiv.

[Prison shiv (mole-rabbit bone) – low grade soul artifact – it sometimes breaks but can be remade from any kind of trash in your possession.

Abilities – Bone weapon (The higher the mastery level, the higher the damage dealt by the weapon) - - Rabbit strike (Adds the speed of a mole-rabbit's jump to the attack) [Mastered]-

Mastery – level 7/10

Durability 30/30 –repair– -remake-

???]

"As expected, no rabbit aspect without monster core trash."

Viria groaned to himself, changing the grip on the mole-rabbit bone prison shiv as he walked through the gate, closing and locking it as he passed, without even sparing a single glance at the other prisoner.

"...who the hell was that...?"

The woman tilted her head and mumbled.

Still, she wasn't hung on the subject for too long, and after the young man disappeared from her sight, she hurried towards the second gate.