Story-Eating Monsters
34 Mise's Court Street, Argenteo district, Ignes.
Kane had already started his combat with the story-eating monster that had evolved into a story-eater of fable rank.
The history of devouring monsters is classified into different ranks: Tale, Fable, History, Legend, and Myth.
The story-eating monsters are beings created by the "Historical Void" that grow in power by consuming people's memories. Each memory is a unique story, full of emotions, meanings, and experiences. By devouring these memories, the monsters absorb the essence of the experiences, appropriating their details and transforming them into their food.
The monsters evolve in rank as they consume more memories —be they happy moments, deep traumas, or simple everyday details. They begin with small or insignificant memories (Tales) as they escape the "Historical Void." Still, as they devour more complex and meaningful memories, they move on to Fables, Stories, Legends, and finally, Myths.
The more complex and powerful the story they devour, the more they grow in strength and interaction with the real world, for memories are the essence of each person's identity and reality.
...
The history devourer quickly attacked Kane with its free arms, destroying everything in its path.
Kane dodged the monster's furious attacks by doing pirouettes and somersaults all over the street as if he were an acrobat. The creature hadn't given him time to breathe for a single second since it evolved.
Fortunately for him, the people nearby had already left the area, which left Kane to use all his arsenal of skills against this monster.
'I must find a way to defeat this case,' he thought calmly.
He activated his trait, "Mark of the Emperor of Calamity," to think clearly about the best way to defeat this monster.
At that moment, he stumbled into one of the stalls, momentarily losing his balance, something the monster did not disapprove of, and attacked with all his might.
Reacting almost instantly, Kane put his daggers in front of him and blocked the dangerous attack aimed at the head.
Clang!
The loud sound of the daggers blocking the monster's tail echoed through the air, followed by a small gust of wind.
Regaining his balance, Kane quickly activated his "White Sun" ability, created a beautiful sun of white flame, and threw it without hesitation toward the monsters.
The small white sun quickly appeared on the history devourer's body. He couldn't dodge it in time because he didn't expect it to be so fast.
Boom!
The small white sun impacted perfectly, making the monster roar in pain and slowing its pace.
Kane, who had only heard the roar of pain, sighed in relief as he could finally breathe easily. He continued moving around the place, looking for some weakness in the monster he had not found.
At that moment, an annoyed growl was heard in the air. When Kane saw again the monstrous and imposing form that one of his neighbors had become, four arms, three mouths, where the skin should go, it was full of black, oil-colored maggots writhing disgustingly, its eyes voting crimson tears, and its tail also full of maggots and eyes.
Kane looked at the monster indifferently and felt his body tremble with disgust. He raised his hands as he created another white sun. He was not recklessly spending all his mana, but he did not know when help would arrive.
It was evident that people would report this to the nearby authorities as quickly as possible. Kane had only two options: defeat the monster or wait for support.
But he couldn't rely too much on the second option; he had to defeat it as fast as possible before its resistance ran out completely.
'Hmm... How do I defeat this thing? I can't get close because it's so much faster, and besides, I have no idea what to do with that object in its hand,' thought Kane.
Before the monster attacked again, he relaunched the small white sun. He could create two white suns instantly because he had reached level 10 and raised his skill level to level 2.
The small white sun again headed towards the monster's body. The annoyed creature easily dodged it.
Boom!
The small white sun hit a building hard, knocking down a wall and raising a small cloud of dust.
From the middle of the dust cloud, the tail full of worms and eyeballs shot out towards Kane.
Seeing the tail rushing towards his chest, Kane placed the daggers on his chest and blocked the powerful attack.
Clang!
A loud metallic sound resounded in the air again; Kane, who had blocked the attack due to the impact, his body flew into the wall behind him with great force.
Boom!
Kane quickly lurched out of the rubble with a few broken ribs and blood dripping from his forehead; despite all this, his face remained indifferent.
Spitting blood, he thought.
'Most of my current skills are of little use to me in this situation, and the few that are useful consume too much mana.'
Kane exited the building, his eyes fixed on the history-devouring monster. His body began to give off a violent, terrifying, domineering aura.
Then, he pulled out a black crown encrusted with dark gems and placed it on his head. His presence became more majestic and authoritative. Anyone who saw him would think they were in the presence of an emperor.
At the same time, the object the story-eater held began to glow black, and all the eyes on his body wept more crimson blood. Black worms fell to the ground, letting out baby cries.
The creature's three mouths mumbled in a strange, corrupt, and foul language while a pool of blood under its feet turned utterly black as oil, starting to float in the air and forming a spear.
The weeping worms began to form a strange mound-shaped altar, which gave off a thick grayish-white mist.
Kane was enveloped in a violent and terrifying aura in contrast to his majestic presence and indifferent look, and he spent all the additional stat points in mana.
—
Strength: 23
Agility: 23
Endurance: 22
Mana: 51
Additional stat points: 0
—
After spending all his extra points, Kane was enveloped in a black cloak that stretched and twisted as if it had a life of its own.
Meanwhile, sounds began to be heard in the distance.