So Much Pain Only to Become Ugly

Notifications buzzed in my head. Cracks crawled out from where the dungeon core once floated. He curled over, instinctively trying to protect himself, but the pain was ruthless. His bones felt like someone was hammering guessing at how to temper steel. There was no rhythm or evenness within its strokes. Not letting him prepare himself. One second it was soft, the next it was like the world was crumbling. The sound of his skin tearing in his enhanced hearing made his mind fill with frustration. He slammed the ground, crimonish purple blood leaking from his fist. Why was he like this? His mouth was dry. Tears flowed out from his muddy yellow eyes. He so terribly wanted to hit the pause button. His mind grew hazy. He opened his status screen, trying to tell himself this was not for nothing. His clouded mind cleared up instantly with a terrifying realization.

Baby? Child? Could it be referring to humans? He received 7 skills related to humans, all from babies or children. With a 1% rate... He inhaled sharply. Stark prepared to go and find the others. His eyes landed on the foot in front of him. His eyes widened. Grotesque yellow nails curled around his 4 toes attached to a dirty white foot. Stark felt his dinner crawl back up his mouth. To think such a disgusting thing was near him. He followed the foot up and to his horror, it was his. The novel never said that the changes would be this large. Arnold had eaten the mana crystals of over 50 thousand different bird-type monsters until he had turned into an angel that could command any species of birds. Why is the difference so big? His ears perked up.

Footsteps echoed through the room. A familiar voice traveled to his ears, "That's not good, this is not a place you should go." The footsteps grew louder. The light from the intruder projected a shadow on a distant wall. "You even took off your wristband." the voice sounded amused.

Stark held his breath. He slowly took a step back. His fists were clenched, apologized in his heart, and dove straight into the widening cracks in space.

Kwan's eyes were smiling, imagining all the possible ways to reprimand the felon. He looked down at his locating device. His brows furrowed. Nothing showed up. With a step, he appeared to where the 20 E-ranked goblin's corpses lay. His face changed seeing the cracking space.

"The core!" He swept through the room trying to find the body of the person responsible. The cracks rapidly expanded, grabbing at the blonde man, making him instinctively jump back. For the first time, Kwan's face was ugly. His teeth ground together. A forced smile on his face.

"It turns out you did something incredible. You were able to move a dungeon core of a dungeon that is a rank higher than you. Come out now and I will make sure to properly reward you." He said in his typical kind voice. A cold glint flashed in his eyes, "I will even send you to a more peaceful place."

Silence. The blonde man walked around, bending over scanning under every crevice, crack, and rock. He blinked. Was no one here? He scratched his head. His expression was a bit odd. He turned around and seeing that no one was behind him, a breath of relief escaping his mouth. At least no one was around to see him giving an evil monologue to air. That would have been embarrassing.

When the thought of what had just happened ran across his mind. He kicked the ground violently. Cracks grew from his feet, up the walls of the cave. He was going to have to redo all this over again.

The world shattered like glass. He was back in the metal pen where the children were being kept. He quickly adjusted his face and patted the dust off his clothes.

"What happened?" The kids were asking each other in confusion.

Confused voices destroyed the silence. Everyone reeked of blood and sweat causing Kwan to pinch his nose. He counted the red dots on his device. 49 of them.

"Where's Stark?" Oliver asked, not seeing him in the group.

"What's wrong, didn't you hate him not that long ago?" Misumi mocked.

"You got saved by the person you incessantly called useless. I would think you would be too embarrassed to openly worry about him." Sky said mockingly.

"I don't see him," Tony said, scanning around the room.

Sky's brows furrowed, "I do not either."

"Did you say someone is missing?" A new voice interjected.

The group was startled by the sudden presence. Their heads turned slowly. It was that man, his eyes were smiling as usual. Was he the reason?

"Yeah, Stark is not here," Gale said, failing to read the mood.

Kwan looked to be deep in thought. Could he have moved it? He smiled to himself, "He is probably dead, better to forget him."

"What?" Oliver unintentionally raised his voice.

"He is probably dead. The dungeon collapsed, and he was not ejected." Kwan said emotionlessly, "But you should know that humans are always ejected when a personal dungeon collapses." The man then walked off leaving his words to ferment in their heads. He headed to the front of the room to make an announcement.

Sky said what everyone was thinking, "Is he saying that he was a monster?"

"That seems to be the case," Misumi added.

"I don't think he was," Tony said, his eyes filled with malice.

"Do you think it was one of that man's schemes?" Oliver asked. Between Kwan and Stark, the latter was much more trustworthy. Besides, he had helped save his life despite being a total coward. It was something he wished he had done back then. His mind subconsciously wandered to a memory, a little girl with silver hair, and crimson eyes. A massive white dragon bathed in blood, spitting a black flame. Oliver jumped feeling a poke at his lower back. He turned around angrily until he realized it was Misumi looking forward as if nothing happened.

"Probably." Tony agreed.

"But what if he was a monster?" Gale asked innocently.

Stark opened his eyes and trembled in terror. Within the dimly lit cave were thousands of pairs of yellow eyes. A dissonance of snarls and grunts bounced through the cave. Wasn't it supposed to be empty? Was the novel wrong again? Fuck. He really wanted to cry, but he was too scared to make any noise. His lungs contracted, unable to hold even a second's worth of air. He clawed his stomach trying to undo the knots forming inside him. Why was it like this? What did he do to keep having these things happen to him? If he had stayed he would have ended up as some killing slave, but the reward for escaping was a sea of goblins?

He then realized his huge miscalculation. The event when Valeria escaped into the broken world was when the main character was 20. Over 4 years from now, but should 4 years cause such a big difference? What happens in 4 years to make this entire place empty?