47. Skeletons

The man inhaling the bone dust of the titan skeleton was Glutney.

The power of gluttony had been at work.

A couple of minutes before.

Sangwoo and the others were running through the streets of Paris, trying to evade the Titan Skeleton.

By running in the opposite direction of the monster's progress, they were able to put some distance between them.

"Whoa - we're alive."

"Don't stop! We don't know when it's going to come after us. Quick, let's get out of here!"

There were only normal undead around now.

The dealers rushed in while Chul-min Bae tanked solidly with his shield.

Sangwoo and his clones didn't stand still either.

They were joined by Miho Han, who had turned into a Kumiho, and they swept through the undead.

"Ah, the skill is back."

While they were slaying the undead, the cooldown of the cloning skill had reset.

Sangwoo immediately summoned a new clone, Glutney.

Glutney

Glutney, a clone of Sangwoo wearing a suit, appeared.

On the outside, there was no difference.

But inside, they were different.

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"Glutney, Sangwoo's Clone"

Glutney is a clone that has been consumed by gluttony.

It can unleash the all-consuming power of gluttony.

Absorbs the power of the things consumed.

Digestion time varies depending on the target consumed.

<Currently digesting>.

-1 Titan Skeleton Bone Fragment

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Unlike his other clones, Glutney was able to use the power of gluttony.

Gluttony is the power to digest and absorb everything consumed.

When he was summoned, Gluttony was already digesting something.

Perhaps the rock he had picked up from the cavity was a piece of titan skeleton bone.

[1 Titan Skeleton bone fragment digested].

[Magic resistance increased by 0.001].

The bone fragment was quickly digested.

'It's similar to the Monster Mana Absorption skill. Eating it will increase my stats.'

Normally, the clone and Sangwoo would share experiences, so any abilities gained by the clone would also be gained by Sangwoo.

However, this time, only a new clone of Gluttony had been created, and Sangwoo hadn't gained the ability to eat.

'Maybe it's because my clone ate the orb. I wish I could have gotten this ability.'

Of course, the insatiable hunger was a no-no.

But then.

Suddenly, Glutney started acting strangely.

Crackle.

Crunch.

Without Sangwoo even giving it a command, Glutney suddenly began devouring the undead corpses lying around.

At first, he munched and chewed, but then he stopped chewing and started shoving them into his mouth.

The undead corpses began to slide through his mouth and esophagus.

At some point, he started sucking them into his mouth like a vacuum cleaner.

"Mr. Sangwoo, what's wrong with your clone?"

The guild members shouted in alarm.

But Sangwoo was just as surprised.

"I don't know, why is he acting like this all of a sudden?"

"What, he's scared---."

In fact, the Symbol of Gluttony had been sealed inside the Titan's corpse for so long, absorbing its power, that it had accumulated an excessive amount of gluttony energy.

So now that Glutney had absorbed the Symbol of Gluttony, there was an over-saturated amount of Gluttony energy in his body.

The power of gluttony is the desire to eat.

When that desire became too much, Glutney lost control and started devouring.

[The power of gluttony is saturated].

[The power of gluttony is temporarily enhanced].

[The power of gluttony is forcibly triggered].

System messages that only Glutney could hear.

But Sangwoo doesn't know exactly what Glutney's current state is.

He wasn't integrated with Glutney through the Familiar skill.

'I don't want to feel that horrible hunger again.'

And who wants to taste the sensation of chewing on the undead.

So he could only stare in bewilderment at Glutney's strange behavior.

Then it happened.

There was a change in the battlefield.

Zzzzzzzz!

The Titan Skeleton's calf bone suddenly turned to powder.

"Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The group scrambled to avoid the falling skeleton.

Luckily, it didn't fall in their direction, so they were all safe.

The next thing they knew, they saw a blinding red laser burning the city to the ground and a pillar of light blasting the skeletons out of the sky.

"--- Are those S-ranks?"

"They don't look human---."

While everyone was mesmerized by the fight.

Sangwoo was concentrating on something.

His target was the Titan Skeleton's bone dust in the air.

"I can't come all this way and go back for nothing.

Sangwoo didn't know what that giant skeleton was, but it looked like an S-class monster to him.

When he saw the item that his clone was absorbing, the Titan Skeleton Bone Fragment, he decided that it was probably the name of the giant skeleton.

Titan was such a powerful name, so its bones must be great.

So he couldn't give them up.

"Glutney, eat the bones of that giant skeleton.

Even as he fled, Glutney was munching on the undead carcass.

At his command, Glutney scooped up some of the Titan Skeleton's bone meal, which is sprinkled like snow on the ground, and shovels it into his mouth.

Mmph.

Glutney then added the Titan Skeleton's bone meal to the things he was digesting.

───────────────

<Currently digesting>.

-1 kilogram of Titan Skeleton Bone Powder

───────────────

And the amount of bone meal continued to increase with each bite Glutney ate.

One kilogram,

2 kilograms,

3 kg,

---.

'It's too slow.'

The Titan skeleton was hundreds of meters across.

The calf bone alone, a fraction of its enormous size, was enormous.

How many years would it take to eat all the bone meal it produced?

Sangwoo called for help.

"Hey, guys, I need some of that scattered bone dust. Do any of you have the ability to collect it?"

"Nanana~! I can do it."

Miho Han raised her hand and jumped up.

Sangwoo asked her a favor.

"Do you think you can collect those bones?

"Uhm. I can, but why?"

"I'm going to feed it to my clone."

"Eh?"

Miho Han is surprised.

But she shrugged at Sangwoo's repeated requests and stepped forward.

A blue aura emanated from her body, and soon, the aura flared up like a goblin fire and floated in the air.

It spread out as she stepped forward, carrying the wind with it as it lifted bone dust into the air.

Swoosh!

The bones moved like smoke, caught in the intangible force created by the demon fire.

The orderly movement of the smoke was majestic.

"I've collected them. What do we do now?"

"Put them in that clone's mouth."

"Ew--- You have strange tastes."

"Yes, please do it anyway."

At Sangwoo's request, the smoke from the bone powder headed towards Glutney's mouth.

"Swallow it all!

And Glutney obeyed Sangwoo's command.

He began to inhale all the bones in his mouth.

 A huge cloud of bone dust smoke began to be sucked into Glutney's mouth.

"--- Mr. Sangwoo, what is that clone's ability?"

"I am not sure, all I know is that it eats a lot."

Despite the fact that the smoke of bone powder, which was already far beyond Sangwoo's size, was being sucked into Glutney's body, his body didn't look the least bit abnormal.

His stomach didn't protrude in the slightest.

"What is it, a subspace in the stomach?

Sangwoo thought to himself.

In fact, it was just the saturation of the voracious appetite that was temporarily overpowering him.

And then.

The bones of the Titan Skeleton that had begun to accumulate began to be digested and absorbed.

[1 kg of Titan Skeleton Bone Powder has been digested].

[Magic resistance increased by 0.001].

[1 kg of Titan Skeleton Bone Powder has been digested].

[Magic resistance increased by 0.001].

[2 kg of Titan Skeleton Bone Powder has been digested].

[Magic resistance increased by 0.001].

---

At the same time, his magic resistance began to increase like crazy.

"Wow, an item that increases magic resistance?

Magic resistance was a very difficult stat to increase.

There was no wayanyone but Sangwoo would have thought of practicing his magic resistance in a contaminated area.

Sadly the contaminated Area was no more.

'Good thing that I have this bone powder instead---.'

Raising his magic resistance was no problem.

Every time he used Glutney to digest and absorb the bone meal, his magic resistance would increase.

Sangwoo instinctively knew that this was a great opportunity.

'I have to get all those skeleton bones no matter what.'

Sangwoo's eyes lit up.

And then everything started to turn in his favor.

The two swordsmen, who appeared to be S-class Hunters, had cleverly sliced off all the joints of the Titan Skeleton.

The Titan Skeleton was now immobilized, as all that remained were the shattered bone pillars.

The Titan Skeleton had been reduced to a punching bag, a mere shadow of its former glory.

Now it was time to hunt.

Not only the two S-rank Swordsmen, but also Bliss, Sangwoo, the other Awakened spread throughout the catacombs, and the French Hunters who had been dispatched later by the French Hunter Association, began to pummel the Titan Skeleton from head to toe.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

"Dealers, come on!"

"Supporters, don't let the bones reunite!"

With the unity of the Hunters, hundreds of meters of Titan skeletons were being broken apart at a rapid pace.

At this rate, they would be able to dismantle them all within a day.

While everyone was focused on hunting down the S-class monsters.

Lucas was alone, staring at the situation with a stern expression on his face.

He had witnessed Glutney's power of gluttony.

'So it wasn't Chateaubriand who gained the power of gluttony?'

If so, his plan had gone terribly wrong.

A variable had been introduced.

Then Lucas realized that Glutney was not alone, there were several others who looked exactly like him.

"They must be twins. No, it doesn't make sense that there are that many twins. Is it the ability to create similar bodies? Or are they copying each other?

Lucas immediately contacted his intelligence team.

"I want you to find out who that Hunter is in the video I'm sending you."

As soon as the order was given, the intelligence team quickly summarized the information on the hunter and sent it to Lucas.

Lucas's face tightened as he looked at the information on his smartgoggles.

'Cloning, huh? I've never seen this Skill before.'

He didn't remember any Hunter using the clone skill.

'No way, it's just a variable caused by the awakening program.'

The guy was only a C-rank Hunter.

A Hunter like that could barely be called a variable.

But Lucas hated variables.

'The flutter of a butterfly's wings creates a storm.'

Everything had to be under his control.

He felt the need to find out more about Sangwoo.

"Maybe I should invite him to the after-party."

Lucas would have to decide if he was useful or not.

If he wasn't useful, then---.

'I'll deal with it.'

* * *

It must have been a few hours since the clones, Sangwoo, and the countless Hunters had joined forces and smashed the Titan Skeleton.

───────────────

<Currently Digesting>.

-1,901 tons of Titan Skeleton Bone Powder

───────────────

Nearly one entire Titan Skeleton legs was sucked into Glutney's mouth.

Into its tiny stomach.

'Either there's a subspace in there, or the power of gluttony itself is a subspace. That's amazing.

And as the bone meal was digested bit by bit, Sangwoo's magic resistance, which had been only 0.5, was already over two.

As the number increased rapidly, Sangwoo could feel a change.

He could feel the invisible mana on the outside of his body gathering together.

It looked like a coating.

'This is magic resistance.'

Perhaps the mana gathering outside of his body was supposed to decrease the impact of magic.

As his magic resistance increased, the density of this mana would increase.

After some time had passed, another change occurred.

After absorbing a lot of bone powder, a new skill was created.

[Strong Bones skill created].

At the same time, Sangwoo's body changed.

His skeleton had begun to change in earnest.

Thud!

Sangwoo fell to the ground, unable to overcome the immense pain of his bones grinding together.

"What the hell!"

Just as the guild members were about to touch the fallen man, Miho Han interrupted them.

"Don't touch him!"

Miho Han's face was unusually serious.

"He's undergoing an important change."

She seemed to have noticed the change in Sangwoo.

True to her word, Sangwoo's body was changing.

His bones were becoming denser, more elastic, and slightly thicker.

However, such bone movement necessarily entailed pain.

A great deal of pain.

Fortunately, after what seemed like an eternity, the transformation of his skeleton was complete.

"Are you okay?"

Chul-min Bae asked worriedly as Sangwoo regained consciousness and opened his eyes.

"No, I'm not. I'm in a lot of pain."

"Your body was shaking, so I thought you were going through a transformation, but you're not."

At Miho Han's words, Sangwoo fumbled and touched his body.

His fingers and limbs were thicker than before.

"My bones are thicker."

He touched his head, just in case, but his skull didn't seem to have grown.

'Good.'

Stronger bones were good, but a bigger head was not.

Sangwoo checked his skill window to see the exact specs.

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[Strong Bones/Passive(Lv.1)]: Strengthens the skeleton. As the level increases, the composition and structure of the bone changes.

-Bone density increases slightly.

-Bone elasticity increases slightly.

-Bone regeneration increases slightly.

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'Uh, isn't this the same effect as the Bone Potion?'

The reason Sangwoo came to the catacombs and killed the undead was to get good quality bones, because he needed them to make Woohyun Kim's specialty Bone Potion.

However, the creation of the Strong Bone skill eliminated the need of the Bone Potion.

He had achieved his goal.

'How is it so easy to get the skill called Strong Bones?'

And while Sangwoo was stumped,

[20 kg of Titan Skeleton Bone Powder has been digested].

[Magic resistance increased by 0.001].

[21 kg of Titan Skeleton Bone Powder digested].

[Magic resistance increased by 0.001].

[Strong Bones skill level increased].

---

His Magic Resistance and Strong Bones skill were rapidly increasing.

Of course, the effect of increasing their stats was gradually diminishing.

But Sangwoo didn't care.

Bones were everywhere anyway.

The Titan skeleton lying on the ground, helplessly being sliced up, was starting to look like a pretty meal.

A pretty meal that would boost his stats.

'I'll chew you all up, until Glutney is full.'

A wicked grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.