Ryan followed the directions given by the traumatized survivor on the CommNet. It wasn't hard.
The "desecrated grove" the Rage Boar had supposedly last been seen in was also giving off a faint, unpleasant smell like old blood, churned earth, and something else, a kind of crackling, wrong energy that reminded him of the Distortion Hound, only stronger, angrier. His Hyper-Awareness was giving him a low, continuous hum of "bad vibes ahead."
The Shifting Wilds seemed to hold their breath as he got closer. The usual chirps and rustles of unseen creatures faded away, replaced by an frightening silence.
Even the weird, glowing plants seemed a little duller here, as if afraid to shine too brightly.
He pushed through a tangle of snapped, thorny bushes and stepped into what was once probably a very pretty, peaceful little grove.
Now, it looked like a giant, furious toddler had thrown a massive tantrum. Small trees were uprooted, their roots sticking up like skeletal fingers. The ground was torn up in great furrows, and there were dark, ominous stains splattered everywhere.
The air itself felt heavy, charged with that same chaotic energy he'd sensed earlier.
And then he saw the first victim.
She was young, probably one of the newer arrivals, her starting clothes ripped and stained. She lay near a shattered stone bench, her eyes wide with a terror that had been frozen there. There were no obvious wounds, but the ground around her was strangely burned.
Ryan felt a knot tighten in his stomach. This wasn't just a monster hunt anymore. These were real people, with hopes and fears, who had been snuffed out.
He knelt beside her, his earlier excitement about loot feeling a bit shameful now. "Sorry," he whispered, just like he had with Liam. He reached out, hesitating for only a second before activating his Extraction System on her fading vital signature.
He still felt a bit like a grave robber, but if her essence could help him stop the thing that did this to her, maybe it was a little bit justified.
Target: Deceased Code-Bearer [Name Unknown, Fading Vital Signature]
Aptitude Detected: None [Or Too Weak to Register]
Initiating Vital Essence Extraction
Extraction Complete!
Acquired: Vitality Essence [Human Variant]: +1 Permanent Vitality!
System Note: Every little bit helps keep you from becoming one of these unfortunate statistics. Remember to eat your veggies. Or, you know, extract them.
Ryan felt a tiny warmth spread through his chest, a feeling of increased resilience. His Vitality was now 16. It wasn't much, but it was something.
He found the second victim a few feet away, an older man with graying hair, half-hidden under a fallen sapling. He looked like he might have tried to fight back, his basic Utility Knife was still clutched in his hand, its tip broken. Ryan performed the extraction again.
Target: Deceased Code-Bearer [Name Unknown, Fading Vital Signature]
Aptitude Detected: Pain Resistance [F-Tier – Partially Manifested]
Initiating Aptitude Fragment Extraction
Extraction Complete!
Acquired: Pain Resistance [F-Tier Talent Fragment]!
System Note: Your existing tolerance for ouchies has been slightly enhanced. This isn't a full new skill, more like your body just got a memo to complain a little less when stubbing its toe. Don't go testing it by juggling knives.
He didn't feel a dramatic change, but the throbbing in his arm from that old Spine Whelp quill injury seemed to lessen just a tiny fraction.
It was like the volume on his internal pain radio had been turned down by one notch.
The third victim was a powerfully built man, the one the survivor had said was Level 2, Markos "Rhino" Cole, if Ryan remembered the CommNet chatter correctly.
He was sprawled near what looked like the epicenter of the destruction, the ground around him utterly pulverized. Even in death, he looked like he'd been incredibly strong.
Target: Deceased Code-Bearer [Markos "Rhino" Cole, Fading Vital Signature]
Aptitude Detected: Kinetic Charge [D-Tier – From Original Listing, Likely Evolved/Misreported By Survivor. Interface Identifies It as Muscle Fiber Density Enhancement]
Initiating Aptitude Fragment Extraction
Extraction Complete!
Acquired: Muscle Fiber Density [E-Tier Talent Fragment]!
System Note: Your muscles just got a tiny bit beefier at a microscopic level! You won't be winning Mr. Universe overnight, but you might find opening that stubborn jar of pickles a tad easier. Every little bit of oomph counts!
Ryan flexed his arms. He didn't suddenly look like Boulder, but he felt a subtle, underlying firmness in his muscles, a little extra 'oomph' as the system put it.
He now had minor enhancements to all his physical stats from these unfortunate souls: Vitality, a bit more pain resistance, and now a touch more Strength from the muscle fiber density.
It was a grim way to get stronger, but he pushed down the unease. He was doing this to stop the Boar.
There was one victim unaccounted for. The survivor had said four people. He searched the desecrated grove, his Hyper-Awareness on full alert.
He found signs of a fierce struggle near the edge of the clearing deep gouges in the earth, snapped branches, and then drag marks. Heavy drag marks, leading away from the grove and into a dark, narrow fissure in the rocky hillside at the far end of the clearing.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Ryan said to the silent, ominous fissure. "It has a lair? Of course, the giant, angry, murderous pig-monster has a lair. Probably decorated with skulls and broken dreams."
His Hyper-Awareness was now practically vibrating his teeth. The fissure radiated cold, danger, and that crackling, wrong energy, only much, much stronger here.
This was undoubtedly where the Rage Boar lived. And where the fourth victim had probably been taken.
He hesitated at the entrance to the fissure. It was dark, narrow, and smelled like damp earth, something coppery, and that distinctive Anomaly stink.
Going in there felt like willingly walking into the mouth of something terrible.
But he'd come this far. And the thought of that Rage Boar still out there, ready to rampage again.
"Alright, Ryan," he took a deep, shaky breath. "Time to be brave. Or incredibly stupid. The line is getting very blurry."
He gripped his reinforced knife, activated his Environmental Camouflage, and stepped cautiously into the fissure.
The inside was even worse than he'd expected. It was a natural tunnel, but it felt wrong. The rocks seemed to twist at odd angles, and strange, faintly glowing fungi [not the pretty, whispering kind from the other grove, these were sickly yellow and pulsed with a disturbing light] grew in patches on the walls. The air was cold and damp.
He pressed on, his new Phase Gauntlet held ready.
And then, from the deeper shadows of the tunnel, a sound emerged. A low, guttural snorting, followed by the scrape of heavy hooves on stone.
A massive shape began to resolve itself in the gloom.
It was the Rage Boar.
It was even bigger and more terrifying than the survivor's description had hinted. It was easily the size of a small car, a mountain of muscle, bristle, and fury.
Its hide was thick and dark, almost like armor plating, and a pair of huge, wickedly curved tusks jutted from its massive snout.
Its eyes, set deep in its blocky head, glowed with an intense, malevolent red light. And it wasn't just red there was a darker, shadowy energy swirling within those eyes, a "Dark Echo" that pulsed with menace.
The Interface immediately flagged it:
Rage Boar [Level 2 Anomaly – Frenzied State, Dark Echo Infused]
Threat Level: Very Dangerous
"Frenzied state? Dark Echo infused?" Ryan barely had time to process the terrifying new labels when things got even worse.
From the shadows behind the Rage Boar, three more pairs of glowing, Dark Echo-infused eyes appeared.
One was a Spine Whelp, but much larger than the ones he'd fought before, an Alpha, its quills practically vibrating with dark energy.
Another was a Grove Stalker, its colors shifting in a sickening, shadowy pattern, its hiss promising a very painful death.
And the third was another Distortion Hound, its form even more unstable and menacing than the one he'd already faced.
All three were also Level 2 Anomalies, their eyes burning with that same corrupted, Frenzied glow as the Rage Boar.
Ryan's heart plummeted into his boots. He wasn't just facing one super-charged Anomaly. He was surrounded. Four of them. Four powerful, corrupted, Frenzied Anomalies, all looking at him like he was a particularly juicy sausage that had just wandered into their abattoir.
"Well," Ryan thought, a hysterical little giggle bubbling up inside him.
"This has escalated rather quickly." His plan to hunt the Rage Boar had just turned into a desperate fight for survival against a small army of nightmare creatures in a very dark, very scary hole.
So much for being brave. Stupid was definitely winning right now.