The moment he clicked "Accept," something crawled out of his shadow.
The air shifted. In a moment, it was dull, almost nonexistent. In the other it was heavy, putrid, wrong.
A black mass weakly limped toward him, toward his legs. Each movement was wrong in a way that made his spine itch.
It hissed, showing a deformed maw full of fangs.
It was hungry.
Ash gulped.
He wasn't afraid, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't apprehensive. Would it want to eat more than it asked for?
"Just the legs." He ordered and then… it bit!
Ash didn't scream. At first.
He stared as the creature slowly devoured his right leg. As if it was enjoying every bite, every taste of regret, every time that he looked at its limp legs and cried over it.
His own blood splattered across the void like ink spilled on a white canvas. Bits of bone cracked, muscle fibers snapped like string, nerves served as his hopes when he was a kid.
[-10HP]
"Hey, that's unfair." He yelled, not expecting that the cursed price would take his hp together. The system really hated him. Fortunately, he had a lot of SP to spend on HP potions in the store. He started looking for it and that's when it hit.
The pain.
The agonizing pain of being eaten alive.
His legs, dead for so many years, suddenly remembered they were part of him. Every severed nerve came back online all at once. He felt everything, everything he had forgotten. The tearing of tendons. The crunch of bone. The monster gnawing through him like a dog on a bone it had waited too long to chew.
Ash screamed.
And yet, even feeling so much, he still couldn't move.
[-10HP]
Tears started rolling at his pale face, at the same time a broken sound left his lips.
A laugh. A broken, agonizing laugh.
It wasn't funny. But it was so ironic. He could feel his legs only after giving them to a cursed creature. Ah, his life was a joke.
[-10HP]
Gritting his teeth, he bought minor health potions and chugged them as soon as he would lose hp.
Buy. Chug. Bleed. Repeat.
He swallowed it down just as the next hit came. And the next. And the next.
He would not die, not now, not here.
It felt like an eternity.
The cursed being sure was enjoying its meal.
2:43… 2:32…
The void trembled.
[Your payment has been accepted.]
[The Contract is sealed.]
[You have obtained the Cursed Mount: Molgrin, The Maw That Hunts.]
From the blood pool rose a thing that defied reason.
Its head was that of a massive carrion bird, eyes milky white, beak curved like a scythe, cracked, stained red from his blood. About the size of a mastiff. A body of a mix of bird and wolf. It had elongated, birdlike legs. Jagged gray feathers and wet dark fur wrapped around its body.
It stared at him. His wolf tail shook slightly.
Ash, now with two stumps as legs and barely conscious, felt its presence inside his mind. It didn't speak. It didn't have to. They were bonded now.
Ash's vision dimmed.
He felt something drag him onto the beast's back. Molgrin's spine adjusted, curved, and formed a kind of a hunched seat from its own flesh.
"Thank you, buddy." Ashe petted his new legs, feeling his rough feathers. It was strange, but also familiar.
Something tried to touch his mind. It was weak, incompressible. Was the creature trying to communicate?
[ERROR]
What now? Was God unhappy with his success?
[Cursed Corruption Detected...]
[Store recalibrating to accommodate corrupted data...]
Corrupted? Ash was lost. Had he turned into a virus for the system?
[Available Classes: 1]
[Assigning compatible class...]
The screen in front of Ash's eyes cracked like glass. And then remade itself again.
Ash stared at the screen.
Carrion Lord.
The words pulsed, red and diseased, as if the system itself was bleeding just by letting them exist.
"Rot, rebirth, and ruin?" Ash muttered, reading the few lines the mutated class displayed. "Sounds about right."
His fingers twitched. Maybe it was the pain. Maybe it was Molgrin's weird heartbeat he could now feel in sync with his own. Maybe it was the fact that everything normal had already abandoned him.
He clicked Confirm.
The space around Ash cracked.
[Carrion Lord Class Assigned]
[You have bonded with a cursed mount. All progression is now linked.]
[XP will also be gained by devouring the hearts of fallen foes.]
[New Skill Unlocked: Devour the Heart]
[Warning: Some evolutions may affect mental state.]
[You may no longer select another class.]
[You may no longer receive skill points.]
Ash's breathing slowed. The numbing ghost pain was finally leaving his body. He really wanted to digest the new information, but he was mentally tired after all the pain.
[Time ended.]
[Choose your nickname…]
"God's Chosen." He laughed.
The system paused, as if processing the weight of his sarcasm.
[Invalid. Name already taken.]
Of course it was. His brother probably picked something shiny like that. It was perfect for him, branding himself like a hero. Ash snorted. He stared at the cursor, blinking on the input line. He had to choose something else. Something no one would tie to him. No one would suspect.
He typed slowly:
CarrionLord
[Nickname Set: CarrionLord]
What could he say? He has never been good with nicknames. Nothing like using his shady new class, right?
[Loading Tutorial Floor: Forest of the Forsaken]
[Difficulty: Unfair]
[Objective: Survive. Feed. Evolve.]
The white void cracked completely.
Then it gave way, and they plummeted.
Ash thought it was his end. That he would die crushed by the fall. But before they hit the ground, their speed stopped, and they landed gracefully.
He gasped, his heart kicking inside his chest like it was trying to escape. Above him, the sky stretched black and empty. No stars, no moon. Around them, crooked trees rose from the ground. It was too hard to see any other details in the dark, but the smell of rot was everywhere.
Molgrin stood still, his feathers twitching.
Something was out there.
A howl answered the silence. Then another.
Ash looked up at the dark. "If this is the tutorial... I'm so dead."
And then, something lunged at his back…