Awakening of the Weakest Slayer

Sezel felt a cold, sharp-edged premonition of imminent danger. He gulped hard, but it was not his physical body so it didn't matter much.

The puppet resumed its investigation and slipped through the crumbling doorway of the hut, its form melting into the deep, oppressive shadows just inside the entrance.

Everything was silent, save for the soft, rustling whisper of the wind moving through the tall, dry grass outside. After a moment, a new sound joined the chorus of the wind, and after not much time a dark figure, walking on four legs entered through the door, slowly as if it was a tiger approaching a gazelle for prey.

SLASH!

The puppet moved with a speed that was a blur even to Sezel's split perception. The moment the other beast's head passed the threshold, the Flesh Reaper's scythe descended in a smooth arc, slicing through the beast's neck with precision. The creature didn't even have time to react, to let out a final, dying cry.

Its head fell to the ground with a soft, wet thud, rolling a few inches before coming to a stop. Black blood, thick and viscous, pulsed from the severed neck as its lifeless body collapsed.

It was a Night Crawler. A smaller one, but a Night Crawler nonetheless. And now, it was dead.

[Congratulations. You have slain a Night Crawler.]

The voice announced in Sezel's head, Sezel was shocked for a second, 'So I get the credits if the puppet kills.' He was happy. More than happy. This changed everything.

If his puppets could kill beasts and he would be the one to profit, then it would be far easier for him to accumulate the evolution points he so desperately wanted.

Sezel summoned his card. It was only visible to him, a secret construct of his Fable that was invisible to his allies unless one of them possessed a power that lets them see other Slayer's card.

The card materialized in Sezel's hand, and immediately turned into the silver screen, with the golden words etched onto it.

[Name - Sezel]

[Spirituality Rank - 0]

[Category - Legendary]

[Fable - Master of Death]

[Type - Gold]

Sezel touched the small arrow on the side of his Fable, opening another menu beneath it.

[Fable - Master of Death]

[Tier - 1 - Rising]

[Evolution points - 105/10,000]

[Soul Shards - 10/100]

Sezel studied the information for a moment, his mind quickly cross-referencing it with the last time he had checked. He checked his card last time when he entered the city. The past fifteen days had been so tense, so relentlessly focused on simple survival, that he hadn't even thought to check his progress.

'Hmm, so i have gained twenty Evolution points from the last time. The ten would be from the Night Crawler i killed in the mall and i got ten just now, when the puppet killed one.'

However, the number of Soul Shards hadn't increased. And they wouldn't, not unless he went down there and absorbed the cores himself. At the thought of the cores, his attention suddenly snapped back to the vision of his puppet.

He immediately discarded the window and looked down at the beast frantically. His expression filled with a mixture of shock and disbelief. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelled, bewildered by the beasts behavior, or rather he was surprised.

"What happened?" Vesta asked, her voice pulling him from his split consciousness. She was looking at him with a confused, worried expression.

"It's eating," Sezel spoke, the words a low murmur. "It's eating the damn Night Crawler."

Suddenly, the Flesh Reaper, which had been hunched over the dead Night Crawler's body, its spectral form tearing at the monster's flesh, froze.

"Just get moving," Sezel ordered. "You can eat later."

The Flesh Reaper stopped devouring and stood up silently, and started moving out of the hut like structure. As it stepped out, it gave one last, final look back at its food, with a gloomy expression, and heavy eyes.

Sezel felt a strange, tingling sensation run through his body, a phantom emotion that was not his own, 'Hey, get over it.'

Without any other intervention, the beast carried on its mission. It slowly, silently, made its way towards the main factories and the looming metallic cylinder, its movements a graceful glide through the tall, dry grass. It checked the other huts that came in its way, but they were all empty, some containing a few pieces of rotted, hollowed-out wooden furniture, but nothing of interest.

Sezel was lost in his deep thoughts, his mind still reeling from the implications of what he had just witnessed. It had come as a shock to him that his puppet, a being of pure, solidified energy, wanted to eat. Earlier, he had discovered that it bleeds. And now, it eats. It was as if the puppet were a perfect, living imitation of a real creature. But that shouldn't be possible.

He sighed, another question, another mystery related to his Fable and the strange, terrifying power it provided him with, added to the ever-growing list.

He forced his attention back to the matter at hand. The exploration was going smoothly. The puppet encountered a few more beasts, most of them Night Crawlers, with a few other, lesser enhanced beasts sprinkled in. But the Flesh Reaper, with its superior prowess killed them all easily.

But something made Sezel uneasy. The Night Crawlers, as their name suggested, were beasts that hunted mostly at night. But for them to be out in broad daylight felt wrong. It wasn't impossible, of course. There was nothing that explicitly stated that they wouldn't come out in the daylight.

He wasn't disappointed, though. A slow, satisfied grin split his face as he looked at the updated stats window in his mind's eye.

[Evolution Points - 230/10,000]

[Soul Shards - 10/100]

Now, all that was left was for him to go down there and absorb the cores of the beasts his puppet had slain. He would be able to make another puppet, assuming he was allowed to keep more than one, and the Soul Shard gauge would be almost full again. It was a win-win situation for him.

But the main part, the real reason for this reconnaissance mission, was just beginning. After walking for four or five hours, a journey of almost fifteen kilometers, the puppet had finally reached the heart of the vast, desolate expanse. The looming, silent factories and the massive, enigmatic metallic cylinder stood just ahead.