If he was being honest, Lanek found the act of shattering the bones of his enemy quite therapeutic. Every bone shard that flew into the distance and every rib that was crushed beneath his kanabo felt sublime, payback for the harm done to his family. It felt even more right as he could feel Kazuma and Sanguineus’ approval pulsing from within him. He was a bit less pleased about the growing sense of enjoyment he could hear in the Void’s whispers all around him.

  It didn’t matter. Lanek wasn’t going to stop until the weaver was completely destroyed. He stooped down and reached through a gap in the bones on one of the small skeletons, ripping the soul free and biting into it with relish.

  Shuddering in ecstasy at the power rushing into his soul, he crushed the other mini-skeleton. Once more, he chose to consume the soul. Lanek didn’t know if the System was just sick of asking or if it was his [Soul Shackle] skill, but he was no longer given the option to assimilate the soul or not, it just happened.

  He knelt down onto the back of the corpse weaver’s core body and spoke while breaking it apart. “You know, I was worried about this at first. Worried that I was eating the souls of the innocent and being all evil. But you know what? I refuse to believe that this family was evil. That these children were as evil as you are. I think they are either long gone already or trapped until you are destroyed. At least, that’s what I choose to believe until I have proof otherwise.”

  With that, he ingested the final soul and watched as the corpse weaver exploded into ash. He waited in anticipation for the notifications to start rolling in.

  Lanek reeled from all of the information being thrown at him. As excited as he was, the overwhelming amount of information before him was not something he felt comfortable inspecting while in the Ashen Depths, especially without his companions watching his back.

  Standing from the pile of ash that had once been a fearsome monster, Lanek’s foot struck something. Pushing aside the ash with his boot, Lanek found a pair of long gauntlets. He tossed them in his pack alongside the woodcutting axe from the weaver. After confirming that there was no more loot beneath the large pile of ash, he walked into the weaver’s den.

  Once inside, it didn’t take long to spot a variety of tools scattered around the room that confirmed that if this was a woodcutter’s home, if not a carpenter. He found two very useful tools just lying out in the open for him, a frame saw and a spoon auger according to his [Identify] skill. Lanek added a set of woodcarving chisels before heading back outside. As much as he wanted to continue his looting, he was already quite weighed down with his spoils.

  He made his way back to the city’s exit, the trip out taking several times as long as the trip in had as Lanek didn’t have his furry scouts with him. As a result, he found himself creeping along alleys and detouring around any noises he heard. Once outside the gate, he retrieved his other full pack, cook pot, and fire poker before making the arduous trek back to camp.

  By the time he entered his camp, the sun was already setting and Lanek was far too tired to cook or even light the fire. He simply threw his new loot into the cave, foraged for enough berries and nuts to ease the ache in his stomach, and went to bed.

  Lanek opened his eyes in the morning, dazed and achy. He felt for Kazuma and Sanguineus, attempting to summon them but failing. They clearly needed more time to heal. With a pang of guilt, Lanek stood and decided that he would spend the day near camp. Not only did he want time to rest and recover, but he also had a lot of System notifications to get through and loot to catalog.

  But first, breakfast and a bath. He thought as he carried his whip to the river to collect his morning fish and get cleaned up.

  While the fish was cooking over his fire, he pulled up his first notifications to inspect his upgraded titles.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Nice, it looks like Eldros and the Void might be making up for the fact that I can’t get SPI or free points from leveling up anymore. I’m more worried now about STR than I was before, I have no way to increase it now.

  Alright, so now I can look forward to a boost of +4 CON, +3 DEX, +2 PER, and +5 RES per level. I’m going to assume that’s at least decent, but I have nothing to compare it to. Let’s check out my level up before picking a subclass, I need to see my current stats before making a plan.

  Sure, just rub in the zero free points, why don’t you? Let’s see, it looks like I healed up, I must heal up while I sleep since I’ve never healed from a level up before. Maybe I’m always regenerating health but it is just much faster when I’m asleep?

  Lanek was very curious about the skills he had received, he was even more interested in a subclass. Anything that could give him more options was a plus in his book.

  You have unlocked the ability to select a subclass. Options are presented based on their compatibility with your actions and attributes.

  Wow. The System really must not have a high opinion of my martial prowess and experience. Not a single warrior or fighter option, and I’m guessing that’s where the STR boosts per level are most common.

  Well, this is a bit tough since two of my favorite game classes are up there: Ranger and Rogue. Ranger has a nice spread of stats, but Rogue’s dexterity focus has a lot of possibilities. Scout is really nice as well. Damn, this isn’t easy, Rogue would be really useful in the Depths while Scout and Ranger would be fantastic out here in the woods.

  Lanek took a deep breath and made his decision.