Ashen woke up to the echoing clang of metal against stone. The dormitory was dimly lit by a single lantern swaying above, casting long shadows across the sleeping recruits. His eyes felt gritty and body stiff from the cold stone bed.
"Up, rookie." Asha's voice sliced through the fog of his mind. She stood at the foot of his bed, her copper hair tied back tightly today, eyes sharper than yesterday.
He groaned pushing upright as his back pooped.
"Ugh… morning already?"
"Morning?" She raised an eyebrow. "It's still dark out. The first hunt begins before dawn. Get dressed and follow me."
He grabbed the simple black recruit robe folded beside his bed and shrugged it on, tying the sash with trembling fingers. His stomach churned with nerves, but he forced himself to breathe steadily.
'Focus. You survived yesterday. You'll survive today.'
Muted murmurs greeted them as they entered inside the hall. Recruits were gathered around in circle with master Jiro, who stood like a stone pillar in the middle, and his dark blue robe rustling faintly with his movements.
"Listen up, cubs," Jiro growled, sweeping his gaze across the room. "Today you step into the Hunting Grounds. If you come back alive, you earn your first rank. If you die, well…" He shrugged. "Less mouths to feed."
A nervous chuckle rippled through the recruits, but Ashen stayed silent, feeling sweat dripping down his spine.
"Stay close to your guide and remember your objective," Jiro continued. "Retrieve a coin from a Memory Beast. If you fail to kill one, don't bother returning."
Asha stepped forward with a tight expression and said. "New recruits with me."
They followed her through a tunnel which was lit with floating orbs of pale blue light. The air grew colder as they descended, the faint scent of moss and something metallic filling his nostrils.
Finally, they emerged into a cavern so large it seemed to swallow the horizon. A false sky projected by massive rune arrays embedded into the ceiling glowed above them.
In the distance, dark shapes prowled between broken stone pillars and twisted metal ruins half-buried in earth.
"This is the First Hunting Ground," Asha said, gesturing outward. "The beasts here are Common Rank. Dangerous to you, harmless to veterans."
Ashen's fingers twitched around the simple dagger he'd been handed. The blade was chipped along the edges and the leather grip frayed with age.
'Better than nothing…'
"Stay together, but not too close," Asha instructed while scanning the surroundings. "Memory Beasts are drawn to fear. If you panic, you're as good as dead."
A high-pitched chittering echoed from behind a broken pillar ahead. Ashen's breath caught as a creature came into view. It was the size of a wolf, its body formed from shadow-stained armor with too many legs curling beneath it. Two large eyes glowed a faint sickly green, and along its abdomen, embedded within translucent flesh, pulsed a single golden coin.
"Fuck… that's a spider," he whispered as his mouth going dry.
"Focus," Asha hissed. "Its called Skitterspider. Its venom can paralyze you in seconds. But it's still a Common Rank beast. Kill it, and the coin is yours."
Ashen swallowed hard, feeling his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. The spider turned towards him.
'Move… move now…'
He dashed forward with a choked yell, raising the dagger high. The spider shrieked and lunged and its front legs stabbing towards his chest. He rolled sideways, the blade slicing across one of its legs and the black fluid spraying across his arm.
"Ugh… this smells terrible" he hissed as the stench hit him.
The spider reared back, slamming its forelegs into the ground with enough force to crack stone. Pain lanced through his knee as he scrambled to regain footing. The beast lunged again. This time, he ducked under its fangs and thrusting the dagger up into its underbelly with all his strength.
The blade sank in with a sickening crunch. The spider shrieked, legs convulsing wildly. Ashen twisted the dagger, feeling warm fluid gush over his hand, before yanking it free.
'hellyeah.. the skills are working'
With a final choking hiss, the Skitterfang collapsed.
He stood over the corpse, as his chest heaving and every muscle trembling with adrenaline. Asha approached silently as her eyes scanning the surroundings for threats before crouching beside the corpse.
"Well done," she said softly. "Take your coin you earned it."
Ashen reached out to the spider and took it out.
It bled. It screamed. t had eyes, monster or not... it felt like killing something alive.
"Absorb it," Asha ordered.
"What will happen?" he asked.
"You'll gain a memory, skill, or fragment of knowledge. Common Rank coins are safe…. but you'll still feel it. Brace yourself."
Gritting his teeth, he pressed the coin to his forehead.
The world went white.
A hiss echoed in his ears, and suddenly he was the Skitterfang, feeling every vibration through the ground, tasting the damp cave air with his fangs. Hunger burned in his veins, the instinct to hunt flooding his mind.
Then it was gone. He staggered back, gasping for air as the coin dissolved into glowing motes.
For a split second, he saw snow. A shadow in a dark forest. then gone. spider's memory or his own?
"huff!...what… was that…" he panted.
"Coin gave you spider instincts --- congrats, rookie," Asha said with a glinting light in her eyes. "You can now sense vibrations and movements around you like a spider does. Not bad, Ashen. for a first timer. Let's see if you live through the next."
He stared at his trembling hands, feeling a strange heat thrumming beneath his skin. For the first time since waking up, a tiny sliver of confidence bloomed within him.
His eyes narrowed as he looked out across the cavern filled with shadows and lurking beasts.
'I'll survive, one kill, one coin. okay.'