Archie rocketed toward the thrashing form of the hundred-meter-long serpent, weaving between the massive chunks of debris that had been launched into the air as the creature tore through the jungle.

  He surged nature mana into the vines wrapped around his legs, commanding them to latch onto the boulder he was sprinting across. The vines coiled upward, creeping up his legs as he moved, traveling to his arms. Just as his feet left the rock, they tightened entirely around it.

  Archie thought, propelling himself forward with his arms arced behind his head.

  Below, the serpent continued its rampage, heedless of the destruction it left in its wake—uprooting trees, crushing plants, and trampling other creatures.

  .

  Archie tensed, then let out a grunt as he wrenched his arms forward. The motion yanked the massive boulder along with him, more than doubling his speed as he hurtled toward the serpent’s shrieking, hissing head.

  As Archie locked eyes on the serpent’s flailing head, a shiver ran down his spine. Mid-thrash, the creature suddenly froze before snapping its head toward him in an unnervingly precise motion, its black eye glowing ominously and nostrils rattling with…?

  Jagged cracks spread from the corners of its mouth as thick, black veins bulged along its neck, creeping toward its lower and middle jaw. Then, with a sickening squelch, its maw tore open, blood splattering as the scales between its jaws split apart.

  Archie’s eyes widened as a neon-black glow flickered at the back of the serpent’s throat—then, in an instant, it erupted forward, flooding the sky above with a cone of undeath flame.

  For a brief moment, Archie caught sight of the seething flames in the serpent’s maw—just before the massive boulder obscured his view entirely. But those few moments were enough. His original plan was no longer an option.

  Archie swiftly dismissed the vines around the boulder before activating Material Carapace across his body. A second layer of Sentinel Platiniteshell spread over his armor, reinforcing as much of his body as possible. Curling in on himself, he braced for impact, trying to shield as many of his vital areas as he could in the precious seconds he had left.

  A searing wave of pain erupted across his body as the undeath flames slammed into the boulder, pushing it back toward him for a brief moment before consuming it entirely. The massive rock warped and blackened, transforming into molten charcoal before shrinking to nothing, no longer able to shield him.

  Then the flames reached him.

  Agony like nothing he had ever known tore through him as the undeath fire ravaged his armor, devouring it with ease. The cursed flames feasted on his flesh, igniting his very life essence like gasoline meeting a spark.

  His legs were the first to go. He felt them liquefy under the relentless onslaught, flesh and bone alike vanishing as the fire devoured the cords of vital energy within him. His Minotaur hide, normally fire-resistant, proved useless against this unnatural hunger.

  Then the flames found his arms.

  They engulfed them entirely, devouring them even faster.

  Bralmir leaned back into his sofa, a beer in hand, his embered eyes fixed on the screen before him. He watched intently as Archie’s form was consumed by undeath flames, his gaze flickering between the serpent and the struggling figure. Then, suddenly, his grip on the bottle tightened.

  “Someone’s tampered with the serpent,” Bralmir muttered.

  Countless sigils flared to life around the screen, analyzing the serpent from his remote vantage point. His focus briefly shifted back to Archie, but in that mere moment, an array of spells had already completed their work, unraveling the mystery before him. The results only deepened his confusion.

  Bralmir’s brows furrowed. He had been missing far more than he had realized—something he needed to correct.

  From what he remembered, Sigils of Challenge and the Pyre of Challenge had no place in Tutorials. In fact, they shouldn’t exist at all.

  Yet here they were.

  His gaze shifted back to Archie, still engulfed in undeath flames. But Bralmir remained unworried. Archie’s Sparks of Vitality still burned bright, unwavering even as the undeath essence encroached upon their domain.

  After all, there was nothing that could hide from his gaze.

  Then, Vital Metabolism

  Archie’s vital energy ignited, supercharging itself to the utmost limit. The undeath essence was expelled from his body in an instant before flesh and bone erupted from his ravaged limbs—his left leg and right arm regenerating in less than a second.

  A cold rush of adrenaline crept up his spine, brushing against the base of his neck before crawling upward.

  The ambient mana in the air had already been ignited by the undeath flames, consuming the mana platforms he had tried to form earlier in a desperate attempt to escape while the boulder still shielded him.

  So, he adapted.

  Reaching through the tether, his Spatial Ring maintained with his soul, Archie accessed his storage.

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  All 49 pounds of Frostiron—harvested from the Final Boss of his own Solo Tutorial—materialized just behind his left foot, giving him the footing he so desperately needed.

  The moment his skinless, ever-regenerating leg touched the Frostiron, he launched himself to the right.

  A fraction of a second later, the metal melted entirely, dissolving into a sludgy liquid before vanishing in the inferno.

  Archie tore through the torrent of undeath flames, emerging on the other side. The sudden, biting cold of the evening air kissed his raw, exposed skin, sending a shudder through him. For a fleeting moment, he let himself relish in the contrast—then his eyes snapped open.

  To his right, the massive cone of undeath fire roared. Below and to his left, the serpent’s monstrous form loomed, its maw still spewing destruction.

  The sheer force of the flames had hurled him backward.

  Gritting his teeth, Archie formed another mana platform beneath his single intact leg. The instant it solidified, he rocketed forward, angling toward the serpent’s face—toward the side still spraying forth undeath fire.

  He activated Savage Charge

  Speed exploded through his body.

  He shot forward, hurtling toward the serpent’s head.

  Thornscourge Expansion

  Archie cocked back his right fist. His gauntlets had long since melted away in the flames, leaving his hands bare and bones exposed. Sharp, bright green thorns jutted from the vines atop his knuckles as his eyes locked onto the serpent’s four unassuming eyes.

  His fist closed the distance in a blur, stopping just a centimeter from the beast’s shredded scales. At that precise moment, he exhaled a steam of breath and activated Retaliation

  The instant his fist grazed the serpent’s maw, a surge of power; like lightning itself arced from his arm into the monster’s skull. The serpent's torrent of undeathflames sputtered out with a choked hiss, its jaw wrenching askew from the force.

  For a fraction of a second, silence.

  Then -

  A vertical shockwave rippled through the air, expanding outward in a perfect circle between Archie’s fist and the serpent’s head. A sonic boom detonated in the space between them, blasting both combatants in opposite directions.

  Archie barely registered the explosion before his right arm violently erupted, disintegrating from the sheer backlash of his own strike. Pain flared through his body as he was hurled backward, vital energy already surging to repair the damage.

  He crashed through the jungle like a meteor, tearing through trees, stone, and earth alike before finally coming to a brutal stop.

  Blinking through the haze of impact, Archie’s gaze flickered over the carnage surrounding him—splintered trees, shattered rock, and the countless corpses that had broken his fall.

  A malnourished, battered version of himself weakly pushed up from the crater. His skin was raw, muscle tissue barely clinging to his form, regeneration struggling to keep up.

  With a mere thought, a crate full of troll meat sandwiches materialized in front of him. Without hesitation, he faceplanted into it, scarfing down as much as possible, his body greedily absorbing the energy to accelerate his healing.

  Meanwhile, the serpent had been launched just as far as Archie—nearly a kilometer and a half from where it had originally stood, laying limply on the dead ground surrounded by its purple-colored life essence that leaked from its almost ripped-off head, only attached by faint remains of muscle and scale.

  The serpent’s massive body lay still for what felt like eons to it, its brain firing signals from the few connected nerves that remained connected to its body.

  It remained as still as a corpse.

  Until a single, almost imperceptible movement shattered that stillness, setting off a chain reaction.

  In an instant, its body convulsed violently, thrashing in its own blood, purple ichor splattering across the dead landscape. It kicked up a storm of dried dirt and debris, the air thick with dust and decay - then, just as suddenly, it went still again.

  Its newfound power was too much.

  It had grown arrogant in its belief that it was able to handle what was offered.

  The abilities granted by the empowerment overwhelmed its physical form, leaving it fragile, fragile enough for a mere human to nearly kill it.

  .

  Its red eye pulsed, glowing brighter before the color drained from it entirely, turning clouded and gray. A thick, black, tar-like liquid welled up from its empty socket, oozing down the side of its face and pooling onto the ground.

  It needed to sacrifice

  Archie’s steaming hands gripped the edge of the crate, his legs—fully regenerated but still smoldering—bracing as he pushed himself upright.

  It needed to adapt

  This was quickly heading into very-not-good territory.

  His stamina reserves were less than half, and that single blast of undeath flames had nearly cut his Health down to 40%.

  “Is this what all D-Grades are like?” Archie let out a breathless chuckle, spitting out a wad of blood and dirt.

  His gaze locked onto the limp, hundred-meter-long form of the serpent, its body half-submerged in a pool of its own purple blood, its neck nearly severed.

  Archie broke into a sprint.

  He knew better than to assume it was dead. It wasn’t.

  Why?

  Two reasons.

  First, He hadn’t received a notification from the System of its death.

  Second, anything that powerful didn’t die from one attack, especially with the amount of vital energy still coursing through them.

  His now red irises, the telltale sign that Vital Sight

  As Archie neared the serpent, its erratic twitching only confirmed that it was indeed alive and powering up, something he needed to stop before it became very, very not good territory.

  Suddenly, Archie skidded to a halt two hundred meters away from the serpent as it turned to face him.

  The serpent’s nearly severed head had raised off the ground and turned to face him.

  Its one remaining eye—now completely gray and clouded—dripped thick, black tar, staring at him.

  Archie shouted to himself.

  Ever since it used cursed flames, he already rode on the assumption that it gained the abilities of the Sigil Guardians that he killed prior when he dropped their Sigils of Challenge into the pyre.

  The head shuddered once before slamming lifelessly into the ground, where the vital energy that flowed within it suddenly surged towards its core, draining its own body of its life essence.

  Archie panicked, eyes wide as he charged towards the glowing red core in its body.

  He needed to kill it before that could happen.

  Archie activated Savage ChargeAdrenaline Rush

  He crashed into its side with such force that he broke through the outer layer of its scales with that singular punch and followed through with a flurry of punches.

  Relentless Flurry

  The core was growing, glowing brighter.

  Suddenly, Archie felt it - a massive surge of vital energy barreling toward him.

  Without hesitation, he wrenched his arms free and threw himself sideways.

  An instant later -

  Something burst through the serpent’s side, right where its core had been.

  Archie rolled, landing in the purple-stained mud, eyes locking onto the new threat.

  A much smaller serpent slithered free from the carcass, its jet-black scales glistening, three glowing red eyes forming a perfect triangle on its forehead.

  Its purple fangs bared at him and hissing.

  Archie stared at the serpent that still towered above him before giving it another Identify

  [Triarch Serpent Lv ???]

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