The Infernal Hydra’s reptilian eyes narrowed, pupils slitting into cold, hateful needles. Beneath the malice, however, a tremor of genuine shock rattled the beast's primitive mind. This was its Eternal Talent—the birthright of a superior race. How could a mere hairless ape possess a power that even mimicked its own?
Calder didn't care about the monster’s existential crisis. He focused on the itch under his skin as [Infinite Proliferation] went to work. It wasn't as refined as the Hydra's [Regeneration]—it couldn't weave back a complex organ like a brain just yet—but mending shattered radius bones and torn biceps was well within its current limits.
A single point of Blight Index vanished from his reserves. In response, his mangled right arm spasmed, muscles knitting together with a wet, grinding sound until the limb looked whole again.
He glanced at his status window, the numbers flickering in his periphery:
[Strength: 69.3 + 98]
[Agility: 75.4 + 100]
[Constitution: 69.1 + 69]
[Intelligence: 65.9]
[HP Regen: 1.6/sec]
[Threat Level: 5 / 5]
The raw power was still there, but his Constitution’s Blight Index had plummeted by twenty points. The world saw a man dancing through a storm of Hellfire unscathed; the reality was a brutal war of attrition. To maintain peak stamina and dodge those sweeping infernos, Calder had been forced to swap out exhausted muscle cells at a microscopic level several times over.
He couldn't win a long game. If he let the Hydra fully regrow its missing heads, the beast’s thousand-plus points of Constitution would simply outlast him.
The Eternal Race... Calder thought, a grim respect hidden behind his stoic mask. I haven’t made a single mistake since this fight started. My execution has been flawless. And yet, I’m still being pinned down by raw stats.
Technique and experience were the only things keeping him from being a smear on the floor.
"Sssss... You’re a persistent worm, ape," the Infernal Hydra hissed, a cruel sneer twisting its remaining snout. "But persistence only delays the inevitable."
It didn't matter if the human could heal. The beast had seen [Bloodlust] draw blood. If it could just hit him faster than he could regenerate, the end was the same.
"Bloodlust!"
The Hydra didn't give him a second to breathe. A head lunged, neck extending like a released spring. It was a blur of scales and fangs, aimed squarely at Calder’s midsection, intending to tear him in half. Under the skill's influence, the strike moved with the speed of a lightning bolt—undetectable to the naked eye.
The beast’s eyes flared with predatory joy. It lived for the moment the life left a strong rival’s gaze.
Then, the joy froze.
CRACK.
The sound of snapping bone echoed across the Proving Grounds, but it wasn't Calder's spine. Instead of teeth sinking into soft flesh, a blackened, monstrous hand had clamped onto the Hydra’s lower jaw, halting the strike mid-air with terrifying force.
The Hydra stared in horror. Calder’s right arm wasn't just healed—it was transformed. Pitch-black scales coated the skin, and purple static hissed between his fingers like angry hornets.
Calder met the monster's gaze, his voice dropping to a freezing whisper. "You’re an idiot. And you talk way too much."
Before the Hydra could recoil, Calder squeezed. Purple lightning erupted with a deafening THOOM. The Hydra’s head didn't just break; it detonated, showering the ground in charred chunks of meat and vaporized gore.
"SCREEEEEEE!"
The Hydra let out a soul-shredding shriek. This wasn't the clean cut of a blade. This was pure, agonizing destruction.
Calder watched the beast thrash, his expression indifferent. This was [Blight Form], the fourth skill of his [Blight] tree. By burning a massive amount of Blight Index, he could force his body into a temporary evolutionary peak, multiplying his strength tenfold.
At nearly 160 Strength, the multiplier boosted his right arm to a staggering 1,600. It wasn't just physical force, either—[Blight Form] infused his strikes with raw magical corruption. That purple thunder was the fundamental manifestation of Ruination.
It was his ultimate trump card, but one with a devastating price. He hadn't quite met the requirements to use it safely, and he was only sustaining it now through sheer force of will and past-life experience.
His Blight Index was hemorrhaging. He had two minutes. Two minutes to end this, or his body would give out and leave him as bait.
The Hydra’s panic spiked as it realized something terrifying: the stump where its head had been wasn't regrowing. The wound was cauterized by a dark, oily energy that ate away at its cells faster than they could replicate.
"Ruination...?" the beast gurgled. "How can a creature like you touch that power?!"
Calder didn't answer. He lunged.
"Die, ape!" The Hydra roared, throwing its remaining heads forward in a desperate, final [Bloodlust] charge. "I am an Eternal!"
"You're a corpse," Calder countered.
He didn't dodge. His blackened right hand swept out, catching two more heads by their throats.
"Hellfire!" The final head opened its maw, gathering a sun-bright sphere of flame.
"Blink."
Calder vanished. The fire washed over empty air. A second later, he appeared behind the beast, still holding the two thrashing heads. With a brutal yank, he swung them around, tangling them with the other seven necks in a chaotic, scaly knot.
The Hydra’s world spun. It found itself pinned, its own bodies used as a tether to hold it in place. Calder looked down at the tangled mess of legendary monster.
"Without your ancestors' bloodline, you wouldn't have survived the Novice Grace Period," Calder said. "Actually, even with it, you're done."
Purple lightning surged, drowning out the Hydra's screams. The Ruination attribute followed the current, flowing deep into the beast's core, unraveling its genetic code and snuffing out its life force from the inside out.
[Ding! You have successfully slain an Infernal Hydra (Juvenile). +1,000 Kill Points.]
[Ding! Warning: Player Calder's points have exceeded the limit of 1,040. Would you like to exchange them for the God-Ascendant Tier: God Hunter Sequence (Affinity Score: 92)?]
[Mana Regen: 0.4/sec]
The Hydra’s massive frame went limp, then collapsed into a pile of blackened ash and scorched bone.
[Constitution Blight Index: 14.7]
[Agility Blight Index: 4.7]
[Move Speed: 6.4]
Calder exhaled, his blackened arm slowly returning to its human state—though it remained charred and smoking. He had less than ten points of Index left. Ten more seconds of [Blight Form] and he would have started digesting his own heart for fuel.
"My god! Master! You actually killed a member of the Eternal Race!"
Kemi came sprinting across the scorching earth, hopping over hot spots like a frantic toad. He skidded to a halt and threw himself at Calder’s feet, clutching his shins.
"Kemi knew! I knew the little snake was no match for a titan like you! Hahaha—"
Calder didn't even look down as he kicked the goblin away. Kemi tumbled across the Proving Grounds, yelping as his backside hit a patch of molten rock. "Hot! Hot! Kemi’s butt is medium-rare!"
Calder ignored the theatrics, his focus entirely on the system prompt.
God-Ascendant Tier? God Hunter?
He frowned. In all his years in the previous timeline, he had never even heard whispers of a "God Hunter Sequence." But that 100% Affinity Score was a siren song.
He reached out to accept, then paused. Caution was a hard habit to break.
"Heh... absolute rationality can be a ceiling for some, Calder. But you... you aren't most people."
The rasping, ancient voice of the Ancient Ones echoed in his skull.
"We aren't on speaking terms yet," Calder said coldly.
"You don't know me, but I know you," the voice chuckled. "Forget those 'classes' the system tries to feed you. The God Hunter Sequence is the only path that matches your ambition."
Calder narrowed his eyes. "Explain."
"Think, boy. The geniuses of the Eternal Race—the ones who truly rule the Dominion—do any of them have a 'Class' like Warrior or Mage?"
Calder froze. He thought back to the apex players of the Eternal Dominion. It was true. They never talked about classes. He had assumed they simply felt their innate talents were superior to any system-assigned role.
"The talents of the Eternals are the Sequence," the voice continued, dripping with condescension. "Their ancestors walked the path of evolution so far that their progress became hereditary. They don't need a class because they are born as a living Sequence. But you? If you choose a standard class, you’ll just be a monkey in a suit, wasting the very talent that makes you special."
The realization hit Calder like a physical blow. That's why I hit the wall in my last life. No matter how many souls I devoured, I couldn't cross the Eternal Threshold... I was trying to build a skyscraper on a foundation meant for a shack.
"Your curse-type talent is... delicious," the voice whispered. "I have no interest in you until you reach the Divine Realm. Until then, I want to see how far a member of such a pathetic, tiny race can go. It’ll be much more entertaining if you outrun the 'designer' races."
Calder took a deep breath. "This God-Ascendant Tier... is it really that powerful?"
"It is a choice. A chance. If you are strong enough, Calder... a God is just another beast to be butchered."
A Godslayer.
Calder went silent for a moment, then reached out and tapped the "Accept" button.
[Ding! Selected God-Ascendant Tier: God Hunter Sequence. Sequence locked to the Gene Tree. Cannot be altered.]
[Genetic Restructuring in progress... Please wait...]
Suddenly, Calder’s knees buckled. It felt like every bone in his body was being fed through a meat grinder. His organs were liquefied, his meridians shattered, and his very marrow was scorched away, only to be rebuilt at a terrifying speed.
The pain was a thousand times worse than having his torso bitten off.
He refused to pass out. He forced his eyes open, watching the world through a haze of agony. It wasn't just his body; his mind was being scrubbed. The "noise" of his thoughts, the clutter of useless memories, and the fog of fatigue were being burned away, leaving behind a crystalline, terrifyingly sharp consciousness.
An hour passed. The fire in his veins finally subsided.
[Ding! Sequence Fusion 100%. Congratulations, Player Calder, on becoming a [God Hunter].]
Calder felt strength returning—but it was a different kind of strength. He stood up, feeling clumsy, like a pilot in a new, high-performance jet. He looked at his arms. The charred skin was gone, replaced by smooth, unblemished flesh that felt denser, more "complete."
He moved his limbs, shaking off the strangeness of the new vessel. He felt... reborn. He took a breath and opened his updated status panel.