Requiem Of A Failed Hero

Rath was immediately passed to an oubliette and immediately entered the castle.

Volmak however, was taken somewhere else and Raith had no idea where. He just stayed in the prison, silent and waiting on the time a soldier was probably going to take him out but it seemed like forever.

His eyes were getting used to the darkness and in a little time, he was beginning to think he was blind.

One week passed.

Two weeks

Three...

Four...

Five...

On the sixth...

[You have devoured the night]

[You have gained a new perk 'Dark Vision']

'huh, how?'

As Raith questioned this unlikely phenomenon, his sight went from feeling blind to being able to navigate through the darkness, it felt like when he opened his eyes after closing them for a while in the place of prayer to a deity, everything felt renewed and refreshed but there was still no light. Which furtherly confused him, even in this darkness, he could tell apart all four corners of the cell, the bones that were already decaying in one corner.

The one that fascinated him the most was one that was chained by the corner of the wall, it was intact with a robe that had fallen off, the skeleton was complete, although a part of the skull seems to be broken and the features — Raith could undoubtedly tell that this was the body of a human.

It's fascinating and scary.

He was alone, was he going to end up like this? He had no idea how much time had passed but he feared for himself. His dream of surpassing his father and brother. Proving the world wrong, becoming the strongest. Was all that going to be for naught? And he would just die in some cell because no one even remembered him.

There was one person—he was so sorry for the trouble he must have caused the old man. His eyes rolled down as he fonded himself with memories of his times with the old man.

He had gotten to know the sweet and kind side of Volmak over the months, although the man is undoubtedly ferocious and wicked. He could tell by his demeanor sometimes when he comes back from the city in a nasty mood. But even in that time, Volmak would still be nice to him and would never even ask him to do the chores, or nag him for waking up late.

It felt like he was living in a palace even though it was a small cabin

His only bad days were days Absalom would come to show off his strength.

Volmak was Absalom's teacher and Raith wanted the same but for some reason Volmak would not agree, claiming that he would not dare to teach Raith anything.

At some point, Raith just had to give up. Absalom was talented in many ways, Raith desired his strength and often challenged him to a duel but the young vampire was too proud.

"I will die than to fight with a measly roach like you"

His words always stung Raith, and because of the stubbornness of these two, Raith's growth had stayed the same. The only thing he was able to improve on was figuring out the use of his Perks. He spent his time associating himself with his perks since he couldn't do anything.

But to be able to devour an entire being was not within Raith's discovery, even now‐he questions how exactly he was able to defeat the dungeon boss.

Raith opened his hands and stared down at his palm.

"The tendency to devour anything."

Saying it out loud, he realizes it sounded as though the perk description was trying to tell him that there was nothing he wouldn't be able to devour.

A thought like a quick snap crosses Raith's mind.

'...if so, would I be able to devour the abyss? Nah, I mean since the abyss gave me this perk, it is logically impossible'

Raith smirked and—

~growl~

"Huh?"

'Right, I haven't eaten'

Raith touched his stomach and could feel it sink in. But right now, there was nothing he could do.

He checked around if there could be some thousand or hundred or ten years of scrub food that was probably left by one of the bones that had decayed.

Close to the skeleton that was complete, he found a paper. But shifted his hand, grazing through the rest of the floor where he found a black apple.

Black? That apple has been there for ages, God knows what it is. But Raith grabbed it and took the paper so he could entertain himself with whatever it is while he ate the apple.

He sat back and crossed his legs.

Upon holding the apple, its water began to squeeze out–he didn't even apply much pressure on it.

"Well, whatever"

He says and begins to eat while he looks at the book. They were not letters that he was taught or should understand but he understood them very well.

His eyes turned from glancing-through to getting-interested and finally to fixated-upon until he had eaten the apple till it last.

Raith didn't care about the taste of this fruit, he just wanted to eat it. He needed food and anything works fine since he cannot die.

Even after he was done with the apple, he still didn't take his eyes off this paper.

"How in the world is a treasure like this in here?"

Raith gaped still looking into the book and muttering.

"Thousand Ways of Sagacity"

The paper was just a torn part of a tome. Perhaps that was the reason why Raith could not completely understand it– with how hard he tried. The beginning part of the book had written on it white aura, but it was written in such a way that there seemed to be a previous discussion about this 'white aura'

And the contents spoke about mastering a particular way that can create an opening to several ways so long the mind is at stability, but first, there was a scripture to master, a meditation to incorporate, and it will take time because the body and mind have to be one.

Yes, Raith got all that part and even with what he read alone, this 'Thousand Ways of sagacity' was sounding very interesting but the few lines that existed downwards–he could not understand.

They seemed to be the beginning of the explanation but it was complex.

[You have consumed a large amount of poison]

[Your health is in danger]

"Oh shit"

Raith mumbled with a chuckle. It was as if life had become a joke to him.

"Oh, I'm gonna die, I'm so scared, I'm so scared"

Or being in a dark cell alone had brought him to team up with crazy.

"Uweerrgh!"

He held his stomach as the pain started, opening his mouth and trying to force out whatever it was that was threatening his life. But it was to no avail. He continued to fight it but groaned endlessly till he fell on the ground with the paper he was reading beside him, foaming, his eyeballs rolled out of his eyes and his heart race slowed down. With his hand on his stomach, he stayed there–

[You have died]

[You have the tendency to devour something]

[grzztttt#%@%@%]

The black holographic tab in front of him glitches as if it was trying to take away the next message. But regardless of all this, Raith's body turned into a mass of black liquid, absorbing everything that was in that cell- paper, bones, even the skeleton.

[You have consumed the part of a certain tome using 'Devourer']

[The skill of the tome has been extracted]

[You have gained a new skill]

[You have gained 11 stats by consuming the bodies around you]

[An shadow ego has been created]

[Devourer has created a sub-perk 'Stomach']

[You can save ego soul inside 'stomach']

[Stomach(R)lv.1: 0/3]

[Perk 'Poison resistance' has been created]

The metal door screeched as it was opened from outside without any prior notice, as the soldier entered the dungeon, he found Raith laying on the ground–lifeless. Immediately, the soldier ran back to the commander to report this.

"Huh? He spent just a few weeks and he's dead already?"

"My lord, what shall we do?"

"Feed him to Fenrir"

The soldier froze as if his eyes had beheld an impossible horror. His eyes were quivering and he could barely take them off the commander who didn't care about his opinion about the command he just gave.

"Are you deaf?!"

The commander yelled at him, causing him to run outside falling and picking himself back up till he was out of the door. The commander looked like he didn't care when the soldier was around but immediately after—he slammed his hand on the metal table that was scattered with old, brown papers.

He gritted his teeth as the antennas that were situated as whiskers wiggled.

His monolid eyes glared into nothing and even though they were wrinkled in a way that expressed anger and frustration, there was no brow to accompany them.

He looked like he had just gotten in trouble.