Azmoz huddled in the hollow of a massive, dead tree. The wood was cold and smelled of damp earth, but it was hidden from the path. His heart was still drumming a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He was a murderer in the eyes of Kalan, but he was a survivor in the eyes of the forest.
His arm felt hot—not like a fever, but like a glowing ember. He needed to see the damage. He needed to see the cost.
"OPEN," he whispered.
The purple slime slithered from his hand and formed the heavy book. Instead of opening to his status, the Tome aggressively flipped deep into its center. The pages blurred until they slammed shut on a page much further back than the spiders.
[New Discovery: Variant 2-Headed Hound]
[Level 3 - Beast/Evolver]
[Exp Gained: 25]
An image of the beast shimmered on the paper. It looked terrifyingly real, its two heads frozen in a silent snarl. Below the image, a flickering violet box appeared:
[Tome Emergency Protocol: Critical Threat Detected] Because the User's life was at risk, Discovery Exp has been distributed to active Bounded.
The book then flipped itself forward, back toward the very beginning of the Tome. It landed on the familiar page of the spiders, but the ink was rewriting itself in real-time.
[Evolution Complete]
New Skill:
Size Manipulation. (Can increase and decrease size depending on creatures level).
New Skill: Potent Neurotoxin. (Bites now cause rapid paralysis).
Azmoz stared at the page. "So that's how they did it," he muttered. The book had fed them the experience mid-fight to make sure they could kill the hound. It was a cold, efficient logic.
He paused, his eyes drifting back to the page of the Two-Headed Hound. A thought struck him, cold and electrifying. If the Tome had created a page for the beast, did that mean it was a valid target?
"The skill said 'Insect Bond'..." he whispered, his mind racing. "But if this creature is in the book, is it possible I could bond with something like that too?"
The thought of commanding a pack of two-headed hounds instead of just tiny spiders made his pulse quicken. He wasn't strong enough yet—the hound had almost killed him—but the potential was there, written in violet ink.
Finally, the book turned to the very last page—his own status.
[Slaying Reward: +50 Exp Added]
He blinked, rubbing his eyes. Seventy percent. He had gained a massive fifty points just for killing the beast. He was only thirty points away from Level 2.
Azmoz looked at the deep purple cover of the book before dismissing it. He didn't notice that the spiders were on Page 2, while the Hound was all the way on Page 112. He didn't think about why the book was so big, or what kind of nightmares lived on Page 500. He was too busy trying to keep his hands from shaking.
He pulled a piece of dried meat from his bag and bit into it. It tasted like survival. He was still weak, and he was still alone, but for the first time, he felt like he had a fighting chance. The forest was dark, but he had two Level 1 killers sleeping in his skin.
The meat was salty and tough, requiring a lot of effort to chew. Usually, this meager meal would have satisfied Azmoz for half a day, but today, his body reacted differently. As soon as the first morsel hit his stomach, a wave of intense, burning hunger rippled through his core. It wasn't the dull ache of a library clerk who missed lunch; it was the predatory roar of an organism that was literally rebuilding itself. Every cell in his body seemed to be screaming for more—more protein, more fat, more energy. He finished the entire stash of dried meat in minutes, and still, his stomach felt like a cold, empty void.
"I'm going to need to find a lot more," he whispered, wiping his mouth with a stained sleeve.
He leaned his head against the rotting wood of the hollow tree, closing his eyes for a moment. He could still feel the phantom vibrations of the two-headed hound's growl in his bones. The morning light was beginning to filter through the thick, grey canopy above. It wasn't the bright, hopeful sunshine of the stories; it was a weak, filtered glow that made the forest look like it was underwater. The smog from Kalan had drifted this way, mixing with the natural mists of the woods to create a hazy, suffocating atmosphere.
Azmoz knew he couldn't stay in this tree forever. The Mayor and his mob were likely already at the library, and it wouldn't be long before the city guards—men with training and thermal trackers—began to sweep the perimeter.
He stood up, his joints popping with a loud, wet sound. He felt a bit taller, his back straighter. The "hunched" posture he had carried for years out of shame was being forced out of him by the sheer density of his new muscle fibers. He grabbed his bag, slinging it over his shoulder, and stepped out of the hollow.
He hadn't walked for more than ten minutes when a sound caught his ear. It wasn't the guttural snarl of a beast or the heavy footsteps of a man. It was a high-pitched, rhythmic hum. Zzzzt. Zzzzt.
It sounded like a high-voltage wire vibrating in the wind. Azmoz froze, his right arm immediately beginning to throb with that familiar, electric heat. The "Sense Link" with his spiders flickered, their tiny, predatory instincts alerting him to a presence nearby. He lowered himself into the tall, purple-tinted grass, moving with a silent efficiency that surprised him.
High above, hovering near a cluster of bloated, glowing mushrooms that grew from a fallen log, was a Hornet.
It was a striking creature, about three inches long, with a bright yellow-and-black abdomen that looked like it had been painted with liquid gold. Its wings were a blur of motion, creating the intense humming sound that echoed through the clearing. Unlike the hound, this wasn't a distorted monster. It was a normal Hornet, a "Vespine Wasp" from the old biology books. But in the silence of the woods, it looked like a masterpiece of natural engineering.
Azmoz's arm burned. "OPEN," he thought.
The Tome manifested, its pages flipping with a soft, rhythmic thwip-thwip-thwip. It landed on a page near the front, much closer to the spiders than the hound.
[New Discovery: Hornet]
Description: A common predatory insect known for its flight and painful sting. While simple, its aerial maneuverability makes it a prime scout for any swarm.
[Discovery Exp: +10]
Azmoz checked the final page.
"Eighty," he breathed. "Just twenty more."
He looked at the Hornet again. It was fast—far faster than his own human hands could ever be. If he tried to grab it, he would just end up with a face full of stinger. But he wasn't alone anymore. He had tools.
He looked at his right arm, focusing on the tattoo. Come out, he commanded.
The purple ink swirled, and the two Level 1 Common Spiders crawled out onto his palm. They were different now. Their carapaces were darker, almost metallic, and their legs ended in tiny, hooked barbs that gripped his skin with absolute precision. They sat there, waiting, their many eyes fixed on him.
"Okay," Azmoz whispered, his mind forming a plan. "You two are the ground team. I need that flier."
He didn't just tell them to "attack." He visualized the strategy. He wanted the spiders to move to the log, use their size to pin the Hornet, and use their new venom to keep it from flying away. He moved within the 10-meter range, his heart thumping.
Go.
The spiders dropped from his hand and vanished into the undergrowth. Through the "Sense Link," Azmoz could see what they saw—a fractured, multi-angled view of the grass blades and the giant log ahead. It was disorienting, but he pushed through the nausea.
The spiders reached the log. Suddenly, their bodies began to swell. The Size Manipulation skill kicked in. In a heartbeat, the two tiny house spiders had transformed into fist-sized predators, their weight causing the dry bark of the log to crack.
The Hornet sensed the vibration and tried to take off, but it was too late.
One spider lunged, its body a blur of dark limbs. It didn't bite to kill; it used its larger mass to slam into the Hornet, knocking it back onto the mossy surface of the log. The Hornet buzzed frantically, its stinger whipping around in a desperate attempt to find a target.
The second spider moved in from the flank. It was the "Hammer" to the first one's "Anvil." It reared back and sank its fangs into the joint where the Hornet's wing met its thorax.
[Skill Activated: Potent Neurotoxin]
The Hornet's wings immediately slowed. The high-pitched hum turned into a low, pathetic drone, then stopped entirely. The chemical cocktail in the spider's venom was working with terrifying speed, shutting down the Hornet's nervous system. The insect didn't die, but it couldn't move. It lay on the log, its legs twitching feebly.
Azmoz stepped out from the shadows, his eyes bright with a cold, intellectual excitement. He walked over to the log and looked down at his prize. The spiders moved back, shrinking back down to their original size and looking up at him as if waiting for a reward.
"Good job," he muttered.
He reached out a finger, touching the Hornet's paralyzed back. He felt the familiar tug-of-war in his mind. The Hornet's will was small—a tiny, flickering spark of instinct compared to the hound's roar. Azmoz pushed his own consciousness into the link, wrapping the dark energy of the Tome around the insect's mind.
You are mine, he thought.
The resistance lasted only a second before it snapped. The Hornet went completely still. The bond was forged.
Azmoz didn't summon the book again yet; he could feel the connection in his soul. He now had three Bounded creatures. He gestured with his hand, and the two spiders scuttled back into the ink of his arm. The Hornet, still recovering from the paralysis, remained on the log, but Azmoz knew it would be ready to fly in a few minutes.
He looked at the gray sky, the morning air feeling a bit colder. He was at 80% EXP. He was a fugitive, a murderer, and a thief. But as he looked at the paralyzed wasp that was now his eyes in the sky, he felt something he hadn't felt in years.
He felt like he was winning.