[You have gained 6,640 Lives]

Moon stared at the notification.

The large number confirmed what he already knew. He had controlled the fight from start to finish, landing the majority of the damage himself. The archer’s single arrow had been a gesture, nothing more. Enough for the man to feel he had his revenge, but not enough to claim a significant portion of the lives.

Moon looked down at Frey’s body. The Runesmith lay on the cold stone, his expression surprisingly peaceful for a man who had spent his final days in constant terror.

"Help me bury him." Moon muttered to the archer standing behind him. "He deserves that much."

The two of them dug in silence. The ground was hard and rocky, but they managed a grave between two boulders. Moon lowered Frey’s body into it and covered him with dirt and stones.

Although Frey had been an enemy, his death had reminded Moon of something important. Something he carried with him every day but rarely put into words.

’I don’t want to end up like him.’

Frey had been too weak. Not just in combat, but in will. He had surrendered his freedom for pills and praise, let someone else hold his leash, and spent his final years as a tool in another person’s hand. And this was the result. A shallow grave on a floating island with no one to mourn him.

Only the strong survived. Weakness considered a sin in the world of the strong. Had Frey been stronger that day, had he been strong enough to resist Moon’s ambush, Moon would most likely be the one in the ground instead.

"You can head back to the hideout." Moon said, turning toward the archer. "The noise will attract beasts."

The archer’s smile couldn’t be hidden. He didn’t try. A man’s death was another man’s victory. Such was the life of an Awakener.

He nodded curtly and walked back toward the cave, disappearing inside.

Moon remained outside. Alone.

He placed several beast corpses from his storage ring near a freshly lit fire. The smell of blood and burning flesh would carry far in the night air. Then he positioned himself behind a nearby boulder and waited.

Five minutes later, the growling began. Low, hungry sounds echoing from multiple directions as beasts began converging on the scent. Shadows shifted between the rocks and trees, drawn toward the bait like moths to a flame.

It was a simple trap. Bait, fire, and a bottleneck between the boulders where he could funnel them in one at a time.

It wasn’t elegant. But it would give him a steady flow of lives and spiritual energy through the night while his team rested.

He settled in and let the first beast approach.

Once the pack converged, they didn’t fight each other. There were plenty of corpses to go around, and the beasts spread out among them, each claiming their own meal. Jaws tore into flesh. Heads dipped low, and guards dropped.

That was their fatal mistake.

Moon had placed multiple corpses for this exact reason. Spread the bait wide enough and the beasts would scatter across the kill zone, too occupied with feeding to notice anything else. And when they bent down to grab the bodies, trying to drag them away to eat in safety, every single one of them was exposed.

Moon released Thunderclap Raiju.

The wolf streaked through the air, crackling menacingly, covering the distance in a heartbeat. The beasts snapped their heads up from the corpses, eyes wide, nostrils flaring at the incoming threat.

They tried to dodge and hide, but it was too late.

The wolf struck the nearest beast dead center. It died instantly, the lightning punching through its body and out the other side. Then the chain activated. Arcs of lightning leapt from the corpse to the beast beside it. Then to the next. Then the next. Each jump carried enough power to kill or cripple.

Bodies dropped across the kill zone like dominoes.

[You have killed the Level 30 0-Star Hyena] [You have gained 130 Lives]

[You have killed the Level 31 E-Rank PanPig] [You have gained 350 Lives]

[You have killed the Level 29 0-Star Hyena] [You have gained 50 Lives]

Notifications flashed across his retina in succession. Moon ignored them. His focus was already on the survivors.

Three beasts remained, staggering on crippled legs, their bodies smoking from the residual current. Moon dropped from the boulder and finished them off one by one. An earth spike through the throat of the first. A wind blade across the neck of the second, then another to the third.

The clearing fell silent except for the crackling of the fire in the trap he had placed.

Moon stood among the bodies. He stored each corpse in his ring, then reset the trap.

Fresh bait. Fresh fire.

The night was long. And he wasn’t done yet.

His lives continued to climb at a steady rate. More importantly, his second acupoint was progressing well. He had placed Thunderclap Raiju as its foundation, and with every use of the skill, the threads between it and the acupoint grew thicker. The lightning element was weaving itself into the foundation layer by layer, each successful kill reinforcing the bond.

The process was slow but progress was progress. And once he faced stronger opponents, spirits or higher-ranked beasts whose deaths flooded him with denser spiritual energy, the integration would accelerate. The foundation would solidify, and the acupoint would begin to fill properly.

Moon was already thinking about what that would look like. His first acupoint had given him the equivalent of two acupoints worth of power. If the second followed the same pattern, even partially, his combat strength would take another massive leap.

A completed lightning foundation feeding directly into his Thunderclap Raiju. The skill would hit harder, chain further, and drain less mana per cast, he was sure of it.

The thought kept him going through the long hours of the night.

After the second bait, beasts no longer continued to come towards the fire, and sound. It seemed like they had learnt their lesson, or there simply wasn’t any in the vicinity.

Either way, Moon had gained enough lives to be satisfied with how everything has been going.

—

[ Name: Moon ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Class: Classless, Runesmith]

[ Level: 31 ] [72%]

[ Lives: 27,457 ] [Super Lives: 0]

[ Strength: 150 ] [ Agility: 210 ] [ Constitution: 172 ] [ Mana: 252 ] (+10 to all stats)

[ Attribute Points: 5]

—