Flesh Golem of the Labyrinth City

"Fuck...!"

A pitch-black night in the deep forest, where the sun had finished its duty, and even the moonlight was hidden behind clouds.

A thick fog made it impossible to see even a step ahead while heavy raindrops thunderously beat against the ground, dispersing any screams so that no one could hear them.

The gambeson that had protected my body with layers of tough fabric had absorbed so much rainwater it weighed heavily on my shoulders. At the same time, the leather pouch with its torn strap was weightless, with nothing left inside.

The still-cold wind of mid-April chilled my body.

Level 3 of the Labyrinth.

Just level 3.

I was in mortal danger.

The lantern that had lit up the night had its oil spilled and went cold. I could refill later to light it again, but carrying this heavy metal lantern while hoping for a "later" seemed like a death sentence, so I threw it on the ground.

The grain cubes I'd brought to stave off hunger had gotten wet from the rain and dissolved into a porridge-like mush inside the pouch, making them inedible.

"Hah...! Huff...!"

Despite running without rest, I didn't think I could survive. The hunters prowling through the dark night were still chasing after me.

But continuing to run here would certainly mean death.

I slowly reduced my speed inside the dense evergreen forest and drew my sword from its scabbard.

"Come at me, you bastards!"

Cornered prey barks louder. The hunters, anticipating success, become quieter and more cautious instead.

—Grrrr...!

Heavy raindrops, thick fog, and moonlight hidden by clouds. Only their eyes shone brightly in the lightless forest with a brilliant yellow glow.

Six Dire Wolves.

They were monsters commonly seen from the second floor of the Labyrinth and frequently encountered on the third floor. Some say they can be killed with a single sword strike, others with one punch. Most people say they're weak monsters that can be dealt with easily.

"Hup!"

I swung my sword at one charging toward me. Perhaps it was because I was in mortal danger, but my entire body felt hyper-aware.

Slash—

I managed a shallow cut on its foreleg, but that wasn't enough. At that moment, another Dire Wolf lunged from the side and tore into my left shin.

"Arghh!"

After stabbing the sword into the back of the one latched onto my leg, I quickly pulled it out and thrust forward.

—Gack...!

While I was driving the blade deep into its wide-open maw, another one leaped high and bit into my right shoulder, knocking me backward.

"Ugh... you fucking...!"

As I forcefully grabbed the wolf's leg to tear it away, the gambeson around my shoulder was ripped off, and the shoulder muscles were damaged. I could no longer put strength into my right arm.

One approached from behind and opened its jaws wide to tear at my face. Though I quickly turned my head to the right, its fangs still tore through my eyelid, causing my left eye to lose function.

Fallen on the ground, I frantically kicked my legs to keep the other wolves at bay.

While I was down, two Dire Wolves had been gnawing on my weakened right forearm, causing me to drop my sword. My right forearm was practically minced meat now, bleeding profusely.

Blood from my torn eyelid trickled down, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. I managed to stand up and, with the toe of my sturdy leather boot, got lucky and kicked one Dire Wolf hard enough to crush its ribs and pulverize its internal organs.

I managed to find and grab the dropped sword with my left hand, which was good, but I wasn't used to wielding it this way, and crucially, I couldn't see properly. When I randomly swung the sword, it hit a tree, and the blade broke.

I smashed the blunt end of the broken sword handle into the eye of the wolf that had latched onto my thigh, crushing its eyeball, then pushed my fingers into the eye socket.

—Grrrr... Woof woof!!

After fighting desperately, the situation had changed.

"Now you're the ones barking."

Cornered prey barks louder. The hunters, anticipating success, become quieter and more cautious instead.

The last remaining Dire Wolf kept its belly low to the ground as it cautiously glared at me.

In my left hand was a sword handle with a broken blade. My right hand was minced meat, steadily dripping blood.

My left shin had been bitten hard, but the sturdy leather boots had effectively protected my skin. I could feel warm blood seeping from my right thigh, being washed away by the rain.

Brushing back my rain-soaked hair, I took a deep breath.

Though my halved vision made it hard to see clearly, the wolf's brilliant yellow eyes were an excellent guide.

—Woof woof!!

In an instant, I rushed forward and kicked at its face. As my right leg grazed its muzzle, it bit down hard on my leg.

When I brought down the sword handle's pommel on the Dire Wolf's crown, its jaw soon went slack, and it collapsed.

"Huff, hah... I survived..."

I survived.

Survived?

"No, I'm dying."

I won the fight, but that doesn't mean I survived. Blood was seeping from my entire body, so it was obvious I'd die at this rate.

In the freezing midnight, while being thoroughly soaked by rain, I might die from hypothermia before long.

Then why did I fight so desperately? I wouldn't have survived anyway.

"Fuck...! Fuuuck—!!"

If only I had a skill. If only I had a skill, too.

No, that's not right.

Skill. Actually, I did have a skill. The problem was that it wasn't a proper one. I had obtained a skill earlier than others after completing my second run of the Labyrinth.

* * * * *

When I visited the appraisal shop to have my skill assessed, the appraiser showed a surprised expression.

"This is... a skill I've never seen before, so you'll need to try using it yourself to understand its effects..."

Using the skill wasn't easy. I had no sense for skills or such unscientific phenomena at all.

They say skills activate with willpower, but I couldn't properly understand this concept of willpower and couldn't use my skill for a long time.

In the end, despite obtaining a skill, I entered the Labyrinth one more time without being able to use it.

Around that time, I felt powerless about not being able to use my skill, so I used it for the first time. It seemed my increased desire would have taken effect.

But when I used the skill, my right forearm turned into the steak I had eaten last night.

"Fuck."

My right forearm below the elbow had become a well-cooked piece of meat dangling there.

No matter how I looked at it, it was definitely that piece of meat I had eaten for dinner last night.

I spent about two days wallowing in despair, crying in my inn room.

I thought I might have to live without my right arm from now on, but they say there's always a way out, even if the sky falls.

After staying up all night trying desperately, somehow, my right arm returned to normal.

"What a fucked up world."

I had obtained a skill that would normally take months in the Labyrinth to maybe get, but it turned out to be a stupid skill.

In the evening at the Labyrinth City, you could see many people when entering an inn. The victors bragged about obtaining powerful skills, and the novice explorers looked at such people with admiring gazes, hoping to acquire powerful skills from the Labyrinth themselves.

And then there were the losers who obtained garbage skills that were practically curses.

I didn't want to admit it, but I belonged among the losers.

Even though I got mine on my second Labyrinth exploration, it still fell short of expectations all the same.

"Hey, isn't that the ability to recreate what you've eaten?"

I ignored the words of another explorer who was drunk at the inn. While the ability to recreate eaten food might be excellent, anyone could see that the ability to turn my body into eaten food was idiotic.

The only ones happy about my body becoming delicious food were the wolves struggling to eat me.

If there was anything fortunate about it... I didn't get weaker?

Many people obtained terrible skills that made them completely unable to fight.

I hadn't moved forward, but at least I hadn't stepped backward—that was my only consolation.

Of course, getting such a worthless skill as my first one inevitably crushed my morale.

But I had no choice.

Again, then again, and several more times after that, I headed to the Labyrinth. Then, on my sixth venture.

The other party members I had grouped with had already advanced their explorer ranks and left to find others matching their level.

In other words, they weeded out party members who didn't match their level.

In a Labyrinth where magic and skills ran rampant and monsters that defied common sense swarmed, it was inevitable for someone like me who only had the strength of an ordinary adult male.

Look at me now.

Just the third floor of the Labyrinth. The lantern oil was spilled, and no food remained.

The one-handed sword I used had said goodbye to both its blade and grip, and my gambeson was torn and heavy with absorbed water, feeling only cold and heavy. My bitten forearm was in tatters.

Though I won after a desperate fight, I didn't think I could survive.

Having lost so much blood, my body temperature had dropped rapidly. Spring hadn't fully arrived yet.

Cold.

My left eye was completely torn by fangs, losing vision.

My right forearm turned to minced meat, actively bleeding. Half-lost vision. The gambeson grew cold and heavy with rain.

What did I fight so desperately for?

If I was going to die anyway, should I have just become a tasty meal for these Dire Wolf bastards? No, no matter how I think about it, that's not right.

I couldn't have been that delicious, anyway.

"Damn bastards...."

Looking at the six Dire Wolf corpses sprawled around, I had a thought.

"Haah..."

Food poisoning or parasites.

"Better than dying."

—Rip

I put it in my mouth raw, letting whatever happens happen. They would have torn apart my corpse like this, too, if they had killed me.

I was the victor of this fight, so it was my turn to tear them apart.

Chomp—

The rain grew stronger.

Since I'd finished all the water in my canteen, this was actually good.

Thanks to the thick leather gloves, I grabbed just the blade of the handleless sword and roughly skinned them.

Skipping the thigh, chest, and intestines. Chewing the lungs, swallowing the eyeballs.

I didn't believe in the superstition that eating eyes improves your eyesight.

But I had already chewed and eaten the raw meat that was starting to smell awful.

I simply put the parts that weren't covered in hide and were easy to eat in my mouth.

The one whose eyeball I ate was also the one that had torn my face.

The tough, raw meat went down my throat, barely chewed. I could feel the shape of the meat slowly traveling down my esophagus… it was so large.

Finally, I tore out and ate the heart. They say the heart is the essence of life, after all.

To wet my stuffed throat, I cut an artery and drank the blood, then stood with my mouth open to the sky for a while so the dried blood wouldn't stick inside my mouth.

When rainwater pooled in my mouth, I rinsed out the blood like mouthwash and spat it on the ground.

I wrapped the tattered Dire Wolf corpses around my body and tried to sleep. The warmth of the enemies I'd killed less than 30 minutes ago hadn't faded yet. It was warm enough if I hugged them while sleeping.

The bloody scent of raw meat filling my stomach came up my esophagus and stimulated my nose, but soon, the terrible disgust gave way to exhaustion.

Praying I could see the rising sun the next morning, I fell asleep leaning against a tree.

And when I opened my eyes in the morning, my sight had returned.

Well, about half. No, maybe a quarter?

"My eye... why is it like this...?"

My right eye was fine. It was just doing its job as always.

But not my left eye.

I definitely lost it last night fighting the wolves.

"I can see... but darker..."

The cold settling fog. The low grass dropping dew. How did I survive such a cold night?

Outside, the sunlight was gently shining on my face.

The Dire Wolf corpses I had hugged for warmth while sleeping must have bled from their wounds overnight, as the ground where I had lain was soaked with blood.

The problem was, the blood wasn't red.

"Color blindness...? Did getting injured give me color blindness?"

It was beyond my common sense. If my eye was destroyed...

Why is my vision only missing color?

There was a ripping sound as I got up, with wolf blood dried and stuck to my back and the ground.

When I shook off my back, the bloodstains fell off in chunks like dried, twisted paint.

Looking at my reflection in a puddle formed by the rain, thinking I should at least wash my face, I could understand why.

"This is..."

A Dire Wolf's characteristic brilliant golden eye.

My dark black Korean pupil was gone, and a wolf's eyeball had burrowed into my left eye socket and taken root.

And then, I instinctively realized.

'Hey, isn't that the ability to recreate what you've eaten?'

My skill was the ability to turn into what I eat.