A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 19: Dark Core

The first one jumped for Shu’s face, and he met it with a backhand swing that folded its neck in half. A second shot low for his ankle, but he brought the bat down on its skull, then kicked the corpse into two more rushing in from the left.

[Objective: Kill the Serpents (40/50)]

Three lunged together, and he finally stopped trying to save energy. Purple veins flared brighter across the bat when he shoved core energy into it on instinct, the handle growing hot in his palm before the next swing burst out harder than anything he had done earlier.

The hit blew the lead serpent apart and sent the other two tumbling end over end into a wall.

’Oh, that worked,’ he thought, eyes widening for a moment. ’So this is energy channel.’

[Guide Response]

[Energy Channel: Direct core energy through a bonded weapon to increase force, penetration, and stability.]

"Could have told me that before you know, just saying," he muttered, already locking onto his next target.

Once he understood the feel of it, the rhythm changed fast. Every time energy ran through the bat, the shock stopped dying in his arms and started punching through the target instead.

One serpent got split across a pillar, another lost most of its head, and the third tried to coil around his waist before he drove the bat up through its jaw and launched it into the ceiling.

[Objective: Kill the Serpents (44/50)]

The queen struck in the middle of it, forcing him to hurl himself sideways when her jaws smashed through two of her own brood.

’You would think a queen would care about her children but I guess not.’

He started using that information right away, keeping the smaller serpents between them whenever the queen lined up a charge. One tail sweep flattened three of them by accident, and he took that chance to smash any survivors the second they hit the ground.

[Objective: Kill the Serpents (47/50)]

His breathing got rougher after that, though the grin on his face only grew. The bat felt better in his hands with every swing, almost eager, and that weird sense of connection made it easier to pour energy through it the longer the fight dragged on.

’This is messed up,’ he thought, ducking under a bite and cracking a serpent’s spine in the same motion. ’I am adapting way too fast.’

Two more came from the right while another dropped from a beam over his head. He took the falling one first with an upward smash, pivoted into the second and burst its ribs, then caught the third by the tail and whipped it straight into the queen’s snout.

[Objective: Kill the Serpents (49/50)]

Only the queen remained.

She did not rush in this time, instead, she coiled her body tighter around the chamber while that sick green light thickened in her throat again, pulsing in slow waves that traveled down her neck and into her chest.

His eyes locked onto it, the scales around that part looking different, rougher, almost swollen from the inside.

’There you are,’ he thought, breathing hard while blood slid from the corner of his mouth. ’That weird injected core or whatever they fed you is sitting somewhere in there isn’t it.’

The queen lowered her head and stared at him with open malice now, no more playing. He stared back and rolled his shoulders once, even though one side still hurt like hell.

"Alright then," he said, lifting the bat. "Let’s stop dragging this out."

The green light in her throat surged and he responded by running straight at her.

The queen lunged with her mouth wide open, probably expecting him to dodge at the last second. Instead he pushed more energy through the bat than before, feeling the weapon thrum in his hands, then swung up into her lower jaw with everything he had.

The impact snapped her head high enough to ruin the bite.

He wasted no time, planting one foot on a broken car, kicking off, and landing on top of her snout while she was still reeling. Her body convulsed right away, but he was already moving, sprinting two hard steps up her head as the glow in her throat climbed brighter.

’Now.’

He jumped, twisted in the air, and drove the bat down through the roof of her open mouth.

Purple energy burst along the bat, forcing through flesh, bone, and whatever was glowing beneath. The queen’s whole body locked for one horribly long moment, then a scream tore out of her so loud the chamber shook.

It seemed the attack was not enough, so he shoved harder.

"Break already!" he roared, both hands locked on the handle while the queen thrashed under him.

Something cracked deep inside her throat, followed by a pulse that nearly blew him backward. Green light spilled out through her teeth and eyes, her body smashing into pillars, cars, walls and anything close enough to hit.

He held on through the first convulsion, then ripped the bat sideways and tore the wound open. That was the last push, making the queen crash to the ground.

For a few seconds she still moved, coils tightening and loosening in broken spasms but the glow in her eyes started to flicker and slowly die out.

Shu stood on shaking legs beside the corpse with his chest heaving hard enough to hurt. Blood ran down his arms, venom smoke burned his throat, and his whole body felt one bad breath away from collapsing.

Then the system exploded across his vision.

[Kill Registered: Venom Serpent Queen]

[Objective: Kill the Serpents (50/50)]

[Emergency Mission: Survive]

[Status: Complete]

[Mission: Hunter Registration]

[Objective 1: Register as a Hunter.]

[Status: Complete]

[Objective 2: Hunt 50 Monsters.]

[Status: Complete]

[Mission Complete]

[Reward: Skill Upgrade Token x1]

[Reward: 10,000 Credits]

[Reward: Domain Expansion Scroll x1]

[Kill Record Updated]

[Venom Serpent x12]

[Venom Serpent Queen x1]

[Base EXP: +4,900]

[Bonus EXP: +2,000]

[Credits: +8,300]

[Level Up! Lv.9 -> Lv.10]

[Level Up! Lv.10 -> Lv.11]

[Free Stat Points: +6]

He stared at the mess of text and let out one shaky laugh.

"That," he said, bending over with both hands on his knees, "was complete bullshit."

The queen’s body did not dissolve like the other serpents, that alone pulled him out of his half-dead daze.

Every other serpent had vanished almost right after dying, so seeing the queen’s corpse still lying there made the back of his neck itch. On top of that, there was this weird feeling tugging at him, like something inside the body was still calling his attention.

’What is that?’ he thought, straightening up slowly while his sore arms protested. ’Is it an injected core, or is there something else in there?’

He walked over to the corpse and planted one foot against its side, then grabbed the bat with both hands.

"Let’s see what you were hiding," he muttered before driving the bat into the torn part of its throat.

The flesh split wider, yanking the bat free before jamming it in again to pry the wound open properly. By the third hit, the damaged scales gave way enough for him to crouch and start tearing through with one hand.

’This is disgusting,’ he thought, grimacing while warm blood coated his fingers again. ’I seriously need to invest in some gloves.’

His hand brushed something hard first and he continued digging around for a second, then pulled out a clean serpent core the size of a fist, glowing with bright green light. Mana rolled off it in dense waves, making his grip tighten on instinct.

"Damn," he said, turning it once in his bloody hand. "No wonder that thing was so annoying."

Though, that weird tugging feeling did not go away.

If anything, it got stronger, which told him right away the normal core was not what had been bothering him. He shoved the normal one into his bag, then reached back into the queen and searched deeper.

This time his fingers closed around something jagged and the moment he pulled it out, his expression changed.

It was another core, but this one looked completely wrong. Black veins crawled through dark green crystal, and the energy inside it did not flow naturally at all, it twitched and lurched around in pulses that made his skin crawl.

’Yeah,’ he thought, staring at it with narrowed eyes, ’this one is definitely artificial.’

The system popped up right after.

[Abnormal Item Detected]

[Artificial Mutation Core]

[Warning: Massive energy concentration confirmed.]

[Consume?]

[Yes / No]

His eye twitched a little, "why are you asking that so casually?" he said, holding the thing farther away from his face. "This is not a snack, you scam machine."

He kept staring at the prompt for another second, then shook his head.

’No way I am eating some suspicious core in the middle of a dungeon,’ he thought, dismissing the option. ’Maybe later, after I figure out what the hell it actually does.’

That last part was what made his chest turn cold.

He had read enough of Zoxhia to know this kind of thing was not normal monster behavior. Wild monsters evolved, sure, and dungeons could mutate over time, but forcing growth with an artificial core like this was a different story.

’Only demons did this kind of shit in the novel,’ he thought, looking down at the core in his hand. ’They loved turning living things into experiments, then throwing them into human zones to cause chaos.’

"If I am right," he muttered, sliding the core away into a separate pocket. "Then this city is already more fucked than I thought."

He got up and was planning to leave when his eyes landed on shell pieces all over the floor in front of him.

’Shell pieces?’ he thought, staring harder at the mess, ’don’t tell me...’

He made his way over and the closer he got, the more obvious it became what he was looking at.

There was a nest there.

Seeing as there was many shells and green fluid everything, it was clear that the nest was destroyed during their fight.

"Ah," he said quietly, stopping in front of the wreckage. "So that’s what this was, no wonder it refused to move from this spot."

He continued looking around, "I kinda feel bad now, she was just a mother trying to protect her eggs," he rubbed the back of his neck, ready to turn and leave but his eyes caught the light of something up ahead.

He walked over and just behind a collapsed were two intact eggs, giving off a soft green glow.

’No way,’ he thought, brushing dust off one of them with careful fingers. ’Out of all that mess, two actually made it?’