Chapter 107: The Secrets of the Hidden Den

He was falling. The air rushed violently past his ears, carrying the damp, metallic scent of... rust?

Why did it smell like Rust and blood as well?

He didn’t know how deep this chute went, but he tried to remain clam... his human body would undoubtedly splatter upon impact.

Hide tried and twisted his torso mid-air, orienting his feet downward just as the darkness gave way to a solid surface.

CRUNCH.

Hide hit the ground with the force of a dropped anvil. He activated the damage inversion skill and the impact first traveled to his feet before plunging out and spider-webbed the stone floor.

He stayed perfectly still for three seconds, listening.

Nothing attacked him. There was no immediate rush of footsteps or the whistle of hidden darts.

But he did hear a low sound echoing in the distance. It sounded like... wet, ragged breathing.

Hide slowly stood up. The space around him was entirely devoid of light. To a normal Exterminator, this would be a tomb. But Hide had his passive skill true sight that helped him see.

Hide’s eyes narrowed, and a slight wince broke his stoic expression as the sheer scale and purpose of the room came into focus.

He wasn’t in a simple pit or a dungeon cell. He was standing near the edge of a colossal, cavernous underground hall.

The ceiling arched nearly thirty feet above his head, supported by dozens of massive, thick metal beams. But the beams weren’t just structural.

Through True Sight, Hide could see dense, glowing red runes etched into the steel, throbbing with a suppressing, heavy mana.

But the architecture wasn’t what made Hide’s eyes narrow. It was what the room contained.

The center of the hall was a literal nightmare. It was designed like a medieval torture ground, reeking of dried blood, rot, and desperation.

Directly in the center of the massive room, a thick, rune-carved pole of dark iron was driven deep into the stone floor. Chained to this central pillar was a Calamity Beast.

Hide stared at it, his breath hitching slightly. It wasn’t an ordinary, grotesque monster. It had the general shape and sleek, predatory build of a massive feline—like a panther or a leopard—but its fur was a brilliant, striking teal color.

Growing from the crown of its head were two incredibly long, majestic antlers that looked almost like flowing ribbons, trailing all the way down the upper half of its body.

Or, at least, they would have been majestic.

The beautiful beast was completely slumped against the cold stone, its body a broken, mangled mess. Its teal fur was matted and stained black with layers upon layers of dried and fresh blood.

Deep, agonizing gashes covered its flanks, and its breathing was so shallow it barely moved its ribs. It was hovering on the absolute brink of death.

But the horror of the room didn’t end there.

Surrounding the central pillar in a perfect, wide circle were ten other thick iron poles. And shackled to each of these outer poles were more Calamity Beasts.

Unlike the majestic creature in the center, these beasts were feral, grotesque abominations. They were mutated wolves, jagged-scaled reptiles, and hulking, primate-like creatures.

They were all completely starved, their ribs showing through their skin, their eyes burning with a mad, insatiable hunger.

Hide watched as one of the feral wolves strained against its heavy iron chain, its jaws snapping wildly just inches away from the slumped teal feline. The chains were measured with cruel, mathematical precision. They allowed the starving beasts to get agonizingly close to the bleeding cat in the center, but kept them just barely out of reach.

If those chains had been even an inch longer, the feral beasts would have ripped the beautiful creature to absolute shreds and devoured it alive.

Hide’s eyes scanned the rest of the circle. The cruelty of the design became even more apparent. Five of the ten outer beasts were already dead. Their bodies were in advanced stages of rot. Some of them had been partially devoured, their bones gnawed clean by the other feral beasts who had managed to reach them when they collapsed in their restraints.

’This isn’t a holding cell,’ Hide realized, his jaw tightening. ’And that beast didn’t accidentally end up in the center.’

He looked at the dried blood splatters that painted the stone floor in a massive starburst pattern radiating outward from the central pole. This was systematic.

This entire, elaborate setup was specifically designed to mentally and physically torture the teal beast. To surround it with starving, rabid predators that constantly snapped at its flesh, day in and day out, while it slowly bled out on the floor.

’Why did Enji throw me down here?’ Hide thought, his mind racing.

Did the young master intend for Hide to become food for the feral beasts? Or was this a mistake? In his blinding, humiliated rage, had Enji simply grabbed Hide and slammed him into the nearest emergency disposal chute without thinking about what was actually housed at the bottom of it?

’Not that it matters,’ Hide concluded coldly. ’I’m already here.’

Hide stepped forward, his boots clicking softly against the stone.

The moment he crossed a certain invisible threshold, the atmosphere in the hall violently shifted. The five surviving feral beasts instantly snapped their heads toward him. The scent of fresh meat and the sudden intrusion into their maddening domain drove them into an immediate frenzy.

A hulking, ape-like beast let out a deafening roar and lunged directly at Hide, its massive, clawed hands reaching for his throat.

Hide didn’t flinch, or to that matter even summon his Carapace. He simply kept walking, his hands in his pockets, his glowing blue eyes fixed entirely on the center of the room.

CLANG! CLANG!

The heavy iron chains violently snapped taut. The ape-beast and one other beast were violently jerked backward, choking on their own collars just three feet away from Hide’s face.

They thrashed and clawed at the air, snapping their jaws in a rabid frenzy, but the runic chains held them perfectly in place.

Hide walked right past them, completely ignoring their deafening roars, the spittle from their jaws flying through the air. They were nothing but mindless, rabid dogs.

He stopped a few feet away from the teal feline. Up close, the sheer amount of damage inflicted upon the creature was staggering. The runic cuffs around its legs had burned deep into its flesh, permanently nullifying its mana.

Sensing the shift in the air, the massive beast twitched.

Its ribbon-like antlers trembled slightly as it slowly, agonizingly forced its heavy head up. It opened its eyes. The right eye was completely milky and ruined, blinded by some past torture.

For a moment, it was just the look of a dying animal accepting its executioner.

The teal beast’s single emerald eye suddenly widened to an impossible degree. The sheer shock that rippled through the creature’s broken body was so intense it completely overpowered its physical agony.

To Hide’s absolute astonishment, the beast didn’t growl. It didn’t bare its fangs or cower in fear.

With a ragged, wet gasp, the colossal feline violently shifted its weight. It ignored the agonizing pull of the iron spikes digging into its flesh, pushing its shattered front legs beneath its body. It threw itself forward, collapsing heavily at the very edge of its restraints, bowing its majestic, bloody head until its snout pressed flat against the dirty stone directly in front of Hide’s boots.

It was prostrating.

Hide stared down at the highly intelligent, submissive gesture.

Then, the beast’s chest heaved, and a voice—deep, resonant, and entirely telepathic—echoed directly into Hide’s mind.