Abyss Descension: I Perform Rituals to Evolve In The Apocalyps-Chapter 15: Runes

Runes.

What do they do?

Kev's eyes narrowed in thought.

There was no mention of it in the secret divulged by his masterpiece of a magical item with a negligible drawback.

However, runes were consumable.

This meant they might be beneficial to humans.

He couldn't afford to give up on this secret!

He looked away from the corpses.

One of his memories was forever stripped away.

In return, he withheld the recently divulged secret.

Taking out his combat knife, he sliced its head open. Its skin was tough like the hide of a beast—he had to use a lot of strength to cut it open.

Multicoloured rays of light shone out of the cut he had made.

His hand poked inside and pulled out three hexagonal-shaped crystals.

One was green.

One was red.

The last one was transparent.

"Let's see what they do," Kev said, relying on the power of his monocle to determine their uses.

Increases your might.

Doubles your strength.

Safe to consume.

Allows you to move faster.

Doubles your movement speed.

Safe to consume.

Has no effect.

"Such tiny crystals can help me break through human limits and double my strength and speed?"

Shock was evident in Kev's eyes as he played with the crystals in his hand.

Unable to believe it, he sought to verify the truth himself.

He ran a lap around the room. The room was quite vast. It took him a while to complete it.

After that, he consumed the Rune of Speed.

A surge of energy coursed through his veins.

From his cells and veins to his bones, every part of his body greedily absorbed it.

He suddenly felt as light as a feather.

He ran a lap around the room again.

This time, it took him half the time compared to before.

"It's true!"

Kev's eyes brimmed with excitement.

The Rune of Speed had doubled his movement speed.

If he took the Rune of Strength, wouldn't he instantly become strong enough to lift the iron-clad giant's sword and swing it around like a berserker?

Was there anything more romantic than a man with a big sword, swinging it around on the battlefield?

Kev's throat went dry.

He felt like his childhood dream was about to come true.

He tossed the red rune into his mouth.

Crunch~

He crushed it beneath his teeth.

A torrent of warmth surged into his body. Kev felt himself being filled with boundless strength.

The feeling wasn't wrong.

His strength—

It was growing at an ridiculous pace.

He went up to the giant broadsword and picked it up from the floor. Last time, it had required both his hands just to pull it out. But now, he was able to swing it around with only one hand. From this, the difference between his present self and the one a few moments ago could be clearly felt. He had grown exceedingly strong.

He looked at the last crystal he was left with. According to the secret divulged by his monocle, it had no special effect. Looking at it, a guessed formed in his mind.

"I have to check it out. If it's true, dealing with the monstrous beings of this abyss will become so much easier."

With the sword, Kev crossed the tunnel and stepped into the passage.

Turning on the flashlight, he took in his surroundings.

The tunnel was wide enough for ten people to walk side by side.

He couldn't see the end. The white beam blasting from his flashlight didn't reach that far.

He concluded it was a winding tunnel.

It was the only way out, so he continued forward.

As for why he thought that—

The iron-clad giant must have crossed it to enter the room he had just left behind.

Crunch!

As he stepped forward, the sound of bones shattering echoed.

He lowered his flashlight, and the light flashing from it illuminated the ground, revealing a pitiful but bone-chilling sight.

The floor was littered with bones. All kinds of bones.

They were everywhere.

"What kind of terrifying thing happened here for it to look like this?" Kev thought, gulping nervously.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The same bone-crushing noises rang out.

Kev looked ahead.

Three rotting corpses stepped into view.

Since this wasn't his first time seeing them, he didn't panic, instead focusing on how to deal with them.

The effect of the Dark King Monocle kicked in, showing their information.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

Kev's earlier conjecture was right.

Revenants that hadn't devoured enough beings to undergo mutation were considerably more vulnerable than Revenants that had mutated.

Although their sole weakness was their head, destroying it would ensure they wouldn't rise again.

At the sight of fresh prey, the Revenants growled like beasts. Their instincts blazed through their rotting bodies, allowing them to break into a sprint, rapidly approaching Kev like wild hounds unleashed from hell.

Watching the dead move was horrifying in itself.

Seeing them run as fast as trained athletes—yet with an unnatural, jerky gait—was downright nerve-wracking.

Kev wasn't fazed in the slightest.

He jumped forward. The distance between them was bridged in an instant.

As they entered his attack range, he swung the heavy broadsword fiercely.

A cold streak of silver light cleaved through the three Revenants.

Instantly, they were severed at the waist.

The two halves of their bodies fell beside the mountain of bones that littered the tunnel floor.

But it didn't end there.

True to their weakness, they couldn't die unless their heads were destroyed.

Urged by instinct and their insatiable desire for human flesh, they used their hands to crawl forward.

Even in such a miserable and wretched state, they still hoped to stuff Kev whole into their stomachs.

"How arrogant," he scoffed coldly.

These things were still moving only because he had allowed them to.

Had he wanted them dead, they would've already been nothing but unmoving piles of flesh.

He ruthlessly chopped off their hands.

Yet their movements didn't cease.

They began dragging themselves forward using only their shoulders.

"How stubborn," he muttered.

Still, he had expected this.

With their hands gone, they appeared far less threatening.

He kicked two of them away and pinned the last one to the ground with his broadsword.

Then he whipped out his combat knife and slashed open its skull.

The cut wasn't deep enough to kill it—as evident from the restlessly moving head—but it was enough for a faint white light to leak out.

As the other two Revenants, now reduced to just their torsos, crawled toward him, Kev pushed his gloved hand into the cut in the pinned Revenant's skull.

He poked around inside its brain, and then—he touched something solid.

This was it.

He pulled it out carefully.

It was a hexagonal crystal the size of a pea, with a soft milky-white light streaming from within.

The moment it was removed from the Revenant's head, its movement ceased.

It had truly met its demise.

Seeing this, Kev nodded slightly.

"This confirms my guess... the source of a Revenant's energy is also a rune hidden in their mind!"