THE SOVEREIGN SCAVENGER: GOD-LEVEL EXTRACTION SYSTEM

THE CRY IN THE CRYPTS

The Sunken Crypts sprawled beneath the edge of Sector 7’s industrial wasteland a nightmare fissure slick with water and thick with the stench of moss, rot, and old bones. Nothing like those gilded, rule-bound dungeons in the Upper District. This place was raw and lawless. The walls bled icy sweat; every step echoed with hollow drips that just wouldn’t quit.

I stepped through the smeared gray portal and vanished into the dark, shadows swallowing me whole.

$$BEEP! ENTERING E-RANK PUBLIC DUNGEON: THE SUNKEN CRYPTS.$$

$$ENVIRONMENTAL WARNING: DECREASED VISIBILITY / WATERLOGGED TERRAIN. ACCURACY PENALTY APPLIED TO NORMAL UNITS. EFFECT NEGATED BY ACTIVE SKILL: ABYSS EYES.$$

My masked face blinked once, and the view sharpened every corner, every ledge mapped out in electric silver and navy. My Sovereign Shadow Core Bloodline sang in my veins; it belonged down here with the darkness.

Didn’t take effort to track my marks. Abyss Eyes lit up the wild, scattered mana trails of a low-tier hunter squad about half a mile down the main tunnel. All noise, no grace.

With Shadow Step, I broke into haze just a cold, silent mist gliding above the stone ceiling, invisible.

Five minutes later, I hovered over a wide, flooded stone plaza. Below, Oliver and Chloe huddled. The pale light showed the messy aftermath of a fight glowing bones, half-dissolved Drowned Warriors, and the two of them soaked and pathetic.

Oliver looked ruined. His fancy obsidian armor was smeared with green slime, the gold trim scratched and dull. His hair stuck up weird and dirty. He clutched his dragon-bone staff, his hands shaking so hard he could barely hold it. Chloe she kept close behind him, her elegant white silks smeared with mud, breaths coming in quick, scared gasps.

Three mercenaries stood with them. Last dregs of their credits, judging by the quality.

“Watch the left flank, you idiots!” Oliver’s voice cracked and shook. He was barely holding it together. “If we don’t harvest the Crypt Lord’s core tonight, the bank seizes everything tomorrow! Move it!”

“Oliver, my mana’s almost gone.” Chloe’s hands trembled as she tossed out a weak frost bolt at a skeleton. “The pressure down here it’s crushing. I can’t think straight. We need to pull back. Regroup.”

“Regroup with what money?” Oliver spun around, his eyes wild and mean. For a moment, he really looked like a cornered animal. “We’re bankrupt, Chloe! That masked freak at the auction house ruined us my father’s in a coma, our shares are trash! We leave empty-handed, it’s over. You wanna go back to the slums?”

She bit her lip, tears springing up. Her boots were ruined, and I saw the regret twisting inside her. She’d traded Ethan for security, and here she was stuck in a grave with a monster.

ROAR!

Something huge screamed from the dark sarcophagus at the plaza’s far end. The stone lid exploded, and an eight-foot skeleton in rusted iron stepped out every joint grinding, a jagged greatsword dragging at its side. Sick green fire burned in its eye sockets.

$$TARGET: CRYPT LORD (LEVEL 25 - E RANK BOSS)$$

“The boss!” The mercenaries lost it, just spun and tried to run. “It’s way too strong! Move!”

“Get back here, you cowards!” Oliver tried to cast, hurling fireball after fireball, but his spells wobbled and fizzled, bouncing harmlessly off the boss’s armor. The Crypt Lord didn’t blink just charged, swinging its sword in a massive arc.

SPURT!

Two mercenaries dropped cut in half before they could even scream. The last guy threw down his sword and bolted, slipping through the mud and disappearing into the tunnels.

“Oliver! It’s coming!” Chloe screamed as she fell, soaked and mud-streaked, the monster’s green gaze locking onto her.

Oliver, for all his talk, only thought of himself. He shoved Chloe straight into the creature’s path, not even pausing to look back.

“Distract it! Hold it off!” He turned and ran for the portal, shoving past the water like a cornered rat.

“Oliver! No! Please!” Chloe’s voice cracked. She stared up into the gaping maw of that sword, seeing the truth written there she was meat to him, nothing more.

But the strike never landed.

BOOM!

A wave of crushing dark energy ripped through the plaza. The air thickened, so dense it felt like trying to breathe lead. The Crypt Lord’s sword froze above Chloe, green fire flickering and guttering. The boss trembled under the pressure, forced to its knees.

Down the tunnel, Oliver collapsed in the muck pinned to the ground by invisible hands. He couldn’t even raise his head.

$$BEEP! ACTIVATING BLOODLINE PASSIVE: SOVEREIGN PRESSURE.$$

$$TARGET 'CRYPT LORD' ATTRIBUTES REDUCED BY 50\%. $$

$$TARGET 'OLIVER VANCE' ATTRIBUTES REDUCED BY 50\%. EXTREME SUPPRESSION CONDITIONS MET.$$

From the ceiling’s shadows, I stepped down just a silhouette in a heavy black tactical coat, my mask hiding every feature.

I slid between Chloe and the Crypt Lord, hands in my pockets.

“What... what is this?” Chloe stared up at me, her mana beaten silent by my presence. Her lips trembled as she recognized the impossible. “The Ghost Hunter...”

The Crypt Lord wailed, trying to swing that sword. I didn’t care. I lifted my right hand bare, flawless skin shining silver and smashed my fist against the monster’s weapon.

SHATTER!

Enchanted steel burst like glass. Metal bits rained into the water, and before the skeleton even twitched, I blurred in close. My palm drove into its chest.

EXPLOSION!

The monster didn’t stand a chance. Its bones powderized, raining down in a white, choking mist.

$$BEEP! CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE LEVEL 25 BOSS: CRYPT LORD.$$

$$EXPERIENCE GAINED. EXTRACTION SYSTEM INITIALIZING FIRST PROFILE CONSUMPTION...$$

The boss’s energy flooded into my palm, but I didn’t bother glancing at the status screens. I turned toward Chloe, who sat staring, broken, in the water.

“You... you’re the benefactor from the auction,” she begged, desperation staining every word. “Save me. Oliver sold me out he’s cruel please! I’m a Tier-2 Frost Mage... I have value...”

I looked through my mask, letting my eyes glow cold and lethal.

“You think you matter, Chloe?” My voice came out deep and ragged, the mask twisting each sound.

I left her behind and stalked up to Oliver, who still writhed uselessly in the mud. I yanked him upright by the collar, suspending him like a rag doll.

“Let... let me go...” he pleaded, terror wide in his eyes. “My family you’ll be paid whatever you want...”

“Your family is broke, Oliver,” I whispered. “I know. I’m the one holding your eighty-five million credits.”

His mind snapped; he went slack with the realization. “You... no it can’t be”

One smooth motion mask off. My hair fell back; my eyes burned bright gold. Two pairs of eyes went wide with disbelief and terror.

“Ethan?!” Chloe choked out, the sound near hysterical. “No! You’re F-rank! Dead! Trash!”

“Ethan...” Oliver shuddered. “Ghost Hunter...”

I took in their fear, calm and merciless as winter ice. “I warned you both, back in that cave. Next time you saw me, I’d take everything you had left.”

No more words. I squeezed Oliver’s throat and activated my core’s power.

“Extract.”

$$BEEP! INITIALIZING FORCED CLASS EXTRACTION ON LIVING TARGET: OLIVER VANCE.$$

$$TARGET STATUS: TOTALLY CRUSHED / UNRESISTING. SUCCESS RATE: 100\%.$$

$$EXTRACTING PYROMANCER BLOODLINE... EXTRACTING CORE MANA POOL... EXTRACTING SOUL INTERFACE...$$

A torrent of crimson light burst from his chest, fire pouring from his mouth and eyes. He barely got a scream out before his magic his class, his life ripped from him and became mine.

Chloe shrieked in the mud, fingers twisting at her hair, watching her prince shrivel into a dried husk.

The harvest was done. The under-sectors had a new king now.