The System’s Primal Heir

Episode 5: The Bottom-Feeder Returns

"Am I a hero now?" Leo’s voice rattled the fine crystal glasses on the catering tables.

Marcus Thorne stumbled back, his hand catching the mahogany podium to keep from collapsing. "You... you were dead. I saw the dagger go in! I felt your life fade!"

"You felt what you wanted to feel, Marcus," Leo said, his gray skin pulsing with a rhythmic red light that cast long, distorted shadows.

Seraphina Vance stepped forward, her hand resting on the hilt of a rapier made of pure, translucent ice. "Explain yourself, Leo Thorne. That mana... it isn't human. It’s the same rot I felt in the Abyss."

"It's the price of your legacy, Lady Seraphina," Leo rasped, his eyes darting toward the perimeter guards.

"Kill it!" Marcus screamed, his face twisting from shock to a murderous, desperate rage. "That isn't my brother! It’s a dungeon doppelganger! Guards, execute it now!"

The A-Rank guards lunged forward, their weapons wreathed in elemental fire and lightning. Leo felt the System hum in the back of his mind, a cold calculation overriding his panic.

[Status: Mana reserves low. Recommendation: Strategic withdrawal.]

"Not today, brother," Leo whispered, his shadow suddenly expanding into a blinding cloud of ink.

He slammed his fist into the ground, triggering a shockwave of Primal mana that shattered the marble fountain and sent a screen of water and dust into the air. Before the guards could pierce the gloom, Leo activated the last of his Identity Mimicry, his form shrinking and shifting as he vaulted over the high garden wall.

"Search the perimeter! Don't let that thing leave the estate grounds!" Marcus’s voice echoed behind him, fading as Leo hit the pavement of the outer street.

He ducked into a narrow alleyway, his lungs burning as the gray texture of his skin receded, replaced by the pale, sweaty flesh of his human form. The transformation was taxing, leaving him leaning against a dumpster while he vomited a mixture of bile and black ichor.

"You are pushing the vessel too hard, Leo Thorne," the Ancient Echo hissed inside his skull.

"I'll stop when he's dead," Leo wheezed, wiping his mouth with the back of a shaking hand.

He needed a new identity, a way to move through the city without the Thorne Guild or the Association recognizing the 'dead' E-Rank porter. He pulled a discarded, grease-stained hoodie from a trash heap and pulled it over his head, hiding the glowing red scar on his chest.

"Next," the clerk at the Hunter Association desk muttered an hour later, not even looking up from her tablet.

Leo stepped forward, his appearance now that of a generic, scarred man in his late twenties with dull brown hair and tired eyes. He had used a fraction of his mana to subtly shift his facial structure, rounding his jaw and narrowing his nose.

"Name and rank?" she asked, her voice a monotonous drone.

"Zero," Leo said, his voice now a neutral, gravelly baritone. "I'm here to register as a freelancer."

"Zero? That’s it?" She finally looked up, her gaze scanning his unremarkable features.

"It’s the only name I have left," Leo replied, sliding a small pouch of credits across the counter—money he had lifted from a Thorne guard's belt during the chaos.

She sighed, processing the payment and handing him a standard-issue copper identification tag. "Fine, Zero. You’ll start as an F-Rank until your first three successful raids. Don't go dying in a gutter; it’s too much paperwork."

"I'll try my best to be a nuisance for a long time," Leo said, taking the tag and turning toward the dungeon board.

The board flickered with various colors, but one caught his eye—a green-coded gate on the outskirts of the industrial district. It was labeled 'Slime Garden,' a low-threat zone usually reserved for teenagers and the elderly.

"Looking for an easy day?" a voice asked from behind him.

Leo turned to see a scruffy-looking hunter leaning against a pillar, chewing on a toothpick. "I need to get my rhythm back."

"Slimes are boring, kid," the man said, pointing at the screen. "But they’re safe. Just don't let 'em jump on your head, or you'll be smelling like vinegar for a week."

"I'll keep that in mind," Leo said, his eyes scanning the details of the dungeon.

[Quest Triggered: Bottom-Feeder’s Ascent.]

[Objective: Reach Level 30 by consuming low-tier essence.]

"Let’s see if the Echo likes the taste of jelly," Leo whispered to himself as he walked toward the exit.

The industrial district was a wasteland of rusted pipes and abandoned warehouses, the air smelling of grease and stagnant water. In the center of a vacant lot, a swirling vortex of emerald energy marked the entrance to the F-Rank dungeon.

"Identification, please," a bored-looking security guard said, blocking the path with a baton.

Leo held up the copper tag, the metal cool against his palm. "Zero. F-Rank. Entry for solo clearing."

"Solo?" The guard chuckled, stepping aside. "Well, if you get eaten by a pile of snot, don't say I didn't warn you."

"I think I can handle a few slimes," Leo said, stepping into the emerald light.

The transition was a familiar jolt of nausea, followed by the humid, earthy scent of an underground forest. The Slime Garden was a series of interconnected caverns filled with glowing mushrooms and slow-moving, translucent blobs of green goo.

"Target acquired," Leo murmured as a slime the size of a beach ball wobbled toward him.

He didn't use his claws; instead, he drew a standard-issue shortsword he had purchased from a pawn shop. He needed to blend in, to look like a struggling rookie while he secretly fed the beast inside him.

"Let's see what you're worth," Leo said, plunging the blade into the slime’s core.

The creature burst into a puddle of acidic liquid, and a small, green orb of mana floated toward Leo’s chest. The Primal System didn't just absorb it; it snatched it out of the air with a hungry, invisible tether.

[Experience Gained: 5. Hunger Status: Starving.]

"Five points? This is going to take forever," Leo grumbled, moving toward the next cluster of creatures.

He spent the next hour systematically clearing the first floor, his movements becoming more fluid as his new muscles adjusted to the sword's weight. With every kill, a small trickle of energy fed the Echo, keeping the dark voice in his head at a low, satisfied hum.

"Is that it?" Leo asked, wiping green slime from his cloak as he reached the entrance to the second floor.

"Something is different," the Echo suddenly resonated, its voice sharper than usual.

Leo paused, his hand on the hilt of his sword. The air in the cavern had grown cold, and the soft, rhythmic gurgling of the slimes had stopped, replaced by a wet, tearing sound.

"I feel it too," Leo whispered, his eyes narrowing as he peered into the darkness of the lower tunnel.

A scream echoed from deeper in the dungeon—not the squeal of a monster, but the frantic, high-pitched cry of a human in agony. Leo didn't hesitate, his body moving with a speed that blurred his vision as he sprinted toward the sound.

"Help! Somebody help me!" a young hunter cried out, pinned against a wall by a slime that had turned a jagged, obsidian black.

The slime wasn't translucent anymore; it was a mass of writhing, needle-like protrusions that were slowly boring into the hunter’s plate armor. Its core didn't glow green; it pulsed with a sickly, necrotic purple light.

"What the hell is that?" Leo asked, his sword glowing with a faint red aura as he prepared to strike.

"Error," the System announced, the red screen flashing with a violent frequency. "Dungeon parameters compromised. Evolutionary glitch detected."

The black slime turned toward Leo, its body splitting open to reveal rows of jagged, crystalline teeth. It let out a sound like grinding glass, a noise no slime should ever be capable of making.

"The slimes... they’re eating each other," the trapped hunter gasped, his eyes wide with terror as the black spikes punctured his shoulder.

"Get back!" Leo shouted, leaping forward and swinging his sword with enough force to cleave a boulder.

The blade struck the black slime, but instead of bursting, the monster’s body absorbed the impact, the metal of the sword beginning to hiss and dissolve. Leo let go of the weapon just as the slime lunged, its teeth snapping inches from his throat.

"It’s not just evolving," Leo said, his gray skin beginning to ripple as he abandoned his human disguise. "It’s being overwritten."

The walls of the cavern began to pulse with the same necrotic purple light, and a heavy, metallic groan echoed from the entrance they had just come through. Leo looked back to see a massive slab of obsidian sliding down, sealing the exit with a final, echoing thud.

"The gate is closed," the young hunter whimpered, collapsing to his knees as more black slimes began to ooze from the ceiling.

"It’s not just closed," Leo said, his eyes bleeding into a deep, predatory crimson.

A new notification appeared, the text so large it obscured his vision.

[Emergency Quest: Evolve or Die.]

[Objective: Survive the Glitched Descent. Current Hazard Level: Rank-S (Scaling).]

"Zero? What’s happening? Why are your eyes glowing?" the hunter asked, backing away from Leo in fear.

"Stay behind me and don't make a sound," Leo commanded, his voice vibrating with the power of the Primal.

"But the exit... how do we get out?" the boy cried, his voice cracking with panic.

Leo turned his gaze toward the army of black, man-eating slimes as his shadow rose up, manifesting dozens of hungry, red eyes.

"We don't go out," Leo said, a dark, jagged smile spreading across his face. "We eat our way to the bottom."