The berserker trembled. Purple blood gouged out its mouth and severed limbs. “H… help… me.”

‘Kill!’ Soulcleaver shouted in Aito’s head.

His mind that had just awakened from his bloodlust ached at the vicious voice’s order. Taking advantage of his sanity, he immediately hurled the ax away. Soulcleaver’s thoughts progressively fell silent as the ax disappeared far from Aito’s vision.

‘That weapon… is more dangerous than I originally thought it was,’ Aito considered. Feeling the exhaustion getting to him again, he fought to stay up.

‘More importantly, what did that thing just say?’ He laid his gaze on the berserker, choking on its own blood.

The monster kept calling for help that would never come. Aito could read fear, anxiousness, torment in its red eyes.

“What are you?” He asked, leaning forward. “If you can answer my question, I promise you a quick, painless death.”

“I… am… hum..an.” the berserker managed to say a few words despite the blood. “I… don’t… want… to die.”

Its voice was grotesque, deformed. It did not resemble a human’s voice. And yet, Aito knew, whatever the creature was, it had emotions.

There was nothing he would gain from keeping it alive. That kept repeating the same sentences. No new information would come out of its bloody mouth. Moreover… looking at it suffering like that, it would be too cruel to not end its life, even for him.

Aito crushed the berserker’s head with one strike, using his skills and strength, splattering purple liquid on an already bloody ground.

‘Valinar, what was that thing? It looked so human for a few moments that it is disturbing.’

[Hum, your savior? The one who helped you overcome your bloodlust?]

‘Why are you trying to change the subject? I’m not exactly in the mood for this. Do you know something or not?’

[I… do not know. Berserkers cannot speak unless they become Goliaths. If they do speak, then it would mean either they can be transformed back into humans or… they are not real berserkers. Which could mean… no, that’s impossible. They would never…]

Aito frowned, ‘What’s impossible? Valinar? Valinar!’

No matter how many times he called for her, the goddess fell silent. It appeared Valinar had realized something she wasn’t willing or ready to share. Something that shocked her breathless… even though she could not breathe.

Suddenly, Aito heard stepping sounds that reminded him he was undergoing a trial at the moment. He turned around as fast as his tired limbs allowed him.

However, all he saw was Segolene stepping on berserker corpses, walking towards him.

“Oh my… you… sure know how to fight,” she said, apparently shocked. Goddess or mortal, every woman around him today was bound to be shocked by something it seemed. “I had difficulty believing what you’ve accomplished until now, but… this. You’re so incredible you’re making me wet…. Congratulation on completing the 1st stage of the Flood. Let me give you a warm hug as a reward!”

The perverted moderator breathed heavily, panting from desire. Too exhausted to care for her bullshit, Aito dodged her warm, wet hug.

“Not in the mood for that. Tell me what’s next,” he said, unamused.

Segolene sighed. She wanted to play with him but seeing his face, the moderator knew it would be excessive to do so, even for her.

“Well…, you’ve finished three hours earlier than expected and since your friends have not cleared the 8th floor yet… you’ll have to wait. Take this time to rest. No need to worry about the soul cores. I’ll extract them for you.”

As soon as she said those words, Segolene’s face went still as if she became a doll or a statue. Aito stared at her for a second until he realized it was just an afterimage. The real moderator was probably already picking up the soul cores.

‘Well, I’m not gonna complain.’

He limped to his camp, passing by the many corpses, cracked earth, and destroyed bonfires, to finally sit near his extinguished campfire. There, he nursed his wounds.

***

“W…”

“Wak…”

“Wake up!”

Aito jolted awake when he felt a hand touching his face. He grabbed it reflexively, then tightened his hold, which resulted in a moan.

“Hun! Please stop stroking me like that unless…” Segolene whispered a few words to his ears.

Those few words made him jump to his feet. He was no pussy, but that tiny woman scared the shit out of him, especially her unusual lust.

Aito wondered if she was related in any way to Sara, the moderator Pyromancer he had met on the 2nd floor who had an aggressive lust for men. Although Segolene was far from aggressive, she probably shared an equal amount of lust as Sara.

Aito looked up. The sun was at its zenith, giving him an indication of how long he had been asleep. There was no time to satisfy that little woman’s lust—not that he wanted to, anyway.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Tsch… avoiding me again,” Segolene puffed up her cheeks like a hammer. Seeing how inefficient it was on the stoic man, she finally replied, “A little less than 2 and a half hours. Your friends cleared the 8th floor a few minutes ago. They choose to rest before going to the 9th floor. I’ve relayed your situation to them, and they look really worried. Especially when I told them you challenged the Flood.

“The ugly girl told me to tell you that she told me she would like to tell you that she doesn’t want you to put yourself in danger for their sake. Yep, that’s what she told me.”

Aito’s ears winced at the nonsensical phrasing, but he understood the message behind it.

“Thanks again, Segolene. I wish most moderators would help challengers as you do.”

“Oh stop it, you’ll make me blush!” She was actually blushing. “Well, I think you’re wrong when you say that, though. Most moderators actually try to help challengers. It’s just that… some of them have twisted ways of doing so. Just like bad boy Behir.”

Aito grunted, then looked to the side. There were ten bags filled to the brim with what he guessed were the berserkers’ soul cores.

“How many are they?” He asked, nodding towards the bags.

“Oh… I don’t know. Didn’t count. Probably two thousand or three thousand? Let’s just say a few thousand. I’m too lazy to count,” Segolene replied. “I think the question is: how are you going to bring all these to the 8th floor?”

Recalling vague images of his bloodlust-berserk state, Aito smirked, “Shouldn’t be a problem if I narrow it down to seven or six bags, right?”

Segolene barely had time to say “what do you mean” that Aito took one bag, opened it, and stared at its content.

Until now, he had barely understood what his ??? Skill was about. However, after creating a 2nd auxiliary core and his fight against berserkers, Aito felt like he started getting the hang of it.

He sent an order to his main core that replied with a loud pulse.

The moderator’s eyes opened wide, threatening to fall from their sockets when 1/10th of the bag’s content flocked to Aito’s body, temporarily glowing blue.

In the span of a moment, Segolene thought she was seeing something impossible. Something that had been lost long, long ago.

Aito’s glowing body returned to normal after a while as the tempest of energy receded and his soul core digested everything.

“That’s impossible,” Segolene said, gawking. “How… how can you have this skill?”

“What do you mean?”

Suddenly, a notification window popped up in front of Aito.

[Calculation complete. Congratulations! You have acquired a new skill!]

“Your skill… do you know what that is? Do you know what it means?” She took his hand and kneeled.

“What are you doing? Stop it, this is embarrassing.”

“Black challenger… are you… could you possibly be…are you… please tell me…”

A notification window popped up in between his eyes and Segolene.

____

[Reaper of Souls Lv2]

Description: The host can absorb the souls of the surrounding deceased beings from a distance and instantly digest them as long as they are inferior or equal to level 2. Maximum range: 10 meters. Permanently increases affinity with mana, soul power, and souls by 25%.

____

Everything in the description looked as he imagined, apart from the increase in affinity with mana, soul power, and more particularly with souls. What did an affinity with soul even mean, anyway? No, that didn’t matter for now.

A problem that was currently grabbing his hand required his attention.

“Is it possible that you are… a braver?”

In Segolene’s eyes, he could see a great many things but the one thing that shone the brightest was Hope.

Aito didn’t know what to reply.

Should he say “yes?” That was probably a bad idea. Considering how hopeful she looked, he sensed it could lead to trouble. Saying no would be lying since he was, in fact, a braver. An ax braver, but a braver nonetheless.

He wondered at that moment why was the “ax” in his class name, anyway? What poor sense of naming was that? That kinda pissed him off.

“Please… tell me, black challenger. Are you the one we’ve been waiting for? The one who’s supposed to end this accursed war?”

‘What the fuck is she talking about?’

Yeap, hearing that Aito concluded it could only lead to trouble to tell Segolene the truth. She had been kind to him until now. However, there was no way in Hell or Earth or Iris he would step on such a big humongous large shit when it was so glaringly obvious. 

“No, I’m just an ax warrior who happened to stumble on such a skill thanks to an achievement,” he said. Seeing Segolene’s saddened face, he added, “I’m sorry.”

The moderator sighed, then got up, “No, it’s my fault if I misunderstood. I’ll… leave you to your… soul absorption and come back later when your friends reach the 9th floor.”

She disappeared, leaving but an afterimage behind her that eventually faded into nothingness.

‘Damn it… why do I feel so bad even though I just dodged a bullet?’ Aito thought as he absorbed more soul cores.