Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 5: The Birth of a Calamity

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: The Birth of a Calamity

The crowd of reporters forgot how to breathe. The cameras kept rolling, broadcasting the horrific sight across millions of television screens worldwide.

A thick, dark violet tendril of condensed shadow energy pierced straight through Leon’s chest plate.

Leon’s body jerked violently, his eyes bulging as his skin turned an ashen gray in seconds. His muscle mass withered, his hair turned white, and his remaining mana was forcibly siphoned through the tendril straight into Renan’s raised palm.

"Gah... hrrgk..." Leon gasped his final breath, his body collapsing into a dry, hollow husk before crumbling into a pile of gray dust on the pavement.

DING! DING! DING!

A golden-crimson notification panel flared violently in front of Renan’s eyes, visible only to him.

[Forced Extraction Successful!] [Target: S-Rank Hunter (Leon) Extracted.] [Attributes Extracted!] [Strength +150] [Agility +110] [Skill Acquired: Active - Gale Flash Blade (Rank-S)] [Attribute Stacking Limit Reached for Tier-1 Human Body.] [Host is undergoing Body Refinement...]

A shockwave of raw, unrefined energy surged from Renan’s chest.

CRACK-CRACK!

The ground within fifty paces sank three inches. The black mist around Renan condensed into a solid, shadowy cloak that fluttered against the windless night. His physical height expanded slightly, his shoulders broadened, and the lingering scars on his arms healed without leaving a trace.

Richard’s face was completely drained of blood. He backed away two paces, his hands trembling violently around the hilt of his golden rapier.

He had fought dragons. He had survived Class-S dungeon breakouts. But he had never seen a human absorb the very soul and life force of another Hunter in broad daylight.

"You... you monster..." Richard stammered, his voice shaking over the hum of the flashing police cruisers arriving in the distance. "You absorbed Leon’s life... You’re an evil entity!"

"Evil?" Renan raised his eyes. The crimson glow in his pupils had deepened into a dark, terrifying purple. "When Leon cut my legs and left me to be eaten, you called him a hero on live television. When I take back what’s mine, you call me a monster."

Renan stepped forward.

The asphalt shattered under his boots with a loud CRACK.

"Your hypocrisy disgusts me, Richard."

"DIE!" Richard screamed, his pride snapping under the sheer pressure.

The S-Rank Guild Master pushed his mana to its absolute limit. His body vanished into a streak of golden light—[S-Rank Skill: Lightning Thrust]. In less than a millisecond, Richard closed the ten-meter gap, aiming the tip of his enchanted rapier directly between Renan’s eyes.

It was a strike capable of piercing through reinforced tank armor.

CLANG!

The golden rapier didn’t pierce Renan’s forehead.

Renan simply tilted his head half an inch, catching the razor-sharp blade between his index and middle fingers. The sheer momentum of Richard’s attack vanished instantly, as if slamming into an unmovable mountain.

Richard’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "M-My full-power thrust... with two fingers?!"

"You’re too weak, Guild Master," Renan said softly.

He twisted his fingers.

CRACK-SHATTER!

The multi-million-dollar S-Rank enchanted rapier snapped like a dry twig.

Before Richard could even recover from the shock, Renan drove a short, brutal palm strike straight into Richard’s chest armor.

BOOM!

The impact sounded like a heavy artillery shell detonating. The mithril chest plate buckled inward, shattering Richard’s sternum. The S-Rank Guild Master was launched backward like a cannonball, tumbling across fifty meters of concrete, plowing through three armored SUVs before slamming into the brick wall of the Guild headquarters.

Richard coughed up a violent spray of blood, his golden aura snuffing out like a candle in a hurricane. He slumped against the crumbled bricks, unable to lift his arms.

The entire plaza fell into a dead, suffocating silence.

An S-Rank Guild Master—one of the top ten strongest Hunters in the city—had been neutralized in a single strike by a former porter.

Sirens blared in the distance. Dozens of heavily armored vehicles from the National Hunter Association sped onto the scene, deploying elite tactical squads with heavy mana-cannon artillery.

"ATTENTION UNKNOWN ENTITY!" a loud megaphone echoed from an Association helicopter hovering above. "LOWER YOUR AURA AND SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR THE UNLAWFUL KILLING OF A REGISTERED HUNTER!"

Renan looked up at the spotlight beaming down on his face. He didn’t show a hint of panic. He glanced down at his hands, feeling the massive, unyielding ocean of power swirling within his core.

I’m not strong enough to take on the entire National Military yet, Renan calculated with cold, mechanical precision. My current stats are enough to slaughter this city’s top Guild, but fighting an entire nation’s army right now is inefficient. I need more corpses. Thousands more.

Renan looked at Richard, who was barely clinging to life against the wall, and then at the trembling reporters filming his every move.

"Apex Guild is finished," Renan’s voice echoed across the plaza, amplified by his new S-Rank mana, piercing through the ears of everyone present. "Anyone who stands under Richard’s banner will share Leon’s fate. I am coming for every asset, every gate, and every corrupt Hunter in this city."

Renan raised his hand, activating his newly acquired skill.

[Shadow Step!]

His body dissolved into a violent vortex of pitch-black smoke.

The heavy mana-artillery fired simultaneously, but the blue energy beams tore through empty air, striking only the shattered pavement where Renan had been standing a second prior.

Renan was gone.

Left behind was a destroyed plaza, a crippled Guild Master, a dead S-Rank Captain turned to ash, and a world of Hunters that had just witnessed the birth of their worst nightmare.

Deep in the dark, lawless alleys of the city’s Underground Slums, a streak of black smoke materialized outside a massive iron gate labeled: Black Market Corpse Vault — Property of the Underground Syndicate.

Renan stepped out of the shadows, looking at the door that housed thousands of discarded monster carcasses.

A cold, ominous smile broke across his face as his System window flickered in the dark:

[Target Location Reached: 3,500 Unclaimed Monster Corpses Detected.]

[Begin Mass Extraction?]