Neo woke later than the other two.

That was expected. He had taken the later watch, so when he finally opened his eyes, the fire had already been fed, the worst of the morning dampness had lifted, and Alice and Snot were both awake. Snot sat near the roots eating what little food he still had left, while Alice adjusted the strap of her backpack and watched the trees in that quiet way of hers.

The moment Snot noticed him stir, he spoke around a bite of dried food.

"I already explained the Soul Cores thing to Alice. She’s still far from the next Core, so after I told her the Breach closed and we need to push someone upward fast, she agreed. For now, you’re taking and consuming the Soul Cores."

Neo pushed himself up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the heel of his hand, and let out a low breath.

"Good." He dragged a hand through his hair, grimacing slightly as a more practical thought caught up. "By the way... we’re running low on food."

Snot swallowed and lifted a brow.

"We can eat Soul Beasts."

Neo stared at him. "They’re edible?"

Snot snorted.

"You’re from Zone 0. Wasn’t that normal there?"

Neo’s head turned slowly toward him.

The shift in him was small, though not small enough to miss. Snot’s class caught it immediately. A faint rise in heat. Blood moving harder. Irritation sharp enough to show.

Snot lifted both hands at once.

"Just kidding. It was just a joke, Neo. Sorry if it didn’t come through." He leaned back against the roots with a crooked smile. "But I’m probably right about the first part. It’s either Soul Beast meat or we start looking at dead people with a more creative attitude."

"No."

"Yeah, I thought so." Snot dusted off his hands and rose. "So we test the Soul Beasts. No point starving with pride. Anyway, we should move. I’ve got a feeling we’re getting close to the tower."

Alice stood as well.

The three of them started walking, Snot ahead by a pace or two, Neo and Alice side by side behind him.

Snot twisted around as he walked backward for a few steps.

"So, what kind of Soul Beasts did you two run into while you were alone?"

Neo answered first. "Spiders. Not much else."

Alice gave a small nod. "Same."

Snot stopped dead and stared at both of them.

"You know, words don’t consume Soul Essence, right?" He pointed at them one after the other. "You two are absurdly dry. Try enjoying small things once in a while. We’re alive, for example. That’s worth something."

Neo turned toward Alice with the exact same expression she wore when she glanced back at him.

Alice broke first.

A laugh slipped out of her before she could stop it.

Snot blinked, startled, and immediately grew curious.

"Oh? A laugh. Good. See, that’s the spirit. Now I’m interested. What was so funny?"

Neo answered without missing a beat.

"How stupid you are, Snot."

Alice laughed harder.

Snot placed a hand over his chest like that wounded him.

"Yeah, honestly, I think so too."

That only made Alice laugh more, enough that she had to press a hand to her mouth.

The mood lasted right up until the bushes ahead exploded outward.

A Soul Beast stepped into view, and the shift in the air was immediate.

It moved like something built for clean violence. Four powerful legs, a body long and low despite its height, black fur slick against muscle, fangs pale against a mouth that looked made for tearing. Its head carried a feline shape none of them had words for, but the impression came through clearly enough. Fast. Quiet. A hunter that did not need a pack to feel dangerous.

It stood nearly two meters high at the shoulder and stretched four long meters from snout to tail.

Snot’s daggers appeared in his hands in twin flashes of light.

"What a shame," he muttered. "The good moments never stay long."

Alice’s great axe formed in her grip. Neo summoned his sword.

The beast bared its fangs and lowered itself to spring.

Alice moved first.

She stepped forward and swung the axe in a broad, aggressive arc, not trying to hit yet, only claiming the thing’s attention and forcing its focus onto her. The Soul Beast answered immediately, snarling low as it lunged in her direction.

That was all Neo needed.

He poured Beast Strength into his legs and arms at once. Power rushed through him, heavier now than it had felt before, not by much, but enough that he noticed it. The extra Souls from the spiders had not changed him dramatically. They had changed him just enough to matter.

He came in fast from the side while Alice held the front.

The beast turned late, too committed to her, and Neo drove the blade into its abdomen. The cut opened clean and deep. Red blood burst from the wound and splashed across black fur.

The Soul Beast twisted with a roar.

Snot smiled.

That smile always looked wrong when blood was involved.

His class answered the wound at once. The red spilling from the beast did not simply fall. It shivered in the air, dragged sideways in a jagged pull toward one of Snot’s daggers like iron toward a magnet. The beast felt it too. Its body jerked half off balance, not enough to drop it, enough to ruin the next movement.

Snot went in low.

One dagger flashed beneath the throat. The second followed through the opened line. By the time the Soul Beast tried to correct itself, its neck had already been opened. Blood came harder now, and Snot’s resonance made the last of its strength betray it. The creature staggered, coughed out something wet, and dropped dead in the brush.

For a second, the three of them only stood there catching the aftershock of the fight.

Then a window appeared in front of Snot.

He blinked once and grinned.

"Oh. Vein Core."

Snot crouched, pulled the Soul Core from the corpse, and tossed it toward him.

"If they’re all Vein Core, we’ll go faster, that’s good."

Neo caught it and consumed it at once.

The yellowed orb dimmed in his palm and vanished into him.

[Soul-Window]

[Has consumed a Vein Soul Core, +2] [627/1000]

Another panel followed.

[Class available: Night Stalker - Vein. Do you wish to learn?]

Abilities:

Enhanced Bite Force

Low Silent Movement

Neo read it once and rejected it without hesitation.

No point.

Snot was already crouching beside the corpse, driving one dagger into the flesh with practical calm.

Neo looked at him. "You’re serious about eating that."

Snot glanced up at him as if the question itself were the strange part.

"We’re hungry."

He cut a strip free and held it up briefly before dropping it onto a broad leaf.

"At this point I’m more worried about starving than about taste."

Neo said nothing.

That was fair.

They were running low on food already, and the jungle did not seem interested in making survival elegant. Either the Soul Beast meat worked, or they kept walking toward the tower with emptier stomachs every hour until that started costing them in fights.

Alice stayed quiet while Snot cut more pieces from the kill. Her expression said clearly enough that she was not happy about any of it, but she did not complain either. None of them were in a position to be picky.

By the time they had a small fire going again, strips of dark meat were roasting over it on sharpened branches.

The smell was strange.

Not rotten. Not exactly good either. Heavy, gamey, with something in it that reminded Neo this had not been an ordinary beast.

Snot took the first bite.

He chewed, frowned, swallowed, and looked down at the meat in his hand.

"Well," he said, "it won’t win any awards."

Neo snorted softly.

Alice took a smaller piece and tried it next. Her face tightened a little, though she managed to get it down.

Neo was the last one to test it.

The texture was tougher than he wanted, and the taste was rough, but it was meat. More importantly, it stayed where it belonged and did not make him feel like he had just poisoned himself.

Good enough.

That answered the question.

So they hunted.

Once the first beast was down, they began finding more through the day, the same kind of black jungle predator moving alone or in pairs through the undergrowth like it had been built for this place. The pattern formed quickly. Alice took the front and forced their attention onto her. Neo used the opening she created to wound or pin them into bad movement. Snot finished what blood had already betrayed.

The rhythm suited them.

By the tenth kill, it had settled in fully.

By the fifteenth, the light had already started thinning