Hellbound: Rebirth Of The Strongest Slayer.

Chapter 77 77: Treasure Hunting (2)

Rayden stood there, stunned beyond words.

The beast he had just confirmed as the most terrifying existence he had encountered in this new world…

Was not sleeping.

It was dead.

Killed.

He gulped hard, throat dry, vision swimming for a second before he forced himself to steady up. His legs trembled slightly. He hated that.

Grah rushed over, trying to stay quiet, but Rayden waved him off.

"It's pointless," he muttered. "It's dead."

Even Grah, as dull as he sometimes acted, understood the weight of that sentence.

This creature was monstrously strong. Overwhelmingly strong.

And it had been killed.

The wolf slowly curled into itself, fear taking over. Rayden did not blame him. He was shaken too. Anyone with sense would be.

Rayden was certain of one thing.

This beast could have wiped out his entire army.

The bear horde. The white gorillas. Every creature he had painstakingly subdued in this forest.

It would have slaughtered them without breaking a sweat.

And yet here it lay.

No torn flesh.

No crushed scales.

No shattered bones.

No pools of blood.

No signs of battle.

It was as if it had been erased.

Overwhelmed and killed in an instant by something unseen.

Rayden's mind raced.

Poison?

No.

A beast of this level would have terrifying resistance. It would not go down so quietly.

The only logical conclusion was simple.

It had been killed.

But that only made things worse.

Whoever or whatever did this had done so cleanly. Effortlessly.

Out there in the world, yes, there were experts capable of such feats. Rayden was not naive. But what were the chances one of them would wander into this random forest?

He exhaled slowly, forcing his racing thoughts to calm.

Whatever killed this thing was far beyond his current strength.

So why waste energy thinking about it?

Rayden stepped around the massive corpse, eyes scanning carefully.

If a beast this powerful existed, it had to have something valuable on it. A treasure. A core. Something worth the risk.

He searched.

And searched.

Nothing.

Not a single item.

No rare herbs hidden beneath it.

No strange crystals.

Nothing.

His expression darkened.

Whoever killed it had either stripped it clean or the snake carried nothing at all.

Fine.

Rayden clicked his tongue.

He might not get treasure.

But he would get meat.

When would he ever get the chance to eat flesh from a beast this powerful again?

The earlier fear began to fade, replaced by a wild spark of excitement.

He rolled his shoulders.

The softest part of the body would be the eyelids.

He would rip them off.

Even the meat from that alone would last him a long time. The beast was enormous.

Truly massive.

Rayden activated Hellskin Fortification.

Ultra Boost.

His muscles tightened. His veins burned.

Then Ember of Will ignited.

Crimson flames engulfed his fist.

He pulled his arm back.

"Let's see how tough you really are."

He shot his fist forward with everything he had.

It slammed into the snake's eyelid.

What happened next was not something Rayden expected.

A terrifying force exploded outward.

Not from the snake's body.

From the air itself.

It slammed into him.

His insides churned violently, as if his organs were being ripped apart. The impact blasted him off his feet and sent him flying backward.

He crashed hard into a tree trunk.

The bark shattered.

Pain flooded his senses.

Rayden coughed, vision spinning as he tried to understand what had just happened.

Grah rushed to him, fear forgotten, nudging him upright.

Rayden held his aching head.

It rang with sharp, uneven pulses of pain.

"What the hell was that…"

For several long minutes, he was disoriented. His vision blurred at the edges. His thoughts scattered.

Then he activated Infernal Instinct.

The familiar cold clarity seeped back into his mind. The scene replayed clearly.

His fist.

The eyelid.

The impact.

The invisible force.

Wait.

His eyes snapped open.

"That's it."

He turned slowly to look at the snake's eye again.

And his stomach dropped.

The eyelid was exactly as he had left it.

No dent.

No tear.

No scratch.

Not even a mark.

Rayden swallowed.

The eyelid had to be the most fragile part of the beast's body. And yet, with Hellskin Fortification, Ultra Boost, and Ember of Will pushed to the limit, he had not done a single point of damage.

If attacking the eyelid had nearly killed him…

What would have happened if he struck the head covered in dark scales?

Or the back?

Or any other part of its body?

The answer was simple.

At best, he would be crippled.

At worst, dead.

A dry chuckle escaped his lips.

"These past few days… I really thought I was getting strong."

Reality was brutal.

In the grand scheme of things, he was nothing.

Not worthy of mention.

Yet.

His eyes hardened.

That would change.

His goal was never small. He would rise beyond his former glory. Beyond the limits of this world. Beyond the very concept of existence itself.

This setback would not shake him.

After recovering from the near-death experience caused by his greed for snake meat, Rayden decided to search the surrounding area instead.

Thirty meters.

Forty.

Fifty.

Nothing.

He was about to give up when Grah nudged him insistently.

"What is it?"

Rayden followed the wolf's gaze.

There, half buried under rubble and shattered stone, was a yellowish orb.

It emitted a soft glow.

Subtle.

But steady.

Rayden picked it up without much expectation.

The moment his fingers touched it, the system's voice echoed in his mind.

A worthy treasure for system upgrade has been found. Would you like to feed this treasure to the system?

Rayden raised an eyebrow.

A worthy treasure.

If even the Hellbrand System acknowledged it like this, then it was no ordinary orb.

This could definitely satisfy that greedy monkey.

He glanced at the message again.

Would you like to feed this treasure to the system?

Rayden's eyes darkened thoughtfully.

When he was reborn, the system had been heavily damaged due to the low energy density of this realm. It had said it would slowly recover over time. Faster as he grew stronger.

He had once wondered if treasures could accelerate that recovery.

Now he had his answer.

This orb was valuable.

Extremely valuable.

The choice stood before him.

Give it to the monkey and finally begin his plan to hunt down the Scavenger.

Or feed it to the system and help it recover from its damaged state.

Both choices had benefits.

Both had risks.

Rayden stared at the glowing orb in his hand.

Giving it to the monkey would let his plan begin in earnest.

But that meant losing a treasure that might be worth more than the entire white gorilla clan. More than his whole beast army combined.

If he fed it to the system, he was certain of one thing.

The system would not fully heal.

Worse, the system had made it clear. It would only fully activate once he became a cultivator.

And he still was not.

So what if the orb had a better use now rather than later?

Rayden narrowed his eyes and activated Soul Echo Vision.

He peered deep into the orb.

And what he saw made his fingers tremble.

Hidden within the yellow glow were unfathomable strands of essence.

Layered.

Intertwined.

Twisting around each other in complex patterns, like coiled serpents locked in an eternal dance.

Boomerang arcs.

Spirals.

Dense beyond reason.

If there was one word to describe the energy stored inside, it would be massive.

Not ordinary.

Not impressive.

Massive.

Rayden inhaled slowly, then rose to his feet.

His decision was made.

He would not feed it to the system.

He would not give it to the monkey.

He would keep it.

He did not know how to use that energy yet. But who said that would not change once he became a cultivator?

Infernal Instinct was still active.

And it was almost always right.

He trusted it.

Grah looked ready to leave. Even the wolf could sense the orb's importance. Surely this was enough to convince the monkey to join the Lord's army.

What Grah did not expect was what Rayden said next.

"We rest here tonight," Rayden said calmly. "Tomorrow we continue treasure hunting."

Grah stiffened.

If wolves could frown, he would have.

They had just encountered a beast powerful enough to wipe them out without effort. The only reason they were alive was because it was already dead.

If they stumbled upon something like that alive next time, they would not survive.

It would be suicide.

Grah wanted to protest.

But he did not.

The Lord was not to be questioned.

Rayden fashioned a simple necklace from sturdy thread and secured the yellow orb at its center. He placed it against his chest.

For some reason, he felt… fortunate.

As if this was more than just a treasure.

Maybe the orb was far more complex than it appeared. Maybe it would shape his future in ways he could not yet see.

Time would tell.

For now, he climbed onto the massive snake's corpse and rested against its cold scales.

As sleep slowly crept in, his mind drifted back to one unsettling thought.

The snake had no wounds.

No torn flesh.

No shattered scales.

No holes.

No visible damage at all.

It was as if it had been killed without suffering any physical harm.

And judging by the fact that the forest around them remained intact, there had been no devastating battle.

Which meant only one thing.

The snake had been killed effortlessly.

It had not even resisted.

Rayden exhaled softly.

Whatever abomination had done that…

He did not want to meet it.

------------

Unbeknownst to him, far above, another figure lay stretched across a tree branch.

His body rested lightly atop the leaves, as if he weighed nothing at all.

A man who looked to be in his late thirties.

Blonde black hair swayed slightly in the chilly wind, yet he remained perfectly still.

Around his neck hung a chain with several hollow shapes, each filled with gems of different sizes and colors.

Except one.

A circular slot.

Empty.

A yellow orb was supposed to be there.

But it was gone.

To be continued...