Chapter 60: Blood Regeneration

Luke narrowed his eyes at the system notification.

[Mission Orb: Hunt the Iron-Tusk Boars
Objective: Kill 10 Iron-Tusk Boars
Progress: 0/10
Reward: Equipment (Unrevealed)]

He dropped silently from the branch, landing with feline grace.

The blue orb had already vanished.

“So that’s what Anna meant… hidden missions scattered throughout the Wild Zone.”

If side quests like this existed out here, they could be a huge edge.

Luke had already made up his mind—power came first. Always.

To complete the tutorial, he had to find the three ancient mechanisms sealing the castle. But he had a theory. Each one was probably guarded by a Lord. And if he activated all three—the Midnight Wardens would march again. Day and night. Without pause.

Luke clenched his fists.

He wasn’t the sentimental type. But still—there were children and civilians in the Safe Zone. He couldn’t unleash a bloodbath and walk away like it meant nothing.

He pushed the thought aside. Right now, he had one goal. Strength.

***

Luke moved carefully through the city ruins in the Wild Zone, crouched low, hugging the sides of broken buildings as he kept to the shadows. Whenever footsteps echoed nearby, he dashed across crumbling streets and dove into abandoned houses without hesitation.

A system prompt flickered in the corner of his vision.

[Dead Watchman – Level 10]

So… zombie soldiers patrol the city too.

The undead guard shuffled past, slow but steady. Right behind it came two more, moving together in formation. They didn’t roam alone—they moved in groups.

Back in the forest, he’d already managed to evade a pack of velociraptors, using the treetops to bypass them. But getting chased by monsters inside the city? That was a different problem entirely. Open ground, tight alleys—no trees to climb. Worse, any chase here, even in daylight, would draw too much attention.

This run wasn’t about fighting. It was about learning. Understanding. Mapping the place out. He needed to gather as much information as possible before committing to deeper pushes. That was why he’d refused the Haven’s offer to assign him a guide.

If I’m gonna survive this place… I need to feel it myself. I need to learn how it moves.

Stealth was everything.

The Wild Zone was massive, but the division between the forest and the city was clear. The forest was dangerous, sure. But it was manageable. The ruins? A whole different ecosystem. One designed to kill you. Especially after sunset—when the Midnight Wardens started their patrols.

But the deeper you went into the city… the better the loot. Clothes. Supplies. Abandoned chests filled with food, materials, maybe rare gear. The risk was suffocating—but so were the rewards.

The catch? Time control.

If you went too deep and didn’t make it back before midnight… you were dead. No negotiation. No mercy. Once the curfew hit, the Midnight Wardens hunted anything that moved.

And then there was the light. Daytime exploration was dangerous, but manageable. Night? The Wild Zone turned pitch black. Sure, Luke had Demonic Perception, but even that had limits. You could sense shapes, movement… but not everything. Not perfectly.

And yet… even knowing all that… he still wanted to try. To push. To figure it out. To conquer it.

Once the undead patrol rounded the corner and vanished, Luke slipped out of the building, climbed its side using broken ledges and cracks, and pulled himself onto the rooftop. From there, he scanned the streets below.

“Damn… this place is huge,” he muttered.

His priority was clear—level up. Himself. Charlie. Both.

But that led straight into another problem. His skeletal companion was… well, a skeleton. Having her walk around with him was basically announcing his bloodline to anyone watching. That secret was one he couldn’t afford to lose.

Luke sighed, casting a glance toward the forest in the distance. “Time to head back.”

Pushing deeper into the ruins without a better plan was reckless. He wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. And besides… he still needed to check out that mission orb he’d picked up earlier.

***

As he started moving, the realization fully clicked. Something that had been slowly forming in the back of his mind finally locked into place. He understood now—really understood—why so many survivors refused to leave the Safe Zone.

It wasn’t just the monsters. Wasn’t just the curfew.

It was Health.

HP doesn’t regenerate. That was a harsh truth he had no choice but to accept.

If someone with 100 HP took 70 damage, they’d be stuck with only 30. Permanently. No recovery. Unlike mana or stamina, your health bar stayed exactly the same. Even if you treated the wound manually, like stitching it up or something, every point of HP lost brought you one step closer to death.

Sure, you could restore HP when leveling up your Race. But that required killing enemies, which came with its own risk of… well, taking even more damage. Same with leveling up your Profession. The loop was brutal. The more you fought to survive… the more likely you were to die trying.

It was a death spiral.

That’s why healers were worth their weight in gold. And healing potions? Priceless. Controlled by exactly one person.

Bartholomew.

But Luke… Luke had something else. A loophole. A skill. A way to bypass the entire problem.

And he was dying to test it.

Luke moved swiftly through the undergrowth, each step measured, every sense sharpened to a razor’s edge. If game logic applied here—and it usually did—the mission zone shouldn’t be far from where the orb had been.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Then a sound hit him. A low, heavy snort, deep enough to vibrate through the ground.

He dropped instantly into the brush, body pressed low. His eyes scanned the clearing ahead. And then he saw them.

Boars.

But not the kind anyone would expect. These weren’t woodland pests. Each one was the size of a full-grown bear, their bodies packed with dense muscle beneath thick bristled hides. Their eyes glowed with a dull, burning aggression—pure, undiluted rage.

Beside him, Princess Charlie stood silent. Her skeletal form motionless, hollow gaze fixed on the beasts. No breath. No sound. Just perfect stillness.

Luke slid one kukri free, grip tightening.

A single motion—clean.

Thunk.

The blade spun through the air and buried itself deep into the side of one of the monsters. The boar shrieked, staggering back, tusks shaking. Then—those tusks began to glow. Bone shifted, reshaping. Metal bloomed across the surface like liquid steel hardening in an instant. Smooth, cold iron.

Luke’s stomach dropped.

They have skills.

One of them roared and charged—a bull made of muscle and fury. Luke dove sideways just as the creature slammed into a tree, the impact splitting the trunk in half with a deafening crack. Splinters rained down.

Another came from his blind spot, slamming into him shoulder-first. The hit knocked the air out of his lungs. Luke hit the dirt hard, sliding through the mud and leaves, coughing, ribs screaming.

He gritted his teeth and recalled his kukris, the blades snapping back into his grip. This wasn’t a fight he could end quickly. Not cleanly. This was going to be rough.

A third boar lowered its head and charged, tusks gleaming. Luke shifted his stance at the last second. The beast thundered past, momentum sending it crashing straight into one of its own. Flesh and bone collided. Both creatures staggered.

There.

An opening.

One breath. One step. His body moved faster than thought. A clean arc, a sharp twist—kukri slicing straight through muscle and tendon. The blade ripped into the boar’s neck. Blood sprayed, warm and heavy.

The beast shuddered, took one broken step forward—then collapsed.

[You have slain an Iron-Tusk Boar – Lvl 13]

No time to breathe. Another boar barreled toward him. Luke leapt, landing square on its back. With a savage twist of both blades, he drove them deep into the creature’s thick neck.

The boar thrashed, but Luke whispered coldly, “Time to sleep.” He twisted again—its throat tore open.

He hit the ground running, pouring mana into his legs mid-fall. Shadow wrapped around his body as he surged forward like a living blur.

He crashed into another boar like a wrecking ball. The creature flew backward, slammed into a tree with enough force to snap the trunk clean in half. Two more down.