Chance...

The Conall

"What the hell was that? If she had been one second faster, I'd be dead! Damn b*tch, is she even human?" Conall grunted as he pushed Charlotte's limp body off him.

"Who would've thought this is how I'd come back?" he muttered, feeling an ominous energy seeping out from within. His body began to transform painfully, bones cracking and reshaping as he took on the form of a male human.

As his transformation completed, he found himself monologuing out loud. "I am Hans Sung, the Murim Alliance's newest member... well, before I died fighting a warrior, though I can't remember much about them for some reason. When I woke up, I was this wolf-like creature and quickly realized that I could absorb Qi by taking the stones from the corpses of Connells. But there was something strange about this body—it kept mutating and evolving."

Hans glanced down at his hands as if still coming to terms with his new form. "After eating about twenty of those stones, I was finally able to stand on two legs and fight again. I even took on the Alpha—a massive Connell, three times the size of the regular ones. It was a tough fight, but I managed to win despite the wounds. I regenerated quickly after eating more stones."

He paused as memories flooded back. "The rest of the Connell pack saw me as a threat and tried to kill me. Most died, but some escaped. I chased them down, tracking the pack to this place, hoping to absorb some easy internal energy. That's when I spotted a human woman—though I guess she wasn't entirely human—putting something between her chest. I noticed she'd already lost an arm... so I figured it was best to kill her while I had the chance."

Hans moved in a blur, grabbing a chunk of Charlotte's midsection, only to realize that the piece in his hand was metal. In that instant, pain shot through his leg as he was stabbed with a Connell tooth.

"Damn it! Now I can't go full speed or regenerate that part while the tooth is still in there," he grunted, stumbling back. Undeterred, he lunged at Charlotte again, but she dodged, stabbing him with another tooth.

As soon as he hit the ground, the ominous energy began to flare up within him. "Damn it, not now!" he cursed as the energy grew more unstable. "My mutation... I have to end this quickly, or I won't be able to move."

He launched himself at Charlotte one last time, managing to pin her down and bite off her remaining arm. Just as he was about to finish her, an unexpected surge of pain paralyzed him as Charlotte's foot connected squarely with his groin. He collapsed, gasping, unable to move.

In that moment, Charlotte, despite her grievous injuries, pushed him off and latched onto his neck, biting down hard. "This... this could really be it," Hans thought, his vision darkening.But then, just as suddenly, the biting force released, and everything went black.

---A loud, disembodied voice echoed around them. **[Dungeon cleared?]** The words seemed more like a question than a statement.Before Hans or Charlotte could make sense of what happened, they found themselves back outside the dungeon gate, lying in the living room.