Lord Of The Lost

The deeper they ventured, the more the ruins revealed themselves.

At the center lay a colossal, shattered statue, face-down in the dirt. Only its back remained visible above the surface.

The statue's broken torso alone measured seventy or eighty meters long, its true height, before it fell, must have been even more staggering.

Everything about these ruins felt raw, ancient, and crude.

Wide stone staircases, each step a towering three meters high, led further into the site. Climbing them was no challenge for William and the Forum Master, but they were clearly designed for beings far larger.

As they reached the seventh step, the full grandeur of the ruins unfolded before them.

And so did the monsters lurking within.

Deep inside, deformed giants roamed.

Each one stood around ten meters tall, their grotesque bodies twisted by mutation.

Some had three legs.

Some had a single, oversized eye.

Most had exposed muscle and flesh, looking more like experiments gone wrong than natural creatures.

[Hint: You have encountered a Deformed Giant.]

[Deformed Giants: Born from the corpses of ancient titans, these aberrations live in constant alienation and madness.]

William quickly scanned their ranks. There were over a dozen.

Fortunately, none had reached Sequence 8. Their highest-ranking member was only Sequence 9, which made things manageable.

William exhaled. "We should lure them out and pick them off one by one."

The Forum Master hesitated. "Our game time is almost up."

Now wasn't the time for a drawn-out fight. The team was in bad shape, still recovering from the insect swarm.

William, however, still had time.

"Then I'll handle it alone."

The Forum Master hesitated. He didn't like it, but there was no better option. He sighed and nodded.

Extraordinary beings like William had twice the game time compared to them. Even after the others logged off, William still had four more hours to fight.

The Forum Master couldn't help but feel frustrated. The gap between them was growing larger and larger.

---

After regrouping with Metatron, the team discussed their findings. The three of them went offline, while William returned alone to the ruins.

It was time to hunt.

He crept into position, pulling out Little Red Riding Hood's Slingshot, a weapon modified with core fragments from the Stone Demon.

He took aim at a smaller deformed giant, standing just over ten meters tall.

Pull. Hold. Fire.

Bang!

The projectile slammed into the giant's neck, detonating on impact. A thick cloud of blood mist erupted from the wound.

Even a Sequence 9 werewolf would have been gravely wounded.

But this was a giant.

Despite its exposed neck bones, it remained standing.

Still moving.

Still alive.

Giants were a force to be reckoned with, ranked on the same level as dragons in sheer power.

Even werewolves, known for their enhanced physical abilities, couldn't compare to them in terms of raw strength and durability.

But these weren't ordinary giants, they were twisted, malformed creatures, driven insane by their own mutation. Their intelligence barely surpassed that of wild beasts, making them savage, unpredictable, and overwhelmingly aggressive.

William's attempt to provoke them worked, too well.

The deformed giants let out a deafening roar, their fury shaking the air.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM!

The sound of their charge was more overwhelming than an army's march, the earth trembled beneath their monstrous steps.

"Shit!"

William instantly knew, the plan had failed.

Luring them out one by one was no longer an option. He pivoted sharply, disappearing into the ruins before the stampede could reach him.

The giants pursued without hesitation.

Since their birth, no creature had ever dared invade their domain, William was the first, and they intended to make him pay.

---

William adopted a kite-flying tactic, leading the giants deeper into the ruins to scatter them.

Their differences in size and speed soon caused them to break formation, some falling behind while others surged ahead in a blind frenzy.

After a few minutes of weaving through the maze-like ruins, William successfully lost most of them.

Now, it was time to strike.

He circled back to his original position, his target was still there.

A ten-meter-tall deformed giant, slightly smaller than the others but no less dangerous.

With precise timing, William struck.

The Evil Spear pierced straight through the giant's skull.

Victory?

Not even close.

The giant roared in defiance, its massive palm as large as a bed, swinging down at him.

CRASH!

Like a mosquito caught under a swatter, William was slammed into the ground.

The impact sent gravel flying in all directions, burying him under the rubble.

Groaning, he pushed himself free.

The fight was far from over.

---

[Mental Confusion]

William unleashed a surge of mental energy, trying to disrupt the giant's unstable mind.

Instead of confusion, the attack amplified its madness.

Its strength doubled.

The downward force of its attacks became even more brutal.

William grimaced. "Great, I just made things worse."

---

[Desperate Situation]

With his physical strength pushed to the limit, William barely managed to shove away the giant's crushing hand before it could flatten him again.

Like a spring recoiling, he leaped into the air—

[Slash]!

A blade of dark energy carved into the giant's exposed flesh, breaking through its outer defenses.

William landed lightly, assessing the damage.

The Evil Spear was still embedded in the giant's skull. Blood gushed from its grotesque wounds, yet it remained very much alive.

It was still capable of fighting.

---

William didn't hesitate.

He launched himself forward, clenching his fist.

[Piercing Attack]!

[Mutilate]!

The double-hit combo had been deadly against previous enemies.

Against this giant?

It only managed to shatter its jaw, leaving exposed flesh and bone, but still not enough to kill it.

The giant toppled backward, its body shaking the ground as it crashed.

Yet, it still struggled, its deformed features twitching in agony.

William didn't give it a chance to recover.

He jumped onto its face and rained down a flurry of devastating punches.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His fists met flesh, each impact sending a spray of blood into the air.

He didn't stop.

He didn't care about the gore covering him.

He punched and punched, until the giant's skull was shattered, until it finally stopped moving.

---

William barely had time to breathe.

A distant rumbling made him turn his head.

The other giants had returned.

William quickly retreated, watching from the shadows.

The surviving deformed giants gathered around the corpse of their fallen kin.

Then, without hesitation, they began devouring it.

The scene was raw, primal, horrific to witness.

---

This brief fight taught William an important lesson.

Giants were special.

Even if you hit them with 100% of your power, only 30-40% of the damage actually went through.

It was like punching through hardened leather.

Even with fatal injuries, they could still fight for a while longer.

Their strength was monstrous.

High attack.

High defense.

An enormous health bar.

This was the core nature of the Giant Path.

Some extraordinary beings were simply born powerful, starting at Sequence 9, leaving no room for weaker species to compete.

But these deformed giants weren't living up to their full potential.

They were flawed, twisted versions of something far greater.

Even so, their raw power alone was terrifying.

William exhaled, gripping his weapon tighter.

This was just the beginning.

He pulled up the game prompt, eyes narrowing as he prepared for what came next.

[You have slain a Deformed Giant.]

[Your talent, "Killing to Prove Your Truth," has activated.]

+0.09 Physical Strength

+0.01 Mental Strength

+0.03 Energy Reserves

A surge of raw power coursed through Bai Lan's body. But that wasn't all.

---

[You have inherited a skill from the giant's physical traits – "Gigantization."]

[Gigantization]: You can selectively enlarge parts of your body.

William clenched his fist and watched it expand.

It worked. But the strength boost? Underwhelming. The skill looked more intimidating than it actually was.

---

[Your talent has absorbed 1 point of the Giant's incomplete extraordinary trait.]

[Giant Characteristics]: Lost Giants retain a fraction of their original power. Though incomplete, this trait serves as a shortcut to becoming a true giant. However, those who accumulate too much may undergo irreversible transformation, becoming "Lost Giants" themselves.

[Class Advancement Tip: Accumulate 10 Giant Characteristics to unlock the Giant Transformation Quest.]

[Giant Traits: 1/10]

William exhaled. So this was the path to becoming a true giant.

---

The Lost Giant transformation reminded him of hybrid werewolves, beings who possessed the full traits of a werewolf but lacked the potential to evolve into Sequence 8.

Unlike true werewolves, who relied on moonlight to purify their blood and ascend the sequence ladder, hybrids were stuck in an incomplete state. Without the moon's blessing, their growth would stagnate forever.

Elite werewolves, on the other hand, were cultivated directly from the blood of Wolf Lords, making them far more powerful.

William had hunted numerous half-blood werewolves under the full moon, collecting four complete pure-blood werewolf traits.

If someone could obtain a fully intact werewolf trait, they wouldn't need moonlight to evolve. Given enough time and accumulation, they could become a pure-blooded werewolf on their own.

The Lost Giants operated under a similar principle.

But these deformed giants had no inheritance, no guidance, just raw, unfocused power. Their souls were closer to wild beasts than true titans.

Still, absorbing their traits was a shortcut to power.

---

Refining Combat Style

William had also acquired and tested his new skill, [Gigantization].

A simple test; he clenched his fist, activating the ability.

His hand expanded dramatically.

It looked intimidating but felt… inefficient. The power boost wasn't substantial, and the transformation slowed his movements.

This only confirmed William's combat philosophy: More skills don't equal more power.

Combat should be about efficiency.

Rather than relying on flashy techniques, he sought lethality, direct and decisive attacks to kill as quickly as possible.

Gigantization looked useful, but in actual battle, it had a fatal flaw—

Any unfamiliar skill introduced delays or stiffness in movement.

And for a skilled opponent, even the slightest hesitation was a weakness waiting to be exploited.