A dark steel Jian twisted with a sickening crunch as Damon wrenched it free from the monster's lifeless body.
The system notification rang clear in his head before the creature's blood had finished dripping from his blade.
[You have slain a Level 25 Sea Serpent.]
[New Monster Index bonus: +4 Stamina, +4 Dexterity, +6 Vitality]
[You have reached Level 27. You have received 1 Stat Point.]
Damon stood atop the massive, crab-like corpse and flicked his sword to the side. Blood sprayed across the sand in a dark arc. He sheathed the weapon and dropped ten feet to the desert floor below, landing in a crouch that sent sand scattering outward.
A few feet away, a large rift core hovered above the sand, its darkness swallowing the light around it like a wound in reality. Damon didn't linger. He pushed through the shifting desert and shattered the rift with a single flicker of mana.
