Soul Eater

"Ah."

The status window that popped up mid-dungeon run made me pause for a split second, but I finished the swing of my sword and severed the neck of the enemy that had closed in. I'd been half-zoning out, treating the endless dungeon grind like mindless factory work, so the sudden alarm flashing in front of my eyes actually startled me into a brief flinch.

The fact that I could still cut the thing down without hesitation even in that state just proved how long I'd been stuck in this place.

"Hit level 10, huh."

I'd put Keres's growth on the back burner while focusing on skill-leveling Bihos and Haze, but she had finally reached level 10. Since I'd made archery her main focus, I'd expected the physical side of No Life to lag behind, yet the holy power Echidna had been pouring into her while her intelligence was still low seemed to have evened things out. Her growth was roughly on par with the others.

I had about eight free points banked. Time to check the evolution options and dump the stats.

I called Growl over and ordered him to guard my surroundings, then opened Keres's status window and tapped the [Evolution Available] mark next to her level.

"Mostly undead-related... kind of a shame."

Even after all that archery practice, nothing bow-related had shown up. Whether it was lack of experience or just not being specialized enough, I couldn't tell. Still, a few of the options looked interesting.

This was my first time seeing undead evolutions, so I decided to check them one by one from the top.

First up: Skeletal Reinforcement — Red Skeleton.

A higher-tier skeleton whose bones had been reinforced by soaking in blood. Nothing particularly flashy, but every advantage a skeleton already possessed felt evenly upgraded. Probably the most standard skeleton evolution path. Solid, reliable reinforcement with no real drawbacks in her current state — the comfort-food option, basically.

"Not bad."

Next: Existential Evolution — Ghoul-Vampire.

Basically a corpse that had been drained dry by a vampire and risen as an undead without becoming a true thrall. The bite mutated the body halfway toward vampirism, skyrocketing physical ability. Semi-vampire, if you had to put a label on it. The problem was that it was still just leftover scraps that never made the cut as a real vampire, so it couldn't control the bloodlust and went berserk, plus it inherited the classic vampire weakness of bursting into ash the moment sunlight touched it. Classic high-risk, high-return evolution — big power, bigger penalties.

Pass.

Gaining a powerful body was nice, but the drawbacks were way too heavy. I'd built her as a ranged attacker; locking her out of half her potential uses defeated the whole point.

Next: Corpse-Poison Acquisition — Ghoul.

Same type the black mage I'd fought before had been mass-producing. Half-rotted body packed with the toxins that form when a corpse decays. Unlike ordinary poison, it carried the aura of the dead and hit living things especially hard. Like the Ghoul-Vampire, it would give her a physical body, but since it was half-rotted she couldn't bring out full strength — the poison was meant to cover that gap.

Keep for now.

The visual was ugly, sure, but I could just slap Magic Armor over her as a full-body cover. The real issue was overlap with Bihos's direction. Whether that synergy would actually pay off was the question. Poisons could combine into something nastier, so dual-poison builds weren't automatically bad. Archery plus poison sounded pretty solid too — squeeze the toxin from her own body onto the arrows, hard to detect because she's already dead, and even if you find her the poison makes closing in a nightmare. Against ranged opponents she'd be pure annoyance.

Most ghouls I'd met just charged in with corpse-poison to break the front line. Probably because their intelligence was too low for fancy weapons. Keres could end up being a real game-changer for the whole ghoul archetype.

Last: Soul Devouring — Soul Eater.

Honestly, this was the one that grabbed me the hardest the moment I saw the list. The name alone screamed deep soul connection — almost certainly unlocked thanks to the skill Bound Spirits. Basic appearance stayed skeletal, but with the core shifting from undead to pure soul, the blue flames that used to burn only inside the skull now wrapped the entire body. A walking bonfire of a skeleton, basically. Bigger flames meant more souls drawn in. True to the name, it specialized in indiscriminately devouring souls and converting them into fuel for its own power.

I already knew how huge soul influence could be from the constant benefits of Sadism and Torture. Synergy with the other summons would depend on the new traits and mutated skills, but even without that I just plain liked this evolution.

After a short think I decided on Soul Eater.

The poison combo with Bihos was tempting, but for pure personal power this one pulled harder. Plus it was sitting in the fourth slot, and after last time I kept getting the paranoid feeling that picking anything else would make the system start screwing with me.

A little uneasy, I confirmed the evolution anyway.

The instant I did, a vision flooded my sight. From the heart of the darkness a pale-blue light suddenly erupted, and a skeleton wreathed head-to-toe in flames came stomping forward. The heat haze made the bones inside look half-transparent. Wherever it walked, the wailing of the dead never stopped. Countless souls flung themselves into the fire like moths to a flame. The blaze at the center burned even fiercer, using those souls as fuel. The leftover scraps of spirit drifted around the fire like fireflies, luring still more souls in. If there were no souls to collect, it moved to where souls were. If even that proved impossible, it simply killed whatever living things were nearby and ate the resulting spirits. The last image was that brilliant blue fire completely filling the screen amid the horrific carnage — and then the evolution finished.

Hoyo-yoyo~

Clack-clack!

Keres, now wrapped in blue flames, clicked her jaw and started poking at her changed body. Whether she instinctively understood ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠something was different or not, she gave a quick nod of confirmation and stretched a hand toward empty air.

Fwoooosh!

Her hand seemed to melt into the flames, then the fire itself swelled and formed a massive skeletal arm that took the place ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of her own. That was the effect of the trait Blazing Vengeful Spirits.

Those flames were now both a lighthouse drawing souls and Keres's body itself. A peculiar undead that had stepped halfway from the physical realm into the spiritual one — that was her current state.

"Not hot at all."

Even with my hand shoved into the fire there was no pain. Instead I felt a bone-chilling cold that was almost eerie. And despite touching flames, there was a thick, sticky resistance, like pushing into something viscous. Since I had skills that could damage souls directly, I understood on instinct: the moment those flames turned hostile, the target would feel the exact agony of their soul burning in hellfire. That cold would literally steal life in real time, dropping the body's temperature. It bypassed physical defense entirely and inflicted pure pain — permanent armor-piercing, basically.

The new skill The Indulgent One let her sink even deeper into souls, pushing the effects of the mutated Soul Devouring (which now forcibly seized what Bound Spirits had once only bound) to the absolute limit. Stacking the two would let her grow ridiculously fast.

Soul-Calling Art took the half-instinctive soul manipulation she'd been doing and turned it into something she could control properly.

"I'll put seven points into Strength and one into Dexterity."

I had no intention of changing Keres's role. Archery stayed the main focus, so Intelligence was already high enough. Better to invest in Strength and Dexterity — the stats that skills didn't raise easily.

Confirming the changes left every stat except Luck sitting at a clean, beautiful 20.

"Can you still pull out the bow?"

"Clack-clack!"

She thumped her chest like "leave it to me," then reached into empty air. A bow and arrows appeared — slightly different in atmosphere from before. Blue flames instantly coiled around them and began to burn. I nodded. The trait Blazing Vengeful Spirits applied to weapons just fine.

Creeeak—

Twang!!!

She nocked and loosed. The blue-flame arrow drew a beautiful arc through the air. Target: an orc that had just shown itself on the far side.

Thud!!

"Grk..."

The flaming arrow punched straight through the mask and buried itself precisely in the invisible neck, then expanded its domain and set the orc ablaze in seconds. Throat pierced, it couldn't even scream properly — just gurgled blood while thrashing on the ground in agony. The flames kept tormenting it until it was completely dead. The way they ate into the body looked exactly like a ghost in the shape of fire attacking the orc.

The moment the orc died, the blue flames erupted greedily around the faint light that drifted from the corpse, devouring it like that light had been the real prize all along.

Gulp!

After swallowing the light, the flames slowly dispersed and returned to Keres's body as if their job was done.

"...Broken."

One kill and she'd gained two permanent stat points. There was probably a cap per monster type, but that just meant killing new monsters and eating their souls would keep handing her free stats forever. At this rate she might end up with the highest stats of any of my summons. Having a permanent growth method outside of leveling was already broken enough.

That wrapped up Keres's evolution.

Bihos and Haze were still only level 8. I'd tried to keep them even, but matching evolutions was clearly too much to ask.

Time was time. Hunting ended here.

Tomorrow was the weekend. Ban Taewung had brought up the idea, and Luicia was hosting a one-night, two-day "survival experience" that was really just a vacation in disguise. Unintentionally or not, I was going to get dragged around by Lee Se-rin and Ban Taewung's whole crew. Better to rest a little now for the sake ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of my mental health.

"Let's go."

I fed mana to Kallion. Massive greatswords began materializing in the air like a constellation, then slowly stabbed down into the entire temple. It looked exactly like those toys where you stick plastic swords into a barrel until the pirate in the middle pops up. In reality the boss never even got to come out — the greatswords resonated with each other and went BOOM in a mutual-destruction ending.

KRAAAAAANG!!!!

I held down my hair against the wind from the mana explosion and left the slowly vanishing temple behind, heading for the dungeon exit after the clear announcement.

The weekend arrived.

The gathering place for the one-night, two-day vacation — no, the survival training experience — was one of the Valentia family's private estates. "Private estate" was a polite way of saying a place so loaded with every convenience money ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could buy that it was basically an empty luxury resort.

The reason the official purpose was "experience" rather than "study" was simple: midterms started first thing Monday after the weekend. Taking five straight days of exams while exhausted was just stupid. Of course that was by Awakened standards, so the experience itself would still be harder than most forced marches. To keep it at the right difficulty they'd hired a professional.

"This is Mr. Drown Traveler, a former adventurer who now works as a survival expert."

Luicia's calm introduction was answered by a middle-aged man whose expression was surprisingly gentle for someone gathered this early. He took off the explorer's hat on his head and smiled lightly.

"Pleasure to meet you all. Drown Traveler. Feel free to call me D or Traveler. It's only a short one-night, two-day period, but I'll make sure you all learn the know-how you need to survive."

His words were aimed at the whole group, but his gaze kept drifting toward me and Lee Se-rin. I noticed it easily. There was no way Lee Se-rin hadn't noticed either, yet the woman receiving that intense stare just kept smiling sweetly and glued herself to my side like she had no idea.

So this guy's one of the people she planted too.

The "former adventurer" line was enough of a tip-off. The man had more than enough skill to still be active — as a soldier, not an adventurer. High chance he was from some black-ops unit. Using a thoroughly vetted expert instead of some half-baked instructor made sense on paper. But from where I stood it was just an excuse. This woman simply wanted to enjoy a vacation and play with me, so she'd planted one of her own people. Easier to move things her way that way.

The middle-aged guy would properly educate Ban Taewung's crew, no question. The problem was that the same rules almost certainly wouldn't apply to me and Lee Se-rin. Honestly that would be less annoying for me too, but being tangled up with Lee Se-rin herself was pure stress either way.

Not half a day — a full one-night, two-day stretch together. With her, a simple change of mood or "this looks fun" was enough to start some disaster. My stomach already hurt just thinking about it.

"Is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell, Shin·woo·ssi?"

Whether my thoughts had shown on my face or not, Lee Se-rin deepened her smile even further and whispered right against my ear in a sticky voice only I could hear. At the same time a sweet citrus scent drifted over, making my stomach churn worse.

"...Ugh."

"Kuheuk, isn't that reaction a little much? Or should I call you 'honey' like last time?"

What really turned my stomach was the way this self-proclaimed fiancée talked and acted while standing right here. From the moment we'd arrived until now she hadn't left my side for a single second. Bathroom, anything — she stuck to me and chattered nonstop without a break. Not even half a day, just a few hours of contact, and my head was already pounding and I felt like I was getting an ulcer.

"Well then, shall we start with the basic survival knowledge everyone already knows?"

Just as I was seriously considering a no-show and desertion, the middle-aged man seized the initiative with a pleasant voice and started talking, cutting off my thoughts.

"Looks like it's going to be a very enjoyable weekend, don't you think?"

Separately from that, Lee Se-rin still whispered into my ear. I shot her a sideways glance and swallowed a deep sigh inside.

Enjoyable my ass. A golden weekend that should have been peaceful had turned into a living nightmare.

No — a nightmare would be better. At least you can wake up from those. This was something worse: something you couldn't escape.

Hoping that this horrible present moment was at least a nightmare I could wake from, I closed my eyes as if erasing her constant giggling from my mind.