The Synergy of Eternal Night
The essence of the Abandoned Ent resonates with Dark Dominion.
While Body of Darkness is active, the range of Essence Plunder expands to cover the entire area of Polar Night.
“Holy shit.”
The curse slipped out before I could stop it. I take back every word about the Abandoned Ent’s essence being useless. The synergy with Dark Dominion was an insane option that far surpassed its original grade.
Sure, there was the restriction that it only worked while Body of Darkness was active. But in a battle of attrition like this, it was the perfect skill.
Kagagagak—!
My internal energy was burning away rapidly as I traded blows with the Death Knights. I poured out even more Polar Night and spread it across the ground beneath their feet.
The moment I pictured it wrapping around them, the darkness surged outward and coiled around the knights’ entire bodies.
“This kind of darkness cannot blind us.”
“Your petty tricks are useless.”
The Death Knights swung their blades, trying to tear through the shadowy tendrils.
“How dare you! You dare call Yeo’s power a petty trick!”
“Calm down. I’ll show them what real power looks like.”
The Polar Night clung to the Death Knights like slime. I immediately activated Essence Plunder.
Through Essence Plunder, you steal energy from all contacted targets.
The Polar Night I had spread so widely began absorbing the Death Knights’ power, drawing it into my body.
“Mortal, you dare covet our strength?”
“Foolish. Accepting the power of the dead will ruin that body of yours.”
“You too shall soon join our ranks.”
The Death Knights hurled curses at me, but I didn’t stop Essence Plunder for a second. My internal energy swelled at a frightening pace.
The Primordial Dragon Heart easily converted the necrotic energy mixed into the Death Knights’ dark aura into pure internal energy. Dark aura, necrotic power—it was all just delicious nutrients to me.
As time passed, the Death Knights’ dark aura grew noticeably thinner. Meanwhile, the sword energy I forged with the Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword only grew sharper, never losing its edge.
“How can a mortal withstand the power of death?”
“At this rate, we will lose.”
“First, let us cut away that irritating darkness.”
The Death Knights concentrated their dark aura into their blades. They sliced through the Polar Night, but I simply released it again without lifting a finger.
The underground floors of the Tower were places overflowing with darkness. Here, both the power and recovery rate of Polar Night reached their peak.
“What’s the point of trying to cut water with a sword?”
The Death Knights flailed helplessly in the swamp of Polar Night, rapidly exhausting their strength.
“Our power is not limited to this!”
“Behold the power of darkness!”
Geometric magic circles bloomed above the Death Knights’ heads. It was Negative Burst, a spell that condensed and detonated mana from the negative dimension.
Devourer's Maw - Internal Skill: Mana Absorb
It was a fairly powerful spell, but the Death Knights—who primarily relied on swordsmanship—didn’t have nearly as much mana as they thought.
“Wow, I’m recovering all that spent mana so easily.”
In truth, thanks to Essence Plunder, I was barely consuming any energy at all. The Death Knights, enraged by my taunt, swung their blades even harder.
After some time had passed, I drove the Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword straight into the core of a Death Knight that had collapsed to its knees, most of its power stolen away.
It had taken a while, but I had dealt with the entire group of Death Knights with surprising ease.
Coni, who had been watching from behind, had turned deathly pale.
“You’ll get motion sickness at this rate.”
“Mister, are you really a mortal?”
“As you can see. Daphne confirmed it herself earlier.”
“How can a mere mortal wield such terrifying power…”
“Heh heh heh. Is it not all thanks to Yeo?”
Nyx chimed in, unable to hide her satisfied smile.
“Contractor, there is another energy mixed into your Polar Night.”
She noticed, as expected. The true owner of Polar Night was on another level.
“The essence of the Abandoned Ent reacted with my Polar Night.”
“To think Yeo’s power would be influenced like this…”
“You’re not displeased, are you?”
“How could that be? This too is a new possibility.”
Nyx glanced at my Polar Night with clear interest. Most constellations would have flown into a rage if their blessing was tampered with. She really was unique.
“I am grateful for the Goddess’s benevolence.”
“Heh heh heh. Enough with the empty flattery. Show it through your actions.”
“Of course. I’ve prepared an offering for you, Goddess.”
I bowed exaggeratedly and reached into the Pocket of Desire. Nyx pretended not to look, turning her head away while audibly swallowing.
I pulled out the second cake.
“Ooooooh!”
“Hiiiik!”
The simultaneous exclamations rang out.
“Not you.”
I immediately stopped Coni. If this one ended up in his mouth too, Nyx would never let me hear the end of it.
“I am merely accepting it because your sincerity is commendable. Do not misunderstand.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Heh heh heh heh.”
Couldn’t you at least stop laughing before saying that?
While Nyx savored the cake, I devoured the Death Knights’ essences.
The Tomb of the Great was teeming with powerful undead.
Daphne’s territory was safe as long as you didn’t step between the Abandoned Ents, but this place had an uncanny ability to sniff out the living. Even taking a few steps forward would cause coffins to burst open as undead came looking for a fight.
“This is troublesome.”
I frowned. The Death Knight we encountered at the entrance had been manageable. But now Hell Knights—one rank above Death Knights—patrolled the area like guards. Above them, Bone Dragons constantly flapped their tattered wing membranes as they circled.
“Seriously, why did I even come here?”
“Be quiet.”
I tried using both Body of Darkness and Steps of Night at the same time, but I couldn’t fool the Hell Knights’ senses. They really could smell the living from a mile away.
“How about luring them out one by one?”
“Impossible. Even a Diamond ranker would struggle against that thing.”
A Hell Knight was a monster I could barely defeat even if I used the Void Mirror, Seon Magic, and Fusion Qigong all at once.
I let out a short groan.
Before my regression, the Death Lord’s army had mostly consisted of mid-to-low tier undead. Yet for some reason, this tomb was overflowing with high-ranking ones.
“Mister, don’t forget you made a contract with Daphne.”
Just as Coni said, lingering too long on the first floor wasn’t a good idea. Apophis’s domain wasn’t even marked on the map. The leaves might guide the way, but there was no telling what variables might appear on the third floor.
Still…
“It’d be a waste to give up now.”
I reviewed all the essences I had absorbed so far, searching for one that could break the current deadlock.
“There it is.”
The skill I had gained from devouring the Imoogi’s essence.
Phasing
You become incorporeal and unable to interact with physical matter. However, you can interfere with spiritual forces.
Warning: Maintaining this state for too long will cause your physical body to disappear.
My body grew faint and began to float. My voice echoed with a strange reverberation, like I had added an effect to it.
It was the first time I had used this skill, both before and after my regression.
When I approached the Hell Knight, its blue ghost fire stared straight at me for a moment before quickly shifting away.
Who would have thought I’d be using the Imoogi’s essence like this?
“Coni, you stay here.”
“Even if you told me to follow, I wouldn’t. Go on ahead, mister.”
“How boring.”
With my now weightless body, I moved forward. Powerful undead monsters glanced at me as I passed deeper into the tomb, but they soon looked away.
I never expected it to be this effective.
“It seems they only react to the living.”
“Looks like things will go smoothly.”
The moment I stepped into the Death Lord’s domain, a completely different scenery unfolded before me compared to the coffin-filled outer area.
“Gurgle.”
A massive worm churned through the earth. It was a Death Worm, a monster that stored corpses inside its body.
The necromancers under the Death Lord used the bodies stored within these worms to build their armies of the dead. It was the only ‘living creature’ in this land that still breathed.
Which was exactly why, before my regression, I had devoured a Death Worm’s essence.
Phasing deactivated.
The faint, floating sensation returned to normal. At the same time—
“Kiiiiaaaaa!”
The Death Worm let out a monstrous shriek and charged.
While its main purpose was storing corpses, its combat ability was nothing to scoff at. Every living creature in the Tower’s underground was powerful, after all.
It was weaker than the Ents, but still strong enough to give a Platinum ranker a hard fight.
“I can’t stick around here too long, you know?”
Dragon's Fury
Hundred Beasts Emperor Martial Arts - First Form
Dragon King's Roar Fist
Explosive energy surged along my fist in the shape of a dragon. The scaled aura rose like a soaring dragon, its face forming as it shot straight toward the Death Worm’s head.
Boooom!
The five-meter-long Death Worm was instantly turned into a bloody pulp by a single strike.
It was a monster far beneath the Death Knights or the Abandoned Ents in rank.
“Have you slain it?”
“I told you to stop saying that.”
“Kuuu… uuuu… eee…”
The Death Worm, now nothing but a lump of meat, began regenerating while letting out a bizarre groan.
“That thing has two cores. One is hidden in a sub-space.”
“How bizarre.”
“It even gains resistance to the first attack that destroys one of its cores.”
A monster with two lives. There was no way I could take it down in one hit with the Dragon King's Roar Fist again. That was why I had gone all out from the very beginning.
“I can’t give it time.”
I still had one martial art left that surpassed the Dragon King's Roar Fist in pure offensive power—the Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword.
Shrink
I instantly teleported above the Death Worm’s floating core. I poured my internal energy into the blade forged from the darkness of night and swung.
Shwaaaack!
The Death Worm’s regenerating body collapsed completely. If I hadn’t known its characteristics, I would have wasted a lot of time trying to fight it properly.
Two cores. Resistance to the first attack that destroys one. And monstrous durability. It really was a ridiculous creature.
I used Devour on the mangled corpse, then immediately activated Phasing again. Staying in this place for too long was dangerous.
I repeated the cycle of activating and deactivating Phasing as I hunted down the Death Worms one after another.
You have used Devour on the Death Worm.
Devoured Essence: 100%
Essence Grade: Ancient
You have perfectly absorbed the essence of one species.
New Skill Acquired — Expanding Internal Organs
Allows swallowed items to be stored in sub-space according to the user's will.
Storage capacity equals ten times the user's body weight.
A grotesque skill name. The way to use it was just as bizarre. Having an extra sub-space was nice, but the fact that the only way to store things was by ‘eating’ them made it difficult to utilize in practice.
It was a skill I had used quite well before my regression, but now that I had the Pocket of Desire, I wouldn’t use it unless it was an emergency.
“It doesn’t seem like an essence worth the effort you put in.”
The Death Worm’s essence resonates with your Devour ability.
When using Devour, you will now gain additional Toughness stats.
Now you get it?
All the monsters I was targeting in the Tower’s underground possessed essences that granted synergistic effects to Devour. If I managed to devour every essence down here as planned, just how much faster would I grow?
I bared my teeth in a wide grin.
“There it is again. That smile of yours.”
Nyx sighed.
Why does she always complain when I smile?!