Seeing his wand bounce back, Li Xiuman realized he was in trouble.
Dammit, I'm too used to crushing enemies with raw power. Since I haven't fought in a while, I didn't adjust in time.
“Holy Light!”
The Light Priest reacted quickly, aiming a Holy Light spell right at Li Xiuman.
This gave Li Xiuman quite a fright.
The holy light washed over him in an instant...
However...
Absolutely nothing happened.
In fact, it actually felt kind of good.
What was going on?
What about his weakness to holy light?
Could it be... blocked by the death energy inside his body?
This holy light... could actually disperse the death energy in his body!
Li Xiuman was overjoyed.
He had finally found a way to disperse the death energy plaguing him.
After all, it was the corrosion of this death energy that had caused both his Constitution and Strength stats to plummet to a pitiful 2 points.
“How is this possible? He took the Holy Light head-on!”
The Light Priest was shocked.
But Li Xiuman wasn't about to give him another chance. He raised his wand, eager to test out his new Necromancy spells.
“Tier 2 spell, Skeleton Hand!”
“Clack, clack.”
Accompanied by skeletal clatter, countless bones manifested from the air and clawed at the Light Priest.
The Light Priest hurriedly cast Holy Light again.
Li Xiuman quickly leaned into it, begging for the holy light to shine on him, to bathe him!
The Light Priest had never seen a skeleton begging to be hit with holy light. Goddess of Light above, what in the world was happening?
From then on, Li Xiuman began to tease the Light Priest, shamelessly soaking up the holy light without any dignity.
Only when the Light Priest was completely drained of holy light did Li Xiuman stop.
[Ding! Constitution +1]
His corroded, pitted bones hissed as thin wisps of black gas drifted out. His Constitution had recovered a bit.
Completely draining a Lv.20 Light Priest only yielded a single point of Constitution.
After enjoying the sensation of his Constitution recovering for a moment, Li Xiuman turned back to look at the dry, limp heap of the Light Priest with lingering desire.
Is that it? All show and no substance, a total disappointment.
Drained like this after just one go.
Still, he was the highest-level Light Priest in the dungeon right now. It was best to bring him back to his cave and keep milking him.
“Golem Creation.”
Waving his wand, he casually conjured a dusty yellow Golem magic circle.
For Li Xiuman, who had been studying Tier 3 Magic intensely, his deployment speed for magic circles of this level had improved dramatically.
“Carry him.”
Li Xiuman commanded the makeshift, gorilla-like Golem.
The Golem roughly picked up the Light Priest, hoisted him over its shoulder, and stared motionlessly at Li Xiuman.
Li Xiuman raised the Dungeon Core.
“Teleport.”
Together with the Golem, he teleported to the Boss room at the deepest part of the labyrinth.
He had originally planned to eliminate the other party members who were making swift progress, but now that he had acquired such a valuable treasure, he couldn't care less about the rest of them.
This was his hope for recovering his Strength and Constitution; he had to study this thoroughly.
The death energy that he had been completely powerless against could actually be dispersed with holy light.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The Light Priest slowly opened his eyes.
He remembered encountering a terrifying skeleton in the dungeon, being toyed with, and then passing out from exhaustion.
He wasn't dead?
He quickly looked around and tried to move, but he couldn't budge at all.
Only then did he notice that he was bound to a stone wall. His hands and feet were secured by rock, and a stone ball was stuffed into his mouth, making it impossible for him to even chant.
Not far in front of him, that bizarre, terrifying skeleton was reading a book.
Goddess of Light above, an heretical skeleton was actually reading a book. What in the world was happening?
“You're awake?”
The pitted, pitch-black skeleton stood up and walked over, bringing with it a wave of decay and dread.
As if facing the incarnation of death itself, fear made him tremble uncontrollably.
“Don't worry, I just want you to do me a favor.”
With a wave of the skeleton's hand, the stone ball in his mouth crumbled into dust, filling his mouth with sand.
He spat it out, but fear kept him from uttering proper syllables.
“Don't be afraid. What is your name?”
“...Jack.”
“Very good, Jack.”
“Now, obey my command. Chant and cast Holy Light on me.”
“Take your time.”
Jack was trembling all over.
What on earth did this damn skeleton want?
To force him to obey an heretic and chant the holy name of the Goddess of Light!
Sacrilege! This was an absolute sacrilege to the Goddess!
“O great and benevolent Goddess of Light, bestow upon me the holy light that surrounds thee!”
The holy light poured directly over Li Xiuman's skull.
A sizzling sound echoed from his bones once more as wisps of black gas drifted from his body.
But this time, a prepared Li Xiuman did not let the black gas slip away.
Deducing from his status panel's description, this substance was called death energy.
This wonderful stuff had nearly reduced his stats to zero, and Li Xiuman wasn't about to let it dissipate so easily.
He used his mana to corral the death energy.
However, the black gas was like sulfuric acid, corroding his mana in an attempt to escape.
Li Xiuman quickly took out a precious piece of Red-Faced Square Gold, intending to store the death energy inside it.
Even the Red-Faced Square Gold hissed, leaving behind a black, corroded hole.
Even the Red-Faced Square Gold was corroded!
And that was only a tiny wisp of it.
...How on earth had the death energy—which had stained his pristine white skeleton into charred black coal—not killed him outright?
No matter how confident Li Xiuman was, he wouldn't dare compare his original Constitution of 41 to a rare mineral like Red-Faced Square Gold.
“Is it because skeletons have an exceptionally high resistance to death...?”
Li Xiuman couldn't help but speculate.
After all, skeletons were technically already dead, so it made sense that their resistance to death was incredibly high.
Combined with his 41 points in Constitution and those extra points allocated at the crucial moment, he had barely managed to maintain a delicate balance to avoid perishing completely.
In that case, the best vessel to store this death energy seemed to be his own body...
However, he had to purge this death energy as soon as possible. Otherwise, in less than twenty days, his skeletal frame would no longer be able to hold out and would completely rot away.
“...”
Staring at the silent skeleton in front of him, Jack had no idea whether to continue chanting or what to do next.
Ultimately, Li Xiuman placed his hopes on his Rib Sword.
The Rib Sword had improved along with his level-ups, and had devoured some of the power of his left and right arm bones.
Its material quality had been significantly enhanced.
Combined with the swallowing and adaptation abilities gained from the rib's mutation, there was a chance it could absorb some of this death energy.
Although it was currently pitted by the corrosion of death energy, behaving itself, staying silent, and not daring to budge at all.
However, Li Xiuman believed that given the chance, it would never be content remaining so pitted, obedient, and silent.
And so, Li Xiuman snapped off his pitted Rib Sword.
“Keep chanting. Target this rib.”
Li Xiuman wanted to use the holy light to awaken the stubbornness within this rib, allowing it to stand firm once again and resume devouring greedily.
In short, anything that entered his body had absolutely no right to escape.
Mine, mine, all mine!
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