Sometime later, Samiel's Rest.
Several hours have passed since Samiel passed out. Still, fortunately, due to Yvraine's timely interference, he was without any long-lasting side effects. If she didn't feed him with the Moon Mana Elixir, he would suffer some severe side effects from the Mana Exhaustion.
"You are finally awake?"
Questioned Yvraine as she finished changing his bandages, as he was still injured from fighting the Bronze-Tier Ork Champion. He suffered a good number of physical injuries from his fight against the Ork Champion.
After Samiel finished fighting with the Ork Champion, he lost consciousness due to overusing his Mana, and Yvraine needed to bring him back to the cave after she found him on the cliff. Fortunately, she was strong enough to carry him, even though she didn't look like it, but Silvermoon Elves were pretty strong physically.
"God, that hurt like hell..."
Muttered Samiel, as he could barely sit up and his lower half was bandaged. Even though he was injured all around his body from the fight, his injuries were not that severe, and he had already started healing back to normal.
Eldritch Creatures were known for their terrifying healing factor, as they could recuperate from injuries that would have killed the majority of the lifeforms. But most of the Eldritchs could just shrug it off like nothing happened and heal from it.
"I threw out your clothes as your uniform was unsalvageable... what did you think wearing white clothes and not enchanted at all?"
Yvraine scolded him, but he could see that she was genuinely worried about his safety, as even she wouldn't dare to fight head-on Bronze-Tier Ork Champion, even if it was a newly evolved one.
Fighting Bronze-Tier Ork Champion as a Iron-Tier was equivalent to suicide, and most if not all people would choose to escape from it, but Samiel chose to fight and even managed to kill it.
"Thank you."
He said to her, as he knew that she practically saved his life, or not... Mana Exhaustion could end in many ways; even if she didn't directly save his life, she saved him from long-lasting side effects from the Mana Exhaustion.
Yvraine didn't say anything and just fed him with another Mana Potion that sped up the regeneration of his Mana and lessened the toll on his body. This time it was just a normal Mana Potion to speed recovery... though normal as normal it could for an Imperial Crown Princess of the Nesser Dynasty be.
"How long have I been out?"
He asked as he finished drinking the Mana Potion; for sure, it was one of the top grades and refined by excellent Grandmaster Alchemist, or else it would have tasted like shit. Usually, potions tasted pretty bad unless they were brewed by someone who knew how to eliminate this side effect.
"10 Hours plus minus some minutes, I don't know exactly.... I am going to heat up some of the stew you made."
After Yvraine left, Samiel looked at the notifications from the Akashic Records about the number of souls he had obtained by slaughtering all of the Orks.
[You have collected 33 Souls, 21 Iron-Tier Souls, 11 Steel-Tier Souls and 1 Bronze-Tier Soul.]
After he read the notification about the souls he obtained, altogether more than 60, he took out the Bronze-Tier souls and directly are it. Using the [Soul Devour] to absorb the soul of the Bronze-Tier Ork Champion.
In a second, he felt like a powerful Mana enveloped his soul, as the quality of and quantity of the soul of Bronze-Tier Ork Champion was superb, at least far superior to any souls he had, and soon enough, his Mana started increasing.
After several minutes he reached another level, finally at last.
[Your Level has been Increased.]
[Proficiency with the Ultimate Ability Soul Devour has been increased by 3%.]
Because Samiel was an Old Deus, he required a lot more to increase his Level. Even the soul of a powerful Bronze-Tier Ork Champion was able to increase his Level by one and some bits, as he felt that he was close to reaching Level 9.
Of course, his power was comparable to average Steel-Tier or even stronger Steel-Tier, as his Mana was unusually dense and potent, not like other Iron-Tier creatures.
'I don't have enough Souls to strengthen all my Undeads... so for now, I will focus on increasing my own power.'
He thought, as he ate all of the Steel-Tier Souls he had in his disposition, as his Mana was increasing. Still, unfortunately for him, his Level didn't improve. He felt he was still a tiny step away from it and would need more Steel-Tier souls or Iron-Tier souls of superior races to gain any benefit from it.
"But this is good enough; maybe after meditating for a few weeks, I would be able o increase my Level through natural absorption of ambient Mana in the air. For now, I would best focus on honing my skills and practicing my spells, especially those related to close combat. There is no hurry in climbing the Tower at all..."
Muttered Samiel as he stood up from the bed and went to find Yvraine, who was currently outside of the cave, sparring against some of his Undeads; more precisely, she was fighting five of them at the same time.
The food was being heated up, so she used this time to fight against Samiel's Undead, even though they just got from one battle... Samiel even suspected that Yvraine was a battle maniac.
"I see that you have recuperated enough to walk and even increased your Level..."
Stated Yvraine as she looked at him before she returned her attention to her current fight.
"Are there any places where I can get new clothes? These ones were my last ones."
He questioned while looking around him. He liked his past outfit very much, as it was something he had stolen from the Vatican during his life when he attempted to rob their library. Unfortunately for him, he was soon enough chased out, but he managed to steal some relics, and among them was this white outfit that the General of Inquisition once wore.
"Yes, on the outskirts of the continent are some small city-states. But... that is on the other side of the Darkwood Forest, and we would need to pass through several Ork Clans, some danger zone, and by foot, the journey would take there at least 3 months at best, even if would be at haste."
Samiel grumbled hearing that, as the nearest cities were that far, but that was somewhat understandable as the entire 1st Floor was basically under the control of Orks.
And what was not under their control was ruled by other similarly minded species who often waged war on the Orks. Lizardmen, Bugbears, Goblins, Trolls or Ogres were not the most advanced species in existence, and their most preferred activity was killing each other for territory or other disputes.
Some cities that existed on the 1st Floor were located far, far from their current position, so going there was not a realistic option right now. They wouldn't really be able to cross such a vast distance without being killed.
"Here, take this."
She said in the end, as she took out some armor from her Dimensional Ring, which was used to store things like items and equipment. Yvraine had one of the highest-grade Dimensional Ring, and surprisingly even Samiel had one. As it showed itself, it was the ring that he robbed from a grave.
It was slim black armor with a rather ominous design and several runes inscribed around it. It had small spikes around the shoulders, giving a feeling of malice and death.
"It is old armor that I found in the treasury of the Nesser Dynasty a few years ago and borrowed for research."
She explained to him as Samiel started putting it on him. Yvraine helped him to wear the armor, as Samiel was half-naked, as he had only his underwear. While Yvraine attempted to hide her eyes as they trailed around his toned body and muscles, she soon started putting the armor on him.
"Who would have thought that uptight Princess knew how to steal?"
Samiel laughed at his own imagination as Yvraine blushed from embarrassment as her hands holding her twin jade blades were twitching from anger. She didn't like the word "steal", "borrow" sounded much better. Especially when she was borrowing something about which she knew nobody would miss it.
[Ego of the Holy-Grade Armour Rao's Vengence is waking up.]
[Ego of the Holy-Grade Armour Rao's Vengence is attempting to take over its bearer.]
[Ego of the Holy-Grade Armour Rao's Vengence is trying to pull you into the madness.]
Samiel suddenly felt a weird sensation coming over him, but in a moment when the Ego of the Rao's Vengence was about to touch him, suddenly a deep freezing cold of void burst out of his soul and penetrated the entire Holy-Grade Armour Rao's Vengence through and through.
[You have successfully resisted attempts of the Ego of the Holy-Grade Armour Rao's Vengence.]
[Your Patron God Blind Idiot God is enraged that mere Ego of the piece of rust attempted to corrupt his Apostle and Blood.]
[Blind Idiot God sent a whisp of wind at the Ego of the Holy-Grade Armour Rao's Vengence.]
[Ego of the Holy-Grade Armour Rao's Vengence has been entirely obliterated by the tiny whips of Azathoth's power.]
Yvraine was looking at him with worry as it was evident that something had happened with the old creepy armor she gave him, but soon Samiel returned to normal, as all of the coldness returned back to his body.
"That armor you gave me had an Ego... a pretty nasty one at that."
Huffed Samiel as he adjusted the Armor Rao's Vengence as the Ego was finally killed by his Patron God. It didn't even take a split of a second as the Ego of the Holy-Grade Armor was obliterated by the Azathoth.
Azathoth represented madness and slaughter, so he probably felt pretty offended that some piece of equipment tried to pull his Apostle into the madness. Sometimes even Outer Gods were petty, especially when someone touched what was theirs.