The roar produced a sound wave that sent Lyle and Adam flying backward. The two weren't injured, although their bodies shook slightly from the vibrations of the roar, they were nonetheless fine physically.
Mentally, however, they were shaken as their souls were seemingly affected by the roar of the ogre.
"A soul-based attack, how does an ogre know such a skill?" Lyle said out loud as he stared at the ogre who was currently going through a transformation.
The gray skin was slowly darkening as the ogre's muscles started growing. The ogre started growing, its height visibly increasing while the axe fell down on the ground.
"That's!" Lyle stared in shock at the ogre before clenching his teeth.
"Demonification, I have to get rid of it before it fully transforms."
Demons were present in the world, but they were rarely seen and usually, it was humans that would worship them and turn into demon worshippers would cause chaos in the world.
Humans, however, were not the only race that could be tainted by demons and demonic energy.
All beings could sign a contract with a demon and gain incredible powers from the being. The ogre in front of Lyle was one of such beings that had signed a contract, or perhaps it was only tainted by demonic energy or chaos itself.
Demonified monsters were much stronger than their normal counterparts, but they would lose most of their sanity in return. They were ruthless and only lived to destroy, they felt almost no pain, and defeating one was a difficult task.
Lyle had no idea why such a creature would be present inside a dungeon. The dungeons were usually like closed-off ecosystems where only the monsters that naturally came from the mana vein would appear.
The appearance of the system had brought forth a great change that not only affected the world but the dungeons that were usually disconnected from it.
The system brought forth the increase in mana density around the world, which meant that the mana veins, which were places where incredibly dense mana could be found, were also affected.
Not only were the dungeons becoming larger and more difficult to deal with, the monsters inside became stronger, there were more of them, and sometimes there were even too many, which forced the dungeons to expel them, just like what had happened with the ogres and the minotaur.
Of course, since the dungeons were getting stronger, more of them started appearing in the world.
New, weak dungeons rose from the ground and there were now even more of them present all around the world.
That was at the same time a good and a bad thing.
The dungeons that were too difficult for kingdoms and empires to deal with would become even more powerful, and if the monsters from inside were to be expelled, it could spell the doom of the kingdom or empire they were in.
Still, the appearance of new dungeons meant that the people of the world could have a constant supply of monsters to fight against, and by fighting and killing the monsters, they would level up and increase their strength.
The system was at the same time a calamity and a blessing to the world. People that once saw no chance of becoming powerful now had a simple way of increasing their power, even those that had been stuck in the higher realms for a long time had a chance to reach even higher.
But at the same time, millions, billions of people were now at risk of being slaughtered by monsters that had increased in not only numbers but in power as well.
Lyle and Adam were experiencing that first-hand right now.
They had already cleared a dungeon yesterday, which led them to believe that nothing had changed in the other ones, only to find a much more difficult challenge waiting for them here.
Perhaps the appearance of the system had made it easier for demonic forces to influence the world now, after all, nobody knew for sure whether the demons that the worshippers and other, weaker demons worshipped were real.
Just like the many religions of the world worshipped their gods, who were seemingly nowhere to be found, but the priests and knights of the churches would still get blessings and mysterious powers, the demons also did the same for their worshippers.
Lyle stared at the ogre that was still in the middle of the transformation before looking over at Adam who also had a heavy expression on his face. The young man could feel the ominous and powerful energy that the ogre was releasing, and even without knowing what exactly was happening, he knew that the ogre was becoming much more powerful than before.
Before Adam was about to charge at the ogre which was undergoing its transformation, he was stopped by Lyle who shook his head and pointed at him to stay back.
Adam was perplexed by Lyle's order, to fight an enemy of such power, even though he had full faith in his master, it would require both of them to put their lives on the line. Right now, Adam was functioning fully as Lyle's servant.
The subconscious need to protect his master and save him from any and all dangers made Adam's mind change without him even noticing. Still, an order from Lyle was almost absolute and he would follow it.
As the ogre was almost finished with his transformation, Lyle went through his own.
[ Lord of the Dark, Awakening ]
Lyle's hair started growing rapidly as his height increased. His muscles became a tad bit larger while his eyes became like two miniature black holes that devoured all light.
Lyle was now dressed in a formal suit, he stood about 2 meters tall and his aura had grown considerably. Even the ogre, which had now finished his transformation, was looking warily at him.
Before the ogre could even move, Lyle disappeared from the spot.
His body was shrouded in darkness as he appeared behind the 4-meter-tall monster. He stared at the monster before briefly looking over the new skills he had gained from the transformation.
[ Curtain of Darkness ] – The user can use his power to control darkness to summon forth a veil of darkness that can be used to hide his body and presence from the enemy. The skill is an effective tool to disappear from the enemy's sight and retreat or hide oneself.
[ Spear of Darkness ] – By manipulating darkness itself, the user can create a spear that was filled with the corrosive and destructive power of darkness. The wound that was created by the spear would be covered by the power of darkness, making healing incredibly difficult. Furthermore, the power of darkness would enter the body of the enemy and corrode it, destroying it from the inside. The enemy can only use mana to suppress the corrosive power.
[ Black Hole ] – The user can manipulate the power of darkness to create a miniature black hole in his palm. Nothing can escape from the powerful gravitational pull of the black hole and anything the user touches will start deforming and being destroyed on an atomic scale.
[ Night Rush ] – By enveloping oneself with darkness itself, the user will move with much greater speed, his footsteps will be completely silent and his presence will be almost impossible to be noticed.
The four new skills that Lyle now had were incredibly powerful, especially the [ Black Hole ] which needed an incredible amount of mana to be used.
Right now, even though that skill would be the most effective one to be used against the demonic ogre, Lyle simply didn't have enough mana to support it. Perhaps he could use the skill for a mere 2 seconds before all of his mana would be drained from him.
[ Spear of Darkness ]
Lyle used a skill that he was pretty familiar with. The spear he summoned was pitch-black and tendrils of dark energy oozed out from it.
He had used spears a lot in the past, and it seemed they had become a part of him as both his normal form, and this, powered-up form had the same skill.
With the spear in his hand, Lyle stabbed forward, not aiming at the head of the ogre, but the back.
The ogre's reflexes were incredibly good, and Lyle was not sure that he could stab the ogre even from close range. His thoughts proved to be right as even though the ogre had less than a second to respond to his attack, he moved.
Lyle had previously used the [ Night Rush ] skill, which not only made him incredibly fast, but he was also almost impossible to be noticed.
That changed when he used the spear as the powerful mana waves that were released by him summoning the spear alerted the ogre.
Still, even with the great reflexes and speed the ogre now possessed, he was unable to dodge the spear. His body moved sideways, but the spear had already arrived at his back at that point.
With great ease, the spear penetrated through the back before coming out through the chest of the powerful monster.