William, sitting on the ground, looked ahead at the dissolving body of the ghoul. Its head had been severed by him, and its body was engulfed in chilling blue flames.
William glanced at his hands, seeing them blackened and on the verge of decay.
"Your pain tolerance is amazing," Myre remarked as she reached him. She dropped a golden liquid from her fingertips onto his hands. As the golden drop touched his wounds, they began to heal at an astonishingly fast rate.
'Get tortured for a whole week, and you'll gain this tolerance too,' William thought to himself as he stood up and approached the dissolving ghoul's body.
"I wonder what it will leave behind," William mumbled.
giggle~
"Do you know why the undead are the most sought-after targets?" Myre asked, chuckling at William's question.
"Yes, because they are the only ones who drop talents after death. Although it's a one-in-a-million chance, it's still better than nothing," William replied.
"That's right. Let's see whether you're lucky enough to obtain it or not," Myre said.
William nodded as he began to look at the dissolving body. Soon, it fully turned into energy, and this energy converged to form a simple book with runic-like patterns on the cover.
"Pity, you only got a skill book," she said as she picked up the book and examined it with her appraisal skill.
"Hmm, Decay Zone, a noble-class middle skill. What a good one. Pity you can't use it, though, as one of the requisites is having a Decay talent or the ability to use Decay," she said, sighing with pity.
"Hmm." William took the book, and as he poured his Sila energy inside, the book slowly dissolved into energy and rushed into him. William learned the Decay Zone skill. Closing his eyes, he activated it, and from his center, a 10-meter circle of grey decaying mist erupted, even stronger than the one used by the ghoul.
"This...," Myre looked at him, surprised.
"I also have the Decay attribute," William said calmly. "My Soul Emperor is the master of Soul and Death, after all, and Decay is just a part of Death."
Myre nodded as she looked at the horizon. "It's time. Let's go back."
William nodded, and then she teleported them both out of there.
But after an hour or so, a man arrived at the spot, enraged. "Who was it? Who killed it?"
He looked around furiously, not finding the ghoul. "Damn it! How could it be killed so easily, especially in these backward mountains?"
He kicked the ground, causing it to crack all over.
"I was this close to obtaining another talent, and not just any talent—it was one I truly desired," he mumbled to himself.
"Shit, I've once again failed to acquire it," he muttered, sighing with regret. Now, he'd have to wait until he became a ghoul himself.
"Now I have to find another human and make them evolve into an undead again," he grumbled as he left.
It was clear that this man had been using this method to gain talents for who knows how long—a scum who treated humans like livestock for his personal gain.
"I will gain it for the skill I obtained," he mumbled as he walked, holding a skill book that shone with divine light, indicating it was a Divine-Class skill book. Written on top of it was the title: Decay World.
"I was wondering why the wounds looked so precise, as if someone tortured it before killing it," a sudden feminine voice broke the silence, causing the man to stiffen.
He looked toward the source and found a beautiful lady rising from the shadows. She had long white hair cascading down her back, bright blue eyes staring at him, and a curvaceous figure that made the man gulp in anticipation, barely hidden beneath her maid's dress.
Slice!
"Stop looking at me like that," the voice came from behind him, and suddenly his vision went black.
"Arghhhhhh! My eyes! My eyes!" He clutched his face, screaming in agony as Mia sliced his eyes.
Mia calmly picked up the skill book he had dropped and looked at it, nodding. "Young Master will surely like this," she mumbled.
Hearing her mumbling, the man, enraged, turned his body around. Flames ignited all over him, slowly morphing him into a bigger version of himself. His body reddened to a molten hue, transforming into a flame demon, with towering height and a flaming skull crowned with blazing hair.
"You bitch! You dared to take my stuff! I won't just kill you; I'll burn your whole body slowly, making you go through such pain that you'll beg for my embrace!" he laughed, his voice deep and full of malice.
Mia tilted her head slightly and mumbled, "That's a good talent you have, a transformation type. Judging by the size, it seems to be a King-class Flame Demon transformation talent."
"Oh! So now you understand it's futile to defy me! After all, I'm a King-class talent—born one in a million! Hahaha!" he laughed maniacally, but suddenly he felt strange as his vision shifted to the sky from Mia.
"Huh? What happened?" he mumbled, his voice shaking as he turned to look at Mia. His eyes widened in disbelief as he saw his lower body, blood spurting heavily from the wound.
"When did she cut me?" he mumbled to himself, still in shock.
And that was his last thought before he saw Mia's shadow come to life, expanding and opening its mouth wide to engulf him and his entire body in abyssal darkness.
"Didn't you want to be in a Decay World? Then you're welcome in my Dark World," were the last words he heard before he was swallowed by endless darkness.
Mia watched the man get engulfed in the infinite void, her gaze cold and distant. "I was once a Peak Emperor-class talent of the Dark Queen," she muttered with a calm, almost emotionless tone.
The man's eyes widened in terror as he looked at her one last time before his entire body was consumed by the void, reduced to dark energy for Mia to use.
As he died, Mia suddenly exclaimed in surprise as her shadow spit out a crystal and a book.
"Hmm, he was dissolved into energy... It seems his atrocious acts caused him to be abandoned by the world itself," Mia mumbled as she picked up the talent crystal and the skill book. She then moved into her shadow and directly returned to William's side.