"K-Kid? What’s your na?" the corpse asked, struggling to get the words out clearly.
Carl felt odd. Soone on the brink of death still wanted to know his enemy’s na? Either way, he was going to finish this corpse off, and besides, his na was not valuable.
"Carl Ryan."
The dead body gave a faint smile and pulled a key from inside his short coat. With a trembling hand, he held it out toward Carl.
"Take it. With your will, you can do what we couldn’t. Please... fulfill our dream."
Then, all of a sudden, his hand dropped, and his whole body started to wither away under so strange force.
Confused, Carl scratched the back of his head, then bent down and picked up the key—just as a voice echoed.
[System Notice]: Sigh... my husband. Don’t you want to devour him? A four-star dragon soul... it’s dying.
"Huh? My bad..." Carl snapped out of his thoughts and triggered his skill.
[Soul-Devouring Fla activated]
A scream of blue fla shot toward the dead body, wrapping it up. The crackling flas filled the prison cell as they consud the corpse’s soul.
[System]: Target offered no resistance.
[System]: Soul Devoured: 10%
[System]: Soul Devoured: 20%
...
[System]: Soul Devoured: 60%
[System]: Soul Devoured: 100%
Ting!
—------------------------------------------
[Side Quest]:
– 1: Clear your first dungeon.
Reward: Dinsional Slash Skill
– 2: Check the prison cell. (Completed!)
Reward: Information about the key.
A mysterious room lies deep within the dungeon. The luckiest one would find it and conquer this room and claim countless treasures... but must also face the dungeon’s strongest boss.
---------------------------------------------
"Sounds great... but that also ans I’m gonna die if I go in there. I value my life, y’know. I’ve got a beautiful wife—why would I throw it away for so treasure?" Carl grumbled.
[System Notice]: I’d be happy if that’s truly how you think, my husband. But this ti, it’s different. Do you rember what the corpse told you?
Carl stroked his chin for a mont, then nodded again and again, a smile creeping onto his face.
"You’re right. He said I’m the only one who can get through that mysterious room... which ans my skill will be useful when the ti cos."
’’Forget it, now I have an issue bigger than that.’’
’’Status!’’
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Na]: Carl Ryan
[Age]: 18
[Class]: Stoker
[Rank]: F [870/5000] (Requires Monster Card)
[Soul Rank]: ★ Dragon (Progress: 1.5%-->76,5%)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Great! Seventy-five percent? I can’t believe it. If everything keeps going like this... I’ll beco invincible!" Carl clenched his fist in pure satisfaction.
[System Notice]: Yeah... that is impressive progress. But you were just lucky when you faced a four-star dragon soul in a weakened state. A four-star dragon soul is a hundred tis stronger than a one-star, so that is why you made a big progress.
Carl nodded at his wife’s remark, then stepped closer to the chest and opened it.
"There’s nothing here? Tsk... I guess the key and that cube are all I got."
He turned toward the phantom guide—but now its once-confident look was gone. No, more accurately, it was... dying.
"No... Cobb, what are you doing? It’s dying..." Carl shouted, a trace of panic in his voice. The only thing that could guide him out of here was fading away.
The cloud of darkness wrapping around the phantom guide loosened itself up until the phantom guide dropped to the ground from the air. The clouds quickly returned back into the black dragon, which stood beside its victim, shrugging its shoulders as if to say it wasn’t responsible. It was completely innocent.
So why did the phantom guide die?
Carl forced himself to calm down as one thought flashed across his mind. He glanced between the corpse and the phantom guide before piecing it together.
"They’re connected... The phantom guide is a part of the soul inside the corpse. But now that he’s gone, it’s gone too."
"Damn it. Without it, I can’t get out of this place."
Carl let out a heavy sigh. "Fine... if I hand it to the Venom Lizard, maybe he’s got so trick to escape. If not, then I’ll just face the monsters ahead, no matter how strong or dangerous they are."
And with that, Carl made his way back to the place where they had agreed to et after searching for the phantom guide.
***
"Has anyone got sothing useful?" Wilbur asked, his eyes scanning the group.
He was hoping for so good news, since it looked like he hadn’t found anything else in the basent either.
"No... damn it. I didn’t see a thing."
Paisley just scoffed and said,
"What crap! Everything you said was nonsense. I’ve wasted so much ti on your stupidity."
...
So of the others felt the sa frustration. They were stuck here, drained of energy, following Wilbur’s useless orders.
Wilbur let out a long sigh. But then his face lit up when Carl spoke.
"I’ve got so good news." Carl tossed a strange ghost, wrapped in a piece of cloth, into the center of the crowd
Everyone was in shock.
"Great! We can get out of here... Damn, you’re amazing!" one guy said, patting Carl on the shoulder with a grin.
"Nice job."
Praise started to spread, but Carl only scratched his head awkwardly. He wasn’t sure the phantom guide could actually do anything—it was nothing more than a hollow shell now.
Still, he hoped Wilbur might pull sothing off with it. But when Carl noticed Wilbur’s cold expression, he frowned. Wilbur stared at the ghost, inspecting it as if he had known it all along.
At first, Wilbur looked as icy as ever, but after a few seconds, confusion flickered across his face as he finished examining the ghost. Then, in the blink of an eye, he masked it with a smile for everyone else.
’’Excellent! Carl. You’re saving everyone!’’ Then he looked at everyone again before saying
’’We can leave right now. I swear, everyone’s getting out of here in one piece."
And with that, relief washed over the group, like a huge weight had finally been lifted from their chests.
But Carl just grimaced.
’’That fuking is hiding sothing..’’
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