"Currently, the Caligulas City suffers from three major problems." Sophien began her report as she and I were gathered in her room.
"The first problem is the cursed ground. Crops cannot be raised on the ground and not only that, but the people who step on that ground die slowly as well." Sophien told the first problem.
"I will deal with this problem before we leave this city," I told her as she nodded and moved on. "The second problem is the repairs and the funds to do those repairs. Even if you are an imperial prince, you cannot procure funds to complete the repairs."
"How much would be required?" I asked her.
"Almost seventy million gold. An additional amount of up to twenty million." She reported. Upon hearing the price, I seethed once even though I had the necessary funds, it was still quite a price.
"Don't worry about the funds. I have the necessary amount." I told her to which she was more skeptical than surprised but said nothing about it. "If you say so. Then that only leaves us with one major problem and that is population." She continued to state the last major problem.
It was true that population was needed, but for now, the utmost priority was to heal the land. To do that, I needed to clear the dungeon and deal with the A rank Lich.
For that, I needed the necessary strength. It was a good thing that I could now begin the third step of the Penta enhancent array.
I couldn't do that before because I didn't have the necessary amount of death elent to purify the dark mana crystals obtained from Monica, Laura's mother. The crystal from her was S rank.
However, that problem was now solved after killing so many undeads and obtaining dark mana crystals of lower rank. I had about seventy C- dark mana crystals and two C ranked ones.
Even my death strand could easily purify them. I will have to kill a lot to recharge it back again but that wasn't much of a problem as my life was literally surrounded by death.
"For now begin on the repairs of the walls. We have the bandits to slave away so use them properly. We will see where to head after that." I instructed her to which she nodded and replied, "Workforce was a problem for construction but with these bandits, that problem is solved."
I nodded and after a few more minutes of discussion, I left Sophien's room and ca to mine. I began to set up the array for the third step and before I knew it, it was already night.
I pulled out all the crystals from my inventory and began to purify them. I couldn't see what happened to mana once my death elent grabbed onto the dark energy inside the crystal to keep it in place and push out the rest.
I didn't care and kept going with the process. It wasn't long before I had exhausted all of my death elent but succeeded in purifying almost all the crystals. There were still so C- rank ones left but I had already run out of the elent of death and the dark purified crystals that I had were more than enough.
I initiated the setup. It was around a little over midnight and according to my experience, the process would last about half an hour at most. Of course, that half hour would be the most painful mont of this life I would ever feel.
Done with all the preparations, I bought the last piece of the puzzle and set it up around . the shield that would keep my screams inside because even I wouldn't be able to keep my screams in during this process.
The fifth step is very much like Laura's darkness integration. Only it is a hundred tis more painful and my body doesn't beco dark attributed. The array would convert the darkness' harshness to mold my muscles to a better state. A more powerful state.
Breathing in, I sat down in the middle of the array and began to breathe deeply. I did it for a while when Allison said, with annoyance evident in her tone.
[Get on with it already]
[You won't die]
'I won't but that doesn't an the pain is welco.' I retorted. Of course, my power was built upon pain but I didn't welco it. I didn't like being tortured or torturing myself for power. I did it because I had no other choice because this was the best, easiest, and fastest way I knew but I was still apprehensive about it.
"Activate," I asked Allison to help since I just couldn't bring myself to begin the process. That's how painful it was.
=====
My flesh was being torn apart amidst my screams. My bones were being nourished amidst my screams. My organs were scrunching, expanding, and shriveling again and again amidst my screams. There was no factor of risk involved. My body was hard enough to endure this which ant that only the factor of pain was left. Pain and just pain.
What was a half hour in reality, to felt like days, stretching my senses to the limit as if ti had slowed down to the maximum.
Luckily, everything cos to an end and just like good things, this bad one ca to an end as well.
"HUFF!!! HUF!!!" I huffed like my life depended on it. The pain stopped and the feeling shut my whole body down now that constant pain wasn't keeping conscious.
I didn't know how much ti had passed when I woke up but it was still dark outside so I could conclude that the night hadn't ended yet.
"How long was I out?" I asked Allison in a loud voice, only my voice wasn't loud but croaked. It felt like I was thirsty for years.
[Your throat is sore from constant screaming]
I cast 'High heal' on my entire body as a warm wave washed through , soothing my entire being.
[A little less than two hours]
Allison replied to my earlier question while I relished the warm feeling all over my body.
"I don't care about that. Show my status." I asked Allison, waving my hand, still feeling very much exhausted since 'high heal' did nothing about my ntal fatigue.
Without even seeing the status, I knew what the biggest change in my body would have been but as for the physical stats, and others, I didn't expect a massive change.
[STR: 316---386
AGI: 316---356
END: 501---596
PER: 315---345
INT: 556---596
CHR: 386---886
LUCK: 266]
First of all, my luck didn't change at all since Luck has nothing to do with body enhancent. After that, my strength increased by 70, agility by 40, endurance by 95, and perception by 30. As far as physical stats go, this wasn't an amazing increase. Of course, my stats were still under a debuff so let's say the increase was half of what I have ntioned.
As for nonphysical, the increase in INT was okay-ish. A 40-point increase which under debuff would an a 20-point increase. Once again, it wasn't much but it was enough if we combined all of them.
But the biggest change that darkness brings is its inherent quality. There is a phrase, 'True darkness is very beautiful. Once one gazes at it, one cannot tear their eyes away.' Darkness has the inherent property of being enchanting. Just as I had ntioned for Laura, I had also beco more handso, than I already was, with this reformation.
A whopping 500 points of increase in my charisma. Charisma was not just charm. It was everything. Eloquence, beauty, favorability, everything was affected by it. Humans will find so enchanting that they won't be able to tear their gaze away from . Of course, truly strong ones would be able to resist but the sa couldn't be said for the weak ones.
If I confessed to a normal girl right now, she wouldn't hesitate to jump at . Still, at the end of the day, all it did was almost nothing for . Charisma was no use when it ca to killing the undead so for a guy like , who had strict morals, this change was aningless.
No use in complaining about it because this change was irreversible. People would find attractive even if I were to scar my face. Seeing that I had another tiring day tomorrow, I decided to go to sleep right there on the floor.
======
"You look…" Sophien didn't complete her sentence but I could see that he was trying to hold herself back. It wasn't a strong struggle so the effect of my charisma on her was not that strong but still, it seed to be working okay on her.
"Different? I know." I completed her sentence for her and moved on to the more important subject. "Have the materials for the repairs arrived?"
"Yes… Yes, they have." Sophien replied, still trying to figure out what was going on and I let her be. I needed to focus on the task right now. Things didn't go how I had planned. The physical increase from the third step was too low. As for the fourth step, I would have to wait for a while before I can do that.
"Very well. Begin today. I will be in the plaza executing bandits if you need ." I said and left Sophien's room while she was still looking at strangely. I traversed through the corridors of the castle and passed many servants who turned to look at and kept their eyes on , intending to burn my image deep into their minds.
Now it would have been a great feeling. The best. It's just that darkness doesn't discriminate between genders so it wasn't just the female class getting wet because of but also the n. Yeah, not so good of a feeling.
Anyway, I arrived at the plaza just in ti for the silver knights to bring the bandits. I began with the B ranked ones today who gave no trouble. One, my stats were increased, and second, these guys were hungry, scared, and had almost lost their will to live.
At this point, it was just murder instead of execution. But if these people deserved rcy, then the hell was freezing. The amount of lives these people have destroyed doesn't grant them rcy. They deserve to face a far more worse fate than death. It is my rcy that I am allowing them to die.
[You have killed a B rank enemy x73]
[You have obtained 7300 EXP]
[You have obtained 7,300,000 coins]
[You have leveled up x5]
My level wasn't very impressive. If anything, it would soon get to the point where it would be difficult to raise my level with just B rank enemies. Although there were a lot of undead waiting for in the dungeon, it did nothing for my increasing EXP amount. As for the elent of death, I decided that I needed it more than I needed EXP right now.
If I can just sohow increase my death strand by two tis, I can integrate it into my body, making it better than ever.
Of course, it cos with risks but I have soone who will help with that. As for the elent of light, it was almost two strands now so I could begin its integration soon.
[Your party mber Rose Roosevelt is now level 236]
[Your party mber Maximilian Specter is now level 204]
I was considering whether or not I should take these guys with to the undead dungeon. Having them with would be quite useful, not to ntion they were at a good enough level to stall the undead while I extracted them of their power. But the problem was that these guys didn't have a superior elent to resist the corrosion brought by the corruptive elent in the dungeon.
I was skeptical whether or not their mana would be enough to guard themselves against such a strong energy.
[But you know what that ans, don't you?]
'Yeah.' It ans I will have to deal with the dungeon boss alone if I don't find a way to take these guys with .
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