The eyes that gazed back from him were not quite what he expected. The mass of looks that met him from the crowd was a mixture of fear and awe. Mash had looked at other people like that once, so he knew what they were thinking. Most of the general audience would not be very powerful and seeing someone easily demonstrate enough power to destroy the city would’ve shaken them. Mash’s fight had been between two enormous creatures whose bodies could have destroyed homes in an instant. On top of that, Mash had devoured large chunks of the monster. Mash descended from the arena, contemplating the fight itself.

He had fought against a powerful creature, but that wasn’t the problem. It was an intelligent being in the same vein as Priscilla. Mash didn’t know how he felt about killing it. Certainly, it was something that he was supposed to do but was it the right thing to do. The monster was clearly malicious, and Mash had quickly dismissed a friendly ending when it tried to take control of his mind. He enjoyed the fight despite all that and had been absorbed in the thrill of battle.

Mash left the arena and meet up with the others. They had seen the fight and had come out to meet him before heading back home. With barely any energy remaining. Mash felt drained. He could’ve just meditated some more but wanted to go to sleep. A good rest sounded more valuable than just recovering his energy. He also wanted to test transforming into the sphinx form and listening to their story about the dungeon, but that could wait until after he woke up.

On the way back his friends asked him about the fight and what happened at the start of it. To them, it looked like he was talking and doing nonsense with the monster. Then randomly entering a savage battle to the death. Those looks that he saw made more sense now. He proceeded to explain to his friends about the short conversation he had had with the creature and the mental attacks it tried to use. Talking about what happened during the fight, lasted until they returned home. Once they got back Mash went back to sleep. He figured he could wake up before lunch and would hear about the dungeon then.

When he woke up, it was later in the afternoon than he intended. The others had finished eating already and were in the training room. Mash grabbed some food before heading to the others. The chef had made a special dish to celebrate winning the tournament. It was flatbread covered in cheese and meats. It was excellent, and Mash grabbed two full dishes before finding Luke. As expected, he was trying out his new abilities, and Mash didn’t hesitate to call him over. Mash asked for the story now, and Luke's face contorted between joy and sadness as if he had wanted to avoid the conversation. Finally, he settled on resolve and started speaking.

­­­­Luke P.O.V Two days ago

The dungeon was taking longer than they expected it would. It was already the eighth day which meant that it was the morning of Mash’s fight. Once the princess's bodyguard advanced her class, they figured it would be easy and they could race through the dungeon. That ended up being false as the generals and lord of the town were stronger than she was. Even with his buffs they only barely managed to beat one of the generals, and from what they knew, there were still two left. And that was not including the lord of the city who was even stronger than the generals. Originally, they tried to wait for an opportunity to attack a general alone, but ever since one died, they grouped up and remained within the throne room. It looked like the final fight would be between the generals and the lord.

He was worried for a few reasons but eager for another. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if they could handle the fight, but he was close to advancing his class and the fight would certainly give him the two levels he needed. Luke hadn’t stolen any more souls and felt sick whenever he remembered what he did. He hadn’t used the skill he gained either and looking at it caused his hair to rise.

Name: Lukas Class: Soul Strengthened War Cleric

Level: 59

Health: 1210 / 1210

Stamina: 790/790

Mana: 1130 / 1130

Fortitude: 121

Endurance: 79

Strength: 98

Agility: 89

Intelligence: 113

Wisdom: 174

Charisma: 89

Free Stats: 0

Skills: Soul Absorption, Soul Mutation, Soul Enhancement, Return to State, Soul Brands, Corrupt Distortion, Strengthened Soul, One in Mind and Body, Untouchable Spirit

Corrupt Distortion: Stolen from a being of pure evil, you take its ability to crush and twist the soul, and as to be expected, the body will always follow the soul. Only affects creatures with a soul.

Luke stared at the skill and shivered. His stats had increased massively as well. Apparently, stealing the soul of the creature had given him a massive increase in his mental stats. Each had gone up by almost twenty points, and he understood why Lich’s were such a big problem. Not to mention his charisma had been consistently increasing as of late. The fame from his display in the arena was continuing to spread. If a being spent its life-stealing souls it would eventually have enough stats to be near unkillable. Luke sighed thinking about how he had essentially made himself their biggest enemy. Well, that was fine, and he would be happy if he could defeat such an evil being.

This dungeon was different though and he struggled at first with what to do. Ever since Mash had told him what dungeons really were, Luke had started to hesitate more about what to do. Killing these monsters was essentially massacring an army and storming a city. At first, he tried communicating with a few, but after a little while realized that there was no hope at reconciliation. However, it was only once he entered the city that he truly lost his empathy for these beings. Luke had seen several signs of humans within the camps, and they had even rescued one or two. The humans were being used as slaves and food, and their treatment was far worse than simply being killed. It was that sight that made Luke want to end this battle.

Luke looked over the group, which now contained eleven people. Originally, it was just the five of them, but they had met another team that was trying to get through the final room. They wanted the rewards for the dungeon but weren’t strong enough to clear it. The group had been waiting for another team to arrive and hoped that they could clear the dungeon together.

The princess accepted their aid, though Luke, Red, and Jill were much more skeptical. The princess seemed to believe the people wouldn’t dare to do anything malicious, but after the incidents in Krall, Luke wasn’t as trusting anymore. Mash was the most trusting of the group, and Luke had asked him about how he could be so trusting after everything he had been through. Mash had explained that he would rather keep trusting people than be vindictive towards everyone he met. It wasn’t that he expected the best of people, rather that he didn’t want to become such a cynical person. Mash had strangely said that distrusting everyone was exhausting, but Luke felt the same way about the opposite. Trusting people was a burden, though it was one he wanted to carry. However, that did mean that people needed to earn his trust first. He would not get into another situation like with Leah.

So, Luke kept the other group at a distance and tried not to get close with them. Jill had been the liaison and had acted friendly with the group. She was getting to know them, trying to determine if they were trustworthy or not. She hadn’t noticed anything yet and neither had Luke. The group consisted of three guys and three girls. They had one healer among their group, and they were a lot weaker than Luke himself. In fact, their whole group was weaker than Luke’s, but it should still be enough to handle a general. That was the plan for the final room.

Luke, Red, and Jill would handle the boss while they took care of one of the generals. Niviss and her bodyguard would handle the other general and once they finished they would help the other team before coming for the boss. It wasn’t a complex plan, but they didn’t really know what else to expect from the fight.

They were in a hallway of the castle, the throne room behind the set of double doors in front of them. The whole building was made of some light brown stone that reminded Luke of sandstone. It wasn’t quite the same though, and he didn’t understand what it was. It didn’t matter though, and they burst through the set of doors. He didn’t know what to expect but this wasn’t it. Some creature with long black horns had blood dripping from its mouth. The lord and its generals were dead and being eaten by the monster before them. It radiated a vile power, and sharp yellow eyes scanned over the group. The eyes were angled strangely seeming to slant downwards from its forehead. As it chewed the food, Luke got a good sight of rows of sharp teeth. The horrifying part was when it closes its mouth several teeth would punch through its own skin. It cut through its chin and cheeks and a blackish fluid dripped from the wounds.

It had a lanky body and stood at twice Luke’s height. It was skinny enough that Luke could see the ribs on the creature, but a small potbelly indicated that it had been eating its fill. Sickly white skin covered its body and it contrasted with its black eyes. In an instant it appeared before them, black flames riding down its arm as it swung towards them. Its arm was longer than a whip and swung like one too. The princess’s bodyguard blocked the blow, but the flames coalesced on her body. It covered her in the fire in an instant, and she let out a pained yell. That was not a good sign. The creature warped again appearing behind Jill. It lashed out with a similar attack, but Jill warped away. The attack though hit one of the guys from the other party.

The flames repeated the same motion, but he wasn’t as resilient as the bodyguard. He fell to the ground in a screaming mess and within a few seconds had died. Luke could see souls and could vaguely tell if someone was alive. He didn’t even try to heal the man as Luke forced his body to grow. They needed to lock down the creature. Jill seemed to have the same idea as she impaled the creature’s tail with a harpoon. It was a new item that she had picked up while in the dungeon. Like her armor, it took the properties of her magic. Which meant that it would distort the space around its target. It slowed them down and prevented teleportation. She learned that the hard way when the monsters had stabbed her with it.

It was trapped but still moved a lot faster than Luke expected. Its whole body became covered with flames for a second before it exploded from him. Luke raised his arms to brace for the force. Red stepped behind him. The people whom he was worried about were the other party and the princess who were on the other side of the monster. The fire covered everything, and Luke felt it burning something deeper than just his skin. It was an attack on the soul. Ironically that made Luke better at dealing with it and he took the brunt of the attack. The bodyguard had recovered and warped in front of the princess, a great shield raised to intercept the attack. A few of the other adventurers had survived but another two had died from the attack.

Luke started charging towards the thing as soon as his vision cleared, but the creature had already raised its hand towards him. black lightning was bouncing between its fingers, and Luke thought he was going to die. Then the lightning contorted and exploded on the creature’s hands. It was Jill’s attack, though Luke didn’t how that happened. It didn’t matter and he reached the monster, punching it with an enlarged fist. Luke heard bones cracking, but it wasn’t from the monsters. His hand recoiled from colliding with the creature’s own, and he knew that his fingers had been destroyed. The pain was enough to tell him that he had lost in a contest of strength. However, he was only the distraction as a series of other attacks bombarded the creature.

Between Jill and himself, they had managed to restrain and distract the creature giving everyone else an opportunity to attack it. A great shield slammed into the thing’s knees snapping its legs. In the same moment, the blood dripping from the creature's face turned into needles that dug into its eyes. Niviss curse took effect as purple brands started etching themselves into the creature’s skin. The remaining adventures in the other party didn’t hold back either. Fueled by the deaths of their friends they lash out with whatever they could manage. Two swinging swords to cut large gashes in its body, and the last shooting it with an arrow.

The creature screamed, and Luke almost lost consciousness from the shout. It felt like his brain was being shaken, and a quick glance told him that almost everyone else had fallen unconscious. Only the bodyguard, and strangely the princess remained awake. The monster took the opportunity to lash out at Jill and threw a spear of fire at her. She had been the biggest problem for it so far, and Luke knew it. Luke ran to stand in front of her, but he didn’t make it. Thankfully her shield was still active, and damage was heavily mitigated. This was bad, and it didn’t look like the princess, or the bodyguard was in fighting condition. They managed to stay conscious but barely and were holding their heads in agony.

Luke only hesitated for a moment before stepping towards the creature and using his new skill. Even if it disgusted him, he would rather live with that than let Jill get killed. She had lessened the damage but not stopped it and would probably die if he didn’t heal her. The creature let out another scream, and Luke’s vision went black for a second, but he kept the skill going. When his sight returned, he saw that the creature’s body was contorting and collapsing on itself, but it was determined to kill as many people as it could. The fires covered its body again, and Luke knew that this explosion would be bigger than the rest. In a desperate attempt, he tried to push as much power as he could into the skill, trying to empower it with his soul absorption. The creature’s soul contorted further and collapsed into Luke’s own. He felt the rush of a level up, but also the sickening feeling of gaining undeserved power.