A quick summary of what we earned for our efforts was as followed:

Twenty-three pairs of lizard fangs, valued at $800 a fang, totaled $36,800.

The two daggers Jameson recovered went for $2,500 each, pushing us up to $41,800.

The Red Lizard was a class three monster, so it’s fangs sold for the same amount as the daggers.

Even at $46,800 we still had the heart and tail and skin to add up. The heart was a $7000, the tail was, $6000, and the skin was $5000.

Meaning, we earned a grand total of $64,800 Emerian Dollars before the tax deductions were involved. After being split evenly five ways, we each received $12,960. After the Emerian Government took their 15% cut, I was left with $11,016.

It was the most money I had ever earned in one day and I could see why people risked everything to clear ruins. It was even clearer to see why the government didn’t get too involved with guild politics since it profited immensely from the Gifted.

Class three ruins and above underwent a refresh period every few days, meaning, there was a huge source of money flowing around our small country. It was easy to see how the number of world superpowers had increased, of course, the three juggernauts US, Russia, and China remained as the top three since they had much more of a head start before ruins even appeared.

My thoughts quickly shifted to another topic as I arrived at my apartment. Even in my injured state, I quickly moved to find the nameless book and opened it to check the number of souls in my possession.

Value Of Souls Gathered: 725

“Yes!” I smiled brightly as I quickly did the math.

It appears that of the souls of the twenty-three lizard men had a value of 25 while the Red Lizard Chief was worth 150.

I had enough to do a lot, and I wagered that I would pass as a class three after getting enough skills or advancing the Death Bringer Path.

Bone Mending, Wilma’s War Scythe, Cursed Blood, Blood Arrow, Corpse Puppet, Skeleton Soldier, and Demon Pact would cost me a total of 210 souls. I was about to recklessly splurge on everything available, but I paused right before I did.

“No, I shouldn’t purchase all of them just yet.” I restrained my greed and took a deep breath, regaining some sense of clarity.

First, I purchased Bone Mending (10) and Wilma’s War Scythe (50). The former immediately took affect as I could feel the pain of my fractured bones get reduced at a noticeable rate.

Now with 650 souls left, I could advance the Death Bringer Path and gain access to more knowledge within the book by spending 500 souls which would leave me with only 150.

I decided against that after contemplating it for a while. I needed to get to a point where I could enter class one and class two ruins alone so I could always have a steady supply of souls. After all, Jameson and the others probably would need more time before they wanted to head into another class three ruin.

With that in mind, I chose to purchase Cursed Blood (25) and Skeleton Soldier (30).

595 remained and it was still enough to advance the Death Bringer path so I advanced my knowledge of runes for another 25 souls. The words on the book shifted as all the skills I purchased disappeared except for my rune knowledge which changed into Intermediate Rune Inscription while the cost to advance once more shot up to 150 souls.

With 570 souls left, I debated advancing my rune knowledge once more but wanted to advance my path first in order to see if there were other skills I should pick. Since the only skill that remained in the Death Bringer path was now “Expert Rune Inscription,” I could move on without any hesitation.

As two hundred and fifty souls were drained away, the page detailing the path had changed drastically.

Path Of The Death Bringer

Expert Rune Inscription: Any weapon can be strengthened by a Death Bringer’s knowledge of runes.

Price: 50

Cost of Advancement: 150

Shadow Of Death(Unique): Those who step within Death’s shadow will not escape without punishment. Choose one target and lock them in place for a short duration. (Warning, targets with powerful souls will not be affected at the current level of this ability.)

Price:100

Cost of Advancement: 150

Flesh Mending: They may cut away at your flesh, but you will outlast them, this I guarantee.

Price: 75

Bone Strengthening (Unique): Although you have been broken once before, it will not happen again so easily.

Price: 100

Soul Siphon (Unique): Each time you kill an enemy, you will absorb their soul. Each time your absorb their soul, you will gain a temporary boost of strength and speed.

Price: 100

Advancement Condition: Advance further down the Death Bringer path to increase the duration and effect.

To further explore this path, more souls are needed.

Current Amount: 0/5,000

To abandon this path and select a new one, more souls are needed.

Current Amount: 0/8,000

The price of skills, as well as the cost of advancement, had drastically increased, but I wasn’t discouraged. In fact, it was quite the opposite as I was overwhelmed by the quality of skills presented.

I think both Soul Siphon and Flesh Mending were necessary for what I sought to accomplish. So, the 320 souls that remained were reduced to 145. I also needed to Bone Strengthening, so another 100 souls vanished, leaving me with only 45.

With my souls gone, I turned my attention to the non-path knowledge that remained. Corpse Puppet could wait, it had no combat ability and the only use would be having a zombie carry my equipment and material out of the ruin.

What I had gained was worth it though. I put the rest of my souls into the amount required to further explore the rest of the book, leaving it at 45 out of 250.

A ton of knowledge flooded into my head as the different skills piled up. I even felt a certain sense of enlightenment pertaining to Penelope’s Dance and resolved myself to meditate on it when I had dissected everything else.

I divided my new abilities into two types, passive and active.

The passives were as follows, Bone Mending, Soul Siphon, and Flesh Mending. There was no mental focus required for them to be used.

The actives were Wilma’s War Scythe, which needed bones to use, Cursed Blood, which required activation once my blood had been spilled to the point of staining my enemy, and Skeleton Soldier which needed a corpse.

I didn’t count Bone Strengthening or my newly acquired Intermediate Rune Inscription as either one since they weren’t really recurring abilities.

“Better to get it out of the way,” I said with a sigh before collapsing onto my couch.

I concentrated on it and I quickly gained a better understanding of the process. Runes would be carved into my bones automatically. I think the Bone Restructure had broken me to an extent because I was actually happy to hear my bones would be carved up.

“Let’s start then.”

I closed my eyes and immediately felt a burning, itchy, sensation over my entire body like hundreds of bugs were tunneling into my body. I ended up underestimating the amount of pain I would feel and could only grit my teeth as a set of ancient runes carved themselves into my skeleton. I couldn’t stop myself as I scratched at my arms in a futile hope of finding relief.

And then it all stopped abruptly and I left out a heavy exhale as relief came flooding in.

“That wasn’t that bad,” I spoke to myself. I realized it was a habit that had grown during my isolation but I didn’t think I needed to really work on stopping it.

Switching my focus, my knowledge of runes expanded and found the symbols for, fire, ice, poison, and bleeding were present in my head. While the others were straightforward, bleeding seemed to be a curse of some sort which made me a little regretful for not picking Blood Arrow since it synthesized well.