13 Slaughter!
As she made her way through the dungeon, her prey came to her.
Using her strength, she farmed the last of the skeleton swordsmen gathered in the area. One by one, she threw a punch at them, shattering their frail bodies while refining her technique to fit her battle theory. However, these skeleton swordsmen were also mindless, as they possessed more instinct than intelligence. This made them easy to slaughter.
By the time her killing was over, her level had risen by 5, and her attribute points were allocated: three points for strength, two points for agility, and one point for stamina—her stats were now 24 strength, 23 agility, and 21 stamina respectively.
As Lilith knew she'd inevitably obtain skills that weren't strength-based and utilized Eldritch Energy, she chose to allocate her stat points where her strength would increase the most, with her agility and stamina following shortly behind.
Smiling, Lilith expressed, "My stats are swiftly increasing, but... I'm lacking eldritch energy... These skeletons, who've become demons from excessive exposure to Eldritch Energy, should contain Eldritch Energy, right?'
As she glanced at the small pile of shattered skeleton swordsmen around her feet, a thought permeated her mind.
'What if I eat this... would I obtain the Eldritch Energy inside?'
It wasn't anywhere close to being flesh, but it would contain eldritch energy, which she assumed would be possible to devour. Would she be able to devour its eldritch energy? She decided to find out.
After picking a small fragment of bone from the pile, she gently lifted it up to her mouth. It's going to be awful—she knew that. The taste of a bone fragment was something she'd never experienced before, and for good reason. Still, her objective is revenge, which necessarily means getting stronger. If she could obtain the eldritch energy in the bone fragment, it'd bring her closer to accomplishing that.
'Here we go…'
Without wasting anymore time, she threw it inside her mouth before swallowing it in one gulp. The taste, as expected, was awful—but it didn't bother Lilith, who indifferently ate human flesh. She focused her concern on what came after. The screen that appeared before her eyes...
[Skeleton Swordsman (Lv. 5)—Devoured!]
[EP +5]
[You've unlocked the Innate Skill: Devour]
[Congratulations, Half-Demon, Lilith! Eldritch Energy had been unlocked!]
[You're the first half-demon to unlock Eldritch]
[+1000 exp]
'First one... why would I be the first one? Out of the countless half-demons, I'm the first one to unlock Eldritch Energy. How does that make sense?' Even though she couldn't understand why, a smile couldn't help but creep onto her face.
Her inquiries were quickly answered.
[To put it simply... Demons usually start off corrupted by another's eldritch energy; their minds become corrupted, decreasing their intelligence, which later recovers as they grow in strength. As for you... yours is a different case, as you have a contract with a goddess. This stops corruption and thus preserves your intellect.]
'Fair enough…'
She opened her status screen and took a look at the changes.
[User: Lilith]
[Race: Half-Demon]
[Level: 6]
[470/700 EXP]
[HP: 120/120]
[EP: 25/25]
[Strength: 25]
[Agility: 24]
[Stamina: 21]
[Unallocated Stat Points: 2 -> 0]
Following that, she opened her skill tab…
[Skills: Devour l]
Narrowing her blue eyes, she pressed the skill, Devour, on the skill list. Immediately, a message box popped up, showing the description and summary of the skill.
[Devour]
[Type: Active]
[Rank: E]
[Rank Tier: Advanced]
[Devour another's energy by consuming their flesh. By devouring the flesh of a special or high-ranking entity, one may obtain further benefits.]
'The skill description isn't specific over special or high-ranking entities, but it's clear that the more flesh I devour or bones for skeletons, the more I'll obtain Eldritch Energy. However, knowing Ayin, it's got to have a limit. I'll have to find out.'
With her curiosity piqued, she picked up another small bone fragment and threw it in her mouth.
And…
Unlike her expectations, a screen didn't appear before her eyes.
'Could it be that I'm unable to devour Eldritch Energy from the race I've already devoured from? It's expected of Ayin, but disappointing. Even so, she wouldn't create this limitation without reason.'
Realizing she couldn't find anything by just standing here, Lilith bolted through the eerie corridors.
[Skeleton Swordsman (Lv. 6)—Defeated!]
[+25 exp]
[Skeleton Swordsmen (Lv. 7)—Defeated!]
[+30 exp]
[Skeleton Swordsmen (Lv. 6)—Defeated!]
[+25 exp]
On the way, she slaughtered several skeleton swordsmen she met, and picked up a rusty sword from one of them—an ordinary sword, nothing fancy. Naturally, she couldn't wield it well just yet, but a weapon is better than just punching with her fists.
As she went deeper, the levels of the skeletons grew—which was natural for a dungeon. Levels, however, weren't the only thing that changed the further one went inside a dungeon; demon types started to vary as well, which meant Lilith would soon have to fight demons, which weren't as easy as fighting frail, mindless skeleton swordsmen.
It didn't take long for that to happen.
Soon, she entered a dimly lit corridor. Trickling down from the brick walls was a crimson-red liquid; it was blood, and in that blood, one could see pieces of flesh. If a human were to enter, they'd be scared shitless, and those with strong wills would feel disgust—it was human flesh after all.
'Smells delicious, but... why would there be human flesh here? And on the walls for that matter?'
Her question was answered almost immediately, with a low, hoarse voice echoing down the corridor. Through Lilith's vision, she immediately recognized where the low, hoarse voice came from.
'Ghouls, huh?'
It was about time she faced some slightly more challenging foes. As the anticipation of the battle grew, she licked her lips, and a smile slowly formed on the corner of her mouth. After what she had experienced and done, who could blame her for becoming a little sadistic?
Slowly, she strode forward, taking her first step into the corridor.
Immediately as she stepped inside, the ghouls lurking in the corridor swiftly spun their heads in her direction, drool spilling from their mouths. Their eyes grew vicious, and they lunged their bodies toward her, willing to tear her piece by piece.
Even so, Lilith's smile never wavered, and the ghouls weren't intelligent creatures like the skeleton swordsmen. They couldn't discern between a strong or weak foe!
They consider all their prey...
As their teeth and sharp nails clawed for her neck, without even looking back, she swung her rusty sword diagonally, cleaving nearly all of their heads off their shoulders at once.
Before the surviving ghoul had time to bite her neck, a powerful kick landed on its chest.
Boom~
Its body shot back, crashing into the bloodied brick walls. The kick shattered its chest, but it wasn't enough to stop it; the ghoul simply had a far higher endurance than a skeleton's after all. Lilith didn't give it any time to recover as she appeared before it with lightning speed and thrust forward with her sword...
The sword pierced its throat, and she slashed straight up, splitting its head in two from the neck up. Its head split apart like two halves of a watermelon, and both fell limp against the ghoul's shoulders as its body slid down against the wall, lifelessly falling to the ground.
[Ghoul (Lv. 10)—Defeated!]
[+50 exp]
~~~
Now, all the ghouls in the hallway were alarmed, but it was too late. Lilith, with a maniacal smile, swung her sword horizontally, sending out a small ripple of Eldritch energy that shot out from the sword.
The sword ripple cut through the air quickly and soon reached the ghoul.
Like butter, the Ghouls' upper half was severed from their lower half; their upper half dropped to the ground shortly later.
"Tch…"
As a low-level demon, her EP attribute is not high; it was above 20, but even so, it is still a bit difficult to send out a small sword ripple. She couldn't use this too often as it rapidly drained her Eldritch Energy.
Fortunately, neither could the ghouls.
[Ghoul (Lv. 10)—Defeated!]
[+50 exp]
[Ghoul (Lv. 11)—Defeated!]
[+55 exp]
[Ghoul (Lv. 10)—Defeated!]
[+50 exp]
Ghouls are different from skeleton swordsmen in that they are faster, stronger, and more durable, but also as unintelligent.
They rely on an insatiable hunger for flesh and instinct as their primary sources of strength. As long as you can avoid them, you can easily defeat them, or you can face them head-on with greater strength.
After all, higher stats alone don't help much when one has no intelligence.
And soon... the last of the exp screens went by, followed by another screen...
[Player level up!]
[Lv. 7-> 8]
[+2 Skill Points]
'Hah…'
Panting slightly, she fell to one knee; her EP was almost out. After her condition stabilized, she calmly walked to the place where one of the ghouls was lying. The ghoul's body was neatly divided into two halves.
Without even flinching, she plucked off one of its fingers and threw it into her mouth. It was crunchy and chewy, and if you ignored the taste, it could almost be considered a biscuit, although it was rotten and partially decayed.
'Now then, let's see how much Eldritch Energy you will give me.'
Surely, it wouldn't be as low an increase as the last time. Ghouls weren't considered basic-tier demons as Skeleton Swordsmen were; instead, they were classified by the Hunter's Association as intermediate-tier demons, a rank above basic-tier in the E-Rank.
Even in a demon's individual rank, there's a gap between the lowest and the highest, which the Hunter has classified as "basic," "intermediate," and "advanced-tier"—this also classifies skills and weapons.
Sure enough, as expected, when Lilith saw the notification appear before her eyes, she smiled—a refreshing feeling of being rejuvenated was felt throughout her entire body.
[Ghoul (Lv. 10)—Devoured!]
[+15 EP]
After relishing the refreshing feeling for a while, she headed down the corridor, dimly lit by red torches on either wall. The zombie-like bodies of the ghouls lay scattered all around her, lifeless and unmoving. She left for the last and final chamber—the boss's chamber.
