NOVEL NEXT Chapter 53: New Arm, Overload Blade!
David caught the scent of death once again.
That ice-cold feeling could trigger the deepest fear in the heart of any living creature.
Though he knew this bizarre world held many powers beyond his understanding, this ability to bypass life energy and directly decree a target's "instant death" scared him so badly his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
When that terrifying shadow power slammed down heavily, his health bar immediately bottomed out.
But bottoming out didn't mean hitting zero. He'd kept 1 point of life energy—this was the final sliver of hope the "death curse" left for the living.
Normally, this tiny bit of life would quickly fade under the shadows' devouring, but David had made the right choice earlier and luckily dodged disaster.
He'd performed the Limb Grafting Ritual. That construct arm had been absorbed into his body, and the special metal core infused with life force instantly replenished his health.
Not much—just 1000 points. But it was enough to save his life!
[Limb Grafting Ritual complete. Acquired arm: Construct Arm]
[Devoured Construct Arm, absorbed life energy, limit +1000.]
[Construct Arm I: Requires no activation cost. Equipped with: Living Metal High-Energy Blade. Cooldown: 10 seconds (none). Note: Can activate arm continuously, but will cause construct overheating, damaging self.]
Shing! Bzzzzt—!!!
A brand new metal arm shot out from David's back. At the arm's end was a three-foot-long gleaming blade, electricity bursting forth, lightning coiling around it!
The blade flashed, leaving a full moon arc of light around David—all the shadows approaching or clinging to his body were sliced clean in two.
David grabbed the glowing heart he'd ripped from the monster's body, using its strange light to shield his chest, then casually devoured the monster's arm.
[Devoured monster arm, absorbed life energy, limit +10000.]
His health recovered to a barely usable level—now, it was time to go on a killing spree!
Dorothy, held in David's arms, held her breath as she watched.
This man was truly amazing...
When those shadows had swarmed over them just now, she'd given up. Even though the ending hadn't changed, being able to die as a "person" was already enough for her.
But this man had reversed the situation again. Those fierce shadows instantly became souls beneath his blade, wailing as they retreated.
How did he do it?
If he'd been by her side back then on the front lines, would she have kept her legs?
Dorothy stared a bit dazed as the lightning blade danced before her eyes. The shadows melted like ice and snow, the flashing electricity like sparks, sending her thoughts drifting to strange places.
One slash, two slashes, three slashes...
Sharp blade light carved out a circle of space in the shadows. When the terrified shadow swarm finally realized they could no longer do anything to this human, they started running away.
Hiss—hiss—!
David gasped for breath. The Construct Arm on his back had begun glowing red and heating up after continuous use. The living metal inside the arm sprayed out massive amounts of steam to cool down.
Watching the shadows flood toward the door on the opposite side of the corridor, he didn't dare strike again.
Starting from the third slash, the Construct Arm had entered overload status. Every slash burned away 100 points of his life energy, and as he kept using it, that self-damage kept getting higher...
But overload wasn't all bad. When the construct's living metal reached overload limits, the arm became more flexible and swift in the high heat.
He'd even unleashed blade strikes far beyond his imagination, comparable to those veteran hunters who'd undergone multiple power enhancements. The blade was fast to the point of being nearly invisible!
That feeling was just too good!
But the overload arm had also burned his health down to just three or four thousand. If he kept feeling good like this, he'd probably feel himself straight to death...
So David stopped. He had to rest. While waiting for the arm to cool down, he also took out the "hunter's blood vial" that had been hanging around his neck.
Could only be used once, but it could instantly restore 30% of his health!
With a base of 650,000 life energy, that 30% equaled 190,000 health.
Now was the time to use it. He hadn't forgotten the mission Roland had given him. He still didn't know if that escaped alchemist had died under the monster bird's pursuit...
The crimson liquid flowed into his body. Life energy exploded under the potion's stimulation, and his health bar rapidly climbed back up.
Taking advantage of this gap, he carefully felt out his newly acquired arm. This metal infused with surging life force was truly peculiar. Not only could it perfectly fuse with human flesh and blood, but it could also convert life force into high energy and release it... Looked like the steam knight he'd encountered before had a similar construction.
Getting another useful arm comparable to the Hand of Monster made David feel great inside.
However, feeling good came at a price. When that strange black mist emerged from the void, he knew the price had arrived.
The Limb Grafting Ritual had indeed attracted a new evil spirit!
What made David uneasy was that this evil spirit seemed more terrifying than the previous ones. That black mist kept churning and expanding, continuously spewing from the void. It had even filled the entire underground corridor and still hadn't stopped.
This was something very huge...
When the black mist grew so thick David couldn't see his hand in front of his face, it suddenly stopped churning.
In the darkness, a giant-like shadow condensed into form. David seemed to hear a low growl full of malice. His consciousness blurred for a moment, and when he came to, that black shadow had already entered his body along with all the black mist.
[Ritual Evil Spirit Possession: Malevolent Emissary]
[Warning: Evil God Scott has cast his gaze. The Malevolent Emissary is extremely dangerous. Please suppress it as soon as possible.]
Beads of cold sweat formed on David's forehead.
This was the first time he'd seen a warning like this.
What did "extremely dangerous" mean? Was this "Malevolent Emissary" thing some evil god's minion?
Soon, he knew what it meant.
An uncontrollable, heart-piercing malice exploded from his soul. That beast-like evil spirit let out a terrifying roar in his heart, simultaneously triggering all the brutal intent buried deep within him.
His eyes instantly turned blood red. Black veins burst out from under his skin. The savage dark power nearly swallowed him completely.
He wanted to kill. He wanted to vent. He wanted to destroy everything!!!
The goddess's blessing became the last line of defense protecting his final shred of sanity. With that tiny bit of will, he threw Dorothy out of his arms, turned around, and charged toward the door leading to the Shadow Realm.
There... there were things he could kill there...
Kill... only killing... only destruction and devastation...
Dorothy, who'd tumbled to the ground, didn't understand what had happened to that man. She watched his retreating figure in terror, reaching out to try to grab his back.
"No... don't leave me! Don't!"
Behind Dorothy, an old man in a gentleman's suit walked out from the broken hole.
The old man looked down at the girl lying on the ground crying and asked softly, "Excuse me, did something escape outside?"
He was still dragging an iron box. When he noticed the girl covered by the coat had no legs, his pupils contracted, and he asked again, "Do you... need a pair of legs?"
He was an alchemical master from the imperial capital, Julius, who'd come to this place with the goal of killing all those fallen colleagues and recovering their experimental results while he was at it.
The process had gone smoothly. His newly researched construct soldiers, after being combined with Liquid Thunder, were shockingly powerful. They'd swept clean all obstacles on the upper level.
And it seemed another party was also attacking the Monster Cage ahead of him, which saved him quite a bit of effort. Before all the constructs were depleted, he'd successfully completed his mission.
The box in his hand contained the fruits of that experiment—a pair of legs.
However, when he saw this girl, the alchemical master suddenly felt he shouldn't bring these legs back...