Lord Of The Lost

The spiritual oil extracted from the Lonely Mountain debris was one of the most tightly controlled resources by the church.

It had countless applications, especially for extraordinary beings.

> Whatever you planned to do, adding a couple of drops of spiritual oil beforehand could never go wrong.

Had William possessed enough spiritual oil, he could have burned a Sequence 8 gargoyle to ashes with ease.

But that was the problem.

This wasn't an ordinary commodity.

Even within the church, it was a rare supernatural resource, and its distribution was strictly monitored.

Every canister was documented and tracked.

The Church's Tight Grip

Applying for more spiritual oil in Border Town?

> Not happening.

Even if someone had the authority to request it, no one dared to try.

Maybe Calcifer had the clout to ask—but even for him, convincing the church was harder than convincing the king himself.

William wasn't bothered by this limitation.

Because unlike most people—

> He already had the formula to make spiritual oil.

The Problem: Soul Harvesting

But knowing how to make something and having the ingredients were two different things.

> The primary ingredient? The soul of intelligent life.

The fastest way to collect a large number of souls?

> Massacre.

But for William, that wasn't an option.

Sure, he didn't have the time to go on a rampage. But more than that—

> He simply didn't want to.

Spiritual oil was crucial, it would allow him to gather resources faster, grow stronger, and prepare for the final battle.

In fact, it would even be effective against the main boss.

Logically, sacrificing a few irrelevant lives for his own survival made sense.

But William wasn't the type to justify atrocities just because it was convenient.

> If survival meant doing things worse than death, then he'd rather die.

It wasn't self-righteousness, it was just how he saw things.

Live how you want to live.

Die when you have to die.

No need to turn into something unrecognizable just to keep breathing.

Besides—

> There was another way.

An Alternative Source: The Labyrinth's Spirits

The Lost Labyrinth was an endless treasure trove of supernatural materials—some of which involved spiritual entities.

Not all spirits were evil ghosts.

For example, some were simply the lingering souls of extraordinary beings who had died.

> And an extraordinary soul was worth far more than an ordinary one.

Little Bob had ignited his own soul, using it as fuel, and in doing so, he had nearly melted Wolf Lord Mott.

The power released in that instant had allowed him to wipe out every werewolf present.

Of course, Bob was a special case.

His soul was golden, meaning he had once been a person of great potential.

Even after falling into depravity, he had been able to regain his humanity—a feat that had caught the Wolf Lord's attention.

William didn't need a soul that rare.

An ordinary soul would do just fine.

But collecting them alone?

> Not efficient.

So, William took a different approach—

> He posted a thread on the forum, calling for soul power collection.

With Forum Master and the others in seclusion, he had full authority over the faction.

Collecting soul power wasn't easy—it had no physical form, meaning specialized methods were required.

The most common approach was sealing, using supernatural artifacts like [Rashomon] to capture souls.

Another method was to use ritual-engraved containers to trap scattered soul energy.

> And if players searched the maze hard enough, they'd find plenty of soul-holding artifacts.

At the very least, these items could be purchased in a magic shop.

Risk vs. Reward

There was only one problem.

> Evil spirits.

Most players feared them.

Their abilities were unpredictable, and many had lost their lives provoking the wrong kind of entity.

However, not all soul creatures were dangerous.

Some were weak illusions, barely more than lingering echoes of their former selves.

For those willing to take the risk, there were great rewards.

Now, it was up to the players to decide if they were willing to go after them.

William didn't bother reading the forum discussions that followed.

He had done his part, now it was time to see who would step up.

Closing the forum, he stood up and stepped onto the balcony, feeling the cold wind against his face.

A Storm on the Horizon

The sky was heavy with dark clouds, a silent warning of the impending rain.

William stood on the balcony, watching the shifting skies.

Then, for just a moment—he felt something.

A faint premonition, barely noticeable, yet undeniably present.

> "How strange..." he muttered under his breath.

If he had to describe it, it was like a massive shadow rising from the depths of an endless sea, just about to break the surface.

Something was coming.

And it had everything to do with those 'weird' creatures lurking at the edges of perception.

William couldn't fully explain it, but he had a theory.

According to the Sequence Game, the ghost dimension overlapped with reality.

> Was the world they lived in… actually the afterlife?

> Were the extraordinary beings that had transformed into ghosts simply the lingering souls of the dead?

If so…

> Could he harvest these lost spirits to create spiritual oil?

That was worth considering.

Despite his heightened Demonic Wolf perception, William couldn't see these spirits naturally.

They were like locked boxes, he couldn't interact with them unless the box was opened first.

> But fortunately, there was a way.

The [Glorious Lantern] could illuminate their forms, revealing their true nature.

William had seen them before, twisted, wretched things, exuding a thick black aura, like evil spirits that had died in agony.

The mere sight of them filled him with disgust.

Even if he could kill them, he felt that it would dirty his hands.

And from a practical standpoint?

> The benefits were minimal.

His [Killing to Prove the Way] ability provided almost no meaningful feedback from slaying ghosts.

Even if he wiped out hundreds or thousands of them, his attribute gains would be insignificant.

On top of that—

1. Ghosts repopulated over time. Killing them all in one area only meant they would slowly regenerate elsewhere.

2. Hunting ghosts in different areas would be time-consuming and inefficient.

William saw the real world as his place to rest, not another battlefield where he had to clock in for a shift.

But if spiritual oil was at stake?

> That changed everything.

Hunting evil spirits in the Lost Maze would be far more efficient and William was all about efficiency.

The problem?

He had more important things to do in the maze.

> One goal had been on his mind for a long time.

> Slaying a dragon.

After a full day of rest, food, and recovery, William felt refreshed—his energy fully replenished.

Descending once more into the Lost Maze, he found Sophia already waiting.

She glanced at him expectantly—then quickly looked away, huffing as if she hadn't been waiting at all.

Typical.

No small talk. No unnecessary words.

They were both action-oriented people.

With Forum Master and the others still in seclusion, there was no point in waiting around.

Even if Sophia had the patience for it, William didn't.

A while ago, they had tracked a Sequence 8 Wyvern deep into the maze.

> But they hadn't made a move.

Why?

Because while the Forum Master's team could handle most Sequence 9 creatures, fighting a dragon was a completely different level of danger.

Against an extraordinary being of the dragon race, they would be utterly outmatched, nothing more than cannon fodder.

They wouldn't even be able to slow it down.

> One clash, and they'd be dead before they even knew what hit them.

However, William and Sophia?

Together, they might not win, but they wouldn't go down easily either.

Their odds? 37% to 37%.

> A true coin flip battle.

But if they had brought Forum Master's team along?

> That number would drop to 19%.

> Too many openings. Too many liabilities.

For this hunt, it would be just the two of them.

And that was exactly how William wanted it.

The Strength Gap & The Hunt for the Wyvern

At Sequence 9, only the strongest paths could truly hold their own in battle.

For example, warriors and knights, if trained well and working in sync, could form an organized force that was capable of strategic combat.

With the right coordination and mastery of abilities, they wouldn't be helpless against stronger foes.

But the Forum Master's group?

They weren't true Sequence 9s.

> They were only Quasi-Sequence 9—still stuck at the threshold, with no established path.

Against a Sequence 8 wyvern?

> Completely useless.

A Perfect Opportunity

But now?

> Now was the perfect time.

William didn't have anything else to do today.

If he killed the wyvern, he would walk away with a massive profit.

But first, he needed to find Mao Che's team.

William told Sophia to stay put and vanished into the distance, moving like an arrow shot from a bow.

His destination? The portal.

The Lost Maze wasn't called a maze for nothing.

> Space was warped. Vision was unreliable.

Something that looked like flat terrain could actually be a death trap, hiding unexpected dangers.

Even now, the aftermath of the War of the Gods continued to shape and distort this land, making it unpredictable.

Finding Mao Che & His Team

William spent some time searching.

Mao Che's team wasn't sensitive to spatial shifts, so they had left markings along their route—

> A simple yet effective way to avoid getting completely lost.

When he finally tracked them down, they were resting in a newly explored ruin.

The moment William appeared—

Yaoyao, despite being the weakest combatant, immediately tensed into a defensive stance.