Chapter 21: Another Relic

[Your Greed Knows No Bounds]

You have slain a Rank 1 Human. Spirit absorbed: +0.8

Spirit: 30→31

Mind: 24→25

A severed neck splattered blood all over the place.

Covered in blood, Dante stared at the rolling head in front of him in terror.

’I… did it.

…I killed her.

She didn’t deserve mercy after all she did to me. If she was stronger, she’d have killed me again… right?

There is nothing to feel guilt about.

Yes, I did nothing wrong. I even gave her a chance by tossing a coin! She was simply unlucky!!

So what if she has a family? She tried to kill Fafnir simply because she wanted some disgusting money. It’s always like this. In every world, those stupid currencies were enough to turn humans into monsters. She was the real demon, not me.

Having a family was simply a fact, not an excuse for forgiveness!

Someone turned into an orphan because of me?

I’m… sad, genuinely sad for him. But… It isn’t my fault that his mother is a lunatic bitch. It isn’t my fault at all!’

Dante kept inhaling and exhaling slowly, calming down his heart.

’Fafnir.’

Dante’s shadow suddenly moved, turning into the figure or Fafnir.

’Take everything out of her…’

Fafnir nodded quickly and moved to the corpse.

In Dante’s perception, leaving her belongings would be a waste. He didn’t believe in leaving the dead’s belongings as a sign of respect or any of this crap.

And although he killed her and was ready to loot her corpse, he didn’t want to touch her corpse by his own hands. He… still couldn’t do something like that.

Especially taking her core. Harvesting it would require shattering her head. He couldn’t convince himself to do that in his current state.

Thankfully, he could convince his loyal shadow to do that.

Fafnir crouched behind her head and extended his hand, but suddenly, a red light burst from Beatrice’s head and went into her cloak.

Dante summoned his sword instantly: ’What the hell?!’

All of a sudden, the cloak’s color changed into red.

He hesitated for a moment before touching the strange cloak with the tip of his sword. Just then, the cloak shattered into thousands of tiny, red particles and flew to Dante’s body.

’Damn it!’

Dante’s eyes widened instantly as a surge of information entered his head for the hundredth time already.

But unlike all the other times, it didn’t include any knowledge for him to learn.

’…So that’s how it’s made.’

His eyes opened in realization as he cast a spell.

Silver Ether Spell — Appraisal!

Instantly, the runes appeared before him. He ignored everything and focused on the relics.

❖ Relics:

[###]

[A Son’s Warm Gift]

⤷ One day, a boy killed a wolf and turned its fur into a cloak, giving it to his mother as a gift to provide her warmth in the lonely winter. In the end, she was killed by greed, but her essence will forever stay as a part of the cloak.

✧ Passive Abilities:

⟨Warm Cloak⟩

⤷ The outer layer blocks the heat while the inner layer provides warmth. A perfect cloak for the winter.

Reading the runes, Dante frowned.

’She really had a son, but he was strong enough to kill a wolf. How is he supposed to be young? I don’t understand this world’s logic.’

Dante shook his head and focused on the important fact.

’Relics come from dead people, somehow.’

In the first relic’s description, it stated that the centipede was killed. And here, Beatrice was killed as well. Plus, there was something about essence that was probably what made these relics.

’Is it the Existence Essence?’

Additionally, a strange light came out of her head—where her core was located—and transformed her cloak into a relic. And that gave the cloak a fire ability, which was related to her aspect.

As far as he knew, the aspects were part of an individual’s soul.

That couldn’t be a coincidence.

But what exactly triggered that phenomenon? Was it guaranteed to get a relic after killing a human, or was it only a chance? And what if there weren’t any objects near her corpse? Would the corpse itself have turned into a relic?

Dante suddenly remembered something as he called: ’Wait, what about the core? Fafnir!’

Fafnir gave Dante a soldier salute before looking at Beatrice’s head.

Ignoring Fafnir for a moment, Dante focused on his spiritual energy and used a small amount of it.

Instantly, red particles of light covered his body before turning into a red, wolf fur cloak. His body relaxed immediately once he felt the cloak’s warmth.

’That’s… really comfortable. It’s been a long time since I felt such warmth.’

This place was cold, too cold. But because of the strange situation and all the dangers, Dante didn’t pay it any attention.

The original Fafnir didn’t have any problem with the cold due to one of one of his traits, but Dante was different.

’At least I won’t freeze to death outside.’

Crack!

Fafnir split Beatrice’s skull into two, then he took a round gem from the middle of her brain.

Dante flinched slightly from the brutal sight, but he inhaled deeply and took the bloody core from Fafnir anyway.

’It… doesn’t look different from the other cores. How did it turn her cloak into a relic, then? Is it still absorbable?’

Thinking about that, another question came into his mind:

’If the cores are located at the brain, then why were the skeletons’ cores located on middle of skulls?’

Dante didn’t notice that at first, but now, he felt like something was wrong about those skeletons. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a way to know the answer.

As he was about to order his shadow to take off Beatrice’s other belongings, Dante remembered something urgent.

’The chain!’

Immediately, he ran to the marble room, using some mana bursts under his feet and ignoring what would happen to his boots to increase his speed. In a few seconds, he stood before the Ether chains.

Without hesitation, he extended his hand and touched the golden chain, turning it into dust. Then he absorbed the silver chain, feeling his right eye improving, his Spirit and Mind values increasing, and his Ether bond deepening.

Instinctively, Dante could feel that his control over the Ether would be smoother now. Maybe his talent increased.

As the door opened , he didn’t enter the centipede room immediately. Dante waited for his mana to refill completely while using the black orb to see his stats.

Vitality: 38

Spirit: 31→39

Mind: 25→29

Demonic Energy: 42

Dante nodded in satisfaction at his stats. The gap between his Demonic Energy and Mind was less concerning now. And with his Spirit being close to his Demonic Energy, his sword ability would gain some balance.

Feeling his core becoming full of mana, Dante calculated what he could do with his current Ether.

’Maybe an Ether bolt? Two at best.’

Even after the runes gave him Ether veins, even after deepening his bond, and even after increasing his Spirit to 39, he could only cast two bolts at best.

But from the knowledge in his head, he knew that it would be worth it. The Silver Ether was far better than his other three energies combined.

Finally, Dante looked at the opened onyx door and looked into the room, holding his sword firmly and preparing his left hand to shoot an Ether bolt for the first time.

Fafnir was standing in front of him like a brave guardian, ready to take the first hit instead of Dante if something came out.

’It’s not here.’

Dante let out a breath of relief, seeing that the centipede’s body wasn’t here. The room was empty.

Well, the centipede returned to the past with him, but it was better to make sure of it. After all, the logic in this world was screwed.

’Let’s see if something here is worth taking.’

Without letting his guard down, Dante entered the dark room.

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