Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Skullius devoured the soul.

The sensation was different from when he devoured Sila's soul. There was a major difference. 

While there was still no taste, an electric feeling smothered his entire being, coursing through his soul and inducing a rather exciting sensation!

Once more, the soul broke down in Skullius' body, going on to fuel it with only a smidgen of the power that belonged to Dezrael.

Soon, notifications streamed into his sight bearing the results of what this soul had given him.

[You have devoured the soul of a Higher level existence]

[A piece of Arch-Luminant Dezrael's soul is permanently engraved into you]

[You have gained Luminant Seed]

[The strength residing in this soul is too much for you. 95% has been wasted and the rest has been salvaged]

[+150 Mana]

[+75 Health]

[+50 Strength]

[+20 Endurance]

"Hoo..." Skullius breathed out. 

It pained him every time he heard that there was wastage. This time however, the guidance field had said that there was only 95% wastage which was a positive.

As he paid more attention, Skullius realised that it was probably because he had gained something else from Dezrael's soul.

~~~

[Luminant Seed]

The soul of Dezrael has condensed the essence of his race and it has been passed to you. As a higher ranked existence, Dezrael's peak strength in relation to his racial abilities has found its way to you in the form of a seed from which you can extract the benefits of being a Luminant to a very limited degree.

~~~

"I don't get it," Skullius said after rereading it.

He requested to see this seed and the guidance field spat out a spherical object the size of a fist. It had a dull golden hue that made it look ethereal.

"Do I eat it too?" 

Sensing the consent to use the seed, the guidance field brought the seed to Skullius' chest, the round object sinking into him seamlessly!

Skullius watched this process with curious eyes before noticing that a tingle that ran through his body.

[You have used 'Luminant Seed']

[Racial alteration attempt in progress...]

[Processing...]

[Racial alteration failed. You cannot bring out the latent potential within the 'Luminant Seed'. The seed will remain dormant until host has reached the Advancement Stage]

'Sighhh.... At the end of the day, I'm still so weak. I can't even level up, which is tragic. I wonder if there are many as strong as Fulgardt or Dezrael though.'

Skullius put the issue of the seed to the back of his head and looked at his messed up body.

He now had a mana capacity of 255 Mana Points which rivalled his Boneman form's Mana Points.

Unlike before when he would have to wait or resort to using [Basic Mana Manipulation] to draw in and wait for hours until it filled up, Skullius found his core filled with mana in less than a minute.

"This is extremely convenient!" Skullius exclaimed happily.

He didn't waste time and activated [Luminous Healing].

A stream of relaxing energy burst into his body with such an Invigorating sensation that Skullius emitted a moan from his mouth!

It washed away the crispy, black skin on his arms and face, Skullius seeing the rapid regrowth of his cosmetic flesh!

Soon, he was as good as new, with a clean generic face that screamed of optimism.

Once again, mana streamed into his core to fill it up.

The Discount Human would have been extremely satisfied with this armour if it didn't look like it was on its last legs. 

Which it actually was.

~~~

[ArchLight Generation Keeper]

An armour forged by ten of the royal blacksmiths of E'kald. It is made with extremely rare materials and carved with countless runes and mythic circles so as to hold the power of at least a 1000 Incandescent Stage experts. It can store mana through a pocket core inbuilt within and also store items within the subspace it was forged with.

-Defense-

2400

-Durability-

15/3500

-Special Effects-

• Can store pieces of the armour set 

Currently stored – (Helmet)

• Can store mana from willing participants

Current mana limit – (34,562/21,000,000)

• Can reflect 50% elemental and physical damage

• +25% Agility

• +40% Strength

~~~

Skullius wore a grimace. This was unbelievable. It was a miracle that he had survived this encounter. If not for [Pseudo Evil Veneration], he wouldn't have survived.

Speaking of that monstrous ability, Skullius decided that he wouldn't use it for now.

Even though he had been lost in the ecstacy of watching that sockethole, Dezrael explode, the side effects he had faced had made him wonder what would have happened if [Pseudo Evil Veneration] hadn't latched onto the Dezrael's mana!

What if there had not been any nearby mana around?

It really seemed like he would have been devoured by that darkness too.

Was [Pseudo Evil Veneration] unstable unlike its true completed form?

It seemed like a greedy force that required tonnes of mana, not to mention the strain on his mind that he still felt even now. 

The conditions to successfully using the art were still vague. To truly wish evil upon someone was a hard concept for Skullius. He only had such a thing for Somanda but no one else until now.

With his healing done, he went on to pump some experience into his Boneman form to which he received the notification that it had finally reached LV10, but nothing else happened.

The excess experience seemed to be suspended, waiting for his next use, which was a plus.

"I really have to wait for the countdown to end. Gah!" Skullius grunted. 

As he looked around, Skullius noticed the broken yoke on the ground. Glints of golden white sparked frequently with an extremely dim light. Skullius wouldn't have even noticed them if curiosity hadn't gotten the best of him.

He approached and touched it. Surprisingly, with a bit more focus, Skullius found that there were a myriad scribbles on the yoke in golden white, which was exceedingly dim to him and thick black which was quite vibrant.

It looked a bit like what was on the wall, but different. It was more intricate.

As he felt over it, the darkness and light on the yoke resonated with his affinities!

Once more, Skullius found himself gaining a bit more of an understanding about what was written as he ran his fingers over the writing that was engraved with the dancing elements.

It was much clearer now.

"Only a wielder of my two masterpieces in.... can .... this yoke... A choice is rendered where the flick of a finger from even the weakest carrier can... remove... bind..."

Skullius read on, his face scrunching up as what was written on the yoke made him turn to the chunks of Dezrael and gnash his teeth.

"I didn't have to spend all those hours slashing this thing?! I could have just easily commanded it to be broken?! Are you serious?!" Skullius barked. 

Indeed.

From the beginning, everyone who managed to acquire 'Just Light' or 'Evil Darkness' or both had the option to release the opponent they found.

It wouldn't be much of a fair choice if it was hard to remove the yoke in the first place. The first option to show your opponent honour would be void if that was the case.

Dezrael did not know this for obvious reasons, which is why he immediately resorted to using Skullius to cleave the yoke off.

All those hours had gone to waste for absolutely no reason.

The Discount Human tried to decipher all the wording on the yoke but he still found it to be inadequate as he couldn't understand all the words.

After a few minutes of venting his frustration, Skullius decided to move forward. He had reaped some gains, but he barely felt secure.

His armour while overpowered, was still losing its durability, close to shattering. When that happened, Skullius didn't know what would happen to all the power that was loaded within it.

Now that he had faced someone as strong as Dezrael, he wondered what other fiend he would face next. 

He kept the Baleful Gale Reaper in his hands as he walked forward.

"No need to look back, there's nothing left for me if I suddenly give up now," Skullius said to pump himself up.

He walked into the darkness and just like last time, he appeared at some kind of intersection.

That wasn't exactly accurate as there weren't any options aside from a single double door that loomed over Skullius.

The height was roughly four meters, the thick doors looking to be made with a bluish black wood and carved with the same design that Skullius and the others had seen at he gate.

The flamboyant design of two sides of the same man was portrayed on the door.

Skullius gulped.

What was it now? Was it still something of a challenge again or was it something else entirely?

The Discount Human didn't get to wait for long as a notification popped before his eyes.

[The Labyrinth of the Yoke welcomes you to dine in the grand hall of Fulgardt after the preliminary test you have endured. You can choose to enter this great hall and honour Fulgardt's hospitality or you can choose to continue challenging the thousands of bound warriors within the Labyrinth]

[The vestiges of Fulgardt will give rewards for either of the choices made]

After the notification popped up, a pathway suddenly appeared behind Skullius, releasing dangerous thickets of energy that were by no means inviting.

Skullius wore a wry smile.

Things were switching up.