Tenebrous Wolf
Chapter 74: Hard-Earned Spoils

Chapter 74: Hard-Earned Spoils

"First off, do you have any idea how much of a pain it was to keep you alive?" Briar scoffed. "Dragging your sorry ass all the way here wasn’t exactly easy, you know."

Klaus, still processing the horror of his unexpected diet, merely grunted in response.

"Well, I don’t remember anything, so I’ll take your word for it."

Rolling her eyes, the succubus continued her story:

"After we escaped the Forsaken Cavern, I had to carry you for hours — yes, hours — until I found this place. All while looking out for Hollows, mind you. Honestly, If only it was possible, I would have just left you behind."

"But you didn’t which I am thankful for, I guess..."

"What’s with that voice? You’re not taking this seriously at all, aren’t you?"

A smile tugged at Klaus’s lips, but before he could throw out a snarky remark, Briar moved on.

"Forgetting that, the real struggle began on the second day." She glanced at the massive Stalker sitting silently nearby and munching on some monster meat. "That’s when I found this guy. Or should I say it found me."

Klaus’s eyes widened.

"Wait, that guy found us here?"

Briar nodded somberly.

"You could say that. Thinking about it now, don’t you find it strange that this place was empty? Maybe that cave was its resting place. Tch. What a massive blunder on my part."

She clicked her tongue, irritation flashing across her face.

"Ah," Klaus suddenly remembered. "Speaking of which, you never told me how you managed to tame that creature."

Naturally, one would be curious how a Fiend-rank Demoness managed to defeat and subdue an Awakened Ghoul, a creature one rank above her.

But Briar only shrugged.

"It’s not much of a story. I simply took advantage of an opportunity and drained it with a touch. Since you’ve read my ability using the Chaos Runes and the privileges of the Master and Servant Contract, you should already know that I just need physical contact to absorb life essence."

"I get that much. But the problem is that your opponent was an Awakened Hollow, not a Shrouded Hollow. Surely, you couldn’t have possibly drained it with a single touch, right?"

"You’re right about that. It’s not some omnipotent ability. I had to make contact several times before it finally collapsed. You could say I got lucky."

Klaus narrowed his eyes.

"You’re telling me you survived long enough against an Awakened Hollow to drain it completely? Yeah, right. Do I look like I was born yesterday? Am I wearing diapers?! There’s no way I’m buying that! Are you exaggerating just to make yourself look cool, huh?!"

"Wh-Wha... T-That..."

Briar visibly stiffened, with a flash of panic, fear, and humiliation crossing her face before she quickly regained her composure.

"Believe what you want. But if I hadn’t tamed that Awakened Ghoul, we’d be screwed right now."

"Uh... Well yeah, I guess you have a point. Sorry," Klaus muttered, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. Briar huffed in displeasure.

Seeing her reaction, he decided to change the subject.

"Alright, so you tamed a freaking Awakened Ghoul. What happened next?"

"Well, once that was settled, I focused on securing food and water. Found a few small Hollows that weren’t poisonous, tested their meat — on myself, thank you very much — and made sure we wouldn’t starve."

Hearing that, Klaus gave her a skeptical look.

"Wait. If you figured out what was edible first, why the hell did you make me eat it without telling me?"

Briar grinned mischievously.

"Because if I had told you, would you have eaten it?"

"...Fair point."

"Exactly. Anyway, most of the time, I just kept watch for any threats. There were a couple of close calls, but nothing we couldn’t handle." She leaned back, stretching her arms behind her head. "And that pretty much sums it up. You owe me big time, by the way."

Overwhelmed by the urge to roll his eyes, Klaus spoke nonchalantly:

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You saved my life, fed me, and even tamed a damn monster for protection. I should be groveling at your feet in gratitude."

Briar smiled. "Now that would be a sight to see."

"Not happening."

She chuckled, then tossed him a cooked piece of Chitinous Scavenger meat. "Eat up, Sleeping Beauty. You’re going to need your strength. We’re not staying here much longer, y’know."

Klaus caught the meat, eyeing it with hesitation before finally taking a reluctant bite. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as he expected.

Still, he grumbled between chews:

"I really hate the fact that this actually tastes decent."

The demoness laughed.

"I told you so."

† †

After listening to Briar’s account of the past few days — including the sudden flare of faint orange light from a hill six or seven kilometers away yesterday — Klaus finally decided it was time to enjoy his hard-earned spoils.

Thinking back, he heard the Voice of Chaos before losing consciousness. Or at least, he thought he did. To confirm this, he summoned the runes and before long, the runes describing his new Echo appeared in his vision.

Nightmare: [Purgatory’s Shroud]

Nightmare Rank: Awakened

Nightmare Type: Armor

Description: [A fragment of memory, forged from the flesh of a mighty Tyrant once feared in battle. Its resilience remains dormant, only by being worn anew can the might of the Slain Tyrant awaken.]

’Hmm. I can’t say I expected anything different.’

It was a relatively short and simple description.

Klaus summoned the Purgatory’s Shroud. A few seconds later, molten black liquid emerged from his skin and wrapped around his body. The mysterious substance transformed into a black armor. Or more specifically, it turned into a plain, smooth and armoured black shirt that form-fitted his frame.

The armor felt weightless, yet a strange sense of pressure settled over his body like the lingering presence of something watching from within. He didn’t put much thought into it.

After all, he had just obtained the fragment of memory from slaying an Awakened Tyrant!

Through the rank of the armour itself was [Awakened], the nightmare still possessed the properties of the Tyrant’s body armour. Now, he didn’t have to worry about walking around the Shadow Realm, completely bare chested.

Klaus smiled. Not only would this armor be tough enough to withstand any attacks from Creatures below and of the Awakened rank, but he also possessed the Fang of Wrath, which he assumed to be even higher in rank. Simply put, he had now become a powerhouse against Shrouded Creatures and could even contend with Awakened Hollows.

Well, not that he was in a hurry to fight one of those things. He was strong, not invincible.

Forgetting that, the armour was still a great addition to his arsenal! He wouldn’t expect anything less from the Nightmare of a powerful Tyrant.

The only downside was that the black armor only provided protection for his upper body such as his chest, neck and shoulders, his lower body wasn’t part of the equation. Still, he wasn’t too worried. His legs were covered and protected by the Advanced Battle Suit’s leg set.

To summarize everything, his body was more or less covered by armor of some kind — whether it be advanced human weaponry or mystical Echoes from the depths of Chaos.

’Not bad, not bad. Let’s move to the next reward.’

Feeling quite pleased, Klaus grabbed the Spirit Core he had received from Briar. Apparently, this was the Spirit Core of the Awakened Tyrant, Demonic Purgatory, the creature he had slain. Or at least, one of its two cores. The demoness had snatched both before escaping the Forsaken Cavern with him.

The two of them had taken one for themselves; one Spirit Core for Klaus and one for Briar. The succubus had already absorbed hers days ago, so only his remained.

’’I’m surprised she didn’t absorb them both for herself. Maybe she didn’t want to betray her master?’

Did Briar strike him as someone who lacked greed?

Of course not! She was greedy as hell! Given the opportunity, there was no way the succubus wouldn’t have absorbed both Spirit Cores for herself! But she already knew that she needed him just as much as he needed her. So in order for him to remain useful to her, he had to become stronger as well.

This was a simple transactional partnership, both of them gained something in return from each other.

Shaking his head, Klaus proceeded to absorb the large Spirit Core resting in his grip.

The process was brief. The moment he focused his intent, the life essence within the Spirit Core smoothly flowed into his body, circulating before merging with his own Spirit Core. Immediately, he felt a great change. His body grew stronger, his vision sharpened, and his skin became slightly smoother.

The transformation was subtle but undeniable.

Opening his eyes, Klaus summoned the chaos runes once more.

[Aether Fragments: 114 / 1000]

’Huh? What’s with this numbers?! An eighty increase in one go!!’

His eyes widened.

Previously, he had only gathered thirty-four Spirit Fragments after exploring the Forsaken Cavern and slaying several Plague Ravagers, absorbing their Spirit Cores along the way. But now, out of nowhere, he had acquired eighty spirit fragments just from absorbing a single Spirit Core. From an outside perspective, this was beyond ridiculous.

How was that even possible? There shouldn’t be such a massive gap in numbers, right?

After some thinking, Klaus arrived at a preliminary conclusion: the number of slain enemies didn’t directly correspond to the Spirit Fragments within their cores. For instance, a Shrouded Core would grant him one Spirit Fragment, while an Awakened Core would provide two. However, things changed when dealing with higher-ranked Creatures. The number of Spirit Fragments obtained from their cores became unpredictable and far too inconsistent to estimate.

From an article he had read back in the academy, he knew that one Forsaken Core could grant thirty spirit fragments, while another from a different Hollow might yield forty or even more. This discrepancy was due to a difference in ’Soul Quality.’ No two souls were identical, making it nearly impossible to predict the exact number of fragments a high-ranked Spirit Core would provide.

So, even though the Tyrant he had slain was a Creature that had fallen from its original Corruption rank to the lowly Awakened rank, it appeared to be one of those rare Creatures with a high Soul Quality. As a result, he received eighty fragments instead of the standard forty he was supposed to obtain from the monstrosity.

’What a pity. If there had been another core, I could have sold it for some profit. But if that were the case, I’d be fighting a Forsaken Tyrant instead, which is a big no-no!’

As expected, before he could be consumed by greed, his mind slowly returned to reason.

According to the Shadow Realm Suppression Agency, operated by the military and serving as the sole governing body of Ascension Academy, Shadow Creatures were classified into seven Classifications based on their Soul Quality. These ranks were as follows from weakest to strongest:

Fiend (VI), Ghoul (V), Wraith (IV), Tyrant (III), Calamity (II), Titan (I) and Devil (0)

Additionally, Shadow Creatures were categorized by the number of Spirit Cores they possessed, following a separate ranking sequence from one to seven:

Shrouded (VI), Awakened (V), Forsaken (IV), Corrupted (III), Great (II), Fallen (I) and Blasphemous (0)

However, the destruction of a Hollow’s Spirit Cores could result in a drop in rank.

For instance, if the Tyrant he had slain had possessed three Spirit Cores instead of two, it would have been classified as a Forsaken Tyrant. But since it only had two Spirit Cores, it was merely an Awakened Tyrant. Needless to say, the former was vastly stronger than the latter.

He had barely managed to defeat an Awakened Tyrant and only escaped death by the thinnest margin. How the hell was he supposed to stand against a Forsaken Tyrant? Maybe die? If he was lucky, it would be quick.

He and the demoness undoubtedly made a great duo, but anything above two cores was beyond their limit.

Besides, what did he need Spirit Cores for apart from getting stronger? It’s not like he lacked money. Well, inside Fortresses, the universally accepted currency was Spirit Cores. Many Ascendants never left the confines of the Fortresses unless they intended to explore a particular Shadow Realm.

In such a situation where one could perform various jobs inside the Shadow Realm and receive Spirit Cores as payment, they could both increase their status in the Fortress and simultaneously raise the number of Spirit Fragments within their Individual Soul World, working toward the creation of their Baptismous Slate and ascending to the next progression.

There was nothing better than this way of life for an Ascendant!

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