Chapter 119: The Terrifying Power of Soul Stones
The moment a blue light began glowing from the assassin’s abdomen, the atmosphere inside the dining room became even more bizarre.
At first, the failed assassin thought it was just pain.
After all, his legs had already been crushed by Iron, and his entire body ached. One more burning sensation didn’t seem unusual.
But soon, he realized something was wrong.
The heat wasn’t coming from a wound.
It was coming from inside his stomach.
"W-What did you do?" he asked in terror as he looked at Zich.
Zich stood in front of him, looking down at the blue glow emerging from his abdomen. His expression remained completely calm.
"That’s the question I should be asking you," Zich said. "You swallowed one of my Soul Stones."
The failed assassin’s face instantly changed.
Seeing that reaction, Zich already had his answer.
This idiot had swallowed a normal Soul Stone whole just to hide it.
He remained silent for two seconds, then he said,
"You’re even more stupid than I thought."
The assassin wanted to argue back, but the blue light in his abdomen suddenly intensified.
"AAARGH!"
His body curled up violently. Blue light spread outward from his abdomen, traveling through the veins beneath his skin toward his chest and neck. The veins became swollen and clearly visible, as if they had been filled with the Soul Stone’s energy.
His breathing became heavy.
His muscles began to swell unnaturally.
His legs had clearly been broken, yet they suddenly pushed upward with tremendous force.
Iron’s foot was actually lifted slightly.
Zich’s eyes narrowed.
"Oh?"
Varok, the spear user Velhari had once told him about, said that monsters could consume Soul Stones to accelerate their growth. But this was the first time he had personally witnessed a human player swallowing one whole.
This wasn’t simple poisoning.
Nor was it ordinary mana backlash.
The Soul Stone was forcibly pouring power into his body.
The problem was that his body couldn’t handle it.
The first failed assassin in the courtyard also noticed the blue light inside the house. He had been struggling inside Slimy’s poison field, but his expression changed instantly.
"Have you lost your mind?" he shouted. "You actually swallowed a Soul Stone? Those things are for monsters, alchemy, rituals, and beast enhancement, not for eating like candy!"
"Continue," Zich’s voice echoed calmly.
The assassin’s mouth twitched. He realized he had spoken too much again.
But his companion was screaming in agony, and he no longer cared.
"The human body can’t digest that stuff! An unprocessed Soul Stone will rampage inside your body. At best, your organs explode. At worst, you’ll turn into a pile of flesh!"
The second failed assassin suddenly raised his head.
A faint blue glow appeared in his eyes.
His expression was both painful and insane.
The next moment, he forcefully pushed Iron back with his broken legs and grabbed his remaining dagger before lunging at Zich.
He was faster than before.
But his movements were far more chaotic.
His shadow twisted wildly across the floor, no longer stable as it had been earlier. It expanded uncontrollably, inflated by the blue energy, covering nearly half the dining room.
"Blink."
FWOOSH!
Zich’s figure vanished.
The assassin’s dagger struck nothing but air and plunged into the edge of the dining table.
An instant later, Zich appeared on the opposite side and casually unleashed an attack.
FWOOOSH!
The crimson slash grazed the assassin’s shoulder, drawing a trail of blood.
Yet the man seemed incapable of feeling pain anymore.
He let out a feral roar like that of a beast. His shadow suddenly stretched into black ropes that wrapped toward Zich’s feet.
The lamps inside the dining room began flickering.
The unstable shadows threw the entire room into disarray.
Slimy finally couldn’t tolerate it anymore.
The slime bounced into the dining room from the courtyard.
To Slimy, enemies invading the house was already serious.
Messing up the tables and floor made it even worse.
"The floor," Zich said.
Slimy immediately opened its mouth.
PSHHH!!!
Green poison sprayed across the edges of the distorted shadow.
The poison didn’t corrode the shadow itself, but it melted parts of the floor, disrupting the reflections and breaking apart portions of the shadow’s shape.
The assassin’s movements immediately slowed.
"Iron."
Iron stepped forward.
BOOM!!!
The flat side of the massive black greatsword slammed into the assassin, crushing him back into the ground.
Stone tiles shattered. A large section of the dining room floor collapsed inward.
Zich’s eyelid twitched slightly, seeing that the repair bill had increased again. Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time to worry about the floor.
The blue glow in the assassin’s abdomen was becoming brighter and brighter, almost blinding.
Zich could sense the energy inside the Soul Stone expanding rapidly. If left unchecked, it might explode inside the man’s body.
That would dirty the room.
And waste the Soul Stone.
Both outcomes were unacceptable.
He walked over and crouched beside him.
The failed assassin looked at him with terror filled eyes.
"S-Save me..."
Zich stared at him.
"Weren’t you acting pretty tough earlier?"
"Save me!"
"Where is your base?"
The assassin gritted his teeth and remained silent.
The blue glow continued climbing upward.
Bright glowing veins had already appeared around his neck.
Zich didn’t rush him. He simply watched quietly, which was more terrifying than any threat.
Finally, the assassin broke.
"We have a hideout in the shelter!" he shouted hoarsely.
Zich wasn’t surprised; he suspected them to be from here and not any other shelter in Layer One.
"Next question, who sent you?"
"After Natalia’s group died, the organization started paying attention to you! Then rumors spread that you brought back strange loot and Boss materials from the Golden Secret Realm. Someone raised your danger rating!"
It confirmed what the first assassin said, which meant the latter had been truthful.
At that moment, Zich raised his hand.
A Blood Arc condensed into an incredibly thin crimson thread.
"Don’t move," he said. "Or you’ll lose even more."
The assassin’s face turned deathly pale.
FWOOSH!
The red thread flashed.
Zich’s control was precise. He sliced open the flesh along one side of the assassin’s abdomen, carefully avoiding the most fatal areas. Then he reached through the torn clothing and grabbed the blue Soul Stone that was radiating heat.
The Soul Stone had already cracked.
Its glow had dimmed considerably.
Blood and chaotic mana residue stained its surface.
After he removed it, the assassin immediately collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
The blue light rapidly faded away.
Zich studied the cracked Soul Stone thoughtfully.
"Swallowing it temporarily strengthens the body and abilities," he muttered. "But the user loses control, and the body can’t withstand it. A terrible method... though the information is valuable."
The assassin lay motionless on the floor.
His eyes were filled with fear.
Zich placed the damaged Soul Stone into his pocket. Then he looked at the two failed assassins once more.
One was inside the house with broken legs and a sliced open abdomen.
The other remained trapped in Slimy’s poison field outside, his shoulder shattered and face pale.
Both were now completely silent.
He pulled over a chair and sat down.
He didn’t kill them immediately.
"Now," he said calmly, "let’s settle the accounts properly."
The expressions of both assassins changed at the same time.
