The moment the Greed Exclusive Skill, [Mammon's Greed] has been activated, the surge of energy suddenly flows right into my body. It was quite a marvelous feeling that I didn't think I would feel. It's quite different from the time I used this skill with other enemies. I don't know if the feeling was different from every enemy but this one has something that felt very addicting. But thankfully, I have self-control and I forced myself to quickly get myself accustomed to the feeling. I don't want to keep on searching for that feeling.
When the absorption was done, I can feel the overwhelming power swelling in me. And seeing the Ice Haunt seemingly getting weakened, I can tell the ability works and she is now at a big disadvantage. To ensure that the absorbed stats are useful, I immediately punch her using the gauntlet. On her face, on the abdomen, on her arms, and everywhere in her body. I made sure to break both of her hands, rendering them from functioning properly.
She started screaming and all of the bones that she used earlier to make a flail fly high into the air, before dismantling themselves and falling like it was raining some knives. There is no point moving away from there and instead, I started punching off the bones landing in my direction. They might be sharp but the gauntlet is not made of leather that might hurt me if I punch something hard. A single punch and the bones break to pieces and I continue doing this to the rest.
Not all of the bones are aimed at me, all of them are random but since it was a lot, even if the target is random, there are bound to have those random sharp bones landing at my location. As for some of the bones that didn't land in my direction, they instead fell to the body of the Ice Haunt and instead of getting hurt, it seems she managed to recover a bit of her strength.
But I don't want things to last long enough. I grab the bones that were sticking out from her back and started crushing them while of them I pushed them on her body, causing her to get impaled on her bone instead of healing her.
She screams in pain but I am not here for mercy.
"You are already dead. You should have stayed dead and you wouldn't have suffered this."
I changed my weapon into a katana and in a swift slice motion, I activated [Decapitation], ending her temporary life. The moment her head and body separated, her body turned to ashes and soon blends into the snow. I didn't feel much sweat there. Perhaps if I didn't suck off half of her stats then perhaps I would have ended up having a longer time killing her than usual. She just died easily as her current stats became much weaker than usual and that allowed me to beat the crap out of her.
As I wipe off the snow on my coat, Yuki-Onna appeared beside me and started clapping.
"Amazing work and you did quite a hell of a job that was quicker than what I expected. I can't even beat her in my own domain."
"She was tough, but not that tough to be called impossible to kill. She just happens to be a bit troublesome to deal with but not that major."
"I can see that. And just by the fight alone, I can tell that she somehow managed to reuse parts of her body for the fight. It seems she is some kind of intelligent undead?" Yuki-Onna speculates.
"She might be an undead but she is more of a ghoul. Since she retained her reflexes and is capable of rational thinking in combat while exhibiting the feral behavior of most undead species, she is technically a ghoul in my opinion."
"If that's the case, does that mean she can still return back to life?"
"Yes. A ghoul might die but they will revive if given a chance. I might have defeated her right now but I am not too sure about her revival. She might return without us knowing and I can't say for sure whether it will happen or not. But preventing her from returning is indeed possible."
"You know how to do it?"
"Usually, a ghoul returns when there is still remaining resentment left on their rotten bodies and their will to keep the resentment alive is strong enough that it can manifest and resurrect them. Her case is different though as her resentment is attached to the body of this man right here," I then pointed to the man that is currently dead and frozen like a slab of ice tied up on the tree.
"The man that I killed?"
"Correct. This corpse is the key to her return. Without this, she will not return forever."
"I see. If that was the case, then I should have done this a lot sooner then."
She snaps her fingers and the body of the young man started cracking before exploding and exploding into thousands of pieces, all of his body parts have joined the snow.
"If I had done that sooner then we wouldn't have this problem huh?" The Yuki-Onna sighed.
"Yep. Now that the body is gone, she is more than unlikely to return, unless someone or something else will raise her back up from the dead. Then that is a different story. On a different note, perhaps I should collect my reward, yeah? I did the job. Of course, if you are trying to kill me, then don't expect me to be forgiving," I looked at her, and made my weapon ready to strike in case she does something "funny".
"Heh, that's a good attitude. You better make sure the deal is a real deal or else, you will just receive a botch job just like I did. Thankfully, I don't run away from those I asked for help with and since you did a spectacular job, then this is for you."
She pulled out something from her dress and throws it in my direction. I caught the item and realized it was a small kind of gem in the shape of a tear. An item description popped out of it, allowing me to view what the item was all about.
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[Frozen Tears of a Pure Maiden]
Type: Item/ Summoning Catalyst
Uses: 3 LEFT(Will be recharged to full every month)
Info: A tear that a Yuki-Onna can produce. Although it was useless for the Yuki-Onna, anyone who obtains this will be capable of summoning the Yuki-Onna who owns the tear and assisting the one who summoned them. Although it is said to exist, no one knows if it is real as only the records from ancient times have shown usage of the item, and nothing much is shown aside from its effects and what it will do.
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A summoning catalyst? And a rechargeable one every month?! That is not something I would expect to receive! This is big enough of a reward!"
"Hey, are you sure about this? You are giving me a summoning catalyst?"
"Sure, why not? Call me until all the usage on that crystal is used up then wait for a month before using it again. I don't have anything else to do so if you have something that you desperately needed my help with, then I can give you a hand on that. Why? Are you not happy with the rewards?"
"No, no. I am grateful enough but getting this item by just killing a big monster like that was something not that significant to earn this big of a reward," I frowned.
"Ah, no worries. As I said before, the problem is a bit hard without your help and since you broke me out of that mess, then expect to receive proper compensation as well. In my eyes, this thing is more than enough."
She snaps her fingers and the surroundings started to clear up the snowfall also slowed down as well, and the way is also quite easy to access as well.
"Now go and return to where you came from. If you needed my help, just supply some mana on that thing and I will immediately respond to you on that. Now then, I will be leaving. I am sure you would be fine after this right?"
After that, she disappeared and I was left there speechless on the item in my hands. In that case, she will be a great asset once we are going to fight the soldiers and the Shogun.
And here I thought I wouldn't receive much aside from the item I was trying to use. I got a much better item indeed. Guess venturing this far out does have some perks after all.
I slowly walk out of the Everfrost Forest and only a few seconds later, I am back at the entrance of the forest and I am now back to the overworld. Well, it seems it is time to go back to our previous task at hand now."
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