A pure, radiant soul drifted out from Kanzaki Rei's body and flowed toward the dungeon entrance ahead.
The soul slipped directly into the glowing gateway.
Bzzzzz—
The dungeon's halo of light shifted.
From a pale blue glow, it slowly turned black.
Akase blinked.
He had never seen an operation like this before.
"Uh…?"
Rei smiled faintly.
"Just a bit of my own thinking."
"Didn't Iz say we should develop our own understanding?"
Over the past half month, Rei had spent a great deal of time thinking.
About magic.
About death.
About priests.
And about sacrifice.
What exactly was the essence of sacrifice?
Turning something weak into something powerful.
Transforming strangers into mastery.
At its core…
It should be sublimation.
If that was the case—
Did sacrifice really have to be used only on oneself?
Rei had conducted many experiments.
Sacrificing souls to strengthen his own body had produced some results.
But after sacrificing 100 souls, he had already felt the limit.
His body simply couldn't withstand that level of sublimation.
Even so, his physical capabilities had improved across the board, reaching roughly the level of a Level 1 Warrior.
Rei believed this limitation existed because he did not possess a combat-oriented class—his base physical foundation was simply too weak.
As for spells—
With Level 201 Transcendent Magic, the maximum number of souls a single sacrifice could contain was 10,000.
Anything beyond that produced no additional effect.
As for death magic…
Rei had yet to feel any upper limit on soul sacrifices.
Perhaps this was the key difference between a Mage and a Death Priest.
Death magic seemed almost tailor-made for sacrifice.
Beyond those sacrifices, Rei had also attempted to sacrifice his own talents.
The result had been…
No effect.
Last night, he had studied many historical records about Death Priests.
It was said that in order to trigger tragic and powerful deaths, some Death Priests would deliberately create powerful dungeons, releasing the monsters inside.
And now—
Looking at the dungeon before him—
A thought formed in Rei's mind.
What if he tried to sacrifice the dungeon itself?
Sure enough…
It worked.
The dungeon whose halo had turned black was the result of that sacrifice.
"Want to go in and take a look?" Rei asked.
"Hahaha! That's interesting! Let's go!"
Akase, ever bold, stepped inside before Rei.
Rei naturally followed right behind him.
But the moment Rei stepped inside—
He froze.
Before him stretched an immense and open space.
Ahead stood a mountain-like rock wall, with a straight tunnel carved into its center.
On both the left and right sides stood two massive six-legged insects.
Their upper bodies resembled giant longhorn beetles, yet they possessed human-like arms, gripping enormous black blades.
When Rei glanced behind him—
The entrance had vanished.
Rei frowned slightly.
"Black-Blade Horn Beetles!"
"Two of them!"
Akase exclaimed.
"Tier-3 King-class monsters… and we're seeing them right at the entrance!"
King-class?
Rei was just about to raise his hand—
BOOM!
A crimson slash flashed through the air!
SHING!
The upper halves of the two giant insects slid off diagonally.
"Oh! That really feels like King-class toughness!"
Akase had somehow already reached the front, standing before the two severed corpses.
"I'll go take a look ahead."
With that, his figure vanished again.
RUMBLE—
A violent tremor shook the earth.
Rei turned his head.
The exit that had disappeared earlier had now reappeared.
Only five seconds later, Akase emerged from the tunnel carrying a corpse the size of a small hill over his shoulder.
"Hahaha! The loot is amazing!"
"There were actually ten King-class monsters!"
Akase…
I'm the one who opened this dungeon.
And I didn't even get to do anything yet.
Still—
A thousand souls wasn't that much anyway.
They were just worthless ants.
"Let's split the loot!"
"How about half for you, half for me?"
Rei sighed.
"Akase… it kind of feels like you stole my monsters…"
Tier-3 King-class monsters.
Rei could one-shot them too.
But Akase had simply moved faster.
"Hahaha! I was gathering materials, after all."
"And besides, it's faster if I'm the one killing them."
Fair point.
Akase skillfully began dividing the loot.
His strength was genuinely absurd.
He tossed the massive corpses around as if they weighed nothing at all.
Within just a few minutes, all the materials had been sorted out.
Polished Black Iron, Black Sky Horns, Razor Spike Legs…
All materials harvested from King-class monsters.
Each monster yielded materials worth roughly 2,000 gold coins.
Ten monsters produced a total of 20,000 gold.
Split evenly—
Rei received 10,000 gold.
Money had suddenly become very easy to earn.
Still…
The difference between normal times and Harvest Month was too obvious.
Rei clearly remembered that during Harvest Month, the Blood Source King alone had dropped materials worth 10,000 gold.
Now ten King-class monsters combined were only worth 20,000?
Seeing this level of reward, Rei felt a faint sense of fatigue.
Once you've experienced Harvest Month, there's no going back.
Back when he first learned about it, Rei had wondered whether Harvest Month was some cruel trap designed to lure adventurers into danger.
Now he could only think—
Trap or not…
Bring me more of them.
"Ready to go?" Akase asked.
"Let's go."
After dividing the spoils, the two of them exchanged a knowing glance.
Once they left the dungeon, Akase looked around briefly before pointing in a direction.
His sharp senses had already located the nearest dungeon.
The two hurried along.
When they arrived—
Rei noticed a guild marker carved into the nearby wall.
"A dungeon with an official mark."
"Doesn't matter. Let's just open it," Akase said.
Fair enough.
At worst, anyone who had accepted the commission could simply collect the quest reward afterward.
The reward wasn't much anyway.
"Akase… if it's a bit stronger, you can handle it, right?"
Akase snorted.
"Hmph. Who do you think I am?"
"Is there any warrior on the Ruilen Continent stronger than me?"
"As long as I'm here, you can relax."
Rei nodded.
"Alright. I trust you, Akase."
Rei extended one hand toward the dungeon.
In an instant—
He performed another sacrifice.
[Sacrifice — 10,000 Souls]
BZZZZ!
Radiant white souls flew out of Rei's body.
They streamed into the dungeon ahead.
BOOM—
The dungeon's halo began to change in a bizarre way.
From pale orange…
To deep orange…
Gradually turning red…
Finally—
The halo surrounding the dungeon became light crimson.
The color stabilized.
The souls stopped flowing from Rei's body.
The two exchanged a glance and nodded.
Akase stepped forward and strode into the dungeon.
Rei remained outside for about ten seconds.
Looks like the entrance won't disappear.
Only the exit vanishes.
Only then did he step inside.
What he saw immediately—
Were the corpses of enormous monsters covering the ground.
The echoes of thunderous impacts still reverberated through the air.
Thick clouds of dust had yet to settle.
It seemed that within those ten seconds, Akase had already killed every monster inside.