Even after creating so many clever little spells of his own, there was still one undeniable truth.
When it came to pure destructive power, no spell surpassed Soul Explosion.
Soul Explosion was practically a spell designed specifically to convert sacrificed souls directly into lethal force.
Its biggest flaw when casting normally was simple—
it was slow.
The startup time was long enough that opponents could easily dodge it.
But now…
Rei had solved that problem.
By hiding a fully prepared Soul Explosion inside a corpse, the spell could be triggered the moment an enemy attacked the body.
BOOM!
A colossal crater with a 500-meter radius exploded into existence!
Rei had already retreated far away. From a distance he watched as soul-light shot into the sky, while a corpse with shattered wings fell back toward the ground.
Mm.
Just as expected.
The fact that he could endlessly use [Death Substitute] already made his tactics incredibly insidious.
But after the substitution—
the swapped corpse could still store spells inside it.
That made the strategy even more sinister.
And those hidden spells could even be something as slow to activate as Soul Explosion.
Rei couldn't help feeling satisfied.
Winning through intelligence and strategy—this was how a true mage fought.
With the Blood-Slaying Needle Bee eliminated, nine Catastrophe-class monsters remained.
As for the lesser monsters—
they were mostly cleared already.
Rei suddenly frowned.
A sharp pain struck his brain.
A wide-area mental attack.
A wave of dizziness crashed over him repeatedly.
"Akasei… could you handle that one for me?"
SWISH!
The moment Rei finished speaking—
the pain flooding his mind instantly vanished.
Looking up, he could see in the distance a monster towering like a gigantic flower, its core filled with countless eyes.
Now—
it had been sliced into dozens of pieces.
"Thanks!"
Fighting ten Catastrophe-class monsters at the same time was still troublesome.
Handling physical or elemental attacks wasn't the real problem.
Their attack ranges were enormous, yes—but they still couldn't completely erase the battlefield.
As long as there were corpses scattered everywhere, Rei could maneuver around them.
He could wear them down gradually until they died.
The real problem was wide-area sound or mental attacks.
Those were attacks he couldn't dodge.
[Death Substitute] simply swapped his position with a corpse before an attack landed, allowing him to avoid it.
It didn't transfer damage to the corpse.
Nor did it grant immunity.
Looks like I'll have to research some methods to defend against mental attacks.
Rei made a mental note.
At the same time—
Soul Explosion began to glow once again.
Sacrifice Souls — 5000
After numerous experiments, Rei had finally reached a conclusion.
The power of Soul Explosion did indeed increase with the number of souls sacrificed.
However—
the growth rate suffered diminishing returns.
If every explosion could be guaranteed to hit…
Then ten consecutive Soul Explosions fueled by 5,000 souls each would be far more powerful than one single explosion fueled by 50,000 souls.
BOOM!
Rei was struck by a massive black greatsword, his body shattering into dust.
At the same moment—
Rei's true body appeared behind the monster wielding the blade.
The King of the Yin-Eclipse Ancient Corpse.
"Oh, this guy—his weak point is the back of the neck. Break his spine and he's finished."
Rei had swapped positions with a monster corpse that had been blown high into the air earlier by a Wind Blast.
Buzz—
A glow appeared inside the gap of the monster's armor.
BOOM!
The explosion detonated within the armor itself!
The plating shattered apart!
Soul Explosion — Sacrifice: 5000 Souls
Then came the second.
The third.
The fourth.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Each detonation felt like burning pieces of Rei's soul away.
But the damage inflicted was undeniably effective.
Alongside the explosions, Rei layered additional spells to weaken the monster's defenses:
Deep Curse ArrowWailing Soul Death CurseSoul RendingDark Erosion StrippingShadow Corruption
After several bombardments—
the blasts had already reached the creature's spine.
Whoosh!
The black greatsword swung around.
A soul-blade storm resembling a black tornado slashed toward Rei!
Rei swapped positions with another corpse—
then avoided a lava eruption blast—
followed by hundreds of wind blades in pursuit.
He switched positions with corpses over a dozen times in rapid succession.
And throughout the entire process—
his attacks never stopped.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—
More than twenty consecutive Soul Explosions struck directly against the monster's spine!
Finally—
CRACK.
Its spine snapped completely.
The enormous armored undead head lost its support and collapsed toward the ground.
So it's killable.
But…
souls.
Rei checked the remaining reserve of his souls.
Just over 300,000 remained.
During the past half month of travel he had accumulated quite a lot.
But today alone—
he had burned through nearly 200,000 souls.
Souls really are hard to accumulate…
Fighting ten Catastrophe-class monsters at once had clearly pushed him beyond his optimal combat range.
Even if he could win—
the soul cost was enormous.
Fortunately—
Akasei was here.
"Akasei, the rest are yours."
Rei found an opportunity to retreat, stepping back behind him.
Akasei casually rested his greatsword on his shoulder.
"Haha, no problem."
SWISH!
The Akasei standing beside Rei suddenly vanished.
Rei's eyes couldn't even track what had happened.
In the next instant—
those mountain-sized Catastrophe-class monsters froze simultaneously.
Then—
their bodies quietly slid apart into chunks of flesh.
Akasei stood alone in the center of the battlefield, greatsword resting across his shoulder, radiating absolute confidence.
That was… quite the dramatic entrance.
After this battle, Rei finally had a clear understanding of the strength of Catastrophe-class monsters.
Their destructive range was immense.
Even when targeting their weak points, it still required a Soul Explosion fueled by over 100,000 souls worth of damage to kill them.
Their speed, size, and strength didn't even need further explanation.
An ordinary Level 4 adventurer taking a direct hit from one would be lucky to survive without being gravely injured.
Even a Level 4 Defender-class probably couldn't withstand more than two or three direct strikes.
Even a Level 5 adventurer party would struggle to suppress them easily.
It seemed that if Rei ever explored dungeons alone in the future—
he absolutely could not sacrifice too many souls.
Otherwise he might end up trapped in a situation like this.
With his current strength—
sacrificing 3,000 souls should be safe enough.
That would likely spawn only one Catastrophe-class monster.
Even if an accident occurred and two appeared at once—
handling them simultaneously wouldn't be too difficult.
"What a harvest!"
Akasei suddenly spoke.
"Hm?"
"I estimate we're looking at around two million gold coins worth of materials."
"The two you killed yourself—those are all yours."
Akasei's speed at dismantling corpses was impressive.
Warriors were often also gatherers, after all.
Or maybe it was simply because warriors were efficient workers.
Still—
these mountain-sized corpses couldn't possibly fit without massive storage space.
Fortunately, Rei had purchased quite a few storage-type magic artifacts.
Anything he couldn't carry himself—
Akasei could help store.
By this point, the total profit from this trip had already reached 1.5 million gold coins.
A truly overwhelming haul.
At this rate of earning money—
Rei could practically buy anything he wanted.
All kinds of defensive magic artifacts would soon be added to his equipment.
Even that annoying fortune teller's divination didn't seem so expensive anymore.
When you're poor, everything feels too costly.
Once you're rich—
nothing feels expensive.
After leaving the dungeon, Rei took out his directional pointer.
As they traveled along the road, they were already getting close to the next dungeon he had accepted a request for.
An ant-type monster dungeon.
After consuming so many souls—
it was about time to replenish his supply.
..
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