Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
He had accumulated quite a number of souls, most of them from hunting in Abyss of the Demon World and the four human souls offered to him by Lucius. Roy had now fifty-four low-quality souls.
Since his guess that souls were a special energy source, Roy began to probe deeper into how magic power was obtained from devouring souls.
He felt that demons devoured souls for the negative energy that resided within them. Negative energy referred to emotions of fear, pain, greed, etc. generated while the souls were alive. And because demons rarely had such emotions, the souls Roy captured in the Abyss of the Demon World were smaller and contained relatively less negative energy, resulting in lower growth of magic energy after devouring the souls.
In contrast, because humans were weaker, they were emotionally richer and more prone to generating negative emotional energy during death, thus the larger human souls.
Based on these theories, Roy thought of an idea.
He felt that demons simply devoured souls to increase their magic power and probably did not fully exploit the negative emotional energy in the souls!
Therefore, during the two days in the basement, Roy took out all the souls he had and categorized them by size. He then selected several souls of similar size and soul power and began experimenting.
He split these souls into two groups, and one group was for Roy to devour directly.
Through devouring these souls and observing the magic energy attribute in the system interface, Roy found that the growth rate was generally around 0.3 to 0.4 each, and only two souls reached approximately 0.5.
After recording this data, Roy began drawing in the system.
His drawing was still a potion, but his definitions were different this time. His definitions were Magic Energy Growth Potion and Refined Pure Extracts of Souls!
For insurance, Roy thought about it and added another one, Maximum Use. After deciding these three definitions, Roy threw the souls he would use for comparison into the system to save and materialize.
Unlike the materialized items in the past, the Magic Energy Growth Potion Roy made could be 100% produced because the potion itself was the refined extracts of souls. Just as how he could refine one soul, he could do the same for tens of souls. The only difference was the quantity and the size of the refined potion.
Soon, Roy had a potion bottle. He looked at it and then raised his head to drink it!
He had previously devoured twelve souls and gained a 4.2 increase in the magic energy attribute. However, after drinking it, this bottle of Magic Energy Growth Potion made from the extracts of twelve similar-sized souls increased his magic energy attribute by 10!
In other words, the soul extract potion produced by the system increased magic energy by more than double compared to devouring souls directly!
Roy’s tentative plan was now established. He felt that he now needed to control himself when it came to devouring souls. Although devouring souls allowed him to enjoy their taste, it actually lowered the energy that he could harvest from the souls. If he had wanted to raise his magic energy quickly, the best way was to use the system to make the soul extract potion.
Now that Roy’s magic energy attribute had grown to 23.5, he found that he could sustain Psychokinesis for twice as long.
The increase in strength and speed brought by T-Virus strengthening had now stalled, showing that he had fully developed the current potential of his demon body. Before he could make a better body development potion, these two attributes had reached their peaks.
These two attributes only guaranteed Roy’s melee combat ability. Under these circumstances, Roy naturally had to look for other avenues. He needed to develop long-range attack methods and so on. Long-range attack methods required him to use high-quality souls to create skills, and the higher magic energy attribute was the fundamental guarantee after creating the skills.
Meanwhile, during the two days that Roy was researching in the basement, strange things happened one after another in the small town of Transylvania.
Several people had disappeared over the past two days. These people were the homeless in the town, and their corpses were discovered not long after they disappeared. People initially thought the vampires had captured them but later realized that they were murdered upon finding their bodies!
Needless to say, Lucius had murdered these homeless people. As evidence, Roy had received those souls. The problem was that people in the town had no idea as Lucius had done it very discreetly. The people were panicking and discussing among themselves who the murderer was.
At this juncture, Van Helsing and his assistant, the church monk Carl, arrived in this town.
Transylvania had been closed for so many years, and the people had long been familiar with one another. Therefore, when Van Helsing and Carl appeared, they immediately knew that there were strangers among them!
With weapons in their hands, people spontaneously surrounded the two.
Under the shadow of the vampires, the people were extremely suspicious of strangers. This was because these self-proclaimed monster hunters often overestimated their capabilities, wanting to come here to exterminate the vampire Count Dracula. Dracula killed all these people without exception, and then Dracula and his brides lashed out on the townspeople, bringing disaster.
Van Helsing and Carl were unaware of this, so they had no idea what was happening when the townspeople surrounded them. Looking at the cold and numb eyes of the townspeople, Van Helsing did not doubt that they would swarm and kill them. He reached behind his back, ready to draw his weapon.
“You, turn around!”
At this moment, Van Helsing heard a pleasant voice behind him. He turned his head to find a blond beauty wearing noblewoman’s clothes.
This lady was, of course, one of the two remaining descendants of the Villelis family, Anna Villelis! Although she no longer had the title of nobility, the Villelis family was once wealthy, so her clothing was completely different from those of the poor townspeople, especially the women with stained-covered faces. Anna naturally looked dazzling in comparison.
“Remove your hat!” Anna placed her hands on her hips, lifted her chin, and ordered Van Helsing. “Show your face!”
“Why?” Van Helsing asked.
“Because we don’t trust strangers!” Anna replied. “Also, gentlemen, you’ll have to disarm yourselves!”
“Come and try it!” It was impossible for Van Helsing to agree, and he tightened his grip on his gun.
The atmosphere became immediately tense. At this moment, another voice came. “I know who he is!”
People looked at the source of the voice and found that it was from their long-absent mayor!
“It’s Baron Lucius!”
“Doesn’t he always hide in his manor from the vampires?”
“Why has he appeared now? Looks like he’s lost some weight…”
Ignoring the chatter, Lucius walked out from the crowd toward Van Helsing and said loudly, “Gentlemen, I know who you are! London, Paris, your wanted posters are posted everywhere, right? Van Helsing! You murderer! This is why you don’t dare to remove your hat and reveal yourself, isn’t it?”
After hearing Lucius’s words, the townspeople were in an uproar. Wanted posters?! Is this man a murderer?
As a result, people immediately linked Van Helsing to the murders of the many homeless people that happened a few days ago!
“Damnit, does this mean he’s killed the people in our town?”
“It can’t be wrong. Although Baron Lucius is timid, he’s a noble and has accurate news. He definitely isn’t wrong if he says that that man is a murderer!”
“Murderer! He’s the murderer!”
“Catch him! Burn him to death!”
Looking at the townspeople becoming increasingly emotional, Van Helsing could not help smiling bitterly. The wanted posters were real. Van Helsing had killed many monsters that were actually transformed from humans. And after dying, these monsters returned to their original human form. This caused many people who did not know the truth to misunderstand and treat him as a murderer, and he was wanted in various cities for first-degree murder.
Regarding this, Van Helsing did not even have the chance to defend himself…