Chapter 16: The Aroma of Souls
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Roy came to the conclusion that the failure to increase magic energy was most likely related to Soul Devouring Addiction.
He suspected that demons loved to devour souls most likely because it would increase their magic power. Otherwise, the demons probably would not be so crazy over them just because of their taste.
So after his train of thoughts, he took one of his remaining souls out.
Should I try one?Come to think of it, I’ve been investing the souls in the system for my modifications and have yet to taste one. Is it really that delicious to a demon?
The soul that Roy took out was the smallest of them. Saliva dripped out of his mouth involuntarily as he stared at the soul. At the same time, an extreme desire arose, just like how he was when he saw delicious food during the time he still was human. He could not wait to eat them!
Roy gulped down his saliva and could not wait to throw this ball of light into his mouth.
The broad bean-sized soul melted—no, it disappeared—as soon as it came into contact with his saliva! The saliva of a demon really could decompose a soul!
At the same time, an indescribably wonderful taste came from Roy’s tongue. His entire body and mind seemed to be in extreme jubilation. It seemed as though his body was frantically secreting dopamine, making his body feel lighter!
He was floating in the clouds…
This feeling lasted for quite some time before slowly dissipating. Roy slowly recovered while constantly reminiscing about the feeling just now. The more he thought about the aftertaste, the more his brain signaled that it wanted more!
Roy nearly could not stop himself from taking out the rest of the souls. Fortunately, he had a bit of self-control and forced himself to resist this urge.
What a close call! This thing is really addictive! Roy touched his chest, feeling a lingering fear after he stopped his impulsive thirst.
After calming down, he discovered that most of the soul seemed to have disappeared, and only a small part transformed into a special feeling, like flowing heat. It spread to all parts of his body first and then gathered again. Finally, it flowed to his heart and stopped there.
Is this flowing heat magic power? Roy experienced it carefully. He was unsure, so he simply opened the system interface to check his stats.
Roy had used up his magic energy when he used Psychokinesis, but he now found that the counter of the magic energy attribute was now 0 (+0.3)!
What does this mean? Is the increase of 0.3 in magic energy something that I slowly recovered myself, or was it caused by consuming that soul?
If it was the latter, it meant that devouring souls could really improve his magic energy. This was not necessarily good news to Roy because it meant that he could not rely solely on the system to strengthen himself but would still need to maintain the growth of his magic energy, meaning that he needed even more souls!
This can’t go on. I have to understand the reason behind the increase in magic energy and then think of ways to improve it! Roy thought. Otherwise, I’ll be poor my whole life!
Setting aside the attribute temporarily, Roy opened a blank new page and began to draw again.
To Roy, the usage of souls in the system was far more efficient than directly devouring them to improve his magic energy attribute. They both consumed souls, but the system could bring about more things, such as the big underpants Roy was drawing now!
Yes, big underpants! You might not believe it, but Roy had been naked this whole time!
Now, he finally had some surplus to make some clothes to cover himself. It was all right when he was a little demon, but he did not feel that way anymore now that his body became bigger! The chill in between his crotch was not that wonderful.
Roy set the color of the underpants to match his skin color. It was made of pure cotton, breathable and dry. Roy was finally relieved.
Although he did not know the application prospects of this iron rod, protecting it was the instinct of every male, and demons were no exception…
I’m probably the first demon wearing underpants in the upper level of the Abyss, right? Roy thought as he hurried on his way.
This time, Roy flapped his demon wings and flew up, exploring from the sky above.
Just how vast was this Abyss of h.e.l.l? Roy had no way of knowing. He had walked hundreds of kilometers, but in fact, he was afraid that he had yet to walk out of the horizon he saw, let alone to the lower levels of the Abyss.
Now that he could hover around in the air, he saw many scenes he could not see from the ground. Hmm, and enemies.
Unlike being on the ground, Roy’s enemies while flying were bird-type and insect-type demons with wings. However, Roy could now handle them with ease. The T-Virus allowed Roy’s strength and speed attributes to increase slowly with time. However, these flying-type demons did not have much strength, so when he encountered these demons, Roy could crush them easily head-on. Roy’s tail and sharp claws could tear their bodies directly once he caught them.
At the same time, Roy also learned the hunting method of the flying demons. When prey appeared on the ground, he would quickly dive down, and he could even directly overwhelm some larger-sized demons with the impact of the dive.
In order to verify his strength, Roy consciously chose adult demons as the targets of his hunt. Fighting the top-low-rank demons was a lot more interesting than simply bullying the weak, and it was very helpful for training his fighting skills.
Compared to the flying demons, Roy had greater strength, and he had the advantage of flight when facing the powerful demons on the ground. As a result, some of the wiser demons chose to avoid Roy after he had successfully killed a number of top-low-rank demons!
Roy was now a demon tyrant. He could probably even get rid of Spider Queen Araniya if he were to head back now…
However, Roy did not choose to go back because killing Araniya was not attractive to him. This was because Roy discovered one thing as the number of souls he possessed increased—the quality of the soul had nothing to do with the strength of the creature. He had hunted a total of twenty-three top-low-rank demons, but their souls were low-quality souls to the system without any exception. The only difference was that they were larger and had higher soul power.
In addition, Roy no longer needed to search for caves to avoid danger now that he was stronger. Therefore, even if he were to go back and kill Araniya, he would gain nothing more than a low-quality soul. This would take up a huge amount of time and give up the area he had explored to fly back hundreds of kilometers. It was not cost-effective however he thought about it.
In any case, he would probably still stay in the upper level of the Abyss for quite some time, and he could take his time to get revenge on Araniya for pursuing him…
Life in this upper level of the Abyss was very monotonous and boring. It was the same for almost all the demons living in this world. Their time was spent on fighting and hunting every single day. Roy tried to adapt to it, but it was still unbearable after a long time. He felt that he would go crazy if he continued this way. He even had thoughts of ‘whether or not he should leave one or two souls to devour every day’ as a pastime.
However, one day, while flying in the air and waiting for an enemy to run into him, Roy suddenly found dozens of demons gathering on the ground.
There was no conflict even though they were together, and they were actually desperately running in the same direction!
This was not unique to the ground. Even those in the air were actually flapping their wings desperately in the same direction.
This scene reminded Roy of the time he hatched, so he immediately reacted to what was happening. Demons would only act this way under special circ.u.mstances.
Roy, bored out of his mind, changed direction and followed them.
After flying some distance, he neared a certain range, and an indescribable aroma enamored Roy!
This aroma was similar to the soul that Roy devoured, but it was not as rich, and it was impossible for it to spread so far.
Could this be the aroma of a high-quality soul?! Roy realized.
He vigorously rushed toward it…