Chapter 262: Look at me if I go mad.

Several minutes later...

The smell of blood lingered heavily inside the abandoned apartment.

Lucian slowly rose to his feet, throwing away the corpse of the man whose head had been snapped unnaturally. Both of the man’s hands had already been broken by Lucian earlier, leaving his body completely helpless before his death.

He glanced towards the other corpses scattered nearby.

There were many, several of them carrying deep, sharp claw marks across their bodies, wounds left behind by Lucian’s claws as he had torn through them.

A few of the luckier ones had died without even getting the chance to struggle... getting a quick, peaceful death compared to the others.

But as Lucian had promised earlier... none of them had been given a painless death—aside from the man who had tried to escape.

And despite having killed all these men with his own hands, Lucian’s expression remained strangely calm.

If anything... he looked almost disappointed.

Since none of them had even tried to put up a fight.

And rather than resisting with all their might, most of them had simply begged to be spared, and somehow... that only made their deaths much more painful.

It was almost terrifying how this same man had killed his first human only a few hours ago.

And now... he had killed more than a dozen—that too, tortuously, without any hesitation.

It was almost as if... he had already become accustomed to these kinds of deaths.

"Master Lucian."

Kanna’s voice brought him out of his thoughts.

Lucian blinked before turning towards her.

She was standing right before him, holding a clean towel in her hand.

Lucian hummed softly and took it, wiping the blood from his hands before eventually handing it back to her.

His gaze then dropped towards the corpses beneath his feet.

"Now... what should we do with these?"

After thinking for a few seconds, his gaze shifted towards Kanna once again.

"Bring out all those Kobold corpses."

Kanna quietly looked at him, then, without any question, she quietly tapped her foot against the floor.

In the next instant, the shadows beneath her feet immediately began to spread rapidly, and one after another, monster corpses began emerging from them, soon occupying almost a third of the room.

Kobolds... hundreds of Kobolds.

The remaining five men, along with the Boss, stared at the sight in horror.

The already overwhelming smell of blood had now almost begun to turn nauseating, but despite their confusion... not a single one of them dared to speak.

Who knew if they would be next to die at his hands just for asking something?

"Hmm... you really do seem to have an infinite inventory inside those shadows of yours," Lucian commented as he saw the sheer number of corpses, which were easily more than a hundred.

Hearing his words, Kanna, for one of the surprising times, spoke.

"Master Lucian, it might look good, but anyone possessing a Shadow Affinity will be capable of looking into it."

Lucian looked at her in amusement.

"So it has flaws too."

Kanna nodded.

"Master Lucian’s ability seems to be far better than mine."

"And how do you know that?"

"..."

Kanna immediately stopped speaking, realising why he was looking at her like that.

It seemed she had spoken far more than she had intended.

Lucian didn’t mind her going silent once again, and soon, he approached the enormous pile of corpses before him.

The maid followed his movements with curiosity in her eyes, wondering what he exactly intended to do with so many Kobold corpses.

For a moment, Lucian’s gaze lingered on them, and seeing the sheer number of them, he couldn’t help but feel that he might be here the entire night, absorbing them one by one.

’And once again, I’ll go insane if I get their memories.’

[Good luck.] Akasha muttered, causing his lips to curve faintly.

Lucian slowly lowered himself in front of the pile, his palm hovering just above the nearest corpse.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

Then he glanced towards the emotionless maid standing beside him, quietly watching each of his movements like a 24/7 CCTV camera.

"Kanna, look at me if I go mad or something."

Kanna silently stared at him, and seeing the confusion in her emotionless face, Lucian shook his head with a small, wry smile before...

’Devour.’

The moment he placed his hand over the corpse—

Dark, eerie mist suddenly spread from his palm, almost looking liquid as it slowly, silently slithered between his fingers before spreading across the corpse beneath his hand.

It crawled over the Kobold’s body, wrapping around its limbs, torso, and head.

Within seconds, the entire corpse was completely covered.

But then—

The mist abruptly exploded outward.

It crawled hastily across the floor, hungrily spreading towards the other corpses.

Lucian’s eyes widened slightly as he saw the strange energy travelling through the hundreds of corpses scattered throughout the room before... eventually spreading until it covered the entire pile of corpses.

All the Kobolds... all of them were already inside the black mist, and then, just as quickly as it had spread...

The pitch-black mist began to shrink, its enormous volume rapidly decreasing as it was pulled towards its own source.

Until eventually... nothing remained.

The darkness disappeared completely, sinking into Lucian’s hands, which had turned pitch-black.

"Master Lucian...?"

Kanna’s wary voice reached his ears, prompting him to turn towards her.

And the moment he did—

Kanna’s eyes widened slightly.

Even the remaining men couldn’t help but tremble violently as they looked at his face.

More specifically...

His eyes, no longer crimson, but...

Completely black—voidlike.

"What—"

[Ding~!]

Lucian’s body shook slightly as a familiar notification popped right before his eyes.

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

[You have obtained the skill: Reactive Bite.]

’Oh~?’

Lucian raised a brow, but then frowned slightly.

Hadn’t he devoured more than one monster?

Before he could even ask about it—

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

Another message flickered before his vision.

Then—

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

.

.

.

The notifications continued appearing.

Faster... and faster.

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

[You have obtained a memory fragment.]

Before Lucian could even properly read the final line—

His eyes instantly lost their shine, and his body went unnaturally still.

In the next instant—

Memories flooded his mind.

Memories of the Kobold, memories of it killing its brethren, devouring them due to the extreme lack of food... the fragments began filling his mind, and before he could do much more—

"Haa—!"

Lucian’s eyes suddenly snapped back into focus.

His body trembled violently as he gasped for air, all the emotions and memories of the monster still lingering inside his mind, but then—

And before he could even properly settle himself—

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

"Wait... w–k—wait..."

Lucian’s eyes widened in horror.

He finally understood what was going on right now.

Once again, his vision was suddenly filled with screens.

They appeared around him from every direction, overlapping each other until they almost covered his entire field of vision.

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

.

.

[You have devoured a Kobold.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

[You have obtained the skill... ]

[You have devoured a... ]

[You have....]

.

.

[You have obtained a memory fragment.]

"Fuck—!"

His vision blurred.

...

After a few seconds, Lucian’s gaze once again snapped into clarity.

"Ka—ahh shit!"

[...]

Akasha remained silent, but there wasn’t anything she could do... not even if she wanted to.

After all... these were his own decisions.

Before he could even catch his breath and properly feel his own body again—

His vision blurred once more.

[You have obtained a memory fragment.]

A completely different life appeared before him.

Hunting with his companions, killing cave rats, running through narrow tunnels, fighting over food, dancing with the others—getting birthed—

Lucian’s eyes snapped open.

His face immediately twisted in disgust.

"Fuck! What the hell is th—?!"

[You have obtained a memory fragment.]

The memory changed again.

Falling onto a rock, getting laughed at by the others...

Running. Hiding. Hunting. Eating.

Then—

Dying at the hands of a strange human wearing black sunglasses, getting his head sliced off after being burned for no apparent reason.

’Kakh—I’m even seeing myself getting killed by my own ha—khands... hahaha!’

His maniacal laughter echoed inside his consciousness as he saw his own self slicing him with the sword.

It burned. It hurt... very, very much.

The pain was normally something okay for him to deal with.

But since he was inside their memories, the pain he was feeling was also theirs—which meant the pain resistance of his body meant nothing inside the memories.

A few minutes had passed in the real world.

Though while he was inside the memories, hours, weeks, months had passed, spanning for who knew how long.

Lucian was slowly going insane, yet somehow... he was holding onto his sanity.

At least...

To the extent that he still had any left.

And then, finally—

"..."

Lucian slowly opened his eyes.

His head felt as though someone had been hammering it with a sledgehammer.

His eyelids trembled as his vision slowly began to clear.

For several seconds, everything remained blurry.

Then, the first thing he could see was...

An oriental face, beautiful, pale features, with a blank, flat expression... yet those dark eyes were looking at him with an unusual trace of concern.

For a moment, Lucian frowned, as if wondering who—

"K-Kanna...?"

His voice came out hoarse.

Lucian slowly glanced around, only to realise... he was lying down, with his head resting on Kanna’s lap.

Lucian blinked, feeling the softness of her thighs beneath his head and the faint scent of her reaching him due to how close they were.

"..."

The maid quietly looked down at him, her eyes narrowing slightly as she observed his disoriented expression.

"Master Lucian..."

Her voice came quieter than usual.

"Are you... alright?"

Lucian instinctively lifted his eyes again, trying to get rid of the flashes of the monsters getting into his head, and surprisingly... it wasn’t as difficult as he had expected.

His crimson eyes met hers, and for a few seconds, they simply looked at each other.

Then slowly...

Lucian nodded.

The small movement caused Kanna’s body to stiffen as she felt his head shift against her thigh.