Chapter 18: Corpse Collection

Ethan selected [Yes], and the system responded instantly.

He could feel the Iron Golem’s presence slowly fade and vanish in a cloud of dark smoke.

Ethan shifted, and he could feel the weight of something settling in his shadow and realises that the continued drain on his Death Energy had reduces.

By now, only the Beowolf remained, standing next to Lila quiet and still.

He glanced down at his shadow. It looked normal as far as anyone could tell and no one else seemed to notice anything unusual.

Ethan gave the Beowolf a new command: "scout ahead, stay in range and return if you encounter something."

The undead wolf lowered its head and dashed into the next stretch of tunnel without a sound, and Ethan was relieved that the command wasn’t too complex for the beast.

’Ranked monsters are rather intelligent’ he thought.

Professor Crane watched the exchange, then ordered the groups to resume moving. "Aetherite collection continues," she said, "stay within the marked upper-layer boundary. No further deviations."

The students groups formed up again, and Marcus kept to the far side of the formation with his jaw clenched. Nora walked alone, as always and Lila fell into step beside Ethan, glancing once at the empty space where the Iron Golem had stood.

"You put it away," she said quietly.

"Something like that. Turns out the system let me keep it. And since the condition is decent, there’s no way I’m passing up at this opportunity."

His reply came in a steady vioce, but she could see the traces of excitement in it. She hummed, and continued walking.

They moved deeper into the upper layer and the Beowolf returned twice—once to signal a clear path, once to lead them toward a side chamber where the blue veins in the walls grew thicker and more concentrated.

Inside, clusters of dull, translucent crystal jutted from the stone. It was all Aetherite.

"Good find," one of the instructors muttered. "Start extraction. Careful with the clusters. It may not look like it, but these crystals are very sharp."

After a moment of collective awe, the students spread out with the tools and got to work. Ethan remained near the entrance with the Beowolf, and activated Death Sense to see if there was anything around.

After a moment, he deactivated it. The traces in this chamber were old and faint, nothing important.

However, a few minutes later, the Beowolf’s head snapped toward a side passage, a low growl escaping its throat.

```

[Ding!]

[Multiple life signatures detected]

[Species: Beowolf]

[Classification: Slave]

[Rank: E]

[Quantity: 8]

```

Ethan’s head snapped towards the notification. There were eight monsters this time.

They came fast and low, their claws scraping stone as they lunged. Some students scrambled back from the crystals, others took ready stances and the Instructors moved to intercept.

Ethan however, reacted first.

The Iron Golem stepped out of the darkness at his feet as if it had been standing there the entire time, its mass unfolding to full height in less than a second.

The nearest Beowolves barely had time to change direction before the golem’s arm swept through them in a single arc that crushed them. Two died instantly, and a third was slammed into the wall hard enough to break its spine.

The remaining five tried to scatter but the Iron Golem advanced with thundering steps and made quick work of them. In less that thirty seconds the chamber was quiet again.

Dust settled, and the students stared.

Ethan ordered the golem to stand down and return to the shadow and It dissolved backward into the darkness at his feet as silently as it emerged as Ethan exhaled.

Lila let out a low breath, surprise bleeding into her voice as she spoke. "Okay. That’s new."

Ethan didn’t answer. Instead, he took a shaky breath. His Death Energy had taken another noticeable hit from the rapid summon and combat.

The system screen flickered in his vision, showing the bar lower than he liked.

He turned his head slightly and caught Nora Voss watching him.

Her red eyes lingered longer than before. No expression, no comment, just that flat gaze that seemed to be cataloging something.

Ethan sighed as he looked away. For some reason, he was having a very bad feeling about this...

Crane spoke, her voice audible enough for every student to hear. "Secure the Aetherite. We have enough for the assignment. We’ll be leaving soon."

The students moved quickly after that as no one wanted to stay here any longer than they had to. Samples were packed, counted, and double-checked and after a few minutes, they headed back to the entrance.

The return path through the upper tunnels was quiet. Even Marcus kept his mouth shut.

Ethan walked near the middle of the formation, Beowolf at his heel as he constantly glanced at his shadow. It felt like the longer he stared, the more apparent it was that something was lurking in his shadow...

By the time the entrance arch came into view and the cooler outside air touched their skin, the accumulated strain had settled deep into his limbs.

Maintaining the Beowolf, raising the golem, sustaining it and the continuous use of Death Sense had taken a lot out of him.

He looked up, the sun shone too bright, the air felt thick, and his vision began blur. It was like he could fall any moment from now.

Lila noticed and called out to him in concern. "You okay?"

Ethan exhaled, wiping his forehead. "Yeah... just tired."

They stepped through the archway with the others and teleported back to campus not long after.

The were back at the auditorium, and soon dismissed back to their dorms. The walk was short but to Ethan it felt like he had been walking for hours.

Every step he took was accompanied by laboured breathing and it was becoming continuously hard to stay upright.

Lila kept glancing at him but didn’t comment even though her eyebrows knitted with concern.

They reached their dorm soon after...

Ethan opened the door,stepped inside, and let the Beowolf dissolve from active control.

He made it three steps past the doorway and leaned sideways.

"Ethan?" Lila’s called, confused and concern.

The last thing he could make out was hurried footsteps reaching for him before everything went dark.