CHAPTER 402: DEVOURING

Daniel activated the ability. Suddenly, a dark energy appeared in front of his stomach, forming a black hole. The black hole began sucking in and devouring all the corpses around him.

The corpse of the commander, the bishop’s subordinate, and even the bishop’s remains were pulled inside his body. By devouring them, he could feel his physical strength increasing significantly.

The sensation of power flowed through his veins—yet it quickly faded away.

[ Your Physical Strength has Increased ]

Even though his body had grown stronger, the increase was still limited and small. The number of corpses here wasn’t nearly enough to bring him a noticeable boost in power.

Still, he wasn’t too disappointed. He checked the amount of Exp he had gained. Killing those people had, of course, given him Exp, but since he had disabled Exp notifications, nothing popped up.

Unfortunately, the amount of Exp gained wasn’t very useful either.

"Maybe I should have turned them into Fallen," he muttered to himself. After all, all three of them had been strong rank A’s.

But he didn’t dwell on it. What mattered was testing the ability of his physique, which he had done—and his body truly felt stronger and tougher.

He activated [Fallen Vision] and checked the state of the mountain and the remaining Corruption Worshipers. His Fallen seemed to have started a full-blown massacre.

Without delay, he went deeper into the mountain and devoured every corpse the Fallen had left behind. While they weren’t very strong, there were a lot of them.

There had been nearly two hundred Corruption Worshipers here, most of them at rank B. After devouring all of them, he could feel his body becoming considerably stronger.

Now, his physical strength alone was probably enough to defeat any Awakened below rank S without using skills, sword techniques, energy, or laws.

Realizing this, a smile appeared on his face. At this rate, he might actually be able to challenge even rank S’s in the near future.

Afterward, he dismissed all his Fallen except one. His gaze landed on Vorak, and he patted him gently.

"It’s been a long time since we’ve been together, old friend," Daniel smiled.

"I want you to find where these Corruption Worshipers hid their treasures and money," he ordered.

Of course, it was impossible for the Corruption Worshipers to have lived here for years without a treasury, right? He had no intention of leaving such wealth behind.

Without hesitation, Vorak began sniffing the ground, and together they went deeper underground—at least five hundred meters, which surprised Daniel.

These bastards really had too much free time. They had built an entire underground city inside this mountain. The number of levels wasn’t even clear.

Fortunately, they finally located the treasury. However, it was protected by numerous arrays and a massive door. From a quick look, destroying it wouldn’t be easy.

"If I’m not mistaken, there’s a self-destruction mechanism," Daniel muttered after studying the arrays and the door. He frowned, but then the frown faded quickly.

Why should he care if the mountain self-destructed? Once he had taken whatever was behind the door, it wouldn’t matter what happened to this place.

With that mindset, he wasted no time. He threw a heavy punch at the door, making the entire wall tremble and leaving a crack on the massive gate.

He didn’t stop. His next punch was even harder—the whole mountain shook, and a larger crack appeared. One final punch.

Boom!

The huge door split apart with a massive crack, finally collapsing and revealing what it had been guarding. At the same time, the arrays activated, and the mountain began to quake.

"Damn it," Daniel cursed, frowning as dirt and rocks began to fall from above. He realized he didn’t have much time.

He rushed inside without hesitation. A massive amount of gold coins, treasures, and various items filled the chamber, enough to even shock him.

How had they gathered this much gold? Clearly, during all the years they had been here, they hadn’t only been focused on the Lionheart family.

But the mountain shook again, and the collapse grew more violent. This wasn’t the time to think about such things. Without delay, he swept everything into his inventory.

"The inventory space is almost full... I’ll need to make time to clear it out later," he thought, then mounted Vorak.

"Get us out of here."

Vorak growled and dashed forward at full speed as rocks and debris rained from above.

The upper levels were completely destroyed and collapsing. Explosions echoed everywhere, and the entire mountain was crumbling down.

Several times, massive boulders nearly crushed them, but they managed to dodge each one.

"Hurry! The exit is closing!" Daniel spotted the faint light of the exit in the distance, but it was shrinking fast.

Vorak roared and pushed his speed even further. Just before the entrance completely collapsed, they managed to leap through it and escape.

"Phew~ that was close," Daniel muttered as they both crashed onto the ground from the final jump.

His eyes went to the mountain. The entrance was sealed shut, and it was clear that everything inside had been destroyed completely.

"A shame," he murmured. In truth, this place could have served as a good base for the organization he had in mind. Then again, it also could have been extremely dangerous.

After all, the main base of the Corruption Worshipers would surely send many forces here to investigate soon. Still, it gave him a good idea for building his own headquarters.

He stood up, brushed off his clothes, dismissed Vorak, and flew toward the ship. Luckily, it wasn’t far, and he reached it quickly.

As soon as he set foot on the deck, Ilaris rushed over with worry in her eyes.

"Are you okay? What was that explosion just now?"

Frederick approached quietly as well. Seeing that Daniel was unharmed, he let out a sigh of relief but said nothing.

"Whatever was inside that mountain is gone. Looked like it had some kind of self-destruct mechanism."

"I see. Thank goodness you’re safe," Ilaris sighed with relief.

Daniel nodded.

"Now that it’s all over, we need to return and make a report. Those traitorous elders must be found."