'Oh, it seems I have been spoiled.'

Lucien couldn't help but smile bitterly. After all, when he got a few points of intelligence from Devan before, he was quite excited.

But now, even after getting 20 points of strength, 30 points of mana, and 10 points of intelligence from two of them, he felt it wasn't enough.

All because of the useless skills he got, as he was now used to getting SSS rank skills from both Lilith and Sera.

'Well, they are still better than nothing. Moreover, I still have so many of them to collect from.'

Lucien thought, glancing at the forty-eighth other red dots on the map in his mind.

"Sir, why are you still delaying? Why don't you just kill this bastard? Are you stupid? Why are you mumbling and floating around like that?"

Just as Lucien was musing over the things he had obtained, he was suddenly scolded by the middle-aged man at his side.

Unlike before, when the man had shut his mouth after being told to, this time he seemed genuinely annoyed, not even bothering to hold back his anger.

Heck, he even called him stupid outright, which surprised Lucien.

"What… what's happening? W-Why am I feeling so weak?"

While the middle-aged man suddenly lost his cool in anger, the bandit leader, on the other hand, directly collapsed on the group with a thud.

He suddenly felt so weak all of a sudden that he couldn't even stand up properly. It was as if someone had sucked up all the juice out of him in a jiffy.

"Wh-what did you do?"

Feeling the creeping weakness that gnawed at his very being, the bandit leader was terrified and asked Lucien in fear.

Besides him, he couldn't think of anyone doing such things to him. Just that, he was really surprised that he never even saw how that figure attacked him in the first place.

After all, the Iron Guard was still in effect before he suddenly felt the weakness.

'Hmm...it seems the absorption rate isn't 100%.'

However, Lucien didn't care what they thought, but mumbled inwardly again, finding something different.

He for sure knew that the bandit leader, being an early Invoker rank, must have more than 30 points of strength.

But still, he was like this after he extracted only 20 points.

"Forget it, let's wrap this up."

Lucien shook his head, pushed aside his random thoughts, and finally pointed his finger at the bandit leader.

This time, he wanted to test the new skill he had gained from Sera and see just how effective it was.

"Ignite!"

The moment Lucien's finger aimed at the terrified figure, a small streak of Phoenix flame burst out, shooting straight toward the burly man's body.

It was so fast that neither the bandit leader nor the middle-aged man even saw it clearly.

Only when the flame struck did the bandit leader realize his body had already begun to burn under the Phoenix fire.

At first, it was just his chest that caught alight, but in the blink of an eye, the fire spread like a hungry beast, crawling over his skin, wrapping around his arms, legs, and face.

The brilliant red-orange flames clung to him unnaturally, refusing to go out no matter how wildly he flailed.

"W-What… what is this… No, don't—!"

Feeling the heat and burn, his high-pitched and desperate scream suddenly tore through the air.

The smell of burning flesh and hair quickly filled the surroundings, extremely thick and suffocating.

His eyes bulged with terror as his skin blistered, cracked, and peeled, revealing scorched muscle beneath, only for that too to be devoured by the merciless flames.

The bandit leader's voice grew hoarse, his cries breaking into ragged gasps.

Soon, even his screams failed him, replaced by a guttural, wet sound as his throat seared from within.

His massive frame, which looked intimidating before, directly crumbled and collapsed under the weight of agony, turning into nothing more than a blackened husk.

In mere moments, his body cracked apart like charred wood, scattering into ash that drifted in the faint wind.

The gruesome sight was so sickening that the middle-aged man froze in his place, his mouth hanging open, his eyes wide in disbelief.

Even with his limited intelligence, he understood one thing clearly: this was far too ruthless.

Burning a man alive until nothing but ash remained… who could witness such a thing and not feel fear?

That was why, even though he had finally gotten what he had always wanted, the middle-aged man didn't celebrate.

Instead, he stared at Lucien with extreme terror.

'So strong!'

To be honest, not only the middle-aged man, but even Lucien was shocked by the scene. But he was more shocked by the efficiency of the Phoenix flame.

'Thank god I used the Devour skill at that time, otherwise...'

Lucien shuddered slightly just at that thought. Now, he understood why Sera said she wasn't trying to kill him.

Because if she were, he might not even be able to use Devour at that time.

Just now, he wanted to see if he could use the flame he stole from Sera with his new skill, Phoenix Flame Control.

And looking at the result...he was satisfied.

"Well, one's gone. One more to go."

Lucien suddenly mumbled with a smile and slowly turned his head, casting a faint smile at the middle-aged man who was looking at him in terror.

Only that smile was devoid of warmth or mercy. It carried no emotion at all, just pure killing intent, the same as what he had shown to the bandit leader.

Like he said, he didn't want to leave anyone alive after he used the debt extraction on them, as that would be risky.

"S-Sir, w-what do you mean?"

The middle-aged man was shocked to feel the thick killing intent now aimed directly at him. Feeling it directly, his legs couldn't help but tremble as he stuttered in fear, unable to control his voice.

Sensing the danger, he instinctively backed away, step by step, as an overwhelming dread clawed at his chest.

It was as if invisible hands were squeezing the air out of his lungs, leaving him suffocated under Lucien's gaze.

"S-Sir, are you not from the reinforcements?"

Although his intelligence had dropped considerably, when it came to life and death, humans surely had an uncanny ability.

The middle-aged man already understood that this person was not a reinforcement as he had thought at all, but someone unknown, clearly here to take their lives.

He just couldn't understand why he was doing that, though. After all, it made sense for the bandit leader to offend someone he shouldn't have, but he didn't think he had done any of that.

"Reinforcement? What is that?"

Lucien rolled his eyes at the guy, lifting his hand just like before and pointing at the middle-aged man.

"For someone like you who shits where they eat, why would any reinforcement come? Let me just remove you altogether so that you can rot in hell for all I care."

He said, and flicked his finger once again, shooting a flicker of flame at the man.

"NO… Sir, I am from the Goldveil… I am someone clos-"

The middle-aged man was so terrified by Lucien's gesture that he tried to plead…to no avail.

"Ah… No, help!"

Then, in terror, he tried to run before Lucien could do anything, but he couldn't as the ember caught him in a jiffy.

And just like the bandit leader, he was also burned alive in shrieks of despair and screams, his body twisting violently before crumbling into ash.

Just like the bandit leader, he also left this world, leaving nothing behind but ash.

'Welp, that completes the things here. Let's leave.'

Lucien thought and looked towards the sky and said lightly,

"Okay, let's leave. I am done here."

He said it seemingly to no one when suddenly his figure disappeared, appearing right above a massive body covered in white feathers.

"Kid, that was quite the show. Aren't you too ruthless?"

As soon as Lucien landed on the back of Velmara, he heard his voice clearly, signaling his remark about the deed below.

"But… I am more surprised that you can use the Phoenix flame. How did you do that?"

However, after all, Velmara had seen far crueller things than that, so he quickly set the matter aside and asked what mattered most.

He was already surprised that Lucien could devour that flame; now he was even more shocked to see him using it so proficiently.

From his observation, he saw there was truly no resistance from the Phoenix flame at all. It was as if the flame belonged to Lucien in the first place.

'But… how is that possible?'

Velmara thought, clearly feeling that his worldview had been challenged.

As someone at the peak of the Weaver rank, he knew far more about things like the Phoenix flame than Lucien ever could.

But precisely because of that, he was once again stunned by Lucien's ability.

To be honest, he suddenly felt that securing a promise from Lucien had been the wisest choice he had ever made.

This guy had far too much potential.