Chapter 90: The Law of Death

Malrik sat on one of the chairs, seven corpses lined up in front of him.

He’d already pulled the Law Seeds from six of them. The seventh had surprised him with two seeds inside its body instead of one.

Nearby, Lilith lounged on another seat, her head resting against her arm, looking like she was about to fall asleep.

Malrik lifted one of the seeds and studied it. Two of them were Fire Law Seeds, radiating clear heat.

The next two were wrapped in faint currents of air that kept circling them steadily, letting him identify them as Wind Law Seeds.

He picked up another. Its aura felt cold and wet, almost like water itself. He quickly figured out it was a Water Law Seed.

With five seeds identified, his eyes moved to the three remaining ones. Their auras alone didn’t tell him enough. He studied them for a while before finally turning to Lilith.

"Lilith, you know what these seeds are, don’t you?"

"No."

"You haven’t even looked at them."

Lilith cracked one eye open and gave him a flat look. "And why would I need to? I’m a Saint, by the way. In case you’d forgotten."

"A sealed Saint."

"Doesn’t matter."

"How are you a Saint and you don’t even know what these Law Seeds are?"

Lilith closed her eyes again, like the question wasn’t worth the effort of thinking about. "Because I don’t care about worthless little seeds like those."

Then she opened her eyes and pointed at one of the green ones. "But I can tell you that one’s tied to poison."

"Poison?"

"Yes. Related to poison. Just a bad copy of it. Hasn’t even reached actual Poison Law status yet."

Malrik looked at the green seed with interest. "Well, look at that. You’re useful after all."

Lilith’s expression shifted instantly. "What did you just say?"

Malrik laughed, the sound clearly forced.

"...I said your help was useful. Thanks for clearing that up."

Lilith gave him a suspicious look but said nothing, settling back into her earlier position.

Alright... let’s set these two aside for now.

Malrik’s eyes returned to the seeds spread out in front of him.

Let’s see which of these would actually be useful for Lady Mushroom’s and Winter’s Laws.

I wonder what would happen if I combined the Fire Seed with the Ice one.

Malrik genuinely wanted to try fusing two conflicting Laws together, perhaps Fire and Winter’s Ice Law. But he decided to leave that experiment for later.

This wasn’t the time to gamble on random tests. What he needed right now was picking the Laws that actually paired well with Poison and Ice, and getting the best possible outcome for his current situation.

Malrik took the two Fire Seeds and the poison-aura’d seed, walked over to Lady Mushroom, and handed them to her. Then he gave Winter the two Wind Seeds and the Water Seed.

He started with Lady Mushroom first. He opened her status panel and pressed [ Evolve ].

[ Multiple Law Seeds detected. ]

[ Law Fusion is possible. ]

[ Available Evolution Paths: 1 ]

[ Resulting Law: Venomous Flame ]

[ Law Rank: High ★ ]

[ EP Required: 500 EP ]

[ Would you like to proceed with the fusion? ]

[ Yes ] [ No ]

The first thing that caught Malrik’s attention was the new Law’s name and rank.

Finally. High-rank.

So merging a Medium-rank Law with three Low-rank ones is enough to reach a High-rank result.

Ha. Not a bad deal at all.

Then his eyes moved to the evolution cost.

[ EP Required: 500 ]

Malrik froze for a moment.

Damn it. Why did the cost go up again? Greedy system.

Does it think Evolution Points grow on trees?

He’d started noticing a clear pattern in fusion costs. Every additional Law Seed added to the process pushed the cost up by 50 EP.

Based on that, this evolution should have cost 450 points. The evolution itself needed 300, and the three extra Law Seeds should have added 150 on top of that.

But the system wanted 500. There were 50 extra points Malrik couldn’t account for.

Does the cost climb even more once the Law actually crosses into a higher rank?

Whatever. Let’s just get started.

Malrik pressed the evolve button.

The next instant, his remaining Evolution Points dropped by 500, leaving him with only 300. He stared at the number, and something close to tears threatened to well up in his eyes.

Damn it... this hurts more than I expected.

The evolution began, mana pouring out of Malrik’s body like a waterfall, though clearly less than what Biggie’s evolution had demanded.

The mana gathered around Lady Mushroom, wrapping around her body while the Law Seeds slowly floated into the air.

Lady Mushroom’s eyes went wide with surprise, and she reached out, trying to grab the seeds spinning around her.

The scene looked a little funny to Malrik. He sent her a reassuring thought through their soul link, telling her there was nothing to worry about.

Lady Mushroom stopped chasing the seeds. Moments later, her body vanished inside a pulsing green cocoon that seemed to breathe slowly, a faint venomous aura clinging to it while the evolution continued in silence.

Malrik turned to Winter, who stood quietly beside the cocoon, and pressed his evolve button next.

[ Multiple Law Seeds detected. ]

[ Law Fusion is possible. ]

[ Available Evolution Paths: 1 ]

[ Resulting Law: Frozen Tempest ]

[ Law Rank: High ★ ]

[ EP Required: 300 EP ]

[ Would you like to proceed with the fusion? ]

[ Yes ] [ No ]

He wasn’t too surprised this time. He’d expected the result, so he pressed [ Yes ] right away.

The evolution began, playing out almost identically to Lady Mushroom’s. When it finished, Malrik had no Evolution Points left at all.

Back to being broke again. Damn it.

Why am I cursed to be poor even in my new life?

Malrik cursed his luck in silence.

Ah... looks like this is going to take a while. Might as well check my progress while I wait.

[ Name: Malrik Vesperion ]

[ Rank: Awakened ]

[ Level: 41 ]

[ Class: Soul Binder ]

[ Class Rank: Epic ★ ]

[ Talent: Infinite Evolution (SSS) ]

[ Strength: 329 (18↑) ]

[ Agility: 240 (18↑) ]

[ Constitution: 234 (18↑) ]

[ Intelligence: 482 (18↑) ]

[ Free Attribute Points: 90 ]

[ Soul Contracts: 220 / 250 ]

[ Skills: Gravity Field, Heavy Domain, Gravity Crush ]

[ Class Skills: Death Bullet, Soul Resurrection, Soul Storage, Soul Calling, Corpse Explosion, Soul Rend ]

Malrik looked over his status screen. His level had climbed again, but this time the jump was almost ridiculous.

The last time he’d checked, he was still Level 23, right before his fight against Biggie. But after coming out victorious from the first wave of Morveth, he’d jumped a full 18 levels at once.

Most of that experience had probably come from killing Biggie himself.

Biggie had been Fallen-rank, Level 43. Miles above Malrik at the time, which meant the experience he’d earned from that kill was massive too.

Less than a month since I woke up here, and I’m already Level 41 as an Awakened.

Not bad at all.

Malrik figured he’d start understanding Laws himself before too long.

And speaking of Laws... what should I even choose?

What kind of Law would even suit a Class built around the undead?

His gaze shifted toward Lilith.

Maybe I should ask her. She might have some ideas.

Malrik glanced at Lilith. She sat nearby, looking completely at ease, like she didn’t have a single thing on her mind.

He hesitated for a moment before walking over. "Lilith."

"...Yes."

"You look... good today."

One of her eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"Yeah, definitely. Oh, and look at your hair. It matches your eyes perfectly."

Lilith raised an eyebrow, suspicion written across her face.

"Actually... the more I look at them, the more I realize I never noticed how beautiful they were before."

Lilith stared at him, her eyes narrowing as she sat up straight. "Master."

"Yes?"

"What do you want?"

"Nothing."

She kept staring at him. "You don’t compliment me like this for no reason."

"Can’t I say something nice every once in a while?"

"Of course you can."

Lilith’s lips curved into a small smile.

"But if you’re trying to butter me up for something, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than that."

Malrik sighed.

"Fine. I need your opinion on something."

"I knew it. What do you want?"

"What Laws do you think would actually fit my Class?"

"Oh, you’re already looking for a Law that suits you in the middle of all this excitement? I have to say, I’m impressed by your composure."

Malrik smiled "Why not? To be honest, I’m starting to get used to this kind of life. I don’t think a peaceful one would suit me anymore."

"Oh, you’ve finally found your place among the lunatics, Master." Lilith smiled sarcastically. "And it seems to suit you rather well."

"I suppose calling them lunatics isn’t entirely wrong."

Malrik then looked at her "So, what Law do you think would suit me best?"

Lilith fell silent for a moment, as if seriously considering the question.

"Actually... there is one Law I think would suit you perfectly."

"But don’t expect the path to it to be easy. It’s one of the most complicated Laws to comprehend at the higher ranks."

"Oh? And what Law is that?"

"The Law of Death."