[ 'Light (Three-eyed Lightning Cat)' has reached level 17! ]

"Meow!"

'Lower efficiency as expected…'

Half a million EP would have been enough for the lv.1 old me to gain at least 20 levels, but due to the reduction caused by the transfer loss as well as how great Light's initial body strength was, it only resulted in 16 level-ups.

Still, the skill itself still seemed to be more than just useful, all I had to do was think about transferring some of my EP to one of my two companions and it just happened like that. I didn't have to suffer any setbacks to power-up little Light with a small amount of EP that wouldn't have helped me anyway, unlike those legendary beast tamers who would sacrifice a part of their power just to allow their tamed monsters to proportionally grow in strength, 'Essence Sharing' was definitely worth it.

I hadn't tried it earlier since most of my essence was consumed to level up immediately after all, but now that I did try it, I had no regrets about that pitiful amount of EP when compared to the gains!

[ Your blood companion 'Light (Three-eyed Lightning Cat)' has 9.6 Unassigned stat points! You can choose to assign them according to your will as its contractor! ]

'Just as Obedient Long has explained…'

However, in comparison to 'Essence Sharing', its parent skill, 'Blood Companion' was even more great!

Having already asked Long which leveling path Light would follow, he had detailedly explained how 'Blood Companion' cheated the system to allow Light and the Pseudo Sky Dragon to level up like players but gave me the control over how to assign their Unassigned stat points, of course, it was also possible to give them the option to choose how to do as long as I allowed them to.

These levels and points were also another thing I considered and discussed with Light using our mind connection as we already decided on how to distribute them before the mission even started.

Dumping them all in one specific stat, I looked at the round number with a satisfied smile before I gave Light a few pats and put him back in the bag and moved ahead…

The gate's narrow tunnel which seemed endless only took half an hour of me as I jogged with light yet suitably agile steps, not even encountering any single monster on my way till I reached the gigantic boss gate.

'Could it be the boss that turned everyone of the five into their zombie states…?'

Confirming that the gate was empty all-over meant that there were no impossible difficulty monsters to begin with. It seemed like a trap to destroy geniuses, but what had actually destroyed these geniuses?

Even if the first zombie managed to zombify the rest, then who zombified him?

There were very few plausible answers and the first that came to mind would be that the boss might actually have something similar to a special ability that granted immediate or at least quick corruption, but as I pushed the gate open….

'Huh?'

I couldn't help but get slightly surprised as there were no living beings inside either, the only thing that stood still was the short pillar which held the corruption core, there was still nothing else but that.

It didn't take a genius to guess that the corruption core itself was the likely to be the trap that caused the zombification, which was the fact that the first zombie senior shouldn't have been aware of and even if he was indeed aware of it, it couldn't like he could keep himself trapped within and so would have still had to deal with the core somehow, this was also the current situation I was in.

Probably just like the first zombie senior, I took a big jump toward the core on the pillar as I reached out to it with the 'Lightning Cloud' spear in an attempt to destroy it…

Swishhshshshhs!

Just as the spear touched the orb, a swarm of pitch black particles swarmed at me like an army of bugs, however, even though it visually seemed disgusting…

[ You have absorbed 9,999,999 Corrupted EP, cleansing in progress… ]

[ You have received 6 EP! ]

The pitch black particles simply dissolved as soon as they touched my body, as my whole body was currently covered in disgusting black liquid that resulted from the little essence attached with too much corruption.

This disgusting attack wave was probably what had turned my zombie seniors into the state they were in a half an hour ago, but it was immediately proven ineffective with the system's innate protection against corruption…

'That's it I guess…?'

A little disappointed, I didn't delay any further as I sent my spear piercing towards the corruption core once more.

This time, no pitch black wave has risen to attack me as I instead… lost perception of my surroundings…

`~~`~~`~~`

"Ohhhhh! You are finally coming to your senses!"

Opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was a very wide smile that spread from ear to ear covering almost half the face of the black bearded man standing in front of me.

"Was the spatial shock too much for you?"

As my nausea started to clear up within seconds, I was finally able to accurately perceive the man before me, the only view that I couldn't change as I couldn't move from my place, even then, I kept a passive as I stared back at the bearded man ignoring the fact that I seemed to be shackled.

"Hehe, you really are too much of a trouble maker, I did expect you to somehow defeat the useless puppets, but you even surpassed that and managed to withstand the condensed cleansing wave. Still… in the end, you still fell for the last precaution and purpose of the nest, the spatial manipulation bomb!"

'Hmmmm…'

"Alright, alright, you can keep your composure and stay silent all you want, your failure to accept the sacred blessing has already decided your future. You had simply screwed one of my main plans and you were probably planning to screw even more, so you really deserve your upcoming death… sadly though, I won't have the honour of taking your life, the commander plans to have fun while torturing you for a while, I really wish I could join him, but I have my own duties…"

The bearded man's smile kept growing bigger and bigger that his face looked overly deformed, however, it flipped into a frown as he stated his last sentence before he turned his back to me.

"Ugghhhh, I really wanted to do it myself, but I would have to give that up for the sake of the greater good… anyway, just stay calm just like you are, the commander's seeds should be here at any moment to receive their package. Yup, that's you, the one that's going to have loads of fun!"

'They are gone…'

Using my restored senses to check the whereabouts of Light, I left out a sigh of relief deep inside as he was no longer in his bag.

"Is that so, Crane? All of that has really been your doing till now?!"

An angry voice exploded out of nowhere as the expression of the bearded man suddenly went pale.

'Just as planned…'