[ You have absorbed the blood essence of a 'Demon Commander (High-Tier, Weakened)', purification in progress… ]

[ You have obtained 67,267,861 EP! ]

[ You have leveled up! ]

[ You have leveled up! ]

[ You have reached level 112! ]

[ Congratulations! You have managed to destroy one of the erupted demon bases of the Nature Domain! ]

[ Calculating your contribution to the base's destruction… ]

[ Your actions have directly managed to change the flows of the fight, thus your contribution has been judged to be of medium standard… ]

[ You have received 1.5 stat points ]

Rooaaaaaaaaaah!

'That should do it, right?'

Looking at the black-furred monster which just stepped into the battlefield, I bid farewell to the dagger I threw as I accepted the two extra levels that were gained thanks to its sacrifice.

'It's not exactly that precious of a dagger anyway…'

Using one of the good quality daggers that I stocked on back then before I left the Light Domain, I utilized both my Strength and Dexterity to perform a high-velocity throw while adding the Wind enchantment of 'Aerial Sword' to the mix, all in order to get the last hit.

Obviously, this was all due to how sensitive the situation would have become if I blatantly performed a kill steal against someone like Blade, which is why I could only use such a method to ensure that the commander's EP wouldn't simply go to waste.

Naturally, to perform this strike at the correct timing, I had to stay still in place and put all my concentration into Blade and the demon commander's battle, only sparing a little for one wind essence disc to clean the other demons who might try to attack me.

'That was really close though…'

Even though I made sure to cut the Wind elements' supply at the very first moment Blade would have noticed it while ensuring the dagger's velocity would be enough for it to go unnoticed, it seemed like Blade managed to get a glimpse of the corrupted essence as it left the demon commander's body and made its way towards me.

Normally, the essence obtained by a kill would only be visible to the killer, it was some sort of a law that governed the essence absorption system of the 'Lost Realm'. However, it seemed like extraordinary perception at least had the capability of sensing it, or at least that's what I could deduce from Blade's reaction.

Thankfully, I already had a contingency plan ready for launching, which was of course little Light who stopped being little and used 'Myriad Transformation' to put up a scene!

'I guess he was just trying to be cute back then…'

Roooaaaaaaaah!

Remembering the cute meowing big Light back then and comparing him to the imposing, majestic Light who let one roar after the other, his body was half-morphed into lightning as he took down a demon with each attack of his, probably no one would believe me if I said they were the same lion if not for his special fur and eye colors.

Fortunately, these roars obviously went along well with my plan as Blade got confused for a second and couldn't go further with his search.

On the other hand, that still wasn't the only reason I finally let Light join the fray, I naturally had a few other targets to achieve by doing so…

[ Your blood companion, 'Light (Three-eyed Lightning Cat)' have absorbed the blood essence of a 'Demon Warrior', purification in progress… ]

[ 'Light (Three-eyed Lightning Cat)' has obtained 398,156 EP! ]

[ Your blood… ]

[ 'Light… ]

'So the system's purification does extend to companions…'

From the very start of the battle, I had thoughts of letting Light join the battle to begin with, but the high levels of the demons had made me go back on it as I didn't wish to make Light join in a dangerous battle when no such risk was needed...

However, thanks to Blade crushing the necklace around the demon commander's neck exactly after I killed it, the demons had indeed experienced a huge power drop, even just using my Perception allowed me to notice the weakening of the demon army, not to mention an actual level drop of an average of 25~50 levels, which suddenly made this the perfect hunting ground for the young Light.

Despite his actual age not reaching even two months, Light was basically a mini-battle machine in his mature form, having the huge lethal body of a lion who mastered the 'Body of Elements' to its limits and an Agility surpassing 20 points by a huge margin allowed him to easily contend with the demons who had an average stats of 20 in their weakened state.

Moreover, part of the inheritance left by the old Thunder Lion was about using his body for battle, although that needed honing for the most part.

As such, other than the moment of distraction that he provided for the sake of covering my kill steal, Light joining the battle was also to train his actual battle experience while ingesting the ones he received from the inheritance while also gathering EP for his own leveling!

[ 'Light (Three-eyed Lightning Cat)' has leveled up! ]

[ Your blood… ]

[ 'Light… ]

Though I wasn't entirely sure at the beginning that he would be able to absorb the essence, not to mention purify it, I still gave it a try on the basis of the 'Blood Companion' skill.

After all, it was a skill that the system itself managed to derive from a supposed restriction that bound me and my 'companions', so having it extend certain effects such as automatic essence absorption as well as automatic essence purification weren't too far-fetched…

'Do you know this…?'

After a few minutes had passed, it seemed like Blade had finally found me at the location that I ran to after absorbing the essence, though he seemed completely oblivious about me being the cause of what happened, he only sent this mental transmission to ask me about Light.

'Yes. it's my pe… battle companion.'