It didn't take me long to find someone whose soul I can take. It seems like three guards were walking around inside the forest, searching for Greg and his friends. You should have seen their faces and when they came back into the village and saw what happened.

Their reactions were hilarious.

I commanded my minions to take all the bones of the dead villagers and they are just as bad at dismantling bodies as I am.

Anyway, let's absorb the newcomers’ souls into the ring and see what I'll get.

Congratulations! You turned the 'Ring of greater Mana Storage' into a 'Ring of a Greater Soul'!

Ring of a Greater Soul

This ring once contained more than 50 Souls, which fused together to form a bigger one! The soul can be absorbed.

Greater Soul? Now this sounds really good!

Seems like I once again have to make a decision. Do I absorb the soul or infuse it with ice?

The problem is, I have no idea if I'll still get EXP for absorbing a Cold Soul. I would like to try it out first before I waste a Great Soul, but I have no way to obtain any mana stones since I can't buy any and I don't think I'll get lucky again and find one.

This Half-Lich race was very useful until now, so let's trust it and just try it out. I take the ring and squeeze it tightly in my hand and try to infuse it. Sadly, I don't seem to have enough mana left after my fight. I guess I'll have to start by eating bones.

It took me four days to completely infuse the ring. It seems like the amount of mana I need to turn a soul stone into a cold soul is equal to the amount of mana the mana stone once could hold. So, I needed to use 100.000 mana which is nearly six times more mana than I have. I pretty much just kept on eating bones non-stop the past four days and I have barley any left. Luckily two travelers entered the village while I was at it and unintentionally delivered some new bones to me. Now let's see what we got here now.

Ring of a Greater Cold Soul

This ring once contained a Greater Soul which was infused with ice to form a Greater Cold Soul! The soul can be absorbed by a Lich.

Doesn't seem so special, well let's absorb it.

Level up! (x23)

+46 STR; +46 DEX; +46 END; +46 VIT; + 230

Lich Mastery 1 → 19 (+360 KNW)

Now that's what I call a power boost! 23 levels? That's pretty nice! Huh? I kind of feel strange...

Congratulations! By absorbing Ice infused Souls your title 'Cold Soul' has evolved into 'Frozen Soul'!

+75 INT → +300 INT; Soul Eater → Soul Devourer

Soul Devourer

Your hunger for Souls cannot be stilled! You are now able to directly take the Souls of people that have less than 20% of your level!

I feel a cold pain in my 'eyes' fall and to my knees.

It looks like my title was strengthened because of the cold soul and the upgrades are really great, especially Soul Devourer but I can't feel happy right now because the pain does not stop!

It takes several minutes of me lying on the ground and pressing my hands against my eye sockets before the pain finally ends. Relieved that my torture seems to be over I stand up. What the hell was that? I take out the small mirror to take a look at myself, in order to find out what happened.

The glowing orbs in my face changed drastically.

Instead of just glowing in a pale blue light they are now black orbs which have a pale blue circle inside of them, making it look as if those were iris’. For some reason, they actually creep me out a bit.

I quickly close the little mirror and stand up. I'm not sure how I should feel about all of this but for now I'll just simply accept it. The evolved skill and all this extra Intelligence is great at least.

Hm?

I notice that the mana stone on the ring was not completely absorbed and that a small black stone remains. You have to understand that an empty mana crystal is white and a filled one blue, so why is there a black stone on the ring now?

Ring of the Cold Void

This ring once contained a Greater Cold Soul which was absorbed by a Lich. An unknown consciousness that resides within the ring now yearns for more souls. To fill this ring you'll need 10 Greater Souls.

…

What? A consciousness? Since when?

Why is it an 'unknown' one? For fucks sake, I never understood this ancient magic. It gives you so many information and so many details, yet it leaves so much out. It feels like It's enjoying watching us mortals struggle and suffer.

Well, I guess I at least still have a place to store souls in, though I have no Idea how I'm going to fill this thing up. If I'm not mistaking I'll need 500 Souls in order to completely fill it. I could probably attack one or two more villages, but then I'll run out of smaller villages to attack and I won't stand a chance against a village with any form of real defense.

Let's think rationally about this.

I'm now able to take souls of people that are around level 50 or weaker. In other words, I don't really have to fight! I'll just have to go somewhere, take as many souls as I need and then quickly leave before anyone notices me.

Now how would I do that? I could try to sneak into villages at night and snatch the souls while the people are sleeping. How many Souls would I be able to get like that? With help from the Dark Spell 'Shadow Cloak' I should be able to break into three or four houses per night which would give me around 15 souls per night, as long as I'm lucky and no one strong is inside. It would roughly take me one month to get all souls, huh?

…

That's a long time, but I can't think of any other way. I guess I'll do that. I got all of eternity anyway. Unless I turn to dust or something when I’m too old.

Let's go night hunting!

Hm?

Somehow I'm getting this strange bad feeling again.

* Julius, Prince of Lichtenhof POV *

“It's been a couple of weeks and there is still no Signal from your spell, Theodore!” (Prince Julius)

“Why are you yelling at me?! It's not like I can control when this asshole is going show himself in a big city!” (Archmage Theodore)

“Brothers, we should also take into consideration that she could have died inside a dungeon” (Beard Guy)

“That’s ridiculous! Big Sister Yuna would never be that careless! …I think? Alright she may be this careless.” (Priest)

“Even if she went into one, there's no way she would have died inside! She is quick enough to flee and if I'm not mistaking you gave her a few Lightstones right, Denolius?“ (Prince Julius)

“That's right! One of those can easily heal her back up if she's not in combat!” (Blessed Soul Denolius)

“…What if she went somewhere, where healing wasn't an option?” (Beard Guy)

“What do you mean, Brother Urk?” (Blessed Soul Denolius)

“You know, what if she went to the Tomb of Alzu'rak? This dungeon was never conquered since it's just not worth it and if I'm not mistaking the Endboss should be level 1600. Doesn't that sound like a thing our brave wife would do? Go down there and be the first one to conquer it?” (Urk, the Destroyer)

“Now that you mention it, I'm getting a lot of reports from the region this dungeon resides in.” (Prince Julius)

“What kind of reports?” (Blessed Soul Denolius)

“Nothing too bad, just some villagers complaining about a strange illness that seems to kill weak people in their sleep. The death counter is only at about 200 or so. The really strange thing though is, that a small village was found completely empty! No one lived there anymore and all that was left were small piles of Demi-Human meat, with no bones in them” (Prince Julius)

“The hell? This sounds creepy as fuck! Why are you getting reports from the Demi-Human Kingdom anyway?” (Urk, the Destroyer)

“I have my Spies, of course. The King of the Demi-Humans is really getting nervous by the way, it seems that the people he sent to investigate the village all refused to go there again. They all just talked about how gruesome and gross this place is.” (Prince Julius)

“Maybe we should also send some people to investigate?” (Blessed Soul Denolius)

“Hm, yeah let's do that. Maybe we will find something out. We'll just have to be careful to not let the Demi-Humans find out.” (Prince Julius)

“I could craft a small device that would react if they come close to the one who holds the curse!” (Archmage Theodore)

“This would be perfect! We will do just that! I'll immanently summon a few assassins that know how to hide themselves.” (Prince Julius)

----------------------------------------

Authors Note: -Status- Name: Sirius Class: Ice Mage Level: 272 / 500 Race: Undead Monster Classification: Half-Lich Title: Frozen Soul Divine Protection: None Attribute: Frost Follower: None Spouses None

Health: 3310/ 3310 Mana: 14 / 23280 Strength: 321 Dexterity: 299 Vitality: 331 Endurance: 324 Intelligence: 1940 (+388) Knowledge: 1592 Skillname Level Undead (passive) Max. Soul Devourer 1 / 10.000 Elementary Frost Magic Max. Intermediate Frost Magic Max. Advanced Frost Magic 3 / 15 Cold Chains 2 / 15 Frost Time 1 / 5 Ice Breath 1 / 10 Soul Shackle 4 / 5 Ice Infusion 5 / 10 Lich Mastery (passive) 19 / 100 Elementary Dark Magic 2 / 10 Elementary Necromancy 3 / 10