Her hands clenched tightly around the teacup, rattling violently as though she was unable to let go.
Initially, she would have done anything to survive, but after entering this room and listening to the doll boy's words while being forced to drink the disgusting tea in her hand, she would rather die than live through such horror and torture.
Jonathan attempted to speak, but quickly shut his mouth. He would also rather die than endure such torment, but he couldn't forget about his family, whom he still had to care for, a main reason he had been raiding dungeons ever since his awakening.
His mental fortitude was levels above Cynthia's, who had just become a Hunter and had also ventured into dungeons for her family's sake.
Jonathan had come this far and couldn't think of giving up. Even if there were the slightest chance of escape, he would take it. However, the problem was that there was none.
The only escape route before him was death.
Jonathan's eyes dimmed as he lowered his head and closed his eyes, his expression filled with hatred, pain, and terror.
Abel froze in his steps.
He hadn't expected Cynthia to utter such words or Jonathan to react the way he did. But he swiftly recovered his composure and nodded. He sank into the shadow beside the bed frame.
Cynthia's eyes widened in shock, blinking at the Shadow Reaper's gesture before he vanished into the shadows.
"Hehehe, are my eyes deceiving me? The Shadow Reaper just nodded at me! Of course, now I understand. You can walk through fire. You're not afraid of stepping into the light either. You aren't the usual Dungeon's Final Boss, are you?" She said, her solemn tone shifting into an amused chuckle.
She snapped her head to the side as the Shadow Reaper emerged from her chair's shadow.
"What are you? A glitch? A new dungeon update?! Don't tell me you're the Dungeon's Final Boss's lost cousin because he hasn't been doing a good job handling it!" She stared at Abel with an almost inhuman intensity.
Jonathan listened to her words and trembled in fear.
[+90FP]
[+100FP]
--
[+1,200FP]
Abel saw that despite her words, her fear of him was steadily rising.
PTUII!!
Without answering her questions, Abel swung his cutlass against her neck, ending her life.
[+100FP]
[+120FP]
--
[+1,420FP]
PTUII!!
Before Jonathan could react, he decapitated him as well.
Abel's movements were swift and deadly.
The last thing Jonathan felt was his life, and the thought of his family, flash before his eyes before he was met with total darkness.
"Nooo!!" the doll boy screamed, attempting to grab their bodies, but Abel swung his leg and kicked him back. He collided with the door with a loud 'BANG!!'
The doll boy landed on the wooden floor like a rag doll. He didn't get up but wept profusely, slamming his fists against the floor with resonating 'BANG! BANG!!'
Abel grabbed Jonathan and Cynthia and dragged them out of the room.
"Wait! Where are you going? Why don't you stay a while longer and play with me?" the doll boy shouted, racing toward him hysterically.
Abel didn't halt. He swiftly closed the door behind him.
He placed the bodies with the others. He didn't know what would happen to them after the Dungeon run was over. So he threw them into the blazing room.
Despite there being hardly any windows, the smoke didn't linger in the hallway; it vanished into the walls.
Once he was done, Abel returned to his office and sat down in his chair.
[Mission Complete. You have successfully defended the Level 1 Dungeon — The Abandoned Orphanage, and eliminated every intruder.]
[Reward Extraction has been activated. You will obtain a fraction of the Dungeon's Final Boss power. You may use your Fear Points to obtain additional rewards by extracting the stats or skills of the Dungeon's Final Boss — The Caretaker (Shadow Reaper).]
[Please note: If the stats or skills to be extracted do not meet the required Fear Points, you may still use them to obtain a lesser version.]
A series of notifications appeared before Abel as he opened the system.
[Do you wish to accept your reward? Yes / No.]
Abel selected 'Yes' without hesitation. Instantly, his vision blurred as he lost consciousness.
**
Abel regained consciousness in his room. Immediately, an overwhelming feeling of weakness struck his body, followed by a sudden surge of power flooding through him.
His muscles bulged, bones cracked, and veins popped across his skin under the tremendous pressure. Mana flowed through his body from nothingness, infusing every tissue and organ.
"AHHHHHH!!!" Abel's lips snapped open as he screamed, a mixture of pain and excitement filling his voice.
He was unable to bear the brunt of the transformation happening within him, yet he couldn't help but be delighted.
It lasted only a minute before the transformation ended.
Abel lay on his bed, sweating and breathing heavily as he struggled to regain his composure.
He slowly sat upright and looked down at his body. It was no longer frail. His muscles bulged outward and were clearly defined.
He touched his solid abs, his stomach, and his muscles that felt hard yet soft at the same time. Still wearing only his boxers, he could clearly see how lean and muscular he had become.
Abel had possessed a muscular physique previously, earned through relentless training to push his body to its maximum potential in this new life.
However, he had lost it due to depression, then regained a little through hunger and starvation. Now, he had regained it once more, and it felt even more solid than before.
"Status."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Name: Abel Damascus ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Age: 21 ]
[ Talent: Final Boss Role-player [???] ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Mana: D- ]
[ Strength: D ]
[ Agility: D ]
[ Physique: D- ]
[ Dexterity: D+ ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Attribute: None ]
[ Skills: ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The status screen unravelled before him.
Abel realised that he had truly obtained some of the Caretaker's power. Even if it wasn't the complete power, it was still enough to push him into the ranks of a Level 1 Hunter and raise all his stats to D-rank, making him no different from an official Hunter.