Chapter 16: Curse

"Oh! So eager to find me?" Suddenly, a playful voice echoed from a corner.

"Where are you, vermin? Reveal yourself!" the leader shouted, clenching his teeth.

"Alright, if you're so eager to meet me, I can make that happen," he said playfully, deactivating his 'Absolute Concealment' skill.

He materialized before their enraged eyes.

"You scoundrels!" they all shouted angrily, charging at me with weapons drawn.

Then, out of nowhere, 20 E-rank undead skeletons appeared between me and them, while 20 F+ rank undead skeletons materialized at the entrance to the first floor.

Their advance was halted as they faced this unexpected turn of events.

Their anger toward him surged, and their leader demanded through clenched teeth, "You... you're no ordinary 'Necromancer,' are you?"

Rahul's eye stared for a few seconds before sneering, "Since your choice is my death then my choice is simple: Your demise."

"Raise your sword and bring demise the enemies who raise the sword for my death," he commanded all the undead skeletons.

"You wretch! If I survive this, I'll feast on your flesh!" the leader shouted hatefully.

"What are you waiting for? Kill him, and I'll eliminate all the F+ skeletons," the leader roared, and his followers engaged in battle with the 19 E-rank undead skeletons.

As time passed, their comrades began to fall, and they slowly grasped the futility of attempting to hunt down all these undead skeletons.

"Phew! I can only preserve 20 E+ skeletons," he muttered as he watched their leader being surrounded by F+ rank undead skeletons.

Five minutes later...

All of their underlings had fallen at the hands of my 20 E-rank skeletons, and their leader was still locked in combat with the F+ rank undead skeletons.

"Maim this leader," he ordered his remaining skeletons calmly.

They advanced toward the leader, and in under a minute, both of his legs were rendered useless.

He approached the leader, who lay there, seemingly lifeless but with a stubborn glint in his eyes.

"Who sent you?" he asked coldly.

"Even if you kill me, I won't tell you," The leader stubbornly declared.

"I admire your resolve," he admired since he knows what he is going to do further but warned, "it would be better if you sell the information at your life exchange."

Hearing this, the leader trembled but his stubbornness and hateful eyes says it all.

Taking a deep breath, he calmed down his conflicting emotions and reached at a conclusion, "If anyone raised their sword against him or his family," and raised his sword and thrusted in the hand and rotated the handle of sword, "I'll snatch the desire to let my enemies live," and began a gruesome process, a shrill voice continuing as he extracted chunks of flesh from the leader's hand until only a skeletal joint remained.

"I'll spill everything if you end me," the leader's face contorted in pain, and he surrendered.

He simply stares at the leader but since he already made a promise with himself, he isn't going to back down and calmly continued the process without showing any emotions. 

"You... you devil!" he shouted with all his remaining strength, his face etched with despair.

Once again, he raised his sword and repeated the process on his other hand until only a skeletal joint remained.

At that moment, a high-pitched scream and an eerie voice echoed through the dungeon hall, and soon, his body went limp.

"Good will, I repay tenfold; bad will, I will repay a thousandfold," he muttered, drawing a lesson from today's events.

Glancing at the limp body, Rahul muttered, "I gave you chances despite your attempts to kill me, but you didn't cherish them." He decided to end the leader's miserable life. As soon as the sword's tip was about to penetrate the leader's throat, Rahul felt his heart beating faster. A subconscious feeling crept in, suggesting that if he killed the leader, he would die.

The sword fell to the ground, and a ting sound resonated in the depressing atmosphere. Meanwhile, he was on the floor, panting heavily and murmuring, "What was that.... ominous feeling?"

At the same time, prompts from the World System appeared before his vision. His sight went blank after reading:

"[Is this the cost of having the Creator profession?]

[Your curse is being identified]

[You can never kill]"

There remained a pin-drop silence and an eerie atmosphere. Soon, Rahul managed to regain his composure, muttering endlessly, "I can't kill. I can't kill. What am I going to do..." while also using his brain to analyze everything. After some calculations, he came to a conclusion, and a simple smile appeared on his face.

"Even if the curse has taken away the ability, it didn't take it completely," he said, glancing toward his skeletons.

Rosing from his position, he moved toward the skeletons, patting them on their bony frames. "From now on, you guys are going to become reapers for me."

Glancing toward the leader's limp body, he ordered the skeletons, "Go and reap his life."

Upon receiving the order, the skeletons moved toward the leader's limp body and behead the head with the bony sword.

Rahul watched all of this with a smile, thinking, "Maybe I have quickly embraced this feeling." He moved toward the lifeless body and unleashed his 'Netherworld Soul Devouring' ability, causing blue flames to erupt over the leader's corpse.

A fragment of memories flashed in his mind, accompanied by a prompt.

[World System]

[You used 'Netherworld Soul Devouring' skill on a D-rank player]

[You got 3 stat points and a fragment of memories]

[Stat points have been added to the panel]

Rahul's attention was drawn to the panel. After digesting the information, he muttered, "This is truly a magical world," shaking his head as he focused on his memories.

"Huh! Cult?" His gaze fell on the deep, black charred floor where the leader's body had disappeared in the flames. "I don't know what the motive is, but since that organization dared to lay its hands on me," he muttered after reviewing his fragment of memories, "that means I know who's chasing me, and I just have to be alert."

After processing everything, Rahul glanced toward the 20 E-rank and 20 F+ rank skeletons who had assisted him in defeating his enemies. Suddenly, he moved toward the skeletons, "I don't know who you were, but thanks to you, I was able to win."

"Cancel Darkness extraction."