Liam clenched his fist and forcefully brought his mind to the task at hand. He needed to extract the wyvern's soul. As far as he was concerned, this was the sole reason why he had struggled and fought so hard, and it was still within his grasp. So he did not want to miss the chance.
As far as Dimitri's soul was concerned. He took out a black bead from his inventory and sent the soul into the bead. This was an item that had been sitting in his inventory for a while now. He also had other black beads that were stuffed full of souls.
It was ironic that when Liam faced the dark elf the last time, he had tossed one such black bead, putting him in a world of agony and tormenting him before finally dying to Luna, and now the tables were turned. Liam used the same black bead to store the dark elf's soul.
He was now free to fully attend to the wyvern's soul. He did not waste any time as he quickly took out the canister of milky way pond water and drank a few mouthfuls.
With this, he stopped feeling tired right away, and his body started absorbing mana again like a vortex, filling up all the empty reserves. At the same time, Liam concentrated only on the small soul fragments emerging from the wyvern's corpse.
Gradually, his eyes started to widen in shock.
Since becoming a soulmancer, he had witnessed many deaths and the subsequent dissipation of souls, but this was the first time he was witnessing something truly unique.
The soul essence of the wyvern was extraordinary. Unlike most dead bodies, this one shone like a million stars or a bunch of fireflies all in the same place. The soul essence was so thick.
"This is going to be difficult." Liam grit his teeth as he silently strengthened his resolve. No matter how impossible it was, he was not going to lose here. He slowly started gathering all the soul fragments, one after the other.
He could feel a bundle of tremendous mental pressure starting to build up. As he started gathering more and more soul fragments, this pressure started exploding exponentially.
Ahhhhh! Liam screamed in the silent forest. Luna worriedly walked over to him, but she didn't approach him for fear of unnecessarily disturbing the process. She silently lay next to him, watching his face twist as each wave of pain crashed.
However, Liam was holding on steadily. Seconds ticked by when he almost managed to gather 80% of all the soul fragments. This was not perfect, but this was his limit at the moment, he could feel it.
He grabbed onto this chunk of soul fragments tightly and started the next steps of forging. Mana in the air roiled as numerous humongous mana hammers appeared in front of him.
Withstanding the mind-numbing pain that was latched onto him, Liam grunted as he brought down the set of mana hammers, pounding on the clustered soul fragments.
"Again!"
"Again!"
"Again!"
He willed all the strength he had in his body, soul, and mind as he steadied himself and continued the process despite the pain.
Seconds turned into minutes as he lost track of how much time had passed. He was using everything he had to hold onto the soul, so he only focused on that.
But as things progressed, it was only getting more and more difficult. He was holding onto the immensely powerful soul by only a thread and this thread could also break at any moment.
Liam could no longer remain calm. He knew that he needed to do something and fast. Otherwise, he was going to lose. His mind raced with a million possibilities that he could do differently but he was under severe pressure and he could only think so much.
However, there was still one option that stood out when compared to others. The orbs!
Thanks to Luna's farming, he had managed to obtain a few more elemental orbs. There was even a couple of earth orbs in his possession.
And this was not the first time, he was trying something like this. He had already forged souls using elemental essence. So technically, he should also be able to use elemental orbs?
Meanwhile…
Directly opposite the spot where Liam and Luna were currently settled, a kid finally noticed that something was amiss and stopped in his tracks. He turned around, again and again, checking his surroundings in disbelief.
"What the hell? No one is chasing after me?"
He then hurriedly checked his notifications to see if he had actually accomplished what he wanted to do or perhaps if it was he who was mistaken.
But… no…
There it was! He had received 1 million experience points for a single kill! 1 million! Not some ordinary number!
He had actually managed to kill-steal a fucking wyvern. This was huge! To top it off, he also seemed to have escaped.
And he also received the title, <Dragon Slayer>
Anyone who accomplished such a feat would be immensely proud and joyful. This was really huge! However, this kid was different.
There was no smile on his face. In fact, apart from the momentary confusion he had shown when no one was coming behind him, he was completely emotionless.
He simply swiped all the notifications and continued moving forward as if nothing at all had just happened. His soulless eyes were fixated on one thing and only one thing, and that was the fort ahead.
This fort that was heavily guarded by draconian creatures was his goal, and he was going to get there no matter what. He was going to get there before anyone else possibly could.
For that, he did not care even if he had to do something shameful as stealing someone else's hard work.
The kid stared into the distance as he started walking towards the fort. Unlike when Liam had tried, no creature showed up when he walked into the open, scorched lands.
And the kid also seemed to be sure of this.
He walked confidently ahead as if he already knew he would be completely safe. And when he took another step forward, loud roar resounded in the distant forest.
Hmmm? The kid turned around and stared in confusion. That was the exact same spot he had escaped from just now. His eyes widened in surprise as another roar echoed right after the first one.
What the hell was happening? The Wyvern, wasn't it dead?
He opened his system interface to check and all his stats were still there, so what was that sound? He furrowed his brows but then continued walking forward. There were bigger things he had to worry about.
As for the player whom he had backstabbed, he couldn't give two shits about that loser.
