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nAs the creature was burned alive, Vale could finally see its appearance, thanks to the light brought by the fire.

nThe Evil Creature still looked ugly and had a short growing horn on its forehead. It seemed to be a different species of Evil Creature if compared with the ones he saw at the Serenity Hall.

n‘Are their appearance depends on the corpse they possessed?’ Vale mused as he looked at the creature who was struggling to remove the Demonic Dagger.

nUnfortunately, this dagger was too evil. If you used Spiritual Energy or any Arcane Arts to remove it from your flesh, the fire it had created would get stronger and stronger, like a fire being dumped by fuel.

nIf you want to remove it, you have to temporarily withdraw your energy and remove it with your physical strength. It may be excruciating if the fire had already erupted, but that was the best way to do it if you didn’t have a Mystical Artifact that was better than the dagger.

n‘So strong… I’m really curious how that small-time gang leader gets ahold of these items.’ Vale thought as he backed away after seeing that the Evil Creature decided to stop removing the dagger and charged toward him instead.

nHe had to back away since using his Ghost Hands wouldn’t solve anything. The Ghost Hands will just become another fuel for the dagger to strengthen its fire.

nNevertheless, this didn’t mean Vale could no longer do anything after the fire erupted. He can still use his connection with the dagger to stop the flame. After stopping the flame, he could then strengthen it by holding the dagger once more by passing his Dark Energy to it.

nHowever, he didn’t have to do it now…

nBam!

nThe Evil Creature charged towards Vale, but the latter was faster and could dodge the attack. The creature struck a nearby tree, and surprisingly, the tree didn’t catch fire. The nearby dry leaves also remained unaffected, showing how the demonic dagger could be so precise.

nIt must be remembered that this dagger is still a damaged one!

nAs Vale thought that the Evil Creature could still last for a long time, it struggled to stand back up and soon dropped to the ground.

nThe orange fire that the dagger had created also dissipated simultaneously.

n‘Thirty-four seconds… How impressive…’ Vale silently thought as he counted how long the creature would last.

nVale then approached the creature for an obvious reason. He needs to extract the corpse and hopefully get some decent attributes. Although it was a pity that he couldn’t extract it while it was still alive, it was still a good experiment since he learned plenty of things in this short battle.

nHe now had an idea of how strong his demonic dagger was. He learned that the dagger doesn’t consume a lot of Dark Energy, and he could hide its presence with his Extrasensory Perception Spell. It was unlike his mask, which was easily detectable because of the terrifying aura surrounding it.

nLastly, he learned that the side effect of this dagger is quite bearable compared to the mask’s temporary loss of vision.

nApparently, the demonic dagger only needed to be maintained by consuming gold. Based on Yvaine’s estimate, a gold coin could last up to two or three months if the dagger wasn’t being used. However, he would have to use a gold coin if its power was used even once.

nIt was so expensive to use, but at the very least, this high maintenance requirement would get better once an expert craftsman had repaired the dagger. 𝘪𝑎.

nAt the least, this can be used in an emergency if he lacks Dark Energy in a middle of a battle.

n Monster corpse has been discovered. Would you like to extract it?

n Extraction successful. Energy 25 Agility 0.20 Intelligence 0.85

n“Oh? Intelligence attribute from an Evil Creature? What a rare sight…” Vale muttered as he saw the recently elusive intelligence attribute.

nApparently, Vale already had a decent grasp of what to expect in his extractions, depending on his target.

nHe already knew that extracting Intelligence Attribute was only highly possible if he was extracting corpses of Arcane Arts Practitioners, except those practitioners of Combat Arts and Knight Path.

nOn the other hand, living Arcane Arts Practitioners would mostly give him Agility with a low chance of Vitality and Strength. Intelligence had the lowest chance among them, based on his observations.

nIt wasn’t a big deal since he could extract Spell Lights and Spell Models, so he was perfectly being unable to extract intelligence from living targets.

nAs for the Evil Creatures, he only had a chance to extract three of them, so it was pretty good to see that it was possible to get intelligence from them.

n“Hmm? He’s escaping?”

nAs Vale was renumerating over the Extraction he made, he realized that the other Evil Creature that was within his 150-meter Magic Zone started retreating and moving away from him.

nHe was planning to extract that Evil Creature alive, so he didn’t hesitate to chase after the creature.

n“You’re not getting away.” Vale said as he dashed toward where the Evil Creature ran.

nWith Vale’s current Agility, not even a Slender Zombie, the fastest undead creature, could outrun him.

nNeedless to say, the Evil Creature, who wasn’t used to such fast-paced movement, failed to escape from Vale’s relentless pursuit. The darkness was nothing to him and he even felt comfortable chasing the creature while basking under the moonlight.

n“Graaahhhh!”

nThe Evil Creature’s cry was soon heard throughout the whole enchanted forest.

nThe birds, insects, and other land animals resting in their nest perked up. Some of them started scurrying away from the source of that frightening cry, while some curled themselves inside their nest, hoping not to be involved in the matter outside.

nUnfortunately, this cry also attracted the attention of another Arcanist camping in the central part of the forest. She had unblemished pale skin and long black hair and was bathing in a stream when the Evil Creature’s cry startled her.

nRealizing that she was not alone in the forest, she immediately took her towel to cover herself. She then quickly returned to her camp to dress up while her Magic Zone spread throughout the surroundings.

n“Find the source of the disturbance…” She spoke calmly, and soon, several Banshees adhered to her command…

n𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚

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