Chapter 125: Dagger of Despair
"Okay, but before that, could you give an inspiring speech to boost their spirits a bit? Otherwise I'm worried we won't hold out."
After charging the Peace rifle with spiritual energy, Lin Ye suggested.
Hawk accepted the mysterious Lin Ye, and Lin Ye was willing to fight alongside these complete strangers. Between men, too many words weren't necessary - a simple glance was enough to reach consensus.
Hawk turned to face the hunters, while Lin Ye raised his gun toward the shadowy figures.
"I'm not good with speeches. Compared to talking, I prefer action. Friends, hunting time has arrived."
As the hunters prepared themselves, Lin Ye pulled the trigger.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!
The remaining five shadowy figures instantly exploded. An aura of despair spread through the church, and after a moment of silence, hunters whose spirits weren't resilient enough began to swell and expand like inflated balloons, mutating into despair monsters.
Lin Ye pushed Mia behind him and shot down one monster after another. These despair monsters not only possessed extremely strong physical abilities but could also use techniques and tools. After being killed, they would release despair aura that affected nearby creatures, making them extremely difficult to deal with.
But those still alive were all experienced veteran hunters. Under the monsters' attacks, the hunters coordinated skillfully, relying on the church's layout to kill one monster after another. Due to the despair monsters' vigorous vitality, Lin Ye quickly exhausted the spiritual energy in his Peace rifle. However, after killing several despair monsters, the Peace rifle began to transform again.
After this transformation, the Peace rifle became a silver-white shotgun with a thick barrel.
The usage remained the same as before - inject spiritual energy to shoot, and it could reveal new forms by killing enemies.
But this shotgun required even more exaggerated spiritual energy than the pistol. All of Lin Ye's spiritual energy could only replenish five bullets for it.
Lin Ye had to temporarily put away the shotgun and fight using his hunting shotgun and hunting knife, while slowly charging the shotgun through the parts where it contacted his body.
"As long as the despair aura hasn't dissipated, those monster corpses will revive after some time,"
Mia reminded from behind.
"How do we eliminate the despair aura?"
Lin Ye dodged a spear thrust from a third-tier despair hunter and asked when he had a moment.
"Say some hopeful words? How should I know? This is my first time encountering these monsters too."
'This is too exaggerated - there's no time to recharge.'
After dealing with the despair monster in front of him, Lin Ye retreated near Mia and began sensing the despair aura in the church.
After sensing the despair aura, Lin Ye began sketching synthesis runes in areas where the despair aura was thick.
Contrary to Lin Ye's expectations, the synthesis process for despair aura went very smoothly, quickly condensing into an even more despairing, terrible aura.
"Hey, did you mess up the runes? That thing feels really bad to me,"
Mia gently tugged at Lin Ye's coat and asked softly.
"...No problem, it's still under control."
Sweat flowed into the corner of his eyes, but Lin Ye had no energy to deal with it. He needed to concentrate on controlling that increasingly deep, terrible aura.
Fortunately, Hawk noticed the situation here and blocked for them, otherwise it would have been troublesome.
When all the despair aura in the entire church had been synthesized together, Lin Ye used the skill: Sacrificial Offering within the church.
He could now normally use small-scale sacrificial offerings of this level.
Flesh and blood condensed, forming a high platform. In the center of the platform, a box made of flesh and blood appeared before Lin Ye.
The flesh-and-blood box automatically opened, revealing a severed limb inside.
Lin Ye injected the deep aura into the severed limb and carved aberrant and Shaping runes on its surface.
After a series of adjustments, the aura fused with the severed limb, forming a blood-red curved dagger resembling a hook claw, with a faint light flowing within the dagger.
Lin Ye gripped the dagger and charged at the despair monsters. The dagger actively absorbed the despair aura from within the monsters, so only one stab was enough to eliminate one despair monster.
Soon, Lin Ye had killed all the monsters in the church.
Only eight people survived to the end in the entire church, four of them seriously injured.
Creating the despair dagger was extremely draining. Lin Ye rested for quite a while before getting up to treat the injured.
Through this experience, Lin Ye developed the new profession of spiritual energy doctor. When applying for jobs outside in the future, he could include this experience in his resume:
Self-rescued in the Surface Layer of the Abyss and treated multiple elderly severely injured patients.
After treating the patients, Lin Ye sat down to rest. Mia sat beside Lin Ye, handed him a cup of iced cola, and said:
"Do you want to return? After this period of contact, I can already end this story."
"You're really reliable. After the story ends, what will happen to them?"
Lin Ye looked at the remaining six old hunters and asked.
"Disappear. After all, the story will have ended."
Mia sighed. She had already guessed Lin Ye's response.
"Then let's wait a bit longer. At least give the story an ending that isn't too abrupt."
Lin Ye wasn't in a hurry to return. He planned to hold out until dawn with these old guys.
"Sigh, so troublesome."
Mia gulped down some iced cola, then suddenly laughed.
Lin Ye also smiled. Not just them - the remaining hunters all laughed too. Joyful laughter echoed through the church.
The bonfire extinguished, but only laughter continued to reverberate through the church being swallowed by darkness, never ceasing.
...........................
"So, was the story interesting?"
Lin Ye injected the deep aura into the severed limb and carved corruption and Shaping runes on its surface.
"Terrible, especially the ending. Laughing and laughing until they died - this feeling of being unable to resist is very unpleasant. What about Mia?"
Lin Ye picked up the cola beside him and drank half of it. The cola was sugar-free and hadn't been iced.
"Dead. I wouldn't save someone who put you in that kind of situation."
Lin Ye gripped the dagger and charged at the despair monsters. The dagger actively absorbed the despair aura from within the monsters, so only stabbing once was enough to eliminate one despair monster.
"I wouldn't kill someone for that kind of reason."
Lin Ye put down the cola. He hated room-temperature cola and sugar-free cola, especially room-temperature sugar-free cola.
"I'm not you. The differences between males and females are significant. And she put you in that dangerous story - only killing her once was already very gentle."
After saying this, Little Ye disappeared as if she had never been there.
Lin Ye picked up the cup and took a sip. As he expected, it had been replaced with normal iced cola.
Right after Little Ye disappeared, Mia appeared diagonally across the desk, holding a hook-claw-shaped blood-red dagger.
"You're actually still alive."
Lin Ye closed the black hardcover book lying on the desk, completely ending this adventure.