Chapter 524: A Little Exercise
The leader’s face twisted with fury.
"Don’t just stand there staring, you idiots! He’s only one man! What are you afraid of?!"
His remaining companions gritted their teeth and forced themselves to regroup. Several of them began releasing their auras, causing the air around their bodies to tremble with mana. Their weapons glowed as they reinforced them with energy, while the mages at the rear hurriedly began chanting their spells.
"Let’s see how you handle this!"
One of the warriors charged forward, his aura surging around his sword like a blazing flame. Two others followed from opposite directions, attempting to restrict Adam’s movements while the mages prepared their attacks.
"Firestorm!"
"Lightning Spear!"
"Earthshatter!"
Three powerful spells erupted almost simultaneously. A swirling vortex of fire descended from above, lightning speared through the air, and the ground beneath Adam cracked as enormous stone spikes burst upward.
The leader grinned viciously.
"HAHAHA! You may be strong, but there’s a limit to what one person can handle! Keep attacking! Don’t give him a moment to breathe!"
The adventurers poured everything they had into their assault. Their auras flared brighter, and the mages continued casting one spell after another, determined to overwhelm Adam through sheer numbers.
Yet Adam merely sighed.
"You’re all rather persistent, aren’t you?"
He slowly raised his head.
"Well, I suppose it’s about time I stopped playing around."
The next instant, something changed.
A suffocating pressure spread from Adam’s body, sweeping across the battlefield like an invisible tide. The surrounding air grew heavy, and the flames from the mages’ spells flickered violently before collapsing.
[Abyssal Majesty activated.]
Adam didn’t need to move a muscle.
His presence alone was enough.
The adventurers’ auras shattered beneath the overwhelming pressure. The warriors charging toward him abruptly stopped, their legs trembling as though their bodies had forgotten how to move. The mages lost control of their spells, causing the magic circles around them to flicker and dissipate.
Then the terror struck.
It was not ordinary fear, nor the instinctive unease one felt when facing a stronger opponent. It was the primal terror of a creature realizing that it had stumbled into the territory of a predator it could never hope to challenge.
To them, Adam’s figure seemed to grow impossibly vast. The darkness behind him stretched into an endless abyss, and the sensation of countless unseen eyes watching them made their blood run cold.
Their instincts screamed at them to flee.
But their bodies refused to obey.
"W-What... is this...?"
One of the warriors dropped his sword. His knees struck the ground, and he began trembling uncontrollably.
"I-I can’t move!"
Another mage fell backward, desperately scrambling away from Adam despite barely managing to crawl.
"No! Stay away! PLEASE!"
The leader’s face had turned deathly pale. His arrogance had vanished so completely that he could hardly remember ever possessing it.
He had encountered powerful monsters before. He had fought experienced adventurers and even survived battles against creatures far stronger than himself.
But nothing had ever made him feel this insignificant.
Adam took one step forward.
Several adventurers immediately screamed.
"PLEASE! FORGIVE US!"
"We surrender! We’ll do anything! Just don’t kill us!"
Adam stopped in front of their leader and looked down at him.
"Didn’t you say you were famous adventurers? I was expecting something a little more impressive."
The leader’s lips trembled. Tears streamed down his face as he desperately shook his head.
"We’re not! We lied! We’re not real adventurers!"
"Hmm?"
Adam’s expression remained unchanged, but he allowed the pressure to ease just enough for the man to speak.
"Then tell me the truth."
The leader swallowed hard.
"W-We used to be adventurers. But we abandoned our guild after getting into trouble. We discovered that there was more money to be made by robbing other adventurers than hunting monsters, so we started targeting people traveling through these plains."
Adam listened without interrupting.
The leader continued hurriedly, terrified that any hesitation might provoke him.
"We ambushed adventuring parties, killed those who resisted, and took their equipment, money, and magic items. Sometimes we used their identities to deceive other travelers. The blood on our equipment..."
His voice faltered.
"...It belongs to the adventurers we killed."
Adam narrowed his eyes.
"And the goblin nest you mentioned?"
"There was no goblin nest!" the man blurted out. "We made that up! We actually attacked a group of adventurers earlier today. They were returning from a mission, and we killed them all before taking their belongings!"
The man bowed his head repeatedly, his forehead nearly touching the ground.
"We were going to sell their equipment and use the same excuse to approach other travelers! We never expected to run into someone like you!"
"So you murdered other adventurers, stole their belongings, and then pretended to be adventurers yourselves to find your next victims."
Adam tilted his head slightly.
"Pathetic."
"P-Please! We know we were wrong! We’ll never do it again! You can take everything we have! Just spare our lives!"
The others immediately joined in, desperately begging for mercy.
Adam looked at them in silence.
A moment ago, these men had been boasting about their reputation, threatening to kill his group, and discussing how much money they could make by selling his companions into slavery.
Now, they could barely lift their heads in his presence.
He couldn’t help finding the contrast amusing.
"So, let me get this straight," Adam said, his voice almost conversational. "You murdered innocent people for money, planned to kidnap my companions, and only started begging after realizing you couldn’t win."
The leader nodded frantically.
"Y-Yes! But we promise we’ll change!"
Adam smiled faintly.
"That’s a rather convenient promise to make when you’re about to die."
The moment Adam mentioned death, the men completely lost their composure.
"P-Please! Have mercy! We know we were wrong!"
"We’ll never do it again! I swear!"
They crawled across the ground, desperately begging for their lives, their bodies trembling under the pressure of Adam’s presence.
Lilith, who had been watching the scene with growing interest, suddenly smiled.
"Oh my~ If you’re going to kill them anyway, why don’t you leave them to me, darling?" she asked enthusiastically. "I promise I’ll make things interesting."
"Absolutely not," Alice immediately interjected. "That would only make this whole situation even messier. Just kill them and be done with it."
Lilith pouted at the interruption, clearly disappointed that her suggestion had been rejected.
Adam paid little attention to their exchange. His gaze remained fixed on the men kneeling before him, their tearful faces doing nothing to soften his expression.
"I can’t let you live," he said coldly. "Especially after hearing that you intended to capture my women and sell them as slaves."
His eyes narrowed, and a terrifying glint flashed within them.
The men shuddered.
"N-No! We didn’t actually do anything to them! Please, you have to believe us!"
"That’s right! We haven’t even touched them!"
Their desperate excuses only made Adam’s expression grow colder.
"So I’m supposed to spare you because you failed?"
He tilted his head slightly, as though genuinely curious about their reasoning.
"Interesting."
The men opened their mouths, but no words came out. They could only stare at Adam in horror as they realized their pleas were accomplishing nothing.
"P-Please! We’ll do anything! Just spare us!"
Adam didn’t bother answering.
Instead, he raised one hand and activated his skill.
[Venom of the Void]
A dark, ominous energy spread from his body, carrying a faint purple sheen. Before the men could react, the strange power seeped into them, invading their bodies like an invisible poison.
At first, nothing seemed to happen.
Then one of them suddenly clutched his chest.
"Gah! W-What is this?!"
Another man collapsed, desperately scratching at his own skin as his breathing grew ragged. Their bodies began to tremble uncontrollably, and their faces twisted in agony as the deadly venom spread through their veins.
"HELP! PLEASE, HELP ME!"
Their screams filled the clearing, but Adam merely watched in silence. The poison he had inflicted upon them was no ordinary toxin. It was a manifestation of the void itself, a deadly venom that ravaged its victims from within.
One by one, the men fell to the ground, their desperate cries gradually fading into silence.
Adam lowered his hand.
"Serves you right."
Adam glanced at the lifeless bodies scattered across the ground. Since he had already gone through the trouble of killing them, it would be a waste to leave them lying around.
The shadow beneath his feet began to spread, stretching toward the corpses like a living creature. Before long, it swallowed the bodies one by one, making them disappear without leaving so much as a trace.
[+7 Souls Acquired]
Adam glanced at the notification and nodded faintly. At least he had gained something from this little interruption.
However, when he checked for any new skills, he found nothing.
"Seriously? Not even a single skill?"
He clicked his tongue in disappointment. He had hoped that consuming the corpses might yield something useful, but apparently, these people had nothing worth obtaining.
Well, it couldn’t be helped. Not every meal was going to be rewarding.
With that thought, Adam turned around and headed back toward the campsite. Since the troublesome guests had been dealt with, there was no reason to waste any more time on them.
Behind him, Isolde let out a long, weary sigh.
"I’ve lost my appetite."
Alice glanced at her. "You weren’t even eating anything."
"That doesn’t change the fact that I no longer feel like eating."
Lilith giggled at Isolde’s reaction, looking far too pleased with herself.
"Fufu. It’s not like this is the first time you’ve seen something like this."
"Unfortunately, that is precisely the problem."
Isolde pressed a hand against her forehead, wondering why she had to travel with people like them.
Adam, meanwhile, simply returned to his seat near the campfire.
"Anyway, where were we?"