Transmigrated with my corruption system

"Finally!" Aelira gasped as they stepped out of the Misty Lands.

Feeling the gentle evening breeze ruffle her hair as she took in greedy mouthfuls of air felt far more refreshing than she could have ever imagined.

As her breathing eased, her gaze shifted to the dark-robed youth beside her, her eyes narrowing sharply.

"How long was I in there?" she questioned.

"A few hours," Ulric muttered indifferently.

"B-but..."

Sensing her confusion, Ulric continued.

"I suppose I should have mentioned this... but it doesn’t matter now. The mist in the Misty Lands distorts one’s perception of time."

"I knew it!" Aelira yelled inwardly, her fists clenching tightly.

He really had forgotten to tell them.

Even if knowing beforehand wouldn’t have made much of a difference, it would have at least prepared them mentally.

Unable to take it anymore, she opened her mouth to chide him.

Before she suddenly paused as a wave of dizziness assaulted her, her entire body quickly growing groggy.

"W-what is happening to me?" Aelira groaned, struggling to keep her eyes open.

She didn’t understand what was happening to her body.

One moment she was fine.

The next, she was on the verge of collapsing.

"I drugged you."

"W-wait... what? Why?" Aelira gasped, her eyes widening at Ulric’s words.

Seeing the expression plastered across her face, Ulric couldn’t help himself anymore.

He broke into a fit of menacing laughter.

"Hahaha! Isn’t it obvious? So I can take advantage of you!"

As the words echoed into her ears, the confusion and surprise quickly morphed into embarrassment as Aelira’s face flushed crimson, the blush spreading all the way to her neck.

She couldn’t tell whether he was spouting nonsense again just to tease her...

Or whether it was a hidden dark desire he truly harbored.

Before she could make sense of it, her body gave out, collapsing onto the ground.

Staring at her figure, Ulric’s smile slowly faded as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Why had her face turned so red after those last words?

Whatever the reason...It didn’t matter much now.

He supposed the real reason for her collapse was the sudden shift in environment. The contrast in conditions had simply been too drastic.

It would likely take some time for her body to adjust to the abrupt changes while also internalizing the gains she had made.

Nodding slightly, he picked her up once more before darting toward an open clearing he had prepared a few thousand meters away from the Misty Lands.

Since their training there had concluded. At least for now. He saw no reason to remain so close.

Especially after his earlier discovery.

The Procan Python sensed his intentions and moved toward the new location he had selected before carefully setting Lyra and the others down on the open ground.

Placing Aelira beside them, Ulric deployed his Darkness Dome, encapsulating a five-hundred-meter radius.

Keeping every beast below B-rank away.

Nodding in satisfaction, his gaze shifted toward the Procan Python.

Giving it the command to let loose.

Even with its limited sentience, it seemed genuinely excited as it rushed off, a bloodthirsty aura slowly leaking from its body.

Instead of making it serve solely as a mount, Ulric usually let it roam the wastelands at night.

Killing every beast it encountered and devouring their flesh to fuel both its own growth and his, since all the experience points were ultimately channeled back to him.

Watching its retreating figure, Ulric shifted his gaze toward another direction.

A sense of longing burned in his eyes.

During the day, he couldn’t do much since he had been actively monitoring the girls within the Misty Lands.

But now was different.

Even more so since, during that time, he had used both the Procan Python and his enhanced senses to scour the surrounding area, detecting several C-rank beasts.

If he could kill them...

That would mean even more aether for him.

Turning to look at the girls one last time, Ulric bolted into the distance.

He could already sense their bodies recovering rapidly as they grew more attuned to their newfound power.

He estimated they would awaken in a few hours.

He would be back before then.

***

Shadow teleporting repeatedly, Ulric crossed vast stretches of land within seconds, his figure blurring through the night like a living shadow.

As he ventured deeper into the wastelands, he sensed countless beasts around him.

But most of them were still D-rank or E-rank.

He had previously tried killing them and extracting their energy.

But he soon realized it was a complete waste of time.

It would take at least a hundred D-rank beasts just to wring out a single drop of aether.

It was simply too inefficient.

To him, they were only useful for attribute points and the chance to join his ever-growing shadow army.

Which was why he still killed every one of them.

He couldn’t let them slip away so easily.

Several minutes passed like this.

Before a faint furrow formed across his face.

He had already crossed tens of thousands of meters.

Yet there wasn’t a single C-rank beast in sight.

If he didn’t know any better, he would have assumed they were hiding from him.

Pausing for a moment, Ulric crouched down before placing one palm against the earth.

His eyes snapped shut.

The earth energy flowing from him intensified as the ground beneath him rippled slightly in response to his command.

Sending invisible waves stretching across thousands of meters.

Barely a few seconds later, the confusion on his face faded as a grin slowly spread across it.

"Hmm... so that’s where you’re hiding," Ulric muttered, the grin widening further.

He had to admit...

If it weren’t for his strong affinity with the earth, those C-rank beasts would have completely escaped his detection.

But too bad for them.

He had found them.

His figure vanished from sight.

Reappearing a few hundred meters away.

***

At first glance, the terrain appeared no different from the endless wasteland stretching for thousands of meters around.

Nothing but hardened earth littered with jagged rock formations.

But Ulric could see far more.

Or rather...What was lurking beneath.

Raising one fist, Ulric slammed it into the ground with crushing force.

A massive crater instantly formed, tearing several meters deep into the earth.

Almost immediately, a deafening screech echoed out as a massive beast burst from below, crashing heavily onto the ground beside him.

When the dust finally settled, its figure came fully into view.

"A tusked boar?" Ulric muttered in surprise, his brows arching slightly.

He had sensed a beast with tremendous energy hidden below.

He simply hadn’t expected it to be this.

Had it structurally adapted to living underground?

Or was this merely a way to avoid stronger predators?

Whatever the case...

It looked thoroughly enraged.

Its body towered well over two meters tall, its massive tusks curving outward into unnaturally sharp points.

Its frame was covered in dense brown fur that seemed refined enough to provide formidable defense.

Its aura rested somewhere around Mid C-rank.

Altogether...It would have posed a worthy challenge for most C-rank beings.

But Ulric remained completely indifferent.

Only one feature truly caught his attention.

When it first emerged, its eyes had glowed with a crystalline brilliance.

Now they were bloodshot, radiating an overwhelming aura of bloodlust.

One that seemed to have dramatically boosted its physical strength.

"Interesting," Ulric murmured.

It had accumulated an enormous amount of bloodlust...

Yet it remained perfectly in control of it.

Strange.

Ulric inspected the beast several more times.

To accumulate that much bloodlust, it would have needed to survive countless life-and-death battles.

Yet its body didn’t bear a single scar.

His thoughts were cut short as the beast suddenly charged toward him.

Ulric paid it no mind.

The moment it entered within five meters...

He reached forward.

Grabbing both tusks and bringing the charging beast to an abrupt halt.

"You’re hiding something down there?" Ulric muttered as realization dawned on him, his gaze shifting toward the tunnel the tusked boar had emerged from.

A treasure?

The boar seemed to sense his intentions.

Its screeches intensified as it thrashed wildly in an attempt to break free.

But Ulric remained as unmoving as a mountain.

Just as fear finally began creeping into the beast...

Ulric raised one arm before bringing it crashing down onto its skull.

Its head exploded into a bloody pulp.

The enormous body collapsed lifelessly onto the ground.

Its pitiful life ended in a single strike.

Without wasting another moment, Ulric retrieved his scythe from his storage ring.

The instant it emerged, it buzzed repeatedly in delight at their reunion while releasing an overwhelming aura of bloodthirst.

Had he summoned it from the beginning...

He had a feeling its aura alone would have frozen the boar in place before it ever had the chance to attack.

Before he could even issue a command, the scythe plunged deep into the headless corpse, eagerly siphoning every last trace of energy from it and channeling it back into Ulric.