Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

Lloyd’s full attention was on the lump of flesh before him. As he carefully maneuvered the scalpel, he silently puzzled over the creature’s physiological structure.

How to describe it... It was the very picture of chaos and disorder.

The bones weren’t connected to each other. Instead, they were like individual spurs growing within the flesh. ’Would it even hurt to move?’

The nerves and blood vessels were also exceptionally disordered, lacking any discernible pattern. It was as if the creature had suffered some catastrophic internal failure, its pathways completely severed.

As for the muscle tissue, it was a fusion of something like human flesh and a tough metal. Cutting into it with the scalpel even produced sparks.

The ’ham’ Lloyd had processed last time had a strange internal structure as well, but its vascular system was at least a coherent network that could be stripped out in one piece, unlike the chaotic mess before him now.

’Was it born this way, or did it mutate into this state under the influence of some power?’

’What kind of Demon is a Karmic Demon, exactly? They say it’s a Demon Ghost with a danger level of 7 or higher, but it’s not as anthropomorphic as other Demon Ghosts...’

Lloyd’s mind wandered, and he occasionally glanced at his panel, but it didn’t affect the movement of his scalpel in the slightest. His work remained incredibly precise.

This was the confidence granted to him by the [Precise Dissection] skill from his [Extraordinary Swordsmanship]. After being fused, the skill was far more useful than before.

Five minutes later, Lloyd excised a ’feather-shaped bone fragment’ and tossed it onto the tray beside him. It was perfectly clean, without a single trace of tissue clinging to it, a testament to his exceptional dissection technique.

But the human wall opposite him furrowed his brow slightly, still looking dissatisfied.

The Knight Commander at his side looked even more grave. He had stealthily released his inspiration, which coiled around Lloyd, ready to lock onto him at a moment’s notice.

Then, he suddenly spoke.

"Executioner Lloyd, this mass of bodily tissue before you—what does it look like to you?"

Without even looking up, Lloyd replied casually:

"Hm... poorly butchered mutton? That was then run over by a dump truck and had all its bones broken?"

The Knight Commander and the human wall exchanged a look and silently nodded.

After another five minutes, the Knight Commander suddenly spoke again.

"What’s 5 + 5 + 5 * 5 - 5 / 5?"

"34."

Still not looking up, Lloyd casually gave the answer and excised another tangled bundle of nerves.

After another five minutes, it was the human wall’s turn to suddenly ask a question.

"Is there a girl you like? What does she look like?"

"Silver hair, gray eyes, black stockings and tall boots. Good-looking, good enough to lick... huh? Wait a second, isn’t that my personal business?"

This time, Lloyd finally looked up, his face etched with displeasure. ’It’s one thing for these two not to help, but why do they have to keep causing trouble?’

"Er... apologies. Please, continue."

The human wall said with an awkward grin, exchanging another glance with the Knight Commander. Both saw the surprise and astonishment in the other’s eyes.

But after another five minutes, when Lloyd had already excised half of the bone fragments and nerve bundles, the Knight Commander piped up again.

"What did you major in at university?"

Lloyd just assumed he was trying to make small talk to ease the awkward silence, so he quipped:

"Civil engineering... I regretted it the moment I graduated. Should have studied biology, or maybe chemistry. But coming here, it feels like I’ve come home."

This time, a hint of approval appeared in the human wall’s eyes, and he nodded slowly.

The dissection continued, and the two men kept taking turns asking simple questions every five minutes, which Lloyd answered casually.

When the human wall asked one last simple math problem and immediately received the answer, his gaze toward Lloyd was already full of intense desire.

Finally, the dissection, which had taken a total of 55 minutes, was over. Lloyd had cleanly removed all the unnecessary bone fragments and nerve bundles, keeping material loss to an absolute minimum. It was a flawless dissection, one that could have been in a textbook.

He, however, was not quite satisfied. He felt it had started strong but ended weak.

Mainly, the Madness Value he gained was much lower than he’d anticipated, only a little over ten thousand.

His body was adapting to this form of Madness Value a bit too quickly. At first, he was gaining a steady +5 per second, but that later dwindled to a trickle of +1 every few seconds.

Furthermore, as the dissection progressed, his adaptation accelerated. It was as if the more he understood the lump of flesh, the less Spiritual Contamination he suffered from it.

Lloyd had actually wanted to finish as quickly as possible for a while, but surprisingly, as the operation went on, his scalpel grew progressively duller.

It wasn’t that the blade couldn’t withstand the wear, nor that he couldn’t supply enough Spiritual Power. Rather, a strange, sticky sluggishness had developed on the blade, as if the lump of flesh were adapting to its sharpness and trying to adhere the blade to its insides.

’It was just a piece of meat on a cutting board, yet it seemed to be actively resisting the butcher’s knife.’

This had slowed Lloyd’s progress in the latter half; otherwise, he definitely would have finished earlier.

’This Karmic Demon thing really is strange...’

Musing on this, Lloyd took a towel handed to him from the side and wiped his hands.

Then he froze.

The towel had been handed to him by the human wall, who was acting like a student observing a dissection. Lloyd was startled, feeling unexpectedly flattered.

And in the man’s eyes, he saw a raw gaze, as if he wanted to devour him whole.

"Uh... what... what do you want?"

Lloyd couldn’t help but take two steps back.

"I want to invite you to join our Order Sect."

The human wall said bluntly.

The Knight Commander beside them immediately jumped to his feet, exclaiming:

"Lord Shandu, this is against protocol!"

The human wall chuckled and retorted without hesitation:

"Hm? Is there a problem? A dissection master this young, with such exceptional skill, willpower of steel, and an unprecedented resistance to contamination, is just a mere Executioner in your Radiant Sect? I consider that a gross waste of precious talent!"

With that, he turned his head to Lloyd, his mouth splitting into a frightening, tiger-like grin, but his tone was sincere as he said:

"Come with me to the City of Order and be a Knight Commander!"

The actual Knight Commander was so angry he stomped his foot. He hurriedly moved to stand in front of Lloyd, then tilted his head and whispered:

"Don’t listen to him. Our Sect thinks very highly of your prospects, you’re just still a little young."

"What does being young have to do with it? When I was his age, I was already a Knight Captain. Besides, you have to at least give him a choice, don’t you?"

Lloyd was also confused as to why this muscle-bound giant was so inexplicably determined to recruit him.

But he didn’t have to think twice, rejecting the offer without hesitation.

"Thank you for your kind offer, but I think the Radiant Sect is just fine, and I don’t plan on leaving my city."

’I have a sister to protect, and Weiya is waiting for us to make things official. There’s even a Saint watching over me from time to time. How could I possibly run off to another city?’

As for the position he was promised, it didn’t matter. He had never cared much about such things.

Seeing Lloyd’s firm stance, Human Wall Shandu didn’t press the issue, just kept shaking his head.

"Sigh... I knew it. Our Sect really does lack appeal for precious talents... Oh well, forget it. What a shame..."

Muttering to himself, he pulled the white steel nails from the workbench, picked up the lump of flesh, and stuffed it at his waist, tucking it into a palm-sized cloth pouch as if by magic.

Then, he pulled out another pouch of the same style, but this one was brand new. He tossed it on the table, then fished a pendant out of his pocket, placed it on the table, and said:

"This is the ’greeting gift’ I promised, as well as an extra token of thanks. Your dissection was even more perfect than I could have imagined, so of course, I can’t be stingy."

He then gave an awkward laugh, scratched his head, and added:

"I’ve used it twice, but it should still be in about eighty-percent new condition, right? Can’t be helped. The City of Order is an impoverished place, we really don’t have many presentable things to give away... Oh, right, I almost forgot I could give you this..."

He took out a business card and a booklet, setting them down as he explained:

"This is my contact information. If you find yourself unable to get a promotion in the Radiant Sect, you’re welcome to look for me anytime. Of course, if anyone gives you trouble, you can come to me too... As for this booklet, it’s an internal document from our Sect. You can take a look if you’re interested."

With that, he turned and left with a cool flourish.

The Knight Commander made a move to chase after him, but before leaving, he patted Lloyd’s shoulder and said in a grave and earnest tone:

"You have no other assignments today, so get some good rest... And you can rest assured, the Sect will absolutely not treat you unfairly. And whatever you do, don’t even consider their offer from the City of Order!"

It seemed he was genuinely afraid of Lloyd being poached.

With that said, he hurried out, catching up to the human wall outside the ’Processing District’ gate.

"Lord Shandu, were you... serious just now?"

"Of course. My tenth [Precept] that I’ve set for myself is ’Do not lie, and do not joke.’"

"In that case, I must seriously remind you that Lloyd is a precious talent of our Sect. More than that, he is a rising star in whom His Excellency, Grand Judge Demani, has placed great hopes. An act like yours could cause some unnecessary misunderstandings."

Shandu shrugged his wall-like shoulders and gave a casual smile, seemingly unfazed by the Grand Judge’s title.

The Knight Commander continued:

"If this mission weren’t so important, we wouldn’t have even let him come out so freely."

Hearing this, Shandu’s smile took on a hint of disdain.

"Are you cultivating a rising star? Or a delicate flower in a greenhouse?"

This left the Knight Commander speechless for a few moments. After a few seconds, he finally explained:

"The Grand Judge’s arrangements naturally have their profound reasons."