Lust System: Conquering the World Beauties

Liam and Irina stepped out of the house together, the wooden door closing softly behind them as the afternoon air greeted them. The village looked almost unchanged from when they had first arrived. It was still strangely quiet, almost unnaturally so, with only the occasional movement behind curtains and the distant creaking of an old sign hanging from a building. Yet there was something different now. The villagers had begun looking at them differently. They no longer watched from their windows with the same fear and suspicion they had shown earlier. Instead, whenever Liam and Irina passed by, people lowered their heads respectfully, some even offering small greetings. It was obvious that the words Liam had spoken earlier had spread quickly throughout the village. Somehow, in only a few hours, the two outsiders had become the closest thing Elaris had to hope.

Liam noticed every stare but said nothing about it. His hands rested loosely at his sides as he walked, his sharp blue eyes constantly moving from one building to another. He wasn’t simply sightseeing. He was studying everything. The layout of the village, the positions of the houses, the wells, the fields, the paths between buildings and even the expressions of the people they passed. If something had been killing villagers without leaving obvious physical evidence, then there had to be something they were missing. Irina walked beside him with a much more serious expression than usual, her heightened senses constantly sweeping across the surroundings. As a werewolf, there were very few ordinary sounds or scents she couldn’t detect, yet Elaris itself seemed to be hiding something. The entire village carried an oppressive atmosphere, almost as though grief had seeped into the soil and refused to leave.

Their first stop was a small wooden house near the center of the village. An elderly man sat outside on a low stool, sharpening a farming blade with slow, repetitive movements. The moment he noticed Liam and Irina approaching, his hands stopped. His eyes lifted toward them, and for a moment there was hesitation in his expression before he quickly stood.

"You don’t need to stand," Liam said gently, raising one hand. "We’re only here to ask you a few questions."

The old man hesitated before slowly sitting again. Liam crouched slightly so that he wasn’t towering over him, then asked when the attacks had begun. The old man’s fingers tightened around the blade in his hand, and his eyes dropped toward the ground as painful memories returned. He told them that the first incident had happened roughly three weeks earlier. At first, everyone had assumed it was simply a strange illness. A young woman had gone to sleep one night and never properly awakened. Her body remained alive, her heart continued beating and she continued breathing, but there was nothing behind her eyes when she woke. She could no longer speak, recognize anyone or even feed herself.

Liam’s expression became more serious. "And after her?"

The old man swallowed. "Three days later, another person."

"Same condition?"

The man nodded slowly. "Exactly the same."

Irina leaned slightly forward. "Did anyone see anything unusual before they became like that?"

The old man shook his head at first, but then stopped halfway through the movement. His brows furrowed as though he were struggling to remember something. Finally, he looked up. "There was one thing."

Liam’s eyes sharpened immediately. "What?"

"The dreams."

Irina exchanged a glance with Liam.

"What about the dreams?" Liam asked.

The old man looked around before lowering his voice. He explained that several of the victims had spoken about the same strange dream shortly before they were attacked. They would wake during the night and tell their families that someone had been calling them from somewhere far away. Some described hearing a woman’s voice. Others claimed they had seen a figure standing at the end of a road surrounded by fog. A few had even mentioned a black river.

Liam remained completely still as he absorbed the information.

"Did anyone ever describe what the voice said?" he asked.

The old man shook his head. "Not clearly. They said it was calling them by name."

That detail made Liam’s gaze narrow.

By name.

Whatever was attacking these people wasn’t randomly choosing victims. It knew them.

Irina crossed her arms thoughtfully. "Were the victims connected in any way? Family members, occupations, anything?"

"No," the old man answered. "At least, we couldn’t find anything. Farmers. Children. Hunters. A merchant. Even an old woman who had barely left her house in years."

"How many?" Liam asked.

The old man’s expression darkened. "Twenty-seven."

The number hung in the air.

Liam slowly straightened.

Twenty-seven people.

Twenty-seven victims in only a few weeks.

"How many are still alive but trapped in that state?" he asked.

"Fourteen."

"And the others?"

The old man lowered his head. "Dead."

Liam’s jaw tightened slightly.

Irina noticed.

There was no dramatic outburst from him, no anger directed at the old man and no attempt to pretend that everything would magically become better. Instead, his eyes became colder as he processed the information. He had come here thinking the mission sounded simple. Find the creature. Kill it. Return to the blacksmith.

But now he understood why the dwarf had warned them.

There was something in Elaris that had been hunting people for weeks without anyone discovering its identity.

Liam thanked the old man before moving on.

They visited another house.

Then another.

And another.

Every conversation revealed another small piece of the same nightmare.

One woman told them that her husband had complained about hearing footsteps outside their bedroom every night. Another said her daughter had begun waking up screaming about someone standing beside her bed. A hunter claimed that he had followed strange footprints into the forest but had lost them suddenly near an old stream. One teenage boy insisted that the attacks always happened after someone dreamed about the same black river.

Liam listened to every story without interrupting.

Sometimes he asked questions.

Sometimes he simply watched.

Irina gradually noticed what he was doing. Liam wasn’t merely collecting stories. He was comparing them.

Every victim had slept before the attack.

Every victim had experienced unusual dreams.

Several victims had heard a voice.

And multiple people had mentioned the same strange landscape.

The black river.

Eventually they reached a small house where a middle-aged woman sat beside her unconscious son. The boy looked no older than sixteen. His body was alive, but his eyes were empty, staring toward the ceiling without recognition. His mother sat beside him, constantly rubbing his hand as though afraid that if she stopped touching him, he might disappear completely.

Liam’s expression softened.

"When did this happen?" he asked.

"Four nights ago."

"Did he tell you anything before he fell unconscious?"

The woman nodded through trembling lips. "He told me he dreamed of a river."

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

"What kind of river?"

"Black."

Irina’s gaze immediately shifted toward Liam.

The woman continued, explaining that her son had described standing beside a river beneath a sky without stars. There had been something across the water, something that looked like a person, but every time he tried to approach it, the figure moved farther away. Then he heard someone whisper his name.

Liam slowly crouched beside the unconscious boy.

He activated Aether Sense.

The moment his perception expanded, his expression changed.

There was something unusual inside the boy.

Not physical damage.

Not an ordinary illness.

Something else.

Liam’s eyes became sharper as he carefully examined the boy’s body with his enhanced perception. His life force was present, but it felt strangely incomplete, as though a portion of the boy had been pulled somewhere else.

His soul wasn’t gone.

But something had touched it.

Something had reached into his subconscious.

Liam stood slowly.

"How long has he been like this?"

"Four days," the woman whispered.

Liam nodded.

Then he looked at Irina.

"We need to find the others."

Irina immediately understood.

They left the house and continued their investigation, but their pace had changed. This was no longer simply a matter of asking villagers questions. They now had a direction.

The victims weren’t merely falling into comas.

Something was entering their dreams.

Something was reaching their minds while they slept.

And whatever it was seemed to be pulling something out of them.

As evening slowly approached, Liam and Irina returned toward the center of the village. The sunlight had begun turning golden, stretching long shadows between the buildings. Yet instead of making Elaris feel warmer, the fading light somehow made the village feel even colder.

Irina finally broke the silence.

"You noticed it too, didn’t you?"

Liam looked at her. "The victims?"

"Their souls."

Liam nodded.

Irina’s expression became grim. "Something is taking a part of them."

"Not exactly."

She looked at him.

Liam’s eyes moved toward the darkening forest beyond the village. "I think it’s taking their consciousness somewhere."

Irina’s brows furrowed. "Somewhere?"

"Somewhere we haven’t found yet."

For several seconds, neither spoke.

Then Liam’s eyes suddenly shifted toward the forest.

There.

For less than a second.

He had felt it.

A faint fluctuation.

Something had moved beyond the village boundary.

Something that didn’t belong there.

Liam’s expression immediately hardened.

Irina noticed his change.

"What is it?"

Liam didn’t answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed on the distant trees.

Then he smiled.

It wasn’t his usual playful smile.

It was the calm, confident smile he wore whenever he had finally found something worth hunting.

"I think," he said quietly, "we’ve been asking the wrong people."

Irina followed his gaze toward the forest.

"What do you mean?"

Liam turned toward her.

"We’ve been asking who was attacked."

His eyes narrowed.

"Now we’re going to find out what was watching them."

Without waiting for another word, Liam started walking toward the edge of the village.

Irina followed immediately.