32-32. Abyss

I'm going to give you strength.

The eyeball floating in the darkness said.

I tried to use the appraisal against the unidentified eyeball, but the appraisal itself did not activate.

I'll have to ask him directly.

"What's going on? Where am I? What are you? What happened to Lenya and Meku? What happened to me?

I ask one question after another.

"Don't ask all the questions in one go. This is the Abyss. This is the Abyss, a place isolated from reality. No matter how much time you spend in here, not a second will pass in real life. Well, you can only be in here for 5 minutes, and if you stay longer than that, your consciousness will be pulled back to reality. By the way, the only thing that's here is your soul, and your body is lying haphazardly in reality.

The eyeball said. Abyss?　The only thing that's here is my soul, and no matter how much time I spend here, not a second goes by...

Well, I noticed that the tremendous pain I had felt earlier has disappeared. Is it because I now have no physical body, only a soul?

Anyway, not even a second has passed, does that mean my consciousness is still on the verge of being sent here?

That's all well and good, but what the hell is this thing?

What are you?　Was that the Black Knight back then?

I ask him so.

'You could say that, or you could say that you're not. Well, you'll find out about who I am later, even if you don't like it.'

...I don't think you're going to give me a serious answer here.

'What do you mean you're going to give me the power?'

You have a skill, but it hasn't yet reached its full potential. That's why you're still weak.

Out of your element?

That's right. It's a skill that allows you to add the status of the creature you absorbed to your own. You're a tenth of what you are now, and a twentieth of what you were before you got the Mark. There's one other drawback. Your current corpse absorption has a limit to your status increase, but there is essentially no such thing.''

Was the increase in the amount of status increase in dead body absorption still due to the influence of the imprint?

''Wait, giving me power means that you're going to increase my status increase and eliminate the limit of my status increase?　Then there's no point in going up now, right?

'Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. The souls of all the creatures you've absorbed so far are collected deep within you. By drawing power from these souls, your status is added to them. But if you draw all the power from your soul, your own soul will be eaten. That's why I'm unconsciously limiting the amount of power I draw from your soul. That's why the rate of increase in status is low and there's a limit to how much your status can increase.

There's a soul inside of me. Something sickening, but....

I mean, maybe he's trying to say...

''If I tweak the settings a bit, I can raise the limit of the amount of increase and raise your current status. I'm sure you'll be able to do the same with your current status, but if you do the math, your current status will be increased by 2.5 times. Well, you can beat a demon of that level, right?''

''Wait, wait, wait a minute, you said earlier that you were unconsciously holding it back because it would eat your own soul. So wouldn't it be a bad idea to give you the power to draw it out?

'Don't worry. By increasing the power of the Mark, we can stop it from eating you.

I feel like everything he says is too good to be true.

I think it's too dangerous to believe what this guy says, to be honest.

"To be fair, I don't think you have much of a choice. If you don't get my help, you'll die and your best friend will be killed.

Well no matter how unreliable this guy is, I have no choice but to ask for his help.

If only my own life is at stake, then the lives of my friends are at stake as well.

One last question, what do you want?　Why do you want to help me?

Would you trust me if I said "kindness"?

....

If you think about it, that black knight, this guy, and that mark have not brought me any disadvantage.

The reason I think it's not a good thing is only because the instincts within me are sounding the alarm bells.

But I can't get rid of that instinctive sense of disgust and fear.

I just couldn't deny the idea that these guys were bad guys.

''Kukku, that's fine. Your instincts aren't wrong.''

My eyeballs read my mind and said so.

'So?　What do we do?　You want my power?　You're not supposed to give it to me unless you say you want it, so you'll have to decide whether you want it or not and get back to me. Well, since you're here, I'm sure you've already decided on a response.'

Meaningful things, the eyeball said. Could it be that if you were in a situation where you desperately wanted power, you were going to come here?

''I wish. I wish to have your help........

"All right.

Suddenly, right underneath his eyeballs, a mouth appeared.

And then, with a smile on its face, that mouth

I'm going to help you.

I said.

The moment I heard his voice, I was brought back to reality.