After entering his Phantasm State, he confirmed that there were 215 people in the stronghold of the syndicate.
There were also about a hundred people who had all gone out to patrol their territory. They seem to be involved in various robbery and murder crimes to earn their living, but their primary sources of money are brothels and fees they collect from various businesses around the area.
He won't bother himself to investigate why the police weren't properly acting against them as he doesn't have the time for that.
"Interesting… They have some Mystical Artifacts, but none of them are Arcane Arts Practitioners." Vale stopped in his tracks after realizing the man he deemed the syndicate's leader had opened a box.
It appears to be a safe box where he was keeping his wealth.
Although he only opened this box briefly, the fluctuation of energy from the Mystical Artifact allowed Vale to sense the presence of the Artifacts.
'It would be a waste to destroy it.' Vale pondered for a moment.
He reassessed the plan he had made and observed the leader carefully.
The leader is a huge bald man with bronze skin and a muscular body. He was over two meters tall and was undoubtedly very intimidating.
Perhaps, if Vale were a necromancer, he would consider this man to become his Phantom Knight or a Licker Zombie.
Vale shook his head at this random thought.
He was previously planning to use Divine Lightning Call to cause panic and lessen their numbers. However, it might destroy the safe box. It would be regretful if those Mystical Artifacts were destroyed in the process. At the moment, he was still unsure about the destruction that the Divine Lightning could create, so he had to be careful.
"The Divine Lightning can wait… Let's try the other spells for now."
Vale muttered as he observed the surroundings.
At this moment, he suddenly sensed another stagecoach entering his Magic Zone. It is approaching the outer area of the slums, and he can tell that the members of the brotherhood are inside. It was a different group he followed earlier.
These gang members weren't alone. There were eight kids with them, and they were all in poor condition. Some of them were even being mistreated...
Without any hesitation, Vale made his move. He didn't use any spells and simply used his high Agility to arrive in front of the stagecoach.
"What?! A madman!" The coachman shouted as he realized a young man wanted to commit suicide. The horses will surely kill the young boy!
However, he was utterly wrong.
At this time, Vale used his Darkness Manipulation Spell, prompting the horses to stop. Mysterious energy bound the horses, and they couldn't even lift their hooves.
The coachman was shocked by the sudden turn of events that he almost fell from his seat after the sudden stop.
"Y-you!"
He didn't even have the time to call for help as he felt his left-hand glove being removed. It exposed the tattoo mark on his hand, and instantly, he felt something cold touching his head.
He couldn't see what it was, but it felt like a huge cold hand was grabbing his head!
'Arcanist?!'
This was the only thing on his mind as he realized that his fate was no longer in his hands. He remained silent, hoping that this mysterious man wouldn't kill him.
At this moment, he heard the young man speak with a gentle tone.
"All the children inside can go out now."
As he said this, the door of the stagecoach opened like it was an automatic door, and one by one, young boys and girls around the age of 7 and 9 started coming out.
"Are you a policeman? Thank you for saving us!"
The oldest realized that they were being saved and thought their savior was the police. He could barely see the figure of their savior, but it was enough to know that a person was standing bravely in front of the stagecoach.
He can't think of anyone saving them aside from the police force.
"Leave now..." Vale said as he looked at the children one last time.
With a strong young boy who grew up in the streets as their leader, they immediately acted and didn't stay further.
Vale couldn't help but nod after seeing this since he thought that it would be difficult sending them away.
Then, as the group of children left, Vale coldly smiled as he approached the three members of the brotherhood bound by his Ghost Hands.
[ Living Human has been discovered. Would you like to start the Extraction? ]
"Yes…"
[ Extraction Successful. Energy +12 ]
[ Extraction Successful. Agility +0.11 ]
[ Extraction Successful. Vitality +0.05 ]
[ Extraction Failed. ]
"Oh... It's not bad." Vale muttered after seeing this result. Before, ordinary human corpses only gave him Vitality and Energy, so the addition of Agility was something he could celebrate about. It must be the effect of extracting a living person instead of a dead one.
"Hmmm…"
The man had already passed out as Vale hesitated whether to kill this person.
'You're about to destroy the future of those children… You don't deserve to live.'
Vale muttered as he didn't notice the changes in his body. A black aura different from the Necromancer's Deathly Aura was gathering around him. At the same time, the Incorruptible Body's Spell Light was seemingly fluctuating.
"Come out…" Vale said as he used his Ghost Hands to drag the other two members outside.
Without wasting any more words, he Extracted them as well and gave a similar result with a slight difference in the amount of energy he had taken.
Vale then used his Ghost Hands to end their lives and attempted to extract them.
[ Human corpse has been discovered. Would you like to extract it? ]
"So I can do this…" Vale muttered and immediately accepted the Extraction.
[ Extraction Successful. Energy +5, Vitality +0.03 ]
This means that he can actually Extract his target twice, when they were alive and when they were dead!
After Extracting the other two, he finally noticed that his Incorruptible Body's Spell Light was acting weird!
"Yvaine, protect me." Vale immediately said as he wanted to use the Introspection Ability of his Divine Sense.
Whenever he uses this ability, his full attention is on his body, and he would have a slower reaction time if someone ambushed him.
Without any complaints, Yvaine came out of his shadow, wearing the Plain Obsidian Ring on her finger.
She looked at Vale curiously for a moment before she shifted her attention to the crows who had been observing them all this time.
"Danger…"