The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 256: Soul Apples

Victor cursed as he hurried toward the fifth-floor stairway. He didn’t intend to kill Tristan, he just wanted to castrate him!

At first, he wanted Tristan to get a little excited so that the cutting would be swift. Victor, who disguised as a horned demon, threatened the terrified Tristan and then asked him about his thoughts on the girls he was with… He promised that he would let him go if he told the truth!

That bastard's words were so twisted that Victor couldn’t help but snap and shatter his entire crotch into oblivion!

Damn it, Tristan must have also been affected by the misfortune fate. It seemed to be more dangerous than he had first anticipated!

Victor was worried about Lily and the girls. They might be in some real danger!

…

Lily had already been in the dungeon for 4 hours.

When she first entered here, she found herself thrown into a huge exotic garden with strange plants and trees. She quickly surveyed her perimeter as she used her skills to hide her presence as per her young master’s instruction. She was to survey, and plan before anything!

After making sure that no enemies were in sight She carefully climbed a tall tree and began to map her surroundings.

This place was strange. It was as if a garden and a maze were merged together. It was full of trees and plants, yet it was indoors. She could easily see the high vaulted ceiling where giant hanging lanterns burnt, illuminating this entire space in the blue gloomy light.

Looking around she noticed other things, like how the trees that grew out of the gray dirt looked dead at first glance, but they were alive with purple and brown ominous-looking leaves. Some even bore some kind of black fruit that she didn’t dare to taste… Victor had warned her to not put anything unknown in her pretty mouth!

Still looking around she kept feeling that something was missing… She quickly knew what. There were no insects, and there weren't even any scents! It was as if the entire forest was frozen in time!

Other than some skeletons that sometimes wandered aimlessly, there were no living things. These skeletons seemed to hate the light here, and walked very sluggishly struggling and tripping over the tree roots.

Lily was watching one such skeleton when it suddenly lost its head to an arrow going through it and pinning it to a tree!

A group of unknown players soon appeared below her, totally oblivious to the beauty hiding in the shadows watching them.

They were dragging a chained group of other players whom she recognized as her classmates… The others seemed to be from the academy but probably belonged to another class. Two of them were dead and were being carried by the rest who were crying for their mommies.

She decided to not interfere and remain hidden as she watched. That group had more than 20 players who were armed and dangerous.

Lily frowned, wondering if she should follow them or not… After some pondering, she decided to follow as she had nothing better to do, but just as she began to do that, she noticed a certain mark on a nearby tree trunk. Victor taught those signs to the girls to use them in dungeons. 

After checking it, Lily stopped and quickly changed planes, then started heading at a different angle heading in the direction the mark was indicating!… It was a distress mark! Lily quickly found a second mark then a third… The marks were getting sloppier as she followed their trail. She kept jumping from one tree to the next while remaining hidden. This place might be more dangerous than she had first anticipated.

30 Minutes later she reached the end of the trail, where she found a girl who was curling up hiding inside an elevated hollowed tree trunk covered in her own blood. Mina!

Hearing the sound of someone landing beside her, Mina who was vigilant, quickly raised a dagger defensively.

“Lily!”

Seeing it was Lily, Mina smiled and then completely relaxed. She dropped her weapon as she lost consciousness. She was badly hurt and could only remain awake until now by sheer willpower.

Why didn’t she take a healing pill? Lily wondered, then realized that Mina not only didn’t have her ring, but she was also missing her entire left arm! SH*T!

Lily gasped as she quickly took a high-grade healing pill and fed it to Mina then, after placing a couple of isolation talismans around, she began to bandage the latter’s wounds.

She was now really angry… beyond angry! She considered the twins her sisters after all! 

"Whoever did this shall be cut into pieces and then fed to the dogs!" she sentenced them!

…

When Victor landed on the fifth floor, he was shocked by this place! Not because of the exotic atmosphere, but because he recognized the fruits on a few of the trees. 

Miracle Apples were one of the most addictive substances in the world!

This thing was as delicious as it was dangerous! 

Once someone ate it, he would just be amazed by its taste, and feel like strange energy was making him stronger! 

Too bad that after a few days he would start to desire to eat it again… At first, it would be manageable, but after eating a few more of those, he would come to desire it more than anything else in the world! He would be ready to even sell his wife and children for another bite… 

“So that’s where those things were brought from!” Victor pondered. In his past life, he never heard of this dungeon, but he had seen the fruits, they were controlled by some shadow organizations that were later discovered to be minions of the von Zwei family!

They used them to control many of the world's elites and politicians before the reckoning!

Although he didn’t try it himself, he heard that it does have some benefits like it increases metabolism and strengthens the body!

He wanted to get one back then, but he didn’t have the money to buy it. Those things sold for a lot!

Victor carefully took one and Inspected it.

“Oh…” Victor frowned as he read the brief description… So that’s how it works! No wonder it made people stronger, but that was in exchange for their soul energy!

Compared to normal energy, soul energy was 10000X denser, so if this apple only managed to dissolve 0.01% of someone's soul, it would be enough to grant them great power. However, that comes at a great price. Soul energy can’t be generated easily, so slowly that person would become more ruthless and reckless until he turns into a complete animal!

Victor quickly took a few Soul Apples and stored them in his ring. Victor had a crazy idea that he might be able to develop something interesting using them later. 

After that, he tried cutting one of the trees. But as he expected, his sword didn’t even leave a mark! He really wanted to take one of those with him, but he knew that he would have to spend a few days cutting it.

Sighing as he was thinking about what to do next, Victor suddenly heard a voice. It was of a woman screaming for help.

Although he planned to stay near the stairs and wait for Lin, he decided to see what was going on.

Running in the sound direction, Victor soon reached a clearing where he found an injured bleeding woman laying on the grassless gray dirt with a little boy crying and shaking in fear beside her.

 No, this bastard was not a kid, but a midget! Those two were acting.

“Mommy! please someone!” the midget cried in a fake voice. If Victor was a noob player he would have been fooled. This bastard had purposefully put dirt on his face to mask his age.

“Help….” the midget began to yell again but stopped as the woman's head blew up!

It took him a few seconds to realize that a handsome purple-haired guy that he had never seen before had somehow appeared on top of them and then shattered the skull of his colleague using a giant club!

“Don’t worry kid, My men will take care of you!” Victor said as he searched the woman’s corpse, totally ignoring the midget who began to look around. Where were those men?

The woman didn’t have anything important, just a few leather sachets, and a poisonous hairpin in her hair which Victor took.

She also had a few carefully wrapped packages that contained meat inside. Victor could easily tell that this was human meat. CANNIBALS!

This practice, although uncommon, was not unheard of in dungeons if people got stuck!

The apples, although they could sustain a person’s life in exchange for their soul, they didn’t fill the stomach.

“Why did you kill her?” the midget finally asked as he couldn’t believe what just happened. He was still searching for the imaginary men.

“She didn’t vibrate!” Victor said as he turned and looked at his new shaking prey after packing his loot. “I like you more!” he added, licking his lips. The reason he killed the woman first was that after inspecting her he realized that she was the most dangerous one. Pensioners were always tricky, especially if they were faced alone. They must be disposed of ASAP. 

This was written in Dungeonology 102, Chapter 3, Good PvP Practices… Oh, this course didn’t exist… not yet anyway.

“I am just a kid!” the midget continued his act as a kid while he crawled back, carefully grabbing the dagger hidden behind his back…. Where was his dagger?

“Are you searching for this?” Victor casually looked at the bone dagger in his hand… It was made out of bone, yet it was gold!

“You must have gotten this from some skeleton right?” Victor asked as he inspected the dagger. “Have you been to the lower floors?”

“Ahh… When did you get it? How?” the midget ignored Victor’s question as he couldn't believe that his trusty weapon was taken from him like this!

“How many humans have you eaten until now?” Victor asked again. He 

“No… I didn’t….”

“What? You don’t eat men? Then what are you doing here near the stairs to the upper floor?” 

“No….. blahhhhh…” the midget who was carefully stepping back while keeping his eyes on Victor suddenly felt a strong hand catch his neck, forcing his jaw open and filling it with wine… Victor was no longer in front of him but beside him! 

He refused to drink but a precise kick to his balls convinced him to swallow what was in his mouth… This technique always worked! The Nutcracker technique!

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….” the midget howled as he was thrown to the ground seconds later. He wanted to clutch his crotch but couldn't! His hands and feet were shackled with pink fuzzy cuffs! When? What the f*ck!

“Don’t focus on the color, I brought those to use on a naughty girl a while back, but had no chance… Now answer truthfully, and I will let you go!” Victor said with a blush as he took out a foldable chair from his ring and sat on it.

“Go to hell!” the midget said, “You bastard had tricked me, You are here alone!” he began to yell as he tried to break free, not realizing that Victor had already stuck a power-sealing talisman on his back.

“Yup… '' Victor said nothing else and just carefully sat and watched as the Midget’s eyes which were glaring hatefully at him changed to that of an idiot a few minutes later.

The soul fruit was the only food source here. Those men who have been using it for a long time would very slowly weaken their souls! The soul wine which usually had a weak effect on players would be very effective here. Margret should be having a blast!