Rise Of The Hoarder

“… Spirit Ring.”

Instantly, the item that coiled itself around my left finger sparkled.

It had a bright blue aura, shining with a whitish glow. Within the object was a sum of seven hundred thousand souls. Apparently, as a result of the ‘unique’ way I cleared the quest, they offered their Souls to me As a result, I reaped quite the bountiful harvest.

But, the souls within were too weak. Sure, they had great numbers, but so what? Ultimately, I wouldn’t require them for anything since I had way more powerful and efficient means of defeating my enemies.

Plus, using Ghost Magic required me to use quite the amount of MP and my Grimoire had to be activated. Going through such a hassle for a bunch of weaklings didn’t seem like a good way to use my resources.

Which was why…

‘Let’s try this…’

With that, I activated one of the special features of my Spirit Ring. Other than storing souls and making them more powerful over time, the Spirit Ring had the ability to merge the Souls it collected to form stronger ones.

“Commence Amalgamation.” I gave my instruction.

[SPIRIT RING MANUAL]

~You Have Chosen To Amalgamate The Souls In Your Possession~

<Please select how many you would like to combine>

[Current Souls In Possession]

~Heroic Souls (700,000×)~

~Barbados (Dragon Of Storms)~

[END OF INFORMATION]

“I could probably just feed them to Barbados…”

That would make the Dragon stronger. If they served as resources to fuel my subordinate’s growth, then it was very well worth it.

However, every being had a cap on how powerful they could get. What if feeding Barbados 700,000 Souls turned out to be a waste. Besides, even if I didn’t feed everything to it, I wasn’t sure how many would be necessary to hit the cap.

Plus, after getting surplus souls left, what would I use those for? There was also the fact that it was better to have more than one subordinate for versatility. It wasn’t wise to put all my eggs in one basket.

‘Two are better than one, after all…’

Having made up my mind, I decided to use up all the 700,000 souls… and merge them to form one entity!

[SYSTEM INFORMATION]

~You have selected a total of <700,000> Souls to merge into <1>~

[Please Confirm]

[Yes] [No]

The option I chose was only a matter of course.

A bright light emerged from within the depths of my ring. It sparkled amid the vast field. I felt energy converging, and the several presences I sensed within the ring dwindled rapidly.

Though their numbers reduced, the power inside skyrocketed at an unprecedented rate. It kept rising, even beyond the point of my expectations.

Finally, the brilliant glow dimmed and the process ended.

[SYSTEM INFORMATION]

<Merging Complete!>

~Heroic Souls Have Now Become Legendary Heroic Soul~

[Congratulations]

I smiled and observed the incredibly powerful being lurking within the ring.

In terms of power, it was still inferior to Barbados, but it was plenty strong in its own right.

‘Both are on the level of Grade 3 Demons… but since Barbados was Grade 3+, almost Grade 4, it’s obviously stronger.’

Even after creating such an entity, I needed to still use <Soul Enslavement> to make it into my subordinate.

“Will it resist, or…?”

*********

It turns out I didn’t need to be worried about any form of resistance from the Legendary Heroic Soul. It didn’t even offer any form of hostility toward me—unlike Barbados—not to mention fighting against my smoldering authority.

It fell under my command, and the system required me to provide a name.

‘I can’t as well call it Legendary Heroic Soul, can I?’

Deciding to be more creative, I remembered hearing something about how a collective of evil spirits identified themselves as a single entity Apparently, they gave their existence a name.

“Legion. For you are many in one.”

With this, I had Legion and Barbados—two subordinates I obtained from this single floor.

‘I have several Demons in my [Subspace], and I can control them using my Skill, but it takes Mana and effort to manage them. But these ones are different…’

Plus, they were stronger than any other pawns I had in my arsenal.

This truly was a great find.

‘Welp, I guess there’s something else I want to do, but we’ve taken too long here. I might as well progress and do what I want later.’

I looked in the direction of the Party that stared at me with dumbfounded expressions. They seemed to marvel more at my power, which made me smile wryly.

Of course, my mask covered my face—so, none of them saw I curled up my lips.

The fact that none of them had attempted to flee meant they still intended on coming along with me. I wasn’t sure whether the Tower’s System still made it compulsory for a Party to travel together at this point, but it was best not to take any chances.

“Alright. Let us proceed.” I made a low, calm statement.

Upon hearing my voice, the people I spoke to whirred back to life and moved. Once they saw that a large tombstone had appeared in front of me, their pace quickened.

Before long, they reached me and we all ventured inside the portal in front of us.

**************

The Floors after the Seventy-First one had a similar setting, but on different landscapes/seascapes.

We were transported to frozen mountainsides, scorching desert lands, storming seas, etc.

The only thing linking these Floors were the dead beings that existed there, and the terrifying Boss monsters that always took the form of Undead.

I fought Frost Giants, a Kraken, a Desert Serpent, and several other strong beings.

The 80th Floor had a considerably more difficult opponent. It was in the 4th Grade, and was at least twice as powerful as Barbados when I first encountered it.

The monster was called a Chimera, and its several features and extraordinary life force made it quite difficult to kill.

I was holding back, of course.

In fact, I didn’t even fight.

I had my minions for the task for me while simply watching their actions. If I was honest, the scene was absolutely blissful.

‘Haa… it feels nice to have capable minions, doesn’t it?’