Rise Of The Hoarder

Souls, even when Enslaved, didn’t have physical forms.

As a result, their bodies had some sort of Astral effect to them. Of course, that didn’t mean they couldn’t deal physical damage. It was more like their bodies were comprised of energy.

As a result, they could make themselves incorporeal and solid whenever they pleased.

So far, I had ten subordinates.

After obtaining Legion and Barbados from Floor 71, I proceeded to enslave the Bosses of each Floor—making a total of ten.

There were still several Souls I harvested, but instead of turning them into a second Legion, I simply fed them to my already-existing Enslaved Souls.

My most powerful subordinates remained Barbados and Legion, though. I fed them so many Souls, so their powers were comparatively more than the others.

The gap wasn’t too much, though.

The reason Legion stood atop the rest, despite its limited ability cap, was the gift I bestowed it.

The 71 Treasures Of War—duplicates of the originals—were given to my faithful Enslaved Soul.

Well, that wasn’t an accurate description of what happened.

Thanks to my Hoarder Title, I could edit items within my Subspace, so I was also capable of merging the contents within my treasury. Of course, the items had to be compatible, or else I would end up with a far led result.

Still, thanks to <System Correction>, I could reverse the effects of my tampering.

Thanks to lots of tinkering and experiments, I was able to achieve several good results. For example, I produced more powerful Demon Cores by merging lower-grade ones.

The best thing about merging was that it wasn’t as simple as addition. Multiplication was the name of the game.

So—while 2+2 equaled 4, the same as 2×2—2+5 and 2×5 yielded completely different figures.

The quality of the combined Demon Cores made their Mana more refined; useful for more than simple explosions. I also sold quite a few in the Auction Area of SHOP for some ridiculous amounts.

I was surprised when someone bought them all. The System keeps the buyers and sellers anonymous, so I couldn’t find out the person’s identity. They had to be pretty well off to be able to afford the refined Demon Cores, though.

I was quite surprised by it.

I wished the System could give me a name, but what would that do? The person could be under an alias—same as me. Besides, the System was quite fair, so I didn’t expect to get any information.

Usually, anonymity bred distrust. Gifteds were initially reluctant and downright hesitant to use the Auction Zone of the SHOP.

People would rather not buy from a person they had no knowledge of. However, since the System was a trusted middleman, all transactions that were conducted through it were fair. No one could complain about that.

Back to topic, I was able to merge all 71 Treasures duplicates into a single-bladed weapon. It contained several attributes and the durability was off the charts.

It was akin to a Grade 4+ Treasure, close to Grade 5. I had a feeling that if I invested more resources into it, the weapon could become even more powerful.

But, a tool is only as good as its user. Seeing that Legion was already a Grade 4 entity thanks to the Souls I was feeding it with, I let him have the Grade 4+ Weapon, making it stronger than the others in his ranks.

I wasn’t showing favoritism, though.

It was just that none of the others had the build Legion possessed.

Most of the Bosses were Demons who had monstrous physiques. There was a Dragon, Frost Giant, Serpent, Kraken, Hydra, Ancient Golem, etc.

They just didn’t fit the bill.

As for Legion, it took the semblance of a Dark Knight. Clad in an armor of darkness, with purplish energy making up its flesh, the warrior was in due need of a weapon.

I recalled its rank was Legendary Heroic Spirit, and given that all those Souls who perished were experts at weapons, it was only fit to hand over the item to Legion

I watched as all ten of them squared off against the Chimera.

Of course, I knew they could easily win if they fought it together, but that wasn’t the goal.

‘Barbados and Legion should be able to take it on individually. The rest of the Enslaved Souls should have no problem if they work in pairs.’

This was only a Grade 4 Demon, after all.

Still, I was simply using the creature as some sort of lab rat to test out various attacks. Having my minions one-shot an opponent defeated the purpose of seeing their true capabilities.

So, while they tested out all their functions on the creature, I ensured to heal it—no, use Miasma to cure the wounds of the unfortunate creature.

It was an undead, so Healing had the opposite effects on it. Plus, since I had <Miasma Essence> as one of my Skills, it was only right I exercised it.

‘Not only can I use it to buff myself and deal Rot damage, but I can also buff undead allies as well. Cool’

I had a ton of corpses within my Inventory, and one of the Items I received allowed me to raise the dead—similar to the Necromancer Scroll that one guy received, but on a larger scale.

I could already summon Undead Armies, so I didn’t need more mobs to be created from corpses.

Instead, I merged all the 700,000 dead bodies I retrieved from the Seventh-First Floor, as well as the others I collected from the other floors, making close to ten million corpses.

Well, they were approximately 9 million 700 thousand and 57.

After joining them, I formed some sort of Frankenstein’s Monster as a base, and by using the Undead Creation Item, I created an Upper-Level Undead. It was on the level of a Grade 3 Demon, but after feeding it enough Demon Cores and Miasma Essence, it graduated to the ranks of Grade 4.

Needless to say, my minions finally exhausted their abilities and I put the Chimera out of its misery. Of course, its soul belonged to me.

After enslaving it, I had Twelve Grade 4 Demons under my control.

‘Should I call them the Rounds? Like, the Knights of the Round table from that old Camelot story…?’ I mused as I grinned with glee.

The 80th floor was conquered, and I was getting close to the 99th Floor—no, to what was beyond that!