The 100 psychic energy points were drained in the blink of an eye.
But David got the answer he wanted. Under the control of the Heretic's Arm, the high priest revealed the supporter behind Videns.
"Hunter... guild... from the imperial capital, a big shot... specifically, don't know..."
How ironic. The hunters' guild that hunted the darkness would actually push their own hunters into its embrace.
David shook his head and strangled the high priest with the Hand of Monster. The guy had way more vitality than a normal person.
These cultists, strengthened by dark powers, had bodies that were abnormally strong. Their life values were higher than ordinary people too, reaching 180 points—no wonder they dared to fight fully armed guards head-on.
But against David's level 2 Hand of Monster, they still got one-shotted.
Compared to the monster claws that served as his main attack method, the Heretic's Arm wasn't as offensive. Its abilities were mainly focused on control. Any living being it touched would briefly enter a state of "folly."
It was a pretty strong control ability, shame about the 5-minute cooldown though...
David had a thought and turned his gaze to the high priest's arm.
The Heretic's Arm should theoretically be able to grow too. What it devoured should be other human arms that had fallen into darkness...
[Devoured Heretic's Arm, absorbed life energy, limit +180.]
"Nice..." David smiled with satisfaction.
After absorbing the old man's arm, he could definitely feel the Heretic's Arm becoming a bit more flexible. The arm's length had also increased slightly.
The people outside the tomb chamber door didn't seem to notice what happened inside. After waiting five minutes, David pushed open the door and simultaneously released the Heretic's Arm and Hand of Monster on the two cultists guarding outside.
The two guys with blood patterns painted all over their faces didn't even have time to make a sound before they were silently killed one after another.
After absorbing their arms and tossing the bodies back through the door, David continued walking out of the tomb like nothing happened. Some cultists he passed even flashed him weird smiles and praised him with cult rituals when they ran into this young patron.
David smiled back at them. Smiled real bright.
It wasn't until he reached the tomb's only exit that the cultists suddenly realized what David's smile meant.
It was the smile a butcher couldn't help showing when looking at lambs ready for slaughter...
Monster claws tore through cultist bodies, blocking the path to the surface. Shouts of killing rang out, blood sprayed, flesh flew everywhere.
The cultists' weapons and strength were completely inadequate to shake David's body. Thousands of points of life energy stood before them like a solid wall.
Bodies piled up fast...
...
On the other side, deep in the tomb, in a locked secret chamber, two young hunters were trapped in iron cages—Muken and Veronica.
Muken's face was covered in bruises, with a wound on his forehead still slightly bleeding.
Veronica was injured on the back of her head.
Obviously, these two hunters had been captured by the cultists... Pretty shameful that trained Church Hunters would fall into a cultist trap, get knocked out by pitchforks and hammers, and have all their equipment confiscated.
Waiting for them was a bloody sacrifice. Cultists loved nothing more than offering hunters as sacrifices to their dark lord.
Listening to the crying and wailing of various captives outside the chamber, Veronica's heart had sunk to rock bottom. She even felt a bit desperate, because no other hunters would come to rescue them.
"Damn it! I knew that damn noble brat had issues! Otherwise why would they discover us right after we found traces of him dealing with the cult!"
Muken angrily and regretfully pounded the cage, but it was pointless.
"We should've reported this to the guild earlier..." Veronica muttered to herself.
At first, they didn't believe Mentor Videns would die so easily, so they'd been secretly investigating David Frank.
When they found out this noble young master had dealings with the cult, confident Veronica wanted to solve the problem with her own power.
She wanted to personally catch David red-handed, give him no chance to recover, avenge her mentor...
Now Veronica regretted it.
But regret came too late. Before long, those cultists would cut open their bodies and dig out their hearts.
Outside the chamber door, louder shouts and screams seemed to ring out, like the cultists were preparing for the ritual. Maybe other victims had already appeared.
This terrified Veronica. This was the closest to death, the most helpless she'd been since becoming a hunter.
After a while, outside the door fell completely silent. The female hunter's ears were filled only with her own racing heartbeat.
Bang!
The chamber door suddenly burst open. Both hunters jumped in fright.
But what surprised and confused them was that the person who opened the door wasn't one of those black-robed cultists, but a noble young master covered in blood.
David Frank.
Muken froze. He'd just had the thought that David Frank was coming to sacrifice them himself, then immediately noticed civilians with their bonds removed standing behind the noble young master...
David Frank wasn't here to kill them. On the contrary, he'd killed all the cultists in the crypt. Not a single one left!
David looked at the two expressionlessly, feeling a bit strange and amused... No wonder these two hadn't been bothering him lately and had disappeared like they'd evaporated. Turns out they'd been captured by the cult.
The two newly freed hunters stared dumbfounded at the cultist corpses in the crypt.
Dozens of cultists, all killed by this noble young master alone!?
Without a doubt, this was the truth. All the rescued civilians could testify that Young Master David had saved them.
They looked at David with fear and reverence—though the fear definitely outweighed the reverence.
David smiled and held up one finger to them, making a shushing gesture.
These people immediately nodded in panic, forcing themselves to forget Young Master David's terrifying monster claws...
Not just the terrifying claws—David had also ripped off all the cultists' arms. That bloody scene was more cultist than the cultists themselves...
David didn't care that these civilians saw his arm. He only cared about his power.
After fusing and absorbing dozens of Heretic's Arms, the arm had undergone a transformation.
[Heretic's Arm II: Can consume 90 psychic energy or life energy to activate ability "Touch of Folly," cooldown: 4 minutes.]
This evolved pale arm had reduced consumption and cooldown time, while also becoming longer and more flexible.
More importantly, David's life energy limit had increased substantially again, getting more and more ridiculous.
[Life Energy: 9080/9380]
...
When night fell, everyone in the tomb returned to the surface. They looked at the sunset and wept, some even lying on the ground kissing the earth, kowtowing to David in thanks, grateful that the noble young master had saved their lives.
David didn't interact much with these civilians. He sent them all to the church, dumping that burden there.
The church clergy looked at these dozens of unfortunate souls who came out of nowhere in a panic, not knowing how to handle them.
Following the principle of never offending David Frank, the church people later secretly sent these civilians to David's manor... but that's a story for later.
The two hunters stood in the dusk looking totally lost. They still couldn't accept everything that had just happened, like they'd had a dream.
"I don't trust him. Killing cultists doesn't mean he's not a heretic. Maybe he just wants to cover up his crimes..." Muken bit his teeth and said unwillingly.
In the distance, David, who'd stopped in front of a new grave, twitched his ear and smiled. "You actually got that right."
He turned and left the cemetery facing the sunset.
That new grave held the guards who'd sacrificed themselves to save him that night. Their loyalty deserved David's respect.
The Viscount had naturally given their families substantial compensation, but David had privately sent these families another sum of money... It was one of the few compensations he could make.
As for this incident, he planned to give all the credit to those two hunters.
David Frank was still that utterly evil patron behind the scenes. Best if more cultists kept coming to him, so his arm and life energy could grow even more.
Still not enough. He still wasn't strong enough...
After learning that Videns's supporter was a big shot in the hunters' guild, David felt a sense of crisis.
He had to become stronger.
Future enemies definitely wouldn't be comparable to these weak ordinary cultists. He might face other battle-hardened veteran hunters, guys even harder to deal with than Videns.
"Time to head out..."