Hel actually laughed from anger.
Did they really think she was some soft persimmon anyone could squeeze?
Every stray cat and dog thought they could take a bite at her now?
"So," she said, her tone calm but sharp, "they must have some real skill if you've come to me about it. Otherwise, you'd have handled it yourself."
"Yes, Young Master," Sebas replied with a bow. "They're useless in direct combat, but when it comes to sneaky business — theft, ambushes, kidnappings — they're professionals.
However, I've already located their hideout and plan to attack tonight.
I came to request the assistance of Sir Arwin.
According to a few captured guild members, this operation involves reinforcements from the Principality's branch — several mid-tier knights may be among them."
"I see. Go ahead," Hel nodded, giving her approval.
Sebas, now a necromancer, used methods that were far too easily detected by the Church.
And his personal combat power was only 16 points — equivalent to a mid-level knight at best.
To be safe, it was better to let Arwin handle the fighting.
"Make sure you bring the bodies back," Hel added, tossing him a spatial ring.
Now that she had reached the rank of Archmage, she'd naturally managed to unlock the two spatial rings she'd taken — one from Netherveil, one from Rose.
Rose's ring had been extravagantly full:
potions, materials, ores, gold, and magic tomes — it was practically a miniature royal treasury.
Netherveil's ring, by contrast, was pathetic.
Aside from a few spare clothes, it was mostly filled with… corpses.
When Hel first saw that, she was stunned.
Really?
She'd just toss corpses in there together with her laundry?
Did she not mind the smell?!
So, when Hel went to the "bathroom" earlier, she conveniently dumped all those bodies into her Necrospace.
She'd originally planned to have a meal and then check the corpses for useful Traits later, but Sebas had shown up before that.
Still, since she found that ring disgusting for its previous contents, giving it to Sebas to store corpses again felt perfectly fitting.
After sending Sebas off, Hel had breakfast, returned to her room, and entered her Necrospace.
In one corner lay rows upon rows of bodies — hundreds of them, at least a thousand at a glance.
"Ah… the harvest season for Traits has come again," Hel murmured, stepping toward the pile and beginning to extract them one by one.
[Extracting Trait...]
[Acquired: Dragonkin Bloodline (Orange)]
[Acquired: Advanced Spearmanship (Purple)]
[Acquired: Dragonblood Knights (Purple)]
…
The results were similar across most of them — confirming her suspicion that Rose had probably annihilated a Dragonblood Knight Order, then kept the best corpses for herself.
A total of 354 bodies:
4 at Tier 4, 50 at Tier 3, and 300 at Tier 2.
From them, Hel obtained a mountain of Traits.
But something curious stood out — almost every single one had a Dragonkin Bloodline.
And not weak ones either — ranging from Purple to Orange quality.
"Could there really be this many people born with Dragonkin blood? Or… did the Free States develop some secret method to mass-produce it?"
Hel didn't know the answer, but it didn't matter — she could still use the Traits.
After merging and upgrading them, the number shrank considerably.
Bloodline Traits now ranged from Red to Orange.
And when she elevated the Dragonkin Bloodline to Red quality, it transformed into—
[Dragon Bloodline (Red)]:
Strength +180%, Charisma +100, allows transformation into Dragon Form for battle.
"This one suits Arwin perfectly. I'll give it to him later."
After storing that Trait away, Hel continued fusing others.
Aside from bloodlines, the next most valuable ones came from spearmanship.
After several combinations, she ended up with a Golden Spearmanship Trait — the kind only Sixth-tier Knight Commanders could master.
If she gave this to Arwin, his strength would skyrocket — he might even become invincible among his rank.
The remaining miscellaneous Traits she casually merged, ending up with just two gold and one orange Trait worth keeping.
Among them were a few "knowledge" Traits — what Hel called Identity Traits.
They didn't directly boost combat power but greatly increased one's expertise and skill.
For instance, one of the new ones was:
[Royal Knight (Orange)]:
Knowledge +70. Contains a complete knight training inheritance from a fallen empire three thousand years ago.
If she gave that to Arwin, it would significantly enhance his leadership and military training abilities.
The other two Gold Traits were more… domestic.
They were designed especially for her maids, Anna and Lily.
[Omni-Maid (Gold)]:
Knowledge +100. A perfect maid — graceful in the hall, capable in the kitchen.
[Maid Knight (Gold)]:
Knowledge +100. The toughest maid, and the most capable knight.
She planned to give [Omni-Maid] to Anna, and [Maid Knight] to Lily.
But since both already had full Trait slots, they'd have to wait until their next breakthrough.
As for Arwin — who had just broken through recently — he could immediately equip all three Traits Hel had prepared.
No reason to delay; since they'd be fighting the Thieves' Guild tonight, boosting their power now was the safest move.
After distributing the Traits, Hel returned once again to the Necrospace to face the mountain of corpses.
Using blood to create blood bats, and bodies to summon skeleton soldiers — that was her usual routine.
The Blood Bat spell was like a mischievous imp — it didn't care how strong the corpse was, it would always summon the same number with the same strength.
Even from the body of an Earth Knight, she could summon only 50 blood bats — no more, no less, and never stronger.
Still, that was fine.
The sheer number of corpses meant she could produce an enormous swarm — perfect for increasing her Aura Concealment.
And the higher that Trait's quality rose, the safer her people would be.