Full Moon: You can briefly gain wolf-like fangs and claws, as if transforming into a werewolf, but it lasts only three seconds and will overload your body until collapse. What else did you expect? Your contract partner is merely a diluted hybrid.
—Skills acquired by Tasha after contracting with Marion.
Cemetery: Burying skeletal remains with over 50% integrity allows you to expend mana to generate skeleton soldiers of varying quality within a set timeframe. Higher integrity yields higher conversion success rates.
——Building type unlocked by Tasha when corpses entered the dungeon alongside the exiles.
Both new features were deployed for the first time in this battle, and their effects proved quite satisfactory. The watchtower broadcasted the one-sided slaughter, while the skeleton soldiers rampaged above, the terrified soldiers posing no further threat. As for those who fled, Marion was there to reap them. Having just extinguished the flames on the oak tree, this bloodthirsty werewolf girl wouldn't let anyone escape—no prompting from Tashan needed.
"Excellent. More corpses," Victor remarked cheerfully. "Don't tell me you have psychological barriers about devouring enemies?"
"Humans are too weak," Tasha replied casually.
She was actually surprised. When she tore that human officer apart with her own hands, she hadn't felt any more discomfort than when she watched Marion kill. Was it because she'd adapted to a new identity unbound by human laws and morals, now standing on the opposite side of a life-and-death struggle against her former kind? Or was it simply that her new body lacked the capacity for such sentimentality? Tasha recognized the change and accepted it.
But she still held certain principles.
She didn't mind using underhanded tactics or killing, but she wouldn't devour human souls—even if they were now enemies. Combat between armies was one thing; feeding on her former kind was another. Tasha had no desire to be a lamb, nor did she wish to become a great demon lord.
Truthfully, she had no intention of consuming any sentient being with a soul. With the new path of contracts available, why return to the old ways of pleasing the Abyssal Will? Tasha didn't want to provoke the so-called Abyssal Will prematurely, before she was fully prepared. She had already witnessed the potential consequences of seeking aid from unknown powers. She valued her own will and refused to stake her survival on someone else's. Perhaps the Abyssal Will was like a host server. If a pirate like Tasha asked the main server for upgrades, who knew if it would detect anomalies and wipe her out outright.
"That's true," Victor said. "But you've seen the benefits of skeleton soldiers now, haven't you? They're loyal and fearless, indestructible to mere mortals. Those scattered bones, once reburied and reactivated, become reliable soldiers again. Maybe you should raid a few more villages. I once knew a necromancer skilled in raising Skeleton Seas—he single-handedly unleashed a plague of undead. Though the graveyard's conversion capabilities..."
"Then what?" Tashar cut him off. "What became of that necromancer?"
Victor's lengthy boast was interrupted. He replied grudgingly, "Everyone must die eventually."
A high-profile demon lord slaughtering people to build armies? It'd be weird if they didn't band together to wipe him out.
Skeleton troops were indeed useful when numerous, adding an element of intimidation against ordinary folk. But they weren't fast enough—mere mortals could destroy them. Once shattered, they couldn't immediately respawn, serving only as cannon fodder. In comparison, Tasha found Marion's skill far more effective.
The skill description is rather lackluster—it essentially amounts to a suicide attack for anyone who uses it. Yet Tasha is a freak who can effortlessly swap bodies, so each use doesn't cost her life, only the magic to conjure a phantom. More importantly, this skill gave her a glimmer of hope for obtaining a normal body.
The description of "Full Moon" was particularly intriguing: "Possesses wolf-like fangs and claws." It sounded like a straightforward combat enhancement, but what if the creature using this skill had no teeth or claws to begin with, no offensive capability whatsoever? The experimental results brought Tashu relief—it could generate fangs and claws, granting lethality to a phantom incapable of touching living things. In other words, it gained the power to influence the physical world.
The Dungeon Body was a structure, and ghostly duplicates were like specters that could see but not touch. Tashar had once feared she'd be condemned to live in a parallel dimension, forever an observer. But now her worries faded. If she could mimic aspects of her contract partners, and by continuously forming pacts with creatures of the Material Plane, she would one day forge a body capable of perception, action, and the full spectrum of past sensations.
Of course, now was not the time for such thoughts.
A new phantom materialized in the hall, identical to the last. Tasha rose upward, passing through the floor toward the link's other end. Marion was calling her, her voice urgent and sorrowful.
Tasha materialized on a battlefield strewn with corpses. All soldiers had become lifeless husks. The scattered exiles had regrouped beneath the oak tree, watching its charred branches with unease. "My lady!" Marion stood beside the oak,dare not touch the charred tree trunk, pleading, "Please save Grandfather Oak!"
"I can only save those bound to me by contract," Tashar replied.
Marion's ears drooped. She knew full well the Old Oak's stance toward the dungeon. Tashar studied the tree with its human face, pondering what treasures might lie within its trunk after death.
The oak suddenly opened its eyes.
They lacked whites, instead brimming entirely with a green glow. Though its charred branches were bare, those eyes evoked summer sunlight filtering through green leaves, conjuring images of boundless forests. Instantly, everything around them darkened, as if a vast canopy had descended from the sky, enveloping only Tasha and the tree. Marion and the exiles vanished. Before Tasha stood a massive oak, lush and verdant.
"Telepathy," Victor sneered. "A private world without lies. The old tree spirit trick." He added, "Don't worry. Crush that tree, and you'll be free."
The oak gazed at Tasha for a long moment before speaking. "You carry no scent of the Abyss."
"What?" Victor laughed inside Tasha's mind. "A dungeon-born creature without the Abyss's scent? Has the tree spirit grown senile?"
Tasha was equally baffled. She didn't respond, waiting for an explanation.
"I know you can hear me, Master of the Dungeon," the ancient oak spoke slowly. "I once thought Marion's survival was merely due to your cunning—that you hadn't yet corrupted her soul, seeking only to gain more. But these bones and this ghost carry no trace of the Abyss either. Why?"
Tasha thought for a moment. "I don't know."
The oak's brow slowly arched, revealing a look of puzzlement.
"My first memory in this world emerged in underground ruins. I didn't know what happened, what I was, or what I was meant to do," Tashan said. "Only fragmented information taught me how to survive. That was all."
"Ruins..." the Oak Elder repeated.
He fell silent for a long time, eyes closed. Tashan almost thought he'd fallen asleep. Minutes later, he opened his eyes again and said, "So, what do you want?"
"Saying 'build a better world' instead of 'rule the world' won't get you caught," Victor urged. "Actually, destroying the world works too, as long as you genuinely believe the ruined one is better. The art of language—you know what I mean?"
Tasha said, "Not entirely sure. I don't understand this world yet."
Victor clicked his tongue and muttered under his breath that she'd better be just fishing for information.
"Then do you understand the Abyss?" the tree asked.
"No more than I understand this world," Tashu replied. "I suspect what I know is already outdated."
"But you don't yearn for the Abyss," Oak said.
"Why would I yearn for something I don't understand?" Tasha countered.
Oak burst into laughter, his chuckles like a pine forest in the wind. The sound ended in a sigh as the ancient oak said, "Let us make a pact."
"What? What?" Victor exclaimed. "Well, so tree spirits really do get senile. What are we waiting for? Bring it out!"
The contract materialized in the space between them, glowing with vibrant green life. Before Tash could react, the parchment was thrust toward him by the Oak before him.
"The Great Druid gave me some gifts before he departed, back when I was still a sapling," "The ancient oak spoke with a nostalgic tone. "The Forest Covenant requires no gods or demons as witnesses. Nature itself bears witness. As long as a single tree remains standing, the Covenant cannot be broken."
The contract was a leaf, its pen a branch. They exuded the fragrance of plants, smelling like forests, meadows, and sunshine. The oak's branches tapped the leaf, and words appeared upon it. How strange—it wasn't any known script, resembling instead a string of cheerful bird songs or mottled moss patterns on stone. Tasha didn't recognize the characters, yet she understood their meaning.
"It is a fragment of a precious artifact, its writing universal among all sentient races." "As if sensing her confusion, the ancient oak spoke, "It holds no linguistic ambiguity—the most fitting, most barrier-breaking treasure... When all races united for the plane's survival, it was used to inscribe the Erian Declaration."
His words carried complex emotions, a blend of pride and bitterness. After this explanation, the ancient oak's voice grew solemn.
"Do you swear never to betray the creatures of the Material Plane to the Abyss?" he asked. "Do you swear never to destroy the continent of Eryan, never to exterminate the races of the earth to feed upon them, never to open portals to the Abyss or the Celestial Realm?"
"What do you mean, 'open portals'?" Victor muttered, then quickly retorted aloud, "Nice try! Who'd sign such a contract? We can write our own agreements, right?"
"...If you swear," the Old Oak continued, "I shall become your follower. And upon my death—within the next year or two—you shall receive the Heart of Nature."
The oak sent the Heart of Nature's message directly into Tashan's mind. Victor suddenly fell utterly silent, his speechless shock palpable to Tashan. Before the chattering tome could gather its thoughts, the ghost picked up the pen and floated over to the contract.
Tashan said, "I accept."