Roy had accumulated quite a few souls by now. Most had come from hunting in the abyssal Demon World, while three Human Souls had been offered by Lucius. Altogether, Roy now possessed fifty-four Low-grade Souls.
Now that he suspected souls were a special kind of energy source, Roy began searching for the fundamental reason demons gained magic power by devouring souls.
He believed that what demons used when devouring souls should only be the negative emotional energy contained within them. Negative emotional energy referred to feelings generated during a creature's life—terror, fear, pain, greed, and so on. Since demons often found it difficult to produce such emotions, the souls Roy obtained by hunting other demons in the abyssal Demon World were relatively small and naturally contained less negative emotional energy. The increase in magic power gained from devouring them was therefore quite low.
Humans, on the other hand, were more fragile and emotionally complex, making them more likely to generate greater amounts of negative emotional energy at the moment of death. That was also why Human Souls were relatively large.
Based on these theories, Roy came up with a method.
He believed that demons might not be making full use of the negative emotional energy within souls simply by devouring them!
So, during the two days he stayed in the basement, Roy took out every soul he possessed and sorted them by size. He selected several souls of similar size and soul power, then began experimenting.
He divided those souls into two groups. One group was used by Roy for direct devouring.
By devouring those souls and observing the increase in his Magic Power Attribute on the System Panel, Roy found that most increases hovered around 0.3 or 0.4, while only two souls reached 0.5.
After recording the data, Roy began drawing in the system.
What he drew was still a potion design, but this time he defined it differently: [Magic Power Amplification Potion], [Refined Extracted Soul Product]!
To be safe, Roy thought it over and added another definition: [Maximum Utilization]. After establishing those three definitions, he put in the group of souls meant for comparison, using them for storage manifestation.
Unlike the items he had exchanged and manifested before, the Magic Power Amplification Potion Roy made could be created with a one-hundred-percent success rate. The potion itself was merely the refinement and extraction of souls. One soul could be refined, and so could dozens of souls; the only difference was the quantity, and thus the volume of potion extracted.
Very soon, a bottle of potion appeared in Roy's hand. He merely glanced at it before tilting his head back and drinking it!
Previously, he had directly devoured a group of twelve souls and gained a total increase of 4.2 in Magic Power Attribute. Yet after drinking this Magic Power Amplification Potion extracted from twelve souls of the same size, he actually gained a full 10 points in Magic Power Attribute!
In other words, the soul extraction potion produced through the system was more than twice as efficient at increasing magic power as directly devouring souls!
Roy's hypothesis had proven correct. He felt that he would have to restrain himself from devouring souls in the future. Although devouring souls allowed him to enjoy a delicious meal, it actually had a lower energy utilization rate. If he wanted his magic power to increase more quickly, the best method was still to use the system to make extraction potions.
Roy's Magic Power Attribute had now risen to 23.5. When he tried using Telekinesis, the duration he could sustain it for had more than doubled.
The increases in strength and speed brought by T-Virus Enhancement had now stalled. This showed that the current potential of his demon body had been fully developed. Until he created a better body-enhancement potion, his strength and speed attributes had temporarily reached their limit.
Those two attributes only ensured Roy's close-combat ability. Under such circumstances, he naturally had to seek other avenues. He still needed to develop long-range attack methods and the like, and those required using High-Quality Souls for skill customization. A higher Magic Power Attribute was also the fundamental guarantee after a skill had been created.
While Roy spent those two days in the basement conducting research, strange incidents also began occurring one after another in Transylvania Town.
Over the course of two days, several people disappeared in succession. They were all homeless drifters from town. Not long after vanishing, their bodies were discovered. At first, people thought they had been taken by vampires, but after finding the corpses, they realized they had been murdered!
There was no need to ask—those drifters had been murdered by Lucius, and the souls Roy received were proof. But the townspeople did not know that. Lucius had acted very discreetly, so for a time, the town was filled with fear as people discussed who the killer might be.
And at this critical moment, Van Helsing and his assistant, Monk Carl of the church, arrived in town.
Transylvania Town had been closed off for many years, and its people had long grown familiar with each other's faces. So the instant Van Helsing and Carl appeared, the townspeople noticed these two strangers!
With weapons in hand, the people spontaneously surrounded them.
The town lay beneath the Vampire's Shadow, so its people were deeply distrustful of strangers. This was because there were often people calling themselves Monster Hunters who overestimated themselves and came to challenge Vampire Count Dracula. Without exception, not only were those people killed by Dracula, but they often provoked Dracula and his Brides into taking their anger out on the Townsmen, bringing disaster upon them.
Van Helsing and Carl did not know this, so after being surrounded, they had no idea what was happening. Seeing the cold, numb expressions in the Townsmen's eyes, Van Helsing had no doubt that they would swarm forward and beat them to death. He had already reached behind his back, intending to draw a weapon in self-defense.
"You, turn around!"
Just then, a pleasant voice sounded behind Van Helsing. He turned his head and discovered a beautiful blonde woman dressed in aristocratic clothing.
This woman was naturally Anna Villeris, one of the last remaining descendants of the Villeris Family! Though she had long since lost her noble title, the Villeris Family had once been wealthy. Her clothing was completely different from that of the poor commoners in town. Compared to the women whose faces were covered in grime, Anna naturally appeared dazzling.
"Take off your hat!" Anna put her hands on her hips, lifted her chin, and said to Van Helsing, "Show your face!"
"Why?" Van Helsing asked.
"Because we don't trust strangers!" Anna replied. "And gentlemen, you must disarm yourselves!"
"Try it!" Van Helsing could hardly agree to that, and his grip on his gun tightened.
The atmosphere immediately became tense, but then another voice suddenly called out, "I know who he is!"
The people looked toward the source of the voice, only to discover that it was the Town Chief, who had not shown himself for a long time!
"It's Baron Lucius!"
"Hasn't he been hiding in his manor, avoiding the vampires?"
"Why has he come out now? It seems he has lost quite a bit of weight..."
Ignoring the murmurs around him, Lucius walked through the crowd toward Van Helsing while loudly declaring, "Gentlemen, I know who you are! London, Paris—your wanted posters are plastered everywhere, aren't they? Van Helsing! You murderer! That's why you don't dare take off your hat and show your true face, isn't it?"
Upon hearing Lucius's words, the Townsmen immediately erupted in uproar. Wanted posters!? This man was a murderer?
At once, people connected Van Helsing with the many drifters who had been murdered in town some time ago!
"Damn it, could he have killed people from our town?"
"It can't be wrong. Baron Lucius may be a little timid, but he is a nobleman with well-informed connections. If he says that man is a murderer, then it must be true!"
"Killer! He's the killer!"
"Capture him! Burn him to death!"
Watching the Townsmen grow increasingly agitated, Van Helsing could not help but smile bitterly. The wanted posters were real. In truth, many of the monsters Van Helsing had hunted were originally humans. After he killed those monsters, they reverted to human form, causing many people who did not know the truth to regard him as a murderer and issue first-degree murder warrants for him in cities everywhere!
Van Helsing did not even have a chance to defend himself against that...
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