Van Helsing Arrives

He had accumulated quite a few souls by now. Most of them were hunted in the Abyss, and there were three human souls offered by Lucius. In total, Roy now possessed fifty-four low-grade souls.

Now that he suspected souls were a special energy source, Roy began to investigate the fundamental reason why demons devoured souls to gain magic power.

He believed that demons should only be utilizing the negative emotional energy contained within souls. Negative emotional energy referred to feelings like fear, dread, pain, and greed, generated by living beings during their lives. Since demons found it difficult to generate such emotions themselves, the souls Roy obtained from hunting other demons in the Abyss were generally smaller in volume, containing less negative emotional energy. Consequently, the magic power growth after devouring them was also low.

Conversely, humans, being more fragile and emotionally rich, were more prone to generating greater amounts of negative emotional energy upon death. This was also why human souls were larger in volume.

Based on these theories, Roy conceived a method.

He theorized that demons, by simply devouring souls to increase their magic power, might not be utilizing the negative emotional energy within the souls completely!

Therefore, during the two days he spent in the Basement, Roy took out all the souls he possessed. He then categorized these souls by volume. He selected several souls with similar volumes and soul power, and began his experiments.

These souls were divided into two groups. One group was directly consumed by Roy.

By devouring these souls and observing the growth of his magic power attribute on the System Panel, Roy found that the growth increment mostly hovered around 0.3 and 0.4. Only a couple of them managed to reach 0.5.

After recording this data, Roy began to draw in the system.

He was still drawing potion patterns, but this time his definition of the potion was slightly different. He defined it as: [Magic Power Amplification Potion], [Refined Extracted Soul Product]!

And to be safe, Roy thought about it again and added one more condition: [Maximum Utilization]. After making these three definitions, Roy invested the souls designated for the control group into the system for saving and manifestation.

Unlike exchanging for manifested items in the past, the Magic Power Amplification Potion Roy created could be produced with 100% success. This was because the potion itself was a refinement and extraction of souls. One soul could be refined, and so could dozens of souls. The only difference was the quantity, which affected the volume of the extracted potion.

Soon, Roy had a bottle of potion in his hand. He merely glanced at it before tilting his head back and drinking it down!

He had previously gained a total magic power attribute growth of 4.2 by directly devouring a group of twelve souls. However, this Magic Power Amplification Potion, extracted from twelve souls of the same volume, provided him with a staggering 10 points of magic power attribute growth after he drank it!

This meant that the soul extraction potion made through the system had more than double the magic power amplification efficiency of directly devouring souls!

Roy's hypothesis was proven correct. He felt he would have to control his habit of devouring souls from now on. While devouring souls was enjoyable, the actual energy utilization rate of the souls was relatively low. If he wanted faster magic power growth, the best method was to use the system to create extraction potions.

Now, Roy's magic power attribute had grown to the value of 23.5. When he attempted to use Telekinesis, the duration he could sustain it had more than doubled.

The strength and speed growth brought about by the T-Virus enhancement had now stagnated. This indicated that the potential of the demon body had been fully developed. Without better body development potion recipes, his strength and speed attributes had temporarily reached their limit.

These two attributes only ensured Roy's close-combat capabilities. In such a situation, Roy naturally had to seek other avenues. He still needed to develop ranged attack methods, and ranged attacks required him to use high-quality souls for skill customization. Higher magic power attributes were also the fundamental guarantee for creating skills.

And during the two days Roy spent researching in the Basement, strange occurrences had successively appeared in Transylvania Town.

In two days, several people had gone missing. These individuals were all homeless vagrants in the town. Not long after their disappearance, their bodies were discovered. Initially, people thought they had been captured by vampires. However, upon discovering their bodies, they realized they had been murdered!

Needless to say, these vagrants were murdered by Lucius. The souls Roy received were proof of this. But the problem was that the townspeople didn't know. Lucius had been very secretive, so for a time, the townspeople were in a panic, discussing who the murderer could be.

Coincidentally, at this critical juncture, Van Helsing and his assistant, the church monk Carl, arrived in town.

The people of Transylvania Town, having been isolated for many years, were already familiar with each other's faces. So, as soon as Van Helsing and Carl appeared, the townspeople noticed these two strangers!

Holding weapons, the people spontaneously surrounded the two.

This small town was under the shadow of vampires, so they were extremely distrustful of strangers. This was because there were often individuals who called themselves Monster Hunters who overconfidently tried to hunt the Vampire Count Dracula. Without exception, all these individuals were killed by Dracula. Not only that, but it often led to Dracula and his Brides venting their anger on the townspeople, bringing disaster upon them.

Van Helsing and Carl did not know this, so after being surrounded, they didn't know what was happening. Looking at the indifferent and numb eyes of the townspeople, Van Helsing had no doubt that these people would swarm them and beat them to death. So, he had already reached behind his back, intending to draw his weapon to prepare for self-defense.

"You, turn around!"

Just then, a pleasant voice came from behind Van Helsing. He turned his head and found a beautiful blonde beauty dressed in noble attire.

This woman was naturally one of the last descendants of the Villeris Family, Anna Villeris! Although she no longer had a noble title, the Villeris Family had been wealthy in the past, so her attire was completely different from the poor commoners in town. Especially compared to the women with dirt-stained faces, Anna naturally appeared radiant.

"Take off your hat!" Anna said, hands on her hips, tilting her chin up at Van Helsing. "Show your face!"

"Why?" Van Helsing asked.

"Because we don't trust strangers!" Anna replied. "And gentlemen, you must disarm yourselves!"

"Come and try!" How could Van Helsing possibly agree? He tightened his grip on the gun.

The atmosphere in the scene instantly became tense. However, just at this moment, another voice suddenly came through, "I know who he is!"

The crowd looked towards the source of the voice, only to find the Town Chief, who hadn't been seen for a long time!

"It's Baron Lucius!"

"Didn't he always hide in his Manor, escaping from the vampires?"

"Why is he out now? It seems he's lost quite a bit of weight..."

Ignoring the whispers of the crowd, Lucius walked towards Van Helsing from among the people, and said loudly, "Gentlemen, I know who you are! London, Paris, your wanted posters are everywhere, aren't they? Van Helsing! You murderer! This is why you dare not take off your hat and show your true face, am I right?"

Upon hearing Lucius's words, the townspeople were instantly in an uproar. Wanted posters!? This guy was a murderer?

So, the people immediately connected the recent murders of many vagrants in town with Van Helsing!

"Damn it, could it be that he killed our townspeople?"

"It must be true. Although Baron Lucius is a bit timid, he is a noble and well-informed. Since he says the other party is a murderer, it must be true!"

"The killer! He is the killer!"

"Arrest him! Burn him to death!"

Looking at the increasingly agitated townspeople, Van Helsing couldn't help but let out a wry smile. The wanted posters were real. In fact, many of the monsters Van Helsing had hunted were actually humans who had transformed. After killing these monsters, they would revert to their human forms. This led many people who didn't know the truth to regard him as a murderer, and he was wanted in various cities on charges of first-degree murder!

Van Helsing didn't even have a chance to argue about this...