A rat's nest of a basement, its chains drawn taut and its walls plastered with skin.
Three hours had passed. Unlike the skin of the open-source Skin Carrier he had dealt with at Duke's Merchant Guild,
this Apostle Skin from the gatekeeper Pim gave William a completely different feeling.
The black liquid filling the Magic Box was consumed in less than an hour, yet the Apostle Skin Pouch had shown only the slightest change in color. By now, William had injected black liquid four times in succession, leaving him somewhat weak.
The Apostle Skin Pouch he had been stirring constantly in the box had only undergone superficial blackening.
"I seem to have thought this problem far too simply. Changing the nature of an Apostle Skin Pouch is no easier than directly fighting a Skin Apostle... Even if I completely wring myself dry tonight, I'm afraid I still won't succeed.
"Perhaps I should just fuse with the Skin Pouch directly. Repairing the Yellow Skin is what matters most."
Just as William was preparing to interrupt the conversion process, a low voice rang out in his mind:
'Hey! Do you have to make things sound so exaggerated? This gift from the gatekeeper is only a part of his Skin Pouch, not a complete Skin Pouch suit. What do you mean, it's no easier than fighting a Skin Apostle? You're really good at making excuses for your own incompetence. You're getting more and more useless, William~'
William's emotions did not change at all because of those words. Instead, he followed along with them:
'Yeah~ I really am "useless" when it comes to manipulating death. Why don't you give it a try, Yi Chen? If you can make Black Death Skin, I'll sincerely admire you.
'If you can't, then keep your big mouth shut