Autophagy

As he was about to lose consciousness, Song Lei managed to read the notifications.

[Congratulations! You\'ve managed to exorcise the Domain-Bound Mental Demon Emma. You\'ve leveled up and gained two stat points.]

The words resounded in Song Lei\'s mind as he put his two newly gained stats into the body stat. He felt his body started burning as his body shut itself down...

...

Song Lei felt the air burning his nostrils as it went through his windpipe. A sharp headache wrapped around his head. He frowned while pushing himself up. There was no change in the room.

\'I would\'ve died if I didn\'t spend my points before I fainted,\' he thought. Putting stats in his body stat would heal him to a certain amount. This was the thing that saved his life. He used it more like a health potion rather than a stat.

Song Lei sat on the bed for a few minutes and waited for his brain to boot up properly. He felt a disgusting smell filling his lungs while his sense of smell came back. He would\'ve puked if he hadn\'t gained some resistance to disgusting things because of the meal he had eaten back in the dining room.

\'What is this smell? Oh god,\' Song Lei thought. When he turned his head, he saw the corpse of the pig on the ground. It was infested with worms squirming around, going in and out of its eyes. Slowly decomposing its body.

Song Lei turned his head away and looked at the system notifications he had been ignoring for some time.

[Congratulations! All of your stats have been evened out. As they\'ve all reached 5, you\'ve gained the skill "Tri-force I".]

Song Lei swiped the skill to the side and read its explanation.

[Body, mind, and soul are one. They are your sole existence. You\'re them and they are you. Your whole being compliments itself. To start the acquisition of this skill, please click on "YES".]

Song Lei frowned and looked at the new notification. The word "yes" was written on it with all capitals. There was no other choice.

\'As the system gave me the chance to acquire the skill later, the acquisition process might be very hard. I should go back to Isabel,\' Song Lei thought to himself.

He looked again at the corpse and started searching through the room. There didn\'t seem to be anything that could be of use to him.

\'Aren\'t these rooms too empty? Other than basic clothing, there are no personal items in these rooms,\' he thought while sighing. He picked up his bag from the ground and walked up to the door.

\'Wait a second...\' Song Lei stopped. \'Why does my bag feel so light?\' He thought. He weighed the bag with his hand. while frowning.

\'Oh right, it must be because of the body stat.\'

Song Lei brought up his stat sheet.

[Body]:5

[Mind]: 5

[Soul]: 5

He walked up to the wall and looked at it. \'My eye-hand coordination seems to be fine. The system must\'ve been calibrating it for me,\' he thought. Normally, if a person had a sudden increase of %66 on their strength, they probably couldn\'t even be able to walk properly. But this didn\'t seem to be the case for Song Lei.

He raised his fist and threw a punch at the wall using all of his power.

*Smash!

The wall\'s plaster cracked a little bit as dust flew around. \'Fuck. That hurt a lot,\' Song Lei thought while holding his hand. Fortunately, it didn\'t crack. \'That was one of the stupidest things I\'ve done in a long time,\' he laughed.

Song Lei walked back to the door and took a last look at the corpse then closed his eyes. He grabbed and pulled the handle of the door.

*Creak

The door creaked open and he stepped out of the room.

\'I feel like I get older every time I have to go out to the corridor,\' Song Lei thought with an awkward smile on his face.

He managed to reach the stairs without any problem. He opened his eyes back and ascended the stairs.

\'Uhh...\'

Song Lei\'s eyes widened as he looked at the state of the corridor.

*Slap

Loud snappings resounded in the corridor. The tentacles had increased in number and seemed to be agitated. They were flailing around as they made cracking sounds. Song Lei could hardly follow their movements with his eyes.

Song Lei wiped his sweat off of his forehead. He had to pass through the tentacles to reach Isabel\'s room.

\'Why did they increase in number? Is Amber getting stronger?\' He thought. These tentacles represented her power in the mansion.

He crouched down and started heading towards Isabel\'s room. He had to lower his body surface as much as he could to avoid getting hit.

While crawling, Song Lei frowned. A horrendous idea appeared in his mind.

\'Would these tentacles keep multiplying?\' He thought. If the tentacles had enough increase in number, it would eventually become impossible to pass through the corridor.

Song Lei had tried to pull out the tentacles with his hands. Although it was dangerous, it was still manageable. The problem was when the tentacles were pulled out with his hands, they quickly grew back.

\'Maybe, If I use the cursed knife, I can cut them off,\' Song Lei thought. He kept walking ahead as he looked out for any tentacle attacks. He managed to get near one of the tentacles and used his knife to cut it off.

*Plop

The tentacle fell down as it made a weird sound. It slowly lost its color and became black before turning into ashes.

Song Lei waited for a new tentacle to grow but it didn\'t. \'Great!\' He shouted in his mind. Instead, a system message popped up.

[You\'ve weakened Domain-Bound Mental Demon Amber by cutting one of her roots off.]

\'Hmm...\' Song Lei pondered. He was incredibly tired and had a skill to acquire. He could go back to Isabel\'s room and safely rest or he could fight these tentacles while in a tired state and risk his life. In the end, cutting off tentacles wasn\'t a safe job. There were some clusters of tentacles that were stacked together. He would have to dodge a lot of attacks if he wanted to cut them off without getting hurt.

\'I will recuperate first,\' Song Lei decided. He cleared some more tentacles. System notifications kept popping up but they didn\'t seem to change in any way.

He reached Isabel\'s room and pulled the handle of the door.

Song Lei heard Isabel\'s nervous voice, "Lei?! Mia is sick...!"