He activated the ability—the one he'd never used on a living being before. The technique required almost no mana to perform, practically nothing at all compared to his other skills.

A faint green hue appeared around Leon's hand where it touched the monster's bark-like chest.

The vitality, the very essence of life itself, began leaving the creature's body. It flowed into Leon like water through a broken dam, his ability drinking deeply from the monster's seemingly infinite reserves. He had no injuries that needed healing, but the slight strain he'd put on his body from using fifteen percent of his strength vanished in an instant, muscles relaxing as fresh energy flooded through them.

The absorbed life force converted automatically into mana. The rate at which his reserves refilled was staggering—far faster than the rate at which he was burning mana to maintain the spatial freeze. His depleted reserves filled like a cup under a waterfall.

The crimson fire in the monster's eyes widened with something that might have been panic or recognition. Its life was being drained away, but that insane regeneration kicked in immediately, pumping vitality back through its system in a desperate attempt to compensate for the loss.

It was fighting back the only way it knew how.

Leon's mana reserve reached full capacity in only a couple of seconds.

Then something unexpected happened.

A transparent golden screen materialized in front of his eyes, floating in his vision like it had always been there.

+2 Mana

+1 Mana

+2 Mana

The messages appeared over and over again, a steady stream of notifications that made his eyes widen in surprise.

My mana capacity is increasing. The monster's vitality is expanding my limits.

The process was slow—painfully slow considering the massive amount of energy flowing through his palm. Most of the mana was being wasted, escaping into the atmosphere around his body because he simply couldn't absorb it all fast enough. The excess vitality dispersed into the air like steam from boiling water, visible as faint green wisps that faded seconds after leaving his skin.

So much power. And I'm only catching a fraction of it.

The monster had panicked initially, its body thrashing against the spatial freeze with renewed desperation. But as seconds turned to minutes and the draining continued without stopping—no matter how hard it struggled, no matter how much it tried to regenerate—a terrible realization seemed to dawn in whatever served as its consciousness.

This was how it would die.

An ancient message arrived in its mind—something primal and fundamental, carried in the very life force Leon was absorbing. Knowledge from the creature's creation, perhaps, or instincts buried so deep they might as well be memories.

I am being erased.

To Leon, nothing appeared to change about the monster for the first twenty seconds. Its body remained solid, its regeneration still functioned, its eyes still burned with that emerald fire.

But after thirty seconds, everything shifted at once.

The monster's body dried out like wood left in the desert sun. Bark cracked and crumbled. The green glow faded from its interior. Those burning eyes dimmed to nothing, and the massive fifteen-foot frame collapsed inward as all moisture and vitality abandoned it completely.

Within seconds, only a pile of ash remained where the terrifying creature had stood—gray powder that scattered in the gentle forest breeze, leaving no trace that anything substantial had ever existed there.

Leon released the spatial freeze and stepped back, looking down at the remains.

Gone. Completely erased.

He checked his status mentally, reviewing the notifications that had flooded his vision during the absorption.

Total Mana Capacity Increase: +350

A satisfied smile crossed his face. He hadn't known his ability could do that—expand his actual mana capacity rather than just refilling what already existed. The discovery opened fascinating possibilities for future growth.

Though I absorbed more than ten thousand mana worth of vitality to get only three hundred fifty permanent increase. The conversion ratio is terrible.

Still, any permanent increase was valuable. Mana capacity was one of the hardest attributes to improve, typically requiring years of cultivation, leveling up, or rare treasures that cost fortunes. Getting three hundred fifty points from a single fight, even if inefficiently, was objectively excellent.

But his satisfaction died quickly as a different realization struck him.

Where's the mana core? Where's the skill stone?

Leon expanded his spatial awareness, scanning the area where the monster had fallen. Ash—but no crystallized mana core. No skill stone that should have formed from such a powerful creature's death.

Nothing.

This is impossible. A monster this strong should have dropped something.

Fury bubbled up in his chest, hot and sharp. He'd just discovered something extraordinary about his abilities, yes. But he'd also killed what was easily one of the most powerful creatures he'd encountered in the Middle Domain, and there was no loot. No materials to sell or study. No core to absorb or trade. Not even a skill stone he could get a skill from.

Completely worthless. All that effort for nothing but a capacity increase I could have gotten elsewhere.

It shouldn't even be possible for a creature this powerful to die without leaving anything behind. Every monster above a certain threshold formed a mana core—it was a fundamental rule of how magic and life interacted in this world. Skill stones were rarer but still common enough among truly strong creatures.

Yet this thing left only ash.

Did my ability destroy everything when it drained the life force? Or was there something fundamentally different about this monster?

While Leon spiraled through these frustrated thoughts, the forest around them began to change. The animated trees stopped moving mid-swing. The crawling roots went still and lifeless. The vines that had been strangling victims moments ago simply fell to the ground like ordinary plants.

The fight was over.

That should have been a moment of joy and relief for everyone present. Victory against impossible odds. Survival when death had seemed certain.

But it was quite the opposite for Loriel, the Saintess of Life.

She was terrified. Her face had gone pale, eyes wide with horror as she stared at Leon from thirty meters away. She'd seen what he'd done—watched that green glow around his hand, witnessed the monster's life being drained away into Leon's body.

She'd wanted to run over and stop him. Her legs had moved before her mind caught up, carrying her toward the battle. But the path had been blocked by scattered minions and debris, and she'd only broken through at the end when it was far too late.

She'd realized exactly what he'd done.

It's taboo. Absorbing life force from living things for your own use is absolutely taboo.

And it was forbidden for very good reasons—reasons she knew intimately from her studies at the Church of Life.

Loriel ran toward Leon, her heart pounding with guilt and fear. I should have told him sooner. He has life element too. I should have warned him about the dangers the moment I learned he could use it.

She didn't even know what to do now. The damage might already be done.

She reached him and grabbed his shirt with both hands, her small fingers clutching the fabric desperately. Horror filled her pure hazel eyes as she looked up at him.

"Leon! What have you done?!" Her voice shook, cracking on the last word.

Leon blinked, pulled from his frustrated thoughts about the missing loot. He looked down at Loriel's terrified expression, confusion replacing his anger.

What's wrong with her? Why is she acting like this?

There's a reason you can't just absorb life force from living and non-living things! It comes with a steep cost! You can use life element to heal wounds, yes—that's the limit of what's safe!

Her hands tightened on his shirt, pulling herself closer as if physical proximity would somehow make him understand the severity faster.

But it's dangerous because if you accidentally go beyond healing, the excess life force turns into mana inside your body—and that mana becomes poisonous to your mana core! Tears were forming in her eyes now, threatening to spill over.

She'd read the histories. The cautionary tales recorded in the Church of Life's restricted archives. One story in particular haunted her—a saintess from three centuries ago who had used life force to heal a dying village during a terror. She'd saved hundreds of lives, draining the vitality from the disease itself and converting it to healing energy.

But she'd made a mistake. Absorbed too much. Let some of that stolen life force convert to mana inside her body instead of channeling it all externally into her patients.

The poisoned mana had begun corrupting her core within hours. She'd had two choices: destroy her own mana core and live as a cripple, or die within days as the corruption spread through her entire system.

She'd chosen to destroy the core. Spent the rest of her long life as an ordinary human, all her power and connection to the divine stripped away by her own hand.

And Leon just absorbed an entire monster's worth of vitality. Thousands upon thousands of units of life force, all converted directly into mana inside his body.

Leon stared at Loriel's horrified expression, trying to process what she was saying. He shook her shoulders gently, trying to ground her.

"What happened, Loriel? Why are you acting this way? Are you fine?"

She shook her head violently, tears finally breaking free and streaming down her cheeks. Her voice came out small and broken, barely above a whisper.

"Please... destroy your mana core."

The words hung in the air between them like a death sentence.

Leon's mind went blank for a moment, unable to process what he'd just heard.

"What?!"

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