«Aren't you going to eat them?» Alice asked, nudging one of the Adventurer's corpses with her paw. «Their essence might be useful.»

Adam looked at the human remains, a complex, unfamiliar hesitation rising within him. "...I don't know. I'm not... particularly fond of eating humans." The memory of the first time he'd consumed a human driven by blind rage and desperation—surfaced. It had been an act of survival, not choice.

But now, with his human intellect fully intact, the idea felt... distasteful. Yet, a colder, more pragmatic part of his mind countered, 'I've already crossed that line. What's the point of having scruples now? These humans were enemies. They came to kill me. Their bodies are resources, no different from the Queen or the Mugwump. To discard a useful resource out of a pointless, lingering sentiment is a weakness. A luxury I cannot afford.'

He let out a slow breath, the star-like points on his back dimming slightly as he made his decision. Sentiment is a shackle. 'I am not that weak human anymore. I am the Abyssal Seraph. I consume to grow. That is the law.'

"You're right, Alice," he said, his voice firm, all trace of hesitation gone. "Thinking about what's already done is useless. We take every advantage."

He began the grim task, consuming the four Adventurers one by one. As their essence—a mix of trained physicality, latent magical potential, and human ingenuity—integrated into him, the system notifications confirmed his choice.

[ Consumed Human Adventurer (Swordsman-Type)! ]

[ Strength +1 | Agility +1 | Intelligence +1 ]

[ Skill Fragment Acquired: Shocking Cleave (1.0/1.0) ]

[ Consumed Human Adventurer (Leader/Spellsword-Type)! ]

[ Vitality +1 | Intelligence +1 ]

[ Skill Fragment Acquired: Critical Injury Focus (1.0/1.0) ]

[ Consumed Human Adventurer (Dual-Wielder)! ]

[ Agility +2 ]

[ Consumed Human Adventurer (Watchman/Scout-Type)! ]

[ Intelligence +1 ]

[ Total Stat Gains: Strength +1, Agility +3, Vitality +1, Intelligence +3 ]

But the real prize was the completed skill fragments. As Shocking Cleave settled into his being, it resonated powerfully with his existing Cyclone Cutter. Both were techniques about delivering a single, devastating, cutting blow, one enhanced by lightning, the other by pure, armor-ignoring force. They merged seamlessly.

[ Detected compatible offensive skills: Cyclone Cutter, Shocking Cleave. ]

[ Skills are merging... ]

[ New Composite Skill Acquired: Stormrend (Active) - Cost: Extremely High Mana ]

Effect: Unleash a devastating vortex of cutting force sheathed in crackling lightning. Ignores a significant portion of physical armor and delivers a powerful paralyzing electric shock to the target and nearby enemies.

Simultaneously, the Critical Injury Focus fragment—a technique for targeting vital spots and exacerbating wounds—fused with his Horn Charge, a skill designed for piercing through defenses.

[ Detected compatible penetration skills: Horn Charge, Critical Injury Focus. ]

[ Skills are merging... ]

[ New Composite Skill Acquired: Monarch's Pierce (Active) - Cost: High Mana ]

Effect: A focused, unstoppable charge that pierces through the hardest armor and carapace. Strikes with surgical precision at a target's weak point, causing grievous wounds that severely hinder regeneration and healing.

Adam flexed, feeling the new, terrifying potentials within him. Stormrend was the ultimate anti-armor crowd-control attack. Monarch's Pierce was the perfect tool to finish off a tough, regenerating foe like the Arachnowyrm. A fierce, predatory satisfaction washed over him. He had been right to consume them. His lingering humanity had almost cost him this power.

«Well?» Alice asked, watching him.

"Very well," Adam replied, his star-lit eyes burning with cold purpose. "Let's go. It's time to test these new skills on that damn monster"

Lilith's cold psychic aura radiated from her pale body. «It is time,» she whispered, her gentle voice now carrying the weight of glacial hatred. «Time to return the favor for my long captivity. To make the Big Mother understand the cost of her… hospitality.»

The sheer, quiet venom in her tone made even Adam feel an unexpected prickle along his scales, a purely instinctual reaction to a predator more patient and perhaps more cruel than himself. 'Yikes, Lilith is getting scarier and scarier.'

Ignis, oblivious to the chilling aura, tilted her head. «So… you were really locked up the whole time? You couldn't do anything?»

«That is correct,» Lilith replied, the chill receding slightly, replaced by a clinical detachment. «It was… tedious. A profound exercise in patience.»

«How did you even eat?» Ignis pressed, her draconic eyes wide. «You're amazing for surviving!»

«I was fed. Sparingly. What the Big Mother deemed sufficient to keep her 'aberration' alive, but never strong. Scraps from her kills. It was a sustenance of humiliation, not nourishment.»

Alice, ever pragmatic, cut in. «If you were locked up, how do you know so much about the lair and her habits?»

Lilith's legs tapped softly in a pleased rhythm. «A perceptive question. The Big Mother possesses a powerful hive-mind. When her children scuttle through the tunnels, see through their eyes, feel the vibrations through their legs… she knows. She learns. She uses them as living extensions of her own senses. That is how she could always seem to appear, aware of intruders. She was seeing through the thousands of eyes of her brood.»

Adam's star-lit eyes narrowed. «So that's how she finding us.»

«Precisely,» Lilith confirmed.

Alice's fur bristled. «Wait. Does that mean… you were connected to that hive-mind too? Could she control you?»

Ignis gasped. «Are you a spy?!»

Lilith let out a soft, chiming laugh. «Do not worry. I was an anomaly within the hive. I could hear its whispers, sense its currents… but I was never subsumed by it. My mind was always my own. That was my crime. And now…» Her crimson gaze flickered towards Adam, a subtle, intimate connection flaring in the psychic space between them. «…my connection is aligned elsewhere.»

Alice immediately stiffened, stepping between Adam and Lilith. «What do you mean by that? Get out of his head right now!»

Lilith's psychic presence didn't withdraw; instead, it curled playfully around the edges of Adam's consciousness, a gentle, cool touch. Her voice, when she replied to Alice, was the picture of innocent defiance. «I don't think I will. It's quite comfortable here.»

«You—!»

"Alice, enough. Lilith, stop teasing her," Adam said, his mental voice carrying a tired but firm edge.

Lilith's psychic presence shimmered with amusement. «Hehe. My apologies. Alice is just so very… fun to tease.»

«HEY! What is that supposed to mean?!» Alice's telepathic shout echoed in the shared space.

«Haha! Alice got teased!» Ignis chirped, adding fuel to the fire.

«Shut up, you stupid lizard!»

"All of you… just quiet down for a second," Adam grumbled aloud, pinching the bridge of his snout with a coil, a very human gesture lost on his serpentine body.

«How can I be quiet?!» Alice raged, circling Adam physically. «She's just… living in your head now! You're probably thinking about her right now!»

Lilith's voice, soft and deliberately provocative, curled through Adam's thoughts. «Oh? Is that true, Adam? Are you thinking of me? I'm so flattered~»

«Adam! Are you thinking about me too? You think about me, right?!» Ignis joined in, her mental voice bright and expectant.

Adam felt his mental processors, his very formidable Intelligence stat short-circuiting under the assault. He was a being who could plan the takedown of a dungeon lord, but this? This was impossible.

"I'm… thinking about all of you!" he finally managed, the words coming out as a strained hiss. "Now, please, calm down!"

«No, I am calm. I am the calmest. Calmer than anyone,» Alice declared, her body tense and her fur crackling with void energy, completely belying her words. «From now on, Adam, you must think about me so much that there's no room in your head for Lilith to sneak into!»

"I'm not really thinking about her that much! Hey, Lilith, help me calm her down, don't just watch!" Adam pleaded, turning his gaze to the Pale Widow Queen.

Lilith merely tilted her head, her crimson eyes glinting with pure, unadulterated entertainment. She made no move to intervene, her serene smile saying everything. 'This is fun'

Adam let out a long, suffering sigh that steamed in the cool dungeon air. The Arachnowyrm suddenly seemed like a simple, straightforward problem in comparison.

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