After a brief moment of distraction, Thorne cast Water Bind twice, pulling the distant corpses of Kuruth and Grandi, along with their bow and staff, into the water.
"Huh? I didn't expect there'd be something hidden in this little lake?"
Thorne was startled. He could no longer sense any signs of life, so where did this voice come from?
It was Kuruth! He wasn't dead!
Sure enough, from Kuruth's mangled corpse emerged a shrunken, barely human version of Kuruth.
"Vile rat, I am the great servant of the God of Death, and you dare covet my corpse?"
As expected of a cunning necromancer, they were adept at manipulating souls, even able to preserve their soul after using forbidden magic.
However, judging by his frantic looking around, Kuruth couldn't detect Thorne's presence.
"A soul body? Hmph, time to test the Ghost Thorn Tree's effects."
Thorne felt no fear. If Kuruth were at his peak, Thorne might not have been able to handle him, but now, reduced to just a soul, Kuruth was like a delicious lamb before Thorne and the soul-devouring Ghost Thorn Tree.
The Ghost Thorn Tree's branches swayed eagerly—it could hardly contain itself. A necromancer's soul—what a delectable meal.
Upon receiving Thorne's command to act, several black thorns shot from the Ghost Thorn Tree's trunk toward Kuruth above the lake.
Kuruth had no time to dodge and hadn't anticipated that this little sapling behind him would attack. He was struck by all the thorns.
"Ah, damn rat, I'll burn your soul bit by bit before my god's statue!"
Kuruth let out a pained scream, his soul-formed body twisting into various shapes, clearly suffering immense damage.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
The ghost thorns exploded, shattering Kuruth's soul into fragments.
A powerful necromancer who had escaped the pursuit of the Holy Light Temple, once killed an Earth Elf successor of the elven royal family, was now effortlessly eradicated by Thorne's symbiotic creature, a mutated Ghost Thorn Tree.
The Ghost Thorn Tree impatiently extended a root. Thorne allowed it to absorb the blood but temporarily forbade it from devouring the souls.
He needed to extract their memories through the system first. Souls purified after memory extraction would be easier for the Ghost Thorn Tree to consume.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining the corpse of a Transcendent Tier Level 3 elven royal, rewarding 2000 energy points."
"Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining the corpse of a Transcendent Tier Level 2 dark wizard, rewarding 1000 energy points."
"Ding, special items detected: Dragon Bone Staff and Elven Bow. Refine them?"
"Ding, refining successful, gaining 1000 energy points as a reward."
To gain such rich rewards just by collecting corpses was something Thorne hadn't expected.
"Doesn't this mean that as long as I can obtain creature corpses, I can gain energy?"
"If that's the case, things just got a lot simpler."
A grander plan formed in Thorne's mind. If successful, it would surely help him rapidly accumulate energy.
After some digestion, Thorne finally gained a clearer understanding of this world. The memories of the wizard and elf were far richer than those of beasts and magic beasts, offering a more comprehensive view of the world.
This was a land called the Divine Demon Continent, a chaotic place teeming with all sorts of creatures and complex factions. The most powerful among them was the Holy Light Temple, which worshipped the God of Light, believing all beings should live eternally in light.
Kuruth belonged to the Witch Temple, which worshipped the God of Death, believing death was the path to eternal life.
Grandi's elven race was also one of the powerful races, though they lived secluded in the Elven Forest, rarely venturing out and forbidding anyone from entering, under penalty of relentless pursuit.
Kuruth had been chased to a dead end by the mages of the Holy Light Temple, forcing him to hide in the Elven Forest, only to be discovered by Grandi and hunted all the way here.
The last spell Kuruth used was a sacrificial dark magic, a forbidden technique. Once cast, it unleashed immense power, but the caster had to offer their own life. This was why such magic was rarely used by either light mages or dark wizards.
"Only those madmen enslaved by death would use such magic," said Bishop Furen of the Holy Light Temple.
For Thorne, this world still held many unknowns.
He was still very weak.
If Kuruth hadn't been forced to use forbidden magic, resulting in both of them essentially perishing together, Thorne's current strength likely couldn't have dealt with either of them.
"I'm still too weak!" Thorne sighed deeply.
This was just a necromancer and an elven royal. How powerful must the bishops of the Holy Light Temple, the Elven King, and the even more terrifying God of Light and God of Death be?
Fortunately, Thorne had the system. He believed that one day, he could stand at the same height as the gods.
This time, with almost no effort, he gained 4000 energy points—exactly enough for his next upgrade.
"System, I want to level up."
"Ding, deducting 4000 energy points. Congratulations to the host for advancing to a Level 3 Lake."
The previously calm lake waters churned, and Thorne's size expanded once more. Now, it had fully restored to the state before the lake dried up, with an 800-meter radius entirely covered by water.
"Now it's starting to look impressive," Thorne said, quite satisfied with his current state. Compared to the tiny puddle he was when he first arrived, he could now be called a large lake.
But compared to this boundless desert, it still seemed somewhat insignificant.
In this world, the known strongest beings—like the bishops of the Holy Light Temple and the Elven King—were Saint Tier existences.
In the memories of Kuruth and Grandi, there was no clear indication of what tier their so-called gods belonged to, but there was no doubt that gods existed.
Thorne speculated it was likely because Kuruth and Grandi's tiers weren't high enough. Kuruth was only Transcendent Tier Level 2, and Grandi was Transcendent Tier Level 3.
"Sooner or later, I'll become a god-like existence, revered and praised by millions."
Thorne was brimming with confidence. Since he'd come to this wondrous otherworld, it'd be a waste of his transmigrator identity not to climb to the very top and see the view from there.