"Master!!!"
Suddenly, the tightly shut dungeon door was violently pushed open from the outside. A silver-haired girl appeared just in time to see Hel turn the Underworld Queen into dust.
She shouted furiously, her eyes locked onto Hel as though she were staring at her father's murderer.
But she didn't rush in recklessly. Instead, she carefully extended a finger toward Hel.
[High-tier Blood Magic: Blood Stripping]
A crimson beam of light shot forward like a meteor, instantly sinking into Hel's body.
However, the scene the girl (Rosé) expected—Hel being drained of his blood and dying in agony—never happened.
Instead, the next moment, thin streams of blood violently burst out from her body. Within seconds, she was drained dry, collapsing into a shriveled corpse.
The blood she lost defied the laws of physics, hovering in midair as it condensed and compressed into a crystal-clear, blood-red gem that dropped to the ground with a faint clink.
The silver-haired girl's entrance and death took only a few seconds. It was like a farce that ended as quickly as it began. Once it was over, silence once again filled the dungeon.
Only Hel's occasional ragged breathing proved he was still alive.
No one knew how long had passed before Hel slowly regained consciousness. Every inch of his body screamed in pain, but after gritting his teeth, he managed to sit up—barely.
Then, with a groan, he rolled over to lie in a slightly more comfortable position and muttered softly:
"System, open the Entry Warehouse."
A translucent interface appeared before him, dazzling his eyes with rows of golden and purple high-tier entries.
One gold, four purple, and a whole bunch of black.
"Wait a sec—where are all those red entries that belonged to the Underworld Queen?"
After searching around, he finally spotted them on his own panel.
One pink, two red, two gold—easily the most valuable entries in the bunch.
[Detected: First acquisition of a pink-grade entry. Entry rarity level updated.]
[Rarity order (highest to lowest): Pink, Red, Gold, Orange, Purple, Blue, Green, White, Gray.]
[Note: Black entries are detrimental to the user.]
"...This is literally the same color-coding system as online games. Don't tell me there's a game developer working inside the Transmigrator Management Bureau."
Hel muttered to himself before looking through his newly acquired entries.
The pink and one of the red ones obviously came from the Underworld Queen—she was killed using those after all.
Then came the rest...
Wait, hold on.
What the hell are these?!
"'Death Witch'? 'Apocalyptic Enchantress'?! Why are these even on me?!"
Witch. Enchantress.
He was a man! Having these entries attached to him was just asking for ridicule!
When he was about to unequip the [Death Witch] entry, his hand suddenly hesitated midair and diverted toward [Lord of Death] instead.
He remembered clearly how the Underworld Queen had died, so he decided to play it safe.
Thankfully, he managed to remove [Lord of Death] without issue.
Then came two golden entries—[Apocalyptic Enchantress] and [Death Magic Affinity]—plus the ominous red entry [Undead King].
However, when he tried to remove [Death Witch], the system chimed again:
[Detected: Host is currently alive. Bloodline-type entries cannot be transferred.]
"…Wait, what? You mean I can't unequip it unless I'm dead?"
He chuckled awkwardly. "What do you want me to do, die first to prove it?"
Of course, he was joking. He had no intention of reincarnating as an amoeba.
Since he couldn't remove it, he had to live with it. On the bright side, it gave a decent boost to his magic power.
But after a closer look, Hel's face stiffened.
Damn it—it boosted death-type magic.
What use was that to a perfectly good water mage like him?
Great. A wasted slot.
Unless he planned to dual-train in death magic—which was unlikely.
In any world, anyone dabbling in death magic was never seen as "the good guy." At best, they were avoided; at worst, hunted.
Especially with the Church around—if they ever discovered he practiced death magic, he'd be utterly screwed.
Then again…
Hel glanced around the dark dungeon and the two corpses near the door.
Did he really have a choice?
He sighed, raised his hand, and equipped [Death Magic Affinity] once more.
After thinking about it, he went ahead and equipped the rest too.
If the Death Witch entry couldn't be removed anyway, he might as well stop being picky.
So what if he became the "Apocalyptic Enchantress"? Titles didn't matter—as long as the entries were high-level.
Next came [Undead King], which allowed him to control undead creatures of tier six or below.
However… there was a catch.
He needed to successfully issue a command—either through mental projection or by shouting it out loud.
Given his current pathetic mana level, mental projection was out of the question.
Still, it was a potential defensive option.
When he was about to equip Rosé's only gold entry, [Bloodline Monarch], another message popped up:
[Entry slots full.]
"Full?"
[Entry capacity is tied to your current rank. Formula: Current Rank + 1.]
Rank + 1?
Hel looked at his panel. Ten positive entries and three black ones. Something felt off.
[Additionally, each black entry increases your maximum slot count by 1.]
[As a transmigrator, your slot capacity is doubled compared to ordinary beings.]
So normally, he'd only have five slots, huh?
Hel counted again—three black entries, three extra slots. The math checked out.
Meaning… if he had enough black entries, he could theoretically stack an unlimited number of abilities.
But then he looked at his current black entries:
[Physically Frail]: Strength -1
[Chronic Poisoning]: Death in 7 days
[Demon's Bastard]: Luck -5, infamous among nobles
Yeah… the risks were way too high.
One only slightly weakened him, but another would literally kill him in a week.
No thanks.
To remove the poison debuff, Hel unequipped two of the original owner's useless entries.
The original body had four in total:
Blue: [Water Magic Affinity]
White: [Water Magic]
Those were his only combat options, so he kept them.
The remaining two were purple—nice quality, but not power-related—so off they went.
By now, observant readers might have noticed: five of Hel's entries came from the Underworld Queen, four from the original owner…
Which left one more.
Whose was that?
Naturally, his own.
[Transmigrator]: Knowledge +100. You possess the wisdom of another world.
A golden entry exclusive to Hel—the Transmigrator. Guess he wasn't completely useless after all.
Feeling a little smug, he stretched.
Time to loot the corpses—
cough—collect his rightful spoils of war.
It was only natural, right? He had just taken down a boss-level opponent and her elite underling.
Even if that "underling" was a minor character, anyone serving under a boss like the Underworld Queen couldn't be weak.
With that thought, Hel approached the pile of ashes where she'd fallen.
Something faintly glowing caught his sharp eyes.
He quickly began digging through the ashes and soon pulled out the source of the light—a black, twelve-sided crystal radiating a faint aura of death.
The moment he picked it up, a chilling cold seeped into his bones.
"This is… an Elemental Crystal?"
In this world, every transcendent being—human or beast—condensed a crystal of elemental power in their heart upon death. This was known as an Elemental Crystal.
They were indispensable for cultivation.
If a normal person's training speed was 1, using an Elemental Crystal boosted it to 10.
With enough resources, a transcendent could quickly reach the limits of their talent.
While one could safely absorb its energy externally, there was a faster method—swallowing it.
However, that came with enormous risk.
Residual fragments of the owner's soul often lingered within the crystal. Holding it was fine—but swallowing it risked possession.
Then again…
Hel glanced at the ashes.
"The Underworld Queen's soul… is already gone, right?"