The World Devouring System

[Failed to trigger [Devour] on the target. Host's combat contribution was determined to be too low.]

For about ten seconds or so, Caelum stood perfectly still. The warden who was ignorant about the World Devouring System completely misunderstood the kind of thoughts that were swirling inside Caelum's mind. Still, he did not speak and let Caelum come to terms with what he had done.

Caelum then exited the cell and started walking towards a nearby occupied cell. The person inside was already scared out of his mind, having heard the prior screams and looking at the blood stained blade in Caelum's hands.

"Is this one reserved?" Caelum asked the warden in a flat voice.

The warden checked the register in his hands before replying: "No."

A similar scene from before played out inside the second victim's cell. When he tried to use [Devour] on his new victim, Caelum was faced with the same prompt yet again. The corners of his lips curled into an inscrutable smile.

'This is a good thing, potentially. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself. I need to get a better understanding of this ability.'

"The register."

Caelum stretched his hand out as he asked the warden to hand the register over to him. The warden did not know how to feel knowing that Caelum was still not done – he couldn't just allow Caelum to massacre every prisoner.

'This will be the last one', the warden told himself as he handed the register over to Caelum.

"Give me another weapon; something small – a knife or a dagger."

The ring on the warden's middle finger shone with a faint purple light. A dagger appeared out of nowhere, floating in front of the warden.

'A spatial storage ring…' Caelum noted. He did not have one for himself yet since these rings could not be operated by someone who could not use Qi – something that was not possible for humans unless they reached the Qi Gathering realm.

"Good. Hold on to both these weapons for a second as I go through the register", Caelum told the warden as he scanned the list of prisoners with a hint of impatience. Soon, he settled upon his final target for the day.

A short while later, Caelum and the warden were standing in front of a cell that contained a mortal woman who appeared to be in her fifties. When Caelum observed her face, he noticed something unusual – unlike most of the other prisoners, this woman looked neither frightful nor depressed. Instead, her eyes gleamed with an inexplicable madness. She looked like she belonged to a mental asylum for completely deranged people. As Caelum observed her, she too was observing Caelum with an intense, unflinching stare.

Caelum took a deep breath and instructed the warden.

"Give me that sword again, unlock the cell and get rid of the chains binding the woman. Then, give her the dagger you just retrieved."

Caelum had already discussed some things with the warden on their way to the woman's cell. The warden did exactly as Caelum had asked. After handing the dagger to the woman, he said to her while pointing at Caelum, "If you're able to kill this man, you will be set free."

After saying so, he stepped back and made some space for Caelum and the woman. Internally, he had many questions as to what Caelum was trying to achieve but he did not voice any of them – his job was just to obey orders. The badge on Caelum's chest indicated that he was the son of the Goldheart family patriarch, after all.

A flicker of surprise flashed through the eyes of the woman inside the cell when she heard the warden's words. She eerily stared at the dagger in her hands, then at the warden and finally at Caelum who was standing in front of her. She either did not notice the sword in Caelum's hands or did not care about it as she lunged at Caelum while holding the dagger with an unnatural deftness.

The warden was on high alert, ready to intervene should the need arise. He was a bona fide cultivator and stopping a mortal woman in her tracks would not be too difficult for him regardless of how deranged she was.

Still, the need never arose. Caelum intelligently positioned himself in a way such that the woman was within his sword's reach while he was out of the reach of her dagger. Not to mention, much like the other prisoners, this woman too was not in great physical shape. No matter how deftly she handled the dagger with her fingers, the overall movements of her body were sluggish and slow, giving Caelum ample time to cut her down.

Just like before, he discreetly touched the dead woman with his free hand and activated [Devour]. This time, something different happened.

[Combat contribution was deemed to be less than ideal. You have partially succeeded in devouring your target.]

[Rewards are reduced due to success being partial.]

[Your Dexterity has increased by 1]

[The [Beginner Cooking] skill has been acquired from the target]

[Your cultivation has increased]

[You have accumulated Madness]

Caelum ignored all the previous notifications and focused all of his attention on the last one. Unbeknown to him, his previously clear blue eyes now had tiny, almost unnoticeable specks of gold in them.

'Now, what is this thing about madness!?'

In order to try and get more information about the Madness he had supposedly accumulated, Caelum opened the system interface. As usual, it was visible only to him. Under the [Basic stats] section, Caelum noticed some changes.

***[Basic Stats]***

[Cultivation]:

 [Realm]: Body Tempering Realm

 [Stage]: Muscle Refinement stage

 [Progress]: 0.6%

[Health]: OK

[Qi]: 0 / 0

[Strength]: 7

[Speed]: 7

[Defense]: 5

[Dexterity]: 11

[Regeneration]: 1

[Qi Regeneration]: 0

[Dao Comprehension Talent]: 60.0 (max 100)

[Devourer's Madness]: 1.2%

[Madness deterioration rate]: 0.83% / day

He ignored the changes in his cultivation and dexterity for now and focused his attention on the two new stats that had to do with madness. As if responding to his thoughts, descriptions appeared adjacent to the new stats.

[Devourer's Madness]: The act of assimilating power that does not truly belong to you is an act that goes against the Heavens – it is a sinful temptation, one that will leave you craving for more.

Every successful usage of [Devour] will increase your Madness. When Madness reaches 100%, you will instantly die. The higher your Madness, the more difficult it will be to hold back your impulse to [Devour] everything around you.

[Madness deterioration rate]: The rate at which [Devourer's Madness] will approach zero. The value depends on your mental state. A positive mental state will increase the deterioration rate, leading to a faster erosion of the accumulated Madness. Conversely, a negative mental state will slow down the process. Madness will not go down while you are only partially conscious (for example when intoxicated) or when fully unconscious (for example when sleeping). Base deterioration rate is 1% / day.

'Wonderful. So not only do I have to complete some ridiculous milestones in order to save my soul, I'm not even allowed to be upset about the whole situation. Absolutely wonderful!'