Modern World Warlock-Chapter 156: Umbra Absorption
It had been two weeks since the Jade Dragons moved into their new residence, and Dante woke up beside Megan, with a wide gap between them where Sophia usually slept.
When the trio was deciding which side of the bed to take, Megan and Dante came to an agreement to have Sophia in the middle, as she was the softest of the three.
However, the blonde would wake up hours earlier than her two companions to make breakfast and go to college, leaving an open space between the two remaining on the bed.
The group had already been told about the planned trip to the city of New Arcadia, which was located south of Novaria and was known for its beachside lifestyle.
It was one of the main locations that tourists would visit whenever they traveled to Novaria, as it was also considered one of the safest cities in the country.
As Dante got up from the bed and stretched his muscles, he reminisced about what Camille told him about the trip, explaining that she wanted to meet with an old business friend.
When Dante asked for more details, she said that she was friends with the handler of the Autumn family and needed to exchange a few words with her.
Still, Camille didn't divulge many details as she wanted to tell everyone at the same time—not because it was a secret, but because the handler didn't like explaining things more than once.
'Well, today is Sophie's last exam… So, I suppose Camille will tell us more about it later,' Dante thought.
After putting on a casual shirt and sweatpants, Megan opened her eyes and spotted the warlock changing, indifferently sitting up on her bed while muttering a muffled "good morning."
"Morning…" Dante replied, gazing at the brunette and getting stunned for a brief moment.
The sight of Megan's disheveled hair and squinting eyes seemed almost too beautiful for him to look at.
The thin shoulder straps of her tank top were sliding to the sides, and her bare thigh was peeking out of the sheets.
*Yawn…* "What…?" Megan asked, seeing that the warlock had his eyes locked on her.
*Ahem* "Nothing important…" Dante replied, feeling a strange sense of embarrassment that he hadn't felt in hundreds of years.
When Dante left the room to allow Megan to change, he saw the five succubi leaving a room together.
"Are you all sharing a single room?" Dante asked them.
"Yes. We all fit in there quite comfortably…" Zarina replied, bowing her head slightly to the warlock.
"If you say so… Don't be afraid to use another room if you need more space," Dante casually said, his words surprising the succubus.
The five demons had been diligently working for the Jade Dragons as not only Hellslayer but also their Queen had sided with them.
In their minds, only an extremely powerful organization would be able to convince such individuals to join them, so they worked with a slight sense of fear deep within them.
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However, the succubi were confused whenever the people from the Jade Dragons treated them with kindness, as it wasn't something they were used to, so they didn't know how to react.
"Th-thanks—We'll keep that in mind," Zarina nervously said.
'It'll take some time for them to get more comfortable around here…' Dante thought.
After his interaction with the succubi, Dante paid a visit to the laboratory on the east wing of the residence, wanting to check on Clara's training.
The woman was capable of summoning a Shadow Well, but it would leave her quite tired after, so she couldn't practice using it to synthesize anything.
However, after weeks of practicing, she reached a point where she could summon the well and keep some of her energy, making her excited to start experimenting with it.
Clara thought about starting with a healthstone, but Dante wasn't sure if it would be the best option, as it required the caster's blood to create.
Even if the woman was determined, she had only recently become a warlock, and Dante knew that slicing their palms open to make blood pour out into a cup wasn't something that ordinary people could easily do.
Moreover, if she didn't practice the process enough times, she could faint while doing it.
"Let's practice with this…" Dante said, pulling out a small orb from his pocket.
He explained to Clara that it was a soulstone, which contained the soul of one of the fiends he had killed at Highpoint Town.
The objective was to purify the orb of the evil umbra inside it, which was similar to what he had done to the soulstone he gave to both Zac and Megan for their contracts.
However, those orbs were also linked to the warlock, while the fiend's soulstone was not.
"I've absorbed thousands of demons' souls, so when I had to purify the soulstone for Zac and Megan, it took me a little more effort than usual…" Dante elaborated.
"However, a fiend's soul shouldn't be too heavy—It'll still take you a few days to complete, though…" the warlock continued.
Clara seemed excited to begin, asking what the soulstone could be used for once it was purified, and Dante replied by saying that it could be absorbed to increase a person's skills or powers. However, those effects would vary depending on the soul.
"You should know… Purifying a demon's soulstone can be a little… umm, heavy," Dante commented.
"How so?" The middle-aged woman asked.
The act of purifying, for a warlock, was absorbing the evil umbra into their own bodies until there was virtually none of it in the soulstone.
When Dante purified the soulstones he gave to Zac and Megan, he ended up having nightmares for a few days afterward, so he warned the woman of the side effects and told her not to overdo it.
"You've practiced umbra absorption when we treated Miss Alice, so try doing the same with the stone… If it gets too difficult, stop and continue later," Dante kept explaining, slightly worried about the woman's well-being.
Clara treated Dante the same way she treated her son Zac, and the warlock started to feel like he needed to protect her as if she were his own mother.
He would've never cared about another warlock having nightmares after purifying an orb, but he felt different towards Clara since he felt she was too kind to be a warlock.
