With the souls put to rest, all that remained was to actually destroy the Bloodwell.

With his mana fully recovered, James was about to start the process. But while he was watching Lunaris work, he had a nagging thought that gave him pause.

“Guys, so the souls are gone, right? Their suffering is over, they’re not here, they have nothing to do with the Bloodwell anymore, right?”

“Yes, they’re not bound to this world anymore. Given all that they’ve endured, good fortune must await them in the next life.” Lunaris replied with a gentle smile. As sad as she was about what happened to these souls, they were now in a much better place.

“Ok.” James answered. He had an idea, but he didn’t know how to phrase it without seeming heartless.

James cleared his throat and decided to just spit it out. “Ok, hear me out before you say anything. I’m not exactly sure about the ethics of the Bloodwell or anything, and it does make me feel sick to think about how it was made. I really do feel very bad for those souls. But now that they’re free, how about instead of destroying it, I use it? I’m not even sure it’s possible, but it’s a huge source of power, right? I can probably absorb it somehow.”

Lunaris and Helios looked at each other, saying nothing for a few seconds.

The silence was becoming uncomfortable, so James was about to give up on the idea.

“Look, I don’t have to do it. I’m not exactly enthused about taking advantage of such a thing. But as long as we’re going to destroy it, and the souls are gone, wouldn’t it make sense to use it? The way I see it, the more power we can get, the more people we can save in the future. So in a way, that’s actually the more ethical thing to do. Not using it because it feels wrong would actually be a disservice to the many lives we can potentially save with the power granted by it.”

James was babbling because he himself felt icky about the idea. Even with the souls gone, the Bloodwell was a creepy, disgusting thing that made his soul churn.

But having fought an agent, he knew he needed a lot more power in the future. If there had been just one more true agent present, they would’ve all died, no question about it. These souls would have been tortured and consumed, and many other lives would have been taken at the hands of those very same agents in the future.

His weird, personal logic told him that it was a the moral choice to actually use the Bloodwell.

“I get what you mean.” Lunaris said. “It would be an unspoken taboo to use it. The only reason it’s not an explicit crime is that few people would be crazy enough to even think about using it. I mean, look at it, it’s vomit-inducing to just be near it.”

Lunaris was right. Even with the souls gone, the Bloodwell was still a bubbling mess of flesh and blood. The only reason James was unphased was that he was used to extreme gore. As an extreme internet addict back on Earth, he had gotten so desensitized to gore that it followed him even into this life. Even when he saw atrocious things with his own two eyes, they didn’t phase him. His heart did ache for all the poor people that had suffered, but when it came to the actual gore, it didn’t have an effect on him.

“We understand your reasoning, James, but I don’t think you can do it.” Helios finally spoke up. “Not because it would be morally wrong. I mean, it is wrong, but at the same time you’re right and we have a duty to become as powerful as possible. But I don’t think you can actually do it. I don’t think anybody can physically consume this power. The grossness of it might not be the only reason why few would even think of doing such a thing. Even if one can stomach it, which is highly unlikely in the first place, the agents are a special breed. Their bodies are not like ours, and we have no idea what rituals or preparations they go through to actually be able to use the Bloodwell.”

Lunaris nodded in agreement. “It’s too risky, I don’t think you should do it.”

James thought for a few seconds and then replied. “Leave the actual process of absorption to me. What I really need to hear is whether or not you think it’s morally ok for me to do. I don’t want to do something evil or something that will make you uncomfortable. I’ll only do it if you have no problems with it whatsoever.”

Helios and Lunaris looked at each other again and nodded.

“It’s ok.” Lunaris said. “It’s probably not something we should tell eagerly tell people about, but you have our consent… regarding the morality of it. We still think it’s way too risky and you shouldn’t do it. But when it comes to the ethics of it, in a way, we could think of it as honoring the people that had their lives taken in order to create this abomination. Let their sacrifice fuel your power, so that through you, they can strike back at the enemy that caused them so much pain.”

Helios put his hand on James’s shoulder and gave him a meaningful nod. “As opposed to you taking this risk as I am, I’m also proud of you, brother. Just the sheer willingness to deal with this disgusting well in order to gain the power you need to protect others is impressive. You’ve got the heart of a real man, a real warrior. Although, I must tell you one last thing. I don’t know much about the Bloodwell, but I imagine it would be an incredibly painful and corrupting influence. Are you sure you’re up for that? There’s no shame in giving up now.”

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James nodded back. At this point, he wasn’t interested in levels or power because of some addiction to progress, or for living out the things he yearned for when playing video games or reading novels. His values had changed significantly after enduring so many hardships.

He now did it for his friends, he did it for this world, and he did it for the people who couldn’t defend themselves.

So he wanted to consume as much of this Bloodwell as he could for the sake of his friends and their futures. The potential danger didn’t phase him one bit.

He didn’t really know how to go about it though. And since his friends didn’t know either, he’d have to do what he always did – improvise.

“Let’s think about this logically. It’s basically just an immense reservoir of energy, right? And since it was created through sacrifice, not only is it a whole lot of energy and power, but it’s probably also highly abrasive and violent. So, all I really need to do is to take in as much as I can, resist any pain and damage that comes with it, and try not to die. A brute force kind of absorption. Basically, I should just jump in and tough it out. Doesn’t sound too hard, does it?”

“If that’s how you’re going about it, I have lots of problems with this plan.” Lunaris looked at him with wide eyes. “What are you, nuts? Have you no instinct for self-preservation? Don’t you care about yourself at all?” Lunaris couldn’t believe James’s carefree attitude towards potentially killing himself, or at the very least putting himself through a lot of pain.

“Wow, this guy is really hardcore, huh?” Denmac asked Helios.

Helios just smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

Lunaris started nagging James, hoping to dissuade him from the harebrained plan. But James would have none of it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you fully heal me up before I do it. It’ll be fine, I’ll be at max power, it won’t go wrong. Probably.”

“You crazy fool, I’ve had it with you trying to kill yourself every 5 minutes. You’ll give me a heart attack one of these days!” Lunaris had to use the [Belt of Soothing] James gave her in order to calm herself down.

She begrudgingly healed him for a few hours and fed him all kinds of foods to get him back to full power. By now, the whole group was back to their full strength.

Lunaris hadn’t stopped talking the entire time, she kept trying to convince James not to do it, not unless he had a better plan. Helios wasn’t entirely comfortable with it either, but he didn’t have any better ideas.

James knew she had a good point, and she was right to worry. But he had to try. All that power was right there for the taking.

The more he recalled the scenes from his fight with the agent, the more he was convinced he was doing the right thing. They’d definitely have to face more agents in the future. This time they had the luxury of being the ones who initiated the attack. The next time around they might not have that luxury.

James gave Lunaris a hug. He hated making her worry, but he had to do it.

He turned around and approached the Bloodwell.

There was no point in dawdling. He was just going to have to brute force it.

Without a second thought, James jumped right into the well.

Everybody gasped. Helios and Lunaris turned white, and Denmac fell to the ground out of shock.

Out of all the things he could have possible done, they never expected him to straight up jump into the well. He did say he was going to tough it out, but just how crazy do you have to be to jump into it like that?

But James was just that crazy.

James found himself sinking deep inside the mess of flesh and blood. He was sinking way too fast, like something was pushing him to the bottom. And yet he just kept sinking without stop. It felt like the well had no bottom.

The amount of energy in the Bloodwell was so large and so strong that for a second he imagined that he had jumped on the surface of the sun. His skin felt like it was burning, and yet he also felt so cold.

James immediately activated his [Split Mind]. It did negate a lot of the pain, but a surprising amount of it still remained. It felt like his very soul was burning and freezing at the same time.

But James still didn’t panic. He expected this much. Hell, he expected a lot worse.

Suddenly, he felt a corrupting influence enter his mind and soul. It was overwhelming, like a million different being were trying to take over him.

“Really? This shit again? Just how many times will things try to take over me?” The attempts of various entities trying to take over his mind had gotten old. But the silver lining was that he felt pretty much immune to it by now.

The first time someone tries to take over you, you might fall for it before even noticing it. But when it happens again and again, it becomes a lot more trivial.

James felt like he was watching his mind from afar, seeing the foreign entities enter it and trying to influence it. But with just a thought, he kicked them back. They would try to crawl back into his mind, constantly pushing and trying to take over, but every time he would just kick them back with another thought.

“It can’t be that easy, can it? Just extreme pain and attempts at mind control? I can handle that. That’s basically an average Tuesday for me at this point.”

Even though James could resist being submerged in the Bloodwell, he still had to hurry. The feeling of burning and freezing only kept getting stronger, he didn’t know how much time he had left.

He opened up his mana channels and started absorbing the surrounding energy.

The energies of the Bloodwell entered him like a tsunami. It felt like he would implode, the burning sensation got several times stronger in an instant.

The Bloodwell’s energies were much more than mana. Even though as James was absorbing them, they were converted to mana and that’s all that he was left with in the end, by the time the conversion was done, all the other energies had done their job already, tempering his body, mind and soul.

During the process of absorption, all the arcane energies would nourish his body, mind and soul in ways James couldn’t even fully comprehend. All he knew was that he felt a lot stronger, like a new world had opened up inside him.

He could feel his powers expanding by the second. The size of his mana pool, his mana regeneration rate, his spell power. They were skyrocketing with each passing moment.

But it wasn’t nearly quickly enough. He had barely absorbed a drop in the bucket, and there was still an ocean left to absorb. He didn’t have much time left before the Bloodwell would overwhelm him.