He did not find Hunter, but he did encounter another mummy.

He used |Devitalize|, but, despite also being level 1, this one didn’t dissolve from the debuff. Not completely anyway. Its withered skin did start to flake away.

Next he hit it with a |Disgorge|, and the single stack was enough to send it to its knees, vomiting sprays of bile.

He did wonder how a desiccated mummy had that much wet vomit inside of it, and wondered if it was the skill that was creating it.

He hadn’t smelled this one either, only getting its information after seeing it, which made him wonder if this place was different somehow, maybe having to do with the task, or if being embalmed somehow affected his new sense.

Then again, there was a pervasive smell of something strange in the air that perhaps was hindering the ability.

He formed his hand into a blade and drove it into its head.

Interestingly, the moment its skull was penetrated, the vomit ceased with unnatural abruptness.

Kicking the corpse over, he got to work cutting its orb free.

Completely dry inside… Seems like it really is the skill creating the vomit.

The orb came loose easily, though as he studied this one, he felt no urge to consume it, and without that desire it seemed rather large to just swallow, despite being the same physical size as the others.

Colors look the same as the others too…

⦗Essence Orb, Level 1⦘

That’s new.

When he focused and tried to use it, he actually got a message.

Bring to sacellum or delubrum to consume

It was better than nothing, but he didn’t know what or where a sacellum or delubrum was, nor what would happen from consuming the orbs when he got there.

Delubrum did seem familiar to him for some reason, but he couldn’t place where he’d heard it.

It was possible to upgrade it with his Reformation Orb. Or at least change, as it wasn’t obvious if it would be an upgrade.

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ → ⦗Energy Evanescence⦘

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ ? Unavailable

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ ? Unavailable

He wasn’t sure what an Energy Evanescence was. He knew of the band, but he didn’t know what the word itself meant. He’d think it had to do with essence if he couldn’t see how it was spelled.

Different spelling so probably not related. Then again English is weird.

I really wish I had my phone.

He stowed the orb on his belt for now and tried the Reformation Orb on the mummy’s corpse. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t work, so he tried the cerements next, which did.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

• ⦗Decayed Cerements⦘ → ⦗Mantle⦘

• ⦗Decayed Cerements⦘ ? Unavailable

• Missing Formula

Just plain mantle? And only one arrow.

He still took the cerements, forming another pouch for them before continuing on.

No reason to leave loot behind if he didn’t need to.

He only left the body itself because when he tried to pick it up it broke in half. Then when he tried to carry the halves, those broke as well.

He encountered two more level 1 mummies, and with his arm-hammer and blade, combined with his [Debuffer] skill, they both fell easily enough, though neither dissolved as the first had.

These both yielded Essence Orbs, but the upgrades they had available were slightly different than the first.

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ → ⦗Hard Tissue Evanescence⦘

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ ? Unavailable

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ ? Unavailable

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ → ⦗Immune System Evanescence⦘

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ ? Unavailable

• ⦗Essence Orb⦘ ? Unavailable

The cerements would also yield plain mantles if upgraded, and he wondered if he’d just gotten lucky with that first mummy. It was different not just in its loot, but also in how it had completely dissolved when he’d used |Devitalize| on it. Was there a bonus on first use of a permutation or something?

These ones not dissolving to dust also meant he had to get his hands dirty again and cut out the orbs.

At least it gave him practice with forming his titan skin into a blade. The more he did it, the easier it got, but he couldn’t tell if that was familiarity with Energy or if the armor was somehow getting better as he used it. It was still level 1, but maybe if he used it enough it would level up.

His next encounter was with a level 2 mummy, which, despite being only one level higher, was much more difficult than the others. He only defeated it by hitting it with two stacks of |Disgorge| and |Devitalize|—he didn’t bother with |Torpor| as it was already slow—then beating it about the head with his fist-hammer.

His fist was armored from the hammer, but it was still very sore afterward. And his suit’s cohesion had dropped to ninety-seven percent. He’d been hit once, but it was using his arm as a weapon that had really dropped the cohesion.

I need a real weapon.

He kept track of how many uses and stacks of [Debuffer] he used during fights. He should have run out of Energy, but he hadn’t, which meant he’d regenerated enough in the time between mummies. It was hard to keep track of time, but his best estimate was it took about a minute to regain enough for an initial stack.

He couldn’t tell if the different permutations used different amounts, but he thought he was getting a feel for it. He could sense the Energy moving when he used the skill, and also that he was somehow lesser after having done so.

He could also sense it regenerating. It felt like it was being generated in his head, then travelling down his spine into an area just in front of his spine, which seemed to be where it was stored.

It made him wonder if he had his own orb now.

He’d really like to check a human, but no one had given him reason to kill them. Also, the group wouldn’t like it, even if it was a bad person. They’d balked enough at him cutting open a monster. He guessed their reaction to him cutting open a human would be far worse.

Maybe he’d get lucky and come across one of their corpses in here, assuming they’d been transported with him to wherever here was.

Though that would mean someone I know died, which should bother me. But it would be a waste to let their death go to waste, wouldn’t it?

He sighed. He hated dealing with feelings. It made people so complicated.

Of course it was also why people worked together at all a lot of the time.

Turning his attention back to something more under his control, he looked down at the level 2 mummy’s corpse and got to work cutting its orb free.

Other than the item’s level, it was the same as the previous three, so far as he could tell:

⦗Essence Orb, Level 2⦘

He found another difference when he tried using the Reformation Orb on it. Namely that it didn’t work.

Not even a message. Weird.

He thought about it for a minute. There were still genesis seeds left, so why wouldn’t it work?

Is it because the Essence Orb is level 2 and the Reformation Orb is only level 1?

He tried it on the mummy’s cerements and got the same result.

He inspected them.

⦗Decayed Cerements, Level 2⦘

Not wanting any loot to go to waste, he stuffed these in his belt as well, which was getting crowded. Luckily they balled up small. The rope they were wrapped in took up most of the space.

Making sure he had everything, he continued on.

The corridor was uniform, any part looking much the same as any other save for variations in size and straightness, but at least there hadn’t been any branching paths.

Yet.

Several minutes later he rounded a corner and came to a sudden stop at what he saw ahead of him.

This is going to be bad.