I watched as the group of people around me snickered among themselves, each one looking very smug.
Although they were very smug... Looking at their stats..

Attention;
The one with the highest stat amount is Halad.

Like I thought.
They're all complete weakling pushovers. So really, it didn't matter that I was outnumbered.

[Halad] "Should have stayed in town or at your mommy little Black Sorcerer. Without your magic and with your measley level, you're nothing but dead meat."

Halad laughed like a maniac.
I sighed. Looks like I now know the reason for his skills that were to do with murder or whatever...
This coward instead of fighting monsters for exp, decided to settle down for murder.

Oh how smart he is.

"Before we continue, can I ask 1 question?"

I simply stated.

[Male Thug 1] "Who gave you the permission to speak, you imbecile?!"

The thug rushed at me, going in for a slash attack. However, before he could even land, I entangled him in threads using [Thread Manipulation].

Everyone looked at me surprised.

[Halad] "What the-?! He has skills?!"

"Do I now?"

My voice sounded rather mocking and cold.
For some reason, I had this unreal urge to simply slaughter all these foolish humans in cold blood... But why?

If I did that, shit would go down... And yet, I couldn't resist.
And so, with a single pull from one of my fingers, the entangled thug was desimated in less than a second, sending a wave of shock and fear through rest of the people around.

[Female Thug 2] "Y..You bitch!"

A female fighter rushed towards me, screaming.
I on the other hand, simply used
[Shadow Manipulation] to dodge her before grabbing her by her head and mashing her head into her own shadow.

'Have fun being eaten alive.'

I thought before standing back up.
This feels wrong. Why am I doing this?

....Is it.. because I'm not a human anymore? Is it because I'm technically a monster now?

[Halad] "G..Get him!"

Halad shouted as all the rest of the people charged at me at once.
I, completely unphased, simply used my skill [Thread Manipulation] to entangle every last one of the humans charging me, excluding Halad.

I then proceeded to instantly kill all of them, desimating their bodies to the point of not leaving a single trace behind.

Halad fell to the ground before backing up, terrified.

[Halad] "St...stay back!"

He begged as I began to approach him.
I was strangely enjoying this... This feeling.

The feeling of killing them all.

As I approached Halad, his begging for mercy began to sound more like horrific cries for help.

I rose my arm up, before pointing it at him - about to kill him.

'Faofa, don't!'

I gasped before holding my head.
What was that just now?.. it felt like I was just woken up from a trans or a deep sleep..

I looked around, seeing the blood shed around me as well as the terrified Halad.

'Wh..what happened here..'

Answer;
The Corruption of Abyss had taken over you.

Corruption of Abyss..?
The hell is that?

It is the side effect of your strong connection to the abyss that developed after accepting the soul of the Individual Arabor inside your body.

I see... So a negative of making that promise to Arabor has finally shown itself.
I looked at the scared to death Halad before sighing and turning around.

'May as well clean up my mess...'

I thought before snapping away the Anti-Magic barrier before proceeding to use [Devourer] to collect up all the mayhem left after my slaughtering.

I then simply left, as Halad stared at me with complete and utter fear in his eyes.

...

   In the darkness again...

Arabor stared up at the top of the voided soul space, a slightly.... nervous look on his face.

[Iyka] "What was that just now.? Why did he?"

"I didn't think it would show itself this fast.."

Arabor cut Iyka off before exhaling and looking down, crossing his arms.
Iyka looked nervous now as well - He didn't think what will show itself so fast? What was this dragon on about.

'I'm sorry that you have to suffer from that cursed corruption because of me Faofa.'

Arabor thought, gazing at the 'ground' of the soul space.

...

A few hours later...

   I was back in my room at the inn, after bringing the King Arachnid Knight fangs to the Adventuring Guild building.
For completing the quest, I was given 15 Silver coins and 165 Copper Coins. I'd say that's a standard amount.

However, the money I received wasn't what was on my mind.
Instead, the incident with Halad was.

What the hell happened back there? 'Corruption of Abyss'? Is that linked to the Soul Promise or whatever I made with Arabor?

It just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me - even with the explanation I got from [Sages' Wisdom].

I exhaled heavily, before the dropping onto my bed, staring at the ceiling.

'This is bad... If something like that can suddenly happen to me, it may not be a good idea to stay in town..'

I sighed in disappointment.

'And here I was already beginning to enjoy my time here..'

I placed my right arm over my forehead before sighing again.
Was there a way to supress or eliminate the whole Corruption of Abyss thing?

Answer;
No.
There is no way to block the

{Corruption of Abyss} once it has activated even once.

Well that's a bummer. So I'm stuck with it or something?
How nice of you lady fate.

I sighed again, this time more heavily.
Looks like my time staying at the town may be limited after all...

Suggestion;
Even though there is no way to block or suppress the {Corruption of Abyss} there is one other solution to stop it from randomly activating.

There is?!

I practically jumped up in a sitting position.

'Spill the beans then!'

Permitting me to use the skill [Devourer], I'll be able to keep the effect under control and prevent it from kicking in.

However, do be warned - it may still activate under strong the pressure of strong emotions.

So basically if I feel strong emotions it'll kick in... Now I'm dying to know what counts as 'strong emotions'.
I sighed before getting out of my bed and walking over to the window, looking out of it. The busyness of the streets had begun to once again die down as more and more people went home for the night.

It was honestly a great time of the day to go for a walk around town - after all, during the evenings there are such little amount of other people on the streets, which allows you to just wander by yourself and just reflect.

Perhaps I should do that now... Especially after what happened earlier today.

Self-reflection or just generally some time to be  alone with my thoughts would be nice. I sighed slightly before grabbing my rooms keys and leaving it, locking its door behind myself.

I proceeded to head down, hand the key to the receptionist before telling him where I was headed and then - I was off into the streets.

   I wandered around the now rather empty streets, keeping my gaze up high at the sky.
There were several thoughts in my mind at this point in time - perhaps even too many.

The thoughts were like a sea of overwhelming information that I could not for the life of me understand even a bit.
Which was strange, because considering my high intelligence stat, I expected me to understand stuff such as this quite easily.

Unable to find answer.

Answer to what?
My inability to understand my own thoughts?

If so, then I'm not surprised that you're unable to find an answer. After all, when it comes to ones thoughts - usually the only one who can understand or try to explain them, was the person they belonged to.

Or at least, that's what I believed.

If one couldn't understand and try to explain their own thoughts, how could they possibly think that they can understand and explain other peoples thoughts?

...My bad - Side tracked a little bit.

I sighed heavily, before lowering my gaze down to the ground.

I wandered the rather empty streets for a little while, simply throwing my gaze all over the place.
There was a lot of thoughts rushing through my mind at this time - mainly about me killing all those people earlier today.

Strangely enough, I felt like I needed to feel some remorse or guilt for my actions - however, for some reason, I could not push myself to feel any guilt.

I could not push myself to feel any remorse.

Once again - could it be because I was a monster now? Why didn't I feel any remorse?
What was going on with me?

'Too much stuff to think about.'

I sighed heavily.

'Man, I just wanted to live out my small and pitiful slithering life as a snake... Why did it all have to get so complex?'

I thought before shaking my head lightly, clearing my mind from all thoughts.
Honestly, all these thoughts I had were just 'noise' in my head. I shouldn't be bothering to try and understand 'noise' - I should just focus on continuing what I need to do.

That being fulfilling my promise.

'With Sages' Wisdom using Devourer to keep my whole Corruption of Abyss in check, I should be fine to do more stuff... I don't want to drag on setting Arabor free.'

I thought before looking up at the bright moon in the night sky, smiling lightly as I did.

Tomorrow is a new day - Perhaps I'll go on a longer quest.
Hell, maybe even go and take on another dungeon.
I laughed as I slowly began to wander back towards the inn I was staying at.

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Hey!
Apologies if this felt like an 'Information Dump' chapter. I'm simply setting up something that'll be significant later on.

See y'all next chapter.