Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 10: The Vault of Extinction

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The Vault of Extinction

The sonic shockwave didn’t merely echo through the atrium—it folded space itself.

When Renan’s fist collided with the center of High Commander Boros’s golden tower shield, the sound was like a mountain splitting in half. A kinetic burst of dark violet light exploded outward in a three-hundred-foot ring, blowing out every marble column in the main hall and turning the plaster ceiling into fine white powder.

CRACK-SHATTER!

Boros’s eyes bulged until the blood vessels in his whites ruptured.

The S-Rank [Immovable Citadel Domain]—a legendary defensive barrier capable of taking three direct hits from an S-Rank Dragon’s breath—didn’t withstand the blow for even a microsecond. The gold-infused mithril of the shield caved inward like wet tin foil.

The sheer kinetic force traveled straight through the metal, shattering both of Boros’s forearms inside his titanium gauntlets before slamming directly into his chest plate.

BOOM!

Boros’s three-hundred-pound armored frame flew backward like a cannonball, blasting through the twelve-foot dwarven vault door behind him. The reinforced mithril door, sealed with three overlapping S-Rank defensive arrays, snapped off its solid-steel hinges and crumpled into a twisted heap inside the vault corridor.

Boros tumbled forty yards across the polished obsidian floor of the inner vault, leaving a long trail of dark blood before slamming into the far back wall. He slumped onto his knees, his broken arms dangling uselessly at his sides, vomiting thick globs of crimson onto his shattered chest plate.

"H-How..." Boros wheezed, his breath coming in shallow, agonizing hitches. "My defense... my domain... it was absolute..."

Renan stepped through the ruined threshold of the vault. He didn’t have a speck of dust on his coat. The dark violet lightning around his knuckles flickered softly before fading into his skin.

"Absolute?" Renan walked with slow, unhurried steps toward the broken commander. His boots made a sharp, rhythmic clicking sound against the blood-stained obsidian. "You relied on armor and magic arrays forged by other men. I built my strength on the flesh and bone of thousands. Your defense was never absolute, Boros. You were just hiding behind a thick piece of metal."

Outside in the atrium, the screams of the forty mercenary Hunters had completely died down.

The ten Shadow Knights stood silently in the doorway, their shadow daggers dripping with black blood, guarding the entrance like silent statues of midnight steel. Not a single enemy remained standing in the lobby.

Boros looked up at Renan, his eyes filled with a terrifying realization. The young man standing before him wasn’t an F-Rank porter who got lucky with a dungeon artifact. He was a walking disaster, an entity that treated high-tier Hunters like nothing more than cattle to be slaughtered and harvested.

"Guild Master Richard... will hunt you to the ends of the earth..." Boros spat out a bloody tooth, his voice trembling violently. "The National Hunter Association... the government... they won’t let a demon like you walk free..."

"Let them try," Renan replied coldly.

He reached out his right hand, his fingers clawing through the air as he activated his signature skill directly over Boros’s head.

[Target: Live S-Rank Hunter (Boros - Defensive Type) Detected.] [Initiating Forced Extraction...]

CRACKLE!

A thick, pitch-black tendril of shadow energy erupted from Renan’s palm, driving straight through Boros’s shattered chest plate.

Boros let out a muffled, blood-curdling shriek as his body jerked off the floor. His massive muscle density withered at a terrifying speed, his remaining S-Rank mana violently siphoned into Renan’s palm. In less than ten seconds, the formidable commander who was known as the ’Immovable Wall’ was reduced to a shriveled husk of dry ash that dissolved into the air.

DING! DING! DING!

[Forced Extraction Successful!] [Target: S-Rank Hunter (Boros) Extracted.] [Attributes Extracted!] [Physical Defense +280] [Vitality +220] [Skill Acquired: Active - Aegis Shell (Rank-S)]

Renan flexed his fingers as the massive influx of defensive stats settled into his skeletal structure. His skin took on a subtle, metallic density—his muscle fibers weave together so tightly that ordinary steel weapons would now shatter upon touching his bare skin without him even activating a skill.

He turned away from the pile of ash and walked deeper into the heart of the Gilded Vault.

The vault was vast—a subterranean cavern illuminated by hundreds of floating luminescent mana-crystals. Row after row of heavy titanium shelving lined the floor, packed to the ceiling with high-tier contraband:

Over five hundred Tier-S and Tier-A Mana Stones glowing with brilliant violet and crimson light.

Dozens of spatial rings filled with untraceable high-grade dungeon materials.

Chests overflowing with high-value bearer bonds and black-market gold bars totaling over three hundred million credits.

This was the secret lifeblood of Apex Guild. This was the wealth Guild Master Richard had accumulated over a decade of exploiting nameless porters, killing rival parties, and selling illegal dungeon loot to the Underground Syndicate.

Renan stood in the center of the vast vault, holding his arms out wide.

"You built an empire on the blood of the weak, Richard," Renan whispered, his purple eyes flashing with an unholy radiance in the pale crystal light. "Now I’ll use your empire to fuel my ascension."

DING!

A massive, blood-red system panel burst open in front of Renan’s vision, its light blindingly bright inside the cavernous room.

[Sensory Scan Complete.] [Area: Apex Guild Central Wealth Vault.] [Detected: 540 High-Grade Mana Stones & Pure Energy Reserves.] [Estimated Mana Value: 350,000 Units.] [Sufficient energy detected to trigger System Evolution to Tier-2!] [Do you wish to absorb all high-tier mana sources?]

"Absorb every single grain," Renan commanded.

[ABSOLUTE MANA EXTRACTION INITIATED.]

RUMBLE!

The entire three-story bank building shook to its foundation.

A terrifying dark vortex erupted from Renan’s chest, expanding in a fifty-foot hurricane of pitch-black and violet energy. The five hundred high-grade mana stones on the shelves began to vibrate violently, their glowing crystal shells cracking open one by one.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-SHATTER!

Pure, unrefined liquid mana erupted from the broken crystals, forming hundreds of brilliant purple and green energy rivers that swirled into the air. The light was so blinding it turned the pitch-black vault as bright as noon.

The rivers of mana spiraled violently before plunging directly into Renan’s chest, pouring into his core like a tidal wave crashing into a dam.

"NNGH!"

Renan gritted his teeth, his arms bulging as dark purple veins rippled across his skin. His bones clicked and expanded, his muscle fibers burning as if filled with liquid fire. The sheer volume of raw energy was enough to blow an ordinary S-Rank Hunter’s mana circuit into pieces, but Renan’s [Ominous Monarch] vessel absorbed it all, devouring the energy like a black hole.

DING! DING! DING! DING!

[Mass Mana Extraction in Progress...] [Mana +1,200!] [Strength +300!] [Agility +250!] [Vitality +400!]

BOOM!

A dense shockwave of pure violet energy blasted outward from Renan’s body, pulverizing the metal shelves around him into scrap iron.

The system panel in front of him shattered like glass, reforming into a glorious, pitch-black golden interface with intricate dragon sigils along the borders.

[SYSTEM EVOLUTION COMPLETE!] [System Status Upgraded: Tier-1 (Initiate) -> Tier-2 (Sovereign)] [New Feature Unlocked: Corpse Synthesis (Rank-S)]

Allows the Host to fuse multiple extracted monster/hunter traits to craft permanent shadow servants or new hybrid skills. [New Feature Unlocked: Monarch’s Domain (Rank-S)]

Suppresses the stats of all enemies within a 100-meter radius by 30% while boosting all Shadow Puppets by 50%. [Shadow Puppet Capacity Increased: 10 -> 50!]

Renan slowly lowered his arms.

The vast vault—once overflowing with three hundred million credits worth of glowing mana stones—was now completely barren. The shelves were empty, the glowing crystals reduced to dull gray pebbles that crumbled into dust as the wind blew past.

Renan opened his updated status profile:

[STATUS PROFILE]

Name: Renan

Class: Ominous Monarch (Tier-2 Sovereign)

Title: Shadow Sovereign of the Abyss

Strength: 1,500

Agility: 1,540

Vitality: 1,770

Mana: 2,750

Skills: Absolute Extraction (EX), Corpse Synthesis (S), Monarch’s Domain (S), Corrosive Aura (S), Aegis Shell (S), Phantom Blitz (S), Shadow Puppet Creation (S)

Shadow Army: 10 / 50 Shadow Knights

Renan cracked his neck, feeling the terrifying, unyielding ocean of power vibrating within his chest. His physical stat density was now higher than any registered Hunter in the entire country.

He walked out of the empty vault, stepping into the ruined atrium of the Gilded Vault Bank.

Outside, rain poured down in sheets through the shattered skylights of Sector 2. The sirens of the National Hunter Association hit a crescendo as dozens of armored strike vehicles surrounded the perimeter of the bank, their spotlights beaming through the broken front windows.

Boss Victor, who had just arrived with twenty armed Syndicate informants, ran into the atrium with pale cheeks.

"L-Lord Renan!" Victor gasped, pointing toward the front plaza outside. "The National Hunter Association’s Special Task Force has deployed three S-Rank Directors outside! They’ve surrounded Sector 2! They’re demanding your immediate surrender or they’ll launch a tactical mana-artillery strike!"

Renan walked toward the shattered front entrance, his dark coat swaying gracefully in the stormy wind.

"Demanding my surrender?" Renan asked softly. A cold, dark smile spread across his face as his purple pupils glowed through the rain and fog.

He raised his hand, and thirty new shadowy shapes began to peel off the floor beneath his boots.

"Tell them to send everyone they have," Renan whispered. "I need thirty more corpses to fill my army."

Across the rainy plaza outside, the three S-Rank Association Directors raised their glowing weapons, only to stop in absolute horror as the sky above Sector 2 turned completely pitch-black, swallowed whole by the massive expansion of Renan’s new [Monarch’s Domain].