Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 37: THE GILDED VAULT OF APEX

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: THE GILDED VAULT OF APEX

Hanging suspended in mid-air by Renan’s single, unyielding grip around his throat, Guild Master Richard thrashed like a dying beast in an iron cage. His veins bulged violently along his temples as the crushing force of Renan’s fingers choked the breath from his lungs, cracking his reinforced throat armor like dry eggshells in a vise.

"Kgh... Y-You... monster..." Richard wheezed, blood spurting from between his broken lips and running down his chin in thick, crimson rivulets that stained his golden tunic.

In a last, desperate attempt to survive the suffocating pressure, Richard channeled the remaining embers of his S-Rank dragon blood mana. The crimson scales along his arms burned white-hot, and he driven a burning plasma strike straight toward Renan’s exposed face at point-blank range, pouring every ounce of his remaining soul energy into the blow.

BOOM!

A blinding, incinerating sphere of dragon fire enveloped Renan’s head, generating a localized thermal detonation that melted the marble floor beneath their feet into bubbling, red-hot slag. The extreme heat blew away the surrounding dust clouds and scorched the air for thirty meters. Richard let out a ragged, desperate grin through his blood-soaked teeth—only for his breath to seize violently in his chest a fraction of a second later.

As the blinding inferno cleared, Renan stood completely untouched. A dense, violet veil of condensed dark mana—the Ominous Sovereign Barrier—wrapped his skin like impenetrable obsidian armor, absorbing the extreme thermal output without letting a single spark singe his coat. Renan’s golden eyes burned through the dying embers, staring down at Richard with absolute, chilling indifference.

[Passive Skill Applied: ’Ominous Sovereign Barrier’ (Tier-2)]

Target’s Point-Blank Fire Attack Neutralized.

Damage Taken: 0.

"Is this the full extent of a Guild Master’s desperate struggle?" Renan asked softly, his tone dripping with cold, razor-sharp contempt. "Pathetic. You were much more terrifying when you were ordering nameless scavengers to die in the dark."

Renan did not end Richard’s life just yet. Instead, with a sudden, violent flex of his right arm, he slammed Richard’s massive body down into the shattered marble floor, driving him two feet deep into the concrete foundation.

CRACK!

Richard groaned in sheer agony, his spine fracturing under the brutal kinetic impact as his golden dragon aura completely collapsed. He lay pinned beneath Renan’s heavy boot, coughing up thick globs of blood, staring up in utter horror at the man he had once discarded like worthless trash.

"You won’t die easily, Richard," Renan murmured, looking down at the broken S-Rank Hunter with dark judgment in his golden eyes. "Not until I tear away every foundation, every asset, and every secret your predatory empire was built upon."

Renan gestured with a slight movement of his wrist. Shadow Director Gregory and Shadow Director Harold stepped forward from the swirling black mist, their spectral forms lowering themselves to press two heavy black-steel daggers straight into Richard’s knees, pinning the Guild Master securely to the ruined floor.

Richard shrieked in agonizing pain as necrotic rot seeped into his joint wounds, but he could no longer move an inch.

Renan turned his attention away from the groaning tyrant and walked toward the far side of the ruined penthouse suite. Beneath a massive, overturned mahogany desk and a pile of crushed concrete debris lay a hidden, heavily reinforced titanium trapdoor lined with complex anti-mana runes—the secret entrance to Guild Apex’s most guarded subterranean facility: The Gilded Vault.

This was where Guild Apex stored its illegal high-rank monster cores, stolen ancient artifacts, and black-market liquidation funds—assets worth hundreds of billions of credits, hidden safely away from official Hunter Association audits and tax authorities.

[Target Identified: Guild Apex Central Vault]

Security Classification: S-Rank Arcane Lock

Structure Material: Reinforced Titanium & High-Density Anti-Mana Barrier

Renan stood before the massive, rune-engraved vault door. He didn’t bother looking for a biometric keycard, a security cipher code, or an executive retina scanner. He simply raised his right fist, concentrating thousands of strength stat points along with a dense, swirling layer of volatile necrotic mana.

"Break," Renan commanded flatly.

BOOM!

Renan’s bare fist slammed straight into the center of the reinforced vault door. The violent kinetic force rippled through the entire fifty-story structure, blowing out the remaining structural support beams on the penthouse floor. The ancient S-Rank anti-mana runes shattered into golden sparks, and the foot-thick titanium door caved inward, collapsing with a deafening metallic crash into the cavernous, illuminated room below.

Renan stepped down the shattered stairs into the dark, underground vault.

The air inside was thick, cool, and filled with the concentrated, intoxicating scent of raw, unrefined mana. Row after row of floor-to-ceiling iron shelving stretched deep into the gloom, lined with thousands of preserved monster cores glowing in iridescent hues of blood red, ocean blue, and emerald green. In the center of the expansive vault stood dozens of reinforced cryogenic stasis pods containing the raw, unrefined corpses of rare Class-A and Class-S Dungeon Bosses—monsters that Guild Apex had illegally hoarded to artificially manipulate core market prices across the entire nation.

[Absolute Extraction System: Mass Vault Detection]

Detected: 4,200 High-Tier Monster Cores & 28 Class-A/S Monster Corpses.

Estimated Market Value: 120,000,000,000 Gold Credits.

System Prompt: Commencing Mass Core Absorption & Corpse Extraction?

A cold, razor-sharp smile curved on Renan’s lips beneath the dim purple light of the vault.

"Absorb everything," Renan ordered softly.

Renan extended both arms toward the shelves and stasis pods. Twin massive, dark purple whirlpools materialized above his open palms, generating a terrifying gravitational pull that encompassed every corner of the room.

WHOOSH!

The four thousand monster cores on the shelves violently shattered simultaneously, their liquid mana rising into the air like rivers of glowing starlight. The dense streams of raw mana rushed toward Renan, flooding his veins and sending violent, intoxicating waves of pure power crashing through his core.

Simultaneously, dark miasma erupted beneath the twenty-eight monster stasis pods. The reinforced glass shattered under the pressure, and the massive corpses of shadow drakes, iron-hide behemoths, and abyssal specters rose from the dead, their eyes igniting with cold violet flames as they bowed their massive heads toward their new Sovereign.

[Mass Extraction & Absorption Complete!]

+1,200 Strength

+980 Agility

+1,150 Vitality

+2,400 Mana

[New Shadow Entities Acquired: +28 Heavy Beast Soldiers]

[Current Physical Stat Total: 4,850 Points (Approaching Monarch Threshold)]

The physical transformation inside Renan’s body was immediate and profound. His muscle fibers tightened with unbelievable density, his skeletal structure reinforced itself to withstand godlike kinetic loads, and his dark coat fluttered violently as his aura expanded outward, blowing away the dust and metal shards of the vault.

He had stripped Guild Apex of its lifeblood and financial foundation in a matter of minutes.

Renan turned around and walked slowly back up the stone steps, emerging once more into the ruined executive suite. He stood over the bleeding, shivering form of Guild Master Richard, who was barely clinging to consciousness.

Richard looked up with hollow, bloodshot, and utterly terrified eyes. He could feel the terrifying change in Renan’s presence—an aura so dense, dark, and oppressive that it felt as though an ancient mountain were pressing directly down upon his chest.

"You... you stripped... the central vault..." Richard whispered, his voice trembling with ultimate, soul-crushing defeat. "Everything... my life’s work... my wealth..."

"Your empire was built on stolen bones and forgotten corpses, Richard," Renan said coldly, stepping onto Richard’s chest once again with crushing weight. "Now, your bones will serve as the foundation for mine."

Renan raised his hand, pointing a single, pale finger directly at Richard’s forehead as dark miasma began to pool around the fallen Guild Master’s body.

High above the ruined skyscraper, thunder roared violently as the storm clouds gathered into an absolute vortex, signaling the final execution of the tyrant of Sector 1.