Only I Level Up By Shoveling-Chapter 65: "Corrupted"

Poo immediately waved his short hand and a strange hand scanner appeared out of thin air.

Then, a blue light shot out of the scanner and started to scan Castra from head to toe.

The moment the scanning was finished, the blue light turned red, followed by an urgent noise.

DUNG! DUNG!

[WARNING! WARNING!]

[There’s an unidentified energy detected in the body!]

The system’s cold voice, definitely not Poo who was doing a voice over, sent a chill down Castra’s spine.

[W-what? What unidentified energy?]

An evil Qi? Dark energy? A zombie virus??

Somehow, Poo changed into a doctor costume as he looked at Castra with eyeglasses on his face.

[Host, this is bad.]

[What is bad?? Tell me!]

Don’t keep him in suspense!

[Host, calm down and listen carefully.]

[Yes, yes, hurry!]

He’s dying!! Dying from curiosity!

Poo finally let the cat out of the bag and gave Castra the complete diagnosis.

[Host, that unidentified energy...is like a virus.]

[This virus is trying to corrupt your body...like transforming your body into something!]

Castra immediately slapped his thigh in excitement.

[I knew it! It must be a zombie virus! I’m going to turn into a western zombie or a Chinese zombie, or maybe a mummy— ]

"Du!!"

A mommy?

"Mummy!"

Seeing Castra suddenly became excited like that, Poo immediately changed into a psychologist and started to coax his host.

[Calm down, host! This is not like you! The host that I know isn’t like this— ah, wait, wrong script.]

Poo tossed the script of a pick-me heroine and took out a new script out of thin air.

[Host, the system judged that this energy is indeed trying to transform you into...]

[Into?]

[Into a dark spirit!]

!

Castra almost broke the handle of his shovel— if he had the strength.

[What?? Turning me into a dark spirit??]

Do dark spirits have this kind of skill??

Lady Fera, who saw Castra "in a daze" after being bitten by the dark snake, sensed something wrong and immediately rushed towards the young man.

Then, she slapped his cheek with her paw.

"Hey, hey! Hooman! What happened to you? Are you poisoned? No, the smell isn’t that of a poison...is it the dark spirit’s skill??"

Castra immediately left the "Poo Consultation Room Chat" and lowered his head to look at Lady Fera, his eyes trembling weakly.

"M-milady, I think I’m getting infected. That snake just now injected a strange energy and that energy is trying to transform me into a dark spirit!"

"Woof! What?!"

Lady Fera stood up abruptly and smashed Castra’s head with her tail, but she immediately realized her big reaction and calmly crouched back on Castra’s shoulder.

"Fufu, I mean— are you sure that energy is trying to transform you into a dark spirit?"

Lady Fera spoke calmly, but her voice was trembling slightly.

"Yeah, I’m sure, milady. I can feel the slow change. Is it that spirit’s unique skill, or...?"

"No! Dark spirits don’t have any skills to turn light spirits into dark spirits!"

"Only a vampire spirit could do that!"

Ba-thump.

Castra’s heart skipped a beat and a drop of sweat slid down his forehead.

"Huh...what? It is not...the dark spirit’s skill?"

"Woof! It’s not!!"

The two spirits looked at each other and simultaneously thought of the same thing.

Something is wrong!

Sum ting is wong!

Castra’s calm demeanor cracked like a walnut and his face started to turn pale.

"T-then what do I do? If it’s not the spirit’s skill, what is it??"

The unknown had always been the most terrifying.

Lady Fera also slapped her tail irritably as she stared at the dark spirits.

"Woof! I have never seen a dark spirit like this. Maybe it’s a new dark spirit, but my beast instinct told me that those spirits are not right."

She knew that the spirits were strange, but she couldn’t pinpoint where exactly it felt wrong.

Seeing Lady Fera deep in thoughts, Castra hurriedly looked at Poo with hopeful eyes.

[Poo! Do you know what’s going on with that energy? How do I remove it?]

He doesn’t want to transform into a dark spirit!

This is not racism or discrimination.

It was just not natural for a light spirit to change into a dark spirit and vice versa!

Dark spirits who turned into light spirits were all "purified" and died while light spirits who turned into dark spirits were "corrupted" and also died!!

[Uh, wait, host, I’ll check the energy in your body...]

Poo’s eyes turned into a spiral as he tried to detect Castra’s body.

After a few seconds of silence, Poo spoke in a trembling voice.

[T-that, host, currently, the dark energy is slowly swimming towards your heart.]

If there was a percentage bar, Castra’s darkening value had slowly climbed up.

20%...30%...40%...

Castra subconsciously touched his chest with a frown.

[Does the *beep* Mall have anything that can expel dark energy?]

The Poop Mall was his last solace.

Poo immediately scrolled through the entire Poop Mall’s displays but the more he scrolled, the paler his body became.

The golden poop slowly turned into a silver one.

[H-host, host, the *beep* mall only has skills and items related to *beep*, so, so...]

[There is none?]

[No, no, there’s one! ✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧]

Castra clenched his fists as he thought of punching this thing to death. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Don’t scare him!!

[Quick, quick, tell me the name of the product and the price!]

[Ah, yes, host, the products are Filth Purification skill, a Purification Potion, A Purification scroll, a Purification...]

Anyway, they were all purification.

[The price started from 10.000 Fecal Coins.]

...what did you say?

10.000?

He was still in debt.

How could he afford a product THAT expensive?!

Before Castra slapped the incompetent customer service, the customer service immediately screamed,

[Right, host! There’s an angel behind you! They/them can definitely cleanse the dark energy in your body!]

Castra slapped his forehead with a loud slap.

[RIGHT!!!]

Why didn’t he think of that?!

Castra hurriedly entered the "inner circle" while the others were busy fighting the monsters.

There, he saw Ray, Miria, the angel and the dwarf.

The dwarf was busy making mysterious potions and the angel was placing his glowing hands on Miria’s belly.

Seeing this, Castra stopped on his tracks.

Uh...Miria got injured?

Since when?

Damn, she looked like she’s in a bad situation!

If Miria died, Ray would get a huge backlash and that’s not good for him too!

In this situation, could he ask the angel, who was already busy with Miria, to purify him as well?

Just when Castra was in a dilemma, everyone suddenly exclaimed in different languages.

"Ah! Over there— "

Castra subconsciously turned his head around and saw the two dark summoners holding a strange bowl in their hands that they got from God-knew-where.

The moment the bowl appeared, the five monsters who were attacking the group simultaneously turned around to face the bowl.

Each of them drooled, their eyes flashed with a strange madness.

Before Castra could understand what’s going on, strange noises started to sound from every corner of the cave.

Squelch. Squealch.

Shhhrrrr...

Flap! Flap! Flap!

Under everyone’s blank gazes, dense monsters, big and small, came out en masse, all heading towards the same place— Aran and Himi’s place.

But then, instead of staying still, Aran and Himi suddenly ran towards Castra’s current location bringing with them...

A whole legion of rampaging monsters.

....!!!