"Lord Jean, may I ask what you are doing?"
"What am I doing? Just clearing out my life force as we discussed earlier, ah..."
After recalling this, she broke off a small piece of crystal and ate it; life force flooded her body once again, and that feeling vanished without a trace.
"What is the principle behind this?" She had done the same thing before, but this situation had never occurred.
"Did you not realize? This is the Underworld, after all, filled with the aura of death, or rather, the power of death. However, the life force within you is too powerful, and it directly pushed the power of death away."
"Ah, this." Jean, who had never realized there was anything different about the Underworld, was shocked.
All along, in Jean's mind, the Underworld was just an ordinary space; she even thought that this world was simply called the 'Underworld'...
Adhering to the principle of asking when she didn't know and not being afraid of embarrassment, Jean decisively asked Miss Underworld what the power of death was.
"The power of death is actually the inversion of life force, with almost all its properties being the opposite of life force. For example, life force can maintain the physical body and the soul, while the power of death accelerates the soul's departure from the physical body, facilitating the soul's entry into the Underworld. When your body is filled with the power of death, your body will enter a state of death, but at the same time, your soul will manifest more clearly."
"So that's the method for perceiving the soul; honestly, that yellow octopus actually wrote it clearly."
"However, there is one thing to note." Having heard that the young girl before her was particularly prone to courting death, Miss Underworld offered a reminder: "Please, by all means, do not mix life force and the power of death indoors. Typically, mixing mutually inverted powers will cause a massive explosion, similar to matter and antimatter coming into contact."
"Ah." This gave Jean, who was just about to try flushing out the remaining trace of the power of death with her life force, such a fright that she shuddered, decisively abandoned the idea, and acted as if nothing had happened.
Returning to the office, she once again threw herself into the ocean of documents, while not keeping her body idle; she emptied her life force again, endured the invasion of the power of death, and felt this force.
Fortunately, although it was uncomfortable, the documents did not require high-level thinking, so she managed to persist.
However, with the discomfort paired with boredom, it actually became less unbearable, and she was even in the mood to hum some songs.
"girigirieye ~ ♪... girigirimind ~ ♪..."
Her mood was good, so time passed quickly. Before she knew it, it was around seven in the evening. After a knock at the door, Miss Underworld arrived with FrostNova and the others, carrying bento boxes.
"Jean, we're back... Hey! What happened to you!"
Hearing Rin's happy voice, Jean looked up, only to find that several people were looking at her in surprise.
"What do you mean, what happened?"
Facing Jean's question, Sakura took a vanity case out of her shadow space and handed a mirror from inside to Jean.
You have to say that girls are just different; Jean had never thought of carrying a mirror in her own spatial pouch, let alone cosmetics or things of that sort.
Taking the mirror and looking closely, good heavens, her eye sockets were black, her complexion was blue, and she hadn't even realized that her heartbeat had stopped; only a little remaining life force in her body allowed her to barely count as alive, though it was no different from being dead.
"Oh, I am a zombie, and I want to eat your brains!" She said, extending her hands toward Rin, and even stood up and hopped a few steps.
Seeing that Jean was still in the mood to joke, the others were relieved, though seeing her like this was still worrying.
Jean herself didn't feel anything; she casually released the power of death within her body, and after a burst of black smoke emerged from her, color returned to her face.
Her heart also began to beat strongly and powerfully, and a vast amount of life force burst forth, instantly filling her entire body.
The black smoke that had emerged did not dissipate but remained swirling around Jean, and following her manipulation, it was gradually gathered and finally compressed into a black ball in her hand.
She continued to manipulate the black ball, playing with it in her hands, turning it into a glove, then a plate, and finally into a small knife.
[Item Appraisal]
Name: Death Knife
Grade: Rare Item — 1 Star
Details: An energy dagger made of pure power of death. It can cause instant death to creatures at the level of ordinary frogs or rats; if facing an ordinary human, it needs to be stabbed into vital areas such as the brain or heart.
That a little trinket casually rubbed together could have such an effect truly surprised Jean, though for people, an ordinary dagger stabbed into the heart or brain would also cause instant death, so it was basically useless.
However, this gave Jean an inspiration; she rummaged through her spatial pouch for a piece of cloth, applied the power of death onto it, and appraised it again.
[Item Appraisal]
Name: Death Enchanted Cloth
Grade: Magic Item — 1 Star
Details: Cloth soaked in high-concentration power of death. Although it cannot kill higher-level creatures, it has a good effect on microorganisms. Note: Cannot kill viruses, slightly harmful to skin.
"Ah, this. I thought I could use it as a disinfecting hand towel, but it turns out it can't kill viruses..."
"Please don't dwell on these useless things; dinner has been brought, please eat." Miss Underworld urged.
Hearing her words, Jean realized that after her appearance had returned to normal, the others had already started opening the bento boxes, and various dishes were already spread across the table.
At this moment, Jean also felt a bit hungry; the half-dead state she was in before had not produced any sense of hunger.
Seeing Jean take a seat and begin her meal, Miss Underworld also bid farewell:
"Please enjoy your meal. You can leave the bento boxes and tableware here after you're done; I will come to clean them up in the evening. Also, Lord Jean, today's work can end here; please arrive here before 8 o'clock tomorrow."
Then she bowed and left the room.
"She really is quite similar."
Miss Underworld said to herself while walking in the corridor.
Recalling the time when 'D' picked her up when she only had one head and one arm.
There was once a time when she said it was to take care of her, and then she took out a piece of cloth like this, soaked it with the power of death, and started wiping her face.
Because she had no body at all, she couldn't resist at all and had to let her do as she pleased.
In the end, she almost rubbed off a layer of skin on her face...
Recalling those somewhat frustrating memories from back then, Miss Underworld had a nostalgic smile on her face.
Just then, a subordinate ran over and found her:
"Lord Underworld, an anomaly has been detected in Affiliate Zone No. 45. It is speculated to be a precursor to the resurrection of the Demon Kings Spirit Body within it. Influenced by this, the undead, demons, yokai, and other natives within several nearby zones are showing signs of going berserk."
Instantly changing her face to her work-mode expressionless look, she read the report carefully and nodded.
"Perhaps it is a good opportunity. Conduct a detailed investigation again, and then have all the heads of the offices come to the internal No. 1 conference room for a meeting at 8:30 tomorrow morning."
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