Helen looked at the soul stone in his hand for a moment before speaking.

"Soul stones are valuable, but I don’t think I need to explain that to you," she said while watching the crystal glow faintly in Zich’s palm. "Most people know they can be used for alchemy, enchantment, relics, and other things."

She paused briefly before continuing.

"What most people don’t know is that some monsters can devour them."

Zich raised an eyebrow.

Helen nodded. "If certain monsters consume soul stones, they can grow stronger at an incredible rate. The purer the soul stone, the greater the effect. That is one of the reasons old records treated them so seriously."

Her gaze remained fixed on the crystal.

"In some cases, a single soul stone can save a monster years of growth. That’s why monster tamers and beast researchers have always paid close attention to them."

Zich rubbed the soul stone with his thumb and thought about it for a short while. If monsters could eat them and grow stronger, then this city was even more dangerous than it first looked, because someone was gathering them on purpose.

He looked toward the pipe where the undead had escaped.

"What would an undead skeleton want with one?" he asked.

"That I do not know," Helen replied. "But the only way to find out is to follow them."

Zich let out a small breath through his nose.

"That is dangerous. Instead of chasing them blindly, we intercept them and take the soul stones."

Helen blinked once, then nodded slowly.

"That also works."

Zich did not answer. He quietly looked toward the ruined street beyond the broken shopfront while the Elite Undead Knight stood near the collapsed wall like a black statue, its visor angled toward the market street.

For a few moments, nothing came.

Dust drifted through the broken storefront, and the red light from the sky above the city spilled through the cracks in the roof. Zich kept still, his eyes moving across the street, the rooftops, and the alley ends with a careful look that made him seem like he was already calculating the route.

Helen watched him for a while, and for some reason her face softened a little.

"You really are thinking of robbery first," she muttered.

"Of course," Zich replied. "If they are carrying soul stones, then they are already walking money."

Helen could not help but smile a bit at that. She shook her head once, but she did not disagree, because in this place the line between monster loot and good business had become very thin already.

Right then, small scratching sounds came from the ruined street outside.

Zich immediately lifted one hand. Helen stopped speaking at once, and the Elite Undead Knight lowered its sword slightly. Both of them looked toward the cracked doorway where the shadows between the buildings were moving.

A few more skeletons appeared. These were the same thin bone creatures, moving fast and silently, each one carrying a small blue crystal in its mouth or claws. Their bodies were light, built for speed, and they were trying to slip through the market district again as if the previous losses had not happened at all.

Zich’s eyes flashed. There were more than before.

He could see four, maybe five if the broken walls were hiding one more.

One of the skeletons stopped for a fraction of a second when it noticed the shattered shop. Its head turned slightly, as if checking whether the path was still safe.

That was all Zich needed.

BOOM!!!

The stone floor cracked under his step as he lunged forward in a straight line. The nearest undead barely had enough time to twist its body before Zich’s fist smashed through its skull, sending bone fragments and a blue crystal flying across the room.

The Elite Undead Knight followed right away, its sword swinging down in a simple and direct arc.

CRACK!!!

Another undead got cut in half at the waist, its body dropping against the broken stall frame with a sound like dry wood snapping apart. Black dust and pale bone splinters spread over the floor.

The remaining undead jumped toward the rooftop opening. Another shot toward the alley, and a third tried to dive under the collapsed counter. Zich did not chase them all immediately. His eyes stayed on the one in the back, the one carrying the largest crystal.

He wanted that one to run.

Helen understood almost instantly and moved beside him with a quick step. Fire gathered in her palm, but she did not throw it yet. She only used it to block the left side so the enemy had fewer routes.

"Keep one alive?" she asked.

"Yes," Zich replied. "The one in the back."

Helen gave a tiny nod and burned the edge of the alley shut, forcing the fleeing undead to change direction. That was exactly what Zich wanted, because the skeleton now had only one clear path left.

It bolted through the narrow street toward the Bell Tower district.

Zich watched it go for a split second and deliberately did not move after it.

Meanwhile, his Elite Undead Knight stepped forward and crushed another undead monster underfoot, but Zich still let the last one escape through the ruined street. The skeleton vanished between two collapsed homes with the blue crystal still clutched tightly.

Little did the skeleton know that it was being followed.

Blood Leech had already slipped out through the broken window frame above the shop roof. The summon moved quietly along the walls, following the undead through the city like a shadow.

Helen glanced upward for a moment and saw the faint movement on the roofline.

Her eyes shone a little, impressed that Zich had already placed such a countermeasure in place.

The market street went quiet again except for the crackling fire Helen had left burning at the alley edge. One by one, Zich collected the dropped soul stones littering the ground, his fingers moving with annoying care as he made sure none rolled under the broken stalls.

Helen watched him do it and sighed softly.

Zich looked at her and asked, "You don’t mind if I take all of them?"

"Sure." Helen simply waved a hand as if the soul stones were not that important to her.

At the same time, Blood Leech disappeared deeper into the ruined city after the last scout. It moved fast across rooftops and broken walls, following the blue crystal trail without making a sound.

Zich looked toward the direction it went and narrowed his eyes slightly.

The question was no longer whether someone was gathering soul stones.

The real question was where the stones were going and what they were using them for.