The evil god Rafael seemed to have told Aura many things.

  System learned from Aura that Rafael had temples like this one in more than a dozen demipnes.

  According to Aura, the evil god was now in a deep sleep and basically couldn't use any of his powers. He needed Aura's help to spread pgues and curses and acquire more believers.

  However, when System received these mental messages, his [Intuition] gave him a faint sense of uneasiness. He could tell that Aura wasn't lying, but it seemed like the information that the evil god had given to Aura wasn't entirely true.

  When System thought about it carefully, he realized that it didn't make a lot of sense for the evil god to reveal his weaknesses to Aura. Was it really true that Rafael could no longer use his powers?

  It was very likely that the evil god had concealed many of his secrets and either intentionally misled Aura or simply kept him in the dark about certain things.

  And with the zy butterfly's personality, System guessed that Rafael wouldn't pce any trust in Aura at all. Being a god, Rafael couldn't possibly have been unaware of Aura's many fws. It was very likely that the evil god was simply using him.

  The ring that could access this demipne had already been lost long ago. Letting Aura keep it wouldn't cost Rafael anything, and the situation in the Warren Pins wouldn't get any worse just because Aura was put in charge.

  But on the off chance that Aura ended up falling victim to the evil god's temptation, it was possible that Aura would end up dying to Rafael's schemes before the evil god even had a chance to wake up.

  ...

  Aura, who was feeling fantastic after his swim in the ocean of gold coins, prepared to remove System's [Severance Curse]. The butterfly was in a great mood and hadn't even requested anything in exchange for removing the curse, which might have been because System had no intention of taking a cut of Aura's newly obtained treasures.

  However, even after Aura made several attempts to remove the curse using the new powers that he'd gained after becoming Rafael's priest, the curse was still there.

  According to Aura, his current condition wasn't very good, but he would definitely be able to remove System's curse after resting for a few days.

  System, who could sense emotions, knew that the true reason for the failure was that Aura's new powers as a priest of Rafael were simply too weak. That level of power was far from enough to remove the vicious curse that the ratman wizard had cast at the cost of his own life.

  Even if he waited for a few years, System didn't think that Aura would be able to help remove the curse.

  However, although Aura couldn't remove System's curse, as a priest of the evil god, he'd at least mastered the correct method of removing the curse, which he passed along to System using [Mental Connection].

  System also learned from Aura that the power used to activate Rafael's curse spells was called shadow energy, and communicating with the evil god wasn't necessary in order to master it.

  As long as this shadow energy was mastered, even someone who wasn't one of Rafael's followers could still cast curse spells.

  When System heard Aura talk about shadow energy, he realized that this must be the type of power that the silver and gold rings that he'd found utilized to create the shadow shield and shadow arrow.

  Because System would have to use shadow energy to remove the curse, Aura began teaching him how to properly acquire and utilize it.

  Although Aura had lost most of his memories back when he turned into a butterfly, his insights and understanding of power still existed. While he'd easily learned how to use shadow energy during his communication with the evil god, it would be far more difficult for System to learn how to use it.

  When System tried following the method that Aura had taught him to sense shadow energy, he discovered that sensing shadow energy was nothing like sensing the other types of energy that he was already familiar with.

  Unlike the frost and nature energy in System's body, which he could use and absorb easily, this method of using shadow energy was more like something a wizard would do. It required him to perceive and communicate with shadow energy before finally guiding it into his body. Being able to absorb and use shadow energy would require a long period of accumution at the beginning.

  System tried to sense shadow energy several times without making any obvious progress. Without the evil god's assistance, it was impossible for him to master shadow energy in a short amount of time, let alone lift the curse.

  It would take at least ten more days for the ring to fully charge, so System left Aura and Shava to py happily in the treasure pile while he resumed his exploration of the temple on his own.

  He returned to the main hall and triggered a mechanism that accessed another secret room using the method that Aura had taught him. A corridor leading out of the main hall soon appeared, and he quickly walked in.

  This corridor didn't lead to another secret room where treasures were hidden, but to a room that was more like a huge warehouse.

  The items piled up in the warehouse were basically the same ones that were used to decorate the pace. Except for a few bottles and jars, the items in the warehouse were basically the same old three things—magic light sources, portraits of Rafael in bone frames, and skeletons of various creatures piled up randomly.

  The races of the skeletons in the warehouse were much more diverse than those that System had seen lying around in the temple. He saw plenty of ratman and gnoll skeletons, and there were also many skeletons belonging to various other species that he couldn't identify.

  Hidden deep among the piles of bones, System found a huge skeleton of a dragon, roughly twelve meters long, with the head missing.

  The dragon skull that System had seen in the pool beneath the statue of Rafael was undoubtedly part of this skeleton.

  System's saliva starting flowing as soon as he saw the massive dragon skeleton. While he was too afraid of that strange statue of Rafael to get near the dragon skull, there was nothing to stop him from getting a taste the dragon bones in this warehouse.

  Just like Aura and Shava had charged straight for the pile of gold and gems, System also excitedly rushed up to the dragon skeleton.

  He didn't know how long these dragon bones had been lying there, but they still gave off an enticing fragrance. Even before he started eating, he could tell that these bones must taste extremely delicious.

  System remembered that all it had taken for him to acquire his frost blood was a single yawn from Aura back when he was still a frost dragon. While the dragon these bones belonged to may have been much weaker than Aura, these were still the bones of a real dragon. Eating them would undoubtedly have an unimaginable effect on his body.

  However, when System opened his mandibles and bit down on one of the dragon bones using all of his strength, he found that his mandibles couldn't bite into it at all.

  After his third pupation, his mandibles could easily crush even the tough thigh bones of a gnoll, but they couldn't even leave a scratch on this dragon bone.

  System activated his [Armored Spike] skill and used his tentacles to stab the skeleton using all of his strength, but that also had no effect.

  Even his strongest ability, [Pgue Mucus], couldn't corrode and dissolve the dragon bones.

  In desperation, System could only ask for the help of his strongest subordinate, Shava, who was still happily pying in the treasure pile with Aura. While picking up Shava, he also collected several sharp weapons from the treasure room.

  He wasn't very confident that Shava could damage the skeleton. Even if it turned out that she was able to slice apart the dragon bones, he still had no idea if his stomach was even capable of digesting them.

  System soon returned to the storage room with Shava in tow.

  Once Shava arrived in front of the dragon skeleton, a faint white light appeared on her body, and she began to rapidly ssh at one of the dragon bones with her forelimbs. The air was filled with sounds that seemed almost like metal hitting metal.

  As System watched Shava tirelessly swing her twin bdes at the dragon bone, his worries gradually disappeared.

  Although she wasn't able to slice through the bone with a single ssh, her twin bdes were leaving behind slight scratches with each hit. As long as she kept up her attacks, cutting apart the dragon skeleton wouldn't be a problem.

  Half an hour ter, accompanied by a light snapping sound, Shava finally managed to cut open a tiny crack in the bone.