Brian Carter frowned as he looked at the girl who had fainted in front of him, feeling that this was quite a tricky situation. If he were to kill her—his gaze slid over the girl's ample chest and perky little butt—it would really be too much of a waste. Being alone in this kind of environment, the constant sense of crisis actually made Brian Carter feel a strange desire burning inside him like a fire. And although in his previous life, as a legendary lich, he had once regarded human life as insignificant, the current Brian Carter still felt a lot of pressure at the thought of casually taking a life. After all, there was a subtle feeling to personally snuffing out a fellow human being; his memories from his past life told him that once he developed the mindset of killing at will, he would begin to distance himself from the human species. The lives of others would become meaningless in his eyes.

But Brian Carter was not yet mentally prepared to detach himself from his own kind. So he decided not to kill Grace Thompson; of course, punishment was still necessary.

As a great lich who had awakened memories of his past life, Brian Carter could now only cast zero-level spells—no, wait!

He was suddenly startled, and his mental power surged like flowing water, quickly constructing a model of an acid missile in the air.

To his immense delight, Brian Carter discovered that his mental power, which had previously only allowed him to cast three zero-level spells, had now reached the threshold of a first-level mage.

A first-level mage! This meant thousands of first-level spells, all far more powerful than zero-level cantrips. More importantly, with the mental power of a first-level mage, he could now cast a crucial improved spell—Evil Sacrifice, an evil spell that fulfilled one's wishes by offering flesh and soul to the endless Abyss or evil gods.

In his previous life, Brian Carter might have avoided this spell due to alignment aura issues, but in this world, no one could detect alignment auras. Whether he turned to lawful evil or chaotic evil, no one would notice, and even if they did, no one would understand what such an aura meant.

Evil Sacrifice, as improved by Brian Carter in his past life, had two perfected versions. One was Flesh Sacrifice, which offered only flesh in exchange for massive life energy. Of course, this energy was evil life energy, and the beneficiary would automatically become lawful evil according to the rules. Casting interval: once per month.

The other was Soul Sacrifice, which, depending on the caster's specific wish and the quantity and quality of souls offered, could permanently imbue specified spells into the caster or inanimate objects. In general terms, this spell was a hybrid of Spell Permanency and Permanent Enchantment. But unlike Spell Permanency, Soul Sacrifice did not require inscribing runes on the recipient, meaning that, in theory, spells could be permanently imbued an unlimited number of times. Casting interval: once per month.

After the excitement passed, Brian Carter's thoughts returned to the problem of how to deal with Grace Thompson. The key was not to let her discover that the iron door in the stairwell had been corroded by his acid missile. This could be fixed with a zero-level spell to repair objects, but keeping such a ticking time bomb by his side was not in line with Brian Carter's principles. Yet, he was also reluctant to throw this woman out; he still intended to use her as a tool to satisfy his physical needs. After thinking it over, Brian Carter came up with a solution that was not really a solution.

Hypnosis: Confuses a creature, making it more favorable toward the caster; if it fails, the subject permanently forgets the casting process. The effect is permanent. Of course, given Grace Thompson's willpower, Brian Carter didn't think she had any chance of resisting this spell.

Having made up his mind, Brian Carter first confirmed that Grace Thompson was truly unconscious, then hoisted her up and threw her onto the bed in another empty bedroom. He then found some hemp rope and tightly bound Grace Thompson to the bed. The rope was wrapped around Grace Thompson's curvaceous body seven or eight times. During this, Brian Carter couldn't help but grope Grace Thompson's round, perky butt again. The fire in his heart burned even hotter.

After tying up Grace Thompson, Brian Carter suppressed his bodily desires, forced himself to calm down, ran to the bathroom, and washed his neck with hot water from the solar heater. Then he returned to the iron door in the stairwell. A zero-level spell to repair objects successfully restored the iron door to its original state, but whether it was due to the spell mutating in this world or something else, the repaired iron door looked even sturdier than before. The entire door had thickened under the magical aura, and other metals, from who knows where, had fused into the door.

Now that he could use Evil Sacrifice, all flesh had become a rare and valuable top-tier resource for Brian Carter, including zombie corpses. He dragged all three zombie corpses, wearing gloves, to the apartment next door—where he had rescued Grace Thompson.

He stacked the corpses together, then found a bottle of ink, bit his finger and dripped a drop of his own blood into it. Using a wooden stick dipped in the ink, he drew a hexagram magic circle around the pile of corpses, filling the gaps with densely packed runes. By the time he finished, the bottle of ink was just used up.

Brian Carter tossed aside the stick, closed and locked the security door, and pulled all the curtains shut. Only then did he step into the reserved casting spot in the magic circle. Deep, abyssal incantations immediately echoed through the living room.