Chapter 57: Toward The Central Continent

"Huh?" Velector looked at the black blood on his hands with an expression of surprise and confusion. "What the hell-Blargh..." But before he could even think about what was happening, his body began to shake and vomit a large amount of black fluid which fell to the ground (and onto Marcus) forming a small puddle.

Soon, the tremors of Velector's body became more intense and his vision began to blur, causing him to stagger.

Suddenly, the blanket of crimson flames that covered him began to fade until it was extinguished, the muscles in his body contracted and his glowing red scales began to fall off. Then, Velector fell to his knees on the ground and slowly regained his original appearance.

However, all his skin was covered with black veins, his muscles that once showed great vigor were emaciated and the scales on his body continued to fall off exposing his flesh. In addition, both the wound on the left side of his face and the five holes in his torso had reopened leaking black fluid out of his body.

"Wh- Khaf... What's happening to me?" asked Velector, disoriented and with fear. His head hurt, his skin itched, he was tired and the black substance did not stop emanating from his body.

"Isn't it obvious?" At that moment, a voice echoed in Velector's head, causing him to immediately turn his attention to Marcus, who was still lying on the floor. "It's necrotic energy poisoning. Tch, your crap got inside my eye sockets."

"WHAT!...Blargh...Cough, Cough...That's not possible! How...?" Velector was dumbfounded. He simply couldn't understand how this could have happened.

In his draconid form, the mantle of fire that covered him was made up of the Rehi of his body, which gave him a certain resistance to magic and aura. So even Marcus' 3rd level spells couldn't cause too much damage.

Although the necromancy spell [Negative Impact] had indeed had some effect on his body, the damage shouldn't have been great enough to leave him in that state.

"Two words. Bone spears." After saying those words, Marcus reached out and grabbed the spell scroll he had pulled out earlier, put one end in his mouth, and pulled the scroll with his right arm until the paper split in half.

A second later, six black runes manifested around Marcus, causing his body to fill with necrotic energy. Although this did not recover his MP, it certainly regenerated his HP.

So in an instant, his fractured ribs as well as the cracks in his back healed, at the same time as necrotic energy condensed into bony threads to regenerate his missing limbs.

When he was fully recovered, Marcus stood up and activated Jörmungandr's second spell, causing the armor to begin repairing itself.

"When you received my attack the first time, the spears embedded themselves in your body and contaminated it. An ordinary person would have died instantly. But in your case, the amount of necrotic energy was not enough and your body resisted it but did not eliminate it.

Normally, the necrotic energy would have spread throughout your body slowly, corrupting your internal energy and damaging your organs, weakening you continuously for several days. If that had been the case, you would have had enough time to go to a shrine and ask to have the contaminated energy removed from your system with holy magic.

But instead, you used your draconic form, which increased your body's Rehi circulation making you stronger, but also caused the necrotic energy to spread, contaminating your internal energy and accelerating the deterioration of your body.

Plus, the damage you took during our fight only made it worse." Marcus explained as he used a piece of cloth to wipe off the black liquid that had landed on his body.

"Khaf... This can't be possible..." Velector was overwhelmed by Marcus' words and refused to believe that what was happening to him was true, it all seemed like a nightmare. But after looking at the state of his emaciated body and the wounds on his torso, he realized that this was real.

The whole time he was fighting was real, his wounds were real and the pain was real. It all seemed like a bad joke, at first it was he who had the upper hand, as he tortured and toyed with his opponent.

But now, Velector realized that he had been right where his opponent wanted him to be and that his victory had been nothing more than a mere illusion.

"Was this all part of your- Khaf! Was this all part of your plan?!" Velector asked in an irate tone as he coughed up a mouthful of black fluid.

"Hmph. You're goddamn right! Everything worked out according to my plan. From the very beginning!" He replied in an annoyed and triumphant tone. Though of course, it was all a lie.

While Velector's condition was indeed due to necrotic energy poisoning, Marcus hadn't realized this until the Draun vomited the black fluid.

The only reason Marcus said what he said was to piss Velector off.

If his mind wasn't so impaired by necrotic energy, Velector would have realized that his defeat had only been due to his carelessness and bad luck.

"How is this possible?... I who was born to rule others...This continent was to be mine...HOW CAN I LOSE TO A MERE UNDEA-"

*Shik*

At that same instant, Marcus took a dagger from his [Storage] and plunged it deep into Velector's neck. The dagger easily passed through the Draun's flesh, cutting through to his cervical vertebrae and out through his nape.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Do me a favor, save the drama, and shut the f**k up." Marcus said as he withdrew the dagger from Velector's neck, causing a large amount of black fluid to emanate from the wound. 'Honestly, you should have just kept using your magic eye.'

*Thud*

Velectro's body fell to the ground with a thud, drowning in a pool of what was once his blood. A second later, the system notifications came in.

Ding!

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{The skill [ Analysis ] leveled up}

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{The skill [Darkness Magic] leveled up}

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{The skill [Melee Combat] leveled up}

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{The skill [Melee Combat] leveled up}

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{The user has killed a [Draun] for the first time. 25,170 additional experience points will be awarded}

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{The user has killed a [Draconid blood warrior] for the first time. 2,517 additional experience points will be awarded}

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{You earned 251,700 xp}

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{You Rank Up}

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'OH! I finally reached rank four!' Although it wasn't as impressive as other times, Marcus was still satisfied with the results. He had not only achieved over 60% of the XP needed to level up, but he had also managed to reach rank four.

After his battle against the priest, Marcus' strength had already reached the point where he could face an opponent one rank above him on equal terms. However, since his stats were still not high enough the system still listed him as a monster of rank three.

But now that all of his magic skills were at level three, and two of his combat skills were at level seven, the system finally recognized him as a rank four being.

After reading the messages, Marcus wrapped Velector's body in a blanket and stored it in his [Storage]. Once his MP was fully recovered, he would be able to use the corpse to create a high-level undead, so it would be a shame not to take it with him.

When he was done, Marcus exited the tunnel he was in and walked back to the carpeted room in search of his sword which he had dropped during the confrontation.

'Huh?' But the moment he entered the room Marcus saw something that puzzled him. 'Are you still alive?' He thought in surprise, as he watched Daniela's upper body crawl towards him with some difficulty. Amazingly, even though Velector had ripped her in half, the Zombie Assassin hadn't died and was still moving.

'Hmm... Well, don't worry Dani. I'll fix you up once we get to the Central continent.' After some thought, Marcus concluded that abandoning the Zombie Assassin would be a waste and that it would be best to try repairing it with necromancy once he had the time.

Next, Marcus took a medium-sized chest that was in the room, emptied its contents, and placed the two halves of Daniela's body in the chest.

Once he put the chest in his [Storage], Marcus began to search the room for his sword and anything of value or item that might be of use to him.

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After searching for a couple of minutes, Marcus had not only found his sword, but he also found a secret compartment in the floor under Velector's desk.

Inside the compartment were a few bags filled with gems, Rehi crystals, gold and silver coins along with other jewelry items, and a small metal chest that was locked with magic.

Although Marcus didn't have the key to the chest, this didn't pose a problem for him as he only had to use some of his necrotic energy to weaken the protection enchantment and open the chest.

So after a couple of minutes, the necrotic energy destroyed the enchantment and the lock of the chest causing it to open revealing its contents. Inside were a total of four old scrolls made of monster skin and a black crystal card with a symbol of three silver waning moons on it.

Immediately afterwards, Marcus used his [analysis] on the objects in the chest and the moment he did, his jaw opened so wide that he almost dropped to the floor. Although he could determine almost no information regarding the card, out of the four scrolls in the chest, three contained 5th level spells, and the other contained 6th level spells.

'Hahaha, I can't believe it, I hit the jackpot this time! But... How the hell did Velector get these things?' He wondered to himself as he kept the scrolls and the card in his [Storage].

Even if he was the leader of a successful criminal gang, Marcus didn't think Velector had the resources to get the scrolls. Just one of the 5th level spell scrolls was more expensive than all the valuables in the room combined.

In this world (and especially in this part of the Austra continent) things like high-level Magic and enchanted items were scarce and spell scrolls were no exception. Although not all scrolls were inaccessible, they were quite expensive, especially those containing spells above 2nd level.

The reason for this wasn't only due to the cost of the raw materials needed to create them, but the higher the level of the scroll, the greater the complexity and difficulty in crafting it. So the success rate for creating high-level scrolls was quite low.

For his part, although he had spent almost all of his remaining auction money on buying the materials and had spent a lot of time practicing, Marcus had only achieved a 10% to 15% success rate in crafting 2nd and 3rd-level spell scrolls. Which was actually pretty decent.

Since there wasn't much point in thinking about the subject, Marcus simply concentrated on taking the rest of the valuable things that were still left in the room.

Although Marcus didn't mind taking some paintings and artwork with him, his [Storage] was already full, so he had no choice but to leave them there.

When he finished looting the Black Lions' treasure, Marcus left the room and headed for the surface.

****

[Port city of Neima. Slums. 00:10 A.M.]

It was already late at night in the port city, so even the bar controlled by the Black Lions was deserted and dark. Even when the ten men in the bar were killed no one made a fuss or called the guards.

After all, everyone in the slums was used to these kinds of situations and knew it was best not to intrude where they weren't called. Especially when it was something involving the most powerful gang in the city.

Marcus was on top of a three-story building several blocks from the bar. His entire body was wrapped in a cloak and he was wearing a white mask that, while not an enchanted item like the previous one, did serve to hide his skeletal face.

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{The [Monarch of the eternal garden] watches you with curiosity and interest}.

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'Sigh... Fine, you want a show? I'll give you a f**king show...Corpse Explosion!'

*Boom...Tremble...Tremble...Tremble...*

At that moment, the ground beneath the Black Lions bar exploded causing the entire building to collapse. The sound of the explosion rippled through the air as strong tremors began to spread throughout the slum as some dilapidated wooden buildings collapsed and the streets sank more than five meters (16.4ft) into the ground.

'Holy crap, that was better than I expected! But... I never thought this spell would be so powerful. Is it because my necromancy reached level three or because of the number of corpses I used? Hum... I have to find more time to practice my spells.'

A few hours ago while still in the tunnels, Marcus had left his necrotic energy inside the corpses of the Black Lions, turning them into components for the [Corpse Explosion] spell to destroy the tunnels later.

Although Marcus did not need to destroy the Black Lions' lair, he decided to do it anyway just as a precaution. Besides, he had been itching to use that spell ever since he learned it.

Now that the tunnels collapsed, Marcus activated a stealth spell and immediately headed for the city's dock to stand by for the time when the ships would sail out to sea.

****

[Port city of Neima. Dock. 07:40 A.M.]

Activity on the dock had started very early in the morning and the atmosphere was quite lively.

The fishing boats were out fishing offshore, the merchant ships had just docked at the quay and the sailors were busy moving their ships' cargo or preparing to set sail.

In addition, the dock was full of armed guards in metal armor who patrolled the area and inspected the ships constantly and rigorously. But their presence made the sailors nervous and the atmosphere a bit tense.

However, this atmosphere was only a small taste of what was to come.

Only three days had passed since the attack, so the news had barely spread to the neighboring towns and cities. In the coming weeks, the port would be bustling with ships from all over the kingdom which would certainly bring with it an influx of people.

While this would certainly be good for the local economy and commerce, the increase in people in the city would also pose a problem for security and public order.

The city was currently understaffed, so the governor and guards were doing their best to maintain some order until troops from the kingdom and the Eastern Lords arrived.

The White Whale was a three-masted merchant ship, 42 meters (137.7 ft) long and just over 10 meters (32.8 ft) wide. Apart from the main deck, the ship had a total of two more decks and a hold. The ship was also equipped with a total of 24 cannons (twelve on each side) and had a crew of 98 men.

"For the last time, I tell you that you have no right to enter my ship!" Protested Captain Walter Kobrey, a burly man with a graying head and a short white beard, as he tried to prevent a uniformed guard from entering his ship.

"Mr. Walter, I am afraid that due to current protocol I am forced to inspect your ship and interrogate your crew before you can depart. As you may be aware, the amount of crime has increased greatly lately. Did you know that yesterday alone we stopped more than eight ships that were carrying illegal goods?

In addition, we received many reports of riots in the slums. Some streets and buildings collapsed last night. So the situation is a bit tense and I am swamped with work.

So if you don't mind, let me check your ship so we can both get on with our business or I'll be forced to arrest you for obstruction of public safety." Replied the head guard.

"Kgh..." Walter bit his lip and racked his brain trying to think of how to get out of this situation.

Normally he wouldn't have minded having his ship searched. After all, the merchandise he usually carried was no big deal. However, this time he had been tempted by greed and if he let the guards into his ship, they might discover the barrels full of monster eggs in the hold.

"Sir, Sir Franco!" Just then, a guard ran past the dock through the crowd and approached the head guard.

"Hum? What's the matter?" the head guard asked as the man came over to whisper something in his ear. "What!? They already arrived!? …Tch, we're leaving!" said Franco as he and his men began to leave the scene. "Sail with caution Captain Walter. The seas have been very stormy lately."

Walter watched in confusion as the guards retreated from the dock until they were out of sight. He did not know what had happened, but he was relieved that the guards did not search his ship.

"Captain! Come take a look at this!" shouted the boatswain's mate of the White Whale.

Hearing this, Walter immediately climbed aboard the ship and ran to the gunwale where his entire crew was. When he finally saw what the others were looking at, his eyes widened.

Beyond the horizon, Walter and his men spotted at least a dozen ships, which must have been nearly three times the size of the White Whale. In addition, each ship carried a yellow flag with the image of a large shield and two crossed swords.

"The fleet of the Eastern Lords!" exclaimed Walter when he managed to make out the ships' flags. "They must be the first scouts. Good heavens, there must be more than five thousand men in all."

The reason for his surprise was not only due to the magnitude of the ships or their numbers, but the fact that the scouts had arrived so quickly.

It had only been three days since the attack and two since the monster extermination order had been declared, so it was impressive that the Eastern Lords had been able to send a fleet of such magnitude in such a short time. This only proved how powerful the continental-ranked clan was.

"Captain, what do we do!?" the Boatswain asked in an alarmed tone.

"Isn't it obvious? Everyone to your stations, we will sail immediately!!!" Walter shouted at the top of his lungs as he rushed to take the ship's helm.

As soon as the captain gave the order, his men cast off the moorings, hoisted the anchor, unrolled the mainsail and left the dock as fast as they could.

Then, when they were far enough away from the city, the sails on the masts were unfurled and the White Whale, along with its 99 crew members, headed for the Central Continent at full speed.

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