CHAPTER 165: ALMOST DIVINE

Darian took a deep breath, focusing on sensing the karma of those Risen Chiefs. Most of them were just standing still, while a few would move a little and then stop somewhere else. After that... it was like they were taking a nap.

After about five minutes, Ariu and Rion picked up on something really subtle. They exchanged glances and nodded, confirming they were both feeling the same thing.

"Sir, the ground below is special. They’re absorbing some kind of energy from the earth to get stronger," Ariu said confidently. Darian had noticed something subtle too, but he wasn’t fully sure yet. Still, the Enfield bloodline in those two was really good at sensing energy and elements.

Darian nodded, understanding. Maybe after staying in one spot for too long, they’d absorbed most of that ’unknown energy’ and then moved to a new spot.

There were tons of them around, but they seemed to coexist peacefully. No fighting at all. It was weird.

"Let’s go."

Darian and Niara started moving, and the other four followed, super serious. No one dared to fly. The Summoners clung to the rocks, climbing down the abyss with extreme care. Their bodies were small, and they were hiding their auras, so they were more nervous than actually in danger.

While the younger ones were totally on edge, Darian and Niara stayed strangely calm. Lucy and Lucius were honestly pretty shocked—their brother wasn’t usually this confident and fearless. He’d changed a lot since coming to this universe.

From time to time, a Wyvern would fly overhead, forcing them to freeze completely. Once it was safe, they kept moving down.

Those flying Risen Chiefs stayed in the air only for short periods. Soon, they’d find another spot to rest. After that, their auras vanished, and they went into hibernation mode.

After nearly four hours, they finally set foot on solid ground safely.

Darian stepped forward and touched the dirt, sensing it through his rings.

The first thing he noticed was a corrupt energy—almost the standard vibe of a Risen. Then, he picked up something surprising, something he’d only recently figured out.

"It’s the three corrupted life energies..." he muttered, confused. It was flowing like there was some giant inscription covering the whole area, spreading that energy. But why?

He sighed and turned to everyone. "We’re gonna move slow. Be careful not to make any noise here."

Ahead of them was a jungle covered in high-level miasma. Besides not being able to see anything with their eyes, the stuff also suppressed their perception down to almost nothing. The twins, who had been able to sense at least a bit before, were now completely blind.

Both of them were seriously stressed. No attacks had hit them, but the air of decay kept getting stronger until it was almost unbearable. It felt like every breath was cutting their lives shorter. Plus, not being able to sense anything around them made it feel like they could die without even having the chance to react.

But seeing that calm pair up front helped them settle down. Thankfully, Darian wasn’t afraid of things like this. Maybe back when he was still a little Slug, he’d have been just like the twins. But now, with Niara’s root in him, nothing could cloud his senses.

On top of that, with his curse, he could see and even measure the enemies’ power. If there was ever any doubt, Niara would sense the danger and warn him mentally. The two of them were working together on this.

There were Risen Chiefs everywhere, so they didn’t dare speed up. Until...

"!"

Darian stopped and changed direction after sensing something. Suddenly, he stood in front of something that looked like a white tower.

"This... this is a terrifying treasure," Darian muttered, surprised. "These are bones from a Risen Chief with dragon bloodline."

Everyone heard that and almost jumped in shock. That was a bone? It was so huge it looked like a tower. But they’d never heard of Risen bones being worth anything.

Darian touched the bone. After a few minutes, he concluded, "After death, the bones kept absorbing the corruption and energy from this place. They don’t rot... they just get harder and heavier..."

Niara felt Darian’s intentions, and her heart started racing.

Purifying corruption from something like a bone was incredibly easy for Darian. And those heavily-nourished bones, once free of corruption, would become almost divine material in the hands of a good forger.

Darian sensed the area to make sure nothing was nearby, then couldn’t resist taking the risk and stashing everything in his inventory. Actually, that white tower was just a rib... He moved on and started storing more and more parts from the same skeleton.

"My inventory’s full," Darian muttered at the end, surprised. Later, he’d have to expand the space to stop this from happening again. But that wasn’t a big deal—they had an endless supply of spatial rings from their last raid.

The enemies nearby didn’t even react. Darian confirmed that, feeling excited, and kept walking. He couldn’t waste too much time hunting for bones, but whenever an opportunity popped up along the way, he made a quick detour.

They kept moving for several more hours.

Darian found another skeleton just as huge as the first one, plus half a dozen slightly smaller ones. All of them were insanely dense and heavy—some so hard no metal could even compare, others so heavy that a single rib felt like it weighed as much as a mountain. They had to split the skeletons up and store them in multiple rings.

The first day on that planet went by fast.

Then they stopped. Up ahead, there was another massive abyss. The whole region they’d been exploring was actually one huge abyss split into three layers. The one below them now, right in front of their eyes, was the last—and also the biggest area, nearly ten times larger than the previous ones.

Sensing what was down there, Niara broke out in a cold sweat. It wasn’t just Risen Chiefs anymore, there were also tons of Risen Commanders—and that was only the outer arena. Closer to the center, there’d definitely be even stronger existences.

Those enemies had way sharper senses and could detect them even with the black cloak. If they walked through, keeping as much distance as possible, maybe... just maybe... they could pass unnoticed. But they’d have to move so slowly, making so many detours, that it’d take several valuable days just to cross.

"This is gonna be way too dangerous... or way too slow. Probably both. We can’t keep going like this. Taking a bit of risk sounds like the best option," Darian said, letting out a breath. "Niara, let’s hitch a ride."

She nodded with an excited smile. Even though this was way more dangerous than what they’d been doing so far—since they didn’t fully know this place—continuing like before wasn’t a solution either.

Darian turned back and made a detour.

Soon enough, they all saw a huge purple Wyvern lying on the ground with its wings spread wide. Just its head alone was the size of the tallest building back at the Academy. The twins and their Summoners froze on the spot, but Niara and Darian stepped forward, calm as ever.

At about ten meters away, Niara stopped. Darian focused through his rings and borrowed a bit of Niara’s mental power. A faint violet aura covered the two of them. He turned to Niara, who nodded and started moving forward, super carefully.

In just a few minutes, they got close to the Wyvern’s head from the side. Niara crouched, and Darian touched the ground. He pushed Niara’s mental power, mixing it with a bit of his own black power.

He slowly placed that into the earth...

That Wyvern, like all the others, was lying there, absorbing the corrupted life energies from the ground. Mental power was a life energy, and with the black power mixed in, it just felt like a subtle variation of what they usually absorbed.

They waited... then Darian felt his black power slowly moving, getting pulled toward the Wyvern.

The beast started absorbing it.

The two waited a bit more.

’Now.’

As soon as Darian said it mentally, Niara released her full dragon Bloodline. The two Summoners watching felt their heads buzz from the intense Bloodline suppression.

Darian nodded, using the rings on his fists. At that moment, the Wyvern’s body trembled.

"Perfect. That was some good teamwork," Darian muttered, and the two exchanged bright looks.

Darian activated his black power inside the Risen Chief at the exact moment Niara released her dragon Bloodline. She had Primordial Dragon blood, and that Wyvern got completely suppressed for a second. That was the perfect window for Darian to invade its mind sea and put a light control over it.

"Come quickly," Darian said to the four. He couldn’t actually control that powerful beast for real—he’d just confused it temporarily and now had some influence over it.

Darian pulled out an artifact and used it to manipulate the earth around them, creating a large rock sphere. Niara lifted it and moved inside the Wyvern’s mouth.

The earth sphere was so tiny compared to the Wyvern’s mouth that it sat there between its teeth. Everyone stayed inside the sphere for protection, and Darian covered it with a layer of black power.

After that, Darian gave a signal, and the Wyvern spread its wings and flew off.

Darian had basically disoriented the enemy, slipped inside it, and hid his presence. The Wyvern quickly regained its mind—but since it wasn’t exactly smart, it didn’t realize what had happened.

Then, Darian just manipulated his black power inside the Wyvern, cutting off the energy flow it had been absorbing.

All the Risen Chiefs here had a routine: they’d stop in one spot and absorb energy from the ground until it ran dry. Then, they’d move to another location. The Wyvern, feeling that area was already depleted, flew off to find a new one.

Darian had sensed before that this Wyvern was a much stronger Risen Chief than the others. It could probably reach all the way to the limits of the deepest area of that huge abyss. Luckily, it didn’t come back—it just kept flying forward.

After landing near a mountain, Darian stopped the Wyvern from absorbing energy from the ground again.

The Wyvern didn’t think, it just acted on instinct. It stood up, looked around, and then flew off again.

And that’s how it went: sometimes going deeper, sometimes moving sideways, sometimes trying to go back. But Darian patiently kept manipulating it.

Whenever it tried to return, Darian completely blocked it from absorbing earth energy. Whenever it advanced, he let it absorb for an hour or two, then cut it off again.

Like a pet being trained by instinct, the Wyvern started to feel it needed to go deeper and deeper—because down there, there was clearly more power.

After two days, they were finally really close to the central region. If they’d tried walking, with a ton of luck they might’ve made it in seven days... or, more likely, they’d have been discovered and killed long before that.

When Darian could finally feel the central area clearly...

"FUCK!"

His mind jumped as a massive mouth bit the Wyvern mid-air. Black teeth tore through it violently, and blood sprayed everywhere.

It was another flying monster with Draconic bloodline, but this one was a Risen General! An existence just below a Risen Lord.