CHAPTER 317: SECRET INFORMATION

Darian cleared everything out down there, then he and Awel moved back up. When they reached the top, everything was completely silent. Darian stepped into the wide open area and saw two blinding lights pulsing.

Floating in the air was a small rune, barely five centimeters, radiating an intense blue aura. That was Eleri’s true form, and pure frenzy was pouring out of her. Just below, on the ground, a yellowish rune glowed with a bloody light; staring at it, a disturbing feeling invaded his mind.

No bodies or signs of life anywhere — just torn clothes and shattered bits of metal scattered around.

"They really had their fun..." Awel murmured softly.

Suddenly, the light of the runes began expanding, then formed into two humanoid bodies. Soon, the glow vanished completely. Eleri appeared with a radiant smile, while Tir gave off an aura of life, like he was overflowing with energy.

"Brother Darian, I’ve never eaten this well..." Eleri said, jumping up and grabbing his hand.

"Good, you’ll have plenty more to enjoy now. Let’s head back." Darian answered calmly, watching the excitement burst out of the two.

...

The four of them returned to the city and were received with full respect and gratitude by the Fiendgods.

It didn’t take long for the Golden Monkey to straight-up ask if Darian wanted to stay and use the city as his base. At first, he refused. But seeing the desperate eyes and tears of those three, he was completely pressured into staying.

Darian let out a heavy sigh. He couldn’t walk away from them anymore. Still... they weren’t a burden. In fact, they could actually help him rack up points way faster.

Another key point — he asked more deeply about the millennial Abscess and what exactly it was.

Basically, Abscesses popped up from time to time, usually after a huge battle or in peculiar situations where countless shadows were born all at once. It was like the system deliberately created a malicious consciousness by fusing together the primordial cores of hundreds of bodies.

The area where the Abscess was formed became its domain. It could pull in nearby shadows and absorb them into its power. Every time an Abscess appeared, the system sent competitors to destroy it... until fate made many of them fail, resulting in the birth of a terrifying monster.

When that Abscess grew too powerful, other Abscesses stopped appearing, and all the focus turned to destroying it. But since people kept failing, it only grew stronger and stronger.

The current situation was catastrophic. The millennial Abscess had nearly 50,000 shadows under its control. Among them, about a thousand were ancient ones, strong enough to easily kill a level 4 competitor.

And the worst part... to defeat the millennial Abscess, every single shadow in its domain had to be destroyed. The entity didn’t have a fixed body and could move through shadows, staying alive no matter what.

Knowing that, Darian concluded it was impossible to beat 50,000 on his own. He’d need an army if he wanted to clear the special mission.

Stumbling into that Fiendgod-run city seemed like fate. Sure, they were less than ten thousand, but throughout the desert there were other Fiendgods scattered around. All he had to do was recruit them and gather more until he had a solid force.

...

The next day, Darian and the three young Heavenly Elemental Spirits started working as a group, hunting down assassin squads marked on the maps. The first target was further south, and the invasion went perfectly.

In the treasure stash, Darian found lots of rare stuff, plus new maps showing other locations. Most of the info was the same, but there were two new houses — where "kind" people were just waiting to hand over their belongings.

This time, they weren’t Chromaraics but Aberrants. Once again, Tir and Eleri did all the work, while Darian only commanded them. But this time, he told the two to leave the leader’s body intact.

Once everything was cleared, Darian waited patiently for three hours...

"GWAAAAR!"

A beastly roar echoed. The leader had transformed into a demonic shadow right in front of Darian, who watched closely.

’Hmm... definitely feels like something out of a Necromancer’s playbook. The primordial core acts like a life rune, animating the body.’ he thought, already piecing together all sorts of ideas.

But he realized he couldn’t do anything yet, since he lacked knowledge about the primordial core. Once he reached the first level and got one, he’d be able to study it in depth.

Without delay, the shadow was killed and its essence absorbed by his technique.

But on the third attempt, finally, it failed.

’Whatever.’ Darian didn’t care, and they all headed back.

***

The next day, when they raided the third hideout and looted everything inside...

[+25 Primordial Points acquired]

[Primordial Points for next realm: 200/1000]

[Congrats, Level 1 reached]

Finally, after completing several search quests, he’d gathered enough.

Suddenly, he felt the empty space around him stir. Black runes appeared, moving toward him and sinking into his body.

They gathered below his navel, at the Dantian, and then an energy core solidified there.

Darian felt something strange — a kind of relief... like his soul, filled with dark power, had synced with it and grown calmer.

[You have: 01 enhancement point available]

Another green screen popped up. With the new level, he also got a bonus.

But... Darian didn’t think much of it and just ignored it.

He could easily grab the system’s common Laws by absorbing shadows. The Almighty Law, though, was something no one had the guts to try, since it required 3 enhancement points.

According to the Golden Monkey, not spending points on a common Law was basically suicide. Only unbeatable geniuses, kids of people living in the final phase, had the ability to stack points.

So obviously, it had to be something really good — which made Darian decide to save up and see.

As for the other three, Darian let them keep all the gains available so they could stack points too. Awel was the first to hit Level 3, at the same time Darian leveled up. The other two weren’t as lucky, but they were close.

When it came to absorbing essence... he failed for the second time in a row. Two successes and two failures — but Darian didn’t think the odds were that bad.

Every time they raided a place, they’d return to the city and only head out again the next day. That way, the three youngsters always had their daily uses of Laws ready.

Even though they could win through ambush, they needed to go all-out to secure a quick victory. To avoid messing up another raid, the safest plan was always to wait a day.

That night, Darian pulled out a strange scroll he’d found in the last hideout.

It wasn’t a map. It had tiny, weird words he couldn’t read. It had been buried deep in the hideout, very well hidden. Darian was sure it contained secret information.

He asked the Golden Monkey for help, since he could read it.

"... it says here that, two years ago, an Aberrant was given permission to enter the ’Challenge Ruins.’ He managed to return and, as payment, shared with the owners what he’d gotten: the method to create a Weapon with a Spirit..."

The monkey stopped mid-reading and turned to the three youngsters. It took a moment, but under his gaze, they eventually understood, and their eyes widened.

"That’s all it says..." he finished, turning back to Darian seriously. "The Challenge Ruins are a high-level place, discovered long ago. A fortress city was built around it, and only selected people get permission to enter. It’s not secret or far — it’s northeast from here. But... the ones in charge there are all level 3 or 4; they’re one of the most powerful organizations in the desert. Thanks to those ruins, they produce many who end up advancing to the next stage of the Trial."

It was obvious this secret scroll was about that Aberrant from before. So that’s where he’d learned the method of using a Heavenly Elemental Spirit to forge it into a weapon... and also...

Darian turned to the three youngsters with a serious look. Tir and Eleri didn’t understand and looked confused. But after a minute, Awel’s face went pale, realizing the obvious.

"No..." she murmured, her eyes trembling. "The people from that city got the technique. That means... they’re probably hunting and capturing our sibling, killing them just to make those things."