Meanwhile, Nicolaus skilfully evaded an orc's club strike and swiftly beheaded it. Then, he took a deep breath and launched toward a group of goblins. He moved fast, leaving blurry images behind, and slaughtered tens of goblins like chickens!
After becoming an apprentice warlock, his spirit power rose exponentially, and he had already awakened one more bloodline spell.
And with his peak fifth-tier warrior strength, he was like an invincible warrior. Wherever he moved, black-colored liquid started to spurt out from the monsters' necks and painted the nearby trees.
"What the? From when did our young master have grown so strong?" Jack swallowed his saliva and asked with a shocked face.
"But why isn't he using his elemental energy?" Jack heard a familiar voice from his right side.
"Now that you mention it-"Jack was about to reply but stopped. Instantly, he turned his head and noticed a 50-year-old man standing at the edge of the fortified wall. He had black hair, a square face, and blue eyes.
He wore a black military suit, leather boots, and a long sword in his left hand. Upon seeing the familiar face, Jack became startled.
"Forgive my rude words, My Lord." He spoke while bowing his head.
"Don't worry." Baron Tibbott waved his hand and looked at his son confusedly. He felt his son had become a total stranger within a few months.
'He became stronger again!' He gripped his long sword and turned his head towards Jack.
"Jack, bring all of your soldiers to the eastern gate. My son and I will take care of these monsters."
As he finished his words, he took a deep breath and jumped from the fortified wall. A second later, wind elemental energies gathered around his body and formed into two crystal-like wings. He flapped his wind wings and slowly landed near Nicolaus.
"Nicolaus, why aren't you using your elemental energy?" He asked while blocking an Orge's club.
"Dad!" Nicolaus turned his head in surprise and smiled.
But he didn't reply; instead, he clenched his fist and muttered,
"Mind Illusion!"
The next moment, the surroundings started to change into a different one. Trees and fort walls disappeared from Baron Tibbott's sight and were replaced with empty, barren lands. Upon seeing the sudden change, the nearby monsters and even the tall Orge became dumbfounded.
"Magic!" Baron Tibbott shouted in shock. Then, he turned his head towards Nicolaus and asked in puzzlement.
"But how?"
Nicolaus's smile widened as he saw his father's response and muttered proudly.
"I became a Warlock, dad."
A look of astonishment appeared on Baron Tibbott's face. Hiding his shock, he stabbed his sword at Orge's neck and swiftly killed it. Then, he spoke with a bright smile.
"I never thought a Warlock would be born in our Scott family."
"Goddess Myxenta has blessed us, dad," Nicolaus said with a wide smile.
"Hahaha, I think so too." Baron Tibbott chuckled and turned his gaze toward the remaining monsters.
"Let's kill these pests quickly." He spoke solemnly and sprinted toward the monsters.
After 10 minutes, Baron Tibbott and Nicolaus finished off the last orc monster and turned their head toward the town. Then, they saw a bright light at the center and got worried.
"Our men seem to be facing a troublesome opponent," Nicolaus muttered.
Both glanced at each other and hurriedly moved in that direction.
"Dad, how did these monsters appear near our territory?" While running, Nicolaus glanced at Baron Tibbott and asked with a frown.
"I have no idea, son. But a few weeks ago, I heard that a strange cave appeared near the Mountain of Perished." Baron Tibbott said.
"A Strange cave?" Nicolaus narrowed his eyes.
"Yes. If my guess is right, that strange cave must be the reason for the sudden increase of monsters near our territory." Baron Tibbott spoke grimly and soon arrived in front of the Eastern fort gate.
Before Nicolaus could ask further questions, the three-meter tall metal gate opened with a screeching noise. Nicolaus saw a dozen soldiers standing anxiously on the other side and got more worried.
"What happened?" He asked with an impatient look.
"Western fort gate is on the verge of breaking, Young Master. There is a high-rank monster in that group." A lean soldier replied nervously.
Everyone's face turned serious as they heard his words. Nicolaus and Baron Tibbott asked those soldiers to guard the eastern gate and mounted the horses to move towards the western fort gate.
Ten minutes later, Nicolaus and Baron Tibbott arrived in front of the broken western gate and got shocked.
At that moment, hundreds of monsters stormed into the town while massacring the citizens and soldiers.
Baron Tibbott even saw the decapitated head of Captain Jack and went bloodshot.
The next instant, he moved towards the group of monsters that stood near the broken western gate and started slashing his sword madly to kill them all.
But to his surprise, a black-skinned humanoid monster suddenly appeared forward and blocked his sword attacks using its scimitar. It had two big goat-like horns, a long arrow-like tail, and yellow eyes. It spat out a mouthful of lava-like substance whenever it opened its mouth and sent a foul stretch to the surroundings.
Although Baron Tibbott managed to hold off against that black-skinned humanoid monster, he wasn't strong enough to defeat it. After a few seconds, the monster's brute strength blew him off.
"Weak!" It spat out a word in the abyssal tongue.
When the black-skinned monster was about to finish the powerful human, another black-haired young man walked near it and blocked its path.
"Human. Move." It spoke angrily. But this time, it said in Easica's common tongue!
But Nicolaus wasn't intimidated. Instead, he curled his lips upward and opened his third eye!
Indeed, it was his powerful bloodline spell!
A ray of silver lightning came out from his third eye and moved toward the monster at an unimaginable speed. Before the monster could step back to defend itself, the silver lightning touched its forehead and disintegrated it into dust!
It all happened in less than a second, causing all the monsters and panicking soldiers to freeze in shock.
Upon seeing the horrifying lightning attack, even Baron Tibbott got baffled and remained still.
"If you have that powerful spell in your sleeve, why didn't you tell me earlier? I wasted all my energy for nothing." He grumbled after a short silence.
Nicolaus couldn't help but smile wryly after hearing his dad's words.
"It takes too much energy, dad. Also, this is the first time I'm using it."
"Whatever." Baron slowly stood up and patted his shoulder.
After that, both started killing all the monsters and sealed the western gate.
Nicolaus stayed in the Bare Keep town for the next two days and protected the town like a guardian angel. Meanwhile, his father mounted a white horse and personally went to the Royal Capital to seek Prince Raollet's help.
…
A few days went by,
Fourth Layer, Dark Dungeon.
Inside the dense forest, hundreds of severed monsters' bodies and a few magical beasts lay motionlessly on the ground and looked gruesome. Those beings' blood splattered all over, painting the surrounding scarlet red.
Meanwhile, a group of silver armored knights and five white-robed figures stood a few hundred meters away from those corpses and looked at a Fizzy chestnut-color-haired guy full of confusion and puzzlement.
That guy was around thirty years old and had hooded jade eyes.
He wore a white-colored rochet; covering it was a red cassock and black tippet. He was none other than Bishop Piers.
Without minding Holy Knights' and priests' curious gazes, Bishop Piers smiled and looked at another group marching in their direction.
Simultaneously, everyone from the Light church group followed Piers' gaze and saw a red-robed middle-aged man with azure blue eyes walking towards them with a solemn face. Behind him were 30 black and grey-robed mages who appeared ready to battle at any moment.
They belong to the Royal Family group!
Both sides looked at each other cautiously and waited for their leader's order. Meanwhile, a red-robed middle-aged man Sean looked coldly at the Light church group and asked,
"Honorable Bishop of Light, can you tell me why you suddenly called us here?"
Although he spoke politely, everyone could see he was looking down on Light Church members.
Upon seeing Sean's rude attitude, Piers didn't get offended. Instead, he smiled brightly and spoke with absolute calmness.
"Honorable Mage of Silverland, we now realize the difficulty of this dungeon and thought of cooperating with the Royal family. What do you think about it?"
Sean frowned at Bishop's words and gave him a suspicious glance.
Meanwhile, mages, holy knights, and five of the Bishop's disciples were stunned by his words.
Without waiting for Sean to ask another question, Piers added,
"Red python had already found out the location of Death Cane. From the information I gathered from our spies, they seem to be moving to the next layer."
As Sean heard those words, his azure blue eyes widened. The next instant, he nodded his head in approval.
Although he was not after Death cane, his destination was also the fifth layer, and he chose to cooperate without any hesitation.
Meanwhile, Piers let out a relieved sigh and nodded.
Although the Light Church had managed to lower the casualties on their side, Piers didn't think they would keep it like that once they entered the fifth layer. He had already used a divination spell and knew the next layer had many dangers. He was also well of his demise, but he didn't think much about it.
His death was bound to happen shortly, and no one had the power to stop it.
But what he worried about now was his disciples' safety. Moreover, they had to complete the missions given by Pontiff Philip and fulfill their duty. To achieve all these things, they need a helping hand. So now, with those mages' help, their chance of getting Death Cane would be much higher.
Both groups didn't discuss anything further and searched for the next layer entrance while cautiously maintaining a safe distance. They knew it was just an alliance, so they didn't trust each other.
Meanwhile, a chubby-faced guy among the Royal group looked around everyone cautiously and silently tapped his green gem-embedded golden ring.
He had short brown hair, a round face, and fair skin and appeared around 20 to 25 years old.
As his finger touched the golden ring, the purple mist appeared in every direction, covering everyone's vision for a whole minute. Light church members and mages went on full alert mode and cleared the fog using various spells.
The chubby-faced fat guy had vanished from the group when the purple mist faded. Due to his low-key character, no one noticed his disappearance, and they continued their journey.
A few hundred meters from the group, a grey-robed guy with emerald green eyes suddenly popped out of the nearby bush and started stealthily walking in the other direction.
What was stranger was that the golden ring in his right hand shone brightly occasionally in green color and soon formed into an arrow-like symbol.
If one looked at it closely, one would see the arrowhead pointing towards his left side!
"This way, huh?"
That chubby guy muttered slowly and soon dragged his fat body towards the left.
After an hour of constant walking, Count Henricus stood before an abandoned mansion in the dense forest and got stupefied. Creepy dark vines and giant mushrooms appeared all over the yard, giving off an eerie aura. But what made him feel more scared was that he saw a huge green tree that seemed to be grown inside the mansion's main hall and looked terrifying.
'Moreover, this tree's branches are pierced through nearby rooms' walls, making this whole place more haunted!'
'What the f*ck? Why did 'Greed's ring' bring me to this strange mansion?' Cold sweats appeared on his round face. Although he had heard multiple times about this legendary Greed ring's unique abilities from his grandfather, he was still skeptical.
Even though it had a few spells like Purple mist, Teleport, and Erase track, Henricus still felt something was off. Indeed, he was a very sly fox and a coward.
After entering this dungeon, this Greed's ring had activated five times while pointing arrows in different directions.
But he didn't dare to take the risk and ignored this ring's signs. But this time, he felt this ring gave an unusual vibration and couldn't even resist the urge to look for it. After thinking briefly, he used the Purple Mist spell and separated from that group.
'F*ck! I'm more scared.'
Count Henricus stood hesitantly at the mansion's entrance for a while and soon noticed the 'Greed's Ring' began to vibrate fiercer.