12. The lake of ghosts

After walking for 3 hours with the old man we finally reached our destination.

A huge dark lake with no sound or any sign of living creatures.

' turning around to thank the old man' the old man suddenly started laughing maniacally

" HEHHHaHHAAAaaaaHHhhAaa"

I got freaked the f out that I almost punched him. Before I could ask him what the hell is wrong with him he said in a very dead tone

" child, do what you need to do" as soon as he finished those words, he vanished with no traces left behind.

"...."

I stood there in a daze for some minutes questioning what just happened….

Need to do? Did he figure out my purpose of coming here? But how?

And how did he vanish like that… wait he was a very old frail looking geezer, thinking about it now how did he walk for 3 hours straight?

"..."

Still speechless of what happened, I decided to just leave it to the back of my mind for now. I will investigate this later…. Seriously who the hell was he?

" sigh…let's just focus on getting that arcane"

' taking out a bunch of mushrooms' I took them all out and ate them.

" this should be enough"

[ The host has consumed ' Truro mushrooms ']

[ The effect of underwater breathing will last for 2 hours from now]

'taking off my clothes except my boxer' I dived into the lake.

I bought a glowstone before coming here, it was cheap, so no big deals. Anyway, I kept diving deeper and deeper.

The deeper I dive , The darker the surrounding becomes until finally I reached the deepest part of the lake.

From this point on, I had to scan every part of this lake searching for the crystal.

And like this, It took me a whole hour until I finally noticed something shining in the bottom.

I got closer but unfortunately it was a stupid ring.

[ Spacial Ring ] [ Rare ]

"..."

It was a spatial ring. Spatial rings are a very expensive means of storing items. Rare rank was not impressive, but for a spatial ring its price could go for at least 1 million gold.

As curiosity almost killed me, I infused my mana to check what was inside.

A bunch of gold coins with rare rank artifacts appeared before my eyes.

I AM RICH

"… I Am rigrrrphh"

Wait?….

Is that an artifact?….. epic.. rank?

A legendary artifact can make someone raise within society by its value, and most of such artifacts are secured and kept hidden by the powerhouses. As for the epic artifacts, they could be auctioned for millions of gold.

I retrieved everything back, and continued searching. After half an hour of searching I heard something weird. A crying sound that was not heard from out but inside my mind.

{ uhhhhh...

…I killed them all…..}

The voice was from a weird language, but somehow I understood it.

{ Hmm?…..Human….You….Can hear me?}

hello? Can you hear me? may I know who you are?

{ finally….

If you promise that you will free me...

I will tell you anything you want}

It seems he can telepathically talk with me.

I thought wether it was a trap or not and told him that I will hear his story first.

{ Fine….My name is koorgil…..

And I was once….. a vampire lord…}

….

What?….

Vampires?!

B..but how??

Vampires are a high level creatures from a very far away planet called ' Verium '. They are not like the ones in movies. Blood was their magic indeed, but they didn't need it. I thought they have gone extinct before the novel started. The demon king died once in that area, but all vampires perished because of him.

{ Looks like you already know about the invasion… How? I thought humans….}

The demons are currently the strongest force.. if the demon lord put earth in his mind. Then all he needs is one day to destroy the whole planet. However, currently he is recovering after his last battle with the dragon lord.

{ Indeed… He almost destroyed… our land… but I fend him off…However…}

Fend off the demon lord? Was vampires this powerful? How? This arcane should be S rank at best…. S rank skill is nothing compared to the demon lord.

{ How… how do you know all of this..?? Human…no your soul is a weird one…..what are you?}

Do I tell him? Since he fought against demon lord and vampires are not demonic creatures then maybe it is not a bad Idea?

{...Hmm?...Nevermind…Let me see}

Suddenly a series of panels appeared before my eyes.

[Warning!] [Warning!]

[A powerful spell has been detected!]

[Activating ' The void ']

[ Error! The spell's rank is higher than ' the void ']

[Failure to defend the host!!]

{ .... hohoHoHAHAHA.. ha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

this.. can't be true….Pfrt.. HAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Haha…. Truly HILARIOUS}

The lake was shaking…

I felt true fear for the first in this world, I felt like I was helpless… naked in front of this soul

I can do nothing against such a creature. He even managed to kill the demon lord himself…shit… why…. Is this really how I will die?

Listening to the weird response from the vampire he seemed like he was happy?…

{ Indeed if this is true then this is great news… once that undying bastard hear this he will lose it…pfft….HAHAHAHA}

I feel like I understand what he is trying to say. The demon lord is cursed with immortality he can never die. His emotions have gone dull making him a very scary opponent to face. If he somehow found out that his whole existence and suffering was made to entertain others he will probably go rampant.

{ human thank you I can now die in peace…}

Oh I am fine? Was he not angry?

{ fret not human… although I was a maniac but still I actually am truly happy with this revelation. My kind might have perished, but there is still hope now…. It is you…}

You ? A maniac? What did you mean? And what about me?

{ well human since you brought such great news I will tell you about this curse…}

Curse?

{ indeed, the curse that once saved us is the very same one that brought extinction to us}

H…hold on didn't the demon lord exterminate your kind?

{Hmm?… from where did you get such news…? Anyway listen carefully as I hate repeating myself….}

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