unko
Chapter 256: A Heavy Price
A couple of seconds later…
Liam's figure materialized in the graveyard. He looked slightly confused because he thought that he had 5 more seconds until respawning but he was already here?
"Fuck it. That's not important. What did I lose?"
He did not seem to be in the presence of any mob or any other random beast.
The graveyard was deserted and empty so he hurriedly opened his status screen to take a look at everything and gauge his losses.
However, the next instant… suddenly something hovered in front of him, before starting to fall to the ground.
Gudang! Liam's heart thumped loudly as he realized what it was and hurriedly reached forward to catch it in a hurry.
Luna's egg had appeared out of the inventory all on its own. It was about to fall down but luckily he reached forward and caught it before it was too late.
But that did not make him happy at all. Instead, he had a very bad feeling.
He watched the dark purple egg with a single white spot on it as it suddenly started to become paler. The white spot was growing and growing in size, very rapidly.
The egg was visibly thrumming, twitching in his hands.
Liam started panicking. He wanted to think that his death had perhaps done something, maybe act as a catalyst and speed up Luna's evolution process.
He wanted to hope that this was possibly a good thing that came out of his death. He held his breath, waiting for his hope to become true.
But, the next second, the egg that was rapidly becoming white suddenly stopped vibrating.
Its shell that had almost turned pure crystalline white now started becoming black, pitch-black in color.
If her shell was white in color, it meant that she was healthy and her evolution was progressing in the correct direction.
At least this is the rough understanding he had. Then what about the black color?
Liam still did not know what was happening, but he had a feeling that something was off. He felt a tinge of restlessness and uncertainty at the bottom of his heart.
He stared at the egg that was now almost half-black. It was no longer showing any signs of movement, with only the black color steadily spreading.
The egg that was previously full of life now looked lifeless and dead.
Just looking at it made his heartache. He couldn't even tell if the fox was still alive or not? What if something happened to her?
The tiny fox's cute smiling face appeared again and again in his mind. Was he never going to see her again?
He had just now died and probably lost his chance at the inheritance, but it did not hit him as hard as this.
Those were merely tools that he wanted in his arsenal to become more powerful. If he lost one, he could always get another.
But without realizing it, he had already become very attached to the fox. The ruthlessness in his eyes was now replaced with hurt and pain.
Liam felt terrible. He felt as if he had failed her. He had failed that innocent thing that kept circling him lovingly.
He never thought that dying once would cost him so much. It wasn't enough that he had already lost the perfect integrity of his soul, he had lost his spirit beast also…
"No. No. Not yet." Liam desperately held the egg, and tried to inject some mana into it, but it was useless. Nothing was going in.
He opened the map and looked at where he was, only to see that he was still in that damned border zone, nowhere near Yleka city or the royal city.
If he wanted to go back right now, he would surely be too late. He would be too late to help her and she would be dead.
But what else could he do?
Liam stared blankly at the egg in front of him. He didn't know what to do to help her. However, time and tide waited for no one.
The black color was still spreading quickly and it did not stop there. Suddenly, a small popping sound came out.
And confirming his worst fears, the egg in front of him rapidly started cracking. Through these cracks, a red-colored liquid seeped out.
"Bl… Blood?" He stammered, collecting the liquid as it pooled in his other hand.
He had lost her? Even after being born again, he was once again helpless and desperate?
He couldn't even protect a small thing that loved him unconditionally? Was he just destined to lose everyone he loved?
Then what the hell was everything for? Just what strength had he managed to gain so far?
He had nothing. He was no one. He could only watch helplessly, unable to do anything to help her. Failure was not a feeling that he was unfamiliar with, but this time it hurt so much more.
"Luna…" He mumbled, his voice hoarse. "I am sorry."
He rubbed the egg lovingly and closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath.
He was afraid to find out what he would see if the egg shell completely broke. Would the small fox inside be dead?
"Please be ok. Please be ok." Liam mumbled. The anger and fury that was surging within him just seconds ago had completely disappeared.
"If you are still alive, please hold on. I will somehow make this all fine. Just please hold on." He repeated in a pleading voice, hoping that the fox could hear him.
This was the plight of the weak. He could only uselessly hope like this and nothing more. He hadn't been strong enough to help her so now all he could do was simply wait.
Liam gritted his teeth as more blood spilled out of the egg. He did not even know where he had gone wrong and how he could have prevented this from happening.
How did everything turn out like this? Was this because he had underestimated the enemy? Who was this enemy?
How could Kouske possibly know that he was visiting this place today? Why was he here?
Liam did not know the answers to any of these questions but he knew one thing. It was because of this unknown enemy that he had lost today.
And he would keep losing more and more if he did not soon find out anything and everything about this person.
Thinking about this, he silently stood like a statue, holding the egg in his hand that was bleeding and breaking apart.
"No. Not yet." He resolutely clenched his fist, the blood collected in his hand dripping down onto the ground.
He then started haphazardly taking out all sorts of herbs from his inventory.
from the start. Rather than his own talent, what he counted on was Luna's ability to absorb essences.
In fact, if the egg wasn't placed near the herb, then once again the extraction might have failed.
The essence being extracted right now is 100% Luna's doing.
Liam knew that this would work because even back when she was just an egg, before ever hatching, she had refined fire essence and absorbed it.
So if he helped her a bit by circulating his mana, she should be able to absorb the herbal essence as well.
This was one of the spirit beast's natural qualities. This way was not that efficient because Luna as well was a relatively young spirit beast, so her skill was quite unpolished.
But Liam did not care.
This was his last-ditch attempt. He desperately needed this to work and did not think of efficiency and such.
He watched the herbs and the egg with anticipation and the next second, just like he hoped for, the egg started absorbing these small dots of lights.
"Ok. Ok. Ok. Calm down. This might work." He told himself and dumped the set of herbs, replacing it with another bunch of fresh herbs.
This was just the first step. There was still a lot more to go. Luna might be absorbing the essences now, but would it actually help her?
He didn't know. He repeated the process again and again, every time circulating mana hurriedly.
At first, he was very careful but down the line, all he needed to do was pump the mana and the egg took care of the rest.
"Are you really okay?" He sighed.
After a while, something happened and the spreading of the black color slightly slowed down. The bleeding stopped and the egg did not crack any longer.
Whatever was happening somewhat settled down.
Seeing this, Liam felt like he could finally breathe!
He threw a hail mary pass and he somehow managed to score a goal!
Liam then blindly took out all the fire-attribute herbs in his possession.
One after the other, he circulated mana in these herbs and continuously fed it to the egg, and Luna as well gulped it all down with voracity.
She was like a black hole absorbing everything that he threw at her.
Soon after a couple of minutes, he ran out of the first batch of fire-type herbs.
Since he had no other choice, Liam then tried a normal herb and weirdly, the essence from that herb as well was eaten by the egg.
"So anything is okay huh?" Liam sighed softly. He only now relaxed seeing that the black color had almost stopped spreading completely.
He still had no idea what he was doing. He was just instinctively feeding the young fox some nutritious essence.
This was the only thing that he could try right now and that seemed to be working?
He continued feeding Luna herb after herb, slowly and steadily running through his stock supplies, and the egg as well continued gobbling up everything.
Liam did not mind. As long as he could somehow make this all alright, just like before, it would be worth it.
He patiently stood at the same spot without moving an inch, feeding everything he had to the egg. The black color also stopped spreading, but the problem was…
The minute he stopped feeding the egg with herbs, the black color once again started spreading.
Liam sighed. It looked like they were not out of the woods just yet. He continued feeding the herbs and started thinking about what to do next.
He definitely did not have enough herbs with him for this to last.
He also couldn't possibly continue doing this while flying on Talon to reach all the way back to Yleka city or even any other small town nearby.
There was no time and he simply did not have enough herbs to even last that trip. Not to mention, he first had to go to the spot where Talon was.
Right now he was quite far away.
But Liam was not giving up just yet. He had come all this way and he had somehow managed to bring her back from the brink of death.
This was a precious chance that he had obtained to save the little thing. So he was determined not to let her down again.
Just as he was pondering about how to solve this problem, Liam suddenly remembered the other plant that he had in his possession.
He had slightly scooped up the moss from the tunnel walls, but he was not able to identify it. For all he knew, it could be a herb or not be a herb.
But Liam did not have to know everything about the plant to try this out. He hurriedly took out some in his hands and then started circulating mana, just like he was doing to the other herbs.
And bingo!
Luna ate it up as well just like she had eaten all the other herbs.
Here it was!
This was the solution to his problem!
This was it!
The entire underground tunnel was filled with this herb and the tunnel ran for miles and miles. With these herbs, he could feed Luna until she had eaten her fill. There was more than enough.
The only problem was that… he did not know if the herbs were still present… or if even those had already been stolen?
Liam's face immediately changed. His gaze turned ice cold and his fist gripped the herb on his palm tighter, his anger surging back up again.
It was time to return to that place and hunt everyone down! Whatever they took from him, he would take it right back.
Chapter 258: Welcome Back Gift
With the half-cracked and half-blackened egg in one hand and herbs in the other hand, mana constantly circulating in his palm, Liam dashed towards the location where the underground tunnel was present.
Unlike before, he knew exactly where it was.
He had searched this region grid by grid for hours. So he knew the direction to the underground tunnel from the graveyard like the back of his hand.
His speed this time was much faster and he reached the zone in under an hour.
However, when he arrived near the place, he came to a complete halt.
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!
A cacophony of different beast howls echoed throughout the forest.
He had not even stepped in the vicinity of the tunnel, and the entire area was already teeming with all sorts of high-level beasts and monsters.
Each and every single one of these guys was Level 50 at the least.
Liam's gaze darkened as he watched this scene. His already seething anger rose even further. "So you left me another present… Good. Good."
"But trying to kill me with just this much? DREAM ON!"
He took out two metal orbs from his inventory and tossed them onto the ground in front of him.
He then continued walking forward without a single hesitation or fear right into the thicket of the chaos, heading to the area full of crazed dangerous beasts.
And behind him, two giant figures materialized standing erect and ready for action. He had summoned the two golems!
Liam no longer cared that he was going to attract the attention of barbarians. The four who probably set up this trap for him in case he returned, actually did him a favor.
Because of these many beasts, the barbarians were probably not going to set foot in this place any time soon.
And also… the thing about closely gathered beasts was that… the danger was exponentially high, but also the experience points gain was equally sweet.
[Ding. You have gained 500 experience points]
[Ding. You have gained 1000 experience points]
[Ding. You have gained 700 experience points]
…
…
…
Within a few minutes, he already gained back the level that he had lost because of his unexpected death!
Liam sneered. Even if he had asked someone else to gather monsters for grinding, they wouldn't have been this efficient.
Elites were indeed elites!
Walking leisurely under the protection of the defense golem, Liam did not even have to lift a finger.
He could but he didn't want to. He didn't want to do anything that would risk Luna's recovery.
So he simply walked with one golem protecting him and the other golem clearing the wild beasts that were crazily rushing at him.
These beasts were typically very intelligent, unlike the lower-level beasts. However, right now they were coming at him with so much ferocity that their performance was very bad.
The attack golem was able to easily aim and smash its targets every time it swung its giant arms. Every move of the huge thing killed a beast.
"Hmmm… These guys seem to be more rabid than usual…" Liam calmly mumbled. He then sniffed the air, his lips curling upwards to reveal a cruel smile.
"This is incense potion's work." He was sure of it.
Incense potion was a liquid that had a unique scent. It was typically concocted using some special herbs, that had an addictive brain-altering effect.
When a beast smells this scent, it becomes hyper-energetic and enraged. Its aggro lasts longer and it lingers in the same area for a long time.
Not just that but its attributes also received a boost, equivalent to berserk strength. So using this potion to attract beasts in order to level up faster was a double-edged sword.
More often than not, it was used for sabotage instead.
As Liam moved closer and closer to the spot, the number of beasts in the vicinity also started increasing.
Their attacks were more intense and even the golem did not look like it was going to hold out much longer.
But Liam still did not use his mana to attack them. He needed that for maintaining Luna's state. So he strictly did not make a move.
In fact, he did not do anything special at all.
After recalling the attack golem, he simply took out the grenades he had saved.
He tossed four grenades in four different directions like he was throwing rocks, while he himself stood in the barrier of the protection golem.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Instantly four loud explosions rang out. Beast blood, bones, flesh, and skin splattered on all sides and a huge area was cleared with this single move.
This also temporarily created a smokescreen for Liam who recalled the second golem as well and jumped into the tunnel's gaping hole. Not that he needed it.
After he jumped inside, he looked around, noticing that something was out of place.
At first, he had expected some beasts to be here as well. So he was alert and ready to act. However, surprisingly, there was none here.
"Hmmm?" Liam was confused.
Strictly speaking, this was the place where the beasts could have harmed him the most as he wouldn't be able to use his golem or grenades.
This was also the place where the incense potion smell was the strongest. Yet there really were no beasts here?
Why did they just not jump into the hole?
Clearly, Kouske and the team had taken no efforts to hide the presence of the hole.
So technically at least some should have jumped in, if not because of the effect of incense, at least because of sheer curiosity or even randomness.
Thinking about this, Liam frowned a bit but then he shrugged and continued to walk carefully inside. These beasts were just a mere distraction after all. The main show was yet to come.
Or maybe not.
As of right now, it looked like the people who he came here looking for, had already long gone, ran away from this spot.
Well, either that or they had set up all this so that he would assume such a thing and come in unprepared for all the traps waiting for him inside the tunnel.
The chances of that happening were too less, but after last time, Liam did not ignore any possibility. Even if there was nothing and no one, it was best to be prepared at all times.
He pondered about it for a bit but did not linger on it and quickly started walking back into the long winding tunnel.
His revenge and hunting those four until they were erased from the face of this planet was indeed something that he wanted.
But for now… Luna's recovery had the first priority.
So keeping an eye on the surroundings, he started walking further.
However… just after taking a few steps… he suddenly came to a halt. He shuddered slightly and his eyes widened in surprise.
"This thing… this feeling…" He raised his hand dumbly, still clutching Luna's egg tightly.
And as soon as he did, black wisps of energy coiled around his hand.
Chapter 259: Nether Everywhere
Utterly shocked, Liam looked at his left hand in which black wisps of energy coiled around, both his arm and the egg that he was holding.
He then stared at his right hand in which mana was surging, wrapping the herbs that he clutched tightly.
He could distinctly feel the two types of energies. They were different like hot and cold, sweet and sour, or night and day.
No, that was not it. They were not exactly opposing, but they were definitely different.
As Liam suddenly lost his concentration mulling over this, mana surged and burnt the herbs that he was holding in his palm to a crisp.
"Shit." He dropped the debris to the ground and quickly took out another bunch of herbs to keep feeding the egg.
After a few moments, small spots of light flew from the herbs to the egg again, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"What is happening? Why now suddenly?" Liam leaned on the tunnel wall in exhaustion.
He closed his eyes and tried to feel the energy swirling around him again, this time more slowly, without losing focus of the mana concentration and frying the herbs.
And to his surprise, once more he could clearly sense the black wisps of energy. In fact, the air around him seemed to be brimming with this energy.
Liam silently contemplated about this for a while and there seemed to be only one plausible explanation.
"This is definitely nether." He muttered under his breath.
This place was filled with nether!
He remembered the feeling every time he felt whenever they teleported to the nether realm. It was something that was there but there was a veil around it preventing him from sensing it properly.
And now somehow that veil was broken…
He could finally grasp it.
He could feel the thick heavy nether swirling aimlessly inside the tunnel. Perhaps it had been this way for several weeks or months or years now.
It even felt as if the nether here was much thicker than the nether in the nether realm as if someone had artificially increased its concentration.
"That's it." Liam's eyes widened in realization. "This should be why the beasts are still outside, without entering the tunnel."
"Hmmm… Perhaps… then this entire underground tunnel was designed in such a way that only nether wielders would be able to survive here."
This made sense because the ability to sense nether and affinity for the same was not that common in Xion.
In the nether realm, almost every demon inhabiting the place was able to do it to some extent but here it was a much rarer ability.
"Is this also why that guy came in alone without the other three?" Liam was slowly understanding everything.
The last time he had seen Kouske, he was raiding the glacier cave along with three other experts, but this time, only he was there, alone in this tunnel.
Either the other three did not come with him or they had come here but were not able to enter the tunnel, perhaps receiving some strong debuffs because of the thick concentration of nether.
However, the important question was not that. How did they even know to come here in the first place? That too… today of all the days?
And for that, he still did not have an answer.
Liam was now more than sure that the four were no longer in the vicinity.
Only because the other three were unable to enter, Kouske had resorted to a sneak attack, rather than facing him head-on.
And even if all of them were somehow able to get into the tunnel, he was still a whole ten levels above them.
So chances were that they probably stole what they wanted and ran for their lives, also setting up the incense potion trap for him.
He doubted that they would linger around here, risking the loss of whatever they had obtained in the last cave.
Liam's gaze silently simmered. He decided to leave this part for later as there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.
His focus and priority right now was the fox and only the fox.
He started to walk into the tunnel once again, towards the spot where the moss started explosively overtaking everything, growing rampantly everywhere.
In the long empty dark tunnel, only Liam's steady footsteps could be heard.
He walked a few feet and then paused. "So the concentration of the nether thickens as I go in and the mana thins out…"
Earlier he was only able to sense the mana that was becoming weaker and weaker but now he was also able to sense the nether that was becoming stronger and stronger.
"Does the corresponding debuff also increase?" Liam pondered.
He was worried that Luna would become even weaker because of this. He observed the egg carefully to see if the condition is worsening but luckily nothing like that happened.
However, was it really luck?
There were several questions lingering in Liam's mind. Why was he able to sense nether now and not before? Why did Luna's egg suddenly start cracking?
Also, was the inheritance still inside?
He wanted to barge in take a look but he couldn't rush things.
Luna's life was more important so once he arrived at the spot he patiently started scraping the moss from the wall and fed it to Luna little by little.
He looked ahead and saw the entire place crawling with this moss everywhere, up, down, right, and left. This should be enough?
He looked at the copious amounts of the stuff smeared all around and he couldn't possibly scrape everything efficiently.
So for the next batch, Liam placed his palm directly on the wall and circulated mana onto the thin or rather the thick layer of moss.
He also held the egg close by and soon small dots of herbal essence started floating from the wall to the egg, the useless debris after the transfer falling down on the ground.
"Alright. Now you can eat as much as you want.." Liam sighed, looking worriedly at the egg in his hand.
was doing.
Chapter 260: Nether Is My Bitch?
Hu…. Liam let out a long breath in exhaustion.
Several minutes had passed now and Liam was still continuing to harvest all the moss covering the walls and feeding it to the egg.
The continuous slow manipulation of mana was exhausting, especially in a place where the mana concentration had already thinned down.
He didn't know how long he would be able to keep this up.
"Are you feeling better now, Luna? How much more are you planning to eat?"
Liam chuckled wryly and looked behind to see the bald tunnel walls that looked weird without the layer of moss that was covering them previously.
He had fed all of that to the egg and she still needed more apparently. However, he did not mind.
"This tunnel has loads of this crap. Eat to your heart's content but please be okay." Letting out another long sigh, Liam took another step and repeated the whole process again.
This continued for a few more minutes when the first signs of the problem arrived. The mana concentration became so thin that Liam could no longer replenish his reserves.
He drank a bottle of mana potion, but he was running low on those as well. Previously, he had used a lot of potions while fighting against the death knights.
He had done all the hard work only for someone else to steal away the final prize and in this process, he had also exhausted a lot of his reserves.
Without enough mana potions and no mana in the air, he would definitely not be able to keep this up for long. He would soon run dry.
"Damn it." Liam cursed his bad luck. Earlier he had mana, but he didn't have enough herbs. Now he had the herbs, but he did not have mana.
He truly did not think that Luna would still need more herbal essence after feeding her this much. Not that he knew what he was doing.
He only roughly hypothesized that this herbal essence was healing her bit and bit and helping her regain her strength back.
But this was just his theory. In reality, she might still die in the end after all of this. This thought terrified Liam.
"Let's not think about that now. I will first try everything that I can." Liam calmly looked around, sensing the thick wisps of nether swirling around.
On the contrary, the mana present around him was practically non-existent.
So how to get more mana in this situation?
"Hmmm… " Liam's gaze wandered around aimlessly. In reality, the solution to this problem was right in front of him.
The only issue was that he did not have the confidence to try it. He would be risking a lot because the time he used to attempt this method could cause the egg to crack further.
On the other hand, if he did not try this, then he wouldn't be able to extract anything in a few minutes when the last 10 mana potions also ran out.
He needed to do something. He simply did not have any choice. He had to try this.
Liam nervously held the egg in his one hand and as soon as the patch of herb dried out, all the essence contained within it completely absorbed, he immediately acted.
Sucking in a deep breath of air, he tried to pull in the nether swirling around him.
He didn't have to worry about controlling both mana and nether at the same time.
There was no mana present around him right now and his mown reserves were also completely exhausted.
So he did not worry about this aspect and simply focussed on pulling in the nether and absorbing it into himself.
He hoped that this would be simpler than trying to balance two different types of energy at the same time.
Liam gritted his teeth and gave it his best shot.
Because he was only able to sense nether after so long, he did not have any confidence in being able to absorb it or manipulate it.
But… as soon as he willed it… the energy casually rolled into him like oxygen filling his lungs.
Liam was shocked. He had expected it to be at least a bit more difficult than this?
How could it be… so easy? Was he doing it wrong?
However, now was not the time to dwell on this.
He hurriedly circulated the nether through his body just like mana and the energy as well moved according to his will and wish.
He wanted it to go right and it went right. He wanted it to go left and it did that as well. It was almost as if it was ready to bend over backward for him.
Liam held his breath and then willed the energy to pool in his palms.
And just like he commanded, the next second thick wisps of nether swirled around his palm.
This as well was easily accomplished…
Everything exceeded his expectations and went smoothly but the important part was still left.
Even though both mana and nether were types of energy, they were inherently different. So when mana could be used to extract herbal essence, could nether be used as well?
Or would it bring about some other effect? Perhaps it would simply destroy the herb itself like fire?
Anything could possibly happen but Liam was still hopeful because of one main reason. This moss reeked of nether. It was as if it was filled to the brim with nether.
He had no idea what the herb was before or even if it was a herb but now that he could sense nether, he was able to see things more clearly.
It was probably something the master of this tunnel used every day, a herb with a nether attribute. This was the only reason he was positive that this might work.
He calmed himself down and slowly willed the energy coiled in his hand to circulate around the moss stuck on the wall.
But once he did so, the process seemed convoluted. It was as if he had the access to the entire sea and he was using only one cup of water.
A sudden thought popped up in Liam's mind.
He abruptly stopped moving his hand and stopped channeling the nether through his body.
Instead, he directly willed the nether swirling around.
"No. This is ridiculous. This can't possibly work. Without a mana core or what a nether core? How could I command such a huge quantity of nether?"
Though he spoke these words, Liam still ignored the obvious flaw and tried to feel and command the nether swirling around.
He did not try to take it in and simply willed it to gather around the moss.
Almost instantly something unimaginable happened. Liam staggered, taking a step back in shock. He even almost dropped the egg on his hands.
"What the hell is this?"
"Why is it behaving like this?"
He stared at the scene in front of him with his jaw on the ground. Not just him but no matter whom... they would have reacted in the same way.
It was because... as soon as he had called... almost every single wisp of nether in the vicinity ran over to Liam as if they were his...
In fact, so much had gathered that a small tornado was beginning to form, one that was made purely of nether.
Seeing this, Liam snapped out of it and quickly tried to focus all of this nether on the wall in front of him.
Now all he had to do was to use this energy to draw out the herbal essence that was within the moss.
"Extract it. Bring it out. Slowly. Steadily." He was so focused and tensed that he did not even realize that he was mouthing out the words loud.
But the next second... something even more blasphemous happened.
It looked like... this time also... he did not even have to try.
He didn't have to lift a finger or bat an eyelid.
As soon as he simply thought about it... just willed it... the entire wall in front of him glowed and sparkled!
It was dazzling as if they contained millions and millions of diamonds!
Countless specks of light started slowly appearing on the moist muddy wall of the tunnel and flew in towards the egg.
The egg as well sucked in everything like an insatiably hungry vortex.