"Andrew, I need 250 people to kill." he said bluntly.
"..."
"..."
Andrew and Hyun were taken aback at how sudden and abrupt the request was. Daren was being very blunt about his demands. Over the past couple of weeks, Andrew had ordered Hyun to take death row inmates from the city prison.
The men were dropped off alive at Daren's shop. After dropping off the tied-up inmates, Hyun would go back to watch duty. All he knew was that the people he dropped off would never return.
"I don't think we can arrange that many. There are no more death row prisoners left and there are not enough inmates anyways. They only total about 62 prisoners. I would not let you kill them anyways since their crimes are light." said Andrew as he stood up from the bed and displayed a concerned look.
Daren understood that this concern was not for Daren but rather he was worried for the safety of his city. Even though the marquess could not feel Daren's cultivation himself, his subordinates could see it with ease. This would be especially true for Hyun who had been trained as a shadow guard since the age of 10.
Hyun had been trained by individuals possessing cultivation of various degrees. This made to where he could tell a cultivator's level with just a glance. He had seen Daren every day so he was able to keep track of his unusually fast speed of cultivation and report it to the marquess.
Right now Daren was Body Strengthening Level 7, Peak Grade. He had increased by a speed that was unheard of except for the genius that was at the highest level of talent. If someone with Daren's level of strength went on a killing spree, the only people who could stop him in this city would be Felix Durant and Hyun himself. (Felix Durant is the city garrisons leader and one of the nation's Honorable Knights. - CH30)
Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing!
The sound of a massive bell being struck could be heard ringing across the entire city. Millions of citizens could hear the golden bell that was seated atop the massive stone tower. The tower stood 200 meters into the sky and was made from a snow-white stone that had intricate carvings all around its edges.
At the top of the tower was a young man with dirty blond hair. He had wide shoulders, a handsome face that was undermined by the dark circles under his eyes. This young man seemed to be between 20 and 23 was hitting the bell that was the size of 20 grown men put side by side. The young man used a large sledgehammer to accomplish this. The hammer was in no way light. To ring a bell that was over 500 lbs of pure steel, one needed a heaving enough tool.
Even though the young man had a lean build, he could not actually make the bell budge without the sledgehammer. The sledgehammer was enchanted with a high amount o magic which made it easy to use while increasing the power of its blows. You could tell that this hammer was magically enchanted was due to its purple glow and the magic circles that were engraved on its ends.
The magic circle had what seemed like numbers engraved inside of them and these numbers would occasionally blink in and out of existence. This indicated that the magic circles were losing power due to age. The magic circles that were used for enchanting only had zeros and ones on them like some computer code. The newer the enchantment, the more stable the code, the older they were, the more unstable they got.
"4 rings! My lord, we have to get to the mansion now! It's a beast wave!" announced Grandpa Kuro as he reached for the marquess's arm and tried to drag him away from the room. Grandpa Kuro's face was twisted with fear and small beads of sweat were rolling down from his forehead.
Hyun-seok and Yeon-seok were also startled as the latter had been awoken from her nap due to how loud Grandpa Kuro spoke. The sibling's faces could not be seen due to the black fog but they were surprised too. In the blink of an eye, Yeon was at her brother's side as she looked up at him for further commands.
'A beast wave!' thought Daren as he saw Andrew being dragged if in a hurry by Kuro. Not being a force user made it to where he could not resist Grandpa Kuro as he dragged him out of the room and out the building with lightning speed. Due to how sudden this all was, Daren couldn't even get a response for the help he asked for.
Daren had spent some quality time at Andrew's personal library/personal collection of books. Even though he had all of the knowledge that Alex had gathered over the years, the marquess had so many books that not only further explained the various concepts he knew but also introduced him to things he had no idea about.
One of these things would be the beast tide. Alex was born in the Zolaris Empire, a nation that had almost no dense forests or abandoned locations at all. It was a small empire that managed all of its lands well and did its best not to waste anything. That's why during its founding, they had not only purged all the beasts within the nation's forests but also chopped down all the wood to add new settlements.
Beast tides were caused by their population in the forest expanding beyond the limit of which the forest's ecosystem could sustain. The portion of the population that was considered excess would be magically expelled by the forest. The beasts would then attack nearby cities, towns, and villages to sustain their dietary needs.
This information is something that Daren learned from the newly acquired books. Alex did not know of this due to how no beast tides were happening in Zolaris Empire so there were no records or information on it available in any sums.
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The system has detected that the host is unable to safely acquire human souls at the moment. This is why the system has two suggestions for the host.
Option 1: Secretly help the beasts enter and start a massacre. This way, the host can take the blood and souls of the deceased while being covered by the chaos.
Option 2: Help with the defense of the city walls. There are bound to be casualties during the city's defense. You can harvest the souls of the dead on the battlefield while absorbing the blood. You can hide the drying up of the bodies by saying that you are the user of the blood element.
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'Haha. The system never fails to amuse me.' thought Daren. The suggestion of going through the marquesses' books also came from the system as it suggested that having as much information as possible would allow the system to create and unlock more abilities for the user while also being able to formulate better plans.
The two options that the system gave were some things that Daren had already started to think of but the system had beat him in terms of thinking speed. That being said, Daren had already made his decision on which one of the two he was going to partake in.
Daren got off his bed with ungodly speed. Hyun and Yeon tilted their heads at the man. "We have to go protect master and his family. Would you like to come with us to the mansion?" asked Hyun. His priority is to protect the marquess and his family. His second priority is to protect his sister. The third was the orders given by the marquess.
Right now, his order was to protect Celina and Daren. This is why he suggested that the two come with him. This way, it would be easier to monitor the mysterious couple during a tumultuous event.
"You can go do your thing honey. I will go to the mansion. You do not have to worry about my safety. Margret has told me about how safe the underground bunker is. There is also the secrete escape route." said Celina. Her voice was warm and sweet as she looked up towards Daren.
Daren looked back at her and saw her clear eyes that had a little bit of redness on the corner of the whites due to the large number of tears she had shed recently. Not only did she cry in happiness for the quick arrival. Daren understood what Celina meant by her reassuring him of her safety.
Daren walked around to the other side of the bed and stopped when he was right by Celina. He took his left hand and started to caress her hair while also giving small pats on her head. Celina blushed very slightly.
Paired with her already beautiful face, her blush created an atmosphere of pure bliss and cuteness where nay man would be willing to give his life up to look at her beauty with heart's content.
"Thank you." said Daren softly as he felt some of the coldness that he had built up in his melt slightly. Daren knew that Celina had seen that the system had demanded in terms of blood. she also could see what options the system had presented and which one Daren was going to take.
This understanding of his thoughts and situation without having having to utter a single word made her the best companion anyone can ask for. Both mutual understanding and trust were present. This made more what people would truly call a couple made in heaven.
Even though Daren was not affected by women at all, Celina had a special part in his heart as his first true companion in life. She might be the only lady in all of existence that could get him to let his frosty heart thaw.
'Are those two communicating through a psychic link? What does she mean by telling him to go without her? Why did he thank her for it?' Hyun looked towards Celina and then at Daren.
He was confused by the actions of this strange couple. For some reason, he could feel that the two understood themselves without needing to even talk. He felt somewhat fascinated but also creeped out due to the strangeness of these thoughts. As someone who had a keen eye and good sense, he always kept an eye out for oddities due to the nature of his job. That's why he noticed this strange interaction and decided to inform his master when he had time.
Daren turned his well-sculpted face towards Hyun and Yeon as he said " Please take good care of her. I will not be coming with you guys as I want to test my strength against the beasts. I need to know what are within my abilities."
Daren's tone was polite but somehow still contained a bit of coldness to it. It was more like a subtle threat than a request. Due to Hyun's calm nature, he just slightly bowed his head while responding to this threat with neutrality.
"I will do my best." he said. Celina then proceeded to take a black umbrella from the corner of the room and then walked down to the street. She got in the second carriage that had appeared behind the one the marquess had been seated in by force. This carriage was also pulled by two magnificently muscular horses. The two carriages quickly left the shopping district and went towards the marquess's mansion.
Daren stood there and let out a large sigh. He took his original pair of black clothes that he had entered this world in and donned it at incredible speeds. The black clothes that Alex wore had a tear in the front chest and the back due to being stabbed by a sword from his aunt. This tear wasn't usually seen due to the black cloak always shrouding in.
The reason that Daren wore these clothes is that they were very loose and easy to move around in as they were made for Ale so he could have an easier time running away from his pursuers.
Daren did not waste any time as he could sense the fluctuation of a large amount of force getting closer and closer to the southern gates of Igrit.
Daren flew out the window and went onto the roofs of the brick tiles buildings. He ran across them at hundreds of miles per hour as his cultivation gave him insane amounts of speed in the first place but it was also since he had the 2x boost in every stat due to absorbing the soul of a beast.
As the black blur that was Daren approached that the city walls, he could see the large amount and various colors of bright particles floating in the air. These numerous, colorful light particles represented the many elements of force that the beasts cultivated with. Even if one could not use the elemental abilities of their force element, they would still radiate it.
Force particles can only be seen by cultivators so when the guard captain that was situated on the wall saw the huge amount of dust shrouding a large herd of animals, his mouth curled up in a sinister grin.
"The beast tide is quite the size this time. They are also quite strong seeing that the force particle surrounding them are being radiated across a large distance." Honorable Knight Durant is someone who was assigned to this border trade city by the royal military. He had spent 33 years on the battlefield and was very tired of fighting.
That is why he accumulated tons of military credits and was able to transfer to this quiet city on the border. Durant chose this place since it did not border any other nation and so did not have any foreign threats to face except the beast tide that showed up sometimes.
He did not mind fighting beasts as they were quite dumb and did not require much thought to fight unlike the dangerously trained force using knights he had met on the battlefield. His strength was also at Body Strengthening Level 6, Peak Grade. Since there were usually not many strong cultivating beasts in the Googoon Lagoon's beast tides, he thought it would be easy money.
Beast cores and corpses could sell for a lot since the materials were used for a variety of luxury items and weapons.
Just as the that covered the view of the beast's horde was going to be scattered away due to the wind, Durant felt a strong presence behind him.
Before he could even turn his head, a young man with aqua blue hair appeared next to him.