Bittersweet is the best way to describe the Elemental Establishing Pill. The moment I ate it. It began to melt and its flavors coated my tongue as I swallowed it.
The taste soon transformed into something I couldn't describe. It wasn't spicy but it was warm and my belly was on fire. My body soon, cold, chilled, electrified, shifted between corporeal and ethereal. System alarms went off and mana erupted from me, shattering the carriage, destroying the ground, and breaking the mana pool.
The explosion was so vast, that when Bai Yi encountered the three parties led by Princess Ar'iur, The Eighth Goblin Prince, and his second brother, none of them said a word as the explosion took their breath away.
"Little Demon..." Kai Lo gasped.
"Go," said Bai Yi
Kai Lo sped off. The three leaders tried to move but were blocked.
"That has nothing to do with you three. My person, my business. Now, let's cut the shit and talk about tallies." Said Bai Yi.
"Talk tallies?" Princess Ar'iur giggled," Anon was said to have a heavenly treasure garden. He was a cultured goblin and studied their many uses. I want it. It's mine, no negotiation"
"Anon's legacy chamber is mine. All of his riches is up for grabs." Said the Eighth Prince.
"Seventh Brother..."
"Beg me!" Bai Yi growled. "After this raid, I will be father's newest gem. I don't mind tearing up his decree and joining the race for the throne."
The Second Beast Prince growled with hatred.
"Beg. Me." Bai Yi spoke slowly.
"S-seventh brother..." the Second Prince began.
"You're too tall to be begging. Maybe if you were on your knees the sentiment might be felt," said Bai Yi with a mocking smirk.
The Second Prince swallowed in fury while forcing himself to his knees. "Seventh brother..."
"What are you doing?" Bai Yi asked. "Honestly do you think I would tear up a royal decree? Of course, you can come. But you have the last pick."
Bai Yi chuckled and Princess Ar'iur shook her head as she muttered "Pathetic cat."
"Alright, enough chit-chat. We all know the rules. Ten days. the tomb will be open for ten days. Let's keep it clean and we all win." Said Princess Ar'iur. "Pieces."
Bai Yi pulled out a red stone. Princess Ar'iur pulled out a similar piece followed by the Eighth Goblin Prince.
"So the stories were true. Just three pieces." Said the Eighth Prince. None of them knew for sure but hoped that the auctioned piece was the last.
"Put 'em together." Bai Yi spoke.
Each of the royals stepped forward, the pieces shinned and vibrated. The shards flew from their hand, crashing together in a puff of sparks. The shards trembled as they merged forming one complete stone badge.
But the excitement of the tomb was overshadowed again as my body transformed from a simple bomb to a nuclear bomb. With great force, everything I pushed away returned to me in a devastating wave. My mana gathers and with six thunderous claps, five pools separated from the main reserve.
"W-what the hell is this!" the second prince exclaimed.
"You know, when I think about beast royals, I forget that you brothers are only months to a couple of years apart. Tsk Tsk." Princess Ar'iur spoke as the second prince seemed less intelligent than the seventh prince and far less elegant.
Bai Yi sighed. "He doesn't study but he Kis strong if that counts."
"For a royal, not really." the eighth goblin prince added.
"It's a Tier 7 Elemental Establishing Pill. Six elements to establish six attributed man pools. But it seems different than the one I've seen before." Lao Meili entered for the save.
"That ought to cost a fortune." Said Princess Ar'iur. "Look at the four main pools. But the two extra are Red Lightning and Shadow. One is common enough, but that Red Lightning is enough to triple the cost of the pill. It's only found in four monsters across the continent."
"What grade is it?" the Eighth Princess wondered out loud as seven mana pools of varying attributes hovered in the sky and grew denser by the second.
And as if it was queued by the prince's words. The six attribute mana pools rumbled. Every drop of many added to the manifestation of six eastern dragons. Large snake-like 11 feet scaled beast with horns, long whiskers that resembled a mustache, and four legs with horrific claws.
The dragons roared to the heaves and their elements rustled like natural disasters. They danced around one another pulling mana from the surrounding world. The more they took in the more lustrous and brilliant their scale became and the greater they grew.
"This isn't possible." Said Princess Ar'iur, shaken. "The high elves have the last dragons."
"Well, they're obviously dragons!" The second prince hissed.
"They're manifestations." Bai Yi corrected.
While the royals watched the beautiful show, I was in horrible pain as my mana pool was undergoing drastic changes.
Watching the glowing dance of dragons under the cover of dark clouds, red lightning, rain, hot wind, and trembling earth, I grew existed as the now 15 feet dragons finally stopped and faced each other. But something was off. Imbalanced.
Roar! The blackish green fire dragon spit jets of Shamanic Smelting Flames at my unattributed manna pool.
Roar! The Red Lightning dragon spit arcs of lightning.
Roar! The Wind dragon spitted an air missile.
Three more ear-splitting roars followed with dragon breath not far behind. All six elements bombarded the unattributed pool and it ruptured, reforming a deep grey-skinned goblin with power-backed muscles, noble posture, pitch-black waist-length hair, a red silver mark on his brow, and dragon hanging between his thighs. The six dragons and goblin produced a war cry the dispersed the climatic weather and forced the trembling earth still.
Meanwhile, the Eight Goblin Prince frowned when he saw the avatar.
Boom!
All manifestation crashed into my body and my mana reserve reformed with seven pools.
[Host has formed seven mana pools, Goblin, Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Lightning, and Shadow.]
Goblin magic had taken over my unattributed pool, making magic other than my seven attributes extremely harder to use. I would now have to revert an element and then convert the man into my desired element to cast a spell. I was most worried about my mental art that tittered between spells and skills. Especially now that I planned to form a Psionic mana pool.
[Each mana pool holds 64,000 mana points]
[Emenatal spells have been deleted. Restructuring Status Sheet.]
[Seven new abilities added]
[Dragon Blood has condensed six elemental dragons and the Uhnok Avatar]
[Dragon Blood has intensified Elemental Power]
[5,000 Exp gained from residual energy]
[Dragon Blood Expended]
In the center of a deep crater, I laid on my back as my women surrounded me with worried faces. When I managed to stop panting, I flashed a smile and held out my hand.
Prax moved first and pulled me to my feet.
"You really are a little genius." Prax praised.
"Of course he is. Only you three little bitches doubted him." Rema moved and pushed Prax.
"Master, what do we do now? After the light show, they will definitely target you." Said Dahlia.
"Stay with me. Bai Yi knows about you. We'll get together. Dahlia, did you read up on the tomb?" I asked.
"Hmm, there's a lot of good stuff we could use but we should rush to the legacy chamber." She replied.
"Good, but first the prince has a job for us. This is what's going to happen..." The ladies gathered around.
Sometime later, The ladies and I met the royals at the tomb door hidden in a cliff face. The red badge hoovered and inserted itself in the wall. Light outlined the grand double doors and the cliff rumbled as the ancient doors opened for the first time in 10,000 years.
'move fast little demon.' said Bai Yi.
'This tomb won't be that simple. Prince Anon Unhok was a cultured goblin with a grand vision. Just make sure you get to the wing armament. The faster that's done, the more time I have to treasure hunt.'
'Hmm.'
When the doors opened wide. no one sped in. Everyone calmly moved and kept an eye out for boobie traps.
'Stay close.' I sent my own transmission to my beauties.
'Status open!' I commanded the system.
Name: Kane Forrest/ Kane Uhn LVL 9
Life Parnter: Prax Inanna
Classification: Tier 7 Alchemist, Tier 1 Mage, Tier 1 Esper
Earned Title: Raider
Bloodline: Goblin (Lesser Uhnok)
Mana: 64,000 x7
Exp: 5,000/10,000
STR: 278
DEX: 236
INT: 260
WIS: 266
CON: 272
CHA: 266
-Abilities-
Iron Body Lvl 5/10
Martial Arts Lvl 5/10
Knife Hand Lvl 3/10
Telekinesis Lvl 15/20
Telekinetic Refining Lvl 2/10
Mind Bullet
Search (900m)
Syrup of Aphrodisia Lvl 5/20
Flash Step Lvl 3
Lightning Magic
Fire Magic
Earth Magic
Water Magic
Wind Magic
Shadow Magic
Goblin Magic
Slave Seal
Appraisal
Pain Tolerance (Passive) Lvl 16
Focused Mind (Passive) Lvl 25
Overactive Warrior (Passive) Lvl 10
Magic Immunity (Passive) Lvl 9
Night Vision (Passive)
------------------
'Search!' I cast my mental skill and a 900-meter radius was cleared in an instant. Pushing off the ground, I sped off and my beauties followed my every step.
"Haa, how tricky." Princess Ar'iur laughed. "Third Elder..."
The old man from the auction cast Search and his area of coverage was vast. I knew then that he was the creator of the Tier 8 Mind Inscription that I now had. But I wasn't phased.
Every step was calculated and every turn was made with the advice of Dahlia.
She studied the temple diligently under the misguided notion that we were going to explore the tomb after the end of the month's raid had been completed.
Looking to make it a success, Dahlia read all of the material provided by Bai Yi. And as a human woman, she caught a detail missed by many beasts, goblins, and demons.
"Are you sure he would plan his tomb the same?" I asked.
"I'm positive, master. Make a left here"
The inner tomb was very basic and lackluster but Dahlia seemed to love the place. According to her, it showed Prince Anon's love for the ancient architect, Luce Ander. An early alias for a later famous woman architect Lucil Andre. Believed to be siblings but in fact, are one and the same.
Lucil Andre was a devoted follower of the red sun cult. A phenomenon on the continent. Every day the sun rises in the west and set in the east. However, on the day of the red sun when mana fluctuates and rare monsters appear to lead waves of attacks across the continent, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
The red cult believes that monster waves are the sun god's divine purge of the corrupted souls that walk the continent. Those who survive this purge by fighting or hiding are destined to live on with the blessing of the sun god until the next day of the red sun.
Naturally, Lucil Andre orientated her architecture to reflect the overcoming of the divine purge. So all Important rooms were built on the west side facing the east.
In order to live a destined life in the west, a person must face the divine tribulations of the east --starts point of the red sun. All other orientations were certain death, maybe.
During Prince Anon's years as a Raider, he loved the dangerous architecture of Luce Ander. Later in life, he hunted Lucil Andre stealing many things from the Red Cult but never found the woman.
Dahlia believed her style was the only style that the prince favored as he even sat on the west side of the Goblin King, a place meant for female royals.
"This one!" Dahlia shouted.
I stopped abruptly and hit the double doors hard. The stone doors opened at a moderate speed and I jumped forward but was instantly disappointed.
"This guy was sick…" said Phele.
"I like it!" Rena sang.
"Have at it," I told her while taking in the scene of the torture chamber.
The room was a sanctuary. The booby traps ended the moment we walked in.
Dahlia was prideful and I was shocked that Prince Anon was a red sun cultist or creepy stalker obsessed with his target's work. Either way, Dahlia was right and that was good for the whole family.
For a while, we explored even the demons zipped past us. But after minutes passed no one followed.
"We must be the only groups with mental art," said Gigsa.
"Hmm," I replied. "Let's wrap it up. If we can beat the beast to the armament then we'll be the winners."
"Master! Catch!"
My hands moved faster than my mind. Before I knew it, a small black book was in my hands.
Looking at the book, the title was pretty off but I figured it was a cheap starting point. But…
"What makes you think I need this?" I asked Rema.
She tapped the mark around her neck with a sweet smile. "Since that night I feel closer to you. When I saw the book I had an urge to take it. I don't want it so I figure it must have been this."
'Another interesting twist of abilities.' I thought.
"Chthonian geomancy." I mouthed.
"The first task for all of my lovelies. Books. You see them, you take them." I spoke aloud.
"Yes, master." The beauties replied one after the other.
Besides the device designs and the few books of torture spells and techniques. The room was useless. We soon reentered the hall and continued.
Many doors were open and a few were ransacked while others had a corpse or two. Not looking to scavenge, we pushed on and eventually caught up with Princess Ariur and her people. Her many people.
"It's him" the third elder spoke.
"Leave him and stop making trouble." She said.
"But all of his people are alive"
The princess counted my numbers and found this surprising.
"A tier 7 Elemental Establishing Pill and a 100 percent survival rate in a tomb locked for ten thousand years… where did that Bai Yi find you?" She asked me with hungry eyes.
Thankfully he couldn't see through the clock that Bai Yi gifted me. Not my appearance nor my level.
"In a tavern fucking a Beastwoman," I replied with sarcasm.
"Hehehe, how about we deal. There's a heavenly treasure stolen from the demon clan in the center of Prince Anon's garden. Help me get there and I'll pay you handsomely." She spoke with a deathly tone. It wasn't a deal but an ultimatum.
Unfortunately, the Death Note between Bai Yi and I actually covered this situation. And no circumstances can I help another party in our outside the tomb.
"Ehh, no," I replied as a flying dagger shot from my storage ring. The demons scattered but the dagger sheathed itself ino a false slab on the floor and the walls of the hallway opened to spitfire. The moment I felt the heat I grew excited.
However, my beauties and I fled as the demons fought off the scorching flames. No matter what powered the flames, it was worthless at the moment. On the run, there wasn't time to take directions from Dahlia as I led the group deep into the tomb arriving at a large hall.
The hall was grand with a sort of gothic design. The lamps seemed to be enchanted as they lit on their own once the doors opened.
At the edge of the room was a large coffin trapped in chains behind a podium with large angel-like white wings.
But instead of feeling thrilled to be the first to find the wing armament, I was uneasy. My sense of danger was going haywire.
"We should leave." I muttered, "This place isn't right."
"What about the plan?" Sahyia asked," this will give us the best chance."
"No no no, we can't stay here. We need—"
Roar! The elemental dragons in my mana reserve cried out and the angelic-like wings dazzled with divine radiance.
"Not good!" I barked as lept back but a ray of light hit the dead center of my brow. My body hit the floor like a brick.
I cursed over and over again. Regression to the mean will always find a way to fuck you at the worst time.
As I laid unconscious and my beauties trying their most damn to wake me, the Beastmen arrived with their complete guard.
It was the worst-case scenario.
"Halt! Catch them!" The second prince shouted.
Rema frowned, Her eyes turned milky white with red veins. A cut appeared on her hand as blood spilled onto the floor of the grand hall. Viens of blood emerged from the ground and created a dome around our people.
A moment later the Beastmen backed away in fear as Rema's blood weapon appeared in her hand.
Bai Hu and Kai Lo who had moved to intercept the Second Prince's man were startled when they saw the illustrious curved one-handed sword.
"Kilij Arslan!" they roared the name of the royal sword.
"Brother, like I said before. My people, my business" Bai Yi spoke softly, still reeling from the sudden reveal. He knew Rema's eyes rare ghoul eyes were familiar. Now he remembered the picture of a missing royal that appeared five years ago in the Beast Capital with a retrieve or kill bounty.
"So the missing Princess of the Royal Ghoul family is your people?!" The second prince's shock turned to bloodthirsty anger.
Bai Yi ignored his brother as he remembered my words the night I brought Rema to the Beastfolk Inn. He then gestured and Bai Hu who faced the second prince without anything of moving.
Bai Yi then led Kai Lo and the Beastmen further into the hall. Although the group appeared as one, they couldn't be more divided. Refocusing on the wings shining bright like the sun, both brothers were mesmerized.
"Beautiful" Bai Yi whispered.
"Powerful" the second prince added, " Seventh Brother is blessed to be fated by the armament of the winged tiger god. In twenty-five years you've managed to find every piece."
Jealousy stained his tone and the gaze in his eyes.
"Simply luck," Bai Yi laughed it off as he walked to the end of the hall to seize his prize.