Chapter 19 - 93-100

Chapter 93 - Going To Bringold Auction

When they opened their eyes, I swore they were elliptical like the eyes of a dragon! They got two curved and short horns on their heads, long thin tail that reached five metres in length, agile and flexible, giving me the impression of having a snake, not a tail back there.

As for the last remarkable change there it was their claws. The werewolves had five thin, slightly curved, sharp claws that could tear anything apart.

But the two monsters I got had few modifications or upgrades to their claws. Instead of being thin, the claws became thick, in the size of two fingers at least!

And they became longer! Each one of them was half a metre in length! And they became more curvy, and their numbers increased to become seven instead of five!

"Lord," they bowed, giving me goosebumps when I saw their backs at this moment.

Their spinal cords were clearly seen. Broad vertebrae, each was thick enough to be in the size of my head! And each one had a short sharp spine coming out from the middle of that vertebra.

Even the scales couldn't cover their appearances! How strong were they?

"Rise," I gulped in excitement, "good… No, it's great," as I saw their appearance for another minute, I couldn't help but exclaim in surprise and delight.

These monsters… These two monsters seemed perfect to act like frontline attackers!

What I lacked most? I had enough warriors to act as fodders and defensive troops, had aerial dragons, aquatic Krackens, and long ranged warriors.

What I lacked was warriors to act as a spearhead, killing my enemies at the frontlines.

I thought of acting this role when needed. After all, swordsmen like me were considered excellent melee troops.

But now I don't need to do that! These upgraded and hybrid dragon and werewolf monsters were perfect!

"Damn! I can only summon three to four more at most!"

I hurriedly checked my remaining soul points. At this stage I wasn't worried about depleting my entire stockpile of souls.

After all, I wasn't going to start my cultivation path until I got this second quest done. And that meant I had more time to kill, more souls to absorb, and not to mention my forces were doing this even at this moment.

I slightly regretted summoning eight Gollems! If I knew I would have such great hybrid monsters, then I would have never depleted my reserve of the souls.

But this didn't look this bad. I would continue to summon more monsters whenever I collect more souls.

"Merge four monsters," I declared, "merge them in the same way, please!"

Right now if I ended up with dragons, I wouldn't feel excited anymore. I wanted these monsters, I wanted to strengthen my melee class warriors.

But what should I call these monsters then? They were a hybrid between dragons and werewolves.

"I'll call you dragolves," I said to the two monsters before taking the stat crystals and gems, and gave each a bone.

Yet this time I didn't give them white grade bone, but green grade bone. They were still few in number, and I needed them to be as tough as possible.

I even thought of giving them silver grade bones. But those silver bones weren't much to begin with. I only had enough green grade bones to spare.

"Thanks my lord," like the Kracken and the Gollems, their eyes shone in bright greediness before they jumped at each pile and took them to one side.

Guys! Guys! Stop acting with me as if I was scamming you or something!!

*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*

Just as the two went to the side, I got four more dragolves to my side. Like before, I gave each their share of my welcoming treatment before I looked around.

Four Krackens… Four dragons… Eight Gollems… Five Dragolves… Damn! My initial line up without mentioning my Bulltors, archers, magicians, and shield warriors was simply terrifying!

I covered up almost everything! Be it ground, aerial, or aquatic battles I could simply deal with each without any pressure. Be it close combat, defensive battle, offensive fight, or far ranged attacks… I could handle all of these without feeling limited or handicapped anymore.

That was… Brilliant!

I checked the invitation to that time limited auction again. I took almost twenty minutes dealing with all this and got around ten minutes left.

"Time to check over those guys," as I had little time to spare, I decided to open my channel, searched the feed coming from the jumper, Isabella, and Angelica.

The three got separated when the tunnel was bombarded by the Kracken and worm monsters. I wasn't worried about them. After all, the angel's main attention was fully focused on me.

Besides they got the jumper. That dude was a powerhouse on his own. He was enough to fill in my gap, and cover up the others and make sure they wouldn't get killed or much harmed.

The channel appeared in the form of a big window. I saw the faces of Isabella and Angelica at first before the jumper appeared coming from the side with his ugly mask.

They looked fine. They were fighting monsters, but it wasn't that big a deal it seemed.

[Where are you now?] I sent it to Isabella asking. She was the one acting as a guide for us, so she was the one I trusted to come here.

[Where are you? We'll come over to you]

I looked around. Where was I? I was on a side of the shore where many buildings were destroyed and burning on the stretch of my sight. It was just typical scenery of the apocalypse, with nothing special about it.

[There is nothing special about my place, except I came out from the shore and on the side of the Jersey city]

[We are as well] she sent before adding, [Look next to you, to the other side. Tell me if you see something familiar or remarkable]

She was really brilliant! I looked at the other side of the river and there I could simply see a strangely tall building with a narrow front. It looked like a big slice of pizza.

[I'm seeing… a big building that looks like a piece of a pizza]

[Piece of a pizza! What the hell does that mean?]

I had to admit, I suck at describing places. [It's some tall building with a narrow front. I believe its structure goes wide to the rear, acting like a giant slice of pizza.] I tried to reason up my previous words.

[Oh, that must be… the Flatiron building, right?]

[Are you asking me? I know nothing about that city!] I was speechless there.

[Alright, alright, we'll come on the side of the shore and stop by that place] she sent, [But if you aren't there, then we'll keep going. After all Jersey city is almost ten minutes from your place]

[Alright] I paused before sending again, [If you found me, don't disturb me at all. I'm doing something super important right now]

[Then why don't you wait until we arrive to protect you?]

[Just come and don't disturb me] I didn't explain anything to her. After all that impact was a chance that I wouldn't miss.

Getting things sorted out like this, I closed the chat and opened the Bringold interface. I simply clicked on a small icon flashing in green light before everything changed in front of me.

I didn't know what happened, but I wasn't standing on the shore anymore. I was standing amidst a large group of people, or to be precise people made up of different colours of smoke.

The smoke was so thick that covered all their features and even the details of their bodies. I could only tell if a person was giant, normal, or short in stature, nothing more!

When I gazed up at myself, I also found the same thing. I was covered in a thick veil of silver coloured smoke. I didn't feel anything malicious coming from this smoke, making me realise this was done for my protection.

The place looked spacious enough to contain a couple of thousand with ease. In front I saw a floating stage, hovering almost over our head levels for anyone of us to see.

And on top of the stage, a screen appeared there with a countdown.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new member coming from the newbie apocalypse here by now," a musical voice came from the direction of the stage, but my eyes failed to spot the owner of it.

There was a group of pitch black smoked silhouettes standing on the stage right now. The one who spoke must be a beauty, I could bet my life on it!

"Why not start the auction then?" a vulgar voice appeared coming from behind me, but I also didn't notice the owner of the voice.

Damn! The Bringold impact really knew how to do business here!

"Sorry gentleman," the voice came again and this time I paid more attention to the stage. I saw one of the smoked silhouettes showing little vibrations when the voice appeared. "We need to wait until the time of waiting is over. This is one of the rules of our impact."

I could hear unpleasant whispers coming from every direction by now. Those people… or to be more correct, those races were really impatient.

Was this auction interesting even for them?

"At least tell us which newbie apocalypse this dude or chick came from," a voice came just beside me, giving me a scare thanks to his sharp tone.

"He came from the newbie apocalypse number nine," the soft voice came again to make me feel much better.

"Again? Isn't the last batch delivered to us came from that same apocalypse days ago?" a voice from the front asked in weirdness.

"That's weird… As far as I recall, those dark filthy creatures are guiding the worlds of that apocalypse, right?"

"It's not their typical way of doing business," the one next to me said in disdain, "they always gather up their dogs and send them all in batches in the same day to reap benefits here."

"Hush, don't you know some of them are here?" the voice from the front said, but I could feel he wasn't warning that person next to me but mocking those angels.

I looked around, feeling weird to have my deadly enemy so close by without being able to sense each other's presence.

That was such an interesting auction to attend!

"Humph, as if I care about those dirty winged bats," the one next to me snorted but the next one to speak was someone standing not far from the two of us.

"If you have anything to do with them, I dare you to challenge them in the open instead of doing this here!"

I looked up at the side where that voice came from. Strangely enough, that person didn't intend to hide himself and raised his hand in the air, announcing his presence.

His hand was covered up with scales. He was a dragon race, a dragon race voicing his support for the angels? That was expected indeed.

After all, the angels supported the dragons in my apocalypse.

"I dare them to come forth and admit their wrongdoings," yet the one next to me didn't back off, instead he shouted in a voice that made my body tremble:

"I don't know how the mighty ones didn't intervene against them yet! Guides who are supposed to act fair and organise this holy inferno are acting all selfish and unjust!"

"What unjust in favouring the strong over the weak?" the dragon race one didn't back off either, "as if you are thinking a weak nameless race like humans will be able to overcome the mighty dragons! You are delusional to think that way!"

"It's not about who is fitter than others," the voice belonging to the one on the stage came again, this time with the intention of adding fuel to the fire.

What the heck? Weren't they supposed to stay neutral and calm things down here or what?

Chapter 94 - The Bet Negotiations

"Their top mistake was to take a part in those illegal gambles about the end result of the apocalypses in the first place," she added, adding more light to things I didn't know before about the angels.

"Speaking when you are one of the organisations running down such illegal gambles," the dragon race snorted, and I had to admit he had a point here.

"We are running legal ones, but we don't control the people taking part in this thing," yet the answer came swiftly, and without any signs of shaking in her voice, "it is not our fault that some dirty people are misusing the rules, manipulating things and doing this illegal gambling."

"Your race didn't get over the bitter loss you suffered in that apocalypse," another soft, yet filled with immense sinister and evil intentions, came from the front to respond over the one on the stage.

"Despite our differences," the one of the stage answered in almost a blink of an eye, "that doesn't negate the bad dealings of you in every newbie apocalypse you control."

"Humph," the dragon race spoke again, "that also doesn't negate the facts of the big gulf between our kids' strength and those weak humans. I bet that one is a human from the fierce backing you are showing just now."

I didn't know how, but he guessed this right. I was a human who came here. But why is that race girl on the stage backing me up for being a human? Wait a minute… Were there humans in the vast universe aside from us?

"I bet he is so weak to even speak for himself right now," that dragon race showed how deep the arrogance ran inside the blood of dragons, "I bet he isn't even better than our boys. The ones who came here were all ranked as bronze members, not a white grade nameless kid from such a nameless race!"

At this point I couldn't hold back anymore! That damn bastard! Didn't he know I already killed a bunch of his so-called treasured and special kids? Didn't he know I turned them into my lackeys?

During this debate, I came to a conclusion. The smoke covering the silhouettes here were in different colours, each representing the position of each one inside the impact.

For example my smoke was silver, indicating I was a silver grade member. But that dragon one was dark gold, meaning he was a dark gold member.

"I bet he is better than your so-called treasured kids!" At this point, I couldn't hold myself anymore. I raised my voice, spoke up, and to my surprise my voice wasn't the same.

It came like the voice of a middle aged man, deep and resounding. Impressive! They even changed the voice so no one would recognise anyone here.

I had to give a high five to those higher ups of the impact. Good arrangement folks, well done!

"I dare you to back these words up!"

I didn't understand his point. What did he want to do? Fight to death or what?

But the next message cleared everything for me.

[He wants to place a bet over what you just said > Bringold help]

I didn't know why but when I got that message, I looked up to the stage, specifically over the pitch-blacked silhouette who spoke up for me before.

"I accept your challenge," if it was a bet, then no matter what or how it was done, it was my victory here.

"Let's do it," he said in a laugh before pointing at me with his arm covered in golden scales, "see? A greenhorn coming from god knows where an underground pit wants to make a challenge against one of the mightiest archlords of the dragons, hahaha!"

I heard many laughs echoing alongside him. I didn't know what was funny in the first place, or what even an archlord of the dragons even meant!

But dude… You were digging your own grave with your own claws!

[As you are the one to determine the subject of the bet, you are asked to start first > Bringold help]

[Raise your voice and call for help. Then I'll discuss things with you > Bringold help]

Wow! That lady is really caring for me!

"Bringold help!" I did as she asked, and again I found myself vanishing from the place and appearing in a narrower hall.

The hall had few seats in there, walls lined with paintings describing a mighty battle between races I didn't know, and a big green emblem resembling the small statues in my inventory with broad golden words underneath it: The Bringold Impact.

"Welcome to the negotiation room," as I was busy looking around, the soft musical voice from before came from above.

Just like an angel descending from heaven, she was nothing lesser than that! She didn't have a normal body like myself, and at this moment I realised I lost all the smoke covering up my body and face.

She was as tall as my Bulltors, naked upper half, while her lower half was in the form of a big fin!

She was a nymph! But not like any normal nymph one might have heard about! She had two pairs of semi-translucent and broad, butterfly-like, wings behind her back.

A winged nymph! Yes, she was a winged nymph.

Her eyes were pure green, giving me the impression that they were the most beautiful eyes in the world. Her fin was covered with faint rounded and soft looking pale green scales, shifting in each second forth and go, revealing two smooth skinned and perfectly aligned legs.

From her fin at the torso, two thin lines of dark green fabric that looked like it was made from scales extended to cover up the front part of her boobs, extending for her neck before having a small knot behind.

"Sorry for the trouble," I couldn't help but say these apologetic words. Such a goddess was vouching for me and my human race, and in front of the mighty arrogant dragons and the dirty angels.

I had to thank her for her trouble as well. But I didn't know why I started apologising first.

"It's nothing," she waved her hand before standing on the ground. Her fin vanished and only two perfect legs appeared, covered obliquely and partially by the same thin dark green fabric that stopped slightly over her knees.

"They deserve to be taught a lesson anyway," she said and she seemed to see through my intentions to ask, "Shush, we can't discuss anything here outside the bet you two have. Or else you'll be kicked out from here and won't come here until the auction is finished."

"A… Alright," I had no other choice but to nod in agreement. I didn't know the rules, she did. "What shall we do now?"

"The bet here is simple," she sat over one of the seats, putting one leg over the other in a graceful and tempting way before adding, "you have to give me something for the bet. I evaluate it then I'll ask for the same calibre and type of thing from him…"

She paused for a brief moment before laughing in an honest way, "What? Do you like what you see here?" she pointed at her perfect curves and smooth skin, adding more temptation to her already fiery figure.

"I just feel something is missing here," as she dared to say this, I dared to add, "a cigarette, slim and long cigarette in your lips would suit that burning hot lipstick you have."

"Hahaha, I always knew your race is funny, hahaha," for unknown reason, she seemed to enjoy my little flirt here.

Damn! I suck at flirting with explosively beautiful and sexy girls like her!

But she just mentioned my race. I almost was about to ask her before I held my tongue at the last moment.

"So you want something precious from me for the bet?" I asked and she nodded while giving me such a gaze that made me feel more uncomfortable.

"But I have to warn you," she stopped me from taking something from my inventory, "that jerk back there is a tycoon! It would be a loss if you just took something common from your pockets."

"How come I know if something is worthy or not?" I asked in pure puzzlement, "I came from a newbie world as you know."

"Let me check it first and give you my opinion about it," she expressed her intention to help, "but you have to pay one thousand souls from your pocket for me."

"One thousand souls…" I frowned, "why are you so interested in my soul anyway?"

This was the second time the impact asked for my soul. At first I thought it was just an assessment procedure, but this explosive nymph here asked for it as well.

And that smelled fishy.

"You have something special," she mysteriously said and I noticed a gleam in her eyes when she stated that, "one day you'll know about it. Now, bring forth what you want to bet and let me check it. But only one item is allowed."

"Alright, I agree," I said before a message popped up instantly without any delay.

[One thousand soul points are deducted for the account of lady green nymph]

Wow! She was so impatient to take my souls away!!

"What about this?" I took out my most precious item inside my inventory, my giant ballista. As I took it out, the ballista didn't expand to its huge size, but kept in the small iconic shape like it was inside my inventory.

I was proud when I took it out, but when I saw the disappointed gaze on her face, I felt I overestimated this ballista or something.

"This one was sold here in the last newbie auction," she elaborated, "taking it won't only expose your identity to everyone, but also won't get you anything better in return. You need to know despite it's a pale gold ranked item, this little toy here isn't worthy to be estimated for anything good at all. At most you'll get a useless thing graded between green and silver from him… Even silver graded good items won't be batted at all!"

"Oh," I didn't know the value of an item wasn't only in its grade, "so the value is determined by things other than the grading system?"

"Of course," she firmly nodded, and added while wearing a serious business deal look on her face, "rarity is most appreciated here. The rarer the item, the better. Hmm… Let me give you advice for free," she said before adding, "Bring something related to your class. After all, amidst everything you have, your class is considered your best option here."

My class related items?! I paused for a long moment before I thought, "Will this do?"

"This…!!!"

Yet unlike my lack of confidence, just from the reaction on her face I could tell it was really precious.

What I took was a white grade bone. My inventory had many of such useless bones for me. What I planned to use was the golden grade bones, at least the silver graded ones.

But the moment I took it out, she instantly jolted standing while her eyes went perfectly circular out of shock.

"Will this work?" I asked, and she extended her two arms, urging me to give this bone to her.

"Let me see it, I won't steal anything from you under the regulations of the impact."

Girl! Just saying this in such a drooling face made me doubt your intentions here. But I gave it to her. It was a piece of useless white bone after all.

"Damn me! It's a strange relic but it's worth a ton of the wealth of that jerk, hahaha!" she held her in her hand before she emitted a green smoke that covered my bone.

What I took was a normal white graded bone that I took from the kracken kids before. It was considered lesser than the bones I took from the dragon kids, but it seemed to be worth a treasure.

"Can I get something good from him?" I asked in expectation.

Chapter 95 - Kingdom Heart

"Of course, I estimate this to be on par with a good dark gold item, or a common red item," she excitedly said, "I'll ask for a common red graded item for you. Even for such a tycoon, red graded items aren't that cheap to acquire, hahaha!"

She seemed elated and in a better mood now. But I hurriedly stopped her.

"Wait, can I add more bones to it?" When I heard about her initial assessment, and putting my deadly ballista as an assessment measure, I knew how valuable this chance was.

"Add more?" she blinked, as if she saw me as a real tycoon here, "I told you, only one item can be put up to the bet."

I knew that, but I couldn't let such a chance slip by. I had two options here, either to replace this bone with a gold graded bone, or…

"I know about such rules, but aren't pills and potions sold in packs?" I said what I had in mind, "consider these bones as one pack," I said while taking out enough white graded bones to form a dozen with the one she had in her hands.

"This…" just seeing all these bones made her drool more and she literally jumped over the bones and snatched them from my hands. "You are really generous and daring to bet them here."

I grinned evilly. Come on girl! Stop this little show here. You and I knew very well that this bet was in my pocket.

"I want something specific in return," I didn't get all these bones out just for show, "in fact I want two things."

"Anything you want will be considered strongly by the impact," she said without a speck of hesitation, "provided that it's not against the rules."

"First, what I want him to bet is something related to warfare," I pointed at my small and lonely ballista before adding, "like my little toy here."

"That's granted," she nodded, "and I'll make sure he will pay something to make him bleed, hahaha!"

For some reason I felt little sympathy towards that dragon dude. He messed up with a lady he shouldn't touch.

"I trust you on this," I said, while not starting any more conditions other than being something that I could use in my upcoming wars.

If I got something on par with my ballista, something that could shift the tides of any battle, then this auction was considered done for me.

"The second thing is a business deal proposal," I was here to win this bet and buy more warriors to my collection or good weapons and gears as the rules stated. But from her reaction just now, I could tell there was a better chance for a great deal.

"Business deal? Sure, we are always open for business," she was so excited to not say no to any of my requests.

"After this bet is done, I want to put the bones in the exchange window that you have," I pointed at the bones in her hands.

"This…" she paused, "I can't promise you anything related to the bet. After all, the bet isn't over and you haven't won it yet."

Girl! Drop the act please! But it seemed she was bound by the rules of the place. After all, when she said that, she winked at me as a signal for her inability to agree on such a condition.

"I don't care about these bones," I acted like a real tycoon this time, even carelessly shrugging my shoulders as I took more bones from my inventory, a dozen ones, "I have lots to spare anyway."

"You…" her face changed again when she saw my bones.

"These bones are much better than the ones you have," I said, "but I won't put them in your impact exchange. I trust my ability to win this bet. But if I lose it, then these little ones here will be in your care."

"Why give me reasons to wish for your loss?" she rolled up her eyes. But come one, you already knew I was going to win this. "Alright, that goes with the rules. What price do you want me to set for you as the basic price and buyout price? Or you want me to handle these things for you in return for a small fee?"

"Neither," I firmly shook my head, "I don't want to sell them, I want to exchange them for something I wanted."

"Exchange… I can do that for you," she winked, "in return for one little bone of yours, one of the good ones indeed!"

Girl! Did you have a grandfather of a dragon race or what? Why act greedy with me now?

Yet I nodded. First this wasn't my best graded bone after all. And second I just realised from this short discussion the immense value of having a friend as her as a backing.

"Here," I didn't wait and threw one bone of what I had to her before she asked:

"What do you want to exchange for? Warriors?"

"Hmm… I'm thinking about something more precious," I didn't reject the idea of expanding my warriors, but I was looking for something else. "I wanted a kingdom heart, can I have it with these bones?"

"Kingdom hearts?!!" she gaped open her mouth when she heard my words, "how do you do about that?!!!"

"I just heard," I shrugged without delving much into any of my secrets. Of course I knew about that, after all it was mentioned to me by the old man through the beads. "Can I get it?"

"Not a chance," unlike my expectations, she firmly shook her head, "this thing is far more precious, even more precious than your entire stock of bones."

"This…" I frowned. I already knew this thing was precious, but how come it wasn't offered here? "May I know how to get it then?"

"Hearts of kingdoms are a precious item, no sane person will share it with anyone, not even for a treasure," she stressed over this point again, indirectly answering my question.

"But there are old worlds who got controlled and ruled over by races, right? Why can't the extra hearts of kingdoms be sold then?"

"That's for a proper reason," she raised her finger, "each race in the apocalypse have only limited slots of such hearts. To acquire those, you need to exterminate an existing kingdom which is very hard to do, or to exterminate an entire race early on at the first apocalyptic stages."

Her words shone more light over what I didn't know before. Yet she didn't give me any explanation about why I couldn't get what I wanted.

"Just wait until I finish," she seemed to notice my lacking to understand her reasons here, so she stopped me before adding:

"The old worlds are already controlled by races, and yes they have a lot of extra hearts of kingdoms. But they won't give even a single one for anyone, not even in exchange for a treasure. Do you know why?"

Girl! That was why I asked you to elaborate in the first place! If I knew, why would I have to ask?

But I shook my head and she continued, "They are looking for candidates to control as many new worlds as possible. In our world, the number of each race controlled worlds are important, very important. No one is insane enough to accept your deal, not even me, not even the higher ups in the impact."

Her words and rejection were firm. Her reasoning wasn't illogical, but I still couldn't agree with it. But what else could I do?

"You can change your request right now," she said, "anything else is possible."

"I…" I paused for a second. In fact, asking for warriors wasn't a bad deal. I knew my bones would sell for high prices in the impact. But it seemed like I was missing something important.

What did I lack most? Skills were something I lacked the most. But asking for skills in exchange for the bones was a far worse deal than asking for warriors.

I couldn't settle with that!

"Let me think about this then," so I retreated a step, "it won't be too late to ask for this in the future, right?"

"You already paid for this," she threw her bone in the air, seemingly cheering to get her hands over it, "once you made up your mind, send me a message."

Before I asked her about how, I got a notification that she added me as a friend. And I simply accepted.

"Let's go back," she cheerfully said, "I have a dragon jerk to screw, hahaha!"

The next moment I found myself back again. It looked like I never left my place to begin with.

And the moment I returned, I heard a loud noise coming as if a heated debate was going on here.

"I placed fifty thousand points on the green tile!"

"Place these, take them all… Place them on the green tile!"

"The green tile… Put all of them on the green tile!"

I looked over and saw many of the people smoking amidst a heated storm at the stage. They were giving many things to the few pitch black silhouettes over there, and shouting such weird things.

"What's going on here?" I couldn't help but wonder.

"Oh, you came," the one who started all this was still by my side. I looked over and couldn't help but feel more positive about him.

After all he did like that nymph did, publicly opposing not only the angels, but also that arrogant dragon lord or something.

"Just now," I shrugged, "what's the deal?" I pointed at the large crowd even fighting among themselves to reach the stage.

"They are betting," the man said, "on the final winner. You have the red tile, and that arrogant bastard has the green one."

"Oh!" I was amazed by this! Those higher ups of the Birngold impact knew how to strike a deal even amidst an apocalypse! "But how come I wasn't informed by this?"

This made me feel a little betrayed! Come one, you all knew I would end up winning. So the loot of this bet would be really massive.

"Don't be annoyed," but the man said in a calm tone, "you'll get a big share out of this if you win. By the way…"

He paused, even leant over my side as he whispered, "Tell me, mate, do you have a feeling about the winner?"

I looked at his face shrouded in that pale gold smoke. He was a grade higher than me, yet I couldn't refuse to give him a hint.

"Aside from your feelings towards that jerk, if I were you, I wouldn't miss this chance and bet on me," I answered with the same whispering tone before he suddenly sprinted away while raising his hand and shouting:

"Thanks mate, I'll be sure to repay this kindness later."

I stood in my place, not knowing if I should laugh or cry. I couldn't see the face of that dude, and I wouldn't be able to meet him again or even contact him.

Unless… There was a way to do that! When he returned, I'd ask him about this.

But he didn't return fast. He stayed for ten minutes amidst the chaos before the bet was over by the orders of those on the stage and everyone returned.

I wanted to ask him but as that winged nymph appeared, she instantly said in excited tone:

"Now we have two things offered from each side as a bet. Here are the two item assessments after being evaluated by the impact."

Two balls of smoke appeared hovering above the stage. The people here were returning to their initial spots while chatting, creating loud noise. Yet when the two balls appeared, I could hear nothing at all!

If a needle fell at this moment, I would definitely hear its clanging sound loud and clear.

Chapter 96 - The Souler

"That's…"

"Holy sh*t!"

"Both… Both are red graded items!!! Damn!!!"

"I want to know the nature of these items!"

Voices of shocked exclamations came almost from everyone, but more demands came to reveal the items to the public.

"Have you forgotten our rules?" Yet the sly voice of the nymph came to tell me she was ready to reap another benefit from them, reminding me of my share of the ongoing bet.

I needed to know how much I would get from this bet! But I couldn't contact the nymph for now. When I clicked on her name, I got a message that I couldn't reach her at the moment.

Was this a fake act for fairness or something?

"So we need to pay to see these items then?" another voice from the front came, "but the price of revealing two red items won't be small, right?"

"They are red items my dear," the nymph returned to her alluring voice as she added, "if you don't want to see, then don't bother to pay."

B*tch! Yes, she was a veteran classed b*tch without a doubt in such a profession!

At this moment I got curious to see how much they would get from those wealthy people here to see these items. Also I got more curious to see the details of the item that dragon race offered in response to my bones.

[You are part of the ongoing bet]

[You can't view your or your enemy betted items]

Damn! I now had my heart beating skyrocketing off the roof! What the hell did he put for this kind of bet? I wanna know, I wanna know right now!

"Wow!"

"What are these bones?"

"Can't you just read the description next to these dummies?"

"Whoosh! I can't believe this!! I want some, I want some of these!!!"

"Me too!"

"Count me in!"

"I want to make a deal with the one who offered these bones."

"I want to buy a hundred of these."

"I want a thousand!"

Yes, just ask for a million next time, idiots! Did you think my bones were growing on trees or planted on the ground?

I got more excited actually when I noticed the effect of my bones over the people here. It seemed my bones were enough to secure myself a good harvest in the future.

But I couldn't get any bones from any monster. I needed to face more races to get such bones.

That seemed hard for now. The current stage of the apocalypse wouldn't allow me to get in touch with them frequently. Wait, should I let my world merge with theirs and get a sh*t load of bones?

No, that would be suicidal! I wouldn't survive this! That task must be done no matter what. As for this business here, I would take it easy and try to not miss any chance to get bones in the future.

I just recalled that Kracken race corpse lying in the depth of the Hudson river. Once returned, I'd send my dragons to get it back for me.

I would get at least three bones out of his body, and I might get higher grade bones as well.

"Then announce the winner already," that dragon race said in an arrogant way, "I'm sure my boys are unrivalled in the entire universe. And I have to thank all the ones who trusted in us, such a wide difference in betting shows who will win!"

"Not necessarily," I retorted with a loud snort, "don't just cry over it when you lose."

"Hahaha, I want to see your tears when you lose those precious things of yours," he laughed as if I just said a joke or something funny just now, "don't worry, I'll record the entire thing and broadcast it over my channel and make a universe wide announcement for all the races and gods to watch, hahaha!"

"I promise you the same thing as well," I shrugged and instantly opened my channel. I was still feeling mad about the reaction of the gods. Up till now they didn't send me a single message, like my entire channel became dead like a grave.

Yet the number shown in the channel interface told me the channel wasn't. I almost got so close from having ten thousand followers, a number that shot to the roof in the recent hours.

So why the hell did you act like you weren't there? Was that incoming god to my channel so scary to even send me a single message out of fear?

I made sure the settings were ready to record the upcoming reveal of the winner. But that nymph… She was really good!

"Sorry for that," she slowly said, "but the winner will be announced as the last part of our little auction here."

B*tch! Come on! Just tell the entire universe that I won!

But what could I do? I reluctantly closed my channel interface and waited for the auction to start.

"The first item for the auction is a grade silver sword…" she started the auction with a weapon type item. The initial price of it was ten Bringold statues, with the minimum increase by one statue each time and the privilege of me buying it out with the price of one statue.

But I didn't. If I'd buy anything from here, I'd buy warriors only.

According to my assessment, the warriors I had covered almost everything. But I still lacked front fodders to be honest.

So I skipped all the first few weapons without stepping in to buy any. Then the first warrior came.

"A kobold?" I found it weird to see a kobold warrior getting sold. Didn't kobolds appear in my world coming from other worlds? Or were they part of other races' list of warriors?

I didn't find it interesting to buy any kobold, werewolf, or any other weak looking warriors that came on the stage.

I still recalled the long list of warriors I got when I had my class quest. I had many useless and weak warriors there, and strangely many of them appeared on the stage.

Gradually I began to lose my interest in this auction. The entire thing was useless for me.

That didn't mean the warriors weren't snatched by others. Of course when I grew up my forces, I might seek to buy these warriors to add more numbers to my side.

But right now I was seeking quality over quantity, limiting my options here.

I could already feel the silent gazes of the nymph and a few others on the stage towards me. They were the ones knowing that I was the person who started this auction on his honour.

Yet I still didn't raise my voice or claimed anything in return for my privilege here.

"Now we have another interesting warrior to show," the next one came and amidst my lack of interest, I heard many angry voices coming from all around.

"Stop showing such useless and cursed goods to us anymore!"

"I'm sick of seeing those warriors coming up and down each auction! Why not just release them or kill them?"

"I won't buy any of these useless things. I don't even think a wise person will be in his right mind to think about buying them as well!"

"Who are they talking about?" as I couldn't get why they all turned into such a rage, I whispered to my side where my new friend was.

On the stage a warrior came to the light at this moment. He wasn't any lesser in body size than the Bulltors or the shield warriors I had. But he looked a bit different.

His body seemed to be made of long and thin fibres of muscles, no skin covering anything at all. His body was almost made out of pure muscles, except at the joints where it looked as if being made out of smoke.

The smoke emitted from his joints looked like fire was eating up his flesh and releasing dense clouds of black smoke. The smoke also appeared from his triple eyes, his hair and beard.

That warrior stood up there, giving me a formidable feeling. He was strong, hellish strong! How could people here never fight to get him?

According to the current prices of the other weak warriors sold so far, I could estimate this dude here would be sold at over two hundred statues at least!

I even thought he might be stronger and fiercer than my Bulltors. And that added more to my puzzlement.

If such a warrior was offered, then why no one acted to obtain him yet?

And soon enough I got the answer for that from my new friend.

"This warrior is cursed," he whispered before adding, "his kin came from a very unique world where they lived by eating souls of other creatures. Such warriors can't stand alive without giving them sacrifices of souls each day."

"But can't they just give them animals to satisfy their needs?" I still couldn't get the point here.

"No, this won't do," he shook his smoky head, "they have a standard of their own taste. If you are speaking about normal and good for nothing animals, then they will need tons of them to satisfy their needs. And they won't be happy."

He pointed at the stage before adding, "this kind of race is really strong and mighty, but they are very dangerous. If you take them back to your world, then you should release them on your enemies and forget about them. But you better pray the apocalypse never comes to an end or your enemies stop breeding at a crazy rate or else you are doomed."

"Doomed? Why?" I was still at a loss here.

"Bro, if they didn't find anything to eat, then by a strange contract they had with their masters they would suck away your soul."

He paused and when he noticed I wasn't commenting he added, "you'll be dead, mate, dead! f*cking cold dead! Nothing can help you unless you have a way to store souls and keep feeding them all the time."

Storing souls? A race that was feeding on souls alone? Come on! If I came second as the best owner of those mighty boys, then no one should claim to be first!

"I buy him out," without any hesitation I raised my hand and used my privilege to buy out this dude. Like magnet, all the people here without exception turned to see me like I did something suicidal or something.

Yes, I might look crazy to them. But who was the best one to deal with such a mighty race by the mighty class of mine? Hahaha, if I only got back with this deal then I'd call this trip worthy.

"Are you sure?" the soft voice of the nymph lady came before adding, "this warrior looks strong, and he is. But he needs to consume a lot of souls. To keep him living we have to sacrifice a lot of souls till date and we just barely are able to keep him alive! If you don't do that, he will consume your soul, killing you with the system's support."

Thanks girl, but I knew what I was doing here. What I noticed was another thing. This dude was in his weakened state! How nuts could this be?!!

"I'll take him," I firmly said, "can't I?"

"The dude is crazy, hahaha," the dragon race laughed in a sarcastic way, "he wants to die sooner than my hands, why not we accomplish his dying wishes here? Give that warrior to him, give him that curse and let's see how he will survive until he leaves here."

Despite saying that, I didn't retort back. I wanted to, but this would attract suspicion towards my class.

After all, even the ones running the impact here seemed to not fully understand my class that well.

"Alright, he is sold to you," the lady said before I saw that warrior vanishing from the stage, and a message came next.

[You gained the Souler warrior inside you inventory]

Chapter 97 - Phoenix Race Bradley

[Binding your soul with his, he won't betray you or argue with whatever order you give even if it was to take his life with his own hands]

[In return for his devoted services, he has to eat fixed number of souls you provide to him]

[The current number of souls needed for him to survive is five souls per day]

[The current number of souls needed for him to be in his prime is fifty souls per day]

[Failing to deliver the minimum souls required, your soul will be paid and the souler will be released from this contract]

[Do you want to pay now?]

"Pay the highest number!"

I said in a firm tone, but I didn't have the luxury to take my new warrior out and check the changes that happened after consuming fifty souls.

[Fifty souls are deducted]

[The souler returned to his prime]

[Souler favorability grew over seventy percent]

What was that about? I didn't know. It was my first time hearing such a thing called favorability.

"The next is another souler," the voice coming from the stage attracted my attention at once.

"I'll buy him out!" without the need for even the souler to come on the stage or the nymph lady to continue her words, I loudly claimed him.

"Are you sure?" The nymph lady frowned, but I nodded firmly. Come on lady, give me what I wanted! Give me my dreadful warrior!

"It's yours," as before the warrior appeared in my inventory and I spent fifty souls to keep him in his prime state.

Damn! I just couldn't wait to go back and check that prime stage what it looked like.

"Next is a souler warrior…"

"Give him to me!"

"I want this one as well!"

"Send him here!"

"That one as well!"

"Bring them all… Give me all of them, hahaha!"

After getting the twenty-five warrior, everyone seemed to grow numb from my voice as the new friend next to me said in loud laugh:

"Just bring the rest on the stage, we have a crazy dude here who will get them all."

"Yes, give me all," I laughed as well. At this moment I couldn't keep my excitement anymore. I wanted to get all of them.

I had around ninety statues inside my inventory and I doubted I'd get anything else from this auction. Nothing was better than those hellish strong soulers, not to mention they were in their weakened state.

"We have fifty remaining," the nymph said in obvious hesitation, "do you want them all?"

I knew at this point she was puzzled not because I bought them all but for the amount of statues I had. I was supposed to have only fifteen, but at this moment I spent twenty-five and showed no signs of stopping.

"I'll buy them all," I said while taking out my statutes and throwing them as usual towards her direction, "bring them all."

"Alright," seeing the fifty statues in front of her eyes made her not doubt herself anymore. Yet I still felt her gazes fixed on me.

Now I have seventy-five souler… Oh my gosh! If not for that bet still remaining I'd have asked to leave by now and return to my world.

This trip… this trip was really worthy of my time!

But that came at the cost of spending three thousand, seven hundred and fifty souls. I still have plenty enough to test my bones after the end of the second quest, not to mention the upcoming battle in Jersey city.

I knew that battle would be a hell on earth, something I was doing all my best to prepare for.

But to keep them living per day, I needed to store away a lot of souls. It might hinder my plans for a bit, but they were worth every penny soul I paid.

The rest of the auction wasn't something worthy to mention. It lasted for two more hours, and during them many useless warriors and gears appeared on the stage.

I had more statues to spare, but I wouldn't waste them on anything I didn't need.

"And now our auction comes to the last part," after two hours, the nymph said in an excited tone. I noticed that after selling the soulers to me, she seemed more happy than before.

I didn't know soulers were such a burden over her and the impact. A single souler worth more than Bulltors and even were on the same calibre as my dragons.

And I planned to treat them like I treated my dragons, raising up their levels to level two hundred, giving them bones, and even equipping them with good gears.

I'd buy all the gears I lacked from the market using coins. Gradually I saw that in the big wide universe, coins had little if no value at all.

So it was better to waste my coins now instead of the statues. The statues would hold their value later on, if not increased by time and the growth of my power and my needs.

"The bet result is about to be announced," she paused before a large ball of black smoke appeared before adding, "but first let me say that the odds for betting were really leaning over the dragon archlord here."

She said that and two smaller balls appeared, one green and one red. The red one shone in bright light all of sudden as if it turned into a burning star. As for my green ball, it paled in comparison.

"Just tell us the winner," one voice demanded.

"Just say the dragon archlord won," another said and laughed, making most of the audience here laugh with him.

They were the ones who betted against me. Screw them, I wanted to see their faces after losing despite that would be impossible thanks to that smoke screen.

"Alright alright, calm down first…" the nymph lady knew the result from the start, yet she tried to calm the others first before raising her arm high towards the big black ball: "Let's see who won the bet, shall we?"

The next moment many fireworks cracked and exploded all around the ball before it slowly turned into my green light.

And under that light, I could feel the atmosphere change.

Those excited and having fun people who betted against me went into dead silence. They emitted dark gloomy air that made me feel a little suffocated.

"Yes, yes, yes, I won, yes, hahaha! I won, hahaha!"

Just as the silence prevailed for a long moment, the one friend I gained by my side exploded in cheerful laughter before he jumped in an unexpected move and hugged me.

"Thanks brother, I won't forget this gesture of kindness today," he whispered in my ears, in a voice only the two of us could hear.

"Hahaha, unravelled across the universe? Hahaha! You dragons never cease to entertain me," another voice came

"That's not real!" the dragon race shouted out of his bitter loss, "I ask you to revise the results and tell me the details!"

"You don't have the authority to ask for that," this time another one standing on the stage spoke in a heavy tone. I didn't know who he was, but the sudden change of the atmosphere around people shouting in support of the dragon race's claim and their sudden silence told me a lot about his status.

"All you need to know is that the result is fair and just. As if you don't accept it, you know you have to pay for that if you want to know more details about it."

I frowned before the new friend next to me said in a tone that he made sure to be audible:

"He has to put his current dark gold grade in the impact on the line. If the result was really just, as it should be, then he will be punished and be degraded by two ranks."

"Two ranks? Damn! That's cool!" I also didn't hold back my voice and even added a tinge of sarcasm in it. Dude, you did many dirty things back when the bet was going, and it was just just to return some favour back.

"Humph," the dragon race snorted in dissatisfaction before vanishing while adding, "I won't forget this humiliation today, not from any of you."

In a flash he vanished while many others followed. At the same time, I noticed that the two smaller balls merged into the big green one, making it turn all bright like a green star.

[Your stay here is about to end]

All of sudden this weird message came to startle me. I looked at the stage in a hurry before another message came to calm me down.

[You still have ten minutes here]

[Congratulations! You won the Bringold impact official bet against the dragon archlord called Soerth]

[The items you betted and the items you won will be added to your inventory once leaving here]

[A subsidiary bet was done on the honour of your bet]

[As the one who won the bet, you gained two percent share of the total sum of items offered in that subsidiary bet]

[The items will be selected randomly, but its total value will be assessed compared to the whole lot of items in that bet]

"Hahaha! I struck it rich this time, hahaha!" Before I could absorb all these messages, the one next to me jumped in the air, laughing out loud, acting all happy.

"Come, give me your hand," he expanded his and I only stayed still without following his demands. I didn't know what he wanted to do here.

"Don't worry," he was fast to grasp my hesitation, "it's the standard way to make friends here in the impact."

I got what he wanted and shook his extended hand. Then a message popped up next in front of my eyes.

[Phoenix race Bradley from apocalypse world number 256544 wants to add you as a friend. Do you agree?]

Phoenix race? And a male to begin with? Or wait, was he a girl in disguise or what?

All I knew about that legendary race was that all of them were hot sexy girls. Never heard before of a male phoenix.

"Accept," I simply said as he did the same. But at this moment, I couldn't hold back my curiosity to ask, and it seemed he also got the same type of curiosity as well.

"Are you a man or a woman?"

"Are you the one who started all this?!!"

His voice came filled with astonishment before he broke out in laughter. "Indeed, that explained everything indeed," he looked at my silver smoke and I noticed him shaking off his head.

"Brother, I'm a man. Don't listen to those silly lies the dirty dragons worked their as*it's too hard to spread about us. We are like all the other races, having males and females. Or else how come we reproduce in your opinion? Putting that aside… I have to give it to you… You are really worthy of my admiration…"

He paused and even sighed before adding, "it took me almost fifty f*cking years to climb from the white grade up to the silver grade. And you? Damn! Even if I returned to the clan and told them about that, I bet no one will ever believe me!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Just show them the rewards you got back and they will."

"Hahaha, yeah, riches never lie, hahaha!"

Compared to the dragons, phoenixes were more friendly and easy going. But they also loved treasured, not lesser than the dragons.

Just look at this phoenix dude, he was literally jumping out of his excitement every other second! He only lacked music and he would even dance!

"Let's meet later," Bradley said before adding, "if you want to leave, just go to the impact interface and you'll find a red button to return home. Damn! I'm too excited to wait here anymore, hahaha!"

"Go and I'll catch up with you later on," I said before I did the same as he told me.

Chapter 98 - The Mighty War Chariot

After all, I also wanted to hurry back, check over what I gained from that dragon and also check the prime soulers I got.

*Fwoosh!*

In a flash I left the auction site and returned to the side of the river. Once I opened my eyes, the scenery filled with colours and lights blinded my eyes for a few seconds.

"Finally you are back!"

Just as I was adapting, I heard the anxious voice of Isabella next to me. I squinted my eyes and tried to endure the difference in sight while sharply looking around.

But I found no sign of danger at all. They all came here, the jumper, the spearhead, Isabella, and Angelica. "What's wrong?" I couldn't help but ask.

"What happened to my girl? Waaah!" Angelica burst open in crying and I noticed her red puffy eyes at this moment. She was crying for a long time, it seemed.

She leant over the weak body of Alex, crying over her like she lost her or something.

"We had a bumpy ride here," I shrugged, "but they are all fine."

"If they are then why aren't they awake yet?" The spearhead stood by Isabella's side, seemingly supporting her against me.

Dude! If you wanted to attract her attention, you better stood by my side not hers! After all she was trusting me, and if I said something mean about you… Humph!

"They suffered heavy blows from that tunnel explosion from earlier," I annoyingly said before adding, "I gave them something to heal their wounds. Don't worry, they might just need a bit more of a rest."

"Where were you just now?"

Just as I finished dealing with the anxious girls, the jumper appeared on my side while gazing up at me in a suspicious way.

"One second," I didn't forget what I wanted to do first. "Come forth my dragons!"

Three dragons came up and they flapped their wings while standing midair.

"Why call them that?" The jumper seemed a bit perplexed when he saw them. Dude, were you foul speaking about me when I wasn't here or what?

"Go, search the bottom of the river where the destroyed tunnel is," I pointed my fingers towards the distance, "bring me the big corpse lying down there."

Of course I wouldn't forget my missed trophy. Even if I returned with such a big harvest of unknown items and those soulers, I wouldn't forget about that Kracken race left to the fish in the river bottom.

His bones… all his bones would be mine.

"Are you out of your damn mind?" The jumper took a few seconds to get over what I just did before he forcibly held my arm in a fierce way. "We just managed to escape with our lives on the line. Do you want them to come and get us again?"

"They already know where we are," I freed my arm with equal strength and firmness before adding, "they aren't attacking because they won't be able to harm us."

"Who says?"

"I say," I rolled my eyes, "don't you trust me?"

"Not when my life is hanged by a thread here!"

He pointed to his chest, and for the first time I noticed a small hole in there. Damn! That was an arrow hole, right? Just near his heart!

"Here," as I was worried over him, and out of my good intentions, I took out one potion and threw it to him before he threw it back.

"Do you think I don't have tons of healing potions?" he said in disdain, not even thanking me for my good gesture.

"Then what?" I still didn't get what hit him.

"He got a cursed arrow," the spearhead said from Isabella's side. "An arrow came and turned into smoke when it penetrated his chest. He says it won't go before killing the one who did it."

"Didn't you get him?!" I was surprised. Not only that jumper was taken by surprise, he also failed to get his hands on that person.

"If I did, then would I stand here shaking from fear?" The jumper rolled his eyes before the angry voice of him came, reprimanding the group, "if you didn't leave me behind with such worthless people, I would have gotten him by now!"

"Dude, you are a really crazy one, y'know that?" the spearhead didn't like the jumper's attitude and retorted back, "you made us run without rest for almost an hour! We even ran into a mighty enemy base filled with many races and strong humans!"

I looked up at the jumper who explained in one word: "Castle."

And I got what happened.

"Where is this castle then?" I asked, "we can go and kill everyone now. we are in Jersey city, so we can start working from there."

"Who said we are in Jersey city?" our guide jumped to her feet before adding, "we aren't! We are a few miles away from it."

"This isn't Jersey city?" this news came to surprise me, "didn't you say once we cross the river we'll reach the city?"

"A walk of fifteen to twenty minutes can't be considered that much, right?" she said, while rolling her eyes.

"Then let's go and take that castle," I didn't change my mind, "we can find that bastard who cursed you and kill him."

Frankly I was totally oblivious about such cursing arrows. Did they even exist? And how did they work exactly?

But from this little experience of the jumper I could tell my safety wasn't guaranteed. Even all the cautious jumpers fell into their trap.

"It won't work," the jumper shook his head, "if I was that person, I'd leave as fast as possible and hide inside the bigger city."

"No harm to try then," I shrugged, "at least we take one castle away, get further understanding about our enemies, and also vent out some anger."

"You don't get it," but the jumper seemed not that excited like I thought he would be, "they have many warriors like yours. Yes they don't have your mighty dragons, but you only have four. And you just now took only three of them, meaning you lost one already or he is deeply wounded, right?"

"And?" I knew he had a point here, but he didn't know that my forces just expanded in quality and quantity while he was away.

At that moment, I imagined his reaction when seeing my new forces. Damn! I wished I could see his face at that moment! It would be epic!!

"I'm saying they have hundreds of warriors, not to mention other races and the traitors of the humans! The army they have there is simply in thousands! Add to this the castle effect… Don't tell me you got your head hit or something during your escape?"

He even moved to check out my head, fearing I had a concussion or something. I pushed his hand away and didn't say anything back.

"Just take me there," I said, "after my boys return."

"Do you want to die?" The jumper looked at me but I didn't speak.

"Just watch," I didn't say much and simply summoned one thing first.

My mysterious trophy!

Even inside my inventory, the item I gained from the bet was boxed in, covered with red straps like a present around a golden box. I had my expectations raised by a notch when I saw this.

*Boom!*

Just taking it out caused an intense booming sound accompanied by massive waves of dirt expanding everywhere around. I looked in daze and amazement, opening my eyes wide, waiting for all the dirt to be cleared to see what I got from that bastard.

"F*ck me!!!" and the moment I saw it, I couldn't help but hold my head with my hands, cursing out loud out of my immense shock and delight.

"What the heck is that?!!!"

Even the jumper screamed in shock while the others literally jumped off their feet.

They had all the right to react this way. After all what came in sight wasn't a simple war item like I imagined; it was a deadly behemoth!

A behemoth sized war chariot that spanned for over thirty metres in length, fifteen metres in width, and above fifty metres tall!

The chariot was simply a giant in any aspect you wanted to consider. The front was dragged by a group of giant horses that reached the number of thirty, arranged in groups of three, forming ten rows to drag this absolutely heavy chariot!

Each chariot horse was ten metres in length, five metres in height, covered with soft scales at necks, strong muscular leg origins, and around their tails and wings.

Each had two long wings that were filled with absolutely pure milky white feathers. Compared to the bright golden scales, and pitch black skin, the overall look of these horses was fabulous!

As for the chariot itself, it was made entirely of three kinds of ores; red, black, and golden. The chariot seemed to have three floors inside, each floor reaching almost fifteen metres in height.

Such height was enough to sustain the giant bodies of the dragons and many giant creatures like Bulltors. As for the top of the chariot, it seemed to be like a roof, with eight cylindrical towers rising up for another fifteen metres where small versions of my giant ballista resided over their top.

It was a beast! The chariot wasn't running over wheels, but over five parallel long and curved sleds. And those sleds were all emitting golden fog that looked like the pitch black fog emitted from the hooves of the giant horses and the edges of their wings as well.

I bet it wouldn't just glide over the ground… I bet it could even fly!

As for the two sides of the chariot, both had great murals depicting great battles where dragons overwhelmed other famous races like Selvators, giants, angels, and even phoenixes!

Damn! This wasn't a chariot! This was a fortress!

"Is… This is yours?!!" The jumper moved under his immense shock and tried to touch the twoo big handles at the centre of this chariot.

But the next thing happened was for the chariot to emit a loud buzzing sound, before I heard a loud banging noise coming from the violent crash of the jumper.

Damn! It even had its own self defence mechanism! I loved it! I really fell in love with this behemoth!

"Wait," I warned the others, although this wasn't needed, "I'll adjust its setting first."

I didn't move or even turn to help the jumper who looked in a sorrowful state at the moment. Even the jumper with such a strong body couldn't resist the simple backlash from the chariot!

How cool was that?

I opened the description of the chariot, and read it with all attentive eyes.

[Dragon archlord war chariot: An earth grade war chariot that was made under the specific requirement of a famous dragon race archlord. This marvel was built by the universe renown goblineers: The Makers!

Current owner: human race Hye.

Current condition: basic condition status.

Description:

The war chariot runs over stat points as its main fuel. You can use other precious materials like rare ores, jewells, and even unique things that contain high grade energy.

It can't run on low grade items, like coins or common monster materials for example.

The war chariot was manufactured, but it's considered a living item. The goblineers who made it added a beating heart of a giant and ancient world tree as its core.

It has three modes; basic, intermediate, and fully activated modes.

Basic mode:

It runs on the residual force of the beating heart of the world tree in its centre. It can run on the ground, allow the usage of the protective towers, and give enough energy for the dragging dragorses to drag it. The defensive shield will be in its primitive form, only sustainable for ten eings attack force.

Intermediate mode:

It can rise slightly over fifty metres off the ground. The defensive shield will be augmented to be in its intermediate form, enough to defend against one hundred and fifty eings attack force. The dragging dragorses will have their speed augmented, and have enough power to attack using their short ranged breaths. The chariot will allow the owner to use the long ranged energy pulses as a weapon to stun and kill enemies.

Number of stat points required to activate this stage: ten thousand soul points per hour.

Fully powered mode:

It can fly even to the highest sky! Its speed will be rivalling the speed of light! The dragorses will use their long ranged breaths and all their attack power. The chariot can use its full force, like gravity control, myriad of skills, long ranged and AOE attacks, plus the most shocking ground separation and elevation to its height! The defensive shield will be in its strongest form, sustaining an attack force of one thousand eings.

Number of stat points required to activate this stage: one hundred thousand soul points per hour]

"Damn!" I sucked in a cold air of breath. This behemoth… really was worthy of an earth graded war treasure!

It consumed tons of stat points per hour! What did that mean? I couldn't possibly fully operate it at my current financial status.

Chapter 99 - Tour Inside The Chariot

"Have you finished reading its content?" The jumper came at this moment to attract my attention to a point, "let's go inside. I want to know what this beauty hides inside."

"You have stat points, right?" out of the blue I asked. His eyes narrowed while he seemed fishy towards my sudden question.

"Why ask all of a sudden?" He said, "don't think about robbing me! I'm warning you!"

"Consider it a fee for saving your as*," I didn't hide my intentions before pointing at my grand chariot and added, "this little shy girl here needs stat points to run. Or else she won't show us her strongest power."

"How so?" the jumper seemed to frown when hearing that. And I simply told him the price list of using this beauty.

"Damn!" he also cursed, "nothing comes without a price in this f*cking apocalypse!"

"Are you paying or what?" I rolled up my eyes, "after all I'm bringing my girl to save your neck. You should cover the expenses."

"Considering that…" he crossed his arms while thinking about this, "it's a waste not to witness her strongest power in play. But let's be realistic. If we consume too much then we will end up with her basic power, right?"

I nodded without saying anything. After all he had the call here for how much he should spend.

But who said he didn't have that much in his pocket? Even I, someone who just played for a couple days here, had almost enough stat points to run the intermediate form of this behemoth for twenty hours straight! Or the ultimate version of it for two hours!

I was sure if I dug deep enough into his inventory, I'd find enough stat points to run my girl for days!

"Let's do it this way then," yet he acted all wise, but in actuality he was stingy, "I'll provide enough stat points to run it in her intermediate mode first."

"So poor to run her in a full powered version?" I couldn't help but remark in a sarcastic tone.

"If you have the ability then be my guest," yet even my sarcasm didn't affect him, "or else we'll do it my way. I can activate her full powered version, but from another point of view, we can keep that as our final trump card here."

I got what he meant, but something deep inside my mind kept alarming at his stinginess.

"Alright," what else could I possibly do? After all, I still had my new warriors to elevate their levels, consuming more stat points from my reserve.

And this time I ended up running my beauty without paying a cent! It wasn't my loss in either case.

"Let's go," as I accepted what he offered, I went to the gigantic side of the war chariot.

Standing just there made me feel little! Even the doors of this chariot, which were four identical doors with a protruded engraving of a stunning dragon head, extended to reach over twenty metres in height and five metres in width.

"Damn!" I gritted my teeth while holding one handle and pulled it with all my force, "it's damn heavy!"

"Sorry pal, I can't help," the jumper said from behind. I ignored his insincere reason and kept pulling the door until it finally budged open.

And then a flight of stairs appeared, thrice to be exact. Each seemed to head towards one floor of this chariot.

"Come," I motioned to my group to follow while I led them.

[Warning: intruders are detected]

But the moment they came near the opened door, a message popped up on my face.

[Human race: Spearhead is about to enter. Do you want to allow him safe passage? Or do you want to kick his ass?]

[Human race: Isabella is about to enter. Do you want to allow him safe passage? Or do you want to kick his ass?]

[Human race: Jumper is about to enter. Do you want to allow him safe passage? Or do you want to kick his ass?]

Three messages popped up and for a second I was tempted to kick that jumper's ass. But I accepted their safe passage. Who knew what brutal hit that chariot of mine would give for the already wounded jumper?

"Bring Karoline and Alex," I didn't forget about the two girls who were still lying unconscious on the ground.

Right now, and if we didn't even pay any stat points to my little girl, I could keep the chariot running on the ground while acting as my firm base.

For example, like now, I could let the two unconscious girls be inside the chariot without fearing for their safety or being burdened by them.

The design of this chariot was meant for giant people, not normal sized people like us. Each stair needed me to jump to cross to the higher stair, giving me a funny comparison when I imagined my Bulltors climbing these stairs with ease.

The first floor was really wide! There were no rooms, only one single big and luxurious looking hall. There were many seats, many tables, many portraits depicting dragons in various glorious moments of their race, and also many golden ornaments and a few treasures as well!

But unluckily for me, all the treasures here were bound to the chariot. I thought I could get a few and sell them into the market to get many stat points in return.

Wait… should I sell my bones in the Bringold interface in exchange for stat points? Or would that end up being my loss?

If someone told me before that I'd consider doing this, then I'd curse him, his father and mother, and up to his last ancestor!

But right now I was seriously considering that! I just didn't know how big the difference was between the three modes of the chariot.

If she could perform well in the basic form, then I wouldn't need to invest that much into her for now.

In the entire big hall, the most remarkable thing aside from the expensive ornaments everywhere were rounded platforms that were slightly higher than the ground.

Each platform was around five metres in radius. On the two long sides of the chariot, dozens of such platforms were there, while on the shorter sides there were five platforms only.

Each platform was against one big window, meaning they were meant for defence.

"This place…" Isabella came and stood by my side, with a shocked and disbelieving look on her face.

"Amazing, right?" the spearhead jumped again and at this moment I couldn't help but roll up my eyes and give him a warning glance.

Dude… Stay your hands off my girl for now. I didn't approve of you coming closer to her!

"Let's go up," as there was nothing else to do here, I led the others up through a circular built patterned stairs around a central golden pole.

The next level was filled with small rooms, looking like a resident for those guards inside the chariot. I could count at least ten rooms, each five metres long and six metres in width. And there was a narrow corridor between the rooms, with two cleared zones from the sides of the chariot.

Also the previous platforms were there.

"This might be a good place to leave the girls at," the jumper suggested and I nodded. Karoline was carried by Isabella and Alex by Angelica, and the two were selected to random rooms and placed the girls over the beds inside.

"Let's go," as the two girls were securely left in here, we all went upstairs again.

And this time we found something interesting.

"This…" the third floor was also like the first, a single wide hall. But unlike the first floor which seemed to be like a welcoming place for visitors, this floor was more like an arsenal.

"That dude… He was too generous to leave such gears here!"

Swords, spears, bows, and even shields and armours… everything were neatly organised in big piles on the ground of this hall.

"Wow! But they all look big," Isabella jumped around, seemingly happy about all these gears. She adjusted her glasses, while adding, "can I take this sword?"

It was really like a spear not a sword compared to her body, but I simply nodded.

And everyone moved and selected whatever they wanted, except for the jumper who didn't bat an eye when he saw all these gears.

I knew that dude was rich, much richer than I. But according to my plans, this big hall filled with gears here was simply perfect!

All the warriors I gained could now come here and be equipped with any gear they wanted.

"Let's go," after everyone selected what they desired, we started to go to the roof.

Isabella picked up that giant sword that looked more like a spear and walked by my side. The spearhead selected a chained metallic ball, a couple of them actually, giving him such a terrifying look when the length of each chain was extending for almost three metres!

As for Angelica, she picked up a pair of knives, curved and looking like a dagger compared to the giant size of the dragons, looking like suitable curved swords compared to her body size.

The roof was open in the air, as fresh air welcomed us. There were many seats, platforms in different sizes and heights, and also the towers.

Also there was a central rounded movable platform, seemingly connecting the roof with the floor below to move on armaments when needed.

"This flagpole…" the jumper stopped at the long black flagpole that extended for ten metres up to the sky, carrying a flag with a dragon head on its end. "We need to change that! We need a flag of our own."

"Don't look at me," he said the last words while gazing up at me, and I simply shrugged, "I suck at drawing."

"You are our boss," Angelica came to my side, leaning at me while intentionally twisting her body in a tempting motion, "you shall decide our flag."

"Leave it for later than that," I escaped from her while running to the foremost edge of the chariot. There I saw something that attracted my attention.

"This glaive… It looks deadly!" I stood by another flagpole that wasn't a flagpole at all. A long and heavy looking golden glaive was inserted in a hole that seemed to be made specifically for it.

I tried to hold it, but all I could do was to raise it with my two arms before it took me and my body down. "Damn! It's so heavy!" I couldn't help but take it inside my inventory for now.

When I had my strength stats raised, or even opened up my cultivation path, I'd surely use this glaive.

Its sharp curved long edge was enough to scare any enemy of mine! And it extended for almost six metres in length, enough to be used for long attacks.

As for its sharp edge, it extended for over a metre! It was a beast! I was sure of it.

"Now," Isabella was still playing with her two spear-like swords, "what should we do?"

"We should go and crush that castle upon their heads!" the spearhead said in a vicious tone while waving his two deadly chained balls.

"Even with this chariot, we can't beat them," but the jumper shook his head, "we are five, and if we added your warriors, we won't even come close to a one hundred force! And they are in thousands!"

"One second," as he mentioned my warriors, it was time to bring another shock to them.

"Come forth my warriors!"

Without hesitating, I summoned my newly acquired seventy-five warriors. I didn't worry about the spaciousness of the place, after all this chariot was really looking like a fortress!

*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

In a sequence of seemingly never ending flashlights, the seventy-five warriors appeared with their giant bodies.

And when I looked at their outer appearances, I couldn't help but gasp out of immense surprise!

Their bodies showed clearer changes than before! Before their bodies were wrapped tight in their muscle thin bundles, with fog coming out from their joints only.

Chapter 100 - Dude, Your Inventory Is Mine

But now? Now they were all swimming in dense black fog! It looked like their bodies were in purple fire that kept flashing in dancing threads underneath the fog.

If their look was brutal from the start, then right now they looked monstrous with those red glowing elliptical three eyes in the middle of their smoky heads!

Even I felt goosebumps when looking at them.

"What are they?" Angelica came closer to one of them but the moment she tried to touch one, that one suddenly vanished from his place to reappear a couple of metres away.

That was unbelievable! Damn! Could they teleport or they just had insane speed?

"Come," I didn't take them just for show, "take these and use them."

"And you dare to ask for my stat points?" The jumper glared at me when he saw the large amount of stat points, beads, gems, and crystals that I took.

"Dude, just feeding them these emptied almost half of my reserve," I said back without feeling any shame, "plus I'm doing you a service here. Why are you against paying the fair price for it? You are the one cursed, and not me!"

"Humph," in discontent he turned his back to me but still peeked a few glances at my soulers.

As for the girls, they seemed to enjoy this new game of chasing the soulers. No matter how they tried, they couldn't catch a glimpse of my warriors.

Amidst this their laughs filled the place.

"Who are they?" The spearhead stood by my side. On his ugly face I could see his fear. He had all the right to feel so, after all my warriors were mighty!

"They are one of the new warriors I gained," I didn't delve into much details, "they are called soulers. Very strong, very dangerous, and very loyal!"

They were dangerous indeed, not only against my enemies but also against mine. These handful of them just ate many souls simply per day. If I wanted them to keep living in such an amazing state, I needed to expand my killing and quicken the growth of my forces.

I gained a lot of strength back in New York. According to my prior plans, I should lay low and deepen my foundations once I controlled Jersey city.

But now… Now I had to change all that! My forces couldn't sit idle. If I controlled two cities, then what about the areas adjacent to both?

Luckily both cities were close to each other. So they got each other's back. But that didn't mean I couldn't expand.

I also sat my gaze upon Massachusetts state. I needed to pick my pace up and go there as soon as possible.

After all, the real game changing opportunity lies there, not here.

"Come forth," as I watched my soulers upgrading themselves and getting slightly bigger in size, I took out all my warriors.

Including the newly summoned Gollems, Kracken, and my new dragolves warriors.

"This…"

Now as my full force was completed, I only lacked my dragons.

"You got more warriors?" The jumper was shocked to speak for a few moments.

"Don't you want your curse gone or what?" I rolled my eyes before noticing something big coming from the direction of the river.

They were my dragons, and they carried a really big corpse with their claws.

"Go down there," I pointed at the lower deck and added, "arm yourselves and take positions. We will go to war soon."

I moved with much anticipation towards the ground. The others didn't follow me and simply kept looking from high above.

Of course they could simply stay up there and enjoy the sight from such height. But for me, I had to go down below and get my share of this corpse.

*Thud!*

Just as they reached me, the big body fell heavily on the ground. I didn't hesitate to take my fifty percent share before I checked the bones.

[There are six bones that you can salvage using your separation skill]

"Yeah!" I said in excitement before taking these bones out. Out of the six, one was gold, one silver, two green, and two white.

Yes, it was worth getting that corpse back.

"Let's go," I moved back, "keep flying and scouting the air above my little girl."

Once I reached the top, I stood with little puzzlement. How should I lead this giant assed girl?

I reopened the description and found a little icon at the end that I didn't notice before. It came with a black dragon face, and once selected, I saw another window where control settings of the chariot were decided from.

"Of course let me be the sole controller of it," I allocated myself as the driver without any hesitation. I wouldn't trust leaving my beauty to anyone else!

Once I sat myself as the controller for the chariot, I felt a strange feeling. It was like something got unlocked and I felt my ability to sense the entire chariot.

Damn! There was really something massive beating somewhere in that chariot!

It must be that world tree heart mentioned in the description. At the same time I felt something else, connected to that beating heart.

*Borram!*

Strange noise erupted the moment I tried to check that thing up. From the central part of the chariot, just a few metres at the side of the platform connecting the roof with the arsenal down below, another platform was raised.

It wasn't a simple platform, as in the middle of it a strange ball of bright blue and golden lights appeared. It gave me the impression of being a little star emitting light all over the place.

And the moment it appeared, information gushed into my mind without warning, telling me what I should do with that strange platform.

"What is that?" The two girls were still playing catch with my soulers before that platform appeared and attracted their attention. They both looked at me, alongside the jumper and the spearhead as well.

"It's the place we shall put the stat points at," I looked at my jumper who simply shrugged and said:

"Let's first see how your behemoth acts without my stat points."

Although I also had the same mind as him, I felt the reasoning behind both decisions was different.

"Alright," I turned to face the front, "hang tight, let's get this girl moving."

I only thought about moving when the thirty dragorses on the front roared and raised their front legs in a strong motion. Then they started to move.

"This speed…" Isabella moved to my side, stood on the front end of the chariot while her face showed her struggle to either laugh or cry.

I also felt the same! The chariot was moving, that was given, but at what speed?

"It's the speed of a snail pal," the jumper jumped on my side, before adding in a bitter tone, "I think it's equal to the normal human walking speed before the apocalypse… What a regret!"

Of course this speed wasn't something I should feel proud about. It was something I never saw coming at all!

The chariot was moving indeed, but in my eyes it was a speed equal to standing still.

Moving in a battle? Or moving from one place to another? Damn! No matter how I saw it, this chariot's current basic speed wasn't enough, wasn't enough for anything at all!

"Go and put your stat points in there," as I had nothing else to do but to ditch the basic form of my chariot, I pointed to the strange pillar at the centre, "if you wanted us to reach that castle before the start of the second quest!"

"Just remember this," the jumper couldn't help but shake his head in regret. It was something none of us expected it seemed.

But knowing this made me realise that the chariot could only be summoned as a resting place, or when I was in the middle of a defensive battle.

But teleportation or moving in offence was out of the question.

Thinking back at my limited reserve of stat points, I started to seriously consider changing my precious bones for stat points.

It might be funny, but what else could I do?

If a miracle didn't happen to solve this issue for me, then my precious chariot would be left to dust inside my inventory for a long time.

I watched the jumper reach that pillar, take out stat crystals, orbs, and beads before throwing them all into that shining star in the middle of the pillar.

The star was standing idle, but the moment it got the stat points, it started to ignite fiercely like he added some wood to fire.

Then it started to slowly rotate.

"How much do you need for the intermediate phase?" he shouted, and seriously I didn't want to answer.

I waited for a long minute, acting as if I was reviewing the description again. "Keep pouring your stats until I find the right number," I said while trying to buy more time.

Of course I knew the number needed, but what if I did? Let that bastard bleed for a bit, even if he put more than what the chariot needed, I could always use the extra for later, right?

"How much is needed?" the jumper shouted again and this time he stopped throwing anymore stat points into the shining star.

But he threw more than enough, to the point I got a notification about it!

[You placed one hundred thousand and twenty thousand stat points for the chariot]

[Do you want to activate the intermediate or the full powered version of the chariot?]

"Intermediate!" I hurriedly said while trying to conceal my happiness. Damn! That jumper simply took out such a big hand in such a short time without any struggle.

"It's enough," I didn't tell him the details, but even from that distance I could feel his anger towards me.

He was smart enough to know I scammed him. But so what? Everything he owned was literally mine!

I started to seriously consider depleting his inventory of any stat point to the last scrap! But what about his wrath?

He couldn't do anything to me, but it wasn't a good thing to have such an explosive dude next to me.

"Don't think about doing this again!" He came to me at a fast pace before giving me such a gaze full of anger.

"Your inventory belongs to me," in a response, I decided to take away most of his stat points first, "come on, be a good boy and give your daddy here ninety percent of your stat points."

"Don't go overboard!!" he shouted in immense rage but I simply didn't change my mind.

"You and I have a contract together," I said in a calm tone, a tone of someone who held the upper hand here, "and by that contract I order you to deliver ninety percent of your inventory's soul points to me."

A strange atmosphere erupted between the two of us, the air of the contract bound by the system. I could see fire sparks coming like deadly daggers from his eyes.

But I didn't care! Dude, I was ready to ditch my precious bones for such useless stat points! Besides this little girl here would serve all of us, not only myself.

*Thud!* Thud!* *Thud!*

As he had no other choice but to comply, the sound of his stat crystals, orbs, beads, and points filled the entire place.

"I won't forget this," he threatened.

"It's not my fault that you are selfish dude," I shrugged while hurriedly collecting everything he took out. Damn me! He took almost a small hill of such things out in just a few minutes!

"There is a difference between being cautious and selfish," he said before adding in his ruthless tone, "and there is a difference between being demanding and a thief!"

"Dude, your inventory is mine," I rolled up my eyes before adding in a similar ruthless tone, "don't force me to empty all your inventory and claim everything you worked so hard to get.. After all, I'm just taking such useless stuff off your shoulders, emptying space for other things in your inventory."