Zach was still too weak to get revenge so for now the only thing he could do was to think about what he would do to them and how he could get stronger. Suddenly the system voice resounded in his head.
[Ding ! Quest updated : Death retribution -> Death Wrath : Not only the lowly being betrayed the one who shall become death but he incurred host's wrath. To complete the quest host shall smite the ones at the root of his wrath. A peaceful death is now an overly merciful issu, host shall reap their soul and torture them for eternity.
Target eliminated : 0/?
Target's soul reaped and tortured : 0/?
Time limit : none
Reward : Hidden]
The rewards were now hidden and question mark replaced the total number of target he had. 'It should be because I now have to quench my wrath so it could be two, three or a thousand targets. I will know when I will complete this quest.'
He retrieved his parents' corpse, he put them in his shadow, he did not wanted to do that but it was easier to do it like that than with his parents' corpse on his shoulders across the street. He jumped on a roof, looked in the direction of Arnold's house, he was enraged, he could not get revenge now but as the saying said revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
He reached the very same spot were the view was breathtaking, he decided to bury his parents there. He dug very deep because it was a path taken by merchants and other so he shall make it discreet to allow his parents to rest in peace,. Only at the sunrise he had finished, he dug a hole large enough to put both the corspe next to each other.
The only thing he had to do now was to get stronger, for that he did not have much option, one he had to kill being to gain exp to upgrade his spirit and intelligence and two train with the Void Conqueror method and find the second section of the mortal part.
The second section was located in the Delp kingdom where elves, beastmen, dwarves and more coexisted in peace. He needed to head towards the Delp kingdom and the best thing he could do was to slay being while he did this.
'The best choice is to escort a carriage to the Delp kingdom, I will kill two birds with one stone like that. However to join one I have to go to the capital and I need to be stronger the best would be rank 2 but high or peak rank 1 should suffice.'
Zach was resolute, he first headed to the capital and on his way he would kill everything that he could. He still could not start cultivate following the Void Conqueror method and he still did not know when he could spend the souls he collected.
His journey towards the capital started, he chose to walk on the side of the road, hidden in the vegetation. After 10 hours of walking and running he was exhausted, he went deeper in the vegetation and found a small lake, he decided to rest there but before he had to eat.
He approached the lake, throw a handful of worms and waited for the right timing, he suddenly pulled a big hammer and slammed the water.
Three dozens of fish were projected in the air, he managed to catch about twenty fishes, even if they were not big they were not small either, about a dozen centimers each.
He killed and gutted each of them, it ended up annoying because of the system's notification when he killed them. He checked it, he had got twenty of the same notification [Ding ! mortal being killed +1 exp] and [soul extracted +1].
He checked his status to see how many souls and exp he had.
[Host status:
Level : 1 (physique and dantian : peak of the human stage soul : low rank 1)
EXP : 160/200
Title : The one who cheats Death (cooldown : 3 months)
HP : 150/150
Mana : 100/100
Strengh : 10
Speed : 10
Stamina : 10
Spirit : 16
Intelligence : 10
Charisma : 15
Skills : |Death from the shadows| level 1
System points : 0
Souls : 57]
With every beasts he had killed when he rushed back home he was now almost level 2 and and started to have some souls, but still not any mean to spend them which Zach found quite ironical. He grilled half of the fishes he had for his dinner, when he finished grilled those he would eat, he directly extinguished the fire, he did not want to be spotted because of it.
Now he was alone in the wild so when he went to get some sleep he only slept with an eye open, ready to any attack. His sleep went quietly, no beasts or humans came bother him.
When he woke up there was still a good amount of time before the sunrise, he determined that the best was to take back the road now. He was advancing through the trees and bushes of the forest on the side of the road, he still did not want to risk exposing himself.
Zach noticed from afar on the side of the road a bunch of humans, each of them were hooded and had swords or daggers at their belt. 'As the saying goes the world belongs to those who get up early, those bandits are already waiting for a merchant to pass. I will wait a bit and see if I can reap benefits of their actions.'
He had mischievous smile when thinking about depriving them of their loot. However even if a fight breaks out between the bandits and some merchant, he was still very weak, he needed them to be at death's door and even then it would be dangerous.
After an hour of waiting Zach could finally see a merchant's carriage coming, and if he could see it, the bandits too could see it. There was 10 men in front, well equipped, in good tailor made armor and weapons which were so sharp that is was noticeable from this far.
Behind them were a carriage which was obivously of good quality but wasn't overly lavish, it should be owned by a rather big merchant but not the most influential. At the rear of the carriage 16 men who were as well equipped as those in the front stood guard.
'So many men, it is a wealthy merchant and he is conveying something that should be very valuable. Perhaps the bandits won't try to rob them, if that's the case I will just resume my journey.' However the bandits did not let him down and jumped on the road "Give us what your are carrying and we will let you pass with your life !" A bandit shouted to the men.
A calm and indifferent voice came from the inside of the carriage "We won't, let no one survive." This statement dumbfounded the bandits because they were 60 and each of them were at least at the low rank 2 and the stronger was their leader at the mid rank 3. "Ha ha, we will se who won't get out of it alive. GO !" The leader shouted, all the bandits went to slay the guards.
However to their greatest surprise, the bandits were the one who were slaughtered, they manage to kill a few guards but only half of them remained. "Retreat ! They are too powerful." The leader shouted, however to their greatest misfortune the guards chased them and kept their slaughter.
Eventually the guards came back to the carriage, only 5 of them had died during this fight, the same voice resounded from the carriage "Let's resume our journey to the capital."
Zach, who had witnessed all of this, was terrifed, he expected a hard fight were the bandits may win. It was nothing like that, to him it looked more like a massacre than a fight. After recovering his spirits, Zach went on the road, the carriage was far by now, he could not steal something from the merchant or the bandits but he would gain something out of this fight which was : souls.
He had a good amount of corpse under his eyes, each of them was emitting the same cyan light which curiously was brighter for the guards. He collected all the souls of the corpse on the road which totaled to 35, he then search for other bandits corpse on the side of the road and deeper in the forest.
He found quite a few, he had lost the count but when he collected a soul a notification from the system resounded in his head.
[Ding ! Hidden quest completed : Soul collector : Congratulations, host has already collected a hundred souls. Collect more souls to thrive and become death.
Quest rewards : Shop feature, one time use 60 % discount on any item in the shop.]
'Open the shop.' Zach stated in his mind.
[Shop : [Skills] [Miscellaneous] ]
'I finally can have more skills !' Zach swas excited about this new feature and decided to take a look at the available skills.
[Bones of the grim reaper : Gives host the sturdiest and the more resilient bones to have ever existed. Cost : 250 souls]
[Soul slayer : Gives host the ability to obliterate the soul of a being with a soul weaker than host or a weakened enough being. Cost : 1250 souls]
But Zach attention was attracted by a particular skill, a skill he would absolutely need to start cultivating his body according to the Void body method.
[Hell fire : As the who will become death, host will be able to call the fire from hell and manipulate it to destroy his ennemies. However as the hell fire it won't damage any being with a pure soul. Consume from 1 to 25 mana point every minute. Cost : 325 souls]