"Come with me." The beastman said, he wasn't worried that Zach would try something funny as he knew he was much more powerful than him. Zach followed him, they crossed the whole village, Zach could see and hear the various beastmen villager whispering between themselves, 'I wonder where are the men.' Zach only saw little kids and women.
Thanks to his great hearing Zach heard what the villager were whispering, it was mainly about seeing a human or a stranger in their village but he heard something which interested him much more. "We don't have to worry our village chief is one of the more powerful being in this world." It made him wonder how powerful was this chief.
They finally neared a 2 floors house which was a bit bigger than the other and it was of a beautiful white color with golden carvings on all the facade. It represented the dwarfs forging weapon, the elves enchanting those weapons and the beastmen hunting.
In the center of those 3 was the elves, dwarfs and beastmen against a mouth with tentacles which was of black color. Zach noticed that the beastmen, dwarfs and elves on this carving were not on the ground and they seemed to have crowns floating above their heads.
The beastmen knocked on the door "I have someone who is seeking answer, I brought him to submit him to your judgement." a few seconds passed without a sound and then an old and deep voice which made Zach shiver said calmly "Let him enter."
'In what kind of shit I ended ?!' Now Zach was nervous because when he entered the house he could feel a pressure he never felt, he knew it was coming from the sole presence of the chief, without him doing anything.
"Come here kid." Zach heard the same voice say, it almost made his ears burst from the pressure. He started to go towards the origin of the voice but for each step he took towards it the pressure he felt increased more and more.
Eventually he saw a man sat on his chair his back facing him. He was a few steps away from the man but he could not take any, he felt like he had to walk with several tons on his back.
The man got up and said "Good, you tried your best until you couldn't do more, I'm surprised you succeed in coming until there." The pressure disappeared and the voice this time didn't threatned to make his ears burst but when the man look towards him, he was rooted.
He could not move and all his body cell screamed to him to found a way to get away from this being but Zach knew he even if he could move he would not be able too escape.
'How this man is so powerful, even more than Arnold's father' Zach was stressing a lot because he knew that if this man wanted him dead he would not be able to do anything about it. "Tell me what a human is doing in my village." The man looked in Zach eyes when he asked this question, Zach gulped and answered "I came seeking the way towards Delp's capital."
"Why do you need to go to Delp's capital ?" Zach hesitated to answer this question because he knew that what he had in his hands would cause quite a lot of troubles but he noticed something he hadn't before, the man in front of him had pointy ears, it was an elf.
"I have something to deliver to the royal family." Zach said, the elf narrowed his eyes, the one from Delp's royal family were considered as god by most of Delp's citizen. So a lonely human having something to deliver to them was quite suspicious "What is it ?"
The elf asked the question Zach wanted the least to come up 'I hope it will work.' "It's something which was entrust to me by Oscar." When Zach said this he saw the elf trembling and his mouth was wide open he could swear that his jaw was on the ground.
"You have it ? You have {The Book of Hidden Bloodlines} ? How are they ?" The elf exclaimed with too much enthusiasm which made Zach fall on his knees. "Indeed I have it. Unfortunately, Oscar, Pedro and Kyle sacrificed their lives so I could escape with it."
A tear rolled down the cheek of the elf "A pity, I will tell you how to go to Delp's capital but don't tell anyone you have this book, some would try to get it from you for their own benefits." He warned Zach.
Zach nodded his head and asked "Did you knew them ?" the elf nodded "Oscar was my grandson as for Kyle and Pedro they were his best friends." Zach could hear the sadness in his voice. "Mister, what a so powerful warrior like you is doing here ?" Zach didn't know exactly how powerful he was but he knew few were more powerful than him.
"I am the first line of defense against Kartelion, I am here to gain time for the arrival of the reinforcements in case of invasion." He replied simply, but Zach knew what it implied, it implied that he would sacrifice himself to make it so the reinforcements could come in time.
"Do you know that this books will cause a war ?" The elf suddenly asked. Zach was flabbergasted, he knew this book held great value but not to the point of causing a war. "Why ?"
"Simple, this book was written by the first ascended elf, it talks about the secret to activate the bloodline. Activating your bloodline will make your chances in succeeding the ascension greater. But just after the first elf ascended, the man who later became the first human to ascend stole it and hide it in his kingdom : Kartelion." The elf explained.
"Do this book have any value for the human ?" Zach was trying to understand the situation. "It's where the catch is, it doesn't hold any value in the hand of the human. They even tried to destroy it but our ancestor had foresaw something like this and it was written in the most durable book with the most durable ink." He paused and looked at Zach.
"In those ages, Kartelion's kingdom have forgotten of its true value and only know that it was once ours and we have great interest in it hence why you could run away with it alive." He said in a plain tone.
"So if I understand it right, once I delivered this book the royal family a war will be unavoidable ?" Zach asked because if there was a war he needed to pick a side even if the side he will pick was pretty obvious at this point.
"Yes, but this war will only start after the royal family pierce the secrets of this books and succeed in activating their bloodlines. It should take anywhere between a few years to 10 years. Before that it will only be some skirmish trying to gauge the enemy power." The elf explained.
'That's good, I will have time to grow and become powerful enough to participate in this war, maybe I will encounter those fucking bastards on the battlefield.' Zach was in fact eager to go at war against Kartelion just because he wanted to reduce Arnold family to cinder and despair.
"You should go and not take any longer to reach Delp's capital, you have to go to the North East. I will give you my token to make your entrance there and to the royal palace easier. Say Starmatos approved you, everyone should let you go." Starmatos explained, Zach nodded and left the house.
Starmatos sighed "The true times of chaos are only coming." He could not go deliver the book himself, he knew and he felt that there was a few people looking his each movements.
And if he had sent someone to protect Zach it would end in making him more problems rather than helping him, he had to do it by himself and the fate of their kingdom was in this boy hand.
Zach had taken back the road of the capital but once he was a few kilometers away from the village he could feel that someone was there, following and spying on him. "Sigh, show yourself, I know you are here." He said a little bored while looking to a tree behind him.
"Ke ke ke, I didn't expect you to notice me but it won't change the outcome, you will die Ha aha ah" Zach could clearly see the madness in the man but he also felt that he was just enough powerful to be a threat to him, he should be around low or mid rank 2.
Zach didn't want to lose time so he decided that he would go all out. He make his scythe appear in his hand which surprise the man "A spatial ring ke ke ke, JACKPOT !" The man dashed on Zach with a dagger in each hand and at the moment he was about to plunge them in Zach's neck he felt a terrible dread and fell on his knee "No ! no! NOOOOO ! Don't do that please.".
Zach had used Death gaze which made the man who had obviously a weak mind almost collapse, Zach then put his hand on the man's head and decided to summon the Hell fire with half of his mana. The next instant a huge flame consumed the man and his corpse fell on the ground.
As usual Zach heard the notification in his head, he then tried to collect the soul but couldn't 'Why is there no soul ?'
[Ding ! The Hell fire is a fire which burns the soul, even if it do physical damage it's nothing compared to the damages it deals to the soul. Host can consciously or unconsciously separate its effects but it would make the Hell fire a great deal weaker, having the effect of its former level.]
'I see, my soul didn't burned because I unconsciously made it so and if I didn't upgraded it it wouldn't have been powerful enough.' This time Zach prefered to end it fast and safely but next time when he could he would make it so he could the souls.
Zach looked at the notification and as expected [Ding ! Host has killed a low rank 2 being, +2000 EXP]
[Ding ! Host has leveled up !]
[Ding ! Host has leveled up !]
[Ding ! Host has leveled up !]
Zach was lucky until now when he fighted against a more powerful human he had an advantage or the one he was fighting was either a low tier figther or simply stupid.