Before going through the chapter, I bid you give me a moment of your time for three announcements:
1- The gimmick of William's soul being able to attract nightmare creatures by smell will be henceforth retconned since it was a stupid fucking concept.
2- I will be renaming William's soul cores from now on to Iceborne Cores (due to their appearance).
3- This fanfiction now officially has an original theme song for it, and there is one for our current mini arc. You can either find it on the fanfic discord or on the google drive link supplied below.
(Theme Song Link - Eternal Forgetting)
(Leonia Mini Arc Theme Song Link 1 - Kingdom's Demise)
(Leonia Mini Arc Theme Song Link 2 - Forsaken Battlegrounds)
Now, onto our usual broadcast.....
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Clack! Clack! Clack!
William observed from his hiding place as the dark figure clad in intricate metallic armor shuffled along the stone road. Its tattered black cloak covered its head and shoulders, but he could still see the sword hanging on its left hip and the kite shield on its left arm.
(Image)
His cerulean eyes switched from the figure to the set of runes floating before his eyes:
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[Darkspawn Knight]
Rank: Fallen
Class: Beast
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The more he looked at the runes, the more he felt his headache beginning to build up.
It was one thing for him to hunt Awakened ranked nightmare creatures, which, he might add, was not something expected of mere Sleepers.
Yet, Fate, in its infinite wisdom, decided to have him contend against Fallen nightmare creatures. Hell, Nephis and Sunny did hunt a Fallen creature, but that was when they had an entire group of other sleepers with them.
On the other hand, William was on his lonesome with his aspect ability turned moot because for some reason none of the nightmare creatures he fought had a fucking physical body for him to resurrect.
Sure, with his attributes and the passive enchantments on his memories, he was strong enough to fight most Awakened nightmare creatures, but expecting to fight against a Fallen ranked creature without dying a few times was a desperate fool's errand.
He saw how a Cursed Herald managed to rip apart the hard shell of the Carapace Centurion like it was made of wet tissue paper. The jump in strength between an Awakened and Fallen ranked nightmare creature was pretty significant.
The white haired youth was neither desperate nor a fool to attempt to fight several hundred of such monstrosities - not yet.
Based on his experience from the slums, the nightmare creatures in this kingdom were not of the same type as the ones seen outside; rather, these Darkspawn nightmare creatures had some sort of anchor, so to speak, keeping them corporeal and not turning into black mist.
The Darkspawn Soldiers' and their Commander's anchor was their duty to eradicate the cult and their mission to retrieve the War Saintess from their clutches - dead or alive.
He had to find the anchor of these knights. There were two methods for him to do so: The first was immediately shelved since it required killing enough of them to get memories which may or may not contain the required information. The second method was to search the building in this place in hopes of finding some written record or anything that mentions or even hints at what his quarry might be.
With a heavy, silent sigh, William dismissed the floating runes and turned his attention towards his first search target.
Jumping off from the end of the metallic fence he was standing on, the young Sleeper landed onto the dirt of a long-dead garden. The vast expanse of dry land probably housed various exotic flowers and trees in times of yore meticulously cared for by the gardners hired by its wealthy owners. However, now, it could only be described as an arrid wasteland with no hint of color seen as far as the eye could see.
Using his [Soul Sight], William checked to see if there were any nightmare creatures in the area. Thankfully, there were none but he could see a few black dots slowly roaming around inside the extravagantly-sized, mansion in the center of the wasteland.
Concentrating on one of the black dots brought forth its owner's runes.
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[Crawling Husk]
Rank: Dormant
Class: Beast
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'A surprise,' he thought as he read the shimmering runes, 'but not an unwelcomed one. I could get a couple of soul fragments to advance into a Devil.'
It didn't take long for him to navigate through the darkness thanks to the illumination of his [Light] spell and reach the entrance of the fancy manor which consisted of two fairly large doors. The doors seemed to be designed to be pushed inwards and whatever substance it was made off appeared to be of such quality as to survive the unknown millenia of disrepair it had to go through.
Before doing anything, a transparent bubble emerged from William's body and covered both himself and the two doors. He didn't know whether opening the old relic would make any noises to attract unwanted attention to him so he casted the [Sound Barrier] spell as a precaution.
With his safety net set, he placed an armored hand on each of the two doors and pushed. Alas, it was to no result.
On his second try, he added more strength and only managed to make the doors groan a bit.
The doors appeared to be surprisingly fortified.
It was after a moment of examinaton that he found a keyhole in one of the doors.
'Where would I get a key?' he wondered to himself before a realization came upon him: he had a memory specifically designed for these kinds of situations.
A small cloud of spinning sparks appeared in his palm before manifesting into a thick, flat piece of metal that narrowed down at one end into a crooked curve.
(Image)
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[Lockpick: A thief's best friend.]
Memory Name: Lockpick
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: III
Memory Enchantment: [Lock Picking]
[Lockpicking]
Enchantment Description: Can be used to open locks without the need for keys.
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"Soooo.... how do I use this?" William looked over the seemingly mundane memory before looking at the keyhole. Suddenly, a grunt escaped his lips as a sharp headache assaulted him causing him to grip the sides of his head in a vice grip. Consequently, the memory fell and clattered on the ground.
"Grrrr....damn...," uttered William through clenched teeth as he felt the sudden headache abate.
Opening his eyes, he caught the sight of the lockpick memory lying on the ground and strangely felt as if he was looking at an old friend.
Stranger yet, was the knowledge of locks and lockpicking that suddenly emerged in his mind. He knew for a fact that he didn't practice lockpicking in his previous world. Hell, he was so focused on his studies before his mother's death that he didn't have much free time for such criminal activities.
Yet, he somehow had memories of someone with years of experience in lockpicking and sneaking around. Along with those memories were several faces blurred by some mind fog that prevented him from determining who they were.
It was a weird feeling, as if he had the memories of someone else, which was highly unlikely since he wasn't a displaced soul in another person's body. Instead, he had moved to this world with his own flesh and blood body. He even checked that one day at the academy by determining whether he had the same birthmarks or not. Sufficient to say, he was pretty sure that this body was his own.
With a troubled mind, he picked up the lockpick memory, looked over it for a bit, and then inserted it into the keyhole. Following the new muscle memory, he moved the tool with the dexterity of a practiced old hand and soon an audible click came from the door. He somehow intrinsically knew that the lock was open now.
He looked at the memory in his hand with a heavy gaze before sighing and dismissing it.
In its place, he summoned Frostmourne in its Tarnished Glory form. The familiar weight of the mourneblade helped clear his head of the disturbing thoughts he was having.
Whatever the deal with the new memories in his mind were, it could wait until later.
He had a rich man's home to raid.
CRRRREEEEEEAAAAAAAK!
William cringed at the sharp creaking sound made by the door's hinges as they opened. Thankfully, he had enough insight to insulate the area prior.
As soon as the doors opened, he felt a tingling from the front side of his head which led him to automatically perform a vertical slash before him.
SPLIT! SPLAT!
His body got showered with black fluid from the creature he vertically bisected in midair. The two halves of said creature fell to the ground on both sides of him with a wet splat. Before he could even see its appearance, the bisected body turned into black mist and flew into the air.
The strangely familiar voice of the spell followed soon:
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Crawling Husk.] (D100 = 7)
[Your soul grows stronger.]
Before taking another step, William's right hand glowed in a dull light.
[Prestidigitation]
A dull glow washed over him and removed the black fluid from his body before collecting it into a ball and dumping it somewhere else.
Having cleaned himself of nightmare creature blood, the white-haired youth looked at the darkness that filled the interior of the building.
"Let's do this," he said to himself before going into the manor.
The ball of light floating over his head dispersed the thick darkness as best as it could. Meanwhile, he kept his [Soul Sight] constantly active so as not to be caught unawares again.
Even with the Tarnished Glory's [Sentinel] enchantment preventing him from being ambushed, he preferred to be able to see where the attack came rather than feeling it like a knock-off spider man.
His armored feet clicked and clacked against the tile floor as he proceeded into the manor's interior. Tens of black orbs skittered across in his vision like little spherical mice; although, none were nearing his location.
Soon enough, he reached an area that contained a high concentration of these Crawling Husks. Moreover, it was the only path available for him to continue.
Just in case, he deliberately slowed his steps as he stepped into the room.
The first thing he noticed once was the reflection of light coming from the crystalline chandelier hanging at the top of the room.
'I wonder....,' he thought before pointing his right hand at the chandelier.
[Prestidigitation]
Suddenly, the room got bathed in light as the candles placed on the chandelier all got lit at once. William saw several crouching figures clothed in shaggy rags huddled in the center of the room while other cloaked figures crawled around the walls and roof like cockroaches.
As soon as the chandelier got lit, the creatures stopped their movements all at once and immediately turned to look at William's direction in unison.
A wave of disgust washed over the Sleeper's body as he saw the nightmare creature's appearance.
The Crawling Husks had a dark, grey skin that looked extremely dry and emaciated enough to show the ligaments and bones hidden under. Their faces were extremely wrinked with two empty holes in place of eyes. Moreover, their mouths were in a perpetual oval shape showing their mangled teeth and rotting oral cavity. It was the most physically disgusting thing he saw since he got to Leonia and he had the displeasure of meeting the False Shepherd.
(Image)
Like a shark smelling blood in the water, the Crawling Husks immediately lunged towards the cerulean eyes youth while letting out strange moans from their perpetually open mouths.
Observing the crowd rushing at him, William reacted quickly. The material composing his left prosthetic arm began morphing and changed into a slightly curved, rectangular shield that had multiple sharp spikes on its front.
Then, utilizing the strength of his body boosted by the Icon of War, he bull rushed the Crawling Husks horde. The spiked body shield struck against the nightmare creatures. Any that weren't thrown back by the force of the rush, were instead skewered by the osseous spikes and then had their entire body turned into a pincushion by the smaller branching spikes that erupted from the bigger ones.
The Nightmare Spell alerts continued coming.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Crawling Husk. x15] (D100 = 1, 8, 27, 34, 37, 38, 48, 54, 58, 68, 70, 71, 78, 78, 100]
[You have gained ... x3]
[Your soul grows stronger. x15]
He dearly wished for a way to mute these notifications.
Dismissing the runes, he stopped his charge, reformed his prosthetic from the spiked shield and began hunting down the stragglers of the broken down crowd.
Having gotten used to fighting Awakened ranked creatures, he found no difficulty in making mere Dormant Beasts taste the edge of his blade.
In less than a minute, he killed eight more of the Crawling Husks before those that were out of his reach started skittering into the dark corridors of the manor.
William was in no rush to hunt them down. With a thought, a nondescript silver ring manifested on his middle finger. Beneath his feet was a small pile of soul shards similar in size to baseballs; with a wave of the ringed hand, the pile vanished from sight.
Following that, he intrinsically knew that the Dormant soul shards got added to the already formidable mound of several hundred other Dormant Soul shards. With him becoming a demon, the space inside the ring's storage increased in size to about the size of a small warehouse. He didn't know how he knew it with no other answer in sight, he just chalked it up to Nightmare Spell shenanigans.
Following the acquisition of his most recent useless loot, he checked over the new memories and echo he got.
'Maybe they contain a clue on how to leave this place,' he thought.
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[Rusted Knife: A normal cutlery found in many kitchens used for cooking food. However, this one was used for a much more sinister purpose. It is rusted and dulled from the blood and fat remaining on it and looks like it is about to break at any moment.
Memory Name: Rusted Knife
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Enchantment: [Mundane]
[Mundane]
Enchantment Description: You don't plan on fighting with a rusted kitchen knife hanging on its last thread, do you?
[Crawling Husks]
Echo Name: Crawling Husk
Echo Rank: Dormant
Echo Class: Beast
Echo attributes: [Spider Walk]
[Spider Walk]
Attribute Description: Crawling Husks can easily move upon non-horizontal solid surfaces.
Echo Description: [It all started when the kingdom entered a state of lockdown suddenly after the king's return from his most recent expedition. Rumor had it that only a small fraction of the formidable force of the Leonia returned alive and that the king himself was severly wounded.
Then, the riots started in the slums making the already precarious situation even more serious. With the slums falling into chaos, the supply of food for the noble district got cut.
The nobles' food caches didn't last long and soon enough a new servant mysteriously disappeared every few days and new meat would be found on their masters' dinner table.
It was only after the left over human bones were discovered did the sevants knew what was happening. Angered and grown mad from hunger, the servants said, "Why should the masters be the only ones fed?"]
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He didn't know whether to feel disgusted or concerned at what was written in the memory and echo descriptions.
"First the people of the slums, and now the nobles and servants too," he muttered to himself as his eyes rescanned the runes before him, "something in this place has been driving these people mad."
Dismissing the macabre runes, he looked over the room he was in. Well, calling it a room was an understatement since it was bigger than any conventional room he had ever been in. If he had to compare it then it would be slightly smaller than the gymansium at the Awakened Academy.
The warm glow of the candle light from the crystalline chandelier lit up the room well enough; yet, at either sides of the grand hall, a dark corridor stretched into the haunting darkness. Moreover, at the far end of the room were two curved stairs that led to the second floor of the manor.
(Image)
His [Soul Sight] was still detecting a few black orbs moving about here and there in a chaotic fashion. He should probably attempt to fully exterminate these corrupted servants; after all, it was akin to doing them a favor and it was easy Soul Fragments.
Unknown to William, a few hours passed as he scoured every nook and cranny of the manor he was in. On one hand, he severly overestimated the literary interest of the nobles of a militaristic kingdom worshiping the War Goddess; any book they had that hadn't completely turned to dust from the passage of time either was an accounting book or talked about some obscure military strategies and logistics. He stored the military books since they may prove useful especially if he were to command an army of undead in the future.
He knew how to read their writing thanks to the [Comprehend Language] spell; although, he could do without the headache that came whenever he got 'blessed' with eldritch knowledge. Thankfully, with [Mental Fortitude] being E-, the headaches never got too debilitating.
On the other hand, he didn't leave the manor empty handed. For starters, the most prominent of his discoveries was that of several wooden trunks that were actually enchanted to have bigger storage spaces than their size suggested.
In addition, he also found several elaborate locked gilded containers. A few moments with the lockpick memory opened up the locks. Inside, the containers were filled to the brim with various precious jewelry and gemstones that seemed to be in mint condition.
Moreover, he also collected various elaborate suits and dresses from the nobles' wardrobes. He could sell it for a pretty penny in the waking world if anything.
Also, the complete scouring of the manor allowed for him to hunt down a ten more Crawling Husks.
With the first manor finished, he turned his eyes to the next one. Perhaps he would find more clues there.
Like that, the great robbery of the Leonian Noble District began.
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That is all for this chapter, I'm afraid. Things are a bit rough on my side since my endblocks and finals are coming up. I will try to keep updating, but the frequency between them would be irregular.
I know that it is not the best of deals; yet, it is what it is. My grades and livelihood come first.
If you like the fanfic, vote and write a review for new readers.
Cheers! Have a great day!