In the middle of the darkness inside room 305 in the third floor of the Sunrise hotel, a person in a hooded cloak, whose face couldn't be seen since there was barely any light entering from the windows of the room, was standing in front of the bed where Lloyd was sleeping.
They were just standing still for a few minutes, then they would suddenly pace back and forth just near Lloyd's bed. Upon having decided what to do, they approached Lloyd, stretching their arms and their hands were aiming for his neck. He was about to be strangled when Lloyd suddenly woke up and kicked them in lightning speed, which sent them flying and knocked off the tables.
"You've got the guts to come here and assassinate me!" He angrily shouted at them.
Lloyd wanted to grab and capture the assailant but they were able to stand up quickly and launched forward towards him while holding a dagger in their hand.
He twisted his body to avoid the incoming dagger and was able to successfully dodged it. However, the assailant wasn't really aiming at him. They just used the assault as a distraction so they could escape. After a few exchanges of blows, they quickly threw themselves towards the window and jumped through it, thereby, breaking the glasses.
"Hold it!"
However, Lloyd was too late. His hand wasn't able to reach even the clothes they were wearing.
Upon getting illuminated by the lights from the streets, Lloyd caught a glimpse of his assailant. It was a woman who had long, black hair. He activated evil eye and tried to identify who was attacking him in the middle of the night. His expression darkened and displayed a vicious stare upon knowing who it was.
"Alice Astreia... Rank IV. She's a dangerous person."
Her rank is quite high. She must be one of the oldest inhabitants in this ruined city as what Romina had told him just an hour ago. Lloyd thought that it wasn't making any sense that she would come here to eliminate him. There should be no reason for her to have any motives in killing him since they just met in the afternoon.
An idea came across his mind and he tried to recall the events that happened at the casino. She suddenly approached him out of the blue. That alone proved that something was suspicious. Did they find out about him and the others? Was that also why Luna and Klaudia had to go to the Arcadia headquarters with very serious expressions on their faces?
No matter what the reason was, Lloyd had to investigate it. He couldn't allow himself to just stand by and do nothing while their lives might be in danger.
"Luna, I hope you're okay…" He whispered silently which was lost in the darkness of the night.
Morning came and Lloyd looked at himself in the mirror. He was growing dark circles under his eyes as he barely had any sleep since the event last night. He was supposed to be in deep sleep, but he was jolted wide awake when he felt like someone was going to kill him, which made his instincts instantly activate and forced his body to wake up.
Back in the slums of the outer district, it was normal for people to ransack other's houses and even kill the owners in their sleep since there was scarcity of food and other important resources happening in the area. Lloyd had faced burglars who broke into his home several times. That's why he could react immediately last night since those experiences he had were greatly imprinted in his heart, mind, and soul.
It was almost 10 am and he remembered that he had a deal with the three people he rescued last night. He hastily whipped up something easy to cook for his breakfast. After eating, he put the dishes on the kitchen sink and thought that he should wash it later instead. He left his room and descended down the first floor and left the Sunrise hotel.
A few minutes of running, he finally arrived at the gate where he saw the three, Jouzo, Risa, and Romina, assembled already.
"Did you oversleep, Lloyd? I thought the stronger you'd become, the lesser you need sleep." Romina asked teasingly.
"Lay off, will you? I'm a very busy and important man and has to do many things, of course." He smugly said.
"Hmph! Go on and keep pretending. I'll let you off for now." She pursed her lips unhappily and then changed the topic. "Anyway, where are we going?"
"We'll go to the edge of the walls and climb there. It should take us a few hours. By the way, do you have any mithril stones with you?"
They looked dumbfounded when he heard what he asked.
"Why would we carry mithril stones?" Romina frowned as she asked.
Lloyd then sighed and thought that he would have to do some crafting later on. It would be hard to reproduce a shooting weapon with the same attributes as the wraithslayer sword. They needed the purifying effect of it for the activity they were going to do.
"Nevermind. Let's go."
The group moved with caution while they passed through the houses in the outer district. They weren't planning on fighting the hellspawns living there as it was beyond their abilities to do so. Lloyd could fight those creatures, but it would be meaningless if the others won't be able to deal the final hit in killing a hellspawn. They needed to deal the killing blow in order for their kill counts to rise.
There were times when they would be forced to fight hellspawns from grunts to elite ranks, such as the minotaurs, goblins, and another goblin-like entity which was of the champion ranks. Lloyd would be the one to finish them quickly while the others would hide behind the collapsed houses.
Their eyes would sparkle every time they witnessed Lloyd easily killing the hellspawns that would block their way.
"Lloyd was just too strong." Risa said with an intense admiration showing in her eyes.
He just shook his head and ignored them.
It didn't take that much longer before they got out of the outer district and entered the jungle and then reached the walls with ease.
"Here we are."
"Um…" The others looked confused as they looked around.
"What are we going to do here?" Romina once again asked.
"What else? You'll be killing a large number of enemies here." Lloyd replied while crossing his arms.
"But there's nothing here!"
"Wait for a bit and you'll see."
He looked at the time and saw that it was almost 12 pm. Then he looked at the obscured sky and saw that the sun was already at its peak. Then he faced the groups and said:
"They're here."
The temperature had risen abnormally and the three was shocked to see the magma slowly flooding the entire Vyris Deadlands outside the wall.
"Wh-what is happening?!" Jouzo asked with a horrified look.
"You've never seen this before?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow in turn.
"No… We've never been outside the walls nor climb it before. We spawned in the middle of this city when we first arrived here."
"I see. Well, look closely. The magma is just the beginning of the show."
They observed for a while until they had noticed something moving below. They squinted their eyes to see what it was. Then, they paled when they realized that the thing that was moving were a bunch of humanoid creatures that had rotten fleshes and were burning. Lloyd finally spoke once more.
"Those are the things you'd be killing. They aren't hellspawns nor they are alive since they don't have soul orbs."
"Then… what are they?"
"They are the cursed people of the land of Vyris. In short, they are the burning dead, cursed by the gods to burn in hell eternally. They are unlimited and will always rise up during peak noon and would go back to the ground when the sun sets."
Lloyd used dimensional vault and took out the vase of the eternal spring. They observed his movements closely as they were curious as to what he was going to do. He then also took out three large empty bottles that could contain five litres of water and poured the vase on it.
"What's that thing? And why are you pouring water in these empty containers?" Romina asked.
"These bottles would be your weapons. Those things cannot be killed by stabbing or shooting them normally. You'd need some purification skills to kill them and send them back to hell."
"Then, what about the water?"
"I'm saying that this water contains the purification properties that you need. Go on! Pour it down there now." He finished his statement and commanded them.
They nodded and each one of them took a bottle and poured the contents towards the burning dead that were trying their best to climb the walls. The water kept flowing downward and it took a minute for it to reach those abominations.
Once the water reached them and touched their bodies, it was like some kind of acid that melted them as they scream in more agony after being purified until there was nothing left from the burning dead that got hit, but ashes. Their eyes showed a hint of surprised and their mouths gaped widely as they saw what happened.
"Now, go check your status."
"Y-yes!" They stammered as they responded.
They took a look at their status screens. Then, they were suddenly in cloud nine upon seeing that their kill counts had skyrocketed just by using a large bottle of water.
"This is so amazing! I can't believe it." Romina shouted.
The guards who were nearby heard her and looked confused at the commotion happening. However, they didn't leave their posts and just let them do their thing.
"Alright. Keep repeating the process. Note that you can only keep do this until you can form your second core. After that, they won't even give a single kill count so it's pointless to keep on going. Got it?"
"Yes, Lloyd!"
They repeated the refilling and pouring process with great enthusiasm that lasted for five hours. They only had stopped once the sun settled down and the undead went back to the ground, being pulled by the receding magma until none was left, turning the flooded deadlands into a barren soil again.
"So, that's it. Now, you finish the remaining steps towards ascension and we'll go back to the city."
They nodded and started their ascension. However, painful screams soon echoed throughout the area as the ranking-up process made them have a taste of temporary torture.