She added in a menacing voice, while looking at him with killing intent, "While Zhao is indeed a 2nd stage awakened, he has become quite old, not to mention he doesn't come to hunt beasts and never even revealed to his tribe the fact that he is an awakened despite the warriors of the tribe being killed many times. So, he shouldn't be too strong. Considering how you can kill so many 1st stage beasts yourself, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to kill him. If you're still not able to do it despite being helped so much, Zhao should be the least of your concerns."
Valtar looked at her without an ounce of fear and did not reply to her threats.
After an hour or so, he was in the forest, running towards the eastern tribe area, but seeing a man ahead, he stopped. It was Zho.
Zho, hearing the sounds of running from behind, turned around swiftly and, seeing Valtar alive, was surprised, then became wary. "You? How did you survive?"
"I was lucky,"
"Bullshit, do you think I am a fool or something? Those dark elves definitely put you up to something. They're the ones who saved you, didn't they?"
Valtar thought to himself for a moment if he should kill this guy to avoid unnecessary trouble, but then came up with a better plan. Then he proceeded to tell Zho that his father actually intends to kill everyone in the tribe, and Valtar himself, if he does that, he can indeed escape the forest forever.
But it was Valtar who was surprised by the reaction. Zho had a grim expression and sighed, "So, it was probably true. One of the elders told me some of the things in private. However, I kept it a secret and did not believe him. But now I can't help but think that it might be true."
So, after discussing for a while, they both agreed to join hands if Old Man Zhao did indeed intend to kill everyone and escape the forest. They set off towards the east again, and this time they were running the whole way.
In the midst of their journey, the system discovered Zho was actually a first stage awakened.
'Tsk, tsk, just as I thought, your intentions are clear as day, stupid moron,' thought Valtar in his mind.
Half a day before reaching the Eastern area, while they were taking a short break, Valtar opened the system window.
[Eternal Karma Interface] -
Host: Valtar Titanblood (Ethan Martin)
Age: 18
Status: Healthy
Advancement: 2nd stage awakened
Species: Human
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Class: None
Primary Stats -
Strength: 40
Vitality: 40
Agility: 40
Mental Fortitude: 40
Resonance: 30%
Karmic Energy (KE): 140
Shadow Affinity: 10%
Skills -
[High-perception]
[Survival Instinct]
[Mental Defense]
[Silent Steps]
[Killing Intent]
After eating 10 first stage cores, the energy was enough for the system to help him advance to the 2nd stage. Unfortunately, according to the system, 1st stage cores are now not enough for the system to help him advance to the 3rd stage, or it would require more than 200 first stage cores, which wasn't cost-effective.
Then he looked over to Zho who decided to take a short nap. He brought out a small parchment filled with powder of a strange plant. Then activated silent steps, went close to Zho, and simply sprinkled the powder around the place where he was sleeping extremely silently.
After that, off to a border direction of the forest, just to be sure that he could not escape after this. This is something he hasn't checked yet, and all the dilemmas are based on this fact.
20 minutes later, he reached a border, and to his dismay, he could indeed not get out.
A transparent barrier was covering the entire border, probably the entire forest.
He hit it with all his force, but there was not a single change. Thus, he went back.
After Valtar left the border side, an extremely large and ominous shadow emerged at the outer side of the border from nowhere and said in a deep and husky voice, "You have extremely dark and heavy karma in your fate outsider. I can feel it. I truly hope you succeed this time and end this 1000 years of torment."
One day before, Back in the Eastern tribe, Old Man Zhao thought to himself,
"Oh, so the boy has indeed met up with the dark elves, and he will reach here tomorrow."
"It seems I have things to prepare for tomorrow."
He then looked at the sky and said with deep and boundless desire, "Finally, Finally I shall be free. Just a little more, Just a little. The first step of the plan shall be completed tomorrow, and then the dark elves, western lands, and Fae folks, all shall fall by my hands. I will destroy this forest and escape with its legacy."
As he looked forward after saying that, he started chanting in a strange language, and after a moment, all the tribe members' movements became frozen. Zhao stood up as he looked forward at all the children of the tribe who were playing, getting immobilized in the midst of their play. He took out a sharp knife from his waist and stabbed every single child right through their little hearts as the knife came out of the back of their bodies.
Unhealthy amounts of blood gushed from every single body as they collapsed right after the pierced knife was taken out of their body. As the circle they were playing in became filled with blood, who knew the little circle the children played in was never meant for playing but for the murderous deeds of this old man.
There were 40 children in the tribe, and all of them were playing in the large circle in the middle of their tribes' living area. Slowly but surely, he killed every single one of them, but his expression wasn't that of a cold-blooded killer without any expression. He was indeed in pain after all. For 30 years, he has been here, right in a tribe full of kind and welcoming people who treated them as their own, yet here he was, killing all of their children for his own selfish agendas.
His face was twisted in guilt, in pain, in sorrow as he kept muttering, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I have no choice. This is the only way. The only way I can escape. I must escape. I cannot stay here anymore. I have to escape."
The entire circle had been filled up with the blood of the children. What was strange was that the blood did not go out of the marked circle, perfectly encompassing it, and the blood within started glowing slightly. Black and eerie patterns started forming within the circle as Old Man Zhao started chanting again.
When the chanting was finished, a smaller dark circle formed in the middle of the large blood circle. Suddenly, small ghost-like existences started coming out of the small black circle.
The ghost-like existences did not have any faces to them. They did not look like living or material things, but more like compacted and extremely dense black smoke. Despite their ethereal nature, yet they carried an extremely horrifying aura with them.
Every single one immediately went towards one of the living bodies and started possessing them. The ghosts who succeeded in possession could control the bodies, and they started moving. A blood-red pattern appeared on the bodies of the possessed.
A few ghosts who did not succeed disappeared like smoke from the bodies. Immediately, new ghosts went into them. This process continued until all the bodies were occupied by the ghosts as they started moving. At first, their movements were sluggish and zombie-like, but after a while, they could move properly like normal humans. After that, they all at once let out a unified ghostly wail as the souls within those bodies were fully consumed by the ghosts.
Every single one of them after devouring the souls had now achieved the strength of a 1st stage awakened. The black circle in the middle of the blood circle disappeared at this moment. The blood circle itself started to become smaller and smaller until it turned into a small blood crystal.
Zhao picked up the crystal and looked at his former companions with immense sorrow as he said one last time, "SORRY...." He swallowed the blood crystal as he felt immense power rising from within, as his body started to slightly digress in age, and he looked younger and younger. Zhao advanced to the third stage awakened from the second.
Zhao felt absolute power course through his old bones as he felt extremely invigorated. If he looked like a very healthy 60-year-old man before, now he looks like a 40-year-old man with an athlete-like body and a very healthy visage.
Then he finally wiped off his sorrowed face as he said seriously, "120 first stage awakened and me, a third stage awakened, should be enough to take care of the Dark Elven tribe for now since they almost got slaughtered because of provoking the Fae folks, Let me take care of that brat tomorrow then only one other member left to kill," as he declared in a resolute and ruthless tone, "My dear son. I'm sorry I must kill you too."