“I… I refuse to accept this…” Adrien’s voice was laced with bitter resentment, his frustration almost tangible.
He couldn’t believe it—he had lost to a few high-level scrolls. He had been so close, just a step away from achieving the immortality he had yearned for. Yet, at the final moment, this seemingly small obstacle had become an insurmountable chasm.
Adrien glared at Luca with wide, hate-filled eyes, wishing he could tear him apart limb by limb.
But his breath was weakening, his life force slowly fading away.
Luca’s icy magic had frozen what little vitality remained in his body.
And in just a single breath…
The once-great high-ranking necromancer had fallen.
“Finally, this troublesome guy is done for.” Luca exhaled deeply, his gaze to Adrien’s lifeless body.
Then look to the black coffin in the middle of the formation.
The lid was already open, revealing a foul, thick, black liquid inside, like sludge.
Now it was time to deal with this.
“The Undead Coffin…” Luca narrowed his eyes. He had only heard of this thing in his previous life while dealing with a cult leader.
A former bishop had once used the power of an Undead Coffin to create an army of twisted monsters in the real world, managing to capture an entire city as his stronghold, causing quite a stir.
It had taken significant resources and effort from the authorities to finally neutralize the threat.
Luca had never seen the Undead Coffin up close before, and he wasn’t sure if it could be used to craft magic runes.
Plus, its origin was shrouded in mystery, and crafting it into runes would probably be no simple task…
Cautiously, he placed his hand on the coffin. A game notification immediately appeared before him.
[Undead Coffin: Superclass special item from the Abyssal Demon Realm’s Sea of Desires. It contains unique magic capable of transforming ordinary people into Abyssal Crawlers. No cooldown time.]
The game description didn’t provide much useful information, aside from mentioning the “Sea of Desires.” m-v-l_e-m-p-y-r original
That place was a vast, black ocean filled with insatiable desire, a highly unusual location even within the Abyssal Demon Realm.
Luca hadn’t realized before that the coffin originated from there, but without giving it much more thought, he attempted to store the coffin in his inventory space.
Unexpectedly, he felt a strong sense of resistance.
The resistance didn’t seem to come from the coffin itself, but from the Demonic Transformation Formation beneath it.
But for Luca, this was no big deal.
He conjured several icy blue runes in his hand and infused them into the formation.
Immediately, the resistance faded, and the lid of the coffin slammed shut with a resounding thud.
The glowing blood-red lights in the formation flickered and quickly vanished, as the demonic array came to a halt.
With a simple wave of his hand, Luca stored the Abyssal Coffin safely in his inventory.
After thinking it over, Luca mentally asked Jormungandr, “Have you ever seen anything like this in the Abyssal Demon Realm? If I turn it into magic runes, would there be any risks?”
There was a two-second pause before Jormungandr’s lazy voice echoed through his mind.
She complained, “The Abyssal Demon Realm is so big, and I spend most of my time in the Dream World. I’ve never even heard of this thing before. How could I know? Master, you’re giving me way too much credit…”
“Don’t know?” Luca frowned, instantly suspecting that she was lying.
While Jormungandr’s explanation made some sense, Luca knew very well the status of a King-level monster in the Abyssal Demon Realm.
In a place where monsters were ranked by bloodlines, King-level monsters were practically gods.
How could she not know about the Undead Coffin, a Superclass special item?
Unless… she didn’t want to tell him.
Luca recalled the Solar Divine Spear’s warning and narrowed his eyes slightly, but chose not to confront her about it.
He wanted to see what game she was playing.
As Luca mulled this over, the square began to tremble violently.
The black mist in the air dissipated rapidly, and an excited voice broke through the silence.
“Hahaha! I did it! I knew I was a genius!” Pierce shouted, his face beaming with pride and excitement.
Being able to unlock a formation that had been lost for centuries gave him an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.
Luna, however, paid no attention to his smugness. She immediately rushed into the square, eager to see if the boy was still alive.
But what greeted her eyes left her momentarily stunned.
The once-flat square was now littered with severed limbs and pools of blood.
The ground was pockmarked with the aftermath of battle, and the entire square had been reduced to ruins.
The thick stench of decay and blood filled the air, making Pierce’s face turn a sickly green.
Unable to hold back any longer, he covered his mouth and ran to the side, retching violently.
The scene was just too much for him to handle…
Luca shrugged and said, “You guys are a little late.”
“Did you kill him?” Luna asked, her eyes wide with surprise as she stared at Adrien’s lifeless body, his face frozen in disbelief.
“That’s right,” Luca admitted with a nod, not bothering to lie.
There was no point in hiding it, and it wasn’t something he could conceal anyway. It was better to be straightforward.
Pierce, wiping his mouth, widened his eyes in shock.
“Dude, are you serious? You managed to take down a high-tier professional? That’s insane!”
Luca, with his slim build, looked like a strong breeze could blow him away. Pierce, who was at least four or five times his size, couldn’t believe the terrifying power hidden within him.
“How did you do it?” Luna asked, her shock deepening.
Adrien was a legitimate high-tier necromancer, and even though his power had greatly diminished, he was still far beyond what a mid-tier Demonic Rune Mage should be able to handle.
Luca calmly repeated the explanation he had already prepared in his mind.
He made a few adjustments, especially regarding the black coffin and some minor details, but most of what he said was the truth.
When he mentioned that Adrien had been hanging by a thread, practically at death’s door, Luna’s expression shifted to one of understanding.
Based on what she knew, Adrien indeed didn’t have much time left in terms of lifespan.
Considering how his power had plummeted, it seemed plausible that this young man, who had passed the 20th level of the trials, could have managed to kill him.
Even so, the fact that someone Luca’s age could single-handedly take down a high-tier professional was enough to cause waves across the entire Southern Territory.
“It’s actually a Cult of Ten Thousand Demons’ Demonic Transformation Formation. Who knows where this guy got his hands on such rare and bizarre arcane techniques…” Pierce remarked, currently inspecting the demonic formation, his tone full of amazement.
While Pierce’s comment was casual, it sparked something in Luca’s mind. The scale of this operation, along with the complexity of the formation, hinted that Adrien was likely backed by some sort of powerful organization.
After all, the knowledge of how to set up formations like the Demonic Transformation Formation and the Demon-Sealing Formation, along with the rare materials required, were usually in the hands of major powers. It was unlikely that an individual practitioner could access such resources alone.
Turning to Luna, Luca asked, “Did you investigate Adrien?”
Luna prodded Adrien’s corpse with her sword and shook her head. “We did, but there wasn’t much useful information. We don’t know if he was affiliated with any larger force.”
“Now that he’s dead, it’ll be even harder to investigate,” she added.
Luca felt a twinge of regret. In hindsight, he realized he could have left Adrien alive for questioning.
But it was too late for that now, and there was no point dwelling on it.
After thinking for a moment, Luca suggested, “Maybe we can search Adrien’s home later. There could be some clues.”
Luna nodded, recognizing his interest in the matter. “I’ll personally look into it. Don’t worry, when I return, I’ll report this to Crunt.”
“And if I find anything, you’ll be the first to know.”
With so many deaths in Pure River Town.
Marquis Bronte of the Southern Territory would undoubtedly ensure every detail was thoroughly investigated.
“Thank you,” Luca said gratefully.
After that, the group didn’t linger in the square.
They began working with the other professionals to clear out the monsters in Pure River Town.
Luca joined in as well—he wasn’t about to miss such a great opportunity to level up.
In the previous battle, he had killed a significant number of monsters, and his level had already risen to 34.
If all went well, he might even reach level 35 before leaving.
That kind of leveling speed was far faster than grinding through random monsters in the wild…
…
Meanwhile, just outside Pure River Town.
Harvis and his group hurried back to their temporary camp.
Every one of them wore grim expressions.
Some people greeted them along the way, but Harvis didn’t bother responding.
Once they were back aboard their Cloudwing Airship.
They all breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“We finally got it!” Harvis exclaimed, his face lighting up with a smile as he pulled out a small black box wrapped tightly in cloth.
The most important part of their mission was complete.
Although they hadn’t personally killed Luca, he was likely taken care of by Adrien anyway.
This trip to Pure River Town couldn’t have gone more perfectly for him.
“I wonder what’s inside this thing?” Harvis muttered, looking curiously at the tightly wrapped box. “For Lord Finn to be so concerned about it… it must be something extraordinary.” He reached out, intending to open the box and take a look.
One of the knights beside him quickly stepped forward to warn him, “Young master, before we left, the head of the family specifically told us not to touch anything belonging to Lord Finn. If anything goes wrong, it could cause a lot of trouble for the family.”
Harvis’s brow furrowed in irritation as he coldly rebuked, “Do I need you to tell me how to do my job? This thing was important enough for both Finn and Adrien to guard it so closely—there’s no way it’s ordinary. I just want to make sure everything inside is as it should be. What if Adrien swapped it out?”
Ignoring the knight’s protests, Harvis unwrapped the black cloth, revealing the object inside.
It was an ancient, square black box, with strange markings etched into each of its sides.
One side depicted a coffin at sea, another a tree atop a mountain of gold, the third a woman with two faces, and the fourth an eerie eye with two pupils—each design more unsettling than the last.
In an instant, everyone in the room was captivated by the box.
“What… is this?” they murmured, staring at it as though it were a priceless treasure.
Harvis’s eyes glazed over, his hand moving involuntarily toward the box, slowly beginning to open it…