Chapter 79
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
Chapter 79: The Secret Warehouse (2)
***
Archlich Dorugo had made many preparations to destroy human society.
He recruited capable dark mages and caused chaos across the continent, creating a powerful undead army over a long period of time.
He devoted himself to using all the abilities he had gathered over the years to modify Damien Haksen into a Death Knight after dozens of surgeries.
In addition, there was another important plan that Dorugo considered.
It was the restoration of the cursed sword Erebos.
Erebos was an unknown cursed sword. There were no records of it anywhere in this world.
Only the Church mentioned that if they find a piece of Erebos, they must seal it thoroughly.
But even the Church did not know what Erebos was.
‘Maybe Dorugo knew well about Erebos. So he must have searched for it obsessively.’
Even during the war of destruction, Dorugo was obsessed with finding pieces of Erebos.
Even Dorugo could not completely restore Erebos.
The Erebos restored by Dorugo was about 70% complete. But even that alone had a tremendous power.
There was a case of a country farmer who accidentally obtained a piece of Erebos and went on a rampage, killing a high-class knight.
‘If Erebos didn’t recognize me, I would have died.’
Erebos was not only powerful but also a cursed sword that was difficult to choose its master.
At first, he did not recognize Damien as his master. Even if he became strong enough to trample over the master class, it was the same.
Then, just before fighting the Imperial Supreme Sword, Erebos finally recognized Damien as his master.
‘It was a tremendous battle.’
Considering that the empire was the strongest on the continent, the Imperial Supreme Sword was practically the strongest in humanity.
The Imperial Supreme Sword was a terrifying monster befitting its reputation. Even Damien felt a sense of crisis.
Above all, the Imperial Supreme Sword had the divine sword ‘El De’.
One day, El De, which fell from the sky, had a power stronger than any other weapon in this world. Even the best holy sword made by the Church was far inferior to the divine sword.
If Damien didn’t have Erebos, he would have lost his life to the Imperial Supreme Sword and El De.
‘…It might have been better. If I had died by the hands of the Imperial Supreme Sword, Dorugo’s ambition would have been thwarted.’
When the Imperial Supreme Sword lost its life to Damien’s hands, the Empire fell into a steep decline.
And Dorugo succeeded in fulfilling his long-cherished wish to destroy humanity by destroying the empire.
‘How did I say this…?’
Erebos was too dangerous an item. But it couldn’t be destroyed either.
No matter what method was used, Erebos’s fragments could not be destroyed. So did the Church order to seal it instead of destroying it?
‘I must have it for now.’
Damien thought so when he picked up Erebos.
Erebos’s hilt and blade turned into smoke before being absorbed into Damien’s body. Then, a tattoo in the shape of Erebos appeared on his wrist.
“What?”
Damien couldn’t help but be surprised once more. This phenomenon was evidence that Erebos had acknowledged him.
“This can’t be happening…”
During his Death Knight days, Damien never received recognition from Erebos.
Even though he killed numerous masters and rose to a dominant position, it was still the case.
Erebos, who had been so stubborn, now easily recognized Damien as his master.
It was surprising, but not a bad thing. It meant that one of Dorugo’s powerful forces had been taken away.
“Well, I can use dark magic with this sword. There’s no reason not to use it with a cursed sword.”
The only problem was that only the hilt remained, so it couldn’t be used as a weapon.
There was a bit of the blade left, but it was too short to be used as a dagger.
“Maybe I should hang it on a pole.”
Hanging it at the end of the pole seemed like a reasonable option. Then, it would be called a cursed spear instead of a cursed sword.
“Miya, let’s go now.”
Miya nodded at Damien’s words.
***
Damien put Miya in the bag and went outside the secret warehouse.
“Oh, he’s coming now.”
Juan was sitting with the mercenaries, waiting for Damien.
When he got up, the other mercenaries also got up.
“Is everything resolved well?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief.”
Juan smiled slightly and said. He didn’t ask any more than that. He was very epitome of the mercenaries.
“Where is that girl?”
“Oh, the one who likes killing people? Over there.”
Juan pointed to under the tree. Veronica was sitting there.
Damien approached. Veronica Sánchez looked at Damien with a blank face.
“…Don’t greet me.”
Suddenly, Veronica said something absurd.
“What nonsense.”
“Weak… I’m weak… I don’t even deserve your greeting…”
Of all the logic Damien had heard so far, this was the most bizarre.
“Stop talking nonsense and get up. We have to go back now.”
“Leave me alone… I’m too weak to deserve to accompany you…”
By now, Damien was starting to get annoyed.
“You want another round of beating? Or you can simply go.”
“Just beat me up…… All a weakling like me can do is get beaten up…….”
Damien sighed.
Energetic Veronica was annoying, but lethargic Veronica was even more annoying.
“You’re misunderstanding one thing. You’re not weak.”
“Lies… It’s a lie…”
“The Flesh Golem you faced had the ability to absorb mana. The more you hit it with an aura, the more mana it would take away. That’s why you were pushed back.”
Veronica looked at him with a face that said, “So what?”
“The reason you lost to him was because you didn’t quickly grasp that characteristic. You didn’t lose because you were weak.”
To be honest, it was true that she didn’t have enough insight to handle a Flesh Golem.
But now, it was important to revive Veronica’s crushed pride, so he had to endure.
“The swordsmanship you showed when you killed the thieves was excellent. I’ve even thought about it many times.”
Veronica’s ears perked up at the successive praises.
“With that kind of swordsmanship, you can’t be weak. Once you get a little more familiar with the undead, you can easily defeat a Flesh Golem like cutting a person.”
“Really?”
“Alright, so. From now on, don’t just focus on killing people. Try to diversify your efforts.”
It was something Damien had wanted to say for a long time.
“The realm of swordsmanship is very broad. It’s a waste for a genius like you to focus only on murder.”
This was Damien’s sincere opinion.
Veronica Sánchez was a person with talent that Damien would acknowledge.
However, the problem was that her talent was solely focused on killing people.
If she could redirect that interest elsewhere, and if she could fight for the sake of humanity, she would gain tremendous power.
“You… what’s your name?”
Veronica asked Damien, looking at him.
Damien hesitated for a moment. Originally, He had been hiding his true identity.
But if he used a pseudonym now, his connection with Veronica would be completely severed.
“They call me Damien Haksen.”
After much deliberation, Damien decided to use his real name. Veronica Sánchez’s pupils dilated.
“I’ve heard of you… You won the jousting tournament… So you’re Damien Haksen…”
Veronica’s expression became dazed.
“You were the person I wanted to kill the most… I didn’t expect to meet you like this.”
However, Veronica’s reaction was strange.
“Thanks to you, I realized my shortcomings… Once I overcome this, I will become much… much stronger…”
As her words continued, her eyes began to change.
The lifelessness in her eyes was replaced with vitality.
“To receive teachings from the person I wanted to kill the most… This is fate! Heaven has given me a goal! To kill you!”
It was just like when Veronica was obsessed with murder. The moment Damien saw it, he knew.
The target of her obsession had changed from murder to Damien.
“Is that why you gave me advice? To make me stronger so I could kill you! Right?”
“What nonsense…”
“Alright! I’ll try to learn other things too! I’ll become stronger than I am now and challenge you again!”
Veronica clenched her fist and said.
“I will definitely kill you, so watch out!”
***
After the brief altercation with Veronica, Damien began to descend the mountain range.
“You can go now.”
On the way down, Damien decided to let her go.
Since the target of her obsession had changed from murder to killing him, he judged it would be fine.
“Just in case, I’ll tell you this for fun. Don’t kill people for fun. Only kill those who attack you.”
“Ahaha! You’re worried I’ll kill someone other than you. Is that it?”
Fatigue washed over him. Veronica chuckled and waved her hands.
“Don’t worry! There’s no one else for me but you! I’ll definitely come back to kill you!”
Leaving those words behind, she ran across the mountain range.
“Uh… congratulations?”
Juan, who was nearby, said to Damien. Damien glared at Juan.
“Stop the nonsense and let’s go down.”
“Ah, okay.”
It was faster to go down than to go up.
Thanks to the rush, the group arrived at the Olden Village around sunset.
“This is the promised money.”
As promised, Damien paid Juan and the mercenaries an additional amount of gold coins.
Originally, he wanted to give them one more, but he gave them two.
“This is… too much. Three gold coins per person.”
Damien just laughed at Juan’s words.
During the exploration of the mountain range, Damien was happy to be with the mercenaries.
Juan and the mercenaries were just as Damien remembered. Diligent, loyal, and honest.
“Don’t think too much about it. This was really important to me.”
“We didn’t do anything special…”
“Why didn’t you? Thanks to your excellent guidance, the time spent in the mountains was shortened.”
As Damien continued to persuade him, Juan reluctantly accepted the gold coins. A broad smile spread across the faces of the entire mercenary group.
“And this is an additional reward.”
Damien handed Juan a thick piece of paper. It was something he had written secretly while climbing the mountain range.
“What’s this?”
“Mana cultivation techniques and swordsmanship.”
Confusion appeared on Juan’s face.
“Why on earth…”
“I noticed that everyone is learning mana cultivation techniques.”
The confusion on Juan’s face grew.
“H-How did you…”
“They’re all using mana. But it’s too weak. They were probably learning an incomplete mana cultivation technique.”
In his previous life, Juan taught his colleagues the mana cultivation technique he knew.
The problem was that the mana cultivation technique was the most basic of the basics that Juan learned during his knight trainee days.
No matter how much they learned, such a low-level mana cultivation technique had its limits.
In his past life, Damien was so talented that he could defeat a knight with the mana cultivation technique Juan taught him.
“What you’re learning now is rubbish. It’s better to learn that.”
In fact, the mana cultivation technique Damien gave Juan was based on what he learned from Juan. So, it was no problem to learn it differently.
“…I can’t accept this.”
Juan held out the paper again. He was cautious.
It was a wise attitude. The mana cultivation technique was something that couldn’t be bought even with dozens of gold coins.
It was abnormal for someone to offer it like this. There must be some ulterior motive. It was right to be suspicious.
“I’m just showing my gratitude.”
Damien smiled bitterly. Juan’s wisdom could eventually turn into poison, but Damien liked them for staying the same and being honest.
“It’s not free. I have one request for you.”
“A request?”
“First, keep my identity a secret. Second, if you find a request to investigate the missing persons case at Lake Devon, come to my workshop and let me know.”
“Identity?”
“I’m not Victor, I’m Damien Haksen.”
Juan’s body stiffened at that. He pointed at Damien with an unbelieving expression.
“Not Victor… Damien Haksen? Is that really you?”
“That’s right, Damien Haksen.”
“Unbelievable… so that means… your skills, the Holy Sword… you really were a great genius.”
Juan slapped his cheeks with both hands.
“So, what’s the second request?”
“Do you know Lake Devon?”
“The one in the southern part of the Apple Kingdom. It’s huge and wide.”
“If you find a request to investigate the missing persons’ case there, come to my estate and let me know immediately.”
In his past life, Damien went to investigate the missing persons case with the mercenaries and met Dorugo.
But Damien didn’t investigate Lake Devon because it wasn’t the right time yet.
Dorugo didn’t stay in one place and kept wandering. Going there now would be pointless.
“Is that all for solving such a request…?”
“It’s not just that. It’s the most important request for me.”
Damien said in a serious tone.
Damien couldn’t make such a request to the Mercenary Office because he wasn’t a mercenary.
But he couldn’t ask another mercenary either. They would surely take the money and forget about it.
But he could trust Juan. He would do whatever it takes to complete the task he was given.
“I don’t know what the reason is… but if that’s the reason, I’ll accept it.”
Juan said as he took the paper. Damien smiled with relief.
“Practice hard. It’s much better than most things.”
He had made it in a hurry over two days, but he was confident in its completeness.
He made it as simple as possible so that they could learn it without a teacher.
At the same time, he made sure it was as powerful as any weapon technique.
“If you get stuck while learning, come to my estate. I’ll help you.”
After leaving those words behind, Damien parted ways with Juan’s mercenaries.
It was time to go home now.
***
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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