Jonathan looked at everyone, his tone becoming somber: "The surrounding countries have already begun to stir, and even those Dark Lords are starting to become restless."
"Given enough time, we Heroes will certainly become the new rulers of this world. Do you think the native inhabitants will just let us do as we please?"
"War is inevitable, and the daily military expenditures will reach astronomical figures... This Mana Crystal Vein is our biggest reliance."
"Therefore, the Mana Crystal Vein must not be lost!"
Jonathan's words silenced the crowd of Heroes.
Ethan nodded in agreement, saying: "There's no time to lose. First, let's dismiss everyone in the underground city. This time, we must uncover all the hidden dangers. I want to see what exactly is causing mischief beneath the ground."
A group of Heroes, fully armed and ready, once again headed to the underground city.
...
Before the mine, a great number of corpses lay strewn, totaling over a hundred, each person's death particularly gruesome, as if they had seen some great horror before dying.
After having the corpses on the surface dealt with, Ethan led a group of Heroes back into the mine.
With days of excavation, the underground veins had been dug even deeper.
Wisps of fog wafted through the mine tunnels, identical to what they had seen upon entering the mine last time.
"Could it be that we've unearthed another corpse?" Henry wondered.
Jonathan shook his head, saying, "The corpses and this fog are not the key. When we came to investigate last time, although these things looked strange, they didn't cause any casualties..."
"What we need to find is the real culprit behind the deaths of so many Heroes."
Carrying torches, the group continued on, tracing the source of the fog.
They soon reached the end of the mist, a dark and gloomy mine tunnel.
Several pickaxes and pitch-black corpses were scattered nearby.
They searched the mine entrance thoroughly but found nothing out of the ordinary.
A few Mana Crystals were discovered, but not the type containing the bizarre remains.
"There's no fog coming out of this mine, and we haven't found anything suspicious along the way. Where in the world could these strange things be coming from?" Henry asked, his face full of bewilderment.
The group of Heroes searched the mine thoroughly once again, but aside from the unexpectedly deceased bodies, they found nothing.
"What exactly are these ghostly shadows? Why haven't we seen anything like what they described, even after entering the mine twice?"
"Could it be an illusion?"
"That's unlikely... If it were an illusion, like the black mist we encountered last time, the phantom creatures within it shouldn't be able to harm us."
"Damn it, if we could catch one of these ghostly shadows and study it, wouldn't all our questions be answered?"
The Heroes began to discuss among themselves.
Ethan closed his eyes, using his formidable mental strength to explore the entire mine, scrutinizing every nook and cranny once more.
Even with his extraordinary mental attributes, he found no clues.
The white shadow described by the escaping Heroes seemed to be as elusive as ghosts, leaving no trace to follow.
"Damn it, are there really ghosts in this world?"
"Just think, before we came to this world, ghosts were only urban legends. But here, supernatural abilities exist. If there really are ghosts, they'd be far more terrifying than the ones in our world," one Hero couldn't help but say.
His words sent a chill down everyone's spines.
One Hero kicked him in the rear and cursed, "Shut your damn mouth!"
After several fruitless searches, the group returned to the surface.
In the following days, Ethan personally led the group, standing guard in the mine for several days, but still, they found nothing.
The Heroes returned to the surface, their minds and bodies extremely fatigued after several days of relentless efforts.
"Damn these ghostly shadows! We've been on guard for days and haven't seen so much as a hair of these things. Do they really exist, or were those guys just scared out of their minds and hallucinating?"
"Are you stupid? They saw the ghostly shadows first, then got scared and ran away. They didn't hallucinate because they were frightened. Get the cause-and-effect relationship straight, will you?"
"It's like these ghostly shadows are deliberately avoiding us or something..."
The group of Heroes gathered and grumbled, but Ethan suddenly stiffened when he heard a particular phrase, and asked, "What did you just say?"
"Those guys were scared out of their wits..."
"Not that part."
"The mining Heroes acting foolish?"
"Next one!"
"These ghostly shadows seem to be deliberately avoiding us?"
"Yes..." Ethan's eyes began to light up as he processed this.
Two consecutive deaths had occurred in the mine, both involving ghostly shadows. Yet, their two thorough investigations had turned up nothing. They had even staked out the place for several days.
If the ghostly shadows were a natural phenomenon, they wouldn't have come up empty-handed. This meant that the so-called ghostly shadows were controllable.
If they were controllable, it implied someone was manipulating everything from behind the scenes.
Ethan carefully scrutinized every Hero present. Now that the elite Heroes were all concentrated in Blackstone City, if someone were undermining them, it could only be from among their ranks.
But as Ethan's gaze swept over them one by one, he found no suspicious individuals. With his current Rank S strength, anyone capable of deceiving him could have used a thousand ways to create even greater destruction without hiding themselves so craftily.
"If it's not a person..." Ethan suddenly looked up, a flash of determination in his eyes, and clutching his Dragon Slayer Spear, he strode towards the warehouse near the mine.
The group of Heroes, though puzzled, had no choice but to follow.
Ethan kicked open the warehouse door, revealing large quantities of Mana Crystals. The terrifying mana fluctuations filled the air like tides, making it difficult even to breathe.
At the far end of the warehouse, a space had been cleared to house a special set of Mana Crystals.
These were the Mana Crystal fragments containing the preserved remains of unknown creatures.
Ethan walked up to the pile of Mana Crystal fragments, his Dragon Slayer Spear pointing at the preserved head within one of the crystals.
"In this underground city, no living thing can escape my sight. Committing these acts..."
"So, I've been puzzled all along, even starting to think if there really was something about elusive ghostly beings," Ethan mused.
"It seems now, there indeed is something foul afoot."
"I've been searching for living beings, overlooking you, a dead one."
"If you don't reveal yourself now, then I must rather kill mistakenly than let go, and I will send you to meet your maker."
The Dragon Slayer Spear in Ethan's hand erupted with red glows, twirling around its tip, as he violently thrust it toward the Mana Crystal containing the head.
A terrifying burst of energy shattered the outer layer of the Mana Crystal instantly.
Just before the spear could touch the skull, the eyes snapped open, radiating a horrifying, brutal crimson light.
"You insignificant worm, daring to offend the great Alback the Devil..." came a strange, cryptic utterance from the skull, yet Ethan somehow understood the meaning.
Was it due to his Heritage Memories?
Ethan quickly understood why. Within those memories, aside from knowledge and Dragontongue, he had inherited a language used by ancient high-level intelligent beings for communication called the "Divine Tongue."
This was a language used only among the powerful creatures that lived during ancient times.
This meant that this ancient devil Alback was of significant importance.
Ethan wielded his Dragon Slayer Spear, thrusting it at the ancient devil suspended in mid-air.
Surrounding him, golden elemental light points appeared, twinkling like stars.
The spear emitted an intense golden light, as if it were a peerless weapon forged from pure gold.
Holy Light and demons were natural enemies.
Even though Ethan was now a Dark Lord, his Bloodline's inherent disgust for demons, and the bloody records within his memories of these creatures, led him to attack without hesitation.
Should this ancient devil fully revive, the entire Blackstone Hero Kingdom would be transformed into a realm of death.
"How dare you!" Alback roared in anger.
Black mist suddenly surged beside his skull, forming a huge skeletal head that opened its mouth, bearing two sharp, long fangs, and snapped at Ethan. The sight was utterly terrifying.
The ancient devil's eyes glowed blood-red, and his face was filled with a violent, bloodthirsty aura: "My body requires more life essence. Your life energy is so vigorous; I had originally planned to save you for the last feast... but now you seek death, so I must indulge in this delicious sacrifice ahead of schedule!"
His eyes emitted a ghastly green flame, and strands of black mist floated from behind him, coalescing into countless screaming, crying, struggling ghosts...
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