'Huh,' Alex thought, seeing the unlocked skill name, and quickly opened the Red gem stat window to check its details.
??????????????
Name: Ancient RED GEM(1/2)
Equipment Type: Accessory
Quality: Common [Mythical+] (0/100)
Bound: Hidden One
Stored Energy: [0/10000]
?Skill?-: [Appraisal] A skill that could help the Player appraise things and understand their real value.
?Skill?-: [Devour] Consume materials [Living and Nonliving] of the same quality as the artifact, which will then be converted into energy points.
?Skill?-: SEALED(0/10000) To Unseal the Third Skill, ten thousand energy points are required.
??????????????
'These are some interesting changes.' Alex thought as he started checking the system description of every new change.
The Devour skill allows the red gem to consume any material living or non-living, and convert them into pure energy points, which will be stored inside the gem and could be used to unlock the new skill or upgrade it to higher quality.
The limitation was that it could only Consume material of common quality which Alex thought wasn't a big deal as it could be solved easily by upgrading the Red gem quality.
'The gem devoured four hundred and seventy-two forging metal, and it only gained 4.8 points of energy, which means I will need twenty times this amount to get the 100 points required for the quality upgrade.'
'I need to do some testing on the corpses of Mortal rank beasts to see the energy conversion rate with them, and then I can go with the fastest route to upgrade the gem quality.' Alex thought as he placed the gem back into his inventory.
'I need to go to the meeting location in ten minutes, but before that, Let's feed my little companion, as he should be starving.' Alex thought as he used the system to summon his vulture.
"SHHRRIIEEKKKKK"
"I need to think of a name for you, my little friend, as you grow bigger every day, and staying without a name is not good," Alex said as he placed a giant chunk of chimera meat on the floor.
The little Vulture height was grown by almost twenty inches, doubling his size in the last week, as the only thing he did was eat like a glutton and sleep in the system companion space.
"Why don't I call you Glutton," Alex said, seeing his little companion looking a bit fat.
"SHHRRRIIEEEKKKKK"
"What about Ricin?" Alex said, seeing his vulture not happy about being called a Glutton.
"SHRRIIEEKKK"
"Your name from this moment will be Ricin," Alex said, seeing his vulture reacting positively to the name.
After five minutes, Alex left the hotel room toward another hotel in the inner circle of the capital city, not even a bit worried about the people from the Empire.
--------------------
After ten minutes, Alex was sitting in the hotel room in front of Badger, who looked nervous and relieved, and Alex was also shocked after learning about the people hiding in the shadows.
'Domain Ruler, You don't need to worry about your safety.' Lady Margaret said telepathically.
'I am not worried about my safety, but I am losing my mind knowing there are Beastmen among the people hiding the shadows.' Alex thought as he remembered his first conversation with Zero.
'Zero said that I was able to reach the Darkness legacy throne because of my Beastmen friends, and at the time, I didn't think much of it, but now if my theory is correct, then everything makes sense.'
'If a Group of strong Beastmen was following me when I had the last meeting, then it makes sense how Vlad, Badger, and Hecate were forced into a contract, and as only Badger knew my game identity, he got forced to arrange this meeting.'
After Alex connected the dots, the big picture became clear to him, and even though he had a few unanswered questions, what he understood was enough to send chills down his spine.
"Sir Hidden One, I am Sorry," Badger said with his head down, not looking Alex in the eyes.
"Mr. Badger, You did a great job, and as promised, neither you nor your friends will be harmed but will get immensely rewarded for your corporation." A person appeared beside Bader and said while giving Alex a friendly smile.
"Mr.Hidden One, My name is Tirone Andreini, and I am the First Division Caption of the White Flame Empire Royal Guards," Tirone said with a prideful tone, but he got a little surprised seeing Alex giving him no reaction.
'He must be too shocked by his current situation to react to my great name.' Tirone thought, seeing Alex silently staring toward him.
"Mr. Badger, Now you can leave as I will discuss a few private matters with your friend." The person said, and Badger nodded his head like a chicken.
Badger stood up and quickly left the room with his head down, and Alex didn't say anything, even though he was itching to have a friendly conversation with the Beastmen leader.
"CLAP"--"CLAP"
"Mr. Hidden, Congratulation on acquiring the legacy from the Darkness Throne." Tirone clapped twice and said with a friendly smile.
"I don't know what you want, but before you tell me about it, I want to know How did you find me? And I will appreciate it if you tell me the truth." Alex said to understand how the Human Empire was involved with him if the Beastmen were the ones who followed him.
Tirone raised an eyebrow in surprise, seeing Alex's calmness, but as he had already prepared for such a situation, he calmly answered.
"Mr. Hidden One, I think you don't know, but your presence in the death Miasma field created quite a big disturbance in the forbidden land and which attracted the attention of everyone, including the Sanguine Doom Guards."
"The Sanguine Doom Guards went to the death Miasma field to find the reason for the disturbance, and they found the reason, which was the darkness legacy throne, and guess who was seated on the throne."
"After the phenomena created by the throne ended, you got teleported to some place while the legacy throne crumbled to dust," Tirone said and stopped giving Alex the time to digest the new information.
'If something like this happened, it should be known to the players.' Alex thought, surprised by the new information.
Alex quickly opened the game forums and searched for posts about the forbidden land of darkness, and he found hundreds of posts, with the most trending post being about the shrinking of the death miasma field.
After seeing Alex regain his focus, Tirone started explaining things in a way to lead the conversation how he planned.
"As you know, the forbidden land of darkness is located on all seven continents, and each forbidden land has a darkness legacy throne, and when the throne that teleported you crumbled, the same thing happened to every other legacy throne."
'Domain Ruler, everything he said to this point is true.' Lady Margaret said telepathically.
'The situation is much more complicated.' Alex thought after getting the confirmation from Lady Margaret.
'The crumbling of the legacy throne would have created quite a big ruckus on each continent as it is related to the mysterious forbidden land of darkness, which would mean every ruling power will be looking for the reason behind the unique phenomenon.' Alex thought.
"You should understand that every big and small power should be looking for you, and this was why we used your friend to contact you, and as to how do we locate them, it was quite easy."
"After some searching, we found your connection with the [Shadow World] organization, and with the help from our connections in your organization, we discovered your Immortal adventurer friends and arranged this meeting as secretly as possible."
'Domain Ruler, Now he is lying.' Lady Margaret said.
'I know he is lying, but the question is, how much do they know about the darkness legacy throne? and what do they want from me?' Alex thought.
"The information that you are responsible for the forbidden land phenomena is only known to the trusted people of the Empire, and we promise not to reveal it to the world, and in return, we just want one small favor from you."
"Mr. Hidden One, I am here on the order of the Emperor, and The great Emperor has invited you to the palace to have a friendly talk with you, and this is the only demand the empire has to keep your secret," Tirone said with a friendly smile.
'I am trying my best to stay low-key amount the players, but now I am probably the most wanted player among the NPCs.' Alex thought, understanding he couldn't do anything about his situation.
'They can't do anything to me, but they can definitely mess with Hecate and Vlad Guilds.'
'This whole situation is a mess.' Alex thought after thinking about the consequences of every action he could take.
'Domain Ruler, You should meet with the Human Emperor, and then we will ask him nicely to stop messing with your friends.' Lady Margaret said, like knowing what Alex was thinking.
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