Chapter 546 Meeting again (part 2)
Before Calvin and Michael started telling Daimon what they have been through, one of the countless shadow hands that previously came from his shadow returned from the depths of the castle with a black mineral box, which then handed to Daimon.
"Here, change yourselves, I'll wait here", he said as he handed the contents of the box to those four, naturally what the box contained where their storage rings.
Strangely enough, inside this black mineral castle, spatial treasures did work, the reason as to why, their rings hadn't been stolen but were just confiscated is that they were linked to their owners, since they were given by the academy to the members of the elite class.
Those women from the Black Night clan, were at most peak stage Lord ranks, at least in this settlement, so they couldn't do a thing to the storage rings created by Liz, they could have tried to destroy them though, but ultimately chose the safest method to obtain whatever treasures they may contain, which was to wait for their owners to die.
Calvin and the others looked through their rings and after making sure all their possessions were intact, they separately walked into some of the rooms used by the members of the Black Night race to observe the fights, to change their clothes.
It's not like they were wearing the same clothes since more than a month ago, but they were using what their captors gave them, and nothing was better than changing into their own clothes.
"Ahh, even I who lived on the wild and ended up covered in dirt, can't stand the clothes those bitches made me wear", said Calvin as he accommodated the custom-made armor he hid in his ring when they were surrounded and captured.
In fact, all of them hid their magic treasures in their rings and practically fought bare handed, the boat in which Razer's clansmen were transporting them, allowed them to use spatial treasures similar to this castle.
In other words, they weren't lying when they said that they purposedly left themselves be captured, the question was why, but that was about to be answered by them.
Calvin and the others sat down and then Michael took the initiative to start explaining.
"After that woman from the Calamity Church was sent next to us, we found ourselves trapped in some kind of spherical barrier as we were dragged into a dimensional tunnel which weirdly enough had water in it, instead of just a void like usual".
"The spheric barrier originated on a badge similar to the one that was given to the captains of the four elite classes, but apparently it was originally meant to only cover a single person, so that woman called Layla had to inject mana into it, to keep it stable through the dimensional travel".
"At some point, the barrier crumbled apart and we were separated, I managed to drag Haylee with me and Calvin got paired with Loren, as for that woman, we don't know what happened to her, but considering the overall level of this place rounds the Lord ranks, she should be alive", Michael stopped talking and then Calvin took over.
"Loren and me ended up stranded on an island where we stayed for around ten days, until we saw a ship with humans, after judging them to be not dangerous, we asked them for a ride and they took us to a tribe of guys like him", said Calvin as he pointed at Razer.
"They called themselves the Sea clan, and the strongest was an early-stage Lord rank, they asked us our ages and realms, and after more or less telling them about ourselves, they showed us a worn-out book with pictures and listen this, they were all badges like the ones given to the captains, or the one that woman from the Calamity Church had".
"Luckily when we explained to them what kind of badge our captain had, they became friendlier to us and offered to take us to a stronger tribe where we would be safer and receive a better treatment".
"We accepted since that black mist thing was being a pain in the ass, preventing us from meditating, unless Loren used her light mana to create a temporary safe zone for us, and supposedly at the place where they were taking us, they had buildings that could keep that disgusting mist out".
"Their tribe chief even called someone to escort us safely, and imagine our surprise when that large ship arrived and that bastard Alexander was on board, not only him, there were guys from the Blue-Sky galaxy and there were also the direct students of the Magus Kings from the Earth Palace and the Furious Whirlwind academies".
Calvin then snorted before continuing.
"The first days of travel were quite normal, besides Alexander being a pain in the ass, demanding to know where that little tiger girl was, nothing really happened, until one night when the ship was attacked by those women, they were averagely stronger though, I think the weakest was an eighth star rank".
"We actually were fending them off, since the guy sent from the Sea clan was a middle stage Lord rank and had the upper hand on the ocean, but Alexander and the other idiots made a deal with those women, and lowered the defensive barrier of the ship, we still managed to kill a few but were outnumbered".
"We could have used the things you gave us, but all the time they avoided to even heavily wound us, as if they were afraid of accidentally harming us too much, so we collectively took the decision of surrendering".
"Naturally that idiot of Alexander wanted to call the shots, but since he didn't have a captain badge, he and the other guys who made a deal with those women were simply taken away to a much stronger settlement of this race, and we were kept prisoners since the ones we managed to kill all belonged to this settlement", said Calvin before adding.
"The rest of the story is easy to guess, they made us fight each other for the past month and half, and we stayed because unlike outside, here we could meditate and advance".
The second later, Calvin, Michael, Loren and Haylee all revealed their current realm, Calvin and Michael were both recently ascended sixth star mages now while Loren and Haylee were peak fourth star mages.
Those women from the Black Night race noticed them advancing but didn't care, because the Emotional Colosseum was their sacred treasure handed by their creator, so it was supposedly "indestructible", and it prevented us from escaping the cells where we were kept with the exception of when we had to fight to entertain them".
"At the same time, they couldn't do anything to us though, so after realizing that the mana in this place was insanely pure when it wasn't mixed with that black mist thing, we just focused on advancing, if you didn't appear we were going to escape once Loren and Haylee reached the fifth star rank, but it seems our class rep is as reliable as always".
Daimon nodded, the nether inside this castle didn't enter into conflict with other types of mana, which is why storage treasures could be used unlike the outside, and at the same time, the mana here which seemed to come from that sea of mana which separated Neptune from this place, was quite abundant and pure.
It was to the point that it didn't lose when compared the mana back at the main residence of the Flying Citadel, which was refined thanks to the Elemental Conversion array, so it was no surprise that Calvin and the others advanced quite a bit, as they have spent more time in this kind of atmosphere.
As for why they didn't go past that, despite all the mana they had absorbed, that is because they hit a bottleneck, it was a point where they needed more than only mana to advance, they needed training and real battling experience, it's normal and happens to all.
In fact, that's why Tessa and Femi were also stuck at the sixth star realm, and that is also why they were surprised that Aisha bypassed that and jumped to the seventh star realm, of course that is because they have no way to know, Aisha has the experience of a peak Archmage.
And while she will have to face a bottleneck before that, as her current path is way different than before, there won't be one at the star ranks at least, the fun will start at the Lord rank when she obtains her new Manifestation Phenomenon, or if she manages to lit her life spark, which would make her at least a magic knight, since even Evangeline isn't sure how is Daimon able to use the two whole paths separately and then combining them to multiply their strength, instead of just mixing parts of the two to sum their individual strengths and diminish their weaknesses a bit.
"Mm, so they were specifically looking for those that have an emblem", mumbled Daimon as he gazed at Razer, since the Sea clan was friendly with Calvin and the others after they described his black Sea Emblem, then they were the obvious option to team with.
"Speaking of which, how did you end up here and who is that girl Dai…", midway Calvin realized he screwed up, since Daimon was wearing a disguise, which earned him an exasperated sigh from Michael.
"I swear, someday that mouth of yours is going to be your death", Loren and Hayle softly laughed, while Daimon chuckled.
"No problem, she knows the truth and we are all friends here, so feel free to speak", said Daimon, Rita had created a barrier around them, so Razer couldn't hear the conversation, the primitive merman was sensible and after seeing Daimon casually dictating the fate of a whole settlement not much weaker than his tribe, he didn't pry into their secrets and simply watched how the members of the Black Night race were killing each other at this point.
"Oh, I see, then what happened to the others, did you find them?", asked Calvin, Loren and Haylee had slightly worried expressions as they waited for Daimon's answer, they missed Aisha and the Risha sisters and hoped they didn't find any troubles after all.
Daimon shook his head before saying.
"They are fine, the moment we were separated they went with me and we ended up in a place called Neptune…".
Daimon proceeded to tell Calvin and the others about Neptune, the four seas that conformed it, the races, enemies and allies that they made and the overall situation in which they were, including the fact that the fate of the whole planet depended on the result of the global raid.
Imagine their surprise when Daimon mentioned what came after the Arch rank here, and the fact that Maximum Stellar ranks existed, they were naturally amazed and also excited, since that knowledge will bring a new age to the four galaxies, but above all, Calvin was… jealous.
"Of course, I meet a new culture and they put me in jail, but Daimon meets a new culture and their princesses end up getting close enough for him to be leading them into a dangerous place, damn unfair world!", he exclaimed.
"Well, that is because unlike you, Daimon doesn't have a hidden agenda when meeting said princesses", said Michael, which made both Haylee and Loren nod in agreement.
Calvin saw Loren's piercing gaze and he returned to his gallant self.
"Ahem, what hidden agenda, this young master is always knightly and righteous, to the point that if needed to, I could enter the women's dressing room and calmly keep my eyes closed all the time", he said, while inwardly adding.
'My mana sense though…'.
Ignoring Calvin's obvious thoughts, Daimon felt Daphne's curious gaze and him and he bitterly smiled.
"They are a bit strange, but you can trust them as much as you trust me", he said.
"Mm~", Daphne nodded, at this point Calvin and the others realized that the Valas princess couldn't talk, but of course they didn't pay much attention to it, also Calvin fool's act was as always, a good way to create a relaxed atmosphere.
"I take it that you haven't seen Scarlett and the other girls nor Hector during your time here?", asked Daimon to which Calvin shook his head.
"No, sorry, but the leader of this settlement has more information since she received information regularly, if my memory doesn't fail me, she and the other few middle stage Lord ranks, left a couple of times over the past month or so, I think they were hunting in group like when they ambushed us, so it is possible that others are kept on their other settlements".
Daimon nodded, at least he was sure that Scarlett and the others were alive, they are contracted to him, so he would know if they died, also those girls were survivors that had gone through a lot despite their young ages, so if someone in the group knew how to avoid dangers and keep themselves alive, it was them.
As for Hector, he hadn't heard about him since they entered the magic ruin, but the same could be said of Alexander and he ended up showing here, so the other guys from the other teams should be either here or at the other side of the first layer of Neptune, where Gina, Aleah and Lana as well as Stella should be right now.
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask as something popped in his mind, he stole a gaze at Razer but put the matter on hold, before anything, it was time to obtain some information directly from the source.
In this case, the strongest members of the Black Night clan in this settlement, which were the only ones still standing on the platform, there was one exception though, the leader was still keeping herself from killing her daughter.
At least until she felt Daimon's cold gaze falling upon her, which made her back break in cold sweat, a new experience for her.
'Why do I feel so afraid, even if we die, we would return to the embrace of the creator, so then…', the woman was returned to the real world when she heard Daimon's cold words.
"You have thirty seconds left".
The woman's eyes got bloodshot as she saw all the corpses lying down on the ground, and she gritted her teeth, before she turned to see her daughter.
"You caused this, how am I supposed to face the Lord now that a strain has been put in his plans because of your carelessness!", she shouted.
"Ahhh!", the leader of the Black Night clan extended her hand and a claw made out of the nether that covered her body, pierced the chest of her daughter killing her on the spot.
Since the drama was over, Daimon clapped a couple of times and then snapped his fingers, making the shadow hands of earlier grab the winners and drag them towards him.
"Okay, now that the trash is out of the way, tell me what are you?", asked Daimon to the survivors, which included around five women from the Black Night race on the middle stage Lord rank, the leader at the peak Lord rank and a sole guy from the Flesh race.
"Screw you, our Lord will find what you did and…", one of the members of the Black Night race raised her voice but she couldn't finish her sentence before the shadow hand that was restraining her, tightened its grip turning her into meat paste which then sank into the shadow.
'Daimon, the members of this race seem to have an affinity somewhat related to shadow, will it be okay of I take their corpses?', asked Rita, to which Daimon inwardly shrugged.
'Sure', he didn't really care what happened to his enemies, he still had Adam's corpse in the inventory for investigation purposes after all.
The other captives saw the destiny of that member of the Black Night clan, and their faces paled, the only one who clearly didn't seem afraid of death was the leader of this settlement.
But Daimon wasn't worried about that, the other women didn't hesitate to kill their own kin earlier, even the leader didn't show anger nor sadness about killing her daughter, what angered her was that this screwed over whatever instructions she was given by her so-called Lord, in other words, they had no empathy towards their own kin.
In Daimon's experience, those are characteristics akin to artificial incomplete lifeforms, which was an interesting discovery, the races of this place were supposedly also created by the Nethereal lords.
So then, why they were not only weaker but less refined than the lower ranked Nethereals that he met back at Neptune, even the artificial Nethereals like the guys from Black Wave that turned themselves into bizarre creatures, didn't lost their empathy.
'Now that I think about it, if we combine those guys from the Bone race and the ones from the Flesh race, they kind of remind me of Skelefiends…', he Daimon.
Daimon already knew that Nethereals had made several experiments over the years, among them there was allying themselves with at least two system users, the guy who tricked the White Walker race by supplanting an envoy from the deity that they revered, and then there was Ereth too, not to mention Jasmine, Reyne and Sarah's strange birth circumstances.
He wouldn't be surprised if those races were the prototypes of the Skelefiends, hence why they are way weaker, despite the atmosphere rich in mana in which they have been living for who knows how many years.
And that would apply to the Sea clan as well, they are probably related to the natives of the Mermen Sea some way or another, the only ones that didn't match in the theory Daimon had, were these women from the Black Night race, on the other hand their nether felt strangely familiar, as it reminded him of the one that he could feel coming from the curses that were supposed to kill Sarah and Bell, but it was far weaker and wasn't killing them, unlike those two.
Daimon saw that the leader of the settlement was glaring at the remaining four survivors of her race, which made them tighten their lips, and he smirked.
"Oh, are you afraid of her, that won't do, you should be afraid of me", he said, what followed was a miserable scream coming from the mouth of the leader of the settlement.
"Aghhhh!", her legs were crushed by the shadow hand, which finally pushed one of the middle stage Lord ranks over the edge.
"I'll talk, if you spare my life!", at the same time the sweet sound of a notification rang in Daimon's ears.
[Ding]
[Lesser ranked Agrat "Ashelia" has offered her loyalty, do you wish to accept it Y/N]
Daimon clicked "yes" and unknown to others a black metal collar appeared on the neck of that woman, but on the surface, he just nodded and then said.
"Very well, you'll confirm if what the others say is true, if they are lying, well a punishment will be administrated by me".
Needless to say, but the other three members of the Black Night race weren't happy that one of them had surrendered to their enemy, let alone the leader whose eyes were practically spewing fire at this point.
Daimon then turned to see one of the three remaining survivors and then said.
"What are the instructions passed to your race?".
"…", the woman hesitated but ultimately upon the deathly glare of the leader, she didn't say anything, which made Daimon shake his head, the next second she was consumed by the shadows.
This time it worked though; he didn't need to repeat the question before the next member of the Black Night race spilled the beans.
"O-Only the leader knows the direct message from our Lord, however we who have reached the middle stage Lord rank are told that our task is to make those who share any kind of relationship to be in conflict since that is up to the liking of our creator, the worse the conflict gets the more we will be rewarded!".
Feeling Daimon's gaze on her, the other remaining survivor from the Black Night race, added what she knew.
"S-She is telling the truth, those rewards include being helped to advance to the peak of the Lord rank, only those that have contributed are given the chance and there is a need for an even bigger contribution to be allowed to reach the Arch rank".
Needless to say, but Calvin and the others were angered after listening to that, they were made to fight each other for the amusement of some kind of cult leader bastard, Daimon on the other hand found the newly acquired information… interesting, if it was true then that explained a few doubts that he still had in mind, but that's beside the point.
And now only the leader of the settlement and that guy from the Flesh were left, the guy from the Flesh race has been trembling since earlier, out of the four races they apparently where the most unstable, so it wasn't hard to make them talk from Daimon's point of view, however unlike that girl from the Black Night race, there was no notification, so chances are they couldn't be contracted, but the result was the same since they were bound to talk.
Daimon snapped his fingers and the body of the leader burst in white flames, which of course made her scream, her silence didn't last a couple of seconds before she confessed.
Turns out, the history of the Black Night race was similar to the one of the Sea clan, with the difference that they were told to capture all the ones that weren't natives of this place, as for the ones closely related to an emblem bearer, or emblem bearers themselves, they had to hand them over to the high ranked members of their race.
The others were distributed among all the weaker settlements, to act as their entertainment and source of those nether crystals, a portion of them was given to the members of that settlement and a "tribute" had to be handed over to the higher ranked settlements, which somehow delivered it to their creator.
Amusingly enough, Alexander and the other idiots claimed to have information regarding someone who owned an emblem, some referring to Daimon and some referring to Adam probably.
Which is why they were taken by the members of the settlements that have Arch ranks guarding their fort, as to why Calvin and the others were ignored and left here, that is because Alexander thought that if he mentioned they were Daimon's teammates, they'll get a better treatment than him, so he didn't say a thing thinking he'll never had to see them again.
Unfortunately for him, that ended up playing on their favor, since Calvin and the others could escape from a prison custodied by Lord ranks without too much trouble, and instead used it as a temporary refuge to train.
"Anything else?", casually asked Daimon.
"Only the Arch ranks know more, as they have gotten the chance to meet our creator, when they were given his blessing to advance, kill me if you dare, as a candidate to become an Arch rank my master won't stand still, he'll come for you".
"That's fine by me, he is also in my list", said Daimon as he used Demon Light to burn the leader, who actually smiled before saying.
"Fool, even if I die, I'll just return to his side, you… wait what is this fire, no, stop, please!!!", the bravado of the woman stopped when she felt something was going wrong, which made Daimon coldly snort.
"Did you think I didn't notice that little trick, all the ones that you all killed didn't "return" with your creator, they are as dead as they can be, why do you think I put that white flame dome", he mockingly said.
Maybe others would be tricked, but his infinity eyes could see that when those women died, there was an invisible "cluster" of nether that left their bodies, it was bigger depending on the realm of the one who died, the Nethereal who created this race probably used them to compile information which returned to it after their death.
It sounds like an advanced technique, but each and every cheap necromancer back at the four galaxies knows how to do this, and the Revy clan who has had to deal with them teaches their young generation to properly destroy undead, Daimon has it even easier since he can see those things with his infinity eyes.
The woman who was slowly burning put on a hatred filled expression as she shouted.
"I curse you; our master will find you and kill you and…" Daimon simply snapped her fingers and the woman died on the spot.
'You didn't let me finish, you will reunite with him anyway, since I'll be sending him with you later', coldly thought Daimon as he destroyed the cluster of nether that tried to leave that woman's body.
[Ding]
[Lesser ranked Agrat "Elith" has offered her loyalty, do you wish to accept it Y/N]
[Lesser ranked Agrat "Isselia" has offered her loyalty, do you wish to accept it Y/N]
There was an unexpected gain, in the form of the two remaining members of the Black Night clan, becoming contractable after seeing their leader who wasn't afraid of death, ending up begging for her life, Daimon naturally had no reason to not accept them, so a second and two black metal collars later, he had two new slaves who couldn't disobey.
Calvin who was drinking a mana potion suddenly heard his stomach rumbling and he shouted.
"Class rep, you don't happen to have something nice to eat in your ring, I'm freaking hungry".
Daimon chuckled, he had some prepared meals in his inventory, which were prepared by Elaine, but he wasn't going to share that, so he just threw some generic food that could be bought at the restaurant of the academy at Calvin who ungraciously devoured them on the spot.
"Did they try to starve you to death or something?", asked Daimon only to see Michael sighing.
"Nah, it's just that Calvin is a glutton bastard", he said, making the others softly laugh.
"You need to eat more, or you won't grow tall and strong like me, shrimp Michael", naturally Calvin didn't forget to get back at Michael, which triggered the latter.
Despite their constant arguing, Daimon was sure they were happy that the other was fine and all.
'Sorry about that Rita, I ended up snatching the materials you needed', said Daimon, which made the undead head maid shake her head.
'No problem, it doesn't matter whether they are alive or not', she said before a large black mansion made out of darkness materialized in front of Daimon.
'Cursed Doll House', that was the spell which Rita used to once trap Horals and also Shirel.
'Please leave them to me, I'll make sure to properly "train" them~', she happily said, Daimon felt a bit curious about what she meant with that, but he didn't pry into Rita's schedule.
'Fine, just cut some slack to the first one that surrendered, I want her to be our guide later', said Daimon as he ordered those three to enter the doll house, which then shrank and returned to Daimon's shadow.
'Mm!', with that last sound, Rita returned to silence, perhaps she entered the doll house as well, in any case she could always see what was happening around Daimon, so there was no problem with that.
"Ahem, it appears that you are quite a fierce warrior, still I would suggest we leave, as there is a chance the nearby settlements realize there is something wrong if the local leader doesn't answer to their call", Razer who limited to observe what happened earlier decided to speak.
Daimon nodded, in any case there was nothing else to gain from this place, the treasury was already looted by Rita who has caught the bad habits of her young master, earlier when those shadow hands looked through the whole place, she put everything in a storage ring which she handed to Daimon along with the rings of Calvin and the others.
"Sure, you navigate", said Daimon, they will naturally be stealing the ship of the members of the Black Night clan that was stationed here, apparently the four lands of this place were surrounded by sea at some point, so they all needed ships, it was a giant island and there were smaller islands surrounding it which is where the stronger tribes and settlements lived.
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