Chapter 117
At that moment, Zeke’s sword stopped.
” Treasure?”
The Lich hurriedly said.
“Yes, yes! It’s a precious artifact!”
“What use would I have for a dark magic artifact? I should just kill you…”
“Ah, no! It’s not a dark magic artifact, it’s something that knights can use too!”
Lich said urgently.
Zeke withdrew his blade again.
“Let me see it before I decide.”
Zeke adjusted the chains to bind the Lich’s hands, speech, and neck while allowing movement.
The Lich stood up slowly, trembling.
Then he went deeper into the cave.
Zeke followed the Lich while holding the chains, scanning the surroundings with his dragon eye.
“Try anything funny and your head comes off immediately.”
The Lich shuddered at Zeke’s fierce voice and opened a hidden passage in the back of the cave.
Stairs leading underground appeared.
“This way.”
After confirming there were no other traps, Zeke followed the Lich down.
Going underground, the Lich’s laboratory appeared.
Various monster bones hung on the walls, and books that appeared to be grimoires were shelved on one side.
“Pretty clean living for a Lich.”
“Hehe, thank you, Sir.”
“Where’s the treasure?”
Though Zeke was openly trying to rob the treasure, the Lich had no choice.
The Lich went to one side of the lab and placed his hand on a magically concealed wall.
A hidden safe was revealed.
The Lich took out a sealed box from the safe.
“Here it is, Sit.”
“What makes you think I should open it? You open it.”
The Lich grumbled internally about this extremely picky knight while opening the sealed box.
Zeke was shocked to see the artifact inside the sealed box.
“A crown?”
The Lich nodded.
“Isn’t it splendid? It will surely display your excellency’s dignity… ACK!”
The Lich panicked as Zeke unleashed his purification blade again.
“Indeed, a vanquished undead is the only good undead.”
“Why are you doing this?! You said you’d spare me if I gave you the treasure!”
“You said it was an artifact, but you’re trying to deceive me.”
“It is an artifact! There’s definitely tremendous magical power hidden in it! I just couldn’t figure out what it was because my magical skills are lacking!”
Zeke looked at the desperately explaining Lich and turned back to the crown.
Then he examined the crown carefully with his dragon eye.
—Crown Information—
Description: A precious crown made during the Lubern Dynasty
Unique Abilities: [Shield of Light], [Mace of Light]
Special Note: 1.5x effect when used against undead and demons
‘Ah, so it is an artifact.’
It was a high-grade artifact with attack and defense skills, not just a magic item.
Zeke put on the crown with a somewhat dissatisfied expression, despite it being an excellent artifact in the Lich’s possession.
[You can now use skills Shield of Light (B-rank) and Mace of Light (B-rank).]
After confirming the message, Zeke shouted at the Lich.
“Mace of Light.”
Suddenly, a huge hammer of light appeared and struck down on the Lich.
“ARGGGHH!”
BOOM!
An tremendous aura of light filled the laboratory.
One hit from the Mace of Light brought the high-ranking undead Lich to the brink of extinction.
“URGH…”
Zeke felt a bit sorry seeing the nearly destroyed Lich who had truthfully given him the artifact.
Then a system message appeared.
[You have instilled fear in a Lich mixed with very inferior dragon-kind bones.]
[Unique authority Dragon Race domination activates.]
[Would you like to subjugate the target?]
After confirming the system message, Zeke looked at the Lich with an incredulous expression.
“Did you make your body with dragon bones?”
The Lich responded trembling in fear.
“How could I get something as precious as dragon bones? I used a mixture of basilisk, wyvern, and drake bone powder.”
Like with Gurab, it seemed targets could be subjugated if they had dragon-kind body parts mixed in.
Zeke contemplated how to use an undead summon.
‘Well, having one won’t hurt.’
Zeke subjugated the Lich after Gurab.
[You have subjugated a Lich mixed with very inferior dragon race bones.]
WOONG!
Zeke’s shadow stretched out and enveloped the Lich’s body.
“UGH!”
Then the Lich’s appearance began to change.
Instead of a skeletal undead, he changed into a gloomy man with extremely pale skin.
But scales covered his skin and his eyes were snake-like, making him look like a snake beastkin at first glance.
“Oh?”
The Lich showed an unbelieving expression seeing his changed body.
“How is this possible…?!”
The dragon’s authority had transformed him from a Lich into a humanoid summon.
He immediately knelt before Zeke and bowed.
“Master! I knew you were no ordinary person! You saved me with your great power! Thank you! Thank you! I will serve you until my soul wears away!”
[Would you like to give a name to the subjugated Lich mixed with very inferior dragon-race bones? Named summons can be called upon by the authority wielder at any time.]
“What was your name?”
“Such a trivial name from my previous life doesn’t matter. Please bestow one upon me, great master.”
Zeke started to think about it but got lazy and gave a casual name.
“Then let’s go with Richmond.”
“Ah…”
[You have acquired the summon Richmond.]
The lich, now Richmond, regretted not just telling Zeke his old name.
Regardless of Richmond’s regret, Zeke held the crown and pondered.
‘Hmm, this is good but do I need to wear it every time I want to use the skills in battle?’
Then, as if answering Zeke’s question, a system message appeared.
[You can acquire skills by consuming items with Gluttony.]
‘Oh?’
He had forgotten that he could consume items now that Gluttony had reached expert level.
He used Gluttony skill on the crown.
Soon shadows crept up and absorbed the crown.
[You have consumed the crown.]
[You have acquired skills Shield of Light (B-rank) and Mace of Light (B-rank).]
“Oh, so this is possible too.”
Zeke immediately checked his active skills.
Active Skills: Lightning [A-rank(Beginner)], Flash Bang[C-rank(Skilled)], Dissonance[C-rank(Skilled)], Magic Reflection[A-rank(Beginner)], Area Buff[A-rank(Beginner)], Curse Reflection[A-rank(Beginner)], Stealth[A-rank(Beginner)], Shield of Light[B-rank(Beginner)], Mace of Light[B-rank(Beginner)]
His skills had increased quite a bit from the beginning.
Zeke suddenly thought of the Agamemnon’s mask.
‘Should I consume this too and acquire the purification skill?’
Though it would clearly be useful, after much contemplation Zeke decided to postpone consuming the mask.
Rather than a regular artifact, Agamemnon’s mask was a sacred object of the Agamemnon family, so it wasn’t something he could dispose of as he pleased.
As the family heir, he was merely entrusted with the sacred object rather than having complete ownership.
After deciding whether to consume the golden mask or not, he asked Richmond.
“Are the monsters outside ones you released?”
Richmond nodded.
“Yes yes. Monster research is my specialty.”
“Interesting. I’ve rarely seen black mages who specialize in monsters.”
Richmond scratched his head and said.
“Even in the Holy Empire where I was, monster specialization was quite niche and there were hardly any mages researching it.”
“It’s an interesting skill. So can you gather monsters too?”
“I can control ones within my influence.”
“Oh, really?”
It seemed like Richmond’s ability could be used to gain large amounts of points.
* * *
“Huff! Huff!”
Outside Richmond’s cave, the adventurer party was still struggling to fight the monsters.
Though the Dark magic controlling the monsters was lifted while Zeke dealt with Richmond, wild monsters had joined in so the attacks continued.
The archer had used up all arrows, the knight was exhausted, and the mage was out of mana.
But monsters still glared at them with ominous auras.
The knight said to his companions.
“Damn, looks like this is it.”
The young mage next to him said to the knight.
“So Rick dies without losing his virginity after all.”
The female archer next to them nodded.
“Yeah. I should have taken it from him.”
The female mage across from them blushed and said.
“C-Claire!”
The young mage grinned and said.
“The romance between virgin Rick and virgin Arin will live on even after we die.”
Rick smiled slightly thanks to Jason making jokes even in their final moments.
Then Rick suddenly rushed forward with his sword.
“It was fun being with you all!”
Arin shouted in surprise.
“Rick!”
Rick planned to sacrifice himself to give his companions a chance to escape.
“Haaah!”
Rick’s sword instantly cut off the neck of the monster in front.
He shouted to his companions.
“Go quickly!”
Just then, a minotaur charged at Rick wielding an axe as big as a person.
WOOOOOO!
Rick ran toward the minotaur prepared to die.
CRASH!
With one swing of the minotaur’s axe, Rick lost his grip on his sword.
GRRRRRR!
The minotaur raised its axe again.
Rick froze seeing death approach right before his eyes.
Just as the axe was about to fall on Rick’s head.
SLASH!
With a flash of light, the minotaur was split in half.
“Huh?”
Rick, who was at the front, had a blank expression at the unbelievable sight.
A gloomy-faced mage had appeared beside them.
The young man who had split the minotaur in one strike said to him.
“Richmond, do well. Fail and you’ll be destroyed immediately.”
“Do-don’t worry, master!”
When the mage raised his staff and chanted, for some reason, not only nearby monsters but even distant ones began gathering.
Rick’s party shouted in surprise.
“Mo-more monsters…! We-we need to run!”
But the young man didn’t retreat at the sight of monsters. Instead, he drew what looked like an unfinished black sword and charged forward.
Then he began slicing through all the monsters at a speed invisible to the eye.
SLASH!
STAB!
SWOOSH!
Rick’s party turned pale seeing dozens of monsters instantly cut to pieces.
After killing all the monsters, Zeke said to Richmond behind him.
“Not bad. Richmond, call more.”
Richmond chanted again to draw more monsters.
After doing this ten times and defeating groups of monsters, Zeke was able to collect over 2,000 points.
* * *
After killing all the monsters, Zeke camped with Rick’s party.
He wanted to get information about the Giant Mountains from the adventurer party.
“Thank you so much for saving our lives.”
Having witnessed Zeke’s tremendous martial prowess, Rick’s party treated him cautiously.
Though he looked young, they were certain he was a knight from a noble family.
Looking at Rick, Zeke said.
“Don’t mention it. More importantly, you all seem quite experienced as adventurers despite your youth. I was impressed by how well your party works together.”
At those words, Jason stepped forward.
“Well, that’s because our party has pure virgins who… mmph!”
Rick and Arin quickly covered Jason’s mouth.
Zeke smiled at the cheerful party.
Claire the archer looked at Zeke and asked.
“Sir knight, which order do you belong to?”
Zeke shook his head and deflected.
“Knight? Not at all. I’m an adventurer too.”
Zeke showed his adventurer ID.
Rick was shocked to see the ID.
“B-but then how did you learn such amazing swordsmanship? We were sure you were a knight from a noble family.”
“I’m from the north. I grew up around rangers and mercenaries, so I picked up various sword techniques by watching them.”
Though he seemed too strong to have learned just by watching, they couldn’t question him further since that’s what he claimed.
Arin nodded and changed the subject, pointing at Richmond behind them.
“But is it okay to just leave him like that?”
Richmond couldn’t come near the fire and was crouched in a corner of the cave.
Zeke nodded.
“Yes. Don’t mind him. He has severe social anxiety and fears crowds.”
Jason nodded at those words.
It was common for mages to have mental issues.
When the soup began boiling, Zeke served a bowl to each member of Rick’s party.
They were very surprised by the excellent taste for camp food.
“This is amazing!”
The taste was possible thanks to ingredients kept fresh in his inventory.
While eating soup, Zeke asked Rick’s party.
“So why did you come all the way here?”
Rick carefully spoke up.
“How could we hide anything from our lifesaver? Actually, we came here on a request from Duke Graham.”
Zeke was surprised at Rick’s words.
‘Oh? These people couldn’t be…’
Rick continued.
“We’re looking for the Mage who cast an evil spell on Lady Angelina.”
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