Spear Crusader
The tranquility of dawn was broken by an ear-piercing scream. With two buckets by her side, the innkeeper looked at a lifeless youth on the bed. This boy, who’d made her heart flutter yesterday, had now lost all traces of life.
“No external injuries nor any traces of spells. His identity certificate is forged…” The public security officer felt a headache coming on as he hurried over to inspect the scene. His many years of experience had told him that this case was going to be very troublesome.
“Can it be some acute illness?” The public security officer spoke in an imposing manner to mask the nervousness that he felt.
“Find a priest to come and pray over him, then send the corpse to the burial mound…” Seeing this officer unwilling to let things get out of hand, the plump lady didn’t hesitate to agree.
They downplayed this death through various procedures, and finally invited someone to bless the burial. However, this person wasn’t an official priest. It was an acolyte handling the menial tasks of a church.
The acolyte did not even have the cultivation to cast a rank 1 holy spell, let alone find out what was wrong with Soros’ corpse. After a quick blessing, he let the the men in charge of burying the corpse carry it away.
The one in charge of burying the legendary-ranked Soros’ corpse was a filthy, skinny, middle-aged white man who reeked of alcohol. His blackened teeth carried a putrid odour, and he thoroughly searched through the corpse once he was outside the city. He was looking for little valuables that the corrupt official hadn’t discovered.
“Hehehe… What a fair skinned boy. A pity that the officer already squirreled away his purse and other things…” Soros’ corpse had been stripped even of its shoes. Every inch of his body that could have contained gold was looked at by this man.
Soros was a legendary however, and his priceless bag of holding, spatial ring, magic artifacts, and other items had been taken away by Leylin. The officer had grabbed the gold that was left, leaving nothing for this man to take.
However, just the set of clothes and shoes alone was enough to satisfy him.
“Hehe… This kiddo is rather rich. All these clothes are worth at least 30 bronze pieces. I can visit Mary once or go to the pub and drink all night…” The man looked at the stark naked corpse, nodding his head in satisfaction.
“Since you’ve given me this much, I’ll dig your grave bigger than the rest.”
“This is the outcome of a legendary like Soros, huh? What a sorrowful scene!” A sinister voice mocked throughout the surroundings, scaring the man away. “Who, who is there?”
*Zip!* An icy blade flashed, and the man dropped to the floor with blood gushing from his body.
“A legendary who was among the top ten experts of the church couldn’t even escape death…” The void warped as a the figure of a high-ranked thief appeared. He masterfully picked up Soros’ corpse, and the expression on his face grew darker.
“No… this isn’t right! How can his body only be as resilient as a regular human’s? He was a legendary!” The high-ranked thief cried out, “If not for the top secret information I received from our bishop, I would have treated him as a regular human as well!”
“What’s more… The most important thing is that the soul has disappeared completely… Such ruthless measures…” The pupils of the thief narrowed, and he felt that a terrifying presence was in the vicinity. He did not dare tarry longer, and immediately vanished with Soros’ corpse.
He was only a high-ranked thief in the church, nowhere close to being legendary. If even Soros had died here, wiping him off the face of the earth wouldn’t be a major issue either. The thief knew this clearly, and there was no way he would stay another moment.
……
Church of Cyric, within the gloomy valley.
The bishop had received this news as well.
“I have already contacted our god. It seems like Soros’ soul did not enter his divine realm, instead vanishing mysteriously.”
“Was it some sort of confinement spell?” A high ranked thief chimed in from the side.
“No, not confinement. It’s completely missing! Even… Even our god’s imprint had completely vanished…” The bishop grew extremely solemn. Legendaries were the foundation of a church, yet one of theirs had died just like that. It was an enormous blow even to an organisation like theirs.
Furthermore, the ability to wipe out a legendary without a trace left the others extremely uneasy. The bishop closed his eyes and pondered before speaking in an icy tone, “Find out everything for me! Everything!”
“Yes!” The thief bowed respectfully and left to pass on the orders.
Although there was no evidence, he was very clear in his heart that all of this was linked to Soros’ primary target, the noble wizard of Faulen Island.
‘An expert who managed to kill a legendary! Having me investigate this monster… Aren’t you asking me to go and die?’ The high-ranked thief lamented to himself, ‘Luckily this is just an investigation mission. It looks like even the Lord Bishop himself won’t carelessly go against this person…’
“Faulen Island’s Leylin?” The high-ranked thief had a premonition that this wizard was the man of the moment in the World of Gods. No! Having showcased this power, this wizard was now a powerful player who could shake the entire continent!
……
Leylin did not pay the slightest attention to these conjectures and the dark clouds looming in his future. After he quietly murdered Soros, he peacefully returned to the wizard tower without alerting a single person.
What was truly terrifying was the unknown. If he revealed his ability to kill legendaries, it could lead to excessive fear of him. He needed to slowly digest the power he had devoured.
“The Dream Eater ability is truly the most terrifying bloodline power. The bloodline abilities it gives are also extremely demonic and powerful…” Leylin sighed.
He was a rank 20 wizard, while Soros was a legendary expert. Using an analogy in the Magus World, it was like a Crystal Phase Magus squaring off against a Morning Star. The gap between the two was as wide as that between heaven and earth.
And still, the Dream Eater ability acquired through his bloodline had allowed Leylin to kill Soros easily. Nothing as insane as this had ever happened even in the ancient times.
The barrier between ranks 3 and 4 was one of a qualitative change from spiritual force to soul force. Even an army of rank 3s would be slaughtered by a Morning Star, yet Leylin had managed to win across this gap!
“A.I. Chip!” Leylin commanded. The A.I. Chip had already collated all the previously collected data, and it displayed the information on this bloodline ability.
[Nightmare Absorption bloodline ability: Dream Eater: Allows host to infiltrate the target’s dream world, constructing an illusion and causing their truesoul to degenerate. The host can then devour the target’s dream world and absorb everything. Warning: If the target’s soul force is too powerful, or they see through the dream world, it may injure the host in an unpredictable manner! As the host’s bloodline concentration is limited, it can only be used once every 10 days.]
“So it’s a battle between souls using an illusory technique. However, with my main body’s experiences perhaps nobody except a god coming in person can best me in that regard…” Leylin had a premonition that this bloodline ability would be his most important hidden killer move.
“Besides, using Dream Eater to devour energy seems to be even more effective than before. I can gain everything that belonged to my opponent, and even walk down their path to power once for myself. The benefits from that will be immeasurable…” Leylin felt that he seemed to have found the reason why that Nightmare King was incomparably powerful.
The legendary body of Soros the Cadaver Collector comprised of all his experiences as an honorary executioner. Leylin had effortlessly obtained all of this, and all that had been left was a decaying corpse.
After devouring the soul of a legendary and obtaining all his experiences, Leylin had reached the threshold of the legendary realm.
“Ascending to become a legendary! Refining my power is the first step, and the next is to cultivate my spiritual conscient and construct an inner circulatory system… I have already fulfilled all of these criteria.” Leylin’s eyes flashed brightly. His aura began to dampen as he entered deep meditation.
Just at this moment, a visitor had arrived at Faulen Island.
“Lord Jeffries!” Xena, the Gold Priest of Waukeen’s church, bowed deeply with respect at a middle-aged man.
“My lord has travelled a long way. I have already prepared accommodations and everything else, I entreat my lord to…” Xena’s voice was humble as she spoke. This person was Jeffries, the Spear Crusader! He was a legendary expert of the church of wealth, and his status and reputation was far above that of a Gold Priest like her.
“There is no need of that for now. I didn’t come here to seek pleasure. You had better hurry and take me to see that wizard. It’s difficult to protect a person being targeted by the Cadaver Collector…” Jeffries the Spear Crusader had a head of long silver hair, an aquiline nose, and thick lips. He gave off a resilient and ascetic aura, and his eagle-like eyes revealed the endless turmoil within him.
Although he did not intentionally release his aura, the elemental energy particles in the surroundings continuously swirled around him. This was a legendary, the goal of all Professionals in the prime material plane!