Inside Death Hall, Death Associates’ guild headquarters outside the city Theneward, White Death and Yellow Death were watching a recording. Inside the recording were Jack and Red Death. It was the time when the two talked during the feast before the tournament. Yellow Death had used a recording stone with his drone to record the two’s conversations.
When the recording was over, Yellow Death said, “We should kill the bitch. Bring her back to level 1 before expelling her from the guild.”
White Death didn’t give any response.
“Boss!” Yellow Death uttered. “She has betrayed us. She worked with the enemy against us. We can’t let her off. Show my recording to everyone, we will lynch her in the public.”
“Things are a bit more complicated than that, my friend,” White Death said and took the recording stone they had just watched. He then stored it in his inventory.
“What do you mean? We can’t just let her off after all that,” Yellow death said.
“We are not. However, you must know. She was someone that Black Death, our true leader who is still missing, had chosen and inaugurated into one of the Seven Deaths. She couldn’t be removed just like that. If our leader returned and found out that we have expelled Red without her permission, for whatever reason, it won’t end well for us as well.”
“So what? Did we just let her off? We don’t even know if Madam Black Death is in this world. What if she never comes back?”
“According to this recording, everyone in our previous world has been forcefully transferred here. Or maybe the correct term is that the world changed with all of us in it. So, she should be somewhere in this world as well.”
“You believe what that Storm Wind was saying?” Yellow Death asked.
“It’s a bit fanciful, I do admit, but I don’t see why the guy was lying,” White Death said.
“To get into Red’s head and caused her to be willing to forfeit the tournament’s prize?” Yellow Death offered his suggestion.
“He also lost when he forfeited the prize,” White Death said. “In fact, his action of asking the reinforcement to Liguritudum Realm instead reinforced his story. I believed he was telling the truth. Or at least he believed it to be the truth.”
“Do we have any information about the Liguritudum Realm?”
“We don’t have any members that are in or have been to that country, so there is no way to check the truth. However, I did have some contact before with this World Maker guild he mentioned. They are a peculiar group. Their members can’t be underestimated but I don’t truly put them in my mind since I’ve never heard of their guild before. If this info is the truth, then it might be worth it to reestablish this contact.”
“We want to establish contact with them? But if what Storm Wind said was true, that Master person will put us all under his thumb once he gets what he wants.”
“Perhaps. But being under one person while standing atop millions of people is still better than nothing. Why do you think I don’t mind being in the shadow of Black Death for so long?” White Death gave Yellow a side glance. “What about youa?|?”
<br/>”Ia?| I will follow your lead,” Yellow replied.
White Death nodded. “We should keep this just between us. Our leader, Black, and people like Blue and Scarface. They are like Red. They will want to fight against this World Maker if they found out. These idealistic people who value their freedom so much, there is no need to agitate them yet.”
“What if red informed Blue and Scarface about this so-called truth?” Yellow asked.
“It has been some days and she hasn’t yet. She is the type who likes to keep things to herself, which is good for us in this matter.”
“Are we truly not going to do anything to her?” Yellow asked again.
“There is another thing why it is complicated to do anything to her at the moment,” White said. “The epic chain quest that involved prince Rhemos, she was the main holder of the quest. Although many of our guild members have involved themselves in that quest already by now, we don’t know how big an effect will be if she is suddenly removed from the board. She is still the closest to Prince Rhemos compared to us, after all.”
Yellow Death appeared bitter hearing White Death’s explanation, he was still resentful of Jack’s assault just before the final. As well as for Jack hoarding away all the spotlight during the tournament. The matches were broadcasted everywhere, when people talked about his team matches, all people talked about was Jack. He was basically reduced to background noise. Even during the bonus match against Mihos, which was not broadcasted, he was the first one to get eliminated. Despite finally getting rewards equal to the first prize winner of the tournament, all he felt from the tournament was grievances, and he blamed it all on Jack. He felt that by doing something to Red, he would get back on Jack in some way.
White Death noticed Yellow’s displeasure, he said, “Don’t worry. We will do something about her. She had indeed betrayed us, after all. But we need to be smart about it. We will involve more people in the important part of the quest and reduced her role covertly. Once it looks like it is safe enough to proceed without her involvement, we will then make our move. I give you my promise.”
Yellow nodded. This seemed to be the best he could hope for at this time.
—————
Jack spent the night chatting with Darmos. The old draconian acted grumpily but Jack could see the draconian appreciated the company. When Darmos said he was tired and retired back into his hut, Jack did his mana manipulation training by manipulating mana in his spells. Peniel caught the old draconian peeking from inside his hut.
Jack used his camouflage tent to rest. Darmos’ hut was too small for two people. Additionally, the draconian didn’t invite him to stay inside his hut.
The next morning, Jack woke up early and practiced his martial arts. He tried incorporating mana manipulation within his training. His minds were divided into two thoughts, one doing the martial arts while another focused on manipulating mana following his every slash. He was incorporating the experiences he had gained when practicing inside the ancient battleground, but he could feel that the mana was not moving fluently following his guidance. The thinner mana in the environment compared to during the ancient battleground increased the difficulty.
Darmos was sitting outside his hut watching Jack’s practice.
After Jack was finished, Darmos remarked, “That is some peculiar training you do.”
“You know, another native said the same thing as you,” Jack said. “This is called martial arts.”
“Fancy. So, what do you plan to do for the day? Will you be bothering me all day here?”
“You acted as if you don’t enjoy my company. Unfortunately, I am busy, I can’t spend all day entertaining you. I will go out to search for Broidrireg.”
“Hmph! Do you know where to look for him?”
“Nope. I only know he lived up here on this mountain, the exact whereabouts are unknown.” Jack then turned to Peniel and asked, “Right?”
“Yeah,” Peniel answered.
“So, are you going to just look around randomly?” Darmos asked.
“I don’t see any other choice. Well, unless you want to tell me where to look?” Jack asked Darmos with a hopeful expression.
“Sorry,” Darmos turned away.
Jack shrugged. “Okay, I’m off. Be back after sunset.”
“You will come here again?” Darmos asked.
“Yeah. Ain’t you happy about that?”
“Happy my ass! No one invited you.”
Jack chuckled. “See you later. Wish me luck in my search.”
Darmos didn’t respond.
Jack then left. He found monsters not long after. He noticed that no monsters came near where Darmos was living. The old draconian was telling the truth about him being protected, which confirmed that this Broidrireg was here. If he was, then he would find this divine dragon. He never expected to find a native such as Darmos here anyway. So, he was now simply searching following his original plan.
At the same time, he was grinding for exp points and draconic essences. The monsters here were just right for him. He summoned his Therras to increase the pace. He also summoned Spirit Weapon every time the skill was off cooldown. The first reason was to increase his pace, the second was to increase his skill proficiency.
After several times of usage, he understood that the spirit weapon of his Storm Breaker had three modes. He had seen ranged mode and finishing mode. The third mode was the melee mode. But unlike normal spirit weapons which had an image of the weapon slashing any enemies that came near, Storm Breaker’s spirit weapon had the blade parts split into two sections at its left and right sides.
These two blades then slashed around the eye-like energy core, as if twin-bladed swordsman. What fascinated Jack was, the way it slashed the blades reminded Jack of his own Formless Flowing Sword style. Even though the art looked crude, Jack was sure it was indeed the style. It was as if the spirit weapon had copied his fighting method and tried to apply it on its own.
