Chapter 73.1 – Means of a King (1)
After Fei heard everything the mage said, he had some ideas about what was going on.
The so called Mythical Ruins was similar to a pirate’s buried treasure. If anyone was lucky enough to find an unexplored Mythical Ruins, they would obtain magic devices, training scrolls, and more from the gods’ and demons’ era. And if those items were utilized properly, even if the so called Eindhoven Empire tried to wage war against Chambord, Chambord wouldn’t be scared.
“Alright, you’ve spoken enough. Now give me that map!” Fei reached out his hand and smiled, “Sir Elvis, you’re right. It looks like we will have many opportunities to cooperate…… Eh, but before that, give me the map so I can inspect it. What if the map and what you said were all fake?”
“Haha……Cough, cough……Hehehe, young man, do you think I’m an idiot?” The mage coughed up mouthfuls of blood as he spoke with a ridiculing expression on his face. “I’m afraid that as soon as I hand over the map, I’ll be turned into a corpse.”
Fei didn’t get mad at all. He squatted down and tapped the mage’s shoulder and winked as he said: “How could I? Sir Elvis, I’ve already swore an oath to the God of War with my honour as a King; how could I trick you? Plus, to explore the Mythical Ruin at Chambord, I will need powerful mages and warriors to help me. You are exactly what I need. Hahaha, we have a common interest and need each other’s help. Why would I kill you now?”
After hearing Fei’s words, the mage started hesitating.
Throughout the ages, there were two things on Azeroth Continent that people weren’t allowed to tarnish; the first one was the Principles of Knights, and the second on was the Honour of a King, especially the kind of oath that Fei did in honour of the King to the God of War. Originally, Elvis would have believed Fei, but for some reason he felt that the king in front of him was kind of sketchy and slimy and not very dependable.
Fei’s expression turned cold after he saw Elvis’ hesitation.
He ‘humphed’ as he stood up and suddenly switched to Necromancer Mode. A cloud of cold and dark death energy surrounded him. Fei raised his hand and pointed at a location. “Crash!” Something incredible happened; the mage’s eyes opened wide and his eyeballs almost fell out of his head.
In the splashing blood, a vicious skeleton holding a bone shield and bone blade climbed out of a dead mercenary’s corpse. The skeleton made “cracking” sounds every time it moved; it was the sound of bones grinding on each other. With two black holes in its eye sockets and white bones, it looked like the demons from hell.
Necromancer – 【Raise Skeleton】.
“Ah? You……” The mage started trembling as if he was freezing. “You’re……a…….actually an evil undead mage? I……I……I……”
Fei slightly frowned.
He surprisingly sensed a familiar energy from the mage. It was also a dark death energy. Although it was weak and pretty well hidden inside the mage’s body, it couldn’t stay undetected in front of Fei who had the power of a level 6 Necromancer.
“Haha, this is pretty unexpected. Sir Elvis, you actually know undead magic. I won’t say anything more. If you hand over that map peacefully, we can still cooperate friendly and explore the ruins together……. otherwise, you know that to a Necromancer like myself, even if you die, your soul can’t escape from my palms. I have many ways to “refine” and torture your soul. You’ll give me the map sooner or later, so why would you want to go through all the pain and trouble?”
The white cloud of death energy spun crazily in Fei’s palm. Fei tried to put on an evil and sinister look as he threatened the mage.
Fei honestly felt like he was a super villain in the superhero movies and was torturing a sidekick to get some secret about the superhero. “You don’t have to go through all of this……”. Fortunately, he wasn’t the Joker and the mage wasn’t Robin.
The mage looked at the ferocious skeleton and hesitated a little. He eventually handed over the map to Fei. Although he was tortured quite a bit, he still had enough magic power to open up his own storage ring. Fei’s incentives and threats made the mage dubious, but he ended up making the hard decision. He raised his hand and a folded map made of a mysterious material appeared in his hand. “Young man, this is the map. You have to be a man of your words. Without a four star mage, you won’t ever be able to open and explore the Mythical Ruin. You won’t get anything from killing me.”
Fei grabbed the map and opened it to inspect it.
The map wasn’t small; it was a square map about 3 yards (m) on each side. It was made from an unknown yellow material and felt weightless. The map itself had a weak floating force; Fei shook the map, causing it to completely open itself in the air. Mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, forests…… Numerous terrains were recorded on it. It contained a wide area and many various colored circles and dots marked a lot of areas. The notes on the map were in strange characters. Fei felt like those characters were familiar, but he couldn’t figure out where they were from.
Although it was the first time that Fei had seen this map, his intuition told him that Elvis didn’t give him a fake map to trick him.
Fei waved his hand; “Crack!” the skeleton warrior shattered into a pile of bone fragments. He also switched from Necromancer Mode back to Barbarian Mode. The thick death energy that surrounded him disappeared as if it never appeared.
This change made the mage’s eyes shine in greed.
His wasn’t a talented mage; he followed and studied under the moon ranked master Ferdinand for more than twenty years, yet he was only able to reach the power of a four star mage. He was once mocked by everyone in the Manchester Empire. However, due to his greed for power, he wasn’t able to resist studying undead magic which could advance and give him power quickly. As a result, he was shunned and prohibited by the “Overlord” on the Continent – The Holy Church. Due to the fear of other people finding out about it and sending him into a pit of fire, he hid his undead magic powers in his body carefully and no one had found out about it yet. The main reason that he left Manchester Empire and traveled the Continent was to hide from the higher ups and powerful priests at the Capital of the Empire. Fei’s method of hiding his undead magic power in the body gave him a huge hope. If he could learn the method, he could then train and study undead magic to the limit and wouldn’t have to worry about the priests finding out about it.
After seeing the bones fragments on the ground, Elvis was a little relieved.
It looked like that young man in front of him didn’t have any intention to kill him; he was needed for the exploration of the Ruin. “This is great. After I recover and restore my powers, I’ll pretend to cooperate with this king and slowly take control of Chambord in secret, as well as figure out how he’s hiding his undead magic powers. By that time, I’ll sneak attack and kill him with a surprise……Hehehe, I can monopolize the resources in the Ruins and no one will know.”
“Young man, I have already given you the map, please heal me quickly. I can’t hold any longer……” The four star mage Elvis reminded Fei.
“Ah? Okokok. I’m a man of my words……” Fei folded the map back into a small square and put it into the storage space in his belt. He then took out a bottle of 【Healing Potion】, squatted down and said, “Sir Elvis, it’s my pleasure to cooperate with you. After we join forces, we can keep the Ruins all to ourselves. Hahaha……”
“Haha, young man, you made the right decision.” Elvis was finally relieved. He smiled, but an undetectable viciousness flashed through his eyes.
“Unfortunately, you made a not-so-right decision……” Fei’s expression suddenly turned cold and his hands instantly grabbed the mage by his neck. With some force, “Crack!” Elvis’ upper spinal cord and throat were cracked into pieces.
“You……”
The sign of life slowly disappeared from Elvis’ eyes. His was stunned up until his death and the smile on his face still hadn’t faded away. Never in his wildest dreams would he have understood why the young king in front of him dared to kill him. He knew that the king needed a powerful mage to open and explore a Mythical Ruin. How and where could the little Chambord Kingdom recruit a suitable mage?
Of course, if he knew that Fei had the confidence and ability to advance to a four star mage in the Diablo World, he wouldn’t have given up that map so easily. Also, Fei didn’t swear to God of War under the name and soul of Alexander, but how could Elvis had known that the real Alexander and his soul was already gone.
“With a snake like you, how could I attempt such an impossible cooperation?” Fei shook his head and whispered.
This mage named Elvis had devastating power and had a strong background. Also, with his vicious mind, Fei didn’t dare heal him back to full health. If he became careless for a moment, he would lose the whole game and get bitten by the poisonous snake. By that time, the fall of the kingdom and the slaughtering of civilians would occur in seconds. The story of the farmer and the snake was told by Aesop thousands of years ago. Fei wasn’t dumb enough to use his warm body to save a vicious poisonous snake.
