NOVEL FROG Chapter 366-374
Chapter 366: Sunrise Island
p>The Chaotic Memory Construct, Slaughterer.
Marvin thought that after he escaped from Saruha, Slaughterer would just roam around the ruins.
He hadn’t expected it to chase him out of Saruha.
‘Could it be following some mark left on me?’
Marvin’s heart sank. Slaughterer’s fighting strength was very high. It didn’t feel good being tracked by that guy.
“Intruder…”
The rough mechanical voice sounded grim.
Slaughterer looked sharp and full of killing intent, and its hands had been changed into electric chainsaws!
“Zzzzz!”
The chainsaws kept revving as its eyes flickered with a dangerous red light. “Intruder… Die!”
The three sisters frowned.
Jessica looked at Marvin. “Friend?”
Marvin shook his head.
“Enemy?”
Marvin nodded firmly.
The Fate Sorceress burst out with a frightening seven-colored radiance, engulfing Slaughterer in an instant!
Marvin was stupefied. It only took Jessica seven seconds to… forcefully tear apart that invulnerable piece of metal!
Seeing the proud Slaughterer being torn into pieces, Marvin realized he had been worried for nothing.
Jessica was an existence as famous as the North’s Valkyrie, and her 6th layer Fate Power was more than enough.
After Marvin thanked Jessica, he found the part he wanted from the pile of scraps.
That was the final Memory Chip which belonged to Slaughterer itself.
Thus, all five of the Memory Chips were gathered in the box.
…
After everything was settled, Marvin bid the three sisters farewell and rested a bit.
After killing the Pale Hand, he didn’t find anyone else hiding in the surroundings.
During his fight, he had felt that there were two people hiding in the dark.
One of them had a familiar aura.
Gwyn’s face came to his mind and he had wondered why he hadn’t immediately escaped when seeing the Pale Hand, but Marvin assumed he had his reasons.
In fact, after Marvin killed Sky, Gwyn and the other person left immediately.
Marvin guessed that the other one was also a Vampire.
In any case, the issue was settled. After the three sisters left, he went on his way and quickly reached the City of Knowledge.
This time he didn’t need to inform the Scholars of the City of Knowledge and instead used the pass Mark 47 had given him. He was immediately granted access by the construct who had nothing to do all year round and secretly rushed to the Pearl Tower.
Marvin didn’t bother with greetings and went straight to the heart of the matter.
“You found my Memory Chip?” Mark 47 was overjoyed. His human-like features reached perfection and Marvin was surprised to feel his genuine happiness.
Sure enough, everything related to Lance was outstanding, even if it was a construct.
Marvin nodded as he took out the small box containing the Memory Chips.
Mark 47 scanned the five Memory Chips and took a dark yellow one.
“Only this one is mine… The others aren’t.”
It seemed that it was this Memory Chip that caused Slaughterer to have chaotic memories.
Mark 47 easily opened up a part of his body to insert the Memory Chip. In fact, with all his free time, he had already dismantled his own body before and was highly efficient in this regard. It only took an instant for him to set it up.
“How is it?” Marvin hopefully asked.
If this Chip was really what Mark 47 needed, he would not only gain 100000 general exp, but also a large amount of information!
He had too many questions regarding this world.
The most powerful and wise being in this world was certainly God Lance. The construct he left behind would surely know a lot of things that Marvin was interested in.
“Beep! Beep! Beep!”
Mark 47’s body issued a sound like a strange warning before calming down.
The construct’s face was a bit strange as he apparently recalled some memories, before ultimately releasing a deep sigh.
“This is my Memory Chip… But it isn’t complete.”
“From the information inside, it seems like my Memory Chip has been split up into four and this is merely one piece. Hmmm… There are three more, and they seem to be located in some particularly dangerous places.”
“I also recalled some memories, but they are still quite fragmented and not very pleasing. I need you to quickly help me find the other parts!”
Mark 47 firmly added, “I can increase the quest reward.”
…
An hour later, Marvin left Pearl Tower in a complicated mood.
His quest had been updated, and now he needed to find the remaining three pieces of the Memory Chip.
And this time, Mark 47’s reward for each piece was 50000 exp!
The previous quest had already been cancelled and Marvin received 50000 general experience for that piece of the Memory Chip.
Marvin was glad to get some experience.
But looking at the map in his hand, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
It was as Mark 47 had said. The remaining pieces were in very dangerous areas.
One of them was on the opposite side of the Pambo Sea, in the Dead Area.
But it was in a forbidden region of the Dead Area. Marvin hadn’t planned to go there this time.
‘Well, let’s see how it goes.’
Marvin inwardly sighed as he put away the map.
…
His happiness from dealing with Sky had already disappeared.
He had received some shocking news from Mark 47!
Although it was only a part of his Memory Chip, Mark 47 still remembered some things.
As he deciphered the complex explanation, Marvin discovered a shocking secret!
According to the construct, while he was following Lance, Lance had met some issues!
The Great Wizard God had to take various measures in order to deal with them.
The disappearance of the Wizard God in the 4th Era wasn’t accidental; it was a necessary move.
As for whether he was successful or not, Mark 47 didn’t know.
But this matter was apparently connected to the Universe Magic Pool.
These scattered pieces of information made Marvin feel a chill.
He had always thought that the matter of the Gods attacking the Universe Magic Pool wasn’t simple, but there weren’t any clues so he couldn’t make further guesses.
…
50000 general experience from the quest, plus a bit over 10000 for killing Sky. With all that, Marvin seemed to have a lot of exp.
But to level up to Level 9 Night Walker, he needed 144000 exp, and he needed as much as 200000 to reach Level 10.
This was how much Marvin needed before being able to advance to Ruler of the Night.
Fortunately, he already had a solution.
The Ghosts of the Dead Area. This trip wouldn’t only be about finding Ivan. He would also find a few spots he remembered like Saruha to farm huge piles of experience.
He returned to Rocky Mountain, but he didn’t intend to stay there long. After confirming that Fiend Sorcerer Daisy had made arrangements for the girl with Holy Blood, he once again departed alone.
He returned to Ruins City, adjusting his appearance while using a very unobtrusive identity to get a hold of a ship’s ticket.
Two days later, the [Parrot] set off for Sunrise Island.
…
The trip from Ruins City to Sunrise Island would only take five days, but for Marvin it was a rare break.
This part of the sea wasn’t tranquil. There were not only pirates, but also things from folktales like Sea Monsters, Ghosts, and others.
But Marvin’s luck held out, and they didn’t meet anything strange during their trip.
The shabby boat steadily headed toward Sunrise Island.
There was a huge network there manipulated by a secret force. Ships going to the Dead Area all had to be approved by that secret force.
But Marvin had no intention to board a boat to sail toward the Dead Area.
This would be a huge waste of time.
Near Sunrise Island, there was a secret undersea path that would lead to the Dead Area’s shore.
Although that secret path was filled with danger, Marvin decided to take it in order to save time.
After all, he had to quickly find Ivan and think of a way to expose Dark Phoenix before the Great Calamity to save Hathaway. These were Marvin’s main objectives.
There shouldn’t be anyone aware that Dark Phoenix was actually a God of the 3rd Era!
The woman was extremely crafty and back when the Wizard God forcibly sent the 3rd Era Gods to the Astral Sea’s God Realms, she had used a heaven-defying Artifact to hide.
She then cautiously hid among the mortals and didn’t establish her own church or religion. If she wished to, she could ignite her God Fire and turn back into a real God.
Because her refined Fate Tablet fragment was rather important.
This mysterious and frightening woman was in fact on the same side as the Gods.
Hathaway probably didn’t realize that.
But Marvin could see through this.
‘I have to find a way to gather the Legend powerhouses in one place and expose Dark Phoenix… Moreover, it needs to be foolproof.’
‘She has been running the South Wizard Alliance for a long time. The people of the South Wizard Alliance might already be her people, so even if her identity is revealed, they will probably think it’s fake.’
‘It seems I can only look for additional manpower.’
Marvin sat in the boat, thinking hard while waiting to reach Sunrise Island.
After a while he began to feel stuffy, so he left the hold and walked around on the deck.
There weren’t many people on the deck. Most of them were just lazy sailors scattered around.
But there was a beautiful silhouette that attracted others’ attention.
Marvin froze when he saw that silhouette. ‘How could it be…’
‘Hathaway?’
Chapter 367: Real or Fake
p>Although this was only a view from the back, the first person that came to Marvin’s mind was Hathaway.
He couldn’t help but quickly walk over.
The girl noticed him and tilted her head, looking at him curiously.
In that instant, Marvin almost choked.
She looked exactly like Hathaway.
It was her appearance as an adolescent. Her beautiful eyes were sizing him up doubtfully.
“How…” Marvin’s mouth felt dry.
Wasn’t Hathaway taken away by Dark Phoenix? How could she appear here?
And for some reason she was vigilant towards him. “Who are you?”
“I don’t know you.”
Marvin froze. Could he have mistaken her?
Impossible! That appearance, that familiar aura, there was no difference from before!
Marvin was a bit confused.
At that time, the other party started moving past Marvin, looking at him with suspicion.
She looked as if she had met someone hitting on her.
This made Marvin very frustrated. “What’s your name?” he asked.
She stopped and frowned for a moment. “…Hathaway.”
Shortly after, she continued on her way, leaving the deck and returning to the hold.
Only Marvin remained, standing in daze.
…
Marvin was quite befuddled by his encounter with Hathaway on this trip.
He couldn’t understand why she couldn’t recognize him.
‘Could it be that Dark Phoenix did something to her?’
‘How about I stealthily check?’
After entering the hold, Marvin hesitated a bit. He found her cabin and if he wanted to, he could sneak in.
But he didn’t do so in the end.
He felt something wrong.
Her expression when looking at him didn’t seem fake and he didn’t find any special traces, but Marvin still felt some kind of danger.
He didn’t have his outstanding buffed Perception anymore, so he could only rely on his eyes. He simply couldn’t figure out what had happened to Hathaway.
‘Her Magic Power? Why has it disappeared?’
Marvin didn’t believe there was someone with the exact same name and appearance in this world.
There was definitely an issue.
‘No good… I still want to take a look.’
Marvin decided to check, but suddenly, his heart started beating faster!
This was the same feeling he got when he realized Hathaway was sealed in ice.
A scene flashed in Marvin’s mind: While lightning and thunder surged through the sky, a black-gowned woman was smirking as a drop of blood seeped out of the ice crystals…
Marvin’s whole body felt cold!
Dark Phoenix!
It was that woman again…
It seemed that before he could go find her, she couldn’t help herself any longer and took the initiative instead.
These disjointed bits of information were enough for Marvin to make a rough guess.
A drop of Hathaway’s blood plus Dark Phoenix’s Divine Source should be enough to create a fake “Hathaway” that looked real.
That God hiding in the human world still couldn’t resist making a move against Marvin.
‘She definitely saw that I was the one who launched Judgement Day…’
‘There is a layer of fog between the God Realms and the Universe Magic Pool. While the rest of the Gods might not be able to see me, Glynos and Dark Phoenix should know.’
‘Did Judgement Day’s might shock her? Or am I making her worried?’
Marvin calmed his heart, analyzing the situation carefully.
It seemed Hathaway wasn’t really dormant in the ice, since she sent Marvin this invaluable piece of information.
This meant that her situation shouldn’t be too bad right now. She was probably feigning dormancy as a trick to deceive Dark Phoenix.
Marvin felt a bit reassured.
Shortly after, his eyes turned vicious. “Want to use Hathaway to kill me?”
Dark Phoenix’s goal was extremely clear.
This fake Hathaway was a trick to lure him.
If he really tried to sneak in, there would likely be a trap awaiting him!
But since he was aware of Dark Phoenix’s trick, Marvin wouldn’t worry too much.
Since Hathaway went to great lengths to hide her situation, he couldn’t show any sign that he knew about it and decided to delay it instead.
Marvin thought for a bit and then returned to his cabin.
He hid in his cabin without moving for the next few days.
He felt someone hesitating in front of his door, but leaving in the end.
Marvin sneered, ‘Still want to hide it?’
…
Sunrise Island.
This was a large and very strange island. It was obviously located west of mainland Feinan, but was called Sunrise.
This island’s history was very long, and the power controlling it was also ancient.
The Black Rider Monastery!
This was a mysterious organization established by Black Knight Sangore, and it had no lack of Legend experts. They controlled every harbor of Sunrise Island and had a very dedicated fleet.
Sangore himself very rarely appeared. Sunrise Island would follow his appointed overseer most of the time.
This place was noisy and flourishing, but the rules were exceptionally strict. If someone dared to use force on Sunrise Island, they would be chased to death by the subordinate organizations of the Black Rider Monastery!
No one dared to fight a mysterious organization that had multiple Legends.
Moreover, it was rumored that Black Knight Sangore had a page of a God’s book that contained endless power.
It was part of an artifact, and it was precisely because of that shattered artifact that Sangore was able to rule the entire Sunrise Island and the neighboring seas.
Marvin knew that the so-called God’s Book page was in fact the Book of Nalu’s 2nd page!
The 2nd page was named [Prosperity].
This page had a strange ability. It could make a city thrive endlessly.
It was also because of this that Black Knight Sangore had been secretly looking for the other pages of the Book of Nalu. But he had been unsuccessful for all these past years.
If it wasn’t for Sunrise Island being the only way to access the Dead Area, Marvin definitely wouldn’t pass through here.
The two pages of the Book of Nalu could resonate and it would be troublesome if Sangore made a move.
Thus, when the ship reached the shore, Marvin quickly disembarked and silently blended into the crowd.
After a while, the fake Hathaway got off the boat with doubt hovering on her face.
She didn’t understand what had gone wrong. Marvin already saw her, so why would he endure and not look for her?
Could there be a flaw in her disguise?
But in any case, the Master’s order had to be carried out. Marvin had to die!
Killing intent flashed in her eyes as her gaze went through the crowd, locking onto the disguised Marvin. She quickly followed him.
…
After Marvin arrived at Sunrise Island, he didn’t stay in the initial area for long.
He went to the shore to find a fisherman that would take him by boat to a small island not far from there.
That small island had a very strange shape. There was a volcano on the island and it looked like an animal claw raised high up, making it easy to recognize.
The island was uninhabited all year round and had no specialties it was known for, but since Marvin paid well, the fisherman was willing to take him there. In any case, it wasn’t far.
He knew that the fake Hathaway created by Dark Phoenix would definitely be following, but he didn’t care.
The two arrived at the island one after the other.
For Marvin, this small island was the relay that would lead him to the Dead Area.
At the edge of this small island there was a cave that could be used to enter the Seafloor Tunnel.
No one knew when that undersea tunnel had been excavated. It seemed to be related to a sea race that had disappeared in the Pambo Sea. If he could activate the tunnel entrance and walk through the transportation tunnels under the surface, it would be a lot faster than sitting in a boat.
But before leaving for the Dead Area, he still had to deal with that big heartache.
…
On the beach in the evening, Marvin meticulously reduced his speed.
The sun was setting. A somewhat strange shadow could be seen under a coconut tree.
‘Clumsy Assassin…’
Marvin smiled coldly.
The lifeform Dark Phoenix created clearly had not yet integrated into this world after being alive for such a short period of time.
Despite having the abilities of a 4th rank Assassin, the traces left in Stealth were too glaring and Marvin could easily see through them.
He wasn’t worried, moving forward neither quickly nor slowly.
This was a battle of patience.
In the end, when the sun sank completely, a soft voice echoed behind him. “Marvin!”
Marvin smirked.
He slowly turned, looking at the other side with feigned shock. “Didn’t you not recognize me?”
The fake Hathaway reluctantly squeezed out a smile. “I seem to have forgotten many important things.”
“But I feel that you are a bit familiar.”
“You know me? Can you help me recall my memories?”
Using amnesia?
Marvin sneered inwardly, while appearing overjoyed on the surface.
He walked over quickly and assured, “Of course I’ll help you.”
As they approached each other, “Hathaway” gave a blushing smile. “How do you intend to help…”
But before she could finish, Marvin suddenly attacked!
Shadow Step!
His speed was incomparably quick and his timing was exquisite. She simply didn’t have any chance to react.
Marvin moved right behind her and knocked her out!
Killing her directly wasn’t suitable, because he would be sensed by Dark Phoenix if he did so.
But Marvin did have a better method.
He brought the unconscious enemy in the cave and took out the Book of Nalu’s 6th page, [Rebirth]!
The fake Hathaway’s body instantly weakened!
Marvin could feel the page’s excitement and without Marvin’s instructions, it began swallowing Dark Phoenix’s Divine Source!
‘I hope Sangore won’t react.’
Marvin glanced worriedly at Sunrise Island.
…
In the Black Coral Islands, a scene suddenly appeared in front of Dark Phoenix:
Her Hathaway creation was chasing after Marvin, but Marvin was too crafty and escaped.
But Marvin was seriously injured and seemed like an arrow at the end of its flight.
‘This should be fine.’
Dark Phoenix smiled, pleased with the result. She then immediately shifted her attention elsewhere. She still had a lot of important things to do.
Chapter 368: Time Breakpoint
p>Marvin still felt that it was dangerous to use the Book of Nalu.
Even though the Rebirth page was relatively safe, that was when compared to the other pages. He nearly got fucked by the book of Nalu last time with Madeline, almost ending up becoming its slave.
Thus, he remained at a respectful distance from it. The God of Deception wasn’t benevolent, and the way he fell was very strange. And Berserk Lord Angola exploding was good enough proof of the Book of Nalu’s dangerous nature.
But he didn’t have much choice this time.
The fake Hathaway made by Dark Phoenix was a physical body that evolved from her Divine Source. If he wanted to trick Dark Phoenix while taking care of that problem, he could only use the treasure left behind by the God of Deception.
Marvin was the master of that page of the Book of Nalu, and since he had that [Spirit Armband] raising his willpower, his control over the Book of Nalu had increased quite a lot.
By the time the page finished absorbing the Divine Source, the scene of him being pursued appeared in his mind.
These scenes were created perfectly by the Book of Nalu and the crafty book knew how to mislead Dark Phoenix’s investigation.
Everything went smoothly.
Dark Phoenix was indeed deceived and from the Book of Nalu’s reaction, she shouldn’t be paying much attention to this fake Hathaway anymore.
After all, as a God, she had many things to take care of before the Great Calamity.
…
In the cave, Marvin slightly relaxed.
After the Book of Nalu finished absorbing the Divine Source, the fake Hathaway’s body disappeared.
A drop of scarlet blood floated in the air.
Marvin extended his hand, letting the drop of blood land on his palm.
But as it touched his skin, the blood turned appallingly black!
Marvin was a bit startled, but before he could react, the black drop of blood went through his pores and was absorbed into his body.
In an instant, Marvin felt his blood starting to boil!
Some kind of dormant power seemed to be awakening.
But this feeling only lasted for less than half a minute.
Marvin could feel that this drop of black blood had been instantly devoured by his bloodline.
A flickering flow of information went through Marvin’s mind.
He opened his eyes after a while with an expression of shock. ‘Curse of the Anzed Witch?’
…
There was an additional curse on Marvin’s status window.
This curse was called [Time Breakpoint].
Its effect was that for three days, Marvin’s body would be stuck at that point in time and wouldn’t age.
This was a very strange curse.
Even with Marvin’s high Resistances, he would still be cursed for three days.
That was only one drop of Hathaway’s blood!
Marvin understood a lot from that drop.
‘Turns out this is the cause of the matter with Hathaway’s age.’
‘It’s not her using three shapes. It’s actually the Anzed Witch hereditary curse flaring up.’
‘6 years old, 16 years old, 26 years old, three Breakpoints. It wasn’t that she liked to change her appearance to those three shapes, but rather that she was trapped between these three Breakpoints.’
‘There are still strange curses and special constitutions like that…’
Even the knowledgeable Marvin hadn’t known about it and couldn’t help but mock himself.
Hathaway’s blood was cursed with the Breakpoint curse, making her cycle between different Breakpoints.
It sounded pretty good, like a clever way to reach immortality. But something like time was very mysterious.
Once broken, some unimaginable circumstances would appear.
Marvin could guess that Hathaway anxiously wanted to take care of her curse.
Because this curse not only restricted her power’s growth, but would also create danger not far in the future.
Her mind might eventually split into three personalities because of the three Breakpoints.
The three personalities would try to separate from each other, leading to devastating injuries.
She originally thought that after advancing to Legend, the curse would be easily taken care of… but it wasn’t.
She planned to use this time while sealed in ice to try to come up with ways to deal with the curse.
Originally, Marvin wasn’t supposed to know about this.
Fortunately, his Shapeshift Sorcerer bloodline was powerful enough after breaking through thanks to the Golden Blood he had used. With its overbearing nature, it managed to absorb Hathaway’s blood, allowing Marvin to get those pieces of information.
In all likelihood, Dark Phoenix didn’t notice it, or else she would have made use of this information.
Marvin’s feeling of crisis was now more intense.
From the start, Hathaway wasn’t safe in Dark Phoenix’s hand. He had to advance to Legend as fast as possible!
Thinking of this, he started checking around the small island to find a depression in the ground.
That was the entrance to the tunnel!
The depression led to a deep cave which was guarded by a few Sirens. With his current strength, Marvin had no issue negotiating with them… Using his daggers.
After a few minutes, he followed the cave and entered the seafloor.
A huge blue stone door flickering with a faint glow was now in front of Marvin.
There was a strange smiling face on the door. That face wasn’t carved in… It was actually a Greed Stone Monster.
This undersea tunnel’s origin was very old, but few people knew about it.
Marvin approached and the Greed Stone Monster blinked before stating, “500 gold. 450 will also work.”
Marvin immediately paid 500 gold coins.
That monster was not only greedy, but also very mean. If you truly wanted to save a bit and decided to pay 450, then you’d definitely regret it.
Who knew where that guy would send you!
“Ding Ding Ding!” The gold coins fell in the Greed Stone Monster’s mouth. The blue entrance then opened wide.
Marvin went through the blue curtain of light that was behind the door, and it was as if he crossed through a long expanse of space.
This was the wonder of the Seafloor Tunnel. Each step was like a hundred steps. All kinds of runes were there, and based on the description during the game, this tunnel was something that existed before the Primal Chaos Era. That was around the era of the Night Monarch.
The first third of the tunnel had no dangers. Marvin unconsciously quickened his pace, rushing forward.
…
Sunrise Island. While the central main street was bustling with activity, the sounds of horses’ hooves suddenly echoed!
Everyone was shocked; the central main street prohibited horses! This was the Lord’s inflexible rule. And today someone dared to violate that law?!
A total of six Black Knights overbearingly rushed through the crowd!
Everyone was in uproar.
The leader was Black Knight Sangore.
Sangore was looking at a small island in the distance, muttering, “God’s Book…”
Chapter 369: Xunshan Monastery
p>Breathing sounds in the distance were distinctly audible in the cold.
A handsome man was sitting alone in an ancient village, listening.
Nearby, a red crow was flapping its wings restlessly while watching everything.
The man suddenly moved, making a grasping motion in the air.
The red crow was instantly torn apart!
An angry voice came from outside the village. “Ivan! Don’t think that no one dares to act against you just because you are the son of the Great Elven King!”
“We found the Secret Garden first! Do you think you can defeat all of us alone?”
Powerful silhouettes could be seen in the surroundings of the Ancient Village.
The words came from the Wizard who had been controlling the crow.
He was a Half-Legend Wizard, and his words simply had no worth in front of Ivan, the Elven War Saint.
Ivan simply ignored him.
He only continued sitting calmly in the middle of the village with a determined expression.
Except him, no one dared to enter the village.
Because every single person who had entered the village was killed!
The Wood Elves would rarely use such fierce means, but in the past few days, many corpses had piled up outside the village.
Despite it being this way, there were still many people gathering outside the Ancient Village.
They were waiting for the hidden place to open.
The Secret Garden of the Dead Area was rumored to have countless mystical medicines. Ivan had suffered a lot to look for medicine that could cure injuries caused by flames made from Divine Source, but he found nothing.
Now that he knew the Secret Garden was about to open, he definitely couldn’t miss it!
‘There are still seven days… The news has already been leaked.’
‘At that time, who knows how many Legends will be there…’
Worry flashed in Ivan’s eyes.
Even though this land was rather deserted, there were many experts here.
The Secret Garden’s opening was bound to attract the attention of many Legend experts.
Ivan wasn’t worried about ordinary Legends.
It was just that he had crossed swords with some powerful Legends in other regions of the Dead Area. They were descendants of Ancient Races, people with fierce innate constitutions. Even if he was an Elven War Saint, he couldn’t overpower everything.
‘If those powerhouses join hands, it would be troublesome,’ Ivan thought calmly, keeping a determined expression on his face.
This time, whoever blocked his path would be torn into pieces!
Because every night when he closed his eyes, he recalled the scene of that burning black hole on that nearly perfect body!
‘Father…’
…
At the same time, a weak-looking shadow appeared at the edge of the Dead Area.
When Marvin stepped onto the Dead Area’s rough soil, two and a half days had already passed.
The Dead Area had a fog that would never change all year long.
‘Finally!’
Marvin felt a bit excited. He had spent two and a half days walking through the Seafloor Tunnel.
He would have been sitting for a whole month if he went by boat!
In the latter half of the Seafloor Tunnel, he met some powerful monsters, such as a Bebilith!
But Marvin wasn’t a weak noble anymore, so he easily defeated these random monsters.
He had a pleasant journey and arrived safely at the Dead Area.
The tunnel exited from the west side of the Pambo Sea. The eastern coast of the Dead Area was a relatively safe region which had scattered Human villages.
Most of the people in these villages were wanderers or people who were sent to the Dead Area in exile, so the public security wasn’t too good.
Marvin casually looked for a small village to resupply, and more importantly, to exchange some broken pieces of silver to buy a horse.
After getting a horse, he easily found the route to Xunshan Monastery.
The fierce horse rushed through the fog, and with Marvin’s good eyesight, he could easily see the path ahead.
Xunshan Monastery was situated in the center of the Dead Area. From the coast, he would need a good half a day to reach there, as long as he didn’t take a wrong path.
Although Marvin didn’t have a complete map of the Dead Area in his mind, there wouldn’t be any mistake about the path.
Below the monastery there was a flourishing town that was considered famous in the Dead Area.
Marvin wanted to find information about Ivan there. Otherwise, it would be very hard to locate him with how big the Dead Area was.
He believed that since Ivan had come to find medicine for the Great Elven King, he definitely would have gone to a few famous towns in the Dead Area to look for information.
Wood Elves would be quite conspicuous in this place filled with Ancient Races’ descendants. There shouldn’t be much trouble getting some information about him.
…
On his way, Marvin met several groups of bandits. But when they saw that he was alone and gave off a feeling that was out of the ordinary, they just let him pass.
After Marvin arrived at Xunshan Town, he released a task to get information about the Wood Elf’s whereabouts through an informant before continuing to Xunshan Monastery.
Xunshan Town and Xunshan Monastery were like two different worlds.
The former was lively and flourishing, while the latter was high in the mountains. To get there, one would need to traverse a rugged mountain road that was a bit broken down and required climbing at parts.
Inside the monastery, a group of Monks were training.
They carried the secret techniques from the past, training in them assiduously. Xunshan Monastery was most famous because of an expert that had come from there. It was said that his strength was enough to shake the Overlords of all the nearby sea areas. It must be known that the Pambo Sea’s Overlords were all powerful Sea Monsters with extraordinary strength.
That super-expert was a Legend Monk who had advanced to Cloud Monk.
In terms of just stats, that class was more powerful than Inheim’s Guardian Monk class!
Marvin followed the rough path and found a group of meditating Monks.
The person in charge of the teachings was an old man. His body was marked by the passage of time and was frighteningly withered, as if there was only a layer of skin on his bones.
“Excuse me, may I ask who you are looking for?” the old man inquired while glancing sideways at Marvin.
In a daze, Marvin had a strange feeling like he was returning to the ancient martial arts world.
A group of Monks practicing ancient techniques in a mountain monastery gave that sort of impression.
“I am here to deliver a letter.”
Marvin smiled, taking out a letter and handing it over.
The old man took a look a handed it back. “The recipient isn’t here.”
“He lives behind the mountain. Walk past that bridge and you can find him in his cave.”
“That’s a strange person, you should be careful.”
Marvin already knew that Professor’s friend wasn’t part of this group of Monks. He was a Blade Technique Master hiding in Xunshan Monastery!
He was called Kangen.
With the old man’s permission, Marvin left and rushed to the back of the mountain.
At the same time, a group of Black Knights also stopped in Xunshan Town.
“It’s nearby… Search attentively!” Sangore coldly ordered.
Chapter 370: Desperation
p>Marvin arrived at the back of Xunshan Monastery’s rear mountain after crossing the suspended stone bridge.
This place was even more ruined than the previous path. There were a few caves that led to some unknown places.
Marvin examined the area carefully and found that someone had frequently gone in and out of the central cave.
There was dust covering the ground of the other entrances, so it seemed that no one had been in those for a long time.
As far as he knew, only Blade Technique Master Kangen was living at the back of this mountain.
It should be right here.
He wasn’t in Feinan Continent anymore. This was the Dead Area Continent, this world’s most desolate region.
With a trace of reverence, Marvin didn’t rely on his Darksight to rush in, lighting a candle instead before slowly entering the cave.
Those who could talk on the same level as the Copper Dragon Professor were certainly not normal people.
Marvin had a vague understanding of Xunshan Monastery and had also heard some things about Blade Technique Master Kangen.
…
The Dead Area was an expansion added in the later stage of the game and it attracted a large number of players on release.
Although the Dead Area was desolate, it had a variety of monsters and many valuable minerals, plants and ghosts that Feinan lacked.
Players had always been fearless. In the eyes of the players, the natives’ banishing ground was a land worth being developed, a territory that had yet to be enjoyed.
At that time, the impact of the Great Calamity in Feinan was gradually diminishing, and with the help of the Golden Children, the cities gradually became prosperous again.
And the Gods also had their own domains in Feinan. Although they didn’t gain a firm foothold, aside from a few fallen Gods, they had their own Apostles and followers. The strength of the players gave them a headache, so they united to open the entrance to the Dead Area, trying to shift the attention of these greedy Golden Children.
At the same time, there was a power they were afraid of in the Dead Area.
They wanted to send the tiger away to swallow the wolf, weakening their own enemies.
As a result, the players in the Dead Area encountered a lot of troubles. Many of the forces working to open up new territories in the Dead Area suffered great losses!
Because their main target was Xunshan Monastery!
They accepted the quest of the Winter God and treated Xunshan Monastery as an instance similar to the Scarlet Monastery.
The outcome… Well, as one could imagine…
After the fight started, the players found out that this seemingly unguarded mountain not only had a rough path that was difficult to traverse, but was also filled with runes and arrays.
Moreover, even though the basic Xunshan Monastery itself only had about 20 Monks, once the fighting started, many Monks from all over the Dead Area Continent hurried back.
This place was very important for Monks from all over the Dead Area. It had many hidden talented individuals and also a long history.
In the first three days of the war, more than two hundred Monks hurried there, and the weakest were Half-Legends! And there were more than ten Legend Monks among them!
Nobody knew where these unknown Legend Monks had been hiding, but when the Monastery was under attack, they rushed back one after the other to help.
The players who received the quest complained endlessly.
Even if there were also some Legends among the players, they simply weren’t able to overcome the powerful Xunshan Monastery!
The first wave of their meticulously prepared attack was defeated.
The angry players looked for the Winter God and accused him of giving the wrong quest information. The Winter God was only a God with medium Divine Power that didn’t dare to descend to Feinan with his body. He was blocked at his shrine by a group of reckless players that were endlessly complaining.
Under the pressure of all these players, the Winter God had no choice but to change his terms. He had to promise more rewards, and also had to send a Divine Power Avatar to the Dead Area to help the players prevail over the “sinister” Xunshan Monastery.
The scene at that time had a lot of influence, and countless related messages appeared on the forums.
After all, this was the first large-scale cooperation between the players and the 3rd Era Gods.
Most people weren’t too optimistic about Xunshan Monastery’s chances this time. It was just a group of Monks. Faced with the players’ human wave tactics, how could it possibly survive?
But the second attack still ended up being defeated.
The reason was that the Blade Technique Master living at the back of the mountain acted!
Kangen only made one move and the Winter God’s avatar was shattered.
The players were stunned. Their morale collapsed immediately!
At that time the players figured out that Xunshan Monastery wasn’t the “evil” place the Gods had made it out to be. It also wasn’t an instance, and was in fact a huge problem for the Gods.
Meanwhile, the conspiracy of the Winter God and the other Gods was revealed by the [Last Valkyrie]. The players were all furious, and they tore apart the shrine of the unlucky Winter God. Although the Great Calamity had already happened, it was a common occurrence for Humans and Gods to cooperate. But the players still generally disliked the Gods. The memory of the destruction of Rocky Mountain, which had happened a while back, was still in the minds of those players who couldn’t participate in the Legends’ battles at that time. With a group fanning the flames on the forums, soon, the 3rd “God Extermination Wave” arrived.
The players spontaneously gathered and planned to put an end to some weaker Gods. The Valkyrie’s supporters went to look for trouble at each Deity Hall in the North.
The Gods were powerful, but facing such a huge number of players, especially those who were at the peak, would be way too much.
Marvin remembered that in the God Extermination Wave, at least four Gods lost their foundations, while the Winter God had even heavier losses and was almost forced to hibernate.
And the fuse to all this was the powerful but low-key force in the Dead Area, Xunshan Monastery.
At the time, Marvin didn’t participate in all this because he was still playing hide and seek with Glynos while making his final preparations to ascend to Godhood.
But Xunshan Monastery’s power left a strong impression on him.
Especially during the second attack on the Monastery. The Blade Technique Master Kangen made a move and it was enough to match the Great Elven King or the Cloud Monk, yet this was only part of his power. Marvin was very curious about how strong that powerhouse was, but no one knew what he was, or whether he was still in this world.
All kinds of legends spread about him.
From that day onwards, the Dead Area Continent became an area forbidden to the Gods. The 3rd era Gods didn’t dare to easily set foot in that ancient mysterious land any longer.
…
In the dark cave, a candle flame swayed gently.
He stopped dwelling in his memories as a fragrant aura came pouring into Marvin’s nose, clearing up his mind.
It was actually sandalwood.
He hadn’t thought there would be sandalwood here, although it was commonly seen in Monks’ monasteries.
Small, small rays of light shone over, revealing the scenery inside.
A shadow was sitting leisurely beside a pond.
Blade Technique Master Kangen.
His back was facing Marvin, and he didn’t have any weapon in hand.
“Few can find this place,” Kangen said casually. “How did you get past those Monks?”
“No one can avoid being spotted by the Monks.” Marvin smiled. “I came to deliver a letter, Prince Kangen.”
In an instant, the atmosphere in the entire cave turned cold.
The originally tranquil water in the pond suddenly started rippling and some of it splashed out and flew to Marvin’s face!
Marvin didn’t blink.
But the next moment, he felt something ice cold before feeling a burning pain.
Blood flowed down from the upper part of his face.
“Sorry… I didn’t control my emotions.”
After a long time, Kangen continued in a faint voice, “It’s been many years since someone addressed me like that.”
Marvin smirked a bit. “Although some things have passed, not everyone will forget.”
Kangen nodded and gestured Marvin to approach. The latter handed over Professor’s letter.
Marvin sighed in relief.
His risky action just now was in order to deepen the Blade Technique Master’s interest in him.
After all, there weren’t many who knew Kangen’s identity. Only a few could be found in this world.
The prince of a destroyed nation, a genius of the Martial Path, a banished wanderer… and also a sinner who fell in love with his own stepmother.
These identities were like shackles making the first part of Kangen’s wandering life very miserable and difficult, up until he immersed himself in Blade Techniques, finally feeling at ease.
Living in seclusion in Xunshan wasn’t because he didn’t want to do anything, but because he had nothing to do.
His former foes had already been killed, the woman he loved had already died, and his old country was no more. He no longer had any place to stay.
The Blade Technique Master of Marvin’s memories was a pitiful person.
Perhaps only people like this could have an exceptional state of mind and be able to stand tall against the Gods as natives.
…
The cave was silent.
Only the sound of water drops could be heard from time to time.
Kangen carefully perused the letter while Marvin stood to the side, looking at his expression.
The Blade Technique Master was rather handsome, and although he had a scar on his face, it didn’t detract from his elegance.
In fact, after reaching his level, it would be very easy to remove that scar if he wanted to, but he didn’t because that scar had a special meaning to him.
Thinking of this, Marvin couldn’t help but inwardly sigh, ‘Beauties do bring disasters.’
After reading the letter, Kangen pondered for a long time.
Marvin wasn’t anxious and just waited.
After a while, Kangen recovered and muttered to himself, “What happened in the end, what made Professor feel danger?”
“This world is changing? Isn’t the outside world changing every day?”
Marvin remained silent. Perhaps the man in the cave had no interest in the changes of the outside world.
But fortunately, after talking to himself for a bit, Kangen finally focused back on Marvin.
He examined Marvin and noted, “You don’t understand Blade Techniques.”
“Please advise, Master Kangen,” Marvin requested respectfully.
“What can you do?” Kangen asked.
Marvin considered for a bit and bluntly answered, “Killing.”
Kangen laughed. “Good. Quite frank. I have a Blade Technique Style which is actually very suitable for people like you.”
“The name of this Blade Technique Style is [Desperation].”
“Follow me.”
Chapter 371: Ice Monster Cave
p>Marvin didn’t know what Professor said in the letter.
But in any case, he still was very grateful to the Copper Dragon. The hermit Kangen would very rarely teach his Blade Techniques to others.
In the game, you needed to do a lot of complicated quests in order to be able to have the right to study a Blade Technique Style.
Advancing down the Martial Path was the same as mastering skills in the sense that it was also a path that required training. It was just that the requirements were even more demanding, so it wasn’t widespread.
Marvin really needed an entire set of Blade Techniques to fuse with all his moves and skills.
The Copper Dragon was incomparably wise. He had lived for who knew how many years and had seen a lot of people like Marvin, so he knew that Kangen could find a way to settle Marvin’s issues.
And this [Desperation] Blade Technique Style was chosen by Grandmaster Kangen for Marvin, who only knew how to kill.
Indeed, although he was called a Blade Technique Master, strictly speaking, Kangen had already stepped into the Grandmaster level in both Blades Mastery and Blade Techniques.
Compared to Marvin’s Curved Dagger Mastery which was at Master level, it was two whole levels higher.
Above Master was Greatmaster, followed by Grandmaster.
Others might not be qualified to say that Marvin didn’t understand blades, but Marvin would accept Kangen’s remarks unconditionally.
…
For Marvin, advancing to Legend rank was indeed the most important matter, but advancing and training his Blade Techniques were also ways to increase his strength.
If he was able to learn a powerful Blade Technique Style, it would have an amazing effect even in the Legend realm.
This could be seen from the fact that Kangen destroyed the Winter God’s avatar in one move. Blade Techniques trained to a certain degree would become very frightening.
The next few days, Marvin trained under Kangen, residing in the mountain behind Xunshan Monastery and practicing this strange Blade Technique Style.
Desperation, as the name implied, was created by Blade Technique Master Kangen when he was in a desperate situation.
At that time, he was being attacked from all sides and was in a hopeless situation. He rarely had a chance to attack and could only defend.
Thus, each attack he made had to kill an enemy!
Marvin initially trained under Kangen for two days, but the latter didn’t explain anything to him, only making Marvin practice all his killing techniques once.
Marvin didn’t hide anything and calmly displayed all his previous killing techniques.
The Master was very satisfied with this.
The killing techniques Marvin knew were already very powerful. Many famous killers didn’t have so many strange and crafty killing techniques.
Even Kangen himself, as a genius of the Martial Path, had no choice but to acknowledge Marvin’s frightening skill in this field.
After watching everything, he sat alone for the night. The next morning, he imparted everything about the Desperation Style to Marvin.
After watching Kangen’s demonstrations, Marvin was shocked.
This Desperation Style had actually fused all of Marvin’s killing techniques, along with the Master’s own understanding and a few other simple moves.
The goal was to integrate all of Marvin’s techniques to form a coherent series of moves, rather than having a bunch of scattered killing techniques.
Marvin was indeed a PK specialist in his previous life, but PKing wasn’t training in the Martial Path after all. He couldn’t create Battle Techniques like a Greatmaster of the Martial Path.
Not to mention, he used to wield straight daggers in his previous life while walking the Assassin’s path. Assassins would focus on the concept of one hit one kill.
He was a Ranger now, so his battle ability in a direct confrontation had been greatly increased. It would be a waste not to take advantage of it.
Marvin trained for no less than three days before his Desperation Style showed signs of forming.
This wasn’t like the kind of Blade Technique that could be conveyed on scrolls. This was a complete style.
Even though the techniques used in the Blade Technique Style were all familiar to Marvin, it still took three days to fully grasp it while relying on his own abilities.
In spite of this, Marvin’s training speed still shocked Kangen.
In barely three days, Marvin showed signs of already having the foundation of the Desperation Style. This made him sigh while thinking that Marvin was also a Martial Path genius.
But in reality, it wasn’t like that.
After sufficiently practicing the Desperation Style, Marvin used experience to learn the basics completely.
20000 exp was rather costly, but in order to save time, he had no choice but to do so.
Under normal circumstances, Marvin wouldn’t be able to learn the Desperation Style well enough for practical use unless he had about a year of training.
Yet now he had a new Martial Path technique style of his own:
Blade Technique – Desperation
There wasn’t much of a description for this technique, and it seemed like it didn’t give any bonuses.
But Marvin knew that if he perfectly mastered this style, his melee abilities would definitely grow a few levels stronger.
For melee experts, the additional effects of Martial Path skills would be comparable to Legend specialties at the later stages!
Marvin used three days to finish learning Desperation, and then he planned to take his leave. After all, you had to rely on your own efforts to become stronger. And he didn’t come to the Dead Area to train in Xunshan but to find Ivan.
But at that time, Kangen blocked Marvin with a smile.
His reason was simple. “Now that you have learnt Desperation, you are considered as my half disciple.”
“Before you have reached Master level in this Blade Technique Style, I won’t allow you to leave Xunshan.”
Marvin was startled and soon complained with a bitter smile.
How could he have the time to stay and train laboriously?
He was about to start explaining, but Kangen spoke first. “Rest assured, it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Xunshan isn’t suitable for someone like you who trains in killing techniques.”
“But there is one place you have to pass through. You need to spend some time and look at yourself.”
After saying this, he took Marvin to a strange cave at the rear mountain.
This cave was the most remote one. When the two went inside, Marvin noticed the temperature constantly lowering.
At the same time, he was shocked to find that his own skills were starting to turn gray on his interface.
“Here, you are unable to rely on other things.”
“Besides the Martial Path’s techniques, you have nothing.”
Kangen slightly smiled, throwing a pair of wooden short daggers to Marvin. “Use those.”
Marvin put away his daggers and obediently grabbed the cold wooden daggers.
The two of them walked to the depths of the cave and past a certain point, Marvin found out that all his skills were sealed!
“This is an Ice Monster Cave. It was one of the roads to the bottom of the mountain but was later occupied by an Ice Monster Leader. I already killed him, but there are still many Ice Monsters inside.
“There are a lot of secrets hidden here, and thus you can’t use your skills. You can only rely on your own Blade Techniques. If you want to leave this place, you have to kill your way out.”
Kangen concluded seriously, “The real Desperation Style isn’t something you can learn from rote practice.”
“It is something you learn by killing.”
Marvin faintly nodded, holding his wooden daggers in his hands and moving a few steps forward.
At that time, two human faces appeared on the walls.
A cold aura assaulted his senses.
Two Ice Monsters roared and fiercely pounced on him!
Marvin remained calm and used his wooden daggers to display the Desperation Style, slashing fiercely at the head of one of the Ice Monsters!
But the wooden daggers didn’t strike with as much strength as Marvin expected. Instead of cutting the Ice Monster, the attack simply provoked it.
The two Ice Monsters rushed at him again.
In an instant, Marvin was under attack from two different sides.
But he seemed to have gained some understanding.
…
Xunshan Town.
While Marvin was training his Blade Techniques on the mountain, he didn’t know that Black Knight Sangore had led the rest of the Black Knights and completely overturned Xunshan Town.
That day when Marvin used the Book of Nalu to absorb Dark Phoenix’s Divine Source and trick her, he had already attracted Sangore’s attention.
The aura of the Book of Nalu was particularly strong there, and the Black Knight was determined to have it, clashing with many people.
But although Xunshan Town was lively, there weren’t many people willing to contend against the Legend Black Knight.
Several days later, the Black Knight still hadn’t found the Book of Nalu.
He finally lost his cool as he gazed at the mountain hidden between the clouds.
“Go up, grab everyone!”
The Black Knight pulled on his reins and rushed up the rough mountain path!
Many people were discussing this in the town with faces of worry.
A war was unavoidable.
Chapter 372: Cloud Monk
p>The Black Knights were arrogantly and imposingly charging along the rough mountain path.
Their warhorses weren’t ordinary, able to navigate the rough terrain and easily react to anything.
The terrible mountain path had been no small test for most of the adventurers, but Marvin was able to cross it as if it were even ground thanks to his Godly Dexterity.
The people at the bottom of the mountain started worrying for the Monks.
Especially the outsiders. They didn’t know much about Xunshan Monastery and had only heard a few rumors.
The Monks in the monastery were usually cultivating painstakingly, not doing much else. Who knew whether that group of Black Knights would try to turn the monastery upside down.
After all, the Dead Area had no shortage of powerhouses.
…
With Black Knight Sangore at the lead, they finally arrived at Xunshan Monastery.
He was usually a silent person who dealt with everything using his strength. The long chase this time had annoyed him greatly.
They almost lost Marvin’s trail on the sea. Sangore couldn’t understand how his opponent could move so quickly.
The only explanation should be that the other party was a powerful caster.
Whatever the case, Sangore relied on his God’s Book to be able to chase Marvin here.
He chased Marvin from Sunrise Island all the way up here, following the aura of the God’s Book, but he still hadn’t found it yet.
He also had expert Trackers among his followers and they had never failed him before.
The aura trail left by the God’s Book ended in Xunshan’s surroundings. Since that day, Sangore and his subordinates had searched all around Xunshan’s surroundings, yet they didn’t find what they were looking for.
Thus, he was certain that the thing he wanted was in these mountains.
As for Xunshan Monastery, Sangore had heard about it, but as a Legend powerhouse, he didn’t fear mere rumors.
What scared him a bit was some faintly discernible aura on the mountain.
That aura was extremely restrained, yet would occasionally burst out. It was enough to make him apprehensive.
There was at least one powerhouse on the same level as him on the mountain.
But the aura had disappeared today.
This was the reason Sangore decided to rush up the mountain.
He knew that this might be his only opportunity. If he didn’t go up now, his quarry might find a way to flee.
As for the monastery, he simply didn’t care about its reputation.
In Feinan plane, there were many who chose the Monk’s path. He had killed so many Monks that he didn’t remember how many.
“Forward!”
The Black Knights cheered loudly as they pointed their spears forward, quickly rushing toward the monastery.
But at that time, a sturdy man blocked their path!
“What are you doing?”
This was a young Monk.
He had a bad temper and bellowed at the Black Knights, “This is Xunshan Monastery! Not a place filthy things like you can invade.”
Sangore stared coldly the young Monk. “Filthy things…”
“Isn’t that the case?” The young Monk swept his angry gaze across the Black Knights. “Half-Humans, Half-Devils…No, you are more repulsive than those pure Devils! You clearly were Humans, but you transformed yourselves into this!”
“Isn’t it right to say that you are filthy?” insisted the young Monk with a nauseated expression.
His words were quite right. The Black Knight class partly drew their power from the Devils.
The strength of Sangore’s group was artificial. They transformed themselves by using Hell’s methods, making their bodies give off the aura of Hell, which repulsed the young Monk.
“You are right. Are you from this monastery?” Sangore asked in an ominous voice.
The young Monk nodded loftily.
“Bam!”
A spear pierced the Monk’s heart. The fierce momentum forced his body back 10 meters before the spear nailed into a rock!
“Crash!”
The terrible power behind the spear crushed the rock into pieces, raising dust and fragments in the air as the Monk died with his eyes still open.
“Kill them first, then look for the artifact,” Sangore ordered indifferently.
After saying that, he tugged the reins and went to the young Monk’s body. He pulled his spear out and rushed through the monastery doors.
“Thud thud thud!”
The sound of cold iron hooves disturbed the peace of the monastery.
Painful shouts began to echo throughout the mountain.
…
Depths of the Ice Monster cave.
Marvin was out of breath. He had finally managed to kill the Ice Monsters with the two wooden daggers in his hands, but he was sore all over and extremely weary!
He was rarely this tired.
He couldn’t use his skills, and his wooden daggers were blunt weapons that could only deal the minimum amount of damage. It was very troublesome for Marvin.
The Ice Monsters didn’t appear one by one.
The first time two appeared, then four, and this wave had eight!
The levels were also higher each time. They were around level 10 at first, but gradually reached level 15.
Marvin almost exhausted all his stamina on the third wave.
In this battle, Marvin had made great use of his killing techniques.
Although he was exhausted, he inexorably felt that he had found a way to increase his strength.
This was the most effective method for natives.
He checked his interface and his Desperation Style had already reached Apprentice from Beginner.
Reaching this point after a few hours wasn’t easy.
Of course, he was still quite the distance away from reaching Master as Kangen had told him to.
Marvin felt sore and couldn’t help but ask, “Next wave wouldn’t be sixteen, right?”
Kangen calmly stood there looking at Marvin who was drenched in sweat and couldn’t help but laugh. “You guessed correctly.”
Marvin inwardly shook his head.
The number of Ice Monsters that appeared doubled each time they went deeper into the cave.
It was true that his Blade Technique Style was sharp, but how could he inflict a lot of damage with these wooden daggers?
Thinking about fighting sixteen Ice Monsters of an even higher level than before gave Marvin a headache.
“You can rest.”
Kangen gently reminded him, “Stamina is very important.”
Marvin nodded and was about to sit down to rest when suddenly, Kangen’s expression hardened.
“What’s going on?”
Marvin could tell that something was wrong from his face, as only a few things in this world could make this powerhouse have such a change in expression.
Kangen’s complexion was a little ugly. “These guys dared to rush up and massacre the Monks in the monastery?”
Marvin felt bad, but didn’t say anything.
Kangen flipped his palm and a cloudy mist appeared above it, forming a screen.
“This is…” Marvin was appalled by what was happening.
The point of view was from the sky above, overlooking everything happening in Xunshan Monastery.
Six frightening Black Knights were wantonly massacring the Monks!
“Black Knight Sangore!” Marvin’s heart raced!
He hadn’t expected that Sangore would actually pursue him there. If he hadn’t been training Desperation, he might have already bumped into that group of Black Knights!
The Monks in that scene were the ones he saw a few days ago. Most of these people had just started cultivating and weren’t high level, so how could they resist the onslaught of the Black Knights?
It was a completely one-sided massacre!
Xunshan was a mountain range and the basic monastery was on the front mountain, but the real core was still in that tall peak to the north of the rear mountain.
Beset with Sangore’s surprise attack, these ordinary Monks simply didn’t have the strength to retaliate!
Marvin felt guilty. He was the one who attracted that group of reckless Black Knights. These Monks were just innocent bystanders who suffered because of him!
“We should…”
Marvin didn’t get to finish his sentence before Kangen shook his head, muttering, “Someone will take care of it.”
He had a serious expression.
In the scene, an old Monk shivered in front of the Black Knights.
He looked at them with grief and anger but didn’t say a word.
Sangore expressionlessly raised his spear as his war horse neighed!
“Attack!” The six Black Knights raised their spears at the same time.
But at that time, a figure flew down from the central peak like a celestial being!
He grabbed the old Monk and swiftly flew past the Black Knights’ spears.
‘[Cloud Wandering]!’
‘Cloud Monk?’
Seeing this movement, Marvin’s heart skipped a beat. He knew who it was that came to help!
Such a wonderful ability to wander the clouds… Only someone with 9 or more levels in the Cloud Monk class could master it.
Besides that person, no one else could!
Chapter 373: Legend!
p>On the screen, that figure flew down from the mountain peak and instantly brought the old Monk away, not only making the spears of the Black Knights hit empty air, but also slightly pushing them back!
All the spears started shaking.
The next moment, these frightening lethal weapons seemed to lose their aura in front of that person as they shattered!
Despite Marvin’s many adventures, it was the first time he saw a Cloud Monk’s fierceness!
That class was one of the Monk Legend advancements and was practically the most powerful.
Because in addition to possessing formidable power, that class also had a property that the others didn’t have: Longevity!
In Feinan, it was very difficult to reach immortality. Besides ascending to Godhood, very few class holders could become immortal.
Even the most powerful class holders would eventually lose their strength due to the passage of time.
Very few classes had the ability to attain immortality. Becoming a Lich was one way, and there were a few other classes that had a skill like Longevity.
And Cloud Monk was one of them.
As they cultivated and increased in level, not only would Cloud Monks be able to tread across mountains as if they were level land, but they would also gain the ability to travel through the clouds, walk on snow without leaving a trace, and increase their lifespan.
After reaching level 9, they were almost immortal. That’s why Cloud Monk was considered a very powerful class. Who knew how many years this Cloud Monk had lived?
Most of the time, their strength and age were proportional.
…
The old Monk was startled by that split-second clash. The newly arriving figure unhurriedly turned around and faced the six Black Knights alone.
Marvin could clearly see that the person on the screen of mist wasn’t much different from a twelve year old youth!
He had fair skin and looked like a young master of a respectable house who was dressed in Monk clothes, perhaps paying respect to a monastery.
But in fact, his strength was unfathomable!
‘A character on the same level as the Great Elven King… The Dead Area is truly filled with hidden dragons and crouching tigers. No wonder the impact of the Great Calamity on the Dead Area was minimal.’
Marvin sighed.
He didn’t know the Cloud Monk’s name because in the game, no one ever saw him fight.
The attacks on Xunshan Monastery had always been taken care of by Blade Technique Master Kangen when they could hold out no longer.
Today just happened to be a day when Kangen was away teaching Marvin Desperation, so he had to make a move himself.
His movements were extremely graceful, to the point that he looked like a celestial being, just as the rumors said.
‘Handsome indeed. Cloud Monk truly deserves to be known as one of the most dashing classes in Feinan…’
Marvin looked at him with envy. The sight of him flying down from the clouds was unforgettable.
Although Wizards could do something similar with the help of a flying carpet, there was no way for them to look so graceful and relaxed as if they were doing it completely effortlessly.
And this Cloud Monk was only relying on his physical body and his ability to connect to heaven and earth to move like this.
But Marvin knew that the Cloud Monk class was very demanding on one’s comprehension. Even in the game, he hadn’t heard of any powerful Monks that successfully advanced to it. In the entire history of Feinan, there couldn’t have been more than a few famous Cloud Monks. They were almost as rare as Fate Sorceresses. So there was no point in being envious.
Since that person took action, Xunshan Monastery would be taken care of.
Sure enough, after the appearance of the Cloud Monk, he glanced at a Black Knight and a young Monk’s body, and then struck without saying anything.
He only used two moves to kill the other five Black Knights!
As for Sangore, even as a Legend, he wasn’t able to last more than five moves against the Cloud Monk!
Marvin was astonished.
‘Wasn’t Sangore a Legend powerhouse? How could he suffer so badly?’
At that time, the mist screen in Blade Master Kangen’s hands suddenly dissipated.
Marvin scratched his head, puzzled.
Kangen sighed, looking at Marvin with a strange expression. “He didn’t come looking for trouble with Xunshan Monastery.”
Marvin remained silent for a while, before finally nodding.
Kangen didn’t say anything more about that and only shook his head. “He is still soft-hearted. If it were me, that Black Knight wouldn’t have escaped.”
Since Marvin wasn’t able to see the later part of the fight, he could only ask Master Kangen.
Kangen didn’t hide it from him.
Just as Marvin expected, the Cloud Monk had eradicated the Black Knights.
Sangore suffered heavy injuries but because he was sharp-witted, he didn’t hesitate to use an item to escape from Xunshan Monastery.
According to Kangen, the Cloud Monk didn’t chase him down, or else he could have easily killed Sangore.
But Marvin knew that Sangore definitely wouldn’t give up.
Being repelled by the Cloud Monk this time didn’t mean that he could resist the attraction of the Book of Nalu.
Despite establishing it, he wasn’t the most powerful being in the Black Knight Monastery. He would definitely look for another powerful Legend after his recent failure.
From what Marvin knew, behind the Black Knight Monastery was the shadow of Hell.
Things weren’t that simple.
Sooner or later, Sangore would look for him to settle this matter. Xunshan Monastery and the Cloud Monk blocked for him this time, but it wouldn’t be like that next time.
‘Power! Strength!’
Marvin took a deep breath.
In the end, it was still a matter of strength. If he were as powerful as the Cloud Monk, he could easily get rid of Sangore and get that 2nd page of the Book of Nalu.
With the 1st page hidden in the treasury of the Night Walkers, his own 6th page, and Hathaway’s 3rd page in the Ashes Tower… Half of the pages were more or less in his possession.
He always felt that the Book of Nalu might play a critical part in the future confrontation with the Gods.
That was because it could swallow Divine Source.
Too many truths were hidden in that Artifact. The God of Deception wrote it using his Divine Power and his life, only to leave behind a disaster? That couldn’t be it.
…
In any case, Sangore retreated and Marvin was safe for the time being. Thinking too much about it wouldn’t do him any good.
He still had to find a way to pass the test in the Ice Monster cave.
Although these Ice Monsters were repulsive, the experience they gave wasn’t insignificant. On average, each Ice Monster so far gave Marvin several hundred exp.
If he weren’t using wooden daggers, and if the number of Ice Monsters kept increasing, this would be a good place to farm experience.
Unfortunately, Kangen was very strict in order to properly temper Marvin’s Blade Technique Style.
He had to use the wooden daggers.
Thus, after resting for a bit, Marvin’s challenge continued.
This time, he advanced a few more steps and a considerable group of Ice Monsters appeared in front of him!
The corner of Marvin’s mouth twitched.
This was indeed a wave of sixteen Ice Monsters!
Each time, the number of Ice Monsters doubled.
In an instant, the pressure on Marvin increased. He raised his daggers and once again rushed forward.
In the Ice Monster cave, a shadow carrying wooden daggers flickered and a chaotic battle started once again.
…
In the end, Marvin took no less than three and a half days before walking out of the Ice Monster cave.
This time was rather shorter than he had expected.
As he left the icy cave and walked on a part of the mountain path, the sun shone through the never-scattering fog of the Dead Area, slightly blinding him.
The Blade Technique Master stood in the shadow of the cave, looking at Marvin with a smile.
It was clear that it was a bit outside his expectations for Marvin to successfully level Desperation Style to Master so quickly.
He was very pleased with Marvin’s performance.
“Go.” Kangen smiled. “You can leave.”
Marvin looked at Kangen gratefully, wanting to say something but hesitating.
Kangen reassured, “Don’t worry. I know what you want to ask. We will meet again. Maybe very soon.”
Marvin nodded, and after thanking Master Kangen for his instruction, he left the Xunshan area.
He had wanted to ask about the contents of Professor’s letter. Professor making a move away from Feinan this time was a bit strange.
From Kangen’s reaction, Marvin faintly understood that if the Copper Dragon met with some trouble, he would need powerhouses on the level of Kangen to help.
Marvin naturally wanted to know what was happening.
But since Kangen wasn’t willing to disclose it, he couldn’t force the issue.
After leaving the area, Marvin changed his Disguise and returned to Xunshan Town.
His previously released quest had already been accepted by some people.
Although the Dead Area was vast, there were few places where people gathered and information networks were decently developed.
The Elven Prince was a prominent character. He had arrived at the Dead Area a while ago and crossed paths with many experts, so it wasn’t as if there weren’t any signs of his movements.
It turned out that there were many forces buying information about his whereabouts and Marvin wasn’t the only one tracking him.
Soon, he obtained exact news about Ivan, and there was even a location!
After Marvin finished listening to the information, he was left with a strange expression. ‘Seems like Ivan is really worried this time.’
‘He actually came here in such a high-profile manner.’
‘The Secret Garden is opening? Another instance opening early? What’s going on?’
He thought for a while before quickly leaving Xunshan Town, going straight for the Secret Garden instance location on the map.
That was in the west of the Dead Area, a place filled with dangers.
The Secret Garden’s opening was different from Saruha’s. Only the Wolf Spider mercenary group had been aware of Saruha’s entrance, but this time, the opening of the Secret Garden had gathered many powerhouses because of Ivan.
Marvin went as fast as possible, hoping he could get there in time.
The Dead Area was a very frightening place. Even the Elven War Saint could suffer a loss if he wasn’t careful.
Marvin had promised the Great Elven King that he would get Ivan back, and had also promised to create an opportunity for the Sea Elven Queen.
Most importantly, Ivan was Marvin’s important friend.
He needed to help Ivan get what he wanted.
Moreover, he was now powerful enough!
Thinking of this, Marvin glanced at the 150000 exp on his interface and unhesitantly chose to spend 144000 exp to level Night Walker!
Marvin’s Night Walker class reached level 9!
In an instant, his total level reached 21, advancing to Legend!
Chapter 374: Secret Garden
p>Before Marvin came to the Dead Area, he received 50000 exp from Mark 47.
With Sky and the monsters of the Seafloor Tunnel, he had close to 70000 exp before he set foot on the Dead Area Continent.
Of those, he used 20000 to learn Desperation Style and originally thought he would have to find a place to farm some battle exp before he could level up his Night Walker class.
After all, reaching level 9 Night Walker required 144000 exp!
But he hadn’t expected that the challenge Kangen gave him, the Ice Monster Cave, would turn out to be a decent farming spot.
In the end, each Ice Monster gave about 800 on average and Marvin killed a total of 126 of them!
That was six waves of Ice Monsters. In the final wave, Marvin was encircled by a whopping 64 Ice Monsters and he had to desperately fight his way through.
During the extremely troublesome slaughter, not only did his Desperation Style reach Master level, but he also harvested more than 100000 battle exp.
It was this exp gain that allowed him to level up his Night Walker class.
Thus, after reaching the Legend threshold at the 21st level, an option appeared on his interface.
[Choose a Legend class: Ranger (lv9) – Night Walker (lv9)]
Right now, he could only choose between Ranger and Night Walker to be his Legend class, because Ruler of the Night’s advancement required Ranger (lv8) – Night Walker (lv10).
Although Marvin had the Advancement manual, he didn’t meet the requirements and thus couldn’t advance to Ruler of the Night.
Marvin instantly declined to choose a Legend class.
The advantage of the game-like system could be seen here as he could choose his Legend Class at any time. He had to meet the requirements first.
Thus, Marvin’s total level went back down to 20 from 21.
Indeed, without choosing a Legend class, he would remain a level 20 Half-Legend. Although he had enough levels to be a Legend, he didn’t have a Legend class.
And when calculating his total level, regardless of what the levels of his classes were at, it would be stuck at level 20 without a Legend class.
Marvin didn’t care much about this. He chose to upgrade his Night Walker level in order to get a step closer to Ruler of the Night, while also increasing his own strength.
Level 9 Night Walker gave Marvin an additional 36 skill points and 246 HP.
At the same time, Marvin gained two Night Walker specialties:
[Major Tenacity]: Serious injuries won’t hinder your moves.
[Magic’s Foe]: Substantial increase in Magic Resistance.
These two specialties were very powerful passives. In fact, the closer to the Legend Realm, the more often the specialties would be passives. But it was these passive specialties that were the most powerful.
The first specialty and Marvin’s personal specialty [Endurance] covered both sides of the coin, making him more powerful in battle as he could ignore both pain and the hindering effects of injuries. This was very significant.
After all, there would be a deviation when injured. This slight change could make the difference between life and death.
And the [Magic’s Foe] specialty would be useful when fighting a caster. This specialty would weaken the effect of the spells cast toward Marvin. Regardless of anything else, level 9 Night Walker had already demonstrated its strength. Rarely would a class gain such tyrannical passives before the Legend realm.
This was also the reason most of the people in the Night Walker organization chose Night Walker as their Legend class.
Both Constantine and O’Brien showed the power of the Night Walker class, even though they had different paths.
…
After dealing with the level up, Marvin continued to rush toward the Secret Garden.
In fact, he hadn’t thought he would be able to complete Kangen’s test in three and a half days.
After all, the wooden daggers were hardly any better than bare hands against Ice Monsters. The only advantage was that he could block. But Desperation Style wasn’t used for blocking.
The essence of this Blade Technique Style was in attacks, continuous attacks.
Marvin originally expected that based on his efficiency, he would need at least a week to defeat all the Ice Monsters.
But as his Blade Technique Style leveled up, his pace grew substantially faster, completely showing the power of his Desperation Style.
Marvin hadn’t trained in the Martial Path in the game, so he didn’t know what bonuses it gave!
When his Desperation Style reached [Intermediate], his first Martial Path property appeared!
[Weapon Sharpness +15].
The increase in weapon sharpness made it a lot easier for Marvin to kill the Ice Monsters, enhancing his offensive abilities even with the wooden daggers. He originally needed more than a dozen slashes to kill an Ice Monster and it suddenly decreased to just a few, greatly increasing the efficiency.
It also was from that point in time that Marvin began his farming.
When Marvin’s Desperation Style reached [Expert], the second property appeared as planned: [Armor Break +20]
This was a property that belonged to weapons, but it appeared as a bonus from the Blade Technique Style. Although Ice Monsters didn’t have armor, after Marvin obtained this property, he clearly felt that the wooden daggers had an easier time slashing their bodies.
He spent no less than a day and half fighting the last wave of Ice Monsters before Desperation Style reached the Master realm.
There, he obtained his third reward:
[Desperation Burst: When using Desperation Style, each attack has a chance of having its damage multiplied.]
It was still a passive, and the damage multiplication made it so that Marvin was able to occasionally one-shot a level 17 Ice Monster!
Even if the probability wasn’t high, when handling multiple enemies or engaging in a battle of attrition, this would make a huge difference.
With those three bonuses, Marvin defeated the remaining Ice Monsters and finally killed his way out of the cave.
…
The power of Desperation was greater than he had expected.
If he could train this Blade Technique Style to Greatmaster, or even Grandmaster… he didn’t even dare imagine.
No wonder Kangen was able to cut down the Winter God’s avatar.
It was just unfortunate that Desperation Style couldn’t be leveled by experience anymore. The system also had its own limitations. Otherwise, with Marvin’s farming efficiency, he could easily level his Curved Dagger Mastery and Blade Technique Style to the peak.
He thought of his harvest in the Ice Monster cave while urging his horse to hurry toward the Secret Garden.
After approximately a day, Marvin reached the western part of the Dead Area.
On the journey, he changed horses three times to stay at the maximum speed. He soon started to meet people on the road.
These people were also rushing forward in a hurry, apparently toward the Secret Garden.
‘I hope the Secret Garden hasn’t opened yet and Ivan didn’t get into trouble,’ Marvin worried.
The Secret Garden wasn’t like Saruha. In the past, this place had another name: [Tomb of Legends]!
‘Every time the Secret garden was opened, it was because someone deliberately threw some bait…’
Marvin narrowed his eyes, thinking over his memories from the game.