Chapter 31: Warning

His skin crawled. “Servitude? To whom? How? When?”

Riven swallowed as he asked those questions. He watched the book intently as he waited for the words to write themselves. Beside him, Kivara shrugged because, as usual, she couldn’t read what was happening.

The red words appeared again. “You have gained the title: Dimensional Necromancer!”

“What? What’s that? Kivara, do you know anything about a Dimensional Necromancer? What are you talking about? What title?” Riven felt as if he should rip the book in two. He felt an invisible chain binding him, and he wanted to do nothing but break it, but he knew instinctively that the book wouldn’t be destroyed.

Kivara shook her head with a frown. “I’ve never heard about that before. It’s not something that’s put together that often either. Dimensional Necromancer?”

The red words continued to write themselves. “Congratulations! You have gained approval to enter the assassination servitude without payment, in service of ###########!

“Warning! You must complete each assassination. Kill your target, or you will be put up for assassination as well!”

“Wait… wait! Don’t approve it! I don’t want to be doing anything in anybody’s service! And why is the name canceled out? Leave me out of this!”

But the book just kept updating without listening to him. “Continue your good work in the service of ###########, and you might one day get rewarded!”

Riven moved away from the book, his whole body feeling cold.

“…What is this?… Is this how the practitioner world is, where I’m just bonded into servitude without giving my approval… just like that?… No… I refuse to accept this!”

Anger filled him then. His whole life had been spent being useless, and now that he was finally free from that, something somewhere thought it could force him into something he didn’t want and had no idea about?

“…All I want is to save my sister and be powerful enough to be the one who bullies others… You shit book bastard!”

“Kivara, can you cut the book in two? I want it gone.”

She looked at him curiously. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. Just do it.” No way was he going to allow a book to dictate how he was going to live.

Kivara shrugged, and darkness solidified in her right hand, forming into a sword. She gestured for him to give her space and then positioned herself in front of the book. She lifted her sword, looked at Riven, and then slashed down!

The sword smashed into the book hard enough to cut it in two, but the book just bounced away as if it had been hit by a stick. That was the only visible reaction it gave, but it was different for Riven.

As the sword hit the book, his whole body erupted with pain. His vision went white. He didn’t know when he hit the ground, writhing.

He felt pain deep in his chest, as if a skeletal hand was reaching for his heart, ready to yank it out. Fear followed because he knew what would happen would be a final death—one his Undying Sigil wouldn’t be able to help with.

He trembled on the ground like that for a while before the pain finally left his body. He pushed himself into a crouch, glaring at the book and wincing as it floated closer.

“I don’t think you can destroy it. Better listen to what it’s saying before you die,” Kivara said.

Riven had been thinking the same, so he began to consider it logically. “It wants me to assassinate people in… well, I’m going to guess dimensional planes. And if I miss any of my targets, then I will be the one to get assassinated.”

Kivara frowned. “Never heard of anything like this before. The book doesn’t seem like a relic—it’s simply too aware. And the people sending you to other worlds? They must be ridiculously powerful. Or maybe the entity behind it is just that powerful.”

“And now I don’t think it’s Wandering Death anymore.”

“Why? Because of the dimension?”

She looked at him, her eyes steady with calculations. “Yes. You might not know this, but for thousands of years now, we have not been able to punch out of this world.”

“This realm. No one… that’s known has been able to get out of here.”

Riven felt a chill at that implication. “And if people found out about this…?”

“They shouldn’t. If you want to remain breathing,” Kivara warned, her eyes hard and serious.

Silence filled the air, and Riven shifted. He avoided looking at her as he focused on the book. Tension coiled between the two of them, and he tensed.

“…Two of my secrets are now with her… Should I try to kill her?… Can I win?…”

Kivara shifted as if she was getting ready for a fight as the tension mounted.

“…I don’t think I can win… Maybe I shouldn’t have saved her… But then I wouldn’t have survived the catacomb so far… I’ll get stronger first… Then I’ll think about what to do… But for now, I must make sure she remains my ally…”

“See! There are now words on the cover!” Riven exclaimed, and the moment passed. Kivara relaxed and moved closer to him to stare at the gibberish.

“What does it say?”

“The Death Ledger. That was all that was written in front of it. Death Ledger.”

For some reason, the words gave him a chill that he shook away. Silently, the book opened again to a page of darkness and began to write, repeating the same sentence again and again.

“Warning! You must complete each assassination. Kill your target, or you will be put up for assassination as well!”

“Warning! You must complete each assassination. Kill your target, or you will be put up for assassination as well!”

“Warning! You must complete each assassination. Kill your target, or you will be put up for assassination as well!”

“Warning! You must complete each assassination. Kill your target, or you will be put up for assassination as well!”

“Warning! You must complete each assassination. Kill your target, or you will be put up for assassination as well!”

“Warning! You must complete each assassination. Kill your target, or you will be put up for assassination as well!”

And then it stopped writing and began a new word. “Searching… Searching… Searching for a new mission.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep