“Hey, Lucan, ready to see some cool shit?” Thalion asked while entering Lucan’s shop with a big grin.

Lucan’s smithy was a lot bigger now than before, with many more magic circles to empower additional materials.

“Finally, I have been waiting all day,” Lucan exclaimed, a bit more serious than expected. “You know, you got us a bit scared with that entrance of yours.”

“That was the plan. Worked way better than I first thought,” Thalion laughed.

“Good, good. I trust that you have things with Michael and Garrick handled,” Lucan said, worried. He also clearly didn’t like them both.

“For the moment, yes. Wanna see my sword now?” Thalion smiled as he took it out of his spatial ring.

“How marvelous, a blood-bound weapon. Just how powerful is your blood to make it this strong?” Lucan said in admiration.

“Well, it was a big gamble, but it worked in the end,” Thalion laughed, remembering how the sword had blasted him after the creation was finished.

“I believe you. So, you said you have something cool for me?” Lucan said with excitement, and that’s why Thalion liked the old man. In his world, all was about creating cool stuff.

“Ah yes, here, take a look at it,” Thalion said while giving him the black spear he took from the man who had tortured so many survivors.

“Marvelous, but what is this aura? It’s almost like the spear was bathed in it,” Lucan muttered, looking at the spear from different angles.

“Have fun. I have things to do for this week,” Thalion waved, turning to leave the smithy.

“Wait, do you want me to build something?” Lucan exclaimed.

“Later. I have a few more things to do first,” Thalion said while leaving the smithy.

He needed to get as far as possible with his soul cultivation. He had already looked into how to construct a soul core. A soul core was the power source of the spirit body, and he definitely needed one if he tried to do any outsider stuff. First, he had to add a lot more veins to his spirit body, which would definitely take its time.

<–

Kael, Kai, and Sylas were scouting the land, and what they saw was marvelous. They had spawned on a higher region and were now looking down on a landscape resembling the African savanna if dinosaurs had roamed it. Every beast had evolved. Lions could fly and the skin of a T-Rex looked like it was made out of lava. Kael started to identify a few of the beasts:

Stormhide Stegadon Level 74

Crystalhide Ankylodon Level 71

Windstrider Ostridon Level 69

Spikeback Hyenadon Level 72

Stormback Elephantrum Level 74

Ironhide Rhino Level 71

Gliderfang Lion Level 75

He stopped identifying the beasts as the Gliderfang Lion turned around and looked in their direction. They were all powerful in their own rights. Every one of these beasts he remembered from Earth, like the Spikeback Hyenadon, Stormback Elephantrum, Ironhide Rhino, and Gliderfang Lion, were all at least twice as big as they were back on Earth.

They radiated power and had no reason to fear any of the giant dinosaurs. Some had even changed a lot more, like the Windstrider Ostridon. On Earth, it was herbivorous, but judging by the size of the beak and the predatory eyes scanning the area, the current diet must have changed drastically.

They spent the whole day scouting and observing the area but didn’t find any traces of the undead. Were they really this lucky and hadn’t spawned near the undead? Were they actually safe because of the monstrous size of the tutorial zone? Even without the undead, it would be very hard to level up when the beasts were this strong.

He had spotted a giant river in the distance where the grass was a bit greener instead of the light yellow color most plants had here. There were also the occasional trees, but not enough to hide from any predators. Back in the third stage, it was easy to kill beasts without getting swarmed by other beasts who saw their chances.

It had happened, but not often; here it would happen a lot, and he had no idea where they should go to level up. Of course, Kai, Sylas, and he could deal with the circumstances, but the weaker ones around level 55, like most of the guards, would have no chance. At least there were no vampires hunting them.

<–

They had spawned in a jungle that was not as tall as the last one, nor did the plants glow with bioluminescence. The vampires were everywhere. Thorwald swung his axe from side to side, keeping the undead at bay. The moment they had arrived in the fourth stage, they were under attack as multiple vampires and hordes of beasts launched their assault. The beasts had also been turned into vampires or had that blood mist steaming from their bodies, like the wolves they had encountered in the second stage.

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The onslaught was no joke, with most undead around level 60 and the stronger ones close to level 70. Since the introduction phase had ended, it was so much harder to gain experience, and leveling up could take days. Good for Thorwald that he could match those vampires, not just because of his strength. His biggest advantage was his equipment.

His white, glowing armor was made to withstand a lot more than those blood spears the vampires fired at him, and his axe couldn’t be stopped by any hide or scale. All the defensive arrays were running at full power as the mages and archers bombarded his surroundings. It was extremely difficult to kill vampires—the fight had raged for over half an hour, and he hadn’t managed to kill one. They were most likely holding back, but why?

They were losing hundreds of beasts while they barely managed to kill their elite fighter. Thorwald spun around to kill some kind of blood-cursed gorilla charging at him. With a swipe of the axe, he destroyed the gorilla’s body, and the slash shot out, killing a few more beasts behind the big one. Steven was flying over the battlefield, firing a stream of white-hot flames at the vampires.

They tried to kill Steven with blood thorns, but they all got blocked by his shield or armor. After an hour of fighting, the undead retreated, with almost a thousand of their blood beasts dead, while only a hundred of their men had died in return. They hadn’t managed to kill any vampires in the battle—they were just too quick and careful, after all.

“What are we doing now? Should we chase them?” a man beside him asked.

Thorwald had no idea. The vampires were fast and powerful, and they were definitely waiting for them in the jungle. What if they had placed traps in the jungle? Then they would be screwed for sure. Those beasts they controlled were also no joke—they were all above level 60.

“Thorwald, take some fighters and start scouting the jungle,” Steven commanded as he landed in front of him.

It was clear he hoped for Thorwald to be killed in a vampire ambush, but he had no choice at the moment, so he agreed and gathered his strongest warriors to scout out the jungle with vampires waiting inside.

Steven grinned beneath his helmet as he saw Thorwald reluctantly entering the undergrowth of the jungle.

Maybe he was lucky, and that brute would get killed. The fourth stage was troubling—they had no clue where they were or what to do next. This was likely only one squad of vampires and the undead. If not, they were extremely unlucky to be immediately discovered after arriving on the fourth stage. His men were already charging the runes in the walls and the magic circles. To baptize all of his men had been a very good decision as their power had skyrocketed, making the defense easier.

For now, he was confident that they would hold against the vampires. It would be very difficult to get 150,000 credits to advance to stage four. Leveling was also a pain since the instruction phase had ended. The many beasts he killed in the fight didn’t give much exp or credits at all. They had no idea where the vampires had their base, or how strong the beasts in this area were, aside from those blood beasts controlled by the vampires. Those beasts had charged them recklessly without a care for their lives—probably due to being undead and controlled.

<–

Lucius and Cathrin arrived on the fifth stage. It looked like the fourth stage, except that after they scouted the area, they found a giant desert with multiple rock formations. They traveled for days until they found the first undead. From there, they traveled another two days to the headquarters, where all the high-leveled undead resided. Lucius knew a few of the vampires who lived there, and he didn’t like any of them.

Four even belonged to the same family. The Valencrest were a weak vampire family that stood in hierarchy far below his family, but those four had all received a legendary blessing from Tenebrice, the strongest vampire god. This meant they all stood above him in hierarchy, no matter how much stronger he would be.

The most tragic part was that he was still weaker, even with his head start and the many beasts he had slaughtered. All for one reason: they had all gotten the sanguine thorn from their patron. That plant gave them powers and abilities that surpassed his own by far. He remembered how those vines had ripped apart a level 70 beast like it was nothing. Lucius was a strong fighter, and without the sanguine thorn, he wouldn’t have any problem slaying them, but at the moment he had no chance.

The headquarters was a giant black castle on a mountaintop with a ring wall surrounding it. On one side of the mountain was grassland with a river flowing through it, and on the other side began the desert.

Strong vampires patrolled on the wall with turned beasts. Some vampires had the ability to turn beasts, but not only that—turning them wasn’t special; every vampire could do that. No, these vampires bound the beasts to them with their blood, giving them control over them. It was dangerous when the beast had a stronger soul than you, but most beasts were weak in that regard.

They passed through multiple gateways until they entered some sort of throne room. As with all buildings bought from the system, the space inside was much bigger than the outside—especially so in this castle.

“Greetings. Did you finish the final preparations?” Elias welcomed them.

They were in a giant room with multiple black thrones positioned in a circle; two were held empty for them. In the room were all the members of the Valencrest, and then there were three more vampires, all blessed by Tenebrice and equipped with the sanguine thorn—each one more powerful than himself. Then there was, of course, Elias who welcomed them, a lich blessed by Xyrnath the Soulbinder, the strongest lich god in the Eternal Dominion.

Another outlier was Nathaniel, blessed by the mummy Ankhu-Ra, The Sand Wraith. He had been a human from the water world. Now the flesh had started to rot, and his right arm was fully bandaged. Yellow runes covered the bandages, radiating a powerful aura. There were many powerful undead in the castle, but none of them were strong enough to be in this room.

“Everything went as planned,” Cathrin answered while they sat down on their thrones.

“Very good. To bring you up to date,” Elias said, “we have located three catacombs and each one should hold a pillar. We couldn’t open them and have to wait for the system event to start.”

“The humans haven’t appeared on the fourth stage before we left; they will need time to enter the fifth stage,” Lucius concluded.

“This suits us very well,” Nathaniel stated. “I am almost finished creating sand and wind elementals. This will make it harder for the living to find the catacombs’ locations.”

“We will also build fortresses around them to make it harder for the living to enter,” Valeria Valencrest explained with a grin.

“What about the elves? They found each other quickly and moved to this stage before us,” Cathrin asked, worried.

The elves were generally a mystery since they would most likely be killed by Ankhet, yet still they did not fight against the undead. The gods also had no idea what plan they were following.

“They have built a giant city on the grassland but haven’t done much. It looks like they want to stay on the sidelines,” Nathaniel explained.

“Sadly, they are already too strong. If we attacked them, we would lose many warriors. The best strategy is to let them come to us if they want a fight,” Sevrin Valencrest added.

“For now, we don’t have much to do besides getting stronger and gathering credits,” Elias said. “Nathaniel will search for the location of the other pillar. We need to provide defenses when he finds them.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep