Chapter 143: I Give Up

“Where are we…?” Adrian looked at the sight in front of him in a daze.

He sat on the floor with Clara on top of him, protecting him with her own body, with ripples and rocks surrounding them.

Looking upward, he couldn’t see anything but Clara’s face and darkness.

They had been looking for Dante in the White Abyss, and they pressed on a soft spot that ended up collapsing beneath them while fighting a beast.

However, Adrian was sure that he should have seen something other than darkness.

“My flames should be illuminating the place there… and we didn’t fall a long distance! Clara, send Chilli there.”

Clara didn’t hesitate to send her spirit flying upward.

It flew at a high speed, leaving flaming trails behind it. However, even after a few minutes, the spirit didn’t return to the tunnel or even see a glimpse of Adrian’s flames.

The spirit decided to give up and returned to Adrian and Clara, only to realize that it took only a few seconds to return.

Clara and Adrian had no doubts now. This place was unnatural!

“This might be a trap made by him. Stay cautious.” Clara said, then proceeded to help Adrian stand up.

A small flare hovered above Adrian’s fingers, finally allowing them to see the room they were in.

“Hmm? It’s pretty familiar.” Adrian furrowed his brows.

The room looked ancient and old, so old that vines were already growing and covering the entire room.

Looking back, he saw a simple corridor that led to an unknown darkness.

Looking forward, he saw a gate made of a kind of red material with glowing orange lines, looking no different from lava.

“Doesn’t it look like the place where we…” Clara hesitated for a moment before continuing: “Found her corpse…?”

Even without saying her name, Adrian understood who she referred to.

This place had the same structure as the ancient ruins where they had found the corpse of his mother!

“THAT BASTARD!” Adrian’s blood boiled in fury: “WANT TO BURY US IN A SIMILAR PLACE?! SHOW YOURSELF!!”

Adrian screamed furiously in the empty place, but only his own voice echoed through the place. No one responded to him.

Still, he was certain that it was made by Dante. What were the odds that he’d fall into a place similar to the one where he had found the corpse of his mother?

Coincidence? He would have believed this if he weren’t here in search of his mother’s killer!

Carefully, they walked to the gate and examined it.

“Is this a dog with 3 heads?” Clara frowned upon seeing what was inscribed on the gate.

It was a three-headed dog that seemed to be coming from hell. Each of the heads had its own appearance and color, and there were two horns crowning each head.

“Have you seen this before?”

Adrian shook his head at her question: “Not even once, but I remember that a specific demon bloodline has dogs with horns as their transformation.”

Clara frowned: “You think it’s related? Was that boy a demon?”

“I have no idea.”

After confirming that there was nothing else to examine, Clara pushed the gate gently, opening it with ease.

¢¢¢

After riding the Demonic Shadow Pyrofang for a few hours, Dante and Ruby finally arrived at the treehouse.

Of course, they had to stop a few times to let Dante restore his mana or when he had to fight some small beasts. But returning this fast was still an achievement.

After dismissing his wolf, Dante walked with Ruby toward the treehouse, scanning every small detail of the house.

When he reached the stairs, he saw that a part of them was missing.

“Should be from some random attacks while destroying the barrier.” Dante guessed while jumping down and casting a spell.

Pseudo-shadow Technique — Blind Shadowstep!

Dante emerged inside the treehouse, standing right behind the shadow formation.

He quickly poured some mana into the formation and activated it without hesitation. The next moment, he gained access to see everything inside.

“The formation is good.”

“The bedroom is great.”

“There is only one beast hiding inside. It’s only sleeping in the kitchen.”

“Everything looks perfect so far.”

Dante sighed and let Ruby enter the house. Thankfully, the furious man didn’t burn the entire house before leaving. Dante was glad that things turned this way.

At least, he still had a place to sleep in.

Dante quickly teleported to the hidden beast, seeing a creature that looked like a racoon made of bones.

It was just an ordinary Rank 1 beast, so Dante just manifested a shadow sword and severed off its head.

“Pathetic…” Dante hissed, feeling the hot blood of the racoon spilling over him.

He didn’t even care about the fact that a skeleton was bleeding somehow, as he wasn’t even focusing on it.

He didn’t call the racoon “pathetic,” but himself.

“I have the power to kill such a creature at will, but I can’t even stop myself from enslaving a lucky merchant.”

“Truly pathetic.”

Sighing in frustration, Dante looked at his Wheel of Luck.

It looked like all the normal Wheels of luck that he had seen, but on the core where the fortune and misfortune were stored, he saw a bunch of black tendrils with an open wide mouth, seemingly pulling something from the air.

“So that’s how you look, huh?”

The racoon was the last thing Dante had to kill, finally revealing his Wheel of Luck with zero misfortune.

Apparently, that mouth was what had been absorbing misfortune like a black hole so far.

And apparently, those tendrils were the reason he was harming the others around him.

“Are you… a parasite?” Dante squinted as he examined the mouth with tentacles.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed to be a living creature that clung to Dante’s Wheel of Luck like a parasite.

“Greed, is this related to you?” Dante’s expression darkened: “Did you, somehow, cause all this to me? Were you the one who placed this thing on me?”

Dante didn’t know why or how would Greed do this, but he was subconsciously believing that even his misfortune wasn’t a coincidence.

Maybe his birth itself wasn’t a coincidence. What if Greed had been even planning Dante’s birth?!

However, Greed didn’t respond to Dante’s question.

Some people might argue and say that silence was a confirmation, but in Greed’s case, anything coming from him might be a trick to make fun of Dante.

Maybe he was truly responsible for Dante’s misfortune, maybe not. Dante couldn’t be certain.

Gritting his teeth, Dante glared coldly at the parasite and created a spell.

“Seal.”

Suddenly, onyx-black chains came out of Dante’s Wheel of Luck and closed the parasite’s mouth while stopping the tendrils from moving.

From now on, Dante’s traits were completely harmless and under his control.

Creating such a spell with a glance wouldn’t have been possible if Dante wasn’t Rank 2.

First, his Mind stat was so high. Adding that to his high comprehension and attunement was enough to create miracles.

Second, even though Dante’s core was pretty strong now and Dante’s mana pool was large, this spell still consumed 70% of Dante’s mana, not to mention his spiritual energy.

However, Dante noticed that the chains weren’t stable, being affected by the parasite’s struggles.

“I have one week before the parasite shatters the chains.”

That wasn’t much, but that was the best Dante could do now. If the parasite shattered the chains, Dante would simply remake them.

Afterward, Dante used Shadowstep and went to the bedroom, tiredly lying on his bed.

“My lord, I have been waiting!” Ruby’s cheerful voice resounded in Dante’s ear: “D-do you feel better now? Should I give you a massage to help you sleep? I’m quite skilled. I’ll make you like the day you enslaved me!”

Dante glared at her for a moment before sighing.

“Ruby, please do whatever you want… I’m not your master…”

Ruby blinked twice before walking to the back of the bed and placing her hands on Dante’s shoulders: “And what I want is to make you feel better… will you accept that?”

Dante’s eyes twitched, struggling to give her a response.

’What should I do…..’

He certainly didn’t want any of this, but what could he possibly do?

Was there any method to give her the freedom she had lost?

’There isn’t… if there was, I’d have used it immediately. I… I…’

Dante took a deep breath, then his lips curled upward.

“Hehe…”

“Ruby, do whatever you want.”

“I… I give up.”

════════✧Gains✧════════

Rank 1→ Rank 2

Dragon Bloodline: 11% → 16%

Existence Essence ⟨500/1000 → 200/1500⟩

• Vitality: 47 → 98

• Spirit: 48 → 85

• Mind: 36 → 68

• Demonic Energy: 62 → 93

Aspect: Shadow [Comprehension:65%→90%]

Aspect: Misfortune [Comprehension:60%→85%]

Coins: Yeah I’m not counting that

Mana Crystals: Same… cough.

Cores of Existence: +Over 5000 Rank 1 Cores, +1 Rank 2 Core

Ring of Greed: +2 Coffins of some dead demons with their souls (Rank 4 with Pride Bloodline, and Rank 3 with Lust Bloodline), +1 Grade 5 Syringe, +1 Grade 3 Spatial Container, +1 Chaos Blaster (New), +a few other meaningless things, including all of Ruby’s belongings.

+The effect of a Grade 5 Potion (New!)

+Urge to Curse Everything (New!)

+Intense Guilt (New!)

+1 Rank 2 Slave (Alchemist Merchant) (New!)

+3-years-long Seal (Used on The Sin Of Greed) (New!)

+1 Relic

+Improvements for Greed relic and Demon of Temptation trait.

+↑Experience & Knowledge

════════✧Losses✧════════

Coins: Yeah not calculating that either.

Mana Crystals: -Forgot. He ate some, though.

Cores of Existence: -1500 Rank 1 cores, -200 Rank 1 cores.

Ring of Greed: Not sure.

-↓ Misfortune

-The misfortune traits (Sealed)

-Sanity (Significant lose, not just some)

════════

Total Coins: depends on how much Ruby has.

Total Mana Crystals: Depends on how much Ruby has.

Total Cores of Existence: Over 3500 Rank 1 Cores, 51 Rank 2 Cores.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep