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4.55% From Secret Clan to the Divine Dynasty / Chapter 28: Chapter 27 Night Talk

Chapter 28: Chapter 27 Night Talk

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After dealing with the aftermath, everyone was exhausted. Transporting the enormous bear carcass and three bodies also required a cart, so Lucius ordered two guards to go back first and call for more people, while the rest temporarily stayed in the jungle. In the end, they camped for the night.

For some reason, Byrne still longed deep inside to see that stunningly beautiful elf again.

In the middle of the night, he sat up again, feeling somewhat sleepy but unable to fall asleep.

"Byrne."

A deep voice came from nearby, and Byrne saw his father Lucius keeping watch, arms folded across his chest, gazing at him wearily.

Ever since that battle, Lucius had been constantly reflecting, with abrupt selfish thoughts hidden deep within, always feeling uneasy.

Byrne was the only son of his own flesh and blood.

But would I really be willing to die for him?

On the lips, relatives of the same blood are the most important, but when it comes to a critical moment, the selfishness and baseness deep inside still surge forward, Lucius shook his head.

Byrne sensitively perceived that something was off with his father but couldn't specifically pinpoint it.

"Father, what's wrong?" he asked.

Lucius looked at Byrne calmly and suddenly realized that at some point, he had grown into a man, even more handsome and dashing than himself when he was younger, like a truly noble gentleman.

And what about himself? He had inevitably aged somewhat.

Ageing, a word Lucius had never thought about before, suddenly overwhelmed his thoughts and refused to leave.

He began very slowly, "There are some things from the past that I want to talk to you about, things I've never told you before."

"Alright, sure."

Getting up, Byrne felt a bit excited inside. In fact, he had always known little about his father's past.

Byrne grew up solely under his mother's care after birth. His mother, the daughter of a famous painter, had a great talent for painting, but her family did not believe a woman could become a painter, so she was never able to study painting systematically.

All along, she had placed her hopes of becoming a painter onto Byrne, but in the second year of Byrne's painting studies, a terrifying plague struck, and half the city's population perished during those dreadful, months-long epidemic.

After his mother's death, he arrived.

The man who claimed to be his father, whom his mother rarely mentioned and when she did, it was with admiration in her voice.

Byrne, who had survived the plague but was frail and sickly, numbly followed Lucius as they left, endlessly observing this stranger yet familiar man during their aimless and prolonged journeys.

He appeared languid, yet he was brave and shrewd, able to adeptly deal with any sudden situations, his eyes and speech filled with the confidence and charisma that could lead others forward.

Father might not be the grand hero from the poetry collections, but Byrne truly admired him, and found himself increasingly subconsciously learning from this dangerous man who narrowed his eyes in a smile.

The campfire crackled in the night, and the two made their way to the edge of the campsite.

The old man with a resolute face, in his forties, sat on a stone, silently staring into the darkness for a long time, as if gazing deep within his heart, before he finally slowly began to speak:

"I have long since forgotten your mother's name. In fact, I forgot it not long after leaving that place; after all, I only spent a month with her."

What?

Byrne looked astonished!

"Our mercenary group once stayed in your childhood city for a month, where I serendipitously met your mother. Perhaps it was the dangerous aura I carry that is fatal to those living in tranquility; she fell in love with me quickly,"

With his head bowed, Byrne listened, while Lucius continued expressionlessly.

"I grew up in a rather well-known mercenary group, those old mercenaries were like my family. I never thought about leaving the mercenary group and wanted to die there."

He had never thought of leaving the mercenary group, so why did he come back for him and his mother? Byrne couldn't help but feel puzzled deep inside.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Byrne found himself wishing that his father would not continue.

The voice of Lucius sank lower.

"I used to love gambling, and I loved cheating even more. I often used cheats to win money, until I met a wealthy guy one time."

It was an old man with a black robe and yellow eyes, his pupils chilling like those of a serpent.

"He stared at me with a cold laugh at the gambling table, as if he could see through my cheating, but in reality, he lost to me time and time again. At first, I was ecstatically pleased with myself."

"But as I kept winning more and more money, a fear set in subconsciously, as I had never won so much before."

"So I made an excuse to leave the casino, and after getting back to the mercenary group, I never went there again. Within a few days, I completely put that incident out of my mind."

As he spoke, Lucius gradually became entirely engrossed in his memories.

Then, he intuitively discerned an unsettling aura around the old man in the black robe, hastily making excuses to leave the casino. For the first few days after returning to the mercenary group, nothing happened; their team continued to move through the wilderness as they usually would, everything proceeding as normal.

Until one morning, just after he had woken up, he felt a terrible malice erupt suddenly from inside the tent.

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That was a scent of death I had never encountered before, one that made my body tense up involuntarily!

Lucius was extremely vigilant as he cautiously stepped outside the tent.

His muscles tensed up in an instant, totally fearful at the sight of everyone around him being petrified, each member of the mercenary group turned into lifelike stone sculptures amidst their blank expressions!

The old man in black robes had finally come!

He recognized the eyes at first glance, even though the "old man in black robes" was revealing his true form as a black giant dragon nearly a hundred meters long, those yellow serpent-like pupils hadn't changed at all!

It said, "Let's gamble again, you just need to beat me once, and it's all over. I will let everyone go."

It sneered, "Either your own innards or those people of the mercenary group, you can choose your stake."

Under the terrifying dragon's might, Lucius was extremely scared, his heartbeat quickened, sweat poured down his forehead, his palms were damp, as if something was stuck in his throat, making it hard for him to breathe freely.

He had to make a choice, but when he saw the cold, mocking gaze of the black dragon, his heart instantly felt like it had plunged into an ice cellar, subconsciously knowing that winning the gamble was almost impossible.

But I really don't want to die! No matter what, I don't want to die!

Lucius spoke with great difficulty, his voice trembling as he expressed his deepest thoughts.

"They, let them be the stakes."

The moment he spoke, he actually felt a sense of relief and happiness as if a burden had been lifted.

But Lucius still subconsciously thought that he had hardly ever lost a bet in his life, and might not necessarily lose terribly. He had to try to win the upcoming gamble as much as possible.

It burst into loud laughter!

"Good!"

In the gambling that lasted for a day and a night that followed, involving all sorts of previously unseen games, Lucius tried every trick in the book even attempting to cheat, but he could never win even a single game; most games were simply impossible to complete by an ordinary person's strength, with the results almost invariably one-sided.

And for some reason, the black dragon's luck was always incredibly good. Even if Lucius managed to have a slight chance, the dragon would overturn the situation every time in the end.

Fear, helplessness, despair, and madness, a vast sea of negative emotions flooded his mind. Lucius trembled, kneeling on the ground listening to the continuous sound of the sculptures shattering.

As the sculptures made from the members of the mercenary group shattered, one by one, he finally learned a horrifying truth.

"Your stakes are used up, worm, goodbye... no, never to see you again."

The black dragon's voice was particularly cold and void of any emotion, not even bothering to mock anymore. Then it took to the sky with immense pride, leaving Lucius alone, collapsing on the ground and weeping bitterly.

At the edge of the campsite, Lucius's thoughts gradually emerged from the memories, as he continued speaking in a calm tone.

"At that time, I fell into complete despair, having almost everything taken from me in an instant, I was dazed for I don't know how long."

The giant dragon is also a rare and powerful existence among mysterious creatures. What Byrne's father recounted was simply beyond belief, leaving Byrne staring agape.

A certain emotion began to stir in Lucius's eyes, and his breathing became progressively faster.

"Since then, I haven't gambled for many years. To truly speak of it, perhaps only this chess move of actively seeking out the Lord of the Lost counts as gambling, and it's the most important gamble of all."

His eyes filled with hatred and malice, he uttered his words with a rasp nearly hysterical, chilling to the bone:

"As an ordinary person, I could never win; many of the games that black lizard played required extraordinary power to complete. One day! One day when I become powerful enough, I will find it again!"

"I must win it over! Then kill it! Skin it with my own hands!"

Byrne stared at his father sitting beside him, his expression fierce, completely losing his usual easy-going demeanor, almost like a man he had never truly known,

He opened his mouth and finally asked, with great difficulty:

"If the people of the mercenary group hadn't died, would you have come back for us?"

"Of course I..."

Lucius's expression faltered for a moment, wanting to say "Of course I would," but for some reason, he couldn't complete the sentence, unusually at a loss during a conversation.

Byrne understood, and so he silently got up and walked to the other side of the campsite.

He didn't continue to press the issue, only realizing a hard truth.

His mother didn't matter at all in his father's heart, and his own existence was nothing more than an emotional substitute.

A few years ago, Byrne might have been devastated, feeling completely unable to accept it, even crying, but now as an adult, he just felt a deep-seated discomfort that he couldn't shake off from the bottom of his heart.

Lucius shifted his toes slightly, wanting to stand up and smooth things over with his usually skillful words.

In the end, he didn't stand up, but quietly looked towards the jungle outside the campfire with a profound gaze.

That completely dark jungle, devoid of any light as if to swallow all hope, where almost any rational kindness would be choked by the night's cold madness; the people by the campfire, just like the members of the Fischer family, should never venture into that Tranquil night on a whim.


Chapter 29: Chapter 28 Consecution "Pharmacist

The only person in Nasir Town who could use an "Extraction Spell" to turn mysterious creatures into extraordinary materials was the elder of the silver descendants clan.

However, cooperation between the Fischer family and the elder of the silver descendants clan was not going smoothly.

Silver descendants are one of the sub-human species, characterized by their white hair, not only their head hair but even their eyebrows and all body hair.

Their average lifespan is half that of ordinary people, but their spiritual power is naturally stronger. The probability of newborn silver descendants awakening the talent of a spellcaster is several times higher than that of mainstream humans.

The drawback is that the mental state of silver descendants is more prone to instability.

One of the most powerful and influential spellcasters in the history of the Ouden Continent was a female silver descendant who had created a top-tier "Element-type Spellcasting Bequest" and soon after vanished without a trace along with the bequest.

There were only a few hundred silver descendants in Nasir Town, but they lived together on a street at the edge of South City, and anyone who dared to bully a silver descendant would be met with collective retaliation.

They were very hostile to outsiders, and the other townspeople rarely ventured to their street. Since the silver descendants universally worshiped the Lord of Salvation, they only allowed those who shared their faith to come and do business with them.

The members of the Fischer family had never publicly declared their faith.

Lucius suggested that the family collectively pretend to worship the Lord of Salvation, the most influential deity. Byrne felt that it did not matter whether they pretended to follow the powerful Lord of Salvation and the Sun, or the seemingly weaker Order, Storm, or Silver Moon.

The problem lay with Irene; the mere mention of feigning belief in the Lord of Salvation made her uncomfortable, and even the idea of pretending to convert left a bad taste in her mouth.

In her own words, it was unbearable to see others praising other gods as the greatest right in front of her, to the point where she could not eat.

It wasn't until Lucius presented her with many examples of endurance and psychological preparation that Irene finally agreed to the pretense, albeit reluctantly.

The devout Irene's soul wrestled with a strand of black light; the original black radiance had been expended in a night battle long ago, and the new black light was the result of her devout prayers re-condensed through "God Worshiping" over three years.

Thus, the negotiation with the elder of the silver descendants clan was left to Irene, but the prospects did not look hopeful. Despite having studied the religious teachings of the Lord of Salvation beforehand, their attitude toward her remained poor.

The fundamental reason for this was that she was not a silver descendant, but a mainstream human.

Byrne had thought so initially, but Lucius scoffed at this reason with blatant disdain.

Wasn't Baron Hovern, who had originally come to collect money, also not a silver descendant? And yet, didn't that "very principled" clan elder still put on a smiling face at the banquet?

In the end, the elder of the silver descendants clan quoted a price that Irene simply could not accept.

The rationale behind the outrageous demand was simple: there were not many spellcasters with "Alchemical Spellcasting Bequest" in the whole of Nasir Town, and he was the only one who could perform the "Extraction Spell." Otherwise, the Fischer family would have to look for someone else in Fein City.

The Fischer family indeed could not afford to delay any longer, for as time passed and without proper preservation techniques, the extraordinary power contained in the Moonshadow White Bear's corpse would gradually diminish.

The deal was eventually struck, and the members of the Fischer family soon rejoiced. From the bear's carcass, they acquired a Class 3 Extraordinary Material "Moonshadow Bearskin," and in addition, a Class 2 Extraordinary Material "Moonshadow Tongue," amounting to a significant fortune.

The Moonshadow Bearskin couldn't be used immediately, as Lucius, who had already reached the 2nd Rank, was still far from assimilating the Magic Potion. However, after some discussion, they also decided not to sell it.

Fortunately, the Class 2 Extraordinary Material "Moonshadow Tongue" could be put to immediate use, as both Irene and Byrne had fully digested the magic potions of the 1st Rank.

The ceremony unfolded once again. After the Fischer family members sacrificed the "Moonshadow Tongue," Karl entered the Spirit Realm again, yet did not immediately expand the Extraordinary laws.

He silently contemplated whether to elevate Irene or Byrne to the next step.

"Between the Path of Knowledge and the Path of Divine Sacrifice for the 2nd Rank, the Path of Knowledge takes priority for the entire Fischer family," he concluded.

Karl then created the 2nd Rank of the Path of Knowledge. In the "constellation," there existed the image of a middle-aged man in green robes, holding a potion bottle with swirling liquid.

"Pharmacist" of the Consecution!

A pale green Spiritual Radiance entered Byrne's body before the eyes of all present.

Even though she wasn't the second to receive the blessing, Irene felt no jealousy or dissatisfaction, but rather heartfelt joy for her relative and was filled with even greater reverence and gratitude toward the great Lord of the Lost.

Byrne took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and keenly sensed the new power he had gained.

"I am deeply grateful for the power you have bestowed upon me, O great Lord of the Lost."

First and foremost was the considerable increase in spirituality, which had risen by about eighty percent from its original foundation.

There was also a moderate improvement in the quality of his physique, although not the primary enhancement, yet it was already on par with a "Gladiator" of the 1st Rank.

The "Pharmacist's" extraordinary trait had two aspects: "Drug Verification" and "Self-Extracted Formula."

"Drug Verification" was a very simple and practical ability, whereby the effects of any potion, medicinal herb, or extraordinary material could be known at a glance by the holder of the Pharmacist's Power of Consecution.

As for the other important effect, "Self-Extracted Formula," it granted the "Pharmacist" an inheritance akin to that of an "Alchemical Spellcaster," possessing the capability to craft and develop various magic potion formulas on their own.

Moreover, while they were attempting to make and research magic potions, hints leading to the correct approach would occasionally surface in their minds, significantly increasing the success rate of potion-making.

Because the financial situation of the Fischer family was rather dire, Karl judged that the "Pharmacist" Power of Consecution, which tended towards increasing monetary income, would be more suitable.

Two months later, the residents of Nasir Town learned of an exhilarating piece of news.

The rebelling nobles of the northern kingdom of Rhea had suffered a massive defeat, with their main force nearly decimated, and the higher-ups leading the armies on both sides had entered into peace negotiations.

The people, who had been worried about the war spreading to them, all breathed a sigh of relief, and even the overall prices in the northern part of the Cyart Kingdom gradually began to fall.

At the age of five, Chris had already begun to learn swordsmanship, combat, stealth, and other fighting skills with Lucius.

The quiet lad had a tremendous talent for movement; he seemed to pick up various fighting techniques almost instantly, leading Lucius to even wonder if he had a hidden talent for coaching.

The health of Old Ramon from the smithy was not promising; his dementia was becoming increasingly serious, to the point where he often couldn't recognize his own son and would burst into tears whenever he saw Irene.

The visage of the once robust and tough old blacksmith seemed to be gradually fading away.

Lucius, inexplicably fearful, avoided passing by the smithy as much as possible; perhaps "disappearance" was more terrifying than death itself.

He didn't know how many more years he had left to live; he just wanted another chance to face that black giant dragon while he was still alive.

"There will definitely be another chance, there's absolutely still time!"

After acquiring the power of the "Pharmacist," the Fischer family set up a simple workshop, and Byrne began trying to develop new medicines. The family's existing "blood potion," used for healing injuries, was among the experimental subjects.

He mixed different substances and Class 0 Extraordinary Materials with the blood potion in various proportions. Thanks to his "Self-Extracted Formula" trait, Byrne's mind was twice graced with mysterious voices giving directions, like "Add another ten milliliters of water" or "Keep heating."

The voices were as if someone was whispering in his own mind, eerily peculiar yet inexplicably reliable.

Winter came, with snow blanketing the mountains, and the frozen lakes and rivers, a slight breeze shaking the hanging ice crystals from the tree branches.

Another year was nearly over.

In the Fischer family's rudimentary workshop, an extremely weary Byrne suddenly stood up, walking back and forth while cheering, his face unable to contain the surging excitement and elation.

"Success! I've finally done it! Hahaha!"

"The original blood potion, with an added ten milliliters of water heated continuously to boiling, and finally mixed with five grams of the Class 0 Extraordinary Material 'Ghost Starfish' precipitate, can attain a powerful detoxification effect on top of its base properties!"

He was ecstatic; the powerful antidote was much more expensive than the blood potion!

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Suddenly there was knocking at the door, followed by Irene entering sternly, ignoring Byrne's sign on the door that read "Do Not Enter Without Permission."

Byrne was stunned, looking at his cousin whose expression was solemn. Irene took a deep breath.

"A family meeting must be convened immediately, Byrne... Based on very reliable information, an army of Rhea people has suddenly crossed the border and is headed in the direction of Nasir!"


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