Chapter 100: New Monster Pet, Zhulong! ...And an Strange Item

-----

Frank glanced at the little Thunder Ryujin, thinking for a name fitting of him.

"Roar…" the little Ryujin roared, as it glanced elsewhere, angered at Frank for apparent no reason.

"Such arrogancy… Ah, how about Zhulong? Fitting of your 'greatness', is it not?" asked Frank.

The little Ryujin seemed a bit interested in the name, as it glanced at Frank with its golden eyes.

"He seems to like it…" said Frank, as a system notification greeted him.

Ding!

[The name [Zhulong] has been decided for your Monster Pet!]

"And it's done… might as well soul bound too, right?" asked Frank, as he activated the Soul Pact Skill and quickly made one with the arrogant Zhulong, who released sudden parks of electricity in annoyance.

Ding!

[A Soul Pact has been formed with [Zhulong]!]

Frank felt as his soul was connected with Zhulong, as a power resembling that of thunder surged into his soul momentarily, it was still way too soon to grasp it, but he felt like he had acquired the potential to do so, similarly with Fire and Life with Ruby and Ginseng.

"Make sure to get along with Ruby and Ginseng, got it?" said Frank with a gentle smile, as Zhulong simply roared and released small sparks of electricity, which burned Frank's skin slightly. He had to constantly heal such damage, but Frank was purposely letting himself be damaged by Zhulong's elemental damage…

Ding!

[By taking, resisting, and healing wounds made by electricity, you acquired the [Thunder Resistance: Level 1] Skill!]

"Well that was incredibly fast, you're going hard on me, are you?" laughed Frank, as he glanced at the last item within the haul he acquired.

It was a completely black crystal sphere, which Frank was incredibly intrigued on… Just what was this really?

"This is clearly not an equipment item, it is simply a strange item…"

The blackness that it produced seemed to slowly encompass its surroundings as if space itself was being lightly distorted. The crystal ball exuded an eerie presence as well as if something from within was calling for Frank.

Frank decided to use Inspect into it. Although the item was of very high Rank, because it belonged to him, he was able to see its information without restrictions.

[Ancient Accursed Crystal Ball of Hades (S-Grade)]

A mystical crystal ball that contains a fragment of the King of the Underworld, the God Hades from a different Origin Core's World.

In this special Parallel Earth where Gods were formed through the beliefs of people, Chronos and his children all existed at the same time, against the ancient Myth where he devoured them.

However, as he tried to do so as the ancient scriptures dictated, his children fought back, generating a war between gods that spawned through the galaxy.

In the last battle against Chronos, Hades sacrificed himself, destroying his father and inserting his source energy into the world's Origin Core.

This saved this world, but the massive amounts of energy ended up fragmenting the God into countless pieces, floating within the endless cosmos.

One of such pieces is contained within this Crystal Ball.

Frank was given an incredibly long description of this item, which even spoke about another world's history, and what had unfolded within such a place.

It seemed that this item was brought from another world through the power of the System, which let Frank travel to other worlds.

Within Frank's mind, it seemed possible that, if the system already had the power to send him to another world, that it could draw things from another world as well.

Such as Ruby and Zhulong, who were living proof of that.

"Okay then… This was… So how o I even use this? Do I shake it and then get a response from him through the crystal ball or what?" said Frank, grabbing the crystal ball as he was immediately shrouded in darkness!

Flash!

"W-What…?!"

Frank glanced at his surroundings finding himself in a world of complete obscureness.

There was nothing but darkness… and a strange, spectral thing floating in the middle of it.

It looked twisted and formless, seemingly twisting endlessly, having the colors of dark blue, black, and purple.

It was a bizarre sight to behold.

However, the formless mass of ethereal energy spoke to him with the voice of an old man that seemed to be freaking tired of everything.

"Hey! Who's there?! Eh? And who the fuck are you?" it asked.

"I would ask you the same thing if it wasn't because it is obvious that you're Hades… Or its fragment. I am Frank, nice to meet you," said Frank politely, he didn't seem afraid in the slightest… This was most likely because losing a feeling of guilt also dulled certain senses within him, such as dulling out fear for things he could not comprehend.

"Huh?! Do you know my name? What? Do I even look like a Hades to you? I am just a floating mass of nothing! And what with the polite attitude? Get some spine and talk like a man!" said Hades.

"Well, if you don't want me to be polite then spit out what you are before I seal you inside of my Inventory for you to never see anyone again," said Frank with a bit of annoyance.

"Yeah! That's how man talk, boy! Now we are talking… Damn, you even got a glint of maliciousness… Calm down, calm down, young wolf. I was just testing you! I am Hades, as you might have already guessed somehow,"

"I was the God of the Underworld, well, the King of the Underworld and the God of various mixed things that the people believed… It was a mess, but we got through it,"

"Anyways, to give you a brief explanation before you even tell me how you found me, I was broken into pieces after killing my father. The bastard had enormous amounts of power, so I had to put it all back into the world before it exploded into a mess, and at the end, it still exploded, but a bit lesser than it would have been originally…"

"So you're really from another world… Well, it is nice to finally have someone to speak that is not from either world I am traveling through…" said Frank.

"Either world? Now it's time for you to share your story, brat," said Hades, as he twisted around with his formless and ethereal body, nearing Frank with interest.

Frank then began to explain his story up to this point, although it had been a bit more than a week between both worlds, Frank felt like it has already been quite an eternity… His sense of time was getting more and more twisted as well because of traveling through worlds daily, but he explained things as much as he could.

"T-That's more insane than my story…" admitted Hades.

"It is, isn't it? Maybe that's why I didn't found you bizarre… My life cannot get more bizarre already," admitted Frank.

"Huh, so I am not even in my original world anymore? You're in… Terra, was it? And there is a whole bunch of weird Gods here and people. This is very alien to me, you know? But let's see the positive side, I finally found a successor!" said Hades.

"A successor?" asked Frank.

"Yeah, don't you need the power to protect who you love and fight off the threats coming to you? A world traveler is in constant danger, I see. Might as well make you my successor and let you inherit this little bit of power that I have retained so whenever you find my world, we can save it… or well, do whatever you want with it, except destroying it, of course!" said Hades.

"Can I decline?" asked Frank.

"Nope," said Hades.

"Wait, I can't leave until I receive your power?" asked Frank.

"It seems that I was somehow enclosed in this space. I have no idea how to send you back, and it seems that you have willed to escape several times but the system of yours does not do anything. So I am guessing that it will not let you get away until you absorb my power or something. After all, I am an item, right?" asked Hades.

"You're right… Sigh. Very well. But this… it feels weird. It would be like consuming some weird drug or something…" said Frank.

"Weird drug?! From where you are getting those odd ideas?! I am Hades! Hades! The one and only!" said Hades.

"But you look like a strange and slimy substance," said Frank.

"T-That's because that is the component of a God's soul! We are made entirely out of Primordial Essence that had reached a level of quality that had made it Divine. So we look like this when we are chopped into pieces! It is way better than a human, you would look like countless tiny pieces of red flesh," said Hades.

"Alright, alright, stop complaining, hop in," said Frank, tired of this.

"Gahaha! You will not regret it, brat! I will teach you all the ways I've earned about Necromancy!" laughed Hades, seeping into Frank's body.

"Necromancy…?! Unnghh…!"

Frank's entire soul began to convulse as Hades forcefully entered it, fusing himself with his soul!

"Nnnnggaaahh…!"

Frank cried in pain as the darkness slowly dissipated, feeling sharp pain and then a relaxing warmness, which came with a sense of coldness akin to death itself.

His very senses began to twist around, as he could clearly hear his heartbeat slowly stopping!

"What…?! I am… dying?!"

-----