บท 83: Chapter 83: Gathering Information
Chapter 83: Gathering Information
"For a mere goblin, you are thinking far ahead," Selene spoke as the arrow almost reached her forehead.
But instead of a shock, a smirk appeared on her face.
She instantly cast the [Wrath Form] spell and became transparent!
The aura-coated arrow flew through her the next instant and fell into the nearby bush.
Before the goblin could understand the situation, Selene calmly raised her hand and spoke again.
"Shadow Bind."
The next instant, the goblin's shadow twisted like a snake, slithered around its legs and abdomen, and soon bound its body.
"What a strange, intelligent guy. Are you all right, My Lord?" While asking, Selene arrived closer to the goblin and directly stabbed the dagger into its chest.
Bluish blood gusted out of the wound, causing the goblin to struggle with all its might.
"This seems like a real body." Muttering with a nod, she moved her dagger again and sliced its throat, killing the goblin in one go.
Meanwhile, Raven quietly stood and turned around while removing the arrow from his shoulder, thigh, and arm.
A moment later, the wound on his body started to heal unimaginably, returning his body to normal condition.
"W-What? Did you drink some healing potion?" Selene was startled by his sudden recovery and realized he wasn't pushed into a severe situation.
'Indeed, I haven't seen him using magic spells yet. Well, it doesn't matter anyway.' She dismissed the [Wrath Form] spell and turned her attention towards the fallen goblin.
"This goblin creature is far more intelligent than a normal one, My Lord. Will there be more weird monsters in the outskirts?" A worried look appeared on her face.
"What should we do next?" At that moment, Selene realized that even the city's outskirts weren't safe either.
"Can you store this goblin's corpse inside your Dream Harvest spell?" Raven asked.
Although Selene didn't understand his intention, she said nothing and quietly stored the goblin's corpse and its silver bow and arrows.
"Wait, I go retrieve my spear first." Saying so, Raven walked ahead, entered the woods, and soon returned with the spear in his hand.
"Let's choose a different direction from the woodland," Raven suggested.
The path they first chose was passing through the woodlands, which could lead to the nearby town. This path became smooth in the real world because of the Railway transportation.
Although a road was also there for carriage transportation, it was mainly used by Walkers for exploring the woods.
'But now there is no sign of railway working, nor do walkers going out to explore the woods.'
Raven felt the danger during the travel might multiply and decided to go to a safer region.
Selene also nodded in agreement. Both then circled the city and chose another road that led in a different direction.
They walked on the dirt road for 30 minutes across agricultural lands, farmhouses, and even regular houses.
But what they found was empty areas or unmaintained farms.
After walking for another few minutes, they finally found a small villa ahead.
Unlike the city, it wasn't tightly enclosed and was surrounded by tall wooden fences.
"This is the first village we come across. Will there be any survivors?" Raven furrowed.
But as soon as they arrived at the entrance gate, they realized the entrance was open.
Raven and Selene quietly entered the villa and soon noticed it was vacant. After searching the houses, both concluded that the people had long vacated the village.
'Most house doors are left open, and dresses hang outside…. Windows aren't closed either…' Raven quietly walked into the nearby houses and quickly checked.
'They even left the furniture open, but I don't see any money. Most rations also emptied.'
"They seem to have moved out in a hurry," Raven muttered solemnly and continued.
"Search all the houses on the left side and gather anything that holds information. I'll go check the right side."
"Yes, My Lord." Selene nodded and hurriedly moved towards the left.
Raven also moved towards the right-side houses and started checking them individually. For the next few hours, both searched the whole village and gathered whatever they got their hands on.
"A large number of newspapers with dates ranging from August 4th, 1452, to January 11th, 1454. Surprisingly, most newspapers are from January 1st to 11th, 1454. So, the infection spread during this time, huh?" A look of understanding appeared on his face. Then, he only took a single newspaper on each date, put them together, and gave it to Selene.
Then, he shifted his attention toward a large number of books. Most were ledgers, while a few notebooks were diaries. Although most only recorded their daily life, one diary caught Raven's attention.
"An Apprentice Wizard's travel diary, huh? Can we take all these diaries?" Raven asked.
"I can't store more than a few more kgs, My Lord. That goblin occupied most of the space in the storage already." Selene answered.
After some thought, Raven took only a few diaries and told her to store them. Then, he took a rope from one of the houses and kept it in his back.
"Why are you taking this rope?" Selene couldn't help but ask.
"Unlike you, I can't use teleportation spell. Without this rope, it will be difficult for me to get back." Raven looked up at the cloudy dark sky and added.
"I think we should go back. Although the sky looks the same for hours, I don't know when it will completely darken." Also, he worried that more danger might appear in the dark.
Both quietly left the village and returned to the city's outskirts within an hour. They then circled the city wall and arrived at the place where they sneaked out.
Selene used the [Blink] spell to appear above the city wall and helped Raven climb up using the rope.
But as soon as they looked inside the city, both were deeply startled!
At that moment, more than thousands of undead humans stood beneath the walls, trying to crawl the wall. Almost all of them were looking at them and were roaring continuously.
"They can indeed sense us!" Raven said solemnly and turned his attention towards the staircase more than a hundred meters away.
"These guys don't seem to be smart either. Or else, they could've used the staircase to climb up the wall and jumped down. It seems they sense us through odor and acting out of instinct."
"How will we return to Glory Wine Inn, My Lord?" Selene felt uneasy just by looking at the thousands of walking corpses.
'But I don't even see any walker among them… Does that mean the infection only spread to the common people?' A thought crossed his mind.
"Follow me closely." Saying so, Raven turned towards the long city wall and started running on it.
"Once we reach two hundred meters, prepare to use the [Blink] spell and land on that single-storied house's terrace." He spoke as he pointed his finger at the house next to the city wall.
Most undead were gathered beneath the castle wall, so the single-storied house's surroundings appeared safer.
Selene nodded her head and followed him.
"Now," As they neared the house, Raven squatted and leaped towards the house terrace. Selene cast the [Blink] spell, disappeared from the city wall, and reappeared on the terrace.
Both hurriedly jumped from the terrace and ran towards the nearby street road.
Meanwhile, all the undead humans suddenly became more active and started pursuing them.
But Raven and Selene were far stronger and faster than an average human. They ran past houses, alleys, and shops and soon entered the main road.
After that, they made a turn and entered Aurora Street.
After running for a while, the duo finally arrived at Glory Wine Inn.
But the vibration from the ground made Raven and Selene restless.
"They are chasing after us!" Selene's face turned grim.
"Let's go." Raven urged and dashed into the Inn.
Before long, Raven and Selene entered the second-floor corridor, walked past multiple rooms, and soon entered the small room at the farthest end.
As soon as they walked in, Raven removed his shoes and gave all his items to Selene to store them in her dream Harvest storage spell.
After that, both quietly lay on the cold floor and closed their eyes.
As they slowly disappeared like smoke, a strange crow flew from the outside through the broken window and landed on the cold floor.
Soon, it started to take shape and form into the appearance of a hooded humanoid skeleton with a strange bone staff in its hand.
"There is still a Royal Bloodline left alive? I should report this to Viser Shadow Corps." It muttered in a hoarse voice before shrinking into the shape of a crow. Then, it flapped its wings and flew into the gloomy sky.
…
A few moments later, Raven slowly opened his eyes and sat up.
He soon breathed a sigh of relief, noticing that the surroundings looked neat and clean. He also saw Jacob sitting on the cot and looking at the ceiling.
"Ugh, I don't want to visit that place again," Selene said solemnly.
Although the strange goblin was the only adversary they had encountered head-on, the terror of the thousands of undead gave her a scare.
'And our choice to leave the city was the right one. If we had stayed in the city to gather information, we might've been surrounded by those undead humans in minutes and ripped into shreds.'
"You woke up earlier, My Lord. Only 1 hour and 15 minutes has passed." Jacob's voice made her snap back to reality.
"The Dreamworld is much scarier than I thought," Raven spoke as he stood up and turned his attention to Selene.
Meanwhile, Selene also stood up and started taking out the materials from her storage spell.
She first took out the spear, boots, bow and arrows, a bundle of newspapers weighing more than seven kilograms, around ten diaries, and even a file document.
Then, she moved a little away and dropped the goblin's corpse, causing Jacob to widen his eyes.
"W-What is this thing? Goblin?"
Raven quietly took the monocle from the inventory, put it in his left eye, and inspected it.
"It's a unique race called Night Goblin." He walked closer to the goblin and stored it in the spatial ring. After that, he also stored his boots, spear, newspaper bundle, diaries, goblin's bow and arrows, and the file in his inventory.
"I'll be staying in my room until morning. Do not disturb me." Saying so, Raven quietly walked out and moved to his room.
Within a minute, he entered his room, locked the door from inside, and took out the 'Night Goblin' corpse from the spatial ring.
[I didn't expect you to catch it on the first try, lad.] Zera commented in his head.
Meanwhile, Raven quietly placed his right hand on the goblin's chest and activated the [Bloodline Devouring Ability].
"Devour!"
As soon as he spoke, a strange ripple came out of his body, extracted all the blood from the goblin's corpse, and condensed them into the size of a peanut.
At the same time, a row of notifications appeared before Raven's eyes.
…
[Bloodline Devouring Ability is activated!]
[Night Goblin's bloodline has been found!]
[Analyzing the purity of the bloodline….]
[Calculating…]
[The corpse has 90% purity of Rank-1 Night Goblin's bloodline Essence!]
[It is possible to extract the Night Goblin's bloodline Essence and one of its bloodline spells!]
[Would you like to use the 'Bloodline Devouring Ability'? Yes/No.]
"Yes." Raven clicked.
…
[Bloodline Devouring Ability is on commence!]
[Randomizing the Bloodline Ability!]
[Night Goblin's [Past Self] bloodline spell has been selected!]
[A similar skill related to the [Past Self] bloodline spell has been found in the Host's body!]
[It is possible to merge [Past Touch] skill with [Past Self] bloodline Spell! Would you like to proceed? Yes/No.]
…
"So, the reason I disappeared after my attack isn't due to illusion but due to this spell, huh?" Raven didn't waste a moment and clicked 'yes.'
[Merging the [Past Touch] skill with [Past Self] bloodline spell!]
…
A moment later, a mysterious power entered his mind space and started constructing a new spell model.
Raven felt a sharp pain in his head for the next five minutes and slowly noticed a white crystalline spell model appeared in his mind.
At the same time, he received much information about this new spell and started comprehending it.
…
[1%...2%....4%....7%....11%....20%....35%....53%...75%....89%....98%...100%!]
[Congratulations! Merging successful!]
[Host has obtained 'Past Self' bloodline self!]
[Host has also absorbed a part of the Night Goblin's bloodline essence!]
[Host's vitality power has been increased by 0.7!]
[Host's strength power has increased by 0.5!]
[Host's agility power has been increased by 0.8!]
[Host's body is undergoing a mutation!]
[The mutation will take 10 minutes 35 seconds to complete!]
[Please stand by!]
…
Raven quietly sat beside the corpse and started analyzing the information as the mutation occurred.
'Once I activate this spell, I can create an illusion of the past and confuse the enemies. But the spell time ranges only up to 30 seconds. How does that goblin know I will hide behind the tree?' As he recalled the battle, Raven realized he attacked the goblin without looking at what it was doing.
'But what surprised me is that this past self-spell managed even to fool my spiritual senses and made me think the goblin was real.' Raven quickly dismissed the notification and checked his status.
…
[Name: Raven Sillalus Jorvot,
Age: 15
Nationality: Zenith Empire
Title: 66th Prince of Zenith Empire
Level: 8
Class: Acolyte Warlock (3rd Circle)
Soul Rank: Mortal
Life Pathway: Beginner Alchemist
Health: Normal
Attributes:
Strength: 8.5
Agility: 7.87
Vitality: 8.26
Luck: 0
Spirit: 19.9
Bloodline Spells:
Iron Resilience, Poison Touch (Poison Immunity), Fortuitous Finder (Completed), Blood Control, Face Morph, Mind Eye, Cold Breath, Past Self.
Additional Skills: Instant Memorize, Basic Spearmanship.
Affinities:
Life: Low, Ice: Genius.]
…
[Hmm? Didn't you have 2.5 Luck stats before? Why does it show Zero?] Zera asked in confusion.
Meanwhile, a smile appeared on Raven's face.
[Haa, so you used the [Fortuitous Finder] spell before entering the Dreamworld, huh?]
"When I entered the first time, I realized I'd be in a more dangerous situation without your help. So, I thought of relying on 'Luck.'" He said that while storing the Night Goblin's corpse.
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