章節 37: Bad Reward

Apophis woke up sweating in his hospital bed in Horus.

Had everything he'd just experienced been a simple nightmare? Surely there was no way something that bizarre could have actually happened.

But he barely had time to catch his breath before receiving a notification.

System: Congratulations on completing Rank [No_Value] quest "Survive!"

Final Grade: S+

Reward: [Chest (Artifact)]

An Artifact chest?!

Chests, unlike most item drops, contained particularly old items–ones which made even the lost Zetark look young by comparison.

Chests locked their contents in a temporal bubble, providing the contents special protection across millions of years.

And this particular chest held an item of "Artifact" rarity. Of course, the significance of this went much further than simply being the most valuable rarity.

Only one Artifact had been known to exist in Apophis's former life, "The Creator's Armor" found by Lucifer, one of the 7 Gods in an IronMan Dungeon.

Apophis didn't like this kind of quest reward at all. He could very well receive an item that was unusable by his class. He much preferred to receive quest rewards which he knew in advance would be useful to him.

Apophis didn't open the chest right away. First, he wanted to let Antanria know he was awake again. Before leaving previously, Apophis had warned her that he'd be resting for a couple of days.

Apophis had asked Antanria to stay at the hotel and learn as much information as she could from Apophis's Zetark books. Hopefully, her studies had gone well. He found the princess asleep in the luxurious living room of the suite, her head resting on a pile of books.

It was a really cute scene!

Apophis found a blanket and pulled it over Antanria, so that she wouldn't catch a cold. Considering what Apophis had just witnessed, it was so strange to see her in good health now.

After checking that Antanria was safe, Apophis decided to open his chest. He took his time as he left the hotel suite, getting used to the normal environment of the game again.

After leaving, he walked through the city streets until he reached the city gates of Omeya.

By this time, it was dawn. The birds were singing and the morning mist refreshed him. Apophis left the city, heading into the nearby wilderness. He knew that opening chests could cause a powerful release of energy, so he wanted to be a good distance from the city to avoid attracting too much immediate attention.

Once he was alone in the middle of the forest, Apophis took the chest from his inventory and set it in front of him on a boulder.

System: Would you like to open this chest?

Apophis pressed "Yes."

A black aura exploded from the chest and whipped around his body, then surged high into the sky!

The force was so spectacular that the surrounding trees bowed down before the shock wave! This aura was, of course, very similar to the one the God-Emperor had wielded.

Though Apophis had anticipated something like this, he hadn't expected the energy burst would be anywhere near this incredible!

The power surge lasted for a good ten seconds, then started to fade.

A crater ten meters in diameter had appeared around the chest.

In the center hovered a small ball of pure blackness.

Apophis was suspicious. Feeling this incredible aura for the second time didn't exactly fill him with confidence.

But the beam would have surely attracted the attention of all nearby players, so Apophis summoned his courage and approached the strange object.

It didn't seem hostile…

Until a monstrous eye appeared in its dark center! It was bulbous and bloodshot, swiveling its gaze at its surroundings, but it didn't seem hostile.

Apophis inspected the object's system information.

╔══════════════╕

╟─╼SOUL

║ ╰╼[Name]: Ame Enclabossa

║ ╰╼[Alignment]: Darkness

║ ╰╼[LvL]: ???

║ ╰╼[Rank]: ???

╚══════════════╛

System: Do you want to attempt to merge with this Soul? Please note that you can only ever attempt to merge with a single Soul.

"Souls" were extremely rare, usually found as loot during Nightmare difficulty raids—battles which always involved more than a hundred thousand players at once.

Souls allowed for dramatic influence over character evolution and usually granted additional branches to a character's Talent Tree, as well as a huge boost in stats.

But the most peculiar aspect of Souls was that they acted as a permanent advisor for their player, a literal voice in their head that always urged them towards certain actions.

Beyond the fact that some people might consider this annoying, the risk of attempting to merge with a Soul was that the process had a chance to fail.

As the system had said, a player could only ever attempt to merge with a single Soul. If they failed the first try, they were permanently out of luck. The success rate of Soul merging was based on mental compatibility between the host and the Soul, so it was vital to make an accurate prediction of the Soul's personality.

Despite all this, Apophis didn't hesitate. After all, destiny had granted him this opportunity. He would be a fool and a coward not to seize it!

"I accept," he said.

The black orb sank into Apophis's torso.

System: Fusion in progress. Please wait.

He held his breath for a long, long moment—then fell to the ground as his bones felt like they'd caught on fire! Apophis was consumed by overwhelming pain that poured over him in waves.

He gritted his teeth and dragged himself back up to his feet, screaming defiantly into the sky, though his brain was too much filled with agony to form words.

Suddenly, the pain stopped.

Apophis's body felt as heavy as lead, then normal again. The world seemed a little clearer around him, and the smells of the forest were sharper in his nose.

System: Congratulations! Fusion successful!

A strange, new voice resounded in Apophis's head. "Thank you, My Lord, for freeing me! I swear eternal loyalty to you and will do everything in my grasp to ensure you achieve absolute power!"