45 Legend

The luminescent algae are quietly hanging eternally on the walls of the Underground World, bringing the descendants of those exiled the joy of light.

This kind of plant had once been analyzed and discussed about in another world. The theory in question had probably been the assimilation of the DNA of a firefly into the DNA of an algae, allowing the fluorescence of the firefly and the light of a plant collaborate together to create an energy cycle flow with a minimum loss of energy, effectively creating a self-sufficient system that could provide continuous light for the underground.

It could be planted in mines to prevent them from collapsing and one of its derivatives, Algae Bulbs, could be used for illumination in public. Using the luminescent algae source to improve society's energy structure… It may sound wonderful, but the technology hurdle for it had been simply too great. Even if we could have resolved the gaps in technology, if we forcefully had combined the DNA of a plant and animal, who knew what kind of abomination would have been created? In the end, it got terminated at its theoretical stage.

I never expected that the purely theoretical discussion that I read about in a Science magazine actually turned out to be something real in a foreign world. Indeed, compared to the limitations of magic and science, the potential of natural evolution was boundless.

Going by the records and research of the scholars on the surface, this kind of bizarre plant that could give out both light and heat probably had a bunch of prefixes and technical terms that would only make one's head spin. But in the Underground World, it had a beautiful name that was contrary to its ugly outer appearance — Sunflower1.

Every underground city was destined to be constructed on grounds where the luminescent algae clustered. If a cluster of luminescent algae was found outside an underground city, that kind of natural light zone would attract countless beasts who would engage in a bloodfest for its ownership.

In recent times, a Great Druid had discovered a way to cultivate the luminescent algae, allowing the scale of the underground city to no longer be limited by the luminescent algae. However, the primary condition was that one had to be able to find an extremely powerful flying beast that was able to fly to the top of the ceiling of the Underground World and a Great Druid to ride on the beast to plant the seeds. Thus, the cost for expansion was still quite high.

Maybe, only an important city like the Platinum City would be willing to spare such a large amount of money to breed more luminescent algae to expand the territory of the city.

At this moment, looking at the radiance gradually growing brighter at the horizon, the luminescent algae here would start radiating light very soon. A new day was about to dawn.

Each physical body required sleep to recover their fatigue and give their brain a rest. On the contrary, normal undead did not know the concept of fatigue and did not require sleep. Thus, I had half-jokingly come up with the name The Indefatigable One (Wumianzhe).

Still… at the level of the Undead Lords, a large portion of them began picking up the habit of sleeping again. Some say that it was to recover from their mental fatigue while others say that temporarily stopping the machinations of their body could allow them to recover mana faster. But, from my research that I had conducted when I was bored, there were many more efficient methods to recover from mental fatigue or to recharge mana. There was totally no need to go into deep sleep, making one lose their consciousness and putting oneself in danger.

After several observations, my final conclusion was that there were many Undead Lord who worked and rested just like living people. Those with a more complete physical body could even regain their taste buds. Sleeping, to a larger extent, was just a spontaneous habit originating from one's soul and a reaction of the physical body instinctively imitating those functions.

That's why Abominations, Gargoyles, Skeleton Colossus and other kinds of man-made undead beings did not develop little habits that made them operate like living people, even if they became the intelligent high-tier undead. However being curious, I did a little experiment.

The reason why an unnatural being like an undead could exist in this world was often because of the crystallization of resentment and hatred. If so, 'unwilling to pass on like this' should also be considered a source of power. Then, what if a purely man-made were to start having desires? Would they become strong solely based on their desires? Continuing this line of thought I decided to start with 'gluttony' which represented an endless appetite.

My initial plans had been to make 7 samples of the experiment and create the 'Seven Deadly Sins'. However, I didn't manage to complete the 'Seven Deadly Sins', neither did I manage to mass produce them. It wasn't because the results of the experiments were unsatisfactory. Rather, it was because the results were too satisfactory.

The first sample 'Carnivore' Ah Dang, the eldest brother of the Seven Deadly Sins, was already the most fearsome monster in the entire history of the Undead. Then, as my expertise in Necromancy reached greater height, the few Deadly Sins that ended up creating afterwards became more and more scary. In fact, I was starting to lose control over them.

Thus, I felt that if I were to continue on like that, I might end up back at my starting point2. Sooner or later, I would combine my knowledge of both worlds to create a monster that destroyed everything. Considering this, I stopped the experiment.

"Hmph, I admit that I didn't have much of a talent towards Elemental Magic. I am also totally unable to comprehend Magic Resonance and that kind of shit. But, I am able to grasp the feel of Necromancy and learn it swiftly. My talent in creating beings is even to the extent that I am afraid of it myself. Indeed, crazy scientists are meant to destroy the world."

Waking up from a rare dream of the past, I was attracted to the sounds coming from below.

The usual ruckus created by the Town Security Army as they headed out and their orderly chants couldn't be heard. It seemed that they had all followed my orders to enforce the law on the streets. But, there were still some people sparring on the usual training grounds.

The narrow space was filled with the marks of ice and fire. But, the people who were involved in the sparring this time weren't just Elisa and Annie.

"Ice Creation: Ballista Formation!"

Under Elisa's orders, dozens of Ice Ballistas all shot their arrows. The spinning Ice Arrows were all focused on the target in midair.

Annie, equipped with a sword, summoned Wings of Flame and swooped down like an enraged Fire Angel, trying her best to keep her opponent's attention on her.

But, even when she made use of the force accumulated from the momentum of her downward motion, her opponent only had to use a finger to lightly deflect her blow to direct the sword to the other side.

Due to the massive difference in strength, the God Sword could't even scrape the skin. This was the strength difference between her and her opponent that was at minimum two ranks apart.

At this point, the Ice Arrows were already in the face of Little Red. But, as though not seeing it at all, she simply shook her head, unsatisfied with the performance of her juniors.

"Ha!" With a loud roar, Annie and Elisa's movements suddenly stopped. In the next instant, they started feeling faint from the blast of air.

"Too slow, too powerless and too weak. Your elements are unrefined and impure and your fighting techniques aren't precise enough. Your movements in your attack aren't sharp and your reactions in dodging are too slow. There was not a single move you all made that was up to standard and you all still wish to fight on the same stage as me? Dream on!"

Little Red seemed to be really enraged. With a heavy stomp with her long legs, the entire ground trembled and Elisa and Annie, who had yet to stabilize their footing, immediately fell down.

The Ice Arrow was now in the face of Little Red. With just a glare, she dissipates the spell in midair before it could even touch her skin.

Alright, this marked the end of the 3rd sparring, or should I call it one-sided crushing, it didn't even take two minutes.

"Looks like they have been provoked."

That day, there were more than 20 Legend-ranks and a few Saint-ranks on the other party's negotiation table. On our side, there were only two young Gold-ranks. Despite being future city lords, their power difference was too massive. No matter how open-minded they were, they would still be provoked by such a massive power difference.

This was also one of my motives for sending them out to negotiate the deal by themselves. Cruel reality was the most direct motivation. If both of them could really break through like this, we would have two more Legend-ranks on hand and this disadvantageous battle would be much easier to fight.

"The one watching the show from the window, since you already saw it all, why don't you come down to offer some guidance? I really can't get used to the way you human-shaped beings fight. In this form, I can't even exert half of my battle strength and your rank break throughs3 are really baffling to me, so it's better for you to do the job."

Little Red's nudge made me unable to continue watching the show leisurely. Little Red was an expert at fighting, her experience in battles was plentiful and the effects in her passing on her fighting knowledge was apparent. But, if she was teaching a human… The Dragon Tribe's growth depended 90% on their talent. She didn't even cultivate her strength to break through before, so how could she become a capable teacher for a human?

If she were to teach you Wing Smack, Claw Strike and Fang Rip, Tail Sweep and blasting a Dragon Breath from the sky, could you learn them? Un? Presumably that Elisa could really learn some of it, at least she could try learning the Tail Sweep. But, thinking about the increasingly elusive and violent half-demon maid, I preferred not risking shooting my own foot.

Actually, I could already see the root of the problem for the two Gold- pinnacles. Their basics were already there, all that was left was for them to form their Soul Imprint. That Imprint was the crystallization of a mortal breaking into the realm of Legend, the accumulation of their experiences and strength of this life to form a stepping stone for their entry to higher grounds. Simply said, they were trying to confirm the path for their future development.

But it was different when it came to the specifics. Elisa had too many potential routes, making her extremely indecisive in choosing just one of them.

[Elisa, Race: Half-Demon Blessed by the Abyss, Strength: 22/ Dexterity: 20/ Stamina: 20/ Intelligence: 24/ Charisma: 18/ Will: 5/ Job: LV60 Mage/LV1 Law Incantationer/LV12 Ice Treader/LV 10 Sacred Pugilist (A Battle Monk's advancement that specializes in destroying undead)/LV5 Assassin. Total Level: 88 (Due to lack of Soul Imprint, total level evaluation is LV79 Gold-pinnacle.]

In the span of a decade, the things she had learnt were too scattered. There was the Ice Magic that I imparted to her, her talents as a Half-Demon that originated from the Abyss, the classical magic that Margaret taught her, her self-created Wire Magic and the Thief skills and Pugilist techniques that I had no idea where she learnt them from (When I discovered that her Sacred Pugilist job, which was well-reputed to be an undead killer, actually had 10 levels, my feet immediately lost their strength). Since her basic strength and stats were up to the mark, she could choose any one of the route to enter the realm of Legends… But sometimes, having too many choices made one indecisive. Choosing one would mean giving up the rest, so she was still hesitating.

As for Annie, it was because her accumulation was too thin. The Phoenix Inheritance made her strength soar at a rate way beyond her accumulation of experience. Finding a path that had unlimited potential and suited to her at the same time was quite a difficult hurdle for her who wasn't even 20 yet.

This was a choice that affected their development in the future, so it was hard for outsiders to assist them. After all, only you would know the path suited for yourself. This was also the reason why Little Red was at a loss. After all, she couldn't make a decision for these two.

But for me, it's not like there wasn't any way to help them. While we couldn't help them made their decision, we could provide them with the experiences of other people when making their choices so that they could analyze other people's paths and their experiences. This should help them to mature quicker.

Going by logic, I, who had entered the Legend-rank 4 times and had formed 4 Soul Imprints, should have the biggest say. …In reality, other than the Power of Law represented by the Mark of Justice, the other 3 had been exchanged through the cheat-like system using EXP and points… And the appearance of the Mark of Justice had been even more inconceivable, it was like a complimentary gift by the Origin of Order after inventing the Power of Law, thus it cannot serve as a case study.

"Little Red, tell them the experiences of Adam and Margaret when they broke through into the Legend-rank. It should be quite useful to them."

"Hey, you were there yourself. Why don't you tell them personally?"

"I forgot and I am too lazy to flip my diaries to check." In order to prevent the loss of memory after my death, I had a habit of jotting things down on my diary. To present date, my diaries had filled an entire underground library and this thing had obviously occurred too far back, so it would be troublesome looking it up.

"…Fine, fine, I will be the one to tell it." A voice that was transmitted through Telepathic Voice Spell felt crestfallen somehow.

Shaking her head, she pulled herself together and Little Red clapped.

"…Margaret's experience in breaking through to the Legend realm was a little special, so it might not be able to serve as a good case study. Back then, when we were in the Creus Elf Kingdom, we went through much difficulty to gain permission to enter their National Library for 3 days. Margaret stayed in there to browse through the books, not wanting to come out at all. In the end, she managed to finish reading through the entire collections of the library within 3 days. By the time she walked out of the library, she had already become a Legend-rank. The reason why she formed the 'Corridor of Time' Imprint was just because she purely wanted to read more book."

Her voice wasn't soft. Not only could the people on the ground level hear her, even I, who was on the second floor, could hear her voice clearly.

"Since you seem to have forgotten, allow me to jot your memory a little. Other than looking for information about magic she needed, records on treasures that Lisa wanted, data on fighting techniques that Adam needed and information on God Equipment that I desired, she also checked the entire Elf Kingdom's record about the destruction of the Mist Country for you. At that time, you even said that you owed her a very big favor. So, if there is a chance, remember to return the favor."

This time, Little Red's voice only sounded out by my side. I was stunned. The Mist Country had been my country home that was destroyed. Back then, one of my main goals in exploring was to investigate the truth behind its betrayal and the reasons for its destruction. I didn't expect that the information was attained from there. It looked like a person with memory loss could never remember even the most important memories they had forgotten. Death really took away a lot of things.

Just when I was really getting serious in listening to her story, Little Red started laughing uncontrollably.

"As for Adam, Puu, that was really a joke!"

Hearing the name of their almighty city lord, the audiences' interest peaked. After all, who wouldn't want to know that man's epic adventures in the mortal world. There were many people in the base who were trying their best to stretch their ears to eavesdrop.

"Back then, our Adventuring Team offended a bastard city lord who worshipped a cult. In the end, he sent out his underlings to distract our Holy Knight Team Leader Rolo and Warrior Adam while assaulting our temporary base. He kidnapped our Mage Margaret and Thief Lisa who were recuperating from their wounds at the time. He even left a note, declaring that if we don't surrender at some place in some residence, then they would do XXX to our hostage before killing them…"

"Then Lord Adam exploded in anger? He suddenly broke into the realm of Legend and came as a 'hero saving the beauty'. It might be rather old-fashioned, but it's indeed classical. Perhaps, that was how Lady Margaret fell in love with him." The fast-mouthed Momo and Diana were the only two members of the Town Security who didn't go 'leisurely walking' on the streets. At the moment, they were also listening into the story by the side.

"Heh, back then, Adam was indeed exploding with anger. He pointed his sword towards the heavens and howled furiously 'you shameless and despicable bastard, I'll shred you into a thousand pieces just like this paper'. Then, he coolly4 threw the letter into the air and with a flash of the sword, he cut it into powder. Then, he allowed the wind to blow these pieces of the paper freely, incomparably cool…"

"Afterwards, he met with strong opponents and fought them, breaking through to the Legend realm in the middle of the fight?"

"No, the next sentence he said was 'Shit, I haven't even copied down the address!! What should we do???'…."

"WHAT!!!?"

At this moment, Little Red was satisfied with the shocked and perhaps, even idiotic face of everyone.

"Wait, then how did they resolve the situation? Did anything happen to Lady Margaret and that female thief?"

"That can't be. He couldn't be so foolish. What happened next?"

Shaking her head, her face reminiscent of the past, Little Red continues with her story.

"Yes, without the address, they lost their clue to saving them. Team Leader Rolo was maddened and slapped Adam flying 4 meters away, bumping heavily onto a tree. This was the first time I've ever seen Big Brother Rolo who was gentle and polite to everyone angered to such a degree. After that, Adam that fool ran out searching everywhere, as though possessed…"

"Did he find it? Within 3 days?" As this matter involved her godfather who was known to be perfect, Annie was quite curious.

"No, he only found them on the fifth day."

"Then…"

At this point, everyone was shocked. They didn't expect that their city lord Adam would have such a dark history. Didn't this mean that the two hostages had been…

But Little Red shook her head and laughs.

"What're you all thinking of? Adam may be immature and unreliable, but this doesn't mean that Big Brother Rolo was unreliable too. He spent 2 das 1 night picking up 4654 paper fragments… Or should I say, fragmented powder, from the lake and bush, put them together bit by bit stubbornly and managed to find the address. Then, he rushed all the way, tiring out two war horses on the journey, and managed to save Margaret and Lisa on time. After a very long time, Adam that fellow then managed to follow the trails of the kidnappers to the location."

"…Isn't he too unreliable?"

"Indeed, after seeing Margaret and the rest still intact, he cried very loudly, just like a baby. Afterwards, after having learnt his lesson, he became more reliable; at least he learned to think before moving. Alright, end of story. Ladies, is there anything you comprehended from the story?"

The two apparently deeply thinking people nodded their heads and exclaimed at the same time.

"I didn't expect that godfather/city lord would had such a dark history… Wait, you haven't told us yet how did he break through to the Legend-rank?"

"Hehe, back then, as he hugged everyone crying, he swore to never give up his companions and that he would protect everyone properly. Just like that, he formed his 'Indestructible Phoenix' Soul Imprint, unable to be killed no matter how you hit him, becoming a cockroach true to its name."

At this moment, Little Red's face was filled with smiles.

"Probably, this was also how Margaret fell in love with him. After all, every girl would have some expectations for a reliable guardian."

"No." The one who denied it wasn't the person in question but Annie.

"I once asked Big Sister Margaret why would she fall in love with Godfather. Big Sister Margaret smiled bitterly and in the end, only left a message 'back then, he cried too pitifully, I felt like I couldn't leave him alone just like that, otherwise he would cause his own demise one day.' Afterwards, when I pressured her on the matter, she refused to tell me more. I guess that 'cried too pitifully' should be referring to this incident."

"…Feels like he can't be left alone, so she had already put her eyes on him. Afterwards, she unknowingly fell into a trap and got rescued? Actually, this way is quite romantic too."

Diana nodded her head in agreement, only to see everyone staring at her, surprised.

"Why?

'No. It was just that we didn't expect Dark Elves to have such normal values about love." Although this was the common understanding of everyone here, no one said it out loud. Instead, all only nodded their heads in unison.

"…This isn't fair." A cold voice of objection sounded out from the direction of the wall. It was Elisa who had been silent for quite a while.

"How is it unfair?"

"The reason why they could be saved was obviously because Rolo spent so much effort and invested so much energy into it. Then, why was Lady Margaret thankful to Adam who had just made matters worse, and even fell in love with him. Rolo was obviously the one who should be thanked. He stubbornly put together the note and rushed all the way to save his companions, but he didn't receive the thanks that he deserved. This is so unfair."

Little Red was stunned and stared with a look of shock at Elisa for a long time before being able to squeeze out a word.

"Back then, Lisa also said the exact same thing. Afterwards, she started pestering5 Rolo, but Rolo never reciprocated."

"Then, what happened to Lady Lisa and Lord Rolo?"

"Rolo, huh? He went missing. He left behind a letter saying that he was going to look for his enemies to exact vengeance. Afterwards, no one knows where he went. However, his defiled body was found afterwards. He was probably converted into some undead being. As for Lisa… She's dead."

"Dead?"

At this moment, the gaze Little Red gave Elisa was bizarre.

"Yes, she died in the Undead Calamity caused by Lord Yongye, in the hands of one his Four Heavenly Kings, Bone Dragon Queen Gray Sin.

Elisa's eyebrows shot up. She didn't know about Rolo and Adam's past, but she knew who Lord Yongye was. She wanted to say something but since the person in question wasn't bothered about it, she didn't feel like she had the right to interfere.

"The reason why you're looking at me like this, is it because you have any orders for me?"

"No, I am thinking that having a bad memory sometimes might not be a bad thing."

------------

"Ah…. CHOOOOOO."

"Big Sister Gray Sin, you caught a cold?"

"It's Gria, GRIA! Undead don't catch cold. It's probably the same as in your case, someone was probably talking about me. Un, perhaps it was the Emperor who was thinking about me! Quick, Ah Dang, we are reaching soon."