Decision

"Who are you?" Drasnek turned around abruptly, his sword prepared to strike.

"I am one, yet half, you may have met us before.", the cloaked figure on a tree branch whispered just loud enough for Drasnek to catch.

"That doesn't really answer my que…"

"The real question is why am I on this tree?", turning around and murmuring to someone.

"Who are you speaki…", Drasnek was already so confused by the figure that he basically just gave up when the figure fell off the branch and onto the ground.

"For fuck's sake! Hide, you idiot! Stop being a monkey already."

Drasnek had concluded that the man was insane.

Getting back onto his feet whilst dusting the leaves off his cloak, Drasnek realised the man who just fell from the tree was Klauw.

"What are you doing?"

"Well...I can explain...well you see we were just adventuring around and Hide heard some screams nearby, so we obviously had to go check it out."

"Wait hold up. We? He? What are you talking about?"

"San.You fucking blew it, now we got to tell him...no we don't...yes we fucking have to or he'll think we're insane...fine"

Is he talking to himself? Drasnek had a theory in mind after all the arguing, then Klauw spoke.

"I have a split personality...you said it...Hide shut up"

"I figured"

"He's slow...you can say that again...we should take him in as our companion...but you have me...to annoy me to death"

"Okay… Imma go find something to vent my anger on.." Drasnek said awkwardly as he walked away from Klauw, not looking back.

"Are you also mentally unstable?" Both of them shot at him eagerly.

"As a matter of fact, I am," turning to show his demonic grin.

Hide, I want one, can we adopt it? What the hell are you talking about San?

"Well, we should introduce ourselves more thoroughly first, I'm Hydro Klauwric(Chloric) and he's Santa Klauws...dude stop with the jokes"

San had calmed down from all the arguing. Drasnek was confused but decided to not be cynical for the first time.

"And I am Drasnek"

"That's it? No family name?"

"Urm yes." Drasnek lied through his teeth, his family name was a sensitive secret of his.

"Hmm, well since you are that lonely and bored, would you like to come join me in my journey for justice?"

"Like what you did just now?"

"Yes" Drasnek replied with an evil grin that went from eye to eye.

"Well, you're gonna need more than just those blades to even do anything to any capable man." Klauw stated.

"You'll be surprised by what I can do," Drasnek said confidently.

"Well we should head to the market to grab some food, it feels like I have 2 stomachs"

The 3 of them started heading towards the town.

Unlike adventurers that cultivate pure crystal essence, dark energy essence or just the particles alone containing harmful substances. The only way for dungeon lords to cultivate these dark energy particles, would be through purification. As for the limit to the number of dark energy particles purified daily, it was dependent on the quality of the purification room.

"I've reached my limit for today." Vildred mumbled as he studied the six dark energy particles contained within his body. Whilst the machine had the ability to help him to purify twenty dark energy particles a day, his body wasn't accustomed to the cultivation of dark essence yet, thus resulting in him being unable to exploit his full potential.

(Essence refers to the amount of total energy whilst particles represent the individual amount of energy)

As for internal sight in which one is able to study the particles, it was a unique ability to dungeon masters or adventurers that have stepped into the intermediate tier. Whilst dungeon owners gain this ability through the dungeon system, adventurers can only activate their internal eye when their crystal essence particles contain enough energy. This threshold was the intermediate tier.

What Vildred doesn't know is that his potential was already comparable to those demons with peerless talent, even most first rate geniuses with guidance from their mentors wouldn't be able to cultivate as quickly as him.

What's this? Vildred was surprised when he felt forming within his mind, he felt a connection to it. He couldn't understand the reason behind his close affection towards this sword, but just knowing that this was his sword, was more than enough of a reason to accept it.

It was a black longsword with a scarlet line carved in the middle of the blade. Its design was simple, but it was sharp. Destructive power contained within the scarlet, it was to seal its true power. The sword was capable of destruction and havoc, Dylas.

Vildred wasn't sure how to summon the sword either, but he received his answer the moment he called Dylas' name. The sword had heard him.

Holding it in hand, Vildred realised that the weight of the sword suited him well, it was the perfect weight for him. Swinging Dylas around, he realised that his attacks carried a trace of the lightning element, scarlet lightning.

After a few swings however, he realised that Dylas was starting to vibrate, seemingly trying to tell him it needed a battle.

"Don't worry Dylas, we'll have a battle for ourselves soon." Vildred assured as he allowed Dylas vanished into his mind.

Leaving the cultivation room and underground chambers, he realised that Veil was cultivating and thus left without disturbing it.

"Presence of dark energy particles has been detected, and a new function has been added."

[1st tier Spike trap: Capable of killing anyone below the fourth phase (6/10]

Vildred may not have anyone to explain how this works, but it was pretty clear to him. The number on the left was his current cultivation base of dark essence while the number on the right was the requirement to activate the switch.

After understanding this, he left the dungeon and headed towards the Eastern forest which he had deployed his fire slime to. Any other location would prove dangerous while the northern forest was intended as a source of income in the near future.

The northern forest would also be the location where trading can be done with goblin merchants. Unlike adventurers, goblin merchants work for both sides of the world and even though the location of their hideout is hidden, both the dungeons and adventurers' forces know that they are in control of the economy.

If the goblin merchants decide to start a war, then things would be in their favour as other races or species would have to join them. From the forging experts, dwarves to the protectors of nature, elves and even the dragons that have yet to make an appearance in these few years.

Swoosh

Barely reacting at the last moment, Vildred evaded to the side while swinging his sword towards the wild boar.

Slash!

The sword created a huge gash on the wild boar, blood flowing profusely from its wound as it entered a state of frenzy. The wild boar then charged towards him and tackled him suddenly, forcing him to parry the attack while being off balance.

"Interesting!" Even though he was in the air while the wild boar was charging towards him, Vildred was full of confidence as his sword stabbed the boar from above, the sword twisting in its wound as he made use of the momentum to jump over it, pulling Dylas along with the movement for a clean exit.

I'm totally out of dark essence particles. Vildred sighed as he leaned against a tree to catch his breath. In that battle, he had made use of all his dark energy particles to activate that tiny trace of lightning to end the battle swiftly.

From what Vildred knows of Dylas, an immense amount of lightning energy was sealed within it. Even though he wanted to figure out the reason behind this, it wasn't something that he should pry into yet.

"Awooo!"

A wolf! Vildred's eyes widened as he stood up against the exhaustion, searching around for an escape route. The voice came from the path towards the dungeon and that was the only route he knows of.

"It seems like I have no other choice." Vildred mumbled, surprised to see a wolf weak on its legs walking towards him. Fresh blood painted its majestic fur, leaving a trail of blood behind it. The wolf was half-dead, it was eluding an threatening aura towards the surrounding, stopping in its tracks when it saw a human.

It wanted to live, but it was just a rogue wolf right now. It held no methods of survival despite its once glorious past, it was replaced by the new Alpha. It seeked revenge and the human standing before it right now, was the gamble it had to take.

"Human, can you help me?" The wolf struggled to speak the human language, but still managed to do so after much effort.

"You know our ways of speech?" Vildred asked cautiously, his sword pointing towards the ground, away from the wolf.

"I had to do so, it was for the survival of my pack. Until he came from beyond the forest and mountains, claiming my spot for himself whilst killing all those who were loyal towards me, allowing me to escape without the slightest worry." The wolf explained, its eyes begging for help.

"Human, can you help me?"