413-424

Chapter 413 Innocent

Dilan didn't waste any time as he charged in the direction of the Temple of Scorpio.

With his high Agility, there was no problem finding and reach the Temple of Scorpio in half an hour.

It was located right next to a mountainside and looked quite similar to the Sun Temple if one were to ignore the color of the stones with which the temple had been built.

There was a huge entrance constructed in the middle of the pyramid-shaped temple and it was not difficult for Dilan to see that there were a bunch of monsters in the rows of Scorpionmen that looked similar to human-like Scorpions with broken necks.

Their appearance was rather weird but Dilan didn't bother about that as he charged inside the town that had been built around the Temple.

Monsters and Scorpionmen noticed him immediately and many things occurred at the same time. The monsters turned in his direction and growled as if to lunge at him while the Scorpionmen charged forward.

There was no hesitation in their actions because they had faced and overcome many attacks since they had emerged on Jundra.

"Can you guys stop with this charade?" Dilan asked in the language he had learned in the Sun Temple. He hoped that they might understand that language better than the human tongue from Milarn.

Unfortunately, that was not the case and Dilan was forced to keep speaking in that language to make the Scorpionmen talk as well. Since the second phase of the Primordial Ascension had been initiated, abilities bound to the Essence crystal would improve as long as one used them more often.

With that in mind, Dilan tried to upgrade [Language Comprehension] by speaking the language of the Rasnian and Ligav race and by listening intently to the noises the Scorpionmen issued.

The Scorpionmen attacked him but Dilan evaded their attacks rather effortlessly. He didn't have much to do because his Agility was a lot higher than any of them could reach even after activating two agility-boosting abilities.

"You guys are really boring. How about you try fighting seriously?" Dilan asked with a hint of mockery while continuing to evade each attack, just to move closer to the Temple of Scorpio.

He was pretty sure that the Scorpionmen and monsters controlled by them would become a little bit more desperate the closer he inched towards the Temple of Scorpio's Divinity Fragment.

Dilan had yet to figure out where the Scorpio Temple's Divinity Fragment was located, let alone what it looked like but that was just a matter of time before he would find out.

When Dilan reached the stairs of the Temple of Scorpio, a massive amount of aetheric poison was blasted onto him. The poison had been shot out by the Scorpionmen, the Scorpion monsters, and through certain items.

Dilan shut all of his orifices with mana the moment the poison impacted him. His clothes sizzled and were corroded within seconds and Dilan felt a bit of pain due to the poison's sting but that was the only damage the poison caused.

With [Undying] activated, and his special trait [Iron Skin] showing its true power, there was no need for Dilan to fear turning into a sack of flesh and bones.

His skin was charred a little bit but he healed faster than he could sustain more injuries. That made things a lot easier for him as Dilan chose to ignore all the attacks that were directed at him.

There was no need for him to continue wasting his time and Stamina evading all the attacks if they were not dangerous to begin with.

Thus, Dilan ended the farce and stopped moving for a moment until several stingers and blades lunged forward in an attempt to pierce through him.

"Sorry but my Health stat is already close to the Peak of Tier-3, and I have a pretty nice special trait," Dilan apologized in a sarcastic way.

He smiled lightly as some weapon chipped the moment they impacted his naked body. His perfect physique was unveiled to everyone but none of the Scorpionmen, let alone monsters could be bothered about his lack of clothing. They were way too shocked that the strength they had been proud of was not enough to defeat a puny human from Milarn.

Their powers had been accumulated for years, yet, someone whose world hadn't even awoken 70 days ago was stronger than them? That couldn't be right!

However, reality looked a bit different. Dilan was not only a little bit stronger than them but his strength exceeded theirs by far.

'What would be the easiest way to make everyone listen to me? The Divinity Fragment? No, that would probably make them even angrier...ahh..I got it!' Dilan thought of something and a bright smile appeared on his face as he inserted 200 Units of Mana in the Blood Eclipse Necklace.

[Demon Summoning]!

A huge dark gate out of which darkness oozed emerged from the ground. The pressure the gate released was terrifying enough to make everyone retreat as a huge, winged Demon barged out of the dark gate.

"Some sort of Draconic Demon?" Dilan wondered for a moment as he looked at the twenty-meter-tall Demon that had appeared from his Demon Summoning. It was a winged lizard with black skin that resembled leather.

"YO!" Dilan shouted out loud when he saw that the Draconic Demon was about to start a rampage. The Draconic Demon turned in his direction and its eyes began to glow in a bright red color.

"Do you know Kelkas? If you do, he should have told you what will happen if you fucking annoy me!" He exclaimed as a devilish smile formed on his face.

For a moment the Draconic Demon only stared at him in confusion and tilted its head as if it couldn't understand what Dilan ordered.

"You fucking dumbass idiot. I know that you can understand what I'm saying. I swear, if you don't want to be turned into lizard-ragu, you better listen!" Dilan warned once again while releasing his thirst for blood and his overflowing killing intent.

The crimson eyes of the Draconic Demon changed after it observed Dilan for a second and the Demon's composure changed completely.

"Since when are humans so cocky?" He asked in a hoarse voice while staring daggers at the tiny human, who was not far away from his position.

A short jump would be enough for the Draconic Demon to reach Dilan, who was extremely calm when he looked up at the huge head of the Demon.

"What does my race matter in that regard? I'm cocky because I have the power to be cocky!" Dilan said with a shrug.

He retracted his bloodlust and kept looking at the Draconic Demon before he pointed at the situation around him.

"Do you know these Scorpionmen? If so, you can talk to them and convey the message that they should provide me with the information I want, or I will eradicate them, steal their Divinity Fragment and make it mine!" Dilan said before he lightly added, "...and if you cannot speak their language, just take me to the strongest Scorpionmen. That should be their leader!"

From his experience with the Sun Temple, Dilan had learned that it would make things a lot easier if he overpowered others than trying to treat them nicely.

And that was exactly what he would do, even if that meant he would have to kill the innocent!

Chapter 414 Control Of A Temple

Upon thinking about the Sun Temple, his expression soured and he began to stare daggers at the Draconic Demon, who had yet to move.

"You do realize that I'm being nice to you by allowing you to retain your freedom, right? The Blood Eclipse Necklace can force you to do my bidding, you know?" Dilan stated as he kept watching the Draconic Demon, who turned around, not without being confused.

"You are really a weird human…just like Kelkas said…" He replied before he let out a mighty roar at the heavens, preventing all the monsters and Scorpionmen from moving.

A sudden fear embraced their hearts and souls as the Draconic Demon began to speak in a different language.

"If your leader isn't standing in front of me in the next 60 seconds, I will kill everyone in this tiny, Basic-grade Temple!!" Dilan gave an ultimatum and some Scorpionmen instantly scurried out like chickens that had seen a butcher coming their way.

The Draconic Demon could only stare back to Dilan, who had used his mana to clean his body before he put on a new set of clothes in a nonchalant manner.

He didn't fear getting attacked and gave away many openings that could be taken advantage of by a skilled opponent. However, the Draconic Demon made no move to attack the young human as he heard something that prevented him from daring to do anything.

It had been a few days since Kelkas did exactly what Dilan had asked him, informing everyone that they should obey Dilan's orders if he were to summon them using the Blood Eclipse Necklace.

Most Demons were not even aware of the fact that there were still some Blood Eclipse Necklaces out in the universe. They had been sure that all of them had gone missing or been destroyed completely.

The latter couldn't be further from the truth, while the former was just a way to tell that the Demons couldn't find any more Blood Eclipse Necklaces and other objects that could summon and control Demons.

Of course, neither of that bothered Dilan. He just wanted to have an easy time conquering the Temple of Scorpio, without getting obstructed in any way.

It was only obvious but Dilan was powerful enough to suppress most beings that had emerged on Milarn until now. If he wouldn't make use of that, Dilan would be stupid and missed out on many opportunities to know about dangers earlier than anyone else and have more means at his disposal to achieve things others were incapable of.

Almost one minute had passed since the Draconic Demon had threatened the residents of the Scorpio Temple when a two-meter-tall Scorpionman with a blue carapace walked out from the interior of the Temple.

The Scorpionman looked at the situation outside the temple in horror. Never in his life would he have imagined that a Draconic Demon would appear in his territory, whether it was now when Tier-3 Demons had yet to emerge on Milarn, or in the future.

There were simply too few Demons, let alone a Draconic Demon with the necessary interest to conquer new planets. Yet, the reality was bitter and a ginormous and winged Draconic Demon had somehow appeared near their temple!

However, what confused the Scorpionman, whose power allowed him to be considered an existence at the Peak of Tier-2, possibly even to fight weaker Tier-3 monsters, was that the Draconic Demon pointed at an eerily calm human before he said,

"He wants you to speak to him about anything under the sun so that his Language Comprehension ability would improve. Help him study your language in the next half an hour, or I will destroy your temple, and devour the Poison Divinity Fragment!" The Draconic Demon declared, causing the Scorpionman's carapace to start clattering.

It was impossible to say anything against anything the Draconic Demon demanded.

Thus, the Scorpionman started to randomly speak to the human about anything he could think of. He had no idea how the human and the Draconic Demon were connected and it didn't really matter right at this instance.

A Demon at the Peak of Tier-3 with the prowess of a Lower Tier-4 Monster was currently threatening him and his people. The first thing he had to make sure of was to please the Draconic Demon and make him leave if possible.

Dilan didn't care what the Scorpionman thought about him after the Draconic Demon gave the commands. The only thing of importance was that he learned the language of the Scorpionman, the faster the better.

His entire focus was now directed at attempting to comprehend their spoken language. This was not easy but he had a cheat-like ability that was upgraded naturally the longer the Scorpionman spoke to him.

Dilan gave his best to understand the Scorpionman but it was much harder than expected. His passive [Language comprehension] ability had improved a lot, which made it a lot easier to understand certain things much faster than before.

Nonetheless, he had made not much progress and had yet to comprehend their language after spending half an hour trying to understand it.

"Don't kill them. Just tell him that you give them another half an hour," Dilan suddenly said as he perked up to the Draconic Demon, who couldn't be less bothered about Dilan's plan.

"I'm too bored to attack you guys. Just keep talking to him," The Draconic Demon told the Scorpionman, who had broken into a sweat by now.

The Leader of the Scorpio Temple bowed several times to the Draconic Demon before he continued to speak to Dilan while repeating a few things in an attempt to teach Dilan.

Dilan didn't know how fast time passed but he could tell that his Language Comprehension ability kept improving rapidly. He had never expected that his ability would improve so much but it was certainly helpful.

Thus, when the Draconic Demon's time had worn off and the Demon disappeared through the dark gate that had emerged once again, Dilan was confident to be able to speak with the Scorpionman.

[The host's 'Language Comprehension' ability has advanced to Tier-2! Congratulations!]

Dilan began to smile brightly when he saw the notification and he turned in the direction of the Leader of the Scorpionmen with a bright smile on his face.

"Soo…how about you tell me more about the Horde of Chaos and Destruction? Where exactly did you guys locate them?" Dilan asked, continuing to smile brightly even as he saw that the attitude of the Scorpionman leader had changed drastically.

"Why the hell would I tell you anything?! Your master left you without saying another word… who said that I won't kill you???" The Scorpioman shouted all of a sudden, and Dilan had to suppress laughing out loud.

"You really think that he was my master? Aren't you a bit foolish?" Dilan asked before he disappeared, leaving behind golden sparks as his voice resounded behind the Scorpionmen.

"I was the one controlling the Draconic Demon, not the other way around, you dumb fucker!" He uttered in a low but threatening voice as he held Xealtron's razor-sharp blade against the Scorpionman's neck.

He used enough pressure to cut lightly through the carapace that was supposed to protect the Scorpionman from all kinds of attacks equivalent to Tier-2 existences.

The Scorpionman felt incapable of moving and he only regained control of his body when Dilan let go of him.

"Just for your information, I'm now in charge of this temple. So if you don't want to die, or be the cause for your peoples' death, stay in your limits!" Dilan announced rather simply before he made his first demand as Governor of the Scorpio Temple.

"Tell me everything there is to know about this temple and the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction!"

Chapter 415 Plan

"Wow, have you really gained control of the Scorpio Temple and all their residents?" Sven asked as he entered the town of the Scorpion-people with interest gleaming in his eyes.

He looked around in curiosity and quickly realized that all the Scorpionmen were looking at him with contempt and scorn.

'Well, that doesn't really look like 'control', but more like 'conquest', or 'domination'...' Sven thought after a while and his gaze turned to Dilan, who shrugged his shoulders.

"I just told them that I will eradicate them if they don't listen to me," Dilan said, unsure if that was enough to consider having something under his control, and it didn't really matter to him either way.

He wanted to use the Scorpionmen for his personal gains and benefits, nothing else.

"By the way, you can discard the bodies of monsters at the Poison Divinity Fragment to get some points, just like we did in the Sun Temple! The points are called Poison Points and you can even convert them to dungeon points, amazing isn't it?" Dilan felt quite satisfied with himself and everything that happened around him.

The situation was quite simple. Dilan forced the Leader of the Scorpionmen to follow his orders, and he had no other choice but to grudgingly accept it. That was how Dilan and his people got permission to use the Shop of Scorpio, a shop that was heavily focused on things related to poison, whether it were ability crystals, ability books, Weapons, and much more.

There were even useful potions that would burn through flesh and not metal, which made it perfect to coat weapons with it!

"It is amazing...but are you sure that we will be safe? The situation with the Sun Temple turned out to be rather bloody and frustrating, didn't it?" Sven asked in uncertainty.

He was not sure if Dilan ever thought about the past incidents, which was why Sven had to speak about it.

"For now, I wouldn't consider anything 'safe'. I might be able to kill everyone if they stir trouble but when I'm not here something might still happen. Furthermore, the Werewolves are probably angry at the Scorpiomen, which means that they'll be fighting.

We won't intervene in their fights but innocent people can always be dragged into trouble," Dilan explained and Sven nodded his head in understanding.

Dilan didn't seem to be too worried about the Temple of Scorpio or anything related to it, yet, his expression didn't seem good. This bothered Sven more than anything because it had never been a good sign when Dilan was in a bad mood.

"What are you troubled about?" He thus asked even though he didn't really want to know the reason behind Dilan's predicament. Sven knew that he would have to listen to something unpleasant, which was not what he wanted to hear right now.

But even if he didn't want to, Sven understood that it was necessary to listen to all the troublesome things that were going to happen. It was better to know about them in advance and prepare himself instead of being oblivious to everything, after all!

"The Hordes of Chaos and Destruction are a bit troublesome, and I don't really think that the Undying group is strong enough to stop them. To be precise, I'm pretty sure that everyone in the Undying group will be bulldozed the moment the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction were to reach the Sanctum or Shiron," Dilan revealed with frustration evident on his face.

He had planned to do something about the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction by himself but that was easier said than done, even for him.

"Are the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction that strong? Where are they and...are they heading in our direction?" Sven gulped and broke out in cold sweat that trickled down his back.

He really didn't like what was going on but he could tell that Dilan was still sorting his thoughts. Thus, there was a still a ray of hope in Sven's mind.

"They're up north, at the Javelin Cliffs. Their base is located there according to the Spies of the Scorpionmen. As for their numbers...there are a lot...millions...but they're not really powerful...if we compare them to my current strength...when I go all out," Dilan revealed, after taking short pauses in his sentence over and over again.

He had contemplated whether he should reveal the truth, or if he should tweak it a little bit to make Sven feel less troubled. However, tweaking the truth would be pretty dumb, which was why Dilan had discarded this thought pretty quickly.

"What exactly does that mean? If there are millions of monsters, or whatever existences they might be, we have to know their strength, otherwise, I cannot come up with a plan to defend against them once they reach the Shikan plains!" Sven inquired while pointing at Dilan.

Dilan smiled when he saw the future plans of their strategist.

"Their average strength is at the Peak of Tier-2, all members of the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction seem to have some connection to Chaos and Destruction, which allows them to be stronger than ordinary monsters at the same rank, and the Scorpionmen have yet to get more intel about the direction they're heading to." Dilan continued to reveal information and Sven swallowed once again.

"On average, our group's strength is not even at Tier-2, but their average is at the Peak of Tier-2 already..." Sven mumbled before he added once again, "Only you are stronger...and what does 'for now' even mean?! Why are you making me pull the answers out of your brain?? Just tell us everything!"

Sven was nervous and worried, which was difficult not to notice. Dilan understood where Sven was coming from and he even patted his strategist's shoulder in pity.

"According to what I've heard from multiple sources, the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction are said to gain a higher entrance permission to newly awakened planets than others. That means they had a much easier time bringing stronger monsters to Milarn provided they accumulated enough sacrifices.

Any kind of corpses are ok for the sacrifice, and as long as they have enough of them, it won't even be problematic to bring high numbers of Tier-3 monsters or even Tier-4 monsters to Milarn!" Dilan declared and a tense silence followed suit.

"That...is horrible..." Sven mumbled quietly, his face aghast. He looked towards the ground, just to see that his legs had begun to tremble. His gaze was locked on his legs for almost an entire minute until Sven's gaze traveled to Dilan's legs which were unmoving.

Upon looking up, Sven saw that Dilan could still smile and that he looked rather calm if one ignored the fact that his smile was definitely faked.

"How can you be so calm?" He couldn't help but ask.

He had heard that Dilan could fight Tier-3 monsters without facing too many difficulties. That was pretty good but masses of Tier-4 monsters were on a whole different level, literally!

"I can already fight Tier-4 monsters, as long as I nearly kill myself....sooo that's fine. But I have to get stronger, as quickly as possible!" Dilan pointed out the obvious and Sven nodded his head.

"All of us need to get stronger if we want to get ready to fight the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction...but how are we going to do that if we're playing against time itself? They get stronger the more time passes by killing monsters and collecting sacrifices to summon stronger allies..." Sven felt like the world was breaking apart but Dilan waved off his hand as he said,

"That's why I will advance to Tier-3 within the next 30 days!"

Chapter 416 30 Days

Of course, Dilan had no idea how long the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction would take to reach the Sanctum of the Old Vampire Lord or Shiron, but it was still necessary to create a small goal for which he would have to work tirelessly to attain it.

To advance to Tier-3 in the next 30 days, Dilan would have to work extremely hard and even then he would face a time crunch.

However, he also knew that it might not even take a month until the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction would reach the Undying group.

It was already very risky to say that he had 30 days in hand to advance to Tier-3 without any hindrances, but it was not as if he could take every possible future scenario into consideration.

Overthinking would make things only worse which was why he would rather work hard than overthink anything.

p "The only issue I have is that I require more Essences than others to level up. Furthermore, I have the Hyel Destructo Armor set that can be upgraded to the Peak of Tier-2 as well.

At Platinum Tier-2, the Armor set would be of exceptional use, which meant that he would have to upgrade it from Platinum Tier-1 up to Platinum Tier-2. That would require lots of Essences though," Dilan thought and he scratched his head in frustration.

He was currently still in the town that belonged to the Scorpionmen, and a few more people other than Sven had joined him.

"Can't you just use Essence crystals from the Scorpio Shop to upgrade your Armor, and the ability [Switch]?" Yvonne asked while slurping on the soup Bianne had prepared.

It had been quite a while since they had eaten something good but Bianne came over to the Sanctum of the Old Vampire Lord a while ago. She was busy cooking a lot of time in the kitchen and her ability naturally became stronger the more she cooked.

Her cooking skills had improved drastically and Yvonne couldn't help herself but take one helping after another. Despite having a rather small body frame, she could eat all day. It was almost as if her stomach was a black hole that could take in a lot of food.

"The Scorpio Shop?" Dilan asked and he began to contemplate.

"Oh, that's right. If you can sacrifice the body of monsters you've killed, you can buy Essence crystals from the Poison Points. You might not get many status points or much Essence from essence crystals that the others have procured but it will be better than nothing…I guess?" Kathrine exclaimed, giving her sister a thumbs up.

Dilan nodded his head after a while as well before he added, "I know what I'll be doing for the next few days, but you guys need to become stronger as well, you know…"

He didn't plan to sound arrogant or to blame anyone for being too weak but it was obvious that the entire Undying group would have to work hard to increase their strength.

In the last few weeks, the people who had been staying in Shiron hadn't faced a single issue. Their life had been extremely easy, the numbers of humans and Ascenders who had joined them kept increasing and it almost looked like Shiron would become the first revived city after the Primordial Ascension.

That was great if life was still the same after the Primordial Ascension had occurred. Unfortunately, that was not the case and things had changed a lot. Strength reigned supreme and the moment someone slacked off, their strength would stagnate.

In the early stages of the Primordial Ascension slacking off could be considered to be a death sentence if nobody with supreme strength was around them to protect the slackers.

Dilan was at the center of the Shikan plains, far away from Shiron to be unable to help them if something were to happen. Thus, he didn't really understand why they would start slacking off already.

However, that was human nature. The moment humans felt safe and could live a life full of luxury and without any complaints, most would be satisfied and stop doing something to change their life, to improve themselves.

Comfort was one of the worst things for humans even if most would say that this was not the case. Most humans would say that comfort was something good, something one should work toward, but was that really the case?

Maybe in other times, it would be somewhat acceptable to seek comfort but not in the Era Milarn had entered. Numerous races from all over the Universe were keen to receive the benefits the Primordial Ascension provided. These races would give their everything in an attempt to get their hands on the system that accompanied the Primordial Ascension, whether it was to become a stronger race overall or to break the shackles of individual beings.

Dilan didn't really care about others because he was not involved with them but the people of the Undying group should have understood by now that life was not as simple as it seemed after the Primordial Ascension.

They had fought against Vampires in Shiron, after all!

"I think everyone here knows that we have to become stronger…the question is just how we can do that in the most efficient way. Would it be smarter to level up to the maximum level that a Tier-2 Ascender can reach and get our natural stats to 150 Units as quickly as possible, or would it be smarter to work hard to procure more equipment, while would indirectly increase our stats?" Victoria asked herself quietly, but everyone listened intently.

"Or should we focus on improving our abilities, while fighting monsters to level up and so on? Or should we learn more techniques from the first trial of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum? Or do we do something entirely different? I mean there are countless ways to improve but choosing one and changing our path midway won't give us the best result, right?" Kathrine sounded rather frustrated as she spoke.

She eyed Dilan, who was deep in thought and tried to figure out what he was thinking. It was obvious that he would use the Realm Gate to enter the dimension where the Instance Dungeon of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum was located.

There were many powerful Tier-2 monsters and lots of Tier-3 monsters as well. Dilan would decimate them all, increase his level and stats and become even stronger.

Sacrificing the corpses to the Temple of Scorpio would give him many Poison Points, which he would use to buy even more Essence crystals. His strength would increase even further afterward, widening the gap between Dilan and everyone else.

Slowly but steadily, he would lose all connections with humans because he would encounter other existences that were more on his level and just as powerful as him.

He would befriend some and travel around with them, or so Kathrine imagined.

"Everyone could try to come up with a specific combination on how to use all their abilities in a balanced way to upgrade them. After defeating the monster, you could just absorb the Essence crystal, and sacrifice the corpses to procure points that could be accumulated to purchase high-tiered and high-quality equipment," Dilan said calmly just for him to add,

"Building a powerful foundation is more important than merely focusing on one thing. I focus a lot on the increase of my stats, but that is mostly because I don't have abilities similar to you guys.

Blood-Ice is a very powerful trait that can be used in a versatile manner. Even if your other stats would be rather low, as long as Victoria has enough mana and she focuses on strengthening her Blood-Ice, she might become strong enough to defeat me.

That's obviously just one of the many possibilities to become stronger and I know that everyone's path is different than my own….so just do whatever you feel is the correct way for you…"

Dilan felt that he was blabbering unnecessarily which was why he shut his mouth after a while.

Yet, after looking at the expressions of everyone around him, he felt even weirder than before.

"Why is everyone looking at me like that?" He asked in confusion but nobody said a word as everyone stared at him with a gentle smile on their faces.

'Looks like he won't even think about abandoning us…'

Chapter 417 The Grind (1)

Thirty days were both long enough to achieve something, yet, also quite short if one thought about it.

Studying a new technique in the first trail of the Blood Monarch's Instance Dungeon was likely to require several days, if not an entire week.

With that in mind, the others had to think about what they wanted to do in the next few weeks. Following a rough schedule was helpful even if one couldn't always follow it all the time.

"By the way, are you a Vampire now, or are you a human?" Williams asked when he reached the Sanctum of the Old Vampire Lord after finishing everything he had to do in Shiron.

Shiron was one of the safest places in the surrounding area and there was no need for someone as powerful as Williams to waste his time. There were more than enough powerful Ascenders, who were willing to stay behind.

Meanwhile, Williams had been willing to give his all to become stronger. That was also why he had to give up on some responsibilities, including governing Shiron.

"I'm not a Vampire, but I have accepted the bloodline of the Blood Monarch's Ancestors to a certain extent. I'm still 85% Human according to the Log of the Ancient," Dilan explained for the Nth time.

"That also means you should be able to create your own small group of Vampires, or not?" Williams asked, his eyes gleaming in curiosity. The 30-year-old young man may not look like that at first glance but he was very interested in everything that happened during and after the Primordial Ascension.

There were many things he wanted to get to know, and Dilan was amongst the most knowledgeable human when it came to topics revolving around the Primordial Ascension, whether others accepted this or not.

"I can do that, but I won't bother thinking about it for the time being. Rather, I will take your leave and use the Realm Gates, if there is nothing else to discuss with me around!" Dilan declared and given that nobody dared raise a voice against him, he left.

The gaze of many followed him but nobody said a word. It was as if they had a lot to say but they didn't dare to open their mouth and ask what weighed on their heart.

"We should do as Dilan said. Everyone should come up with a plan, write it down, and show it to others. If they figure out ways to improve our schedules, they'll let us know, we will fix the schedule and try to work according to it. I know that it's very unlikely for our plan to work out perfectly fine but who cares?" Kathrine said and everyone nodded their heads before they returned to work as well.

Meanwhile, Dilan had already stepped through the Realm Gate that would take him to the realm where the Blood Monarch's Instance Dungeon had been created.

Activating [Power Appraisal] from his Headring, Dilan watched his surroundings precisely before he dashed in the direction where the most and the strongest monsters were located.

He didn't have any time to waste, which was why he activated the [Blood Sacrifice] ability of the Cursed Dagger Xealtron immediately. After that, he increased the weapon's stats augmentation to 150 Units for both his Agility and Strength.

The Cursed Dagger's [Blood Drain] decreased his Health much faster than before. However, his natural regeneration was strong enough to heal Nial through the Lifeforce that was constantly drained from him. After activating [Undying] bits of his Mana were consumed to replenish his drained Lifeforce faster.

[Taunt]! Dilan activated his Origin ability's second ability, the ability he had gained after fusing the Artifact of Traction with [Regeneration].

All the monsters he passed through noticed Dilan and they shot in his direction without hesitation. Their eyes turned bloodshot and it looked like they had lost their reasoning. Dilan began to smile when he witnessed how powerful the ability of the Artifact of Traction truly was and he continued to use it.

Taunt was fully unleashed for the next ten minutes in which Dilan did nothing else but lure monsters together. He wanted as many monsters as possible in a single place. His first attempts at luring several hundred monsters to a single location didn't work out perfectly fine but it was certainly better than he would have first expected.

With that in mind, Dilan turned towards the center of all the monsters before he jumped more than twenty meters in the air and his ring began to gleam in a blazing red tone as it heated up.

The Ring of Inferno had been supplied with a total of 200 Units of Mana that had been altered to fire-attributed Mana with the use of [Mantle of Elements]. Dilan had summoned a Basic Fire Spirit to transmute his mana before he circulated it inside the Ring of Inferno.

Now that enough mana was supplied inside the Ring of Inferno, Dilan could unleash the strongest form of the Ring's ability [Inferno of Disintegration].

Dilan's hands pointed toward the ground as a swirl of blazing flames manifested in his palms. The swirl expanded rapidly and a huge inferno manifested in moments and Dilan unleashed it upon the crowded mass of monsters below him without hesitation the moment the preparations had been completed.

After he unleashed the Inferno of Disintegration, the sounds of destruction, screams, and roars of pain, and the smell of burned flesh swarmed the surrounding area. Everyone who was able to witness the horror that unfolded right below Dilan felt pity for the unlucky monsters because they had encountered an existence like Dilan.

Fighting and getting killed was one thing but pursuing a tiny human, just to burn it to death moments later was simply too painful. There was no need to compare the two but being burned to death was simply not something anyone should ever feel.

But that was not something Dilan was bothered about. He was well aware that his actions were cruel in the eyes of others but the laws of the jungle were fair and unbiased. It would allow him to do anything he wanted to do as long as he would accept that he might get killed by someone stronger in the future.

Dilan was more than ready to accept that because he knew that nobody would bother asking him if it was fine to kill him. Instead, they would just do it exactly the way he killed the monsters in the Inferno of Disintegration!

Most monsters died the moment they got caught in the Inferno of Disintegration, while others survived with heavy burns. However, surviving the inferno didn't mean that they were allowed to escape Dilan alive. He activated [Thunder Step] and turned into a purple flash the moment he took the first step ahead.

After having summoned a Basic Lightning Spirit after he allowed the Basic Fire Spirit to leave, Dilan altered some of his remaining mana with the use of the Lightning Spirit.

His [Thunder Step] ability could be used much more smoothly than before and Dilan believed that the Agility augmentation he received from the ability had improved a tiny bit.

This may not have been necessary but Dilan wanted to improve his proficiency with the [Mantle of Elements] and see if he could upgrade it faster if he used it together with other abilities as well.

Thus he used most of his abilities in various ways, including [Switch] to decrease his Stamina by 100 Units to reallocate it to his Mana!

By possessing even more mana than usual, the higher mana replenishment effect of the Ring of Infinite Element Constitution and the Hyel Destructo Armor set showed their might to the fullest.

And that was when the fun truly started!

Chapter 418 The Grind (2)

Even without the use of [Switch], Dilan's Mana was extremely high.

The equipment he wore added a total of 238 Units to his Mana which was already higher than 200 Units.

After taking into consideration his extremely precise control of mana and the fact that he could replenish it rapidly, it would be very hard for Dilan to use up his whole mana if not for the fact that the abilities of his accessories were extremely expensive.

However, their use was terrifying as well, especially since he had burned hundreds of monsters to a cinder.

"I should really hold back. What use does it have if I burn all corpses to ash when I intended to sacrifice them at the Poison Divinity Fragment?" Dilan grumbled after he saw the devastation the Inferno of Disintegration had caused.

He knew that the Ring of Inferno's ability was powerful but he didn't expect it to be that devastating.

The fire had devoured many monsters and left behind only their bones and their Essence crystals, which was a bit weird to look at for a moment.

"It was really more powerful than I would have expected. Even Tier-3 monsters sustained heavy injuries…" Dilan mumbled in astonishment as he picked up everything around him. Spreading out his mana like a nest, he caught everything before it was stored in his storage ring a moment later.

Dilan was glad that collecting all the corpses, bones, and Essence crystals was so easy, otherwise, he would really struggle a lot.

"We're not done yet…we merely started!" Dilan sternly reminded himself at this moment and he began to smile lightly.

He knew that his progress from the second to the third Tier would be rapid because his strength was overwhelming. At the same time, it was quite obvious that the Mysterious Flower of Opportunity and all the Essence crystals he had collected during the abyss-difficulty advancement mission were at 'fault' for the rapid increase in strength.

The Essence crystals of higher-tiered monsters were simply more valuable than those of Tier-2 monsters that were at the same rank and Tier.

However, that was only obvious.

"Well, even Tier-2 Essence crystals are quite powerful. Others can increase their stats by a few units for each Essence crystal of a monster that is of a much higher level than their own…" Dilan spoke to himself at this moment when he perceived all the Essence crystals inside his storage ring.

He could tell that all Essence crystals were either of monsters at the Peak of Tier-2 or that they were Tier-3 Essence crystals.

To others these Essence crystals might already be enough to reach the Peak of Tier-2 in terms of level and stats as well but it was far from enough for Dilan to attain his goal.

With that in mind, he continued to hunt monsters while continuously using [Switch] whenever the ability's cooldown had worn off, while repetitively using [Thunder Step], [Mantle of Elements], [Language Comprehension], and even [Second Acceleration].

Those were all the passive and active abilities Dilan's Essence crystal had bound to himself. [Mantle of Elements] could be used actively as well, only for [Language Comprehension] to have an extremely easy way to be upgraded.

Dilan could actively work toward the upgrades of [Language Comprehension] by studying other languages. There were a few languages that could be considered as the main languages on Milarn. Most people knew at least one of the main languages, but there were also hundreds of minor ones.

Learning all of them might be difficult under normal circumstances but Dilan's [Language Comprehension] was already a Tier-2 ★✭✭ ability, meaning that he could learn relatively easy languages at an even faster rate than others.

Sven and the others brought him a few books about various languages from various cities around Shiron, and the Sanctum of the Old Vampire Lord.

Thus, he could improve all his abilities while wondering what the hell he should do with his remaining five passive ability vacancies.

Dilan felt that he was already very well equipped with the abilities he possessed, whether they came from equipment, his occupation, his special traits, his Constitution or the abilities that were bound to his Essence Crystal.

Time passed quickly and Dilan's brain rattled continuously while he was fighting monsters. He slaughtered all the monsters he came across while disregarding their feelings entirely.

His mind felt as if it had broken into a thousand pieces for him to multitask properly but that didn't really work out as planned. It was still not bad but he began to bleed out of his eyes and nose when more than 72 hours passed without him receiving even a moment of sleep.

He had been inside the realm that was filled with countless monsters, the searing hot place where even the red earth felt like molten lava.

However, the final result was certainly worth it.

All his abilities had been upgraded a lot and the number of Essence crystals he had collected until now exceeded 3,000.

Yet, now that he had improved so much, Dilan would have to keep some monsters for the others. He could Level up and improve through different means if the 3,000 Essence crystals wouldn't enough.

"Let's sacrifice the corpses and buy a few Essence crystals to upgrade some parts of the Hyel Destructo armor," Dilan told himself and he left the Underworld realm by using the Realm Gate.

Dilan knew that the realm was probably not called the Underworld, but that was of no concern to him. His only issue was calling it by different names every single time someone spoke about it was annoying, so Dilan gave it a somewhat suitable name to make things easier.

Once he returned to Milarn, he ran to the Scorpio temple's top where he began collecting all the dead bodies and bones from around 3000 monsters.

Upon seeing the way he sacrificed a corpse of a once powerful monster after another, the Scorpionmen and tamed monsters were staring at Dilan in fear. The bloodlust that leaked from Dilan's body was fear-instilling and everyone realized clearly that they would have to pay heed to Dilan's commands if they wanted to survive.

They would have to follow his orders until they were able to summon one of their Elite forces, someone who was stronger than Dilan.

However, the Scorpionmen were not sure how long that would take and if Dilan's increase in strength would gradually slow down.

Little did they know that Dilan was already planning to become a Tier-3 existence and working hard to ensure that he would advance even faster than before!

[The host has received 184,560 Poison Points in exchange for sacrificing 2984 Monster corpses(No Essence crystal)]

Dilan was not sure if that was a lot or not at the beginning but exchanging all the Poison Points with Tier-3 and Tier-4 Essence crystals were quite a satisfying sight.

After working tirelessly for 72 hours, Dilan was dead-tired but he didn't even think about going to sleep.

He would rather buy a bunch of potions that would invigorate him than go to sleep right now, especially now that he felt happy because of all the gains he had made in the last few days.

"Who said that I will need 30 days to advance to Tier-3? If I continue like this, I won't even need two weeks!" Dilan exclaimed as he began to upgrade the first piece of the Hyel Destructo Armor set.

"Let's rise and shine, baby!"

Chapter 419 Upgrades And Trouble

[Chestplate of Hyel Strength and Endurance] <Platinum Tier-2> treasure

[+30 Strength], [+70 Health]

[Power-Up] The host can increase his Strength and Health by 20% for 75 seconds. 10 uses a day!

Upgrading the Chestplate of Hyel Strength and Endurance cost him more than half of the Poison Points that he procured from the sacrifices he made in the Temple of Scorpio.

However, the final result was quite satisfying. Thus, Dilan accepted the costs without any qualms.

As long as the other four pieces of the Hyel Destructo Armor set would cost the same, he would only need a few more days to gather enough Essence crystals from the Temple of Scorpio to upgrade them!

Other than the Chestplate of the Armor-Set, Dilan improved his Level and stats as well.

[3085 Essence crystals of Tier-2 and Tier-3 monsters have been absorbed→ +7.1 Strength, +5.9 Health, +3.5 Mana]

[Essence pool has been filled. Host reached Level 26(Tier-2)! +1.0 Status points can be allocated!]

Dilan received a lot fewer status points by absorbing so many Essence Crystals but he had to accept everything regardless. It was not as if the system would provide him with more stats if he were to start voicing out complaints.

Instead of complaining, he should keep improving his stats, level, equipment, and abilities to make sure that he would be able to advance to Tier-3 soon.

And upon looking at his abilities, Dilan quickly realized that it was only a matter of time before they would become even more powerful.

—-

-Active abilities (3/4)-

[Thunder Step] Tier-1 ★★★✭✭

[Second Acceleration] Tier-1 ★★✭✭

[Switch] Tier-1 ★✭✭

-Passive abilities (2/7)-

[Language comprehension] Tier-2 ★★✭✭

[Mantle of Elements] Tier-1 ★✭✭

—-

While the effect of [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], and [Language comprehension] didn't change a lot, both [Mantle of Elements] and [Switch] advanced in rank.

[Mantle of Elements] showed the most improvements but that was only obvious.

[[Mantle of Elements] Tier-1 ★✭✭

[+8 Strength], [+8 Mana]

The host can augment his weapons by seeking the help of Elemental Spirits.

Stronger Elemental Spirits can be summoned the higher the ability's rank.

The stronger the summoned Spirit, the higher the Mana consumption.

The augmentation of the weapon differentiates with each Elemental Mantle

Spirits that can be summoned at once: Three

The highest rank of the summoned Spirits: Basic]

The most important change in the semi-passive ability was the fact that he could summon up to three Basic Spirits now. As long as he made use of this, it was only a matter of time before the ability would upgrade even further.

It might look like the changes of the semi-passive ability were too little considering that it advanced from an Ungraded ability to Tier-1, but Dilan was quite satisfied because he was certain that the Mantle of Elements ability would finally reveal its true strength upon advancing further! He was sure that the ability was a late-bloomer!

By making use of summoning three Spirits, Dilan was ready to summon and de-summon them within seconds before he repeated the same procedure on a loop.

As for [Switch], it improved a lot, yet a little less than Dilan had expected.

[[Switch] Tier-1 ★✭✭|Growth| (0%)

The Host can reallocate 150 stats points once per use.

Ability can be activated once every 10 minutes.

Duration: 3 Minutes]

The duration of Switch improved by 50% and so did the amount of stats points he could reallocate at once.

Dilan was quite satisfied with all the enhancements he had achieved in a little more than three days. Others may be able to enhance their stats more than Dilan by simply killing weaker monsters, but he was fine with that.

Enhancing his stats the closer he came to reaching the limit of his stats as Tier-2 existence was more difficult, either way. That was basic knowledge!

Thus, Dilan was more than fine with everything he received right now.

"Dilan? Where are you?? Dilan!!" A loud and hoarse voice resounded through the Temple of Scorpio. The voice sounded restless and a trace of fear could be clearly heard in Sven's voice.

Dilan frowned lightly when he heard the worry and fear in Sven's voice, especially since there shouldn't really be something to be afraid of…not right now.

'Could it be the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction? They shouldn't have reached the Shikan plains yet…weren't they far away?' Dilan immediately thought about the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction and he began to worry a bit. It was not as if he was afraid to die, but fighting the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction with his strength would turn it into a pretty annoying fight.

Three days were not even enough for him to finish his preparations. He may be far from weak but fighting millions of somewhat powerful Chaos monsters was not something Dilan liked to do, if he were to be honest!

"What's wrong Sven?" Dilan asked after he had used the [Short-distance traveling] ability of the Boots of Hyel Space to appear right in front of Sven.

The young man was startled for a moment but he calmed down in an instant.

"We have a big problem, Dilan!!" Sven exclaimed, attracting the attention of the Scorpionmen around. They may not be able to understand the human tongue yet but they were not stupid to notice the way his voice faltered.

Reading the emotions within someone's voice and the way one behaved was not a new concept to them as they used this to hunt for preys.

"Alright, Sven. Calm down and tell me what's going on!" Dilan grasped Sven's shoulders tightly, forcing him to stay put in his place. Sven took a few deep breaths before he began to bombard Dilan with the news that had reached them just now.

"Apparently, the Undying Group in Shiron stirred trouble with the neighboring military camps and groups they encountered during the last few days. Of course, this was not initiated by the whole group or any of your subordinates but some newcomers, who believed that they could do whatever they wanted.

They're amongst the strongest people in the Undying Group in Shiron and Williams said that they could be trusted…unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case…you never know when you meet certain people.

Either way, they were good at creating a completely different picture than who they truly are and are expert at hiding their malicious true selves and…they raped the wife and daughter of one of the Leaders of the other groups they encountered…." Sven spoke hurriedly and he swallowed a few words entirely but Dilan could understand everything his strategist told hm.

"So basically you're telling me that some idiots with the IQ of a banana are currently the strongest force in Shiron's Undying Group and they raped at least two women?" Dilan asked, his expression eerily calm, just for his sky blue eyes to look as if they would turn into blocks of ice.

"There were more women…" Sven answered, his eyes burning in anger before he added, "But the biggest problem stems from the fact that they raped one woman belonging to the Leader's family…"

Dilan could already fathom what was about to happen and he hated it to the core.

"They declared war and are currently on their way to destroy Shiron!"

Chapter 420 Troublemaker In Shiron

Dilan couldn't care less about the lives of the rapists because they were dead in his eyes, either way.

However, what he couldn't accept was that the Leader of the other group chose to wage war with the entire Undying group and that they were ready to kill more than a thousand innocent humans for the incorrect and ghastly actions of a small group.

"They don't know that the Undying group would never support ****…so their actions are a bit extreme, I guess…" Sven said, trying to reduce the tension a little bit but Dilan lifted his hand, indicating Sven to shut his mouth for a second.

"Are they already in front of Shiron or do we still have time? How long will they need to reach the city with all their people? Or how many are going there to eradicate Shiron and my city, to begin with?" Dilan asked after he spent a few seconds figuring out what would be best for him to do right now.

He was trying to come up with the best plan to solve the situation without shedding too much blood but that didn't seem easy.

"The Scouts in Shiron noticed their forces about five minutes ago when they were still a trip of around half an hour away from Shiron…but they might also have Tier-2 Ascenders in their group and could reach Shiron in five more minutes or less…" Sven spoke honestly, while being oblivious about the actual number of their opponents.

Dilan just wanted to know the number to know if he missed an opponent when he encountered them, especially since he didn't know many of the newcomers that had arrived in Shiron. He wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible right now.

The Hordes of Chaos and Destructions had already become a headache, after all!

"Five minutes? That should be more than enough…" Dilan mumbled, stretching his body before he gave Sven a thumbs up.

"Everything will be fine…I guess…well it might become a little bit bloody, but whatever, right?" He said a little bit weirdly before he manifested the whole Hyel Destructo Armor all over his body.

Next, he activated [Switch] to reallocate 150 Units of his Strength to his Agility before he added [Thunder Step] and [Second Acceleration using up some of his mana.

This was more than enough for his Agility to reach 860 Units. However, Dilan was not done preparing himself for what was about to happen.

Dilan used [Short-distance traveling] to teleport himself outside the town that surrounded the Temple of Scorpio before he activated the first use of [Master of Gravity!]

Without hesitation, Dilan decreased the gravitational force that weighed on him drastically before he turned into a flash that shot over the ground.

With an Agility 860 times higher than the average human before the Primordial Ascension and an extremely low gravitational force weighing him down, Dilan broke through the sound barrier the moment he took his first step forward.

He dashed toward Shiron, prepared to fight if necessary and his speed began to increase drastically. Dilan had to cover his face with a tremendous amount of mana to make sure that the wind pressure that splashed his face wouldn't affect his sight as his speed crossed more than 2,000 kilometers per hour easily.

Dilan used every muscle in his body as well as possible as he rushed over the highways to make sure that he could run as quickly as possible without coming across too many hindrances.

And even if there were some unexpected obstacles, Dilan could always use the [Breaker] ability of his Armor-Set's gloves to break everything that could be considered to be an obstruction.

To make sure that his speed could be maintained after the first use of [Master of Gravity] had worn off, Dilan activated it a second time. Simultaneously, his other abilities were continuously being used which allowed him the opportunity to reach Shiron in only four minutes and 50 seconds.

Dilan had used quite a bit of his mana and he felt a bit tired, especially because he didn't sleep for days, but the sight that unfolded itself in front of him was not something he could welcome.

"Where the hell did they get so many humans from? That shouldn't be a single group, right?" He wondered as he looked at more than 10,000 human Ascenders. Most of them were at Tier-1 but that was not something to be worried about.

Rather, it was weird to think that someone dared to bring their Tier-1 Ascenders to a battlefield, even if they were so high in number.

,m Dilan dashed toward the front of the huge army and he used [Short-distance traveling] two more times when others noticed him.

He halted in front of the strongest Ascenders, who pointed their weapon at him only moments after he emerged.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" A middle-aged man in his late 40s asked as he lunged forward, seemingly ready to pierce Dilan's throat the moment he was to make a weird move.

However, Dilan disregarded this threat by clutching the man's spearblade before he broke the weapon using the gloves' [Breaker] ability and his brute force.

"Calm down, and give me the names of the barbarians who raped your family's women, so that I can bring you their tortured bodies, or just their heads if you want me to kill them directly," Dilan spoke in an emotionless tone as he looked straight in the eyes that were filled with wrath, regret and the guilt of having been too weak.

"Calm down…you ask me to CALM DOWN?! You fucking bastard. This Undying group is filled with the worst criminals that have dirtied their hands with crimes ranging from arson, and **** to murdering, and you are not better than them if you tell me that you're willing to kill them to save your own skin!" The middle-aged man shouted, and Dilan's eyes began to twitch in response.

"You are about to eradicate an entire city, including far more than a thousand innocent people. Who are you to complain about murderers?" Dilan asked calmly and he began to gesture with his hands.

In his opinion, he had given a nice offer to the man, whose family had suffered. Receiving the perpetrator's heads that would be delivered to him on a silver plate was certainly not something to ignore.

"I eradicate the Undying Group in the name of justice and revenge! There are no innocent people in the Undying Group, you bastard!!" The middle-aged man shouted with bloodshot eyes.

"By the way, why are you acting so rude? Do you think you're a bigshot?" Dilan let go of his earlier politeness as he began to release some of his killing intent to make sure that the middle-aged man and every single member of his army would understand what true power is and how the fear of death truly felt like.

Dilan's killing intent was released explosively and he could hear hundreds of weapons dropping to the ground, the clattering of blades, swords, and a multitude of other similar weapons just a moment later. Afterward, bodies followed suit as the first set of Ascenders lost their consciousness.

"I will give you one chance. Tell me who the rapists were and I will bring them to you in the next ten minutes. If you still want to fight the Undying Group afterward, I will eradicate your entire group and kill the rapists, either way.

I have a zero tolerance towards ****, so you can imagine how angry I am for someone to dare **** others while saying that they're members of my group and believing that they can get away with such a shameful crime!" Dilan's killing intent intensified with every spoken word and there was not a single human Ascender, who was able to face Dilan, not if they wanted to stay conscious.

"Y-Your group?"

Chapter 421 Crazed?

"You are the leader of this group made up of horrifying people?!" The middle-aged man asked in shock while trying to control his body.

However, that was hardly possible because he was shaking like a willow leaf in a storm. Dilan's killing intent was simply too overwhelming and it was already a great achievement for him to be able to talk properly.

"How often do I have to–....Nevermind, forget it, you won't believe me and I don't really need you to believe me," Dilan wanted to defend himself but he disregarded this thought after a few seconds as he added, "Just don't trouble me when I fix the mess some idiots caused!"

At first, Dilan wanted to be nice to the opposite party because they were led by anger and the opinion that the entire Undying Group was evil. But it was quite obvious that there was no way and no need to try convincing the group of more than ten thousand Ascenders that his words were sincere.

If they wanted to attack Shiron, they could do so…but only after Dilan had cleaned up his group and gotten rid of the pests.

Dilan gestured to all the Ascenders in front of him to stay back and hold their damn horses. If they wouldn't do so, he might as well take care of all troublemakers with love, care, and Xealtron's metal-cutting sharp blade.

'That should work…maybe,' Dilan thought as he turned around while retracting his killing intent. A moment later, he shot toward Shiron, the small city where the branch of his Undying Group was located.

While Dilan left, many continued to look at the position he had been standing in the whole time.

"Should we still continue with our plan now that someone like this dude has appeared?" A young woman asked, holding a large blazing orb in her hand.

The Leader of the ten thousand Ascenders had been shocked about Dilan's arrival but his stiff expression began to soften as he turned in the woman's direction.

"Why should we stop all of a sudden? There are murderers and rapists in this group! We have to deliver justice to all those who suffered because of injustice before and after the Primordial Ascension. We shall destroy their mortal bodies, deprive them of their soul and seal it until the end of time!" The leader cried, his eyes glowing crazily as he pointed at the blazing orb.

"The mana of ten thousand Ascenders should be enough to activate both Mantras with this…thing we got from them, right?" He asked, and the woman nodded her head not without feeling even the slightest bit odd.

"In that case, let's begin it!" The leader ordered her while his eyes had turned bloodshot.

Since his wife and daughter had been violated, their leader was not the same sane person as before, but that was only obvious. Their entire family had been torn apart because someone had dared to do something as heinous as raping all the women they could lay their vile hands on.

Yet, as if that was not enough, the leader's craziness brought them into contact with them…a different race. Since they had encountered them things had changed for the worse even though they had gotten their hands on various wonderful treasures.

Letting out an audible sigh, the young woman activated the blazing orb. A warm and calming sensation spread through the surrounding area that began to turn reddish wherever the warm and calming sensation passed by.

Within seconds, the surrounding area all around the ten thousand Ascenders had turned red and it stopped expanding. A system notification appeared in front of everyone and all the Ascenders accepted what was going to happen as strands of mana were pulled out of their body.

Everyone's mana was drained from their body forcefully and it was pulled toward the blazing orb that stored every last bit of it.

The process was long and taxing to the body of the Ascenders, whose mana was drained until they were completely deprived of every bit, but the result was devastating as various mantras manifested in front of the young woman, who looked over to her leader with uncertainty in her eyes.

'Do I really have to do that?' She wondered, questioning if she was doing the right thing. However, upon seeing the expression on her leader's face, she realized yet again that not doing it wouldn't change a thing.

In fact, she was certain that the leader would kill her before activating the mantras by himself.

Thus, she grit her teeth and started to chant one of the many lengthy mantras that had manifested in front of her…a Tier-4 Mantra!

While the woman had begun to chant, Dilan had long since reached the factory they had turned into the first real base of the Undying Group.

Many things had changed by now but the fundamental foundations were still the same as before.

"Close to 2000 people? That's a bit more from what the last report says," Dilan mumbled to himself as he scanned through everyone and everything.

There were many new faces, whom Dilan had never seen before but that was not surprising. Most Survivors and Ascenders, who Dilan had been in contact with were now in the Sanctum of the Old Vampire Lord.

Even Jarek, the gloomy-looking, skinny tamer went over to the Sanctum to tame and raise the long-legged lizards without the need to fear anything.

Ever since Dilan had visited Jarek, he had been eyed with jealousy and as if he had been rewarded with something of unfathomable value. That couldn't be further from the truth but it was not as if anyone believed Jarek. Thus, he moved to the Sanctum of the Old Vampire Lord, where he had been treated much better ever since.

Dilan hardly remembered the names of most ordinary Survivors in his group, especially the slackers and idiots. Now that he thought about it, the Undying Group in Shiron was truly filled with dickheads and idiots.

Nonetheless, killing them all just like that was not morally right, especially since they were all human. They should work together rather than attempt to slaughter their own brethren until not a single being of their race was left behind, a total annihilation!

Dilan was eyed a bit weirdly because one of his hands was placed on the handle of the Cursed Dagger and due to the intimidating pressure, the Hyel Destructo Armor Set radiated.

He received lots of attention from the people inside the base, which intensified further when people began to notice that they had no idea who he was.

Their eyes widened and the first Survivors started to run to report the arrival of a powerful but unknown human in their group.

Dilan's eyes followed the Survivors, who started to run and he made short strides using bits of his strength to follow the Survivor easily.

Thus, it didn't even take him a minute before he finally reached the office where all the important figures were gathered.

"Are you stupid? Do you want to abandon the Undying group after causing all this mess? If you weren't braindead enough to think that raping women all around Shiron would be perfectly fine, we wouldn't face the attack of more than ten thousand Ascenders right now, Jival!!" A loud voice thundered through the room before a fist smashed on the long wooden table that was located right in front of that man.

The table broke but the bulky man, who had shouted at the skinny Ascenders stopped moving all of a sudden as a thread shot out of Jival's arm.

The thread coiled around the bulky man's neck and squeezed him tightly, choking his neck and preventing him from breathing properly.

"Shut up, or you'll die even before the enemies attack!"

Chapter 422 Imposter

"Shut up, or you'll die even before the enemies attack!" The skinny Ascender called Jival hissed at the bulky man, whose head started to turn blue.

Dilan lifted his eyebrow when he saw that a bunch of six men behind Jival started to laugh while four Ascenders on the side of the bulky men were trying to help their boss out of the tricky situation.

'I think I remember him…maybe?' Dilan wondered as he looked at the side of the bulky man. He made a simple motion in which he unsheathed Xealtron that was covered in bits of mana before he released a Mana Slash created with one unit of Mana and sheathed Xealtron once again.

The thread that was about to kill the bulky man had been cut through, allowing him to breathe once again.

"Who the hell are you? Are you some sort of cosplayer? Just why would you appear here looking like…this?!" Jival shouted at Dilan while his subordinates began to laugh heartily. They acted as if they were Jival's dogs but that didn't really matter to Dilan.

"My question is the same…who the hell are you?" Dilan smiled nonchalantly at Jival as he returned the same question.

The skinny Ascender squinted his eyes and he looked deep into the eyes of Dilan before his head started to turn red.

"How could there be anyone in this group, who doesn't know my name?! I'm Jival, the Great! I am THE leader of the Undying Group!!" Jival declared as he lifted both arms into the air while his dogs began to roar.

"Our Savior!!"

"Jival is the greatest!!"

"MASTERRR!!"

Dilan lifted an eyebrow while looking at the ridiculous situation that had unfolded itself in front of him and his smile began to widen.

"At least you seem to know the real name," He scoffed before he continued to speak in the same calm tone, "But are you really sure that you are the leader of the Undying Group? Don't you know that the leader of the Undying Group forbids raping and that he would behead all those who broke his rules?"

Oddly enough, Dilan was not really fazed when he heard from Jival that the skinny Ascender thought of himself as the 'leader of the Undying group'. It was obvious that Jival was an imposter but Dilan found this funnier than angering, which was quite odd.

"You fool! I stand above all rules and the same goes for my most loyal followers!!" Jival shouted at the top of his lungs while getting oddly irritated due to the calm posture of the young man in front of him.

Jival was in his late 20s, and he could tell that Dilan was much younger than him. However, there was not the slightest bit of discomfort, fear, or any emotion in the expression of the young man.

At this moment, the bulky middle-aged man had stopped coughing. He looked up at Dilan and jumped up from the chair he had been seated in.

"Dilan?! You finally returned!!" The bulky man shouted, recognizing Dilan the moment he saw him.

Dilan smiled at the bulky man in return and he replied, "I didn't plan to return because I thought that the base in Shiron was rather safe and without trouble, but it looks like some idiots entered the base thinking that they could become the new rulers of the Undying group.

But, to be honest, it's downright amusing and cute for anyone to believe that they can replace me!"

His expression was still as calm as before when he unveiled one more important piece of information after another. One would have to be extremely stupid or the densest person all over the Shikan plains not to understand what was going on.

Yet, Jival was exactly one of those...a brick head.

"Dilan…where did I hear this name before…Dilan…wait…DILAN?!" The skinny Ascender shouted in surprise when he finally recognized the name and his head flicked in Dilan's direction, fiery anger spreading through his eyes.

"Why would you be angry at me, you fucking dumbass idiot? Who allowed you to go around and **** women in the belief that you were actually allowed to do something as shitty and stupid as violating women?!" Dilan's composure changed all of a sudden and he took a step forward before he disappeared in front of everyone's eyes.

However, he didn't activate his boot's ability. Dilan had just moved too quickly for anyone in the room to keep up with his movements with their bare eyes.

Dilan's hand lunged out and he tightly grasped the neck of the skinny Ascender, who had been cocky enough to impose on him.

"Wh-what does it matter to you? You kill others just because you want to…I just **** them!" Jival screamed while he felt his windpipe getting choked and his breath was slowly taken away as Dilan lifted him into the air.

Dilan's eyes had turned ice-cold and it looked like he would kill Jival at any moment.

"In this era, you kill due to the necessity to become stronger, not to satiate your carnal desires, you piece of shit!" Dilan gritted his teeth as he began to squeeze the hand that was tightly holding Jival's neck.

"If you cannot attract any women despite being as powerful as you are, you're just a miserable loser. There are more than enough women, who would do everything to become your partner as Tier-2 Ascenders, yet, you're under the impression that you are free to create trouble by raping all kinds of women.

You are just a disgusting piece of shit, and dead!" Dilan declared as he moved quickly to hurl Jival against the next closest wall.

He used all the strength in his body to smash Jival straight into the wall before he unsheathed Xealtron while activating [Mantle of Elements].

Two Basic Lightning Spirits and a Basic Fire Spirit emerged above the Cursed Dagger before they fused with Xealtron, mantling it with all their might.

Pointing Xealtron toward the writhing body of Jival, who had burst through the wall like a sack of rice, Dilan released a blast created out of the power of the three Elemental Spirits.

Dilan learned a lot while using and upgrading [Mantle of Elements]. That was also why the semi-passive ability advanced so quickly and why he obtained such great control over it.

A blast manifested out of lightning currents and blazing fire was shot straight into Jival's chest and it began to burn through him.

Dilan hadn't used much mana to create the blast because he didn't feel like killing his imposter so easily.

As for Jival's dogs, Dilan couldn't care less about them. They had been baffled for a moment and wanted to attack him but Dilan had already thought of a way to finish them off.

He created a single Mana Slash, cut lightly in the direction of the six human Ascenders, and beheaded them in an instant.

"You might as well start telling me about everyone, who believed that it was fine to do stupid shit in the Undying group…maybe I will spare you from more pain…probably not though!" Dilan said sarcastically as he grabbed Jival by his collar to look at the miserable young man.

"You really are a disgrace to the entire human race…" He mumbled, only to feel that something was odd.

Dilan threw aside Jival and he looked to his left.

"What is that?" He asked, just for two notifications to appear right in front of Dilan.

[Paralyzation domain Mantra has been activated. Beings below Tier-4 will be paralyzed and unable to move during the next five minutes!]

[Tier-4 Meteorite shower domain Mantra has been activated. Hope to be hit directly to die peacefully!]

Chapter 423 Razed To The Ground

"What the hell is going on here?" Dilan blurted out when he saw the two notifications in front of his eyes.

He felt that something bad was going to happen but that was only obvious if one were to consider that he was not able to move right now and that a meteorite shower had just been announced.

His body was swept through with a tingling sensation that prevented him from moving and Dilan had to activate [Undying] to decrease the intensity of whatever was happening to him.

Slowly but steadily he started to move again even if it were just a few fingers. After increasing the output of [Undying] by inserting much more mana into it than before, Dilan could move his head and hands not long after.

Afterward, he used [Burst Regeneration], the sub-ability of [Undying] to further deteriorate the effect the paralyzation had on his body. This gave him enough leeway to start moving once again.

But what he couldn't do was activate the abilities that were linked to any of the equipment he was wearing. It was as if it had been paralyzed as well, preventing Dilan from inserting mana into them, to begin with.

Dilan could move but his steps were rather slow. He couldn't even run as fast as the average human before the Primordial Ascension, let alone two hundred times faster or even more.

'If it's a Tier-4 meteorite shower, even I won't be able to survive!' Dilan thought when he looked outside the window to see that everything had turned blazing red. The glass windows started to melt and the building began to tremble.

However, not a single scream could be heard from within the building. Nobody could move, except Dilan, whose abilities were powerful enough to allow him to be an exception and go against the norm.

His Health was already extremely high and after using [Undying] and [Burst Regeneration], it was as if his regenerative abilities were on par with a powerful Tier-4 monster. This was even more so the case if one were to consider that he had accepted the bloodline of the Blood Vyrm, meaning that his natural healing was even higher than that of noble Vampires!

But despite all these factors, Dilan was barely able to move a few meters before the first small meteorite burst through the roof of the former toy factory.

It looked like blazing shooting stars were pouring down on their base as one meteorite shrouded in fiery flames shot through the roof straight into the ground where they created a small crater.

Rubble and debris were flung around and all the humans around were hit whether it was by the meteorite, the fiery flames they released, or the rubble.

As they were unable to move, it was impossible to even think about a way to evade the meteorites. They couldn't do anything but hope that they would be lucky enough to be spared from the attacks.

​ However, that was simply wishful thinking because the few meteorites they had encountered at first were just the beginning of Shiron's doom.

Hundreds of meters above the city, tens of thousand of Meteorites had formed. The meteorites were of various sizes, and some of them were large enough to destroy entire districts in Shiron!

There was no escaping the blazing shooting stars that began to pour down on Shiron. The shooting stars destroyed everything that obstructed their way to the ground, whether it was buildings, monsters, humans, and even Gates!

Nothing was spared by the meteorite shower that rained down on the ground, erasing tens of thousands of lives within seconds. The city that had already faced better times before was razed to the ground and Dilan's surrounding area turned into a blazing graveyard, where only the last painful cries of the dead and meteorite showers pouring down from heaven could be heard.

Everywhere he turned, Dilan was only able to see meteorites impacting on the ground, eradicating a handful of lives without giving anyone the chance to survive.

Even Dilan could hardly escape his fate as he looked up at the blazing-red sky that had been unveiled to him as the entire toy factory had been destroyed.

'Am I already the last one to be alive?' He wondered at this point, feeling extremely bitter.

Dilan would have to be a fool not to realize who had initiated both the Paralyzation Domain Mantra and the Meteorite Shower Domain.

It was quite obvious that the leader of the ten thousand human Ascenders was behind all of this and unbending rage swept through Dilan's body. It was rage toward himself for being stupid enough not to kill their leader, for trying to prevent shedding the blood of his own kind, and rage toward the leader of the ten thousand human Ascenders for killing close to 2000 innocent humans.

For Dilan it might not feel odd to kill 2000 monsters, beings of other races, or even evil Ascenders, but the vast majority of humans in Shiron's Undying group were not even combat-based Ascenders, to begin with.

They wouldn't even be able to kill a slime on their own, yet, they were mercilessly killed without receiving any way of escape.

This was more than enough reason for Dilan to feel uncontrollable anger surging through his body. Simultaneously, adrenaline was being pumped into his veins as he was circulating mana through his body. After following the steps one of his Occupational abilities had once done automatically for him, Dilan recreated the procedure on how to create Berserk Mana all by himself based on memory and pure instinct.

He clearly recalled the feeling of Berserk Mana and the fact that he had created Berserk Mana by himself once before he had even advanced to the first Tier, where he was granted the Occupational ability!

Dilan thought that he would never have anything to do with the Occupational ability he had abandoned to make up for the missing Ability Merits of his Ring of Infinite Elements Constitution, but that seemed to be wrong.

He created Berserk Mana on his own and he used it while unsheathing Xealtron to activate both [Mantle of Elements] by summoning three Basic Lightning Spirits before manifesting one [Mana Slash] after another.

"If I cannot evade you motherfuckers, I can still split you in half!" Dilan roared out at the top of his lungs, or so he tried when releasing the [Mana Slash] that had been created by Berserk Mana, which Dilan had further altered to make it more lethal using the three Basic Lightning Spirits.

The first meteorites that rained down near him were easily cut using only 10 Units of his Berserk Lightning Mana. This was already beyond Dilan's expectations because the meteorite shower domain was a Tier-4 Mantra.

He had no idea what exactly a Mantra was in relation to what was going on, but he could tell that a Tier-4 Meteorite shower domain shouldn't get easily destroyed.

And that was reaffirmed the moment the larger meteorites started to pour down to the ground, including the biggest of all meteorites, the district-sized meteorite that soared down straight to the center of the city…and onto the location where the toy factory had once been, the same location Dilan was in right now!

Dilan grit his teeth while looking at the large meteorites and the humongous meteorite that descended rapidly while looking like a blazing shooting star his mind blanked out for a moment before one thought flashed through his mind.

'I cannot die, not yet…not here. I WON'T DIE!'

Chapter 424 Squashed

Dilan had no idea how high the temperature around him was but everything that had yet to be destroyed began to melt.

This indicated that it was no less than a blazing inferno and it didn't make things easier when the temperature kept increasing the closer the humongous Meteorite came to the ground.

Dilan let out a groan after he released a Mana Slash Using 50 Units of Berserk Lightning Mana to destroy a bunch of house-sized meteorites. He was trying to do the same with the district-sized Meteorite but it was only obvious that the result was far from pleasing.

The humongous meteorite did not only continue to advance but only a tiny fragment of it had been cut off due to the impact of the Mana Slash that could easily kill all kinds of Tier-3 existences with the power he had just used.

'This fucking bullshit!' Dilan cursed, trying to use [Short-distance traveling] just to notice that the ability of his boots was still not working. Nothing was going as per his plan and he couldn't move fast enough to escape the humongous meteorite that descended to the ground at a much slower pace than Dilan thought.

Little did he know that his mind worked so fast in the desperate situation he encountered that it merely looked like the meteorite was descending slowly.

In reality, the humongous meteorite shot to the ground just as fast as the other meteorites.

When Dilan realized that his Mana Slash was not working, he tried to store away Xealtron in his storage ring. He wanted to retrieve and activate a bunch of Magic Scrolls to see if he could escape the situation, just to realize that his storage ring wasn't working either.

He couldn't even store Xealtron to make sure that the Cursed Dagger wouldn't melt when the humongous meteorite would impact on him.

'The meteorite won't directly impact me, but just the outer parts…can I survive that?' Dilan asked himself, knowing deep down that he wouldn't be able to survive the impact of such a gigantic meteorite just because his natural healing capabilities were stronger than others.

He would have to survive the attack first to make sure that his healing was of any use, to begin with!

Thus, he looked to the ground and bit so hard on his lips that they began to bleed a little before he finally thought of something.

The three Lightning Spirits disappeared and three two Basic Earth Spirits, and one Basic Water Spirit were summoned a moment later. They merged with Xealtron and mantled the weapon, just for Dilan to use a tremendous amount of mana to break open the ground below him.

'Just a hole that is large enough and as deep as possible for me to squeeze through!!' Dilan screamed internally and the Spirits reacted accordingly. His mana was rapidly drained and the ground below his burst open while a path straight to the ground was dug.

And it was no sooner than the ginormous meteorite impacted in the Shiron's center where it destroyed everything as it turned the ground more than a thousand meters deep into smithereens.

A huge shockwave overflowing with searing heat burning countless beings was released when the meteorite impacted on the ground and everything in the surrounding was destroyed.

There was only one exception, a small place that was completely unscathed, and surrounded by a blue dome that had erupted with the use of a seemingly ordinary, yet mythical orb that trembled in the hands of the young woman who looked outside the dome with a ghastly expression.

'Did I just….do that??' She thought in terror while her eyes moved instinctively over to their leader, who smiled upon seeing the death and destruction as he lifted a black medallion shaped in the form of a tiny black heart high into the air.

"Devour them all, take everything you need!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs before darkness began to ooze out of the tiny heart. Countless dark spots could be seen all over Shiron and the surrounding area. Everywhere someone had been burned, squashed or killed through different means.

Dark dots were scattered throughout the air and they were all pulled toward the tiny black heart that began to beat faintly the moment the first black dots were absorbed and devoured by it.

'Just what have I done?!?' The woman thought in horror while staring at their leader, unable to tell what was going on right now.

Meanwhile, as terror swept through the young woman, who had just followed the orders of her leader, Dilan was struggling to survive.

He had been certain that it would be enough to dig a hole several hundred meters deep to escape the humongous meteorite, but that was not even close to be enough.

The moment more than half of his Mana had been drained, Dilan was forced to halt and look up, just to see that everything above him had already been disintegrated.

The humongous meteorite might have slowed down due to the obstruction it faced and the terrifying force it transferred. Everything that continued to hinder its way downward had lessened drastically but that didn't mean Dilan would be able to survive any of it.

His best bet was to crawl under the ground but it was impossible to continue to dig down because not even the combined effort of his three Elemental Spirits was enough to make any difference. Their power had been used up entirely and it was now upon Dilan to face reality.

He looked straight at the blazing meteorite and took a deep breath as the putrid smell of charred flesh and burned ruins entered his nostrils, burning his lungs and throat.

"Ah….how I missed living in hell…It almost feels like I'm back in the past. Well, maybe it is a little bit hotter here!" Dilan tried to joke but his expression was stiff and he couldn't even think about laughing.

He activated [Switch], and reallocated 150 Units of his Agility to his Health before activating the strongest form of [Undying] once again.

Simultaneously, he used the 12 Units of unallocated stats to further increase his Health in the hope that this change would make a difference.

Altogether with his already high Stats, the reallocated 150 Units he had deprived of his Agility, the title [Beyond the Stars], and the set-effect of the Hyel Destructo Armor Set and his equipment's stat augmentation, Dilan's Health crossed 760 Units!

Yet, even with such a terrific high Health stat, Dilan could hardly endure the force that impacted him when the blazing meteorite continued to descend.

Dilan was flattened, his skin burned, and not even his terrifyingly high Health could save him from the terrifying force of a district-sized meteorite that could even kill the strongest existences at Tier-4!

With [Undying] fully unleashed, he naturally accelerated healing capabilities due to the Blood Vyrm bloodline and his special trait [Iron Skin], even existences with a Health stat of more than 1200 Units would pale in comparison to Dilan.

However, even then Dilan had no hopes of enduring the terrifying power the meteorite put on him. The blazing flames burned his skin and the flesh while he was pushed deeper underground, no matter what obstacle was put in his way.

Dilan couldn't believe what was happening, yet, he was still far from accepting that he might die here.

'How can I survive?'