Tracked

A man in an extravagant suit stood dominantly on a castle, overseeing the desolate wasteland that surrounded it.

On the western side of the land, there were cube shaped cages piled up on top of each other, multiple humans inside it as prisoners. Cries of small children, screams of pain, the struggle for survival and the plea for freedom. This scene inspired despair to anyone who was unfortunate enough to witness it.

On the eastern side, the butchery existed. Mounds of corpses filled the entire plain with a rotten smell. Skeletal warriors clad in onyx black armor patrolled the area, harvesting the flesh and the souls of the deceased.

However, this view did not faze the man. In fact, it seemed to quite please him as he was smirking. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled. Tsunamis of miasma radiated from his body, tearing a hole in space and thereby creating a gateway for his vassals to come.

The gateway pulsed with swirling violet energy and someone walked out of it. A woman in a black leather suit, with well curved goat horns decorating her scarlet hair and a pair of scaly wings kneeled behind him.

She opened her mouth. "Lord Beelzebub, I have come to report."

One of the seven natural demons, Lord Beelzebub nodded, encouraging her to go on.

She pulled out a paper document out of air and summarized the contents. "Batch 13 and batch 14 arrived yesterday but there is no sign of batch 15."

"We lost contact with batch 15 yesterday, on the periphery of the crash site."

"Hmm." His grin disappeared from his face.

'If it's the crash site then it's pretty close then.'

'Could it be that one of the infected attacked the ship? Couple hundred thousand humans would be pretty good bait.'

"Who was managing the ship?"

"The vampire Viscount Nicolas Hailblood and the pride demon, Carl"

"Hmm. A noble vampire and a pride demon… Not a good match, not a good match at all. I reckon those two fought but I've got no evidence to support that." Beelzebub mumbled to himself.

"My lord, would you like to form a search party to look for the lost ship?"

Beelzebub closed his eyes and the demoness became quiet. Soon after, Beelzebub opened his eyes and smiled viciously.

"I have spoken with the council. It's been decided that I am to look for the 15th batch. If an infected or a crimson guardian attacked the ship then I will salvage as much as possible. However, if those insolent fools really fought then I will purge and devour those who have defied the order of the council."

"Understood, my lord, I will prepare a search team immediately."

"Haha, no need for that. Come Vanessa! We will depart…"

"Right now"

As soon as he said that, a malicious dark aura oozed out from his body.

The darkness seemed to devour everything, even light.

"Hahaha, ahahaha, HAHAHAHA"

Vanessa eyed her lord with eyes full of respect as he transformed. Then with an excited expression, she spread her dark bat wings and took off to the sky.

***

Meanwhile, Aster was currently gagging on his food.

'Bleh, why did I think that was a good idea?' He thought while his remaining eye teared up.

A few minutes prior to this moment, Aster found out that his face had been severely mauled as a result of his desperate and reckless action along with an unlucky encounter.

The disfigurement included disappearance of nose, lower jaw, lips, his right eye, face skin, yet again another brain damage, a part of his tongue and a few of his teeth remaining on the upper jaw.

Due to this, he couldn't exactly eat so he had a brilliant idea.

He tore up the burnt fish he cooked into extremely small pieces and stuffed it into his throat.

It was not a pleasant experience.

Aster had to do it multiple times as he needed to eat severely.

So he kept doing it.

'Am I seriously going to eat like this from now on?'

'Eating isn't worth it anymore.'

'I would rather just die.'

Of course, he wouldn't exactly die. It was just a testament of his current mood.

In the midst of his torture, the silverwing got up, snatched some more fish and then left without even looking back.

But can he really blame it? No, that's why he let it go.

'*Sigh*, no companion for me I guess. I should be grateful that it didn't try to attack me while I was weakened.'

If Aster fought with the monster a hundred times in his current state, he would win the majority but the chances of him dying was also present, And it was higher than he would have liked.

[The skill [Regeneration [EX]] has leveled up]

[The skill [Pain immunity] has leveled up]

[The skill [Bleeding nullification] has leveled up]

'Regeneration should heal lost body parts once it's rank is high enough right?'

'There's simply no way I will return to civilization looking like this. They will mistake me for an Undead!'

'Fuhuhu'

He sat on a scorching hot stone, his newly acquired heat resistance decreased some of the heat while his pain immunity offset 85% of the pain.

It felt like a slightly hot stone for Aster.

'Now, what to do now.'

…

'I should go to dry land for sure, I can't expect anyone to save me. Or for the worst, those demons on the ship to find me.'

'Before that, I should get some classes.'

He stood up and controlled the stone he was on, creating a wall, a spike and a big boulder.

[The skill [Earth spike] has been acquired]

[The skill [Earth wall] has been acquired]

[The skill [Earth boulder] has been acquired]

[Class: Earth mage has been acquired]

He then went to the ocean to get a water mage class.

'Now that the Titan who was interfering with the sea is gone, I should be able to do this.'

[The skill [Water slash] has been acquired]

[The skill [Water bullet] has been acquired]

[The skill [Water current control] has been acquired]

[Class: Water mage has been acquired]

'Now, I should absorb the soul fragments I got from the fish that I hunted.'

[Basic soul fragment×7 has been absorbed]

[+21 attribute points]

[+21 skill points]

[+700 credits]

[Intermediate soul fragment×2 has been absorbed]

[+10 attribute points]

[+10 skill points]

[+300 credits]

'Use 20 skill points to combine Fireball, firestream and firestorm. I should save the rest.'

[Ability: Fire manipulation acquired]

[Essence of water×2 has been absorbed]

[Water affinity: +0.02]

[Essence of wind×1 has been absorbed]

[Wind affinity: +0.01]

'Add 20 attribute points to mana, 11 to intelligence'

[Mana: 100 >>> 120]

[Intelligence: 94 >>> 105]

[Comprehension: 3.21 >>> 3.32]

Aster was satisfied. After a quick drink, he stepped into the water and used [Water current control] and drifted towards the cliff of death as he called it.

As he got closer and closer to the shore, the water level decreased and the stone spikes started to peek from the water surface. Eventually it became a stone forest.

The Titan owned this part of the ocean so there weren't any predators that could threaten him but he still killed whatever he could find.

[+1,126 exp]

[You have obtained Intermediate soul fragment×2]

[You have obtained Basic soul fragment×11]

[You have obtained Essence of water×2]

Although the rewards were plentiful, he didn't want to stay and grind in the ocean.

Why? He looked up once again.

A big dot could be seen in the sky. Upon closer look with [Enhanced vision], it was the same ship that he jumped off.

Soon, he stepped on dry land.

The ship followed his direction.