144. Zarkon

Initially, Seth had not planned to interfere when he came across this altercation. He was not a hero and it really was not his business if 2 groups of people fought each other.

He didn't want to alarm anyone, so he only judged them from what he saw and his experience. The harem party seemed to be a little weaker than C-Ranks in Ora, so somewhere in the early to mid-thirties level-wise.

That wasn't right. Since he was back in Urth they should be in the mid-teens to early twenties, he guessed. He could freely use his <Blacksmith's Eyes> but Seth could only shake his head when he saw the standard of their equipment.

The robes of the girls were just cloth and had barely any defensive value. The young man's armor was a bad fit. The parts with options that probably came from the dungeon changed to fit his size, but the other parts were either too big or too small and kept getting in the way of his movements at times.

Defense-wise his armor was about as good as the first one Seth made for himself. With the difference that Seth's opponents back then were a lot weaker.

Scaled to Urth's standard these guys should be around Seth's level or maybe a little lower. With a level difference of between 5 and 10, the harem party had little chance.

As he had expected, the young man put up a good fight, he probably had an uncommon class like a knight.

"kahak, hit me, hit me as much as you like. Let me show you what real armor looks like! Not the pitiful trash those useless metal-kneaders sell you!"

Seth pursed his lip. He was about to simply walk away, but this just became something personal. Did he want to compare weapons? Seth would show him what armor penetration looked like.

What was better than a raven's beak? The beak to cut leather, mail, and flesh, the hammer to crush plate, and the spike on top to pierce in the gaps and keep people at distance.

With <Concealment> and his increased attributes it was easy to appear behind the braggarts back unnoticed. Instinctively he swung the heavy weapon from below to cut through the gap between rips and right into the lungs and heart.

"Who are you?"

At this moment Steh actually hesitated for a moment. Metal-kneaders... He was dead anyway; this was just showing mercy by ending his suffering. With a satisfying crunch, the head exploded.

There was no kill notification, despite crushing the head. At this moment another one attacked but got shot down by Puffles. Again, not notification despite a headshot

The third of them finally came back to his senses and furiously attacked Seth. He dodges, weaved, and evaded many of Puffles' attacks. Those that hit only left a small mark on the leather flaps that covered its body.

Seth ignored the claws and took a mighty swing. The creature thought it was lucky as it hit his cuirass and could only look in surprise as its claws simply slid over the metal without leaving more than a scratch.

The surprised look was locked on its face as the crow's beak penetrated the crown of its skull. Again, no notification.

HP 1/1000

<Observation> told him that all of them were locked at 1 HP and healing.

"We have to hurry! They will soon heal and attack again."

The mage girl overcame her fear of the armor and urged them all to leave.

"What about your friend?"

The young man had lost consciousness and was slowly bleeding out.

"You don't know Zarkists? It's too late for him, he is already infected and will turn into one of them. We have to leave; there will always be reinforcements when one defeats them!"

"Hmm, alright then. Where are we going?"

"The is an outpost of City Y close by. We should go there. I-is that okay?"

Seth nodded. He had no concrete plans anyway.

~ Wait! Don't you see it? Take off your helmet and look at their corpses. ~

It was the Lich that suddenly decided to talk. Taking off the helmet? The two girls were flabbergasted when the knight suddenly took off his helmet and showed the face of a handsome young man.

Once he had taken off the helmet, he saw what Al was talking about. The Souls of the Zarkists were bound to their bodies by chains that linked far into the distance. A smirk appeared on the young man's face when he saw that all of them had medium-sized souls.

"hehehe, well look at this bountiful harvest."

The two girls saw him laughing to himself and suddenly the black gauntlets smashed into the chest of the incapacitated. This was Seth using <Soul Capture> to release the soul from the chains and collecting it.

<Ding! You have killed –Paul Paulson lv. 25- You have earned Experience.>

Finally, a kill notification and, with the soul harvested, the body suddenly started to rot incredibly fast and tuned into a kind of black residue. They said there would be reinforcements? Seth was tempted to stay and harvest the whole herd.

Better not. Und the unbelieving gaze of the two girls he went around and got rid of all the bodies and their dead friend.

"We should go. I'm not confident that I can fight a big group of these guys."

His equipment was nowhere near as good as he would have liked and he had no idea what levels these guys could reach. It was better to leave. The girls nodded still staring at him until he gestured for them to lead the way. He put the helmet back on and followed them.

<Ding! The "Host of Many" is showing interest in your actions.>

What? Who was the "Host of Many"? This was the first time he had gotten a message like this. What was going on?

"Al, do you know something about a "Host of Many"?" he whispered so the girls couldn't hear it.

~Nope. Never heard of that. Why are you asking? ~

"Oh, just got swiped right, I guess...?"

~What are you even talking about? ~

"You know what, forget it."

They followed the path and Seth kept checking the map. The path really led toward Ypsilon, the territory of City Y.

~Boing~

They heard a weird noise from the front.

"Is that... a slime?" Seth asked awkwardly while the girls were panicking.

"It's an Oozer! Just where did you come from, that you don't know this? We have to evade it, these things are almost immune to physical attacks, and magic is also weakened, too." the mage girl suggested.

<Oozer lv.18>

It was a giant blob of 2 meters in diameter that moved by jumping almost 4 meters up into the air. It looked similar to slime, but it was a ball of toxic green jelly and about ten times the size of the ones he knew. <Observation> had provoked it and it now came in their direction.

"Are you trying to fight it or something?! These things corrode weapons! I've seen a steel sword dissolve in a matter of seconds after being covered in Oozer fluid!"

"It's that corrosive? Hmm, this might be interesting."

Seth brought out a demonic yatagan made from one of the snake's fangs. The material had lower durability, but an inherent resistance to poison and corrosion; it would be a good test. Seth also wanted to see what an Oozer would drop.

The two girls saw him bring out a weapon and decided that they had no choice but to cooperate with him. The priest girl managed to finish the chant for a buff right before Seth started to take a swing drawing a thin blue line of light across the Oozer's massive body. The monster quivered and jumped back as if in pain, despite the cut slowly closing again.

Even if Seth couldn't hit the core, his Soul Fire could easily vaporize the viscous body. On top of that, Seth suspected that his flame also did damage to the soul. Healing the body was easy, but an injury to the soul made even the undead weep.

After his second swing, he finally spotted the creature's core moving within the gelatinous body and he tried something he had come up with during his training with Tored. Seth aimed for a stab and pierce the weapon into the Oozer's body all the way up to the handle and then shot a tiny concentrated fireball from the tip straight at the core. It was the best way to conserve mental energy when using the Soul Fire.

The fireball missed the core and exploded about 10cm behind it. The bubble of the explosion blasted all the ooze around the core away. Seth took a step back to await the creature's next move, but its body suddenly started melting into a corrosive puddle; only leaving the core.

As the two girls kept staring stupefied, Seth bowed down to loot the corpse. Technically he could have just grabbed the core, but he didn't really want to touch the acid. So, he touched a small part of the core where the ooze had run off and used loot.

<Oozer's Damaged Core, Crafting material, Uncommon

The slightly cracked core of an Oozer. Has various uses in crafting. >

<Ooze, Crafting Material, Rare

A strong poisonous acid the Oozer uses to digest his food and defend itself.>

When he checked the yatagan for damages he found that the durability had gone down by quite a bit, but the max. durability had increased and the poison effect on the weapon had strengthened. This meant that despite the enchantment talking about blood, the effects would change depending on the kind of "blood" the prey possessed.

"Hmm, interesting."