Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: New Foundation (1)
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The day after the duel ended, Demian had a private meeting with the Mercenary King in his quarters.
Several minutes passed after the Mercenary King entered and sat down, but he said nothing. He just glared at Demian with a scowl.
"......You."
Suddenly, the Mercenary King spoke up.
"Earlier...... that thing...... really...... I mean...... impressive...... damn it......"
The Mercenary King hesitated, struggling to finish his sentence.
"Im, impressive...... No! What was so impressive about it! It was nothing! Yeah, nothing at all!"
The Mercenary King bellowed. Demian looked at him oddly.
"Fine, then. Just give me the promised reward."
At Demian's demand, the Mercenary King grumbled.
"Don't worry. I'm not trying to cheat you. I keep my promises."
The Mercenary King opened his subspace and pulled out a small glass vial.
The moment the vial emerged, the temperature inside the quarters plummeted.
When he set the vial down on the table, frost immediately formed on its surface.
"Three drops of Mita Holy Water. That should be enough, right?"
At those words, Demian's ears practically perked up.
Mita Holy Water was an elixir produced only one drop every hundred years in the deep caves of polar regions.
It was one of the most exceptional items among elixirs with yin properties.
'More than enough—it's downright excessive.'
Because Mita Holy Water possessed extreme yin energy, carelessly consuming it could freeze one's organs solid and cost one's life. It was that dangerous.
'He wants to mess with me.'
Someone of the Mercenary King's caliber would surely possess several safer elixirs of similar grade.
Yet he deliberately chose to give Mita Holy Water, clearly intending to torment Demian.
"I'll make good use of it."
Demian stored the Mita Holy Water in his subspace.
Even if he couldn't consume it right away, some method would come to mind with careful thought.
"I'll let you pick a mana cultivation method yourself. Hold on a moment."
The Mercenary King pulled a large bronze key from his pocket and spun it in the air.
A small door appeared in midair. Demian couldn't help but be surprised by the sight.
"Is that a relic?"
Normally, subspaces could only store items and not allow people to enter.
That was the limit of subspace technology modern mages could handle.
However, certain relics could create subspaces that allowed entry and exit.
Naturally, they were extremely rare items, impossible to obtain even if one tried.
"You've got an eye for it. Let's go in."
Demian entered the subspace along with the Mercenary King.
Inside, towering bookshelves reached the ceiling, lined up in rows and packed full of books.
A quick glance at the shelves revealed novels, encyclopedias, history books, and all sorts of other volumes.
"This is incredible."
Demian was genuinely impressed. He'd once thought his father's study in Spring Castle was spacious, but compared to this, it felt cramped.
"Reading's my hobby. When I have no work, sitting here with a book is my life's joy."
It was a hobby unlike what one would expect from a man famous as a womanizer.
"Everything from here on are mana cultivation methods. You can read the title and first page of each. Pick one you like and take it."
Demian pulled out the mana cultivation methods from the shelves one by one and examined them.
Some were on paper, others on leather or parchment, and even some carved into stone tablets.
'Amazing. Truly amazing.'
Just reading the first page gave him a good sense of it.
He could tell the purpose for which it was created and the principles it contained.
Every single one was of high quality, born from long experience and research.
'Worthy of the Mercenary King's library. I'd take them all if I could.'
Suddenly, a peculiar item caught Demian's eye.
It wasn't a book or parchment. It was a crystal about the size of a fist.
Inside the crystal, three rings were stacked vertically in layers.
"This is......"
Demian peered into the crystal. Surprisingly, even with his eyes, he couldn't discern the secret hidden within.
"Guess it caught your interest."
The Mercenary King, who had approached unnoticed, spoke to him.
"What is this?"
"It was made by the Empire's Greatest Swordsman...... the one before last, or maybe two before...... right before he died. He said that solving the secret inside this crystal would grant knowledge surpassing his own."
The Empire was the greatest power dominating the continent.
The strongest force upholding it was its knights. Every year, the Empire produced tens of thousands of knights.
Accordingly, it had produced countless masters. Even the Holy Order and Pafnir Mercenary Group had to yield before the Empire.
Thus, the title of Empire's Greatest Swordsman was essentially on par with World's Greatest Swordsman.
"You have an incredible item here."
"It's not that great, honestly. No one's solved the secret in centuries. That's why I picked it up cheap on the black market."
If even Demian couldn't figure it out, others must have had even less luck.
They all dismissed it as the Empire's Greatest Swordsman's whim and ignored it, letting it end up here.
"You seem interested in that crystal...... but I recommend picking something else."
As the Mercenary King said, choosing another mana cultivation method would be wiser.
Even if he solved the secret, it might be a useless method for Demian.
But Demian couldn't tear his eyes away from the crystal—or more precisely, the rings inside it.
"I'll take this one."
"What? Are you sane?"
The Mercenary King asked in surprise. Demian nodded.
"Yes, this one draws me in."
The Mercenary King pondered for a moment before speaking.
"Well, you're not the type to listen to me anyway. Do as you like."
Demian expressed his thanks and took the crystal.
* * *
"Then I'll be going now."
After leaving the library, Demian headed back to his quarters.
"Wait a moment. We still have business."
The Mercenary King grabbed him. Demian looked at him quizzically.
"About that Mita Holy Water I gave you...... do you have a way to absorb it?"
"Not yet."
At Demian's answer, the Mercenary King glanced around slyly and said,
"Is that so? Perfect timing, then. I happen to know a way to neutralize its properties...... If you do me one favor, I'll tell you."
Demian made a tired expression at those words.
"Are you going to keep pulling this?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're regretting giving me the Mita Holy Water and mana cultivation method, so you're about to propose some weird bet to take them back."
"Wh-what? Who do you take me for, a petty schemer? I have no such intentions!"
The Mercenary King flushed red and shouted.
"Then what's your angle?"
"Ang-angle?...... I'm just trying to help out as a senior."
Even as he said it, the Mercenary King avoided Demian's eyes.
Demian eyed him suspiciously.
"I'll hear it first and decide."
"Good! Smart choice!"
The Mercenary King brightened.
"You know how elixirs with energy concentrated in one direction can kill you if mishandled, right?"
Demian's gaze grew a touch colder. As expected, he'd given the Mita Holy Water on purpose.
"But if you take it with an elixir of opposing energy, they neutralize each other, greatly reducing the danger. Not only that, you can gain even more mana."
Demian nodded in agreement.
"There's a recent commission from the Grape Kingdom. They promised Flame Essence Moss as reward upon completion."
The mention of Flame Essence Moss was enough to pique his interest.
Flame Essence Moss was a special moss that grew naturally in lava zones. Famous for its extreme yang energy, even touching it could burn an ordinary person.
It was slightly inferior to Mita Holy Water but still a legendary elixir.
"But we got another commission too, and we're short-handed. If you help me complete the Grape Kingdom job, I'll give you the Flame Essence Moss."
From Demian's perspective, it was a commission with no downsides.
Far from a loss, it was a golden opportunity. Rare elixirs like Flame Essence Moss weren't easy to come by.
"Alright. But tell me what the commission is first."
"There's a plague raging in the Grape Kingdom lately. They want us to exterminate undead that spawned naturally in the plague zone."
Undead weren't always born from black magic.
They could arise naturally in places filled with death and corpses.
"For Flame Essence Moss, it must be pretty dangerous, huh?"
"It injured two high-class adventurers and escaped. There were even reports it held the advantage throughout the fight."
A freshly spawned undead dominating two high-class foes?
'Hold on, naturally spawned undead in the Grape Kingdom......?'
Demian recalled a memory from the past. He knew of one undead that fit both criteria perfectly.
Fenrir.
One of the Beasts of Ruin that inflicted massive casualties on humanity during the Ruin War.
A massive build that easily surpassed city walls. Skin that repelled even grand magic and aura.
Countless cities fell without withstanding Fenrir's assaults.
'It was originally a naturally spawned undead, but Pandemonium's black mages captured it and presented it to Dorgo.'
Dorgo, recognizing Fenrir's potential, modified it himself. In time, Fenrir became a monster among monsters.
"Alright. I'll take the commission."
For the future, Fenrir had to be eliminated.
Demian decided to accept the Mercenary King's commission.
"Good choice."
The Mercenary King smiled in satisfaction at his answer.