Myriad's Conquest

*Rumble*

The winds within the section blowing chaotically as if there was a tornado nearby, thousands of candles" fire flickered heavily but did not extinguish and the whole cavern trembled mightly.

"F*ck! Did someone get angry because we"re intruding?!"

Asked Adrian urgently, while blocking the raging winds with one of his hand.

"This happens usually every time I"ve entered this place. Don"t worry, it"ll be over soon." Said Vargas leisurely.

"You could easily say it because you"re a ghost, the wind does not affect you at all." Adrian complained inside his mind.

However, Vargas did not lie, the whole situation returned to normal as the winds stopped raging, and the cavern trembles no more. The commotion happened in a very short time.

Adrian started to relax and asked again, "What was causing that earlier?"

"You"ll see." Vargas only replied shortly as he resumed walking.

Seeing Vargas didn"t explain further, Adrian shrugged with some dissatisfaction and he could do nothing other than to continue following him.

Vargas was guiding Adrian to a s.p.a.cious room located deep within the section, where he could see four crude-looking pillars encircling a polished statue of a long-haired woman with a fiery figure and a gentle smile hanging on her exquisite face.

Adrian instantly recognized the face on the statue. It"s the face of the World"s Will woman who summoned him into this universe. Although he never saw her again after he arrived, he couldn"t forget that peerless beauty. After all, she was one of the most beautiful women he ever met.

"That"s probably the statue of Gloria..." Adrian faintly smiled at the sight of a familiar face.

But he saw something weird as well. The pillars were emitting a dazzling glowing light that formed a small dome, which contained the body of a person within. The person"s body entirely garbed in a purple shabby cloak and was in the middle of a crossing leg sitting position as if meditating.

Vargas pointed his finger at the person inside the dome, and declared, "That"s the one who"s causing the commotion before."

Adrian couldn"t help but ask, "Who is that?"

"That person is Alkmash, a Devil Count and the vice commander of the Devil"s army during the invasion," Vargas answered with a voice filled with anger.

Adrian was speechless and shocked. His knowledge about the Devil Race was too shallow, thus he didn"t know what Devil Count means, but the t.i.tle of vice commander of the Devil"s army could tell that this Alkmash was a heavyweight character. He could not imagine such character was actually in here, at this cavern below the palace, a place which was not far from his village.

Vargas took a deep breath even when he doesn"t need to, before solemnly narrating a story, "When the city was breached, I had lured him here, and we have a fight. But I wasn"t his match, I could not kill him at all... I have to resort to my last option which was sealing him using an artifact belonging to the Temple. But since the artifact requires a tremendous amount of lifeforce in order to be activated, I could only sacrifice my own life. In the end, that Devil Count was successfully sealed."

Vargas resumed his narration, "But even though I"ve already died, I could not leave yet and was turned into a ghost, because part of my soul was still trapped within the artifact to be used as the source of energy to maintain the seal. Only if the seal is released or the energy within my soul has depleted, I can finally leave this world."

"Seal? That means this devil is still alive?"

"Yes... He still very much alive. My reason in sealing him was to exhaust his lifespan within that dome... But it ended in failure as well." Said Vargas dejectedly.

"But how? Did the Devil Race really have that long lifespan? Because according to history, it has been 400 years since the Devil retreated back from this realm."

Hearing those questions, Vargas shook his head, "No... The Devil Race lifespans aren"t much different from any other races. On average, they could mostly live for 100 to 150 years old. However, this Alkmash is a Devil Count. As you must know, Devil Count is basically a n.o.bility t.i.tle, but unlike in the human or other races society, Devil Race n.o.bility t.i.tle couldn"t be gained by the way of hereditary or through achieving great merits, but purely by having a powerful personal strength. Since Devil Count is one of the upper-rank n.o.bilities in the Devils social hierarchy, only a Devil who possessed the strength of Supreme-Tier could be conferred with the t.i.tle."

"Supreme-Tier experts have the lifespan of 200 to 250 years due to their abnormal ma.s.sive strength, some could even live to 300 years old if they"re lucky. And since Alkmash was a Supreme-tier expert, naturally, he can live longer than normal Devils. I also know that 400 years have pa.s.sed outside this ruin, and to my knowledge, this particular Devil Count was already extremely old back then. So originally, is not possible for him to stay alive for 400 years. But to my own surprise, he had consumed a very rare herb that almost impossible to find in this entire universe called, Time Living Gra.s.s. That herb could greatly increase a person"s lifespan in exchange for the person"s strength and potential. With that, Alkmash is able to live much longer than his original lifespan allowed him to, but his strength was heavily diminished. I"ve never checked it, but his current strength should be no longer in the Supreme-Tier."

Vargas finished his speaking while maintaining his gaze at the sealing dome, who knows what he thinks currently.

Meanwhile, Adrian was vexed, there was so much information he got from Vargas" story earlier. All of them was very important information he needed to know for the future endeavor.

"What is Supreme-tier exactly?"

He didn"t know what this Supreme-tier was all about. However, Adrian saw Vargas" expression was full of reverence when he mentioned it in his narration just a moment ago, making Adrian"s curiosity aroused.

Vargas" eyes exuded a longing feeling, and he replied with energetic voice, "Supreme-Tier... the pinnacle existences in this entire world of Myriad"s. Many people dream of reaching it, and most of them failed. Warriors of that tier will be respected and admired everywhere they went. Their strength is simply unfathomable to ordinary people."

Vargas ended his explanation with a sigh and the look of regret.

"That"s it?" Adrian"s brow creased, Vargas" explanation was just too little and not enough.

"System! Do you know anything about this Supreme-Tier stuff?" He could only ask the System, in the end.

[It is part of the strength cla.s.sification standard first invented in the Firmament Realm approximately 12,000 years ago. Currently, its usage has become universal throughout all realms within the Myriad"s. This cla.s.sification is divided into several tiers: Ordinary - Champion - Transcendent - Legend - Sage - Supreme.]

Adrian stroked his chin while thinking hard.

"I"m still confused. Did these tiers have some relation with a stat like Strength or other? Because it doesn"t make sense at all if they didn"t."

The System explained that the tier cla.s.sification did, in fact, have a connection with the stat attribute.

The main reason behind the invention of tier cla.s.sification was that people including the summoned otherworlders did not know the existences of the stat attribute since they do not possess a system like Adrian. Even Status Check skill could only show a limited form of someone stat. That is why, they used tier cla.s.sification to roughly measure how strong they were, even though it"s not really accurate.

However, not all attribute related to the tier cla.s.sification. Since the cla.s.sification mainly catered to measure warriors" rough power, thus only Strength attribute would be needed.

According to the system, a warrior who possessed Strength point between 0.0 to 2.0 will be cla.s.sified as Ordinary-Tier — 2.0 to 4.0 as Champion-Tier — 4.0 to 6.0 as Transcendent-Tier — 6.0 to 8.0 as Legend-Tier — 8.0 as 10.0 for Sage-Tier — above 10.0 point as Supreme-Tier.

Adrian current Strength attribute stands at 5.6 points, he could be cla.s.sified as a Transcendent-Tier warrior. Although that was not his base power because he got 1.1 Strength bonus from Gloria"s Defender, the System told him it"s still counted. And if he activated the Inferior Dragon"s Sacred Armor, his power will be surmounted to the Legend-Tier for a short time.

"As expected, asking the System was a thousand times better than asking a stupid ghost."

Adrian nodded his head in a delightful manner. He was satisfied by the System explanation.

Afterward, he turned his head towards Vargas, and spoke, "Then, what is your request?"

Vargas looked at Adrian"s eyes for a moment, and he replied, "I humbly request you to kill him... Even though part of my soul was trapped, I can feel it... Soon, the energy within that part of my soul will be depleted, and Alkmash will be able to escape. We cannot let that happen. Even now he already began his effort to break the seal much earlier."

Adrian didn"t show any reaction as he already guessed what Vargas wanted to request. He merely calmly asked again, "What do you mean? That guy is just sitting around inside the dome while doing nothing."

"No, you do not understand. One of the reasons why the Devil Race is so powerful compared to humans aside their racial trait and innate physical prowess is because each of them possessed a unique inborn ability. Alkmash"s inborn ability allows him to control large numbers of beasts and he"s able to do it even when he was trapped within the seal. He already controlled Ralka and through him, he had gained control over other beasts in the forest as well. I didn"t exactly know what Alkmash was up to, but he cannot be allowed to continue."

"No f*cking wonder. So, that guy was the one who caused so much chaos in this region, huh?"

"You"ve said before that you"re not strong enough to contend with that Devil. How strong you were back then?"

"Upper Sage-tier, I"m only just a step away from the Supreme-Tier, but I could not accomplish that. Unsurpa.s.sable walls stand right in front of me and the bloodline I got from being summoned into this world was not enough to help me climbing it." Said Vargas helplessly.

"Wait! Summoned you said? Are you an otherwolder?" Adrian asked hurriedly.

"Yes, I"m... How do you know about otherw..." Vargas stopped his words mid-way and looked at Adrian"s weird and shocked expression, then he realized something, "No way! Are you a summoned person too?!"

Adrian didn"t answer but he nodded weakly.

Vargas" mouth opened and his eyes widened.

Both of them locked eyes for a while. They were surprised and speechless.

Adrian was the one who breaks the ice first, "I"ve just arrived in this world about two weeks ago, I think. I had received a Settlement Creation Token from the World"s Will and used it to establish a village not far from here, just near the river to the south."

"Hahaha. I can"t believe it... This is actually my first time meeting another otherworlder, you know. That s.e.xy G.o.ddess gave you a Settlement Token? Why?"

"She said she wanted me to take a different approach regarding the mission to restore the balance — By building a nation." Said Adrian while shrugging.

Vargas lowers his head and thinking.

"Your journey will be perilous and long... It could take decades for you to build one."

"Yeah, but I"ve prepared for it..."

Vargas nodded but didn"t speak further, the atmosphere around has become awkward ever since they know each other ident.i.ty as otherworlders.

Adrian peered into Vargas" face, he couldn"t help but wondered, "This guy is an otherworlder, that means this world is not his world and yet he still sacrificed himself... Why?"

"Hey, Vargas! What are you fighting for? This world is not your original world, but still, you even sacrificed yourself fighting the Devil? Why?"

Adrian was confused, but he also feels amazed as well. Because he didn"t think he could do something similar.

Vargas gently smiled at Adrian"s question, "You know... In my original world, people were obsessed with power, wealth, and status. They fought wars without caring about the consequences. Races exterminating and enslaving each other. Greedy religious organizations robbing and terrorizing people at daylight in the name of their G.o.ds. Everyday misery scenes happen no matter where you go."

His voice became higher.

"But once I was summoned into this world. I saw a city vibrantly filled with people from different races living together peacefully. I saw an elf woman sang a heavenly song accompanied by human musicians. I saw orcs, trolls, goblins, humans, and lamias children playing together joyfully. I saw a Devil died protecting a group of halfling refugees from the beast"s horde. I saw the tigerman"s army marched to defend the lizardman"s town. I saw a great religious organization headquarters was just a small wrecked building with lots of holes on its roof and their priests only garbed in coa.r.s.e and unkempt robes while still sheltering and sharing their food to the poor."

Vargas stopped for a moment before staring back at Adrian, full of determination.

"Do you know what those things mean? That means, this world I was summoned to, is a world that is worth fighting for... And I"m willing to die to protect it."