M ind Levels weren’t the only problem. Looking into his inventory, Raven belatedly realized that he had been reading the description of the item he didn’t even have.
Where’s that thing if not in my inventory?
The mysterious vessel that disappeared into his body couldn’t just be lost. What would the point of getting it be then?
What the hell? As Raven pondered where the item might’ve gone, he suddenly had an epiphany. The Mind Levels... What if that’s something that I get not in the game world but the Novice Temple?
He had nothing to lose by testing this idea. Summoning Hade for protection, he sat on the ground and, leaning his back against the pile of bones behind him, began to meditate.
The sight of the temple’s yard made his eyes open wide in realization. This was his world. The world where he was the only master. Any change to it was immediately obvious to him.
A powerful stream of energy was coming from the building he had spent so many days in. Spreading in all directions, it pressed down on him so hard that he felt like he was suffocating.
Is this happening because of the item?
Focusing to overcome the shock, he teleported inside the temple. Moving around this area had become so simple that he could do it with his eyes closed.
Once inside the building, he noticed a wooden dummy standing at the right wall. It wore a pair of plain-looking black gloves. Or, rather they just seemed plain at first glance. In the next moment, they began to transform. Shimmering and half-dissolving into the air, they flowed into another shape like thick, viscous tar.
The gloves seemed to be alive. Raven was so lost in contemplation that he couldn’t tell how much time had passed, forgetting where he was and why he had come here.
The strange viscous substance remained on the dummy’s hands. Congealing, it then flowed down the wooden fingers, stretching and catching fire, and then fading away.
At some point, Raven shook off his numbness and took a step toward the strange thing. His throat suddenly felt dry and his hands trembled as he slowly reached out to touch this mysterious artifact.
...but the power permeating the air shoved him away, enclosing the item in an invisible barrier. Touching it, Raven realized that he couldn’t take the gloves. Not yet at least. He had a long way to go before he could use them. This knowledge came to him suddenly but he accepted it without a doubt.
Having stood inside the temple for a few more seconds, he woke up back at the graveyard.
I’m not strong enough... But I will be.
Had there been any stranger nearby to look into his eyes, they would’ve seen a beast waking inside them. A greedy beast that never let go of its prey.
Raven stood up, fed another carcass to Hade, and then, clutching his dagger, focused on his current task.
How can I acquire the Master of Darkness set? Where are the other parts? On my Floor or elsewhere? How much time will it take me to collect them all? Can I even do this?
***
Two days later
Raven continued killing and looting all mobs in his way, his face calm and even slightly bored, as if he were doing regular household work.
On top of Kobalirs and Bone Leeches, he had discovered several new species, each of which had different strengths — either speed or attack or defense — and used them skillfully. The monsters that looked like creeping bats were surprisingly agile, and the half-birds had tremendous physical resistance.
Long, brightly colored snakes covered in feathers. Tree-like worms with bony flies, as large as his hand, breeding in their rotting bodies. Half-skeletons attacking suddenly from underground. Surrounded by all these and many more monsters, he barely had a moment’s peace.
Raven remembered that his three days’ deadline was nearing expiration. But however hard he looked for the flower, it was nowhere to be found.
Well, he did say that it was rare, he thought as he finished searching another cave (he had already counted twenty).
He killed and killed and killed, stopping briefly to restore his HP and the mana he spent on activating the scrolls. His supply was dwindling, and he was down to his last fifteen.
Realizing that he was getting nowhere, he sighed and moved on from the empty den.
The distance between two bone piles was usually a mile or two long, which took him about a minute to cover.
This time was no different. Seeing another pile, he prepared for a fight. But coming a bit closer, he realized that he wasn’t the only hunter in this godforsaken place.
Six lean figures surrounded by a host of undead things (from skeletons to a couple of Death Knights) were meticulously killing the local mobs.
Hiding in the shadows behind a giant bone, Raven took out his Binoculars and activated Identification.
Name: Lorik Gerika
Death Hand Cult Member
Level: 117
HP: 51,700
Name: Razaris Scholss
Death Hand Cult Member
...
Name: Kerrg Duk
Death Hand Cult Member
Level: 127
Tough guys. Raven frowned and shifted his gaze to the undead.
The strongest of the bunch were the Death Knights (both of which were level ninety-three), but he expected more trouble from the creatures hiding in the shadows of their hooded masters.
Name: The Silent Guard of the Dead
Level: 66
HP: 140,000
There was one such Silent Guard following each necromancer, their HP abnormally high for a level that low.
As Raven planned his attack, looking for the group’s weaknesses, the necromancers stopped. One of them, the youngest-looking of the bunch, took a strange device from beneath his cloak and put it on the ground.
The device emanated a vibrating sound and released a strip of white light that disappeared into the distance.
“Dorin,” Kerrg said with a frown, turning to his companion who was picking up the device. “It was showing a different direction ten minutes ago. What’s going on?”
“Please forgive me, Master Duk. I don’t know what happened. I’m sure I did everything right.”
“Wait...” said another cult member. “Could someone else have come here? Tell me, Dorin: does this device respond to the flower’s presence or the energy accumulated in its place of origin?”
“To the energy produced by the flower as it grows. Had anyone plucked the flower, the energy would’ve dispersed and we’d have to leave empty-handed.”
“Why is your device still detecting that energy then?” Razaris looked up from a scatter of small bones on the ground, his sparse beard giving a shake. “What fool would take a flower with the soil instead of plucking it?”
A few chuckles came, but everyone’s faces remained serious as they exchanged glances after which they all looked in the direction pointed by the device.
Raven smiled. He no longer had to roam this place in a blind search for the flower. These guys would take him straight to it and to the end of his quest.
The flower’s changing place was rather weird even by his standards, making him wonder what the cause of its sudden migration could be.
Curious as that was, he had too many other things to worry about. First of all: the fact that the quest would fail if the necromancers didn’t take him to the flower in the next nine hours. Right now, they were his best bet. Following them, even if it led him to a dead-end, was much better than giving up.
Observing them from the shadows, Raven took notice of their skills, fighting techniques, and how they interacted with the undead. If he were to face them in battle, he’d better know all that. But what interested him even more than the necromancers were the masked Silent Guards. His instinct had been right about these monsters being the most dangerous of the whole group.
At some point, one Silent Guard’s hood fell off, blown back by the wind, revealing a seal sewed on his face in black, thick thread passing through his ears, eyes, and nose and then joining his lips as if he were a puppet.
They must’ve once been humans used in some rite that tied them to the necromancers for all eternity.
The Silent Guards were armed with daggers made of bone, but, unlike other undead, they never used them to attack — only to defend their masters from the monsters. Their moves were lightning fast. When several monsters attacked one of the necromancers at once, his Guard was quick enough to block all their attacks.
Raven made a note to kill the Silent Guards first. He wasn’t sure if even Lightning Copy would be good enough for him to attack the necromancers without being stopped by the Silent Guards.
For the entire duration of Raven’s stakeout, Dorin was repeatedly using his strange artifact, watching the white stripe grow brighter until the entire device flashed with light. Judging by the excitement showing on the young necromancer’s face, it meant that they were close to their goal.