bookpower Chapter 221 : The Mysterious Necklace
Chapter 221 : The Mysterious Necklace
The Mysterious Necklace"You...you...what kind of monster are you? Why can you devour my power?!"
Morzada was struck by a wave of fear in his heart, all traces of arrogance from earlier now completely gone.
"Why should I answer a question from my food?"
Upon hearing these words, morzada became furious. To be called "food"—this was the first time he had ever suffered such humiliation.
However, with Dogsius present, his anger was in vain. Deep down, morzada was already ready to retreat.
This enemy was too mysterious. If he attacked rashly, he would definitely not come out on top, so...
Withdraw first!
But just as this thought emerged, his consciousness space suddenly went dark, and a multitude of black tentacles extended forth, entangling Morzada.
"Damn it, what on earth is this?!"
His body was bound. After several failed attempts to break free, morzada began to panic.
"Do you know who stands before you? I am none other than the 'Lord of Wailing Spirits,' the great Morzada! Release me at once, or I'll devour your soul until not even a scrap remains!"
Faced with this threat from the black orb, Serea checked his information.
Role: Morzada, Lord of Wailing Spirits (undead, lich, Legendary)
Level: 37
Status: Weak
Spirit: S
Strength: D
Agility: B
Endurance: A
Physique: B
Charm: C
Luck: A
Skills: ... Flesh Stripping (Tier 3), Soul Devour (Tier 4), Soul Implantation (Tier 4)
Introduction: A powerful lich who controls the power of souls, hence granted the title 'Lord of Wailing Spirits.'
Seeing the information, Serea drew in a sharp breath. This guy was actually a lich!
But thankfully, even though Morzada could threaten her, he had been foolish enough to enter her mental space. She absolutely couldn't let go of this chance—who knows how he would retaliate if he escaped afterwards.
Since he was now an enemy, there was nothing left to say. If he's wounded, finish him off!
"Soul devouring? So that's the essence of your possession ability—devouring souls to seize bodies. Unfortunately, there's a little guy here who's just a bit stronger than you in terms of soul power."
As Serea spoke, she referred to the little fellow beside her—Dogsius.
"What! How dare you look down on me! If I hadn't just awakened and not yet fully recovered my strength, how would you dare speak to me like this!"
Morzada howled. Serea narrowed her eyes upon hearing this.
"Listening to you, I find myself interested in your true identity now..."
Morzada also realized he had let something slip, so he immediately shut his mouth.
His secret must not be discovered. He had to escape quickly!
Riiip!
The black tentacles were torn open, and Morzada attempted to break free from the mental space.
He was trying to run!
"Master, his soul is very strong. I cannot control him,"
Dogsius said.
"Then eat him—he must not be left behind as a future threat!"
Serea's voice sounded. Dogsius' eyes lit up.
"As you command, my master."
The black orb rushed forward at high speed. As long as he could escape her psychic lock, he would be free; once he grew stronger, he would definitely return for revenge, and that woman would be his sooner or later, as long as...
"Mmph!"
A massive black maw appeared without warning and swallowed him. After a few chews, Dogsius digested him and transformed back into his usual, cute black little monster form.
"I got him... hmm, there's strong power inside him..."
"Power?"
"This."
Dogsius released a faint blue glow—soul power. Seeing this, Serea raised her hands and used Soul Harvest.
System: Gained Soul Crystal *897
Clatter—soul crystals scattered about as if free of charge, piling into a small mountain.
"What the hell?! Why are there so many soul crystals?!"
Serea exclaimed in surprise. She remembered that the last time she had gotten so many material crystals was when she killed the newly revived 'Addis Reaper's Shadow.' Because of that, Serea linked the two together in her mind.
Addis Reaper's Shadow...
Morzada, Lord of Wailing Spirits...
"It must just be a coincidence..."
As Serea muttered this, on the other side, Little Black and the others were already engaged in battle with the enemy. Although the opponent had a dozen Skeleton Warriors, they were only level 15, and Little Black and company completely overpowered them with almost no casualties.
Crack!
After finishing off the last Skeleton Warrior, Little Black raised his hand toward the bones of the Skeleton Warriors. He stored the dense Death Crystal in his soul fire, planning to take it back for Serea the Queen to turn into materials.
"Your Majesty, the enemies have been eliminated."
"Oh, so you went out this morning because you discovered them?"
"Yes, My Queen. As an undead, I could sense disturbances here—a very powerful force. But since you were resting, I didn't want to disturb you."
"I see. In the future, report such matters to me, no matter what time it is."
"Understood."
After Little Black agreed, Serea continued.
"Check if there's anything on them."
With the order given, Little Black and the others began searching the corpses of several purple-robed mages, finding some equipment and coins. What drew their attention most was a...
Necklace!
That necklace had been on the mage possessed by Morzada, and even from afar, Serea could sense the abundant soul power within. She ordered Little Black and the others to collect it.
"Return immediately."
"As you command."
Little Black and his group left with the strange necklace, and Serea planned to use it to learn about Morzada, Lord of Wailing Spirits.
......
Three hours later.
In the jungle, a man, a woman, and a short man arrived at the abandoned altar. Noticing the bones of Skeleton Warriors scattered atop the altar, the man and woman frowned and walked over quickly.
After flipping through the bodies of the purple-robed mages, they found nothing but a skeleton.
"Looks like it's his handiwork again."
"Shouldn't he have come for us after reviving? Why has he disappeared, and we can't sense anything?"
"He was probably finished off."
"What?!"
The woman in a black robe was surprised.
"How could he be killed? Even freshly revived, his strength is not something ordinary people could provoke."
"I don't know. But his aura has vanished, and the item storing his soul has disappeared as well, so this must be the only possible outcome."
The man recalled as he searched around, but ultimately found nothing.
"Addis and Morzada too...has the Church caught on to us?"
"Uncertain."
"Should we search for the tokens to revive them again?"
"No, don't act rashly. Our strength hasn't fully recovered. If we act without care, we might end up like the other two. For now, we should hide and reconstruct our bodies."
The man spoke, his tone full of caution.
"Looks like we'll have to rely on ourselves from now on..."
"Not quite. With that one's abilities, he might revive again through a token. We should just wait it out."
"That's all we can do."
She replied helplessly. Suddenly, a voice came from behind them.
"Honored ones, weren't you going to meet our king? If we keep dawdling in the jungle, we might not reach camp before dark."
The speaker was a short man in a black robe. If Morlock were present, he would surely recognize him as none other than 'Black Hat,' the one who had incited them to attack Serea's camp.
Urged by the dwarf, the man and woman exchanged a glance.
"Though we're waiting, we shouldn't just sit idle, should we?"
Upon hearing this, the woman showed a knowing smile.
"Let's go do something we can handle for now."
Their conversation was not overheard by Black Hat, and under his urging, they left the altar and headed toward the Silver Ear tribe's camp to meet the king of the Silver Ear tribe, maregof!
......
Elsewhere, Serea was lying in a wooden house—the camp infirmary. She had fainted earlier and was carrying out her recovery here.
Now awake, Serea lay in bed bored. She could have left, but Lilith, worried about her, insisted on keeping her there.
"Really... there's nothing wrong with me,"
Serea protested.
"If there's nothing wrong, why did you faint? Better take some rest, Serea,"
Lilith replied, seated by the bedside. Serea felt helpless—for she couldn't resist her "elder sister's authority."
With a sigh, Serea directed her Skeletons to carry out construction tasks around the camp. Though this hands-off management felt nice, she still preferred to be personally involved.
"Your Majesty, Captain Little Black and the others have returned,"
Lola suddenly announced, entering the "ward."
"Let him in."
Serea didn't feel like heading back to the Elf Tree, so she let Little Black bring the items to her.
"My Queen, I've brought the items back."
"Let me have them."
As Serea spoke, Little Black handed over the necklace.
Taking the necklace, Serea examined it with curiosity. It was silver, made of bone, with faint cracks on its surface. When she checked its information, the necklace's properties appeared before her.
Unknown Necklace (Gold, damaged): Can control up to +10 undead followers. Comes with the skill 'Soul's Insight.'
Soul's Insight: Consume soul crystals to launch a mental attack or defend yourself with mental power.
Upon reading this, Serea took out her Bone Ring.
Unknown Bone Ring (Gold, damaged): Can control up to +10 undead followers. Comes with the skill 'Death Curse.'
Identical!
Both in material and description—there was a clear connection. The Bone Ring was obtained from "Addis Reaper's Shadow."
Now it seemed inevitable that "Morzada, Lord of Wailing Spirits" was deeply linked as well.
The previously discovered altar also strongly resembled Addis' ancient tomb. Could Morzada have been sealed within that altar as well?
It wasn't far-fetched—everything was just too coincidental, and the source behind them pointed toward one thing:
The outbreak of the undead plague!
It was full of mysteries. Unlike the heavy trouble Addis had caused her, the newly revived Morzada had foolishly barged into her mind realm, only to end up inside Dogsius, just like Addis.
But with two of them down already, Serea wondered if there would be a third, a fourth...
Addis was a woman; but if the next ones, like Morzada, wanted her to "give birth to a child of destruction" upon seeing her, that would be a real headache.
Serea couldn't help but have wild thoughts; she needed to investigate the source of the undead plague outbreak herself.
"Serea, I heard you were looking for me."
Leklis entered. As an expert in all things undead, Serea thought he might recognize something about the items.
"Yes, I have something to ask you."
"Please, milady! Ask anything and I'll answer everything I can!"
"Cut the nonsense—look at these two things."
Serea handed the Bone Ring and necklace to Leklis.
After staring at them for a few seconds, leklis first frowned, then his expression turned ecstatic.
"Lady Serea, these are wonderful treasures!"
"Hmm?"
"These two items can generate pure death power and pure soul power, and fusing the two can produce absolutely pure power of the netherworld!"
"!!!"
Serea was surprised. She hadn't expected such a bonus. Leklis had been worrying about how to synthesize pure Nether Crystals, and now these two artifacts had presented themselves.
"I've also given you pure material crystals before. Why won't those work, but these will?"
"Your material crystals are certainly pure, but secondary fusion introduces impurities. These two items, however, maintain an absolutely pure environment around themselves, so fusion won't suffer any contamination."
Leklis spoke excitedly, but then calmed himself and added, "Ahem, of course, this is just theory. Actual results need to be experimented and verified."
"Let's set experiments aside for now. What do you know about these two items?"
Serea asked—after all, the undead mage who visited Addis' ancient tomb was from the Church of Death, so perhaps Leklis would know something.
"Well..."
Leklis thought for a bit, then shook his head.
"I've never seen them before, unfortunately. Maybe it's my limited experience, but these must be very rare treasures."
Hearing this, Serea felt disappointed. However, something about Leklis' mention of a "pure environment" caught her attention. If she could synthesize pure Nether Crystals and unlock a nether technology route, that would be great. Additionally, producing another ten undead followers and more Death Crystals wasn't bad either. As for the equipment's origins, she could investigate that further in the future.
With this in mind, Serea tentatively injected her mental power into the necklace. Without Morzada's control, the bone necklace fell easily under her command.
But in the instant she injected mental power, something strange occurred. The necklace suddenly floated up.
"Hmm!!!"
(To be continued...)