Chapter 212: 211 Crouching Source! Allies add more, asking for monthly votes! [
Chapter 212: 211.Crouching Source! -Allies plus more, asking for monthly votes! 1015]
(Extra for brother ‘don’t get up and love to doze off’ [5/5])
At first, Murphy felt that the ghouls in the sewers of Scarlet Fortress were just a nuisance waiting to be dealt with, but as the situation became more and more complicated as the activities of the small players explored, Murphy realized that this nuisance was more complicated than he had imagined.
Tonight’s quest from the Greybeards under the guidance of his professor-mentor accidentally reveals the true nature of the ghoul plague, much to Murphy’s chagrin.
He realized he still wasn’t sharp enough.
If he had been able to glimpse the hidden crisis earlier and resolved to act, perhaps things would not have come to this.
Well, that might be a character problem that needs to be corrected from now on!
He thought so.
With Necessary Evil in hand, he stepped into the final area of the upper cavern, and summoned George, the giant wolf that he had previously sent back to the Astral Plane, again as he flipped his wrist.
Reverno was still flying through the underground tunnels, pointing the way and forewarning of dangers for the small group of players escorting those survivors who had escaped; it was Murphy’s eyes, able to give the lord an overview of the situation at all times.
He knew, for example, that Tris had joined the fray, so he had to settle this before him before Tris arrived.
“Swish.”
A ranged detection was dropped on the vampire in front of him who was grasping a skeleton staff and was yelling, and the information that came back danced in front of Murphy’s eyes:
[Name: [Calamity Rat King] Vladimir Somer Zweig
Rank: Level 20 – Black Iron Body – Common
Occupation: Level 10 Trickster/Level 7 Coffin-Bearer/Merchant – Speculation Specialization
Status: Terrified – Disoriented – Underworld Deed – Twilight Servant
Evaluation: Unthreatening – Neutral
Tips!
The target has the special special psychic ability state [Dusk Servant], which cannot be tracked or sensed by any spell, cannot be selected by prophecy-type spells, and is unaffected by tainted psychic abilities.
This state is externally imposed.]
“I can explain! Listen to me explain!”
Zweig, the merchant who single-handedly triggered the ghoul plague in the sewers, was panicking, although he was still able to mobilize the ghouls with his weapons, but seeing Murphy, the “Master of the Scarlet Fortress”, walk in front of him, as well as the pair of eyes emitting cold killing intent, he knew that his fate would not be too good.
But even so, he still did not give up on survival.
He screamed in an altered voice:
“I’m your brother! Murphy, I am also the heir of Lord Tris! It was on that snowy night just over a year ago that I gifted her the family fortune in exchange for the right to take eternal life from the torment of disease.
You believe me!
I’m not a bad person!
Nothing here developed this way out of my will, and I’m a victim too!
Yes!
I’m a victim too. You saw it! They left me here to die! I was deceived too, so spare me, I’ll tell you everything you want to know and everything I still have, I swear!
I just want to live, that’s all!”
“Snap.”
A chair was pulled back and Murphy sat down on it.
He had his hands on the buzzing Necessary Evil, and George the Giant Wolf was beside him with his teeth bared as he stared at the weakling in front of him. The giant wolf could smell the fear in the other man’s heart, which meant that even if he had a bit of power he simply couldn’t exert it.
This was a complete “prey”, or as he himself put it, a “scapegoat”?
“Deceived by whom?”
Murphy asked in an icy tone:
“By Dusk?”
“Ah, it seems you know about them? That’s great.”
Zweig wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He gasped; even after becoming a vampire, he didn’t seem to have gotten rid of the mercenary aspect of being a businessman.
Seemingly sensing Murphy’s change of mood, the oily vampire then regarded it as his last straw and shouted in an altered voice:
“I can tell you, although they say they can’t tell anyone else, but at the moment it doesn’t matter so much, I will tell you everything, my brother.
All I ask is to live!
I know that some of my actions have brought something very troublesome to your domain, but I can make amends! I still have a property and several stores in Chardonnay Harbor, and I can compensate you for all of them.
That’s just some blood servants!
Right, just some inconsequential sustenance, we Midnight Sons are beings of ancient decency, our lives are far more valuable than theirs!”
“Any more nonsense from you and your overly dexterous surely meaty sinewy tongue is going to be George’s midnight snack tonight.”
Murphy returned coldly and grimly.
These words blocked all of Zweig’s efforts to pull strings, and he laughed awkwardly, tossing the skeletal staff in his hand aside as a sign of his cooperation.
The slightly chubby vampire wiped his sweat as he said:
“Okay, I know the ones you want to know about Twilight but I’ll say in advance that I don’t know much either, I told you I was a victim, well don’t stare at me I’ll say it! A little over a year ago, I was just an unlucky guy in Chardonnay Harbor.
Made some money in that halfling territory but caught a strange disease, and I was miserable, you know?
At that time I could feel death approaching day by day, it was so clear and desperate.
I frantically turned to any power I could find, but death was irresistible, until I was desperate, when a man gave me a message.
He told me that in the city of Cadman in Transylvania, there was a unique vampire called ‘Tris’, and he said that Mrs. Tris could just give anyone the First Sacrifice for as little as money to give them immortality under the darkness of the night.
Not to mention disease!
Even death can be gotten rid of. Can you imagine the ecstasy I was in?
I packed my bags almost immediately, dismissed my servants and arrived in this war-torn land before the first snowfall of winter, I reached the city of Cadman and everything went better than I could have imagined.
The beautiful and honorable but slightly downtrodden Lady Tris.
No, our honored lady was so generous that she dispelled my pain without much questioning, and I am grateful to her for gifting her my wealth.
Yet!
And yet it was all a game!
It was from the beginning!”
Zweig’s expression twisted as he shouted frantically:
“They lied to me! Sarlokdar of the Blood Vulture Clan was a madman, he would not allow Lady Trixie to have anyone close to her, and the result of being first embraced was that I, too, was blacklisted by the Blood Vulture Clan, and I nearly died in the midnight of the Andromeda Hills.
It was the guy who gave me the message earlier who saved me, and it was then that I realized that it was all a damn setup!
He gave me a tome of evil magic and told me about this underground cave.
I knew that they must have a terrible plan, and I was just the most insignificant pawn in that plan.
But what could I do?
Murphy, my brother, if it were you in that situation, you couldn’t do much more than take their orders, could you?
It’s not like I didn’t try to fight back, but they were more powerful than I could imagine!
I was stunned.
I couldn’t just have my hard-won immortality taken away again, I could only hibernate here, I could only wait for their orders.”
“So what are the orders?”
Murphy asked in a calm tone.
Zweig hesitated as he whispered:
“It’s . It’s that thing down there!
They asked me to shape a plague ghoul overlord, they provided me with the corpses of gold powerhouses needed to cultivate it, and they taught me the specifics of cultivation, teaching me to establish a connection with the Plaguelands as a way to mobilize the power of death.
Do you know the power of a Plague Ghoul Overlord?”
“I’m just an Astral Summoner, I don’t know much about Underworld creatures.”
Murphy seemed to be interested and his expression softened a bit as he asked:
“So, can you please explain it to me?”
“Sure, of course! I’d love to.”
Zweig hemmed and hawed.
He pulled out his chair and sat across from Murphy as well, feeling this conversation getting better and better, and feeling like he might be able to hold his own little life in his hands.
Perhaps Murphy had agreed to the life-saving conditions he had just made.
Come to think of it, how could a vampire care about the small lives of livestock?
He himself was destroying Murphy’s property, but he would be satisfied as long as he was given enough to replenish it.
Vampires were like that!
He was a vampire himself, and he knew that whispers from the middle of the night could turn even the noblest of men realistic and greedy.
So with that mindset driving him, Zweig was a little more aggressive.
He who had already been delving into the evil arts in this underground cavern for more than a year, at this time, he explained to Murphy with a mouthful of words:
“The Plague Ghoul Overlord is the top dead spirit of the Underworld! Not only is it powerful and can order ghouls to form an army, the most terrifying thing is that the Ghoul Overlord is born with an untouchable poison of the Underworld.
That’s the poison that kills!
Do you know about the psychic plague that the Pathfinder Legion of the Golden Bird Flower Kingdom used to destroy Xike City more than two years ago? Oh, the Tower of the Ring claimed to the outside world that it was a weapon they had researched, but it wasn’t!
That was just them extracting some Underworld Poison from the imprisoned Plague Ghoul Overlord and improving it a bit.
Those human psychics are the best at bragging!
And once the plague ghoul overlords I made and bred show up in Transylvania, just by contaminating that tributary of the Cadman River in the cavern, it would make the whole of Transylvania a wasteland, and any guy who drank from the river would die an agonizing death and then become a member of the ghoul army.
That was their plan!
They were going to mold a world of death in Transylvania! But it’s only a backup plan!
I didn’t realize until later that their first plan was to compel Salokdar to open the subspace rift.
They almost succeeded, just a little bit.
But that was spoiled by you guys, in fact, when you guys attacked the Blood Wyvern Cloister, I was hiding in the sewers, I even witnessed the scene where Salokdar’s soul returned to subspace, you guys are really too powerful!
However, that’s the unmitigated bad news for me.
The failure of the primary plan meant that the secondary plan was brought up, and alas, it’s actually quite sad for the people in this town, and I’ll be honest, I’m not a heartless monster after all.”
Zweig whispered hypocritically:
“I was warned to take refuge here early before the astral realm ripped apart, and took in a lot of people who had nowhere else to go, and manpower was needed to move the bodies in the sewers.
The first stage of a ghoul overlord’s birth involves using corpses to build up the breath of the underworld in the pits of filthy blood, so that it can be infused with the power of death, and by the second stage it requires the unholy blood of the living.
In fact, I’ve been troubled, these people are my slaves, they work hard to stay alive so I can’t bear to execute them just like that, however, I can’t disobey Dusk’s orders
Your arrival proclaims my freedom!
Murphy, my brother.
I can finally stop worrying so much. You can take those men and I’ll find a way to escape.
I know Dusk won’t let me go so easily.
But that’s okay!
As long as you let me go, I can earn the rest of my life.”
“How did you contact them?”
Murphy asked, noncommittal at this:
“Are their people still in Transylvania?”
“You! What do you want?”
Zweig became terrified and screamed as he grabbed his cheeks:
“No, I can’t reveal it, it’s a topic that can’t even be talked about!”
This answer made Murphy smile, the tail spike from the Starworld Scorpion Lion in his psychic bag jumped into his hand between his finger flips, his whole body stepped forward like a ghost and grabbed Zweig’s head and slammed him onto the stone table with a thud.
The latter’s head was broken and bloodied in a scream as his left hand was pulled up and placed on the tabletop, and the bloodstained index finger flew out as Tail Spike’s hand rose and fell.
“You still have nine fingers!”
Murphy pressed down on Zweig who was screaming like a pig as he whispered in a gentle tone:
“You can still reject me nine times, you still have a lot of time, after all, I also need to prepare for erecting the Cross of Sunburning Penalty, we can continue to play this game. Now, I need your answer.
Answer me!!!”
“No, he’s not! He never even came to Transylvania!”
Zweig screamed miserably:
“He has some kind of evil magic that allows him to temporarily manipulate others like puppets, that’s how I contacted him and took orders every time, I don’t even know if it was a he or a she or an it? Between Salokdar’s death and now, he hasn’t reappeared!
I feel like I’ve been given up.
But they’ve terrorized me, they say there’s some kind of covenant spell on me, that if I dare abandon my mission I’ll die a horrible death. l didn’t want to!
Murph, spare me!
It’s not my fault. I’m a victim too!
We’re brothers!
We have the same honor, please! At least let me see Mrs. Tris.”
“I’m not Tris’s heir anymore, and I think you probably aren’t either, and I don’t want to add to Tris’s mental burden.”
Murphy whispered in Zweig’s ear:
“So save yourself the trouble of trying to climb the ladder. What was the name of the guy you were meeting with? How did he inform you to meet him?”
“Gen! His name is ‘Gen’! That must be a code name.”
Zweig was even more frightened.
He blurted out all sorts of information wildly, but Murphy wouldn’t even listen.
He had already used the energy of desire in listening to the words of the mind in Zweig’s heart.
Words can be deceiving, but the mind doesn’t, especially a mind that has been eroded by fear, it’s like a treasure chest that has been opened for Murphy to take in.
“Snap.”
A hidden compartment in the area at the end of this cavern was kicked open by Murphy, and a pearl bracelet that shimmered in the darkness fell out.
This was the psionic item used by Zweig to connect with the mysterious “source”, but it was true that, as he had said, it hadn’t been activated since Salokdar’s death.
“There’s no need to get carried away, Mr. Zweig.”
Murphy discreetly wrapped the pearl bracelet in three handkerchiefs picking it up and dropping it into his psionic bag as he turned back to Zweig, who was clutching the wound on his palm:
“You’re dead! There will be no more life left for you, not in this world and not in any other!
Yet there is a difference between death and dying, and when a moment of pain is stretched to a horrific length of time, those who think they are strong-minded often realize that they are not really as strong as they thought they were.
You’re not a tough guy, so don’t do anything that makes you feel bad about yourself either!”
Murphy’s left hand moved, grim dark talons extending from his fingers, as he addressed the despairing-faced Zweig:
“Go ahead, say something else that might interest me, so that you can go forth in pain and repent to the Mother of Midnight for your sins in this life.”
“I I’ve actually heard of you, Murphy!”
Zweig knew his life was over.
His terrified expression turned malevolent again.
He lay in the corner of the cavern, holding his broken finger, his vampire’s canine teeth stabbing out with a ferocious look, like a wild dog cornered.
He shouted to:
“I’ve been hiding in Cadman City for over a year, and I’ve heard all about you and Tris! You’re no good, you’re just greedy for Tris’ beauty, heh, I’ve seen this kind of thing a lot! But you won’t get what you want!
Murphy, ah Murphy, those seeds of disaster that Lady Tris unintentionally planted in her past life will eventually germinate, and she will once again become the Scarlet Witch that shook the entire continent!
She! She belongs to no one.
As for you!
You’re nothing more than a praying little fool, and let me tell you something, I’m not the only descendant of Tris to have survived!
They don’t, we do!
We won’t allow you to have Tris all to yourself!
Don’t you even think about it!
Our honored one has greatness that belongs to her that must be practiced, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it! And you try to bind her to you? Well, the disaster at Cadman City has set the witch free, and she will fly away and make her own path to the gods.
You!
You can’t stop it!”
“Pfft.”
The sharp claws of darkness pierced forward and snapped the lie-filled vampire’s heart into his hand, Zweig’s malice so worthless in the face of death that he wailed and prayed in horror once more:
“No, don’t! Please!”
“So, who else is among ‘you’?”
Murphy stared at him.
The scarlet points of light in his eyes were frighteningly bright as he whispered:
“I can’t wait to meet the rest of my ‘brothers and sisters’, so tell me, who else?”
“Chardonnay Harbor! In Chardonnay Harbor, that place no! NO! NO!!!”
Zweig yelled.
But he seemed to have triggered some kind of switch.
The Underworld Deed spell was activated, making even Murphy’s dark talons stabbing into Zweig’s chest feel the intrusion of cold, oozing breath.
He immediately withdrew his claws, but before his eyes, Zweig screamed miserably and twisted his body, and the shadowy Underworld aura that was visible to the naked eye continued to rise, eventually infusing his entire body and soul with the power of death.
“Chardonnay Harbor . Witch Witch Cafe, Lower Town .”
Zweig had realized what was going to happen to him.
In his last moments of unconsciousness, he struggled with a grimace and uttered a place name to Murphy.
“Boom.”
The vampire’s body exploded in the midst of spiritual energy, and in the eruption of flesh and blood, a death-like spirit holding a filthy skeleton scythe and clad in rags of shadows was summoned, which was obviously the effect of the “Underworld Spell”.
The white skeleton’s eyes glittered with scarlet light as it stared at Murphy in front of it. It roared and raised its scythe, obviously not intending to let Murphy, who had heard the secret, leave alive.
“Witch Cafe, Chardonnay Harbor, source . Very good!”
Murphy said in a low voice as he unsheathed the endlessly buzzing Demon Sword of Necessity and performed the starting stance of the Secret Blood Clan’s Spiritual Energy Secret Sword Art in his hand:
“The trail seems to be broken, but that’s okay, I’ll find you guys, ah, that psycho Parano was right, I really did pick the trickiest Midnight Rose for myself. But what does it matter?
You have to shed some blood if you want to have the beauty all to yourself.
But you don’t have any blood, my dear, so leaving your bones is fine .”
(End of chapter)