Chapter 88: 87 Grave Badge and the Dark Force [2760]

Chapter 88 87. Catacombs Badge and the “Dark Force” [2760

(Extra for brother ‘Huo whole quite well’ [12/20])
“This.”

After hearing Murphy’s concern, Maxim’s expression also turned ugly, as a person born in the Transylvania region, he had seen quite a few evil spirits since he was a child.

There was never a lack of similar ghost stories in this closed and brawny land.

Including, but not limited to, ghouls that would crawl out of graves at night to eat the remains of the dead, spirits that would inadvertently take over the body of an unlucky person and tear his soul apart and devour it, and vampire midnight visitors that would always sneak up on him in the middle of an unsettling night, and so on.

Compared to these frightening creatures, the jackal bandits who roam the hills and valleys robbing homes and the dog-headed thieves who are always hungry for candles seem so warm and gentle.

In other areas can be regarded as dangerous things jackals and all kinds of beasts, in Transylvania this ghost place is really not at all rank.

They were so completely at the bottom of the food chain of dark creatures that not even a teenager would be afraid of them.

And that’s not a bad thing.

It at least tempered the notoriously thick nerves and pugnacity and savagery of the Transylvanians, and made it so that the farmers here even dared to carry pitchforks of manure and fight for their lives against the ghouls that stole their own livestock.

But the problem is, if the number of this thing reaches thousands, it would be a super disaster that can’t be solved with a dung fork, no less.

“My lord, I think we might be able to camp somewhere else.”

Maxim looked at Murphy, who was in the process of placing the ebony stone among the corpses, preparing to start drawing on the death spirit energy and completing the transmutation ceremony, and he suggested in a low voice:

“First of all, I’m not scared!

My lord, as long as you nod your head, I will stand guard and kill every ghoul and grudge I see. But I’m not afraid simply because I’m used to seeing death, and our people can’t deal with this horrific nest of ghouls at our feet.

For the sake of your rule, perhaps we should move the survivor camp away from here.

I mean, move to a nearby village.

Like the village of Moorland, for example.”

“Uh, I forgot to tell you, Mark. Remember that big hole my warriors dug in the village of Moreland?”

Murphy turned back to Maxim with an odd look in his eyes and said:

“The witch hunters just told me that it’s haunted by ghouls over there too, and they had to blow down half the village to seal that nest. But those ghostly things can stay dormant and alive for at least three years even without eating or drinking, so while we’re clearing out the underground trouble in Cadman City, we’ll have to send people around to take care of those things as well.

And the Smuggler’s Woods.
I don’t suppose you’ve forgotten, have you?
There’s two hundred remains of veterans there too, and those trained elites with no one to collect their corpses will probably make something like the Skeleton Legion, which is even more worrying than ghouls.”

“Ah this!”

Maxim was speechless relative for a moment.

He was now getting the feeling that outsiders’ distaste and prejudice towards the Transylvanian region was not without reason, and that he himself, a local, was beginning to feel that his hometown was an unadulterated hellhole.

How it’s just like a broken-down house, leaking all over the place.
But if you think about going up and kicking it, you’re sure to have a bunch of vampire pussies jumping out and giving you a Rip.

“Well, don’t think about it so much, let’s get the matter at hand done first.”

Murphy placed the ebony stone, took a step back and unsheathed the Blade of Desire Ethnicity, and took out the alchemical sword oil made by Tris to gently apply a layer of it on the blade, and this oil paste with added special substances immediately began to emit warm points of light when it came into contact with the spiritual energy in the air, just as if it had been temporarily enchanted with a scorching weapon.

It would be the most useful blade against the spirits and ghosts that would appear next.

He tossed a bottle of the alchemical sword oil to Maxim, who took it in his hand and coated Jed’s ceremonial black blade as well.

As for the Psychic Poison Blade, there was no need for it.

Precious psychic weapons were supposed to be able to hurt spirits.

“The ebony stone can suck up the death essence of a spirit and store it, and after it’s had its fill of the essence dropping blood into it will complete the creation of the grave insignia.

This thing is not just a status symbol for the Grave Sword Guards, it is also a spell casting medium for the Grave Sword Guards.

Relying on the Catacomb Badge’s ability to absorb and store the aura of death, it allows the Catacomb Swordguard to attach darkness or death aura to their sword attacks to increase their destructive power.”

Murphy prepared himself to deal with the enemy while introducing it to Maxim, who was on guard beside him:

“As an exclusive elite unit of the Blood Vulture Clan, the Catacomb Sword Guards are very similar to those charging Psychic Knights sent by the Tower of the Ring during the Ten Years’ War, masters of the martial arts who simultaneously harness the dual dimensions of physical and psychic energy.

However, its greatest power feature lies in the ability to use the Catacomb Badge to designate the enhancement of a certain type of skill.

Jed, for example.

That guy reinforced his sword skills allowing him to strike deadly waves of energy swords, unfortunately, his Grave Emblem has been destroyed by sunlight burning.”

Maxim immediately heard the disdain in Murphy’s words as he asked:
“Are you saying that Jade is using the Grave Sword Guard power in the wrong way?”

“It can’t be said to be wrong.”

Murphy’s ears twitched.

He heard faint moans resonating from the gruesome corpses around him, which made him realize that Ebony’s death call had begun.

He assumed the starting stance of the Catacomb Sword Guards swordplay and said to Maxim:

“The common man’s idea lies in either strengthening his offense or his defense, which are both good thoughts just too banal.

In my opinion, the biggest advantage of a composite profession like Catacomb Sword Guards lies in the diversity, and in a real battle, it’s not much use even if your attack is strong enough to miss the enemy.

So if it were me.

I’d use the power of death to strengthen my control-type skills, thus keeping the initiative of the battle firmly in my hands .
They’re coming!”

“Swish swish swish.”

With Murphy’s reminder, a ghostly green and strange shadow surged out from those corpses around them.

They all had a vague human form but no sense of solidity, like oddly colored plastic bags floating around in the air, emitting deathly shrill whistles that could attack the spirit while slapping the unknowing interlopers in front of them with their gloomy ghostly claws.

“Bang.”

Murphy raised his left hand, the proficient level Spiritual Energy Shock – Gale Blow struck the sky, the compressed dark spiritual energy blasted out like a shotgun, causing the pouncing spirits to be shocked in place, and then swung up his sharp blade and went forward to swish and swish a few swords and poked a few of the spirits through the void body.

They screamed miserably and let out oozing wails, wanting to go back to the pile of corpses to regather their spirit bodies, only to be devoured by the ebony stones on the ground in one big gulp.

Spots of ghostly green light then emerged from within the crystal that was as brilliant as the night.

“There must be at least 60 of them!”

Murphy said to Maxim:

“There is also a quality level for the creation of the Grave Badge, the ebony stone that Missy that little rich girl casually gave is extremely pure, which means that it can absorb more death essence, think of it as practicing your swordsmanship by the way and solving a little bit of trouble in the territory afterward, Mark.

Decapitate all the spiteful spirits born from these corpses, followed by burning the place with a single fire.

My warriors will need a foothold when they enter the labyrinthine sewers afterward, and I think this place would be perfect to become their ‘underground archive point’.”

“Is that some sort of otherworldly term? My lord.”

Maxim asked again as he swung his twin swords in a flurry of cuts:

“You might be able to explain it in a language I’m familiar with, I always fail to understand the strange words your warriors say, they like to call me ‘baimao’, I feel like it’s a term of contempt.”

“No, that’s a sign that they like you.” Murphy said in a relaxed tone while stepping in a spectral pace, dashing and deftly dodging the ghostly clawed lunges of the grumbling spirits like flashes of light:
“They call Miriam Red Hair, they call Captain Natalie Grey Hair, they address Missy as Rich Laurie, they honor Trish as Beauty Witch, and they call Adele E Sister.

They are used to calling you by your most distinctive features.

Believe me, it all stems from their simplest and most passionate feelings; after all, only the best-connected iron buddies on their side call each other by their code names.

Well, that’s probably the legendary cultural difference.”

“But they will address you as ‘handsome’ or ‘lord’.”

Maxim shrugged in response:

“I just think they’re treating them differently, and that’s not good, I care about them too, I always hope they don’t waste their time wandering around in the ruins, wouldn’t it be good to practice their swordsmanship?”

“Then maybe it’s because you’re not generous enough?”

Murphy said with a wide grin:
“If you can raise the pay and rewards you give them each time, I believe they will soon address you as ‘Lord Mark’ with full respect as well, and even willingly be blinded by the money and equipment to add ‘honorable’ for you, ”Great”, ”Handsome”, and other meaty nicknames for you.

As I said before, they’re really realistic.

But that’s what makes them cute and blunt, isn’t it?”

In the lighthearted chat between the master and servant, the nearly one hundred grudges in this underground space were quickly decimated by more than half, these contraptions weren’t difficult to deal with as long as they mastered targeted techniques, not to mention the fact that there were still two veteran swordsmen of the Black Iron rank here.

This real otherworld was always realistic when it came to combat prowess.

Weak civilians would not be difficult to deal with even if they were transformed into Grievous Spirits and Ghouls after their deaths, the real cause for alarm were the gang members in the sewers who were once professionals.

The dead creatures they transformed into would be much more dangerous, not only would they be strengthened by death psychic energy, they would even retain some of their combat skills and tactical thinking from their lives.

For example, the previous exploration of the sewers organized by Happy Stick was almost wiped out by two water ghosts using “terrain killing”.

Fortunately, Murphy’s tomb badge only requires death essence, which is derived from the convergence of death spirit energy, and there is no difference between high and low.

Nearly twenty minutes later, the last ghost was killed by Murphy with a hunting crossbow, and the entire gloomy underground area quickly quieted down and calmed down.

Maxim took out the fire oil from the psychic energy bag and started to make preparations for burning, while Murphy picked up the ebony stone on the ground that had completely changed into a ghostly green color.

It was as cold in his hand as if he was holding a piece of thousand year old ice, and in front of Murphy’s eyes, the information label of this thing also popped up quickly:

Name: Death Stone/Ebony Stone full of Essence

Effect: Excellent alchemy material, as well as the tomb sword guard transfer props, please drop blood to complete the spiritual energy binding and resonance.

Item Description:

[For certain preoccupied vampires, they always like to make their catacomb emblems luxurious and cumbersome, and inscribe them with aphorisms and inscriptions that are good for nothing but looking good.

But in reality, even a poop-shaped stone can still be called a grave insignia.

The true meaning of power is so plain and simple.]

“Maybe I’m being too sensitive, but I always felt like you were hinting at something. I’m not too preachy about it, but I wouldn’t create a poop-shaped grave insignia for myself, that would still be too ‘edgy’ for a young vampire like me.”

Murphy bristled and took the alchemical carving knife that Tris had backed up from her psionic bag, and with a few swishes trimmed the appearance of the cold ebony stone in her hand, giving it an okay diamond-shaped snowflake shape.

Making it like this would be fine.

If you have to engage in some artistic processing, take it back and give it to Tris to do some more decoration, as a master alchemist, Tris’s hand work can be very dexterous.

Well, I always feel that this praise is equally strange.

Murphy shook his head and threw out the weird thoughts in his mind, then bit his finger and dripped the red sticky blood into the cold ebony stone in his hand.

The death spirit energy in it immediately resonated with the drop of his blood, and this blood connection was again exerted on Murphy in the next second.

“Swish.”

Prompt text popped up in front of his eyes:
[Grave Badge crafting binding complete, death spirit energy pool opened!
The user is a member of the Blood Vulture Clan, and the user has mastered the Catacomb Sword Guard Sword Art and reached ‘Skillful’. Catacomb Sword Guard transfer conditions are met, yes/no transfer?

“Confirmed.”

Murphy whispered in his heart, and then a large prompt text popped up in front of him:

[Grave Sword Guard transfer begins.
The level 10 base profession ‘Blood Vulture Swordsman’ has been replaced with the level 1 advanced profession ‘Catacomb Swordguard’.

The Catacomb Swordguard’s sword art proficiency limit has been raised from [Proficient] to [Master].

The destructive power of the Catacomb Swordguard Sword Art is increased.

In dark/dead psychic energy-rich terrain, life and psychic energy recovery speed is increased and temporary bonuses to Strength, Dexterity, and Perception are gained.

New talent [Death Infestation] acquired!
Each of your attacks will inflict [Death Breath] on your enemy, weakening their strength and reaction and inflicting a small amount of psychic shock on them.

New talent [Death Call] acquired!
When you enter a battle, each corpse you kill will be able to call a grudge spirit to join the battle temporarily, and the grudge spirit will disappear when the battle is over.

Tip!

This talent is a passive skill, each trigger will consume the Death Essence from the Grave Badge and will not take effect while the Death Essence is drying up.

The strength of the Spiteful Spirit summoned by this talent retains one-half of its strength in life, up to the level of the summoner’s rank, and maintains combat experience and combat skill.

New Talent [Essence Devouring] Acquisition!
Allows you to extract the essence of death from corpses or tombs for use in filling your own psychic energy pool.

Tip!

This talent is a passive skill and may not take effect on living beings or constructs.

New Skill [Death Reinforcement] Acquisition!
Allows you to use death psychic energy to strengthen one of your skills so that it extends different effects according to your planning, this strengthening can only take effect on one skill currently mastered, and the effect increases with skill proficiency].

“This is exactly what I wanted!”

Murphy laughed and smoothly threw the death enhancement that came with the Grave Sword Guard profession onto his Psychic Shock skill, and then stretched out his left hand and threw Psychic Shock-Binding towards the pile of corpses next to him.

In the next instant, as Maxim watched in amazement, the corpses were lifted into the air as if they were being held by an invisible noose around their necks, and as Murphy released more dark psychic energy, the corpses’ throat bones and spines made a clicking sound.

“Missy said that she gave me a name for this move, it’s called ‘Midnight Noose’.”

Murphy stood next to the hanging bodies as he rubbed his chin and told Maxim:
“But I always feel that this name is too literary, calling it ‘Force Binding’ or ‘Force Lockjaw’ obviously sounds better, forget it, let’s call it ‘Death Grip ‘.

By the way, I’ll honor my lost youth.”

“Although I don’t understand what you’ve gone through in your youth, I have to admit, my lord, the name is quite imposing.”

Maxim complimented doggedly from the sidelines, then lit the gas blowtorch to ignite the body, which was already drenched in kerosene, and the fire blazed through the dark sewers.

Murphy then watched as the corpses were engulfed by the flames and turned into ash flying in all directions.

In the hissing sound of the flames dancing, he whispered:
“I, an incompetent lord, cannot bring you precious life, but I can let you die with dignity, rest in peace, people who do not belong to me. Perhaps with resentment entrenched in these ruins, you will eventually see the creatures of this land rebuild a grander city.

And then, you will be able to leave with all your grievances gone and be satisfied.

I am convinced of that.”

(End of chapter)