novelraw Chapter 163: All I need are their Corpses
Chapter 163: All I need are their Corpses
*Shhhk*
Zyrus lifted his head from the dune and surveyed the area. It hadn’t taken him more than a few minutes to travel across miles.
“Guooo!”
“Are you saying that the desert is alive?” Zyrus was surprised that he understood the ghoul’s words. It was similar to sharing thoughts via telepathy, and what he sensed wasn’t something trivial.
“Guoo.”
The ghoul once again conveyed its thoughts. It had higher sensitivity to life signals than most creatures.
While the two were talking, a sudden gust of sand arrived from the northern side. Zirnitra and Elsid had arrived upon receiving his location.
“What did you guys find?” Zyrus asked Zirnitra who was circling down from the sky.
“There are a lot of monsters in the area. More than a few thousands at the very least.”
“And I believe there’s a third species that’s leading them,” Elsid added after jumping down besides the ghoul.
“Interesting…the ghoul says the desert is alive, and its manifestation is right behind us.” Zyrus shared his conversation with the duo and decided on the next step, “Keep an eye out. For now, we’ll build a temporary camp at the highest vantage point.”
The group behaved as if they hadn’t sensed anything else and left on the back of Zirnitra. After mulling over the last battle Zyrus had decided to finish off either the scorpions or the sandworms in one fell swoop.
He guessed that the first condition of this mission should be related to wiping out one of the three forces. It would be great if he could establish connection with the Streit bastion as well. Now that he had a general idea about this area, he could make better use of his resources after connecting the headquarters.
‘But before anything else, I need to measure the day cycle…’
Zyrus looked at the real sun that was hanging overhead ever since he came here. The day here was longer than usual, and he hoped the same was true for Twilight.
The group soon reached the tallest dune without any trouble. It was strange that there weren’t any flying monsters, but it was a good thing nonetheless.
Zyrus sat down and racked his brain to come up with the most effective plan. Killing either the sandworms or the scorpions wasn’t a big deal, but what concerned him was the unknown third party.
‘Looks like I’ll have to rustle the bushes to lure out the snake…’
Before that, he had to make sure that he wouldn’t be eaten once the snake did come out.
“Zirnitra, monitor the scorpions and notify me if the plague is working on them. If it's not, then take a few infected corpses and throw them to the sandworms. The latter should have a higher chance of being poisoned.”
“Understood, my liege. But may I ask why you’re not dealing with both at the same time?”
“It would do us no good if they teamed up. Although it’s unlikely, we can’t be too sure. It’s better if they fight among themselves and kill one another. All I need are their corpses.”
This story originates from NovelBin. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Zirnitra nodded in understanding and flew off to the horizon. Zyrus decided to multitask as well by sparring with Elsid and the Ghoul, all the while thinking about various matters.
His current priority was the skill he was creating using the martial arts manual.
‘I need more time to experiment….’
Thankfully, he had enough time to spare in this mission. He was sure that he’d be 70% done once he fought the next battle.
Jörmungandr’s words on the realm of order had given him an inspiration to create the skill. Void Body Refinement Technique was divided into many minor and major levels. To start off, the martial artists refined their bones, flesh, and skin to improve their overall physical prowess. Zyrus didn’t need to work on this as his Sylvarix bloodline had already done the job.
Next was the unfamiliar territory. They used the spiritual qi to temper their meridians and opened their various acupoints. What followed after that was the infusion of void laws to expand the space within those acupoints and forming their dantian to store spiritual qi.
So long story short, they increased the space, or rather, 'Void' within their bodies to store the spiritual qi. Those in the Kasa realm could store as much energy as a cold fusion reactor. Those who reached the Raya realm were even more monstrous.
There was even a method that allowed one to refine an entire star’s energy and store it inside the void space. While all of this looked powerful, this wasn’t what Zyrus was familiar with.
‘One day I’ll have to face that form of void, but not right now.’
His thoughts once again wandered off to the realm of order. The range of 10^26 to 10^-35 meters. He was more familiar with the smaller limit due to Earth’s civilization.
Things like quarks and quantum entanglement were being researched even on the Arc of Noah. It was a pity that they weren’t any closer to it than they were a thousand years ago. The only thing that changed were their priorities.
The pursuit of science had been common hobby of everyone, and Zyrus was no exception. He had dabbled in anything that caught his eye. He didn’t pay much thought to it before regression, but ever since he went back to earth for the first time, he had been learning more and more things from the cube whenever he had time to spare.
Back to the matter at hand, the most difficult part for him was to locate the so-called meridians and acupoints. He was inherently different from everyone as the sole living Sylvarix.
‘It was fortunate that my talent made up for it.’
It didn’t matter whether he knew the acupoints and meridians. Devour used cosmic energy to improve his physical prowess, so he just had to observe and copy its method. With his high intelligence it wasn’t difficult to see what was happening within his own body.
This was also why he needed to fight while making the skill. Just gathering energy wasn’t enough; he had to learn about how to release it as well. In the past few months he had gotten a hang on both of these aspects. Now, he was at the final juncture – how to use the void laws to solidify his skill.
“You guys continue,” Zyrus waved at Elsid and Ghoul and sat on the nearby dune. His claws parted the sand while as he imagined the layout of his mana circuit. To be specific, the mana circuit he was going to use over his whole body. It was an extremely risky maneuver for any mage to mess with their mana circuits. No one apart from the arcanists survived the attempt.
‘Whew…It’s much more difficult than before.’
As an arcanist he used vortex form of mana circuit to compress and store his mana into tiny whirlpools. On the other hand, the martial artists used a similar method to expand the overall storage space of the body. Both had a good synergy from the get-go.
But Zyrus wasn’t satisfied with that. He knew that the space created by Void body refining technique wasn’t devoid of everything.
‘According to quantum mechanics, even the vacuum isn’t really empty.’
It was said that virtual particles pop in and out of existence in a vacuum, and that was why it looked empty. There were many experiments and theories on this subject inside the cube. What he needed was to understand them and get a direction for his next curse.
Just as he was making final adjustments, he heard Zirnitra’s voice from afar.
“My liege, the scorpions have a rather…unique funeral. They ate the departed to make them a part of themselves.”
“Hoh, their leader must be well sent off then.”
“Indeed. Pretty much the entire clan is under the effect of the plague. It’s a pity that none are dead or even ill due to their high resistance.”
“Actually, it’s quite the opposite,” Zyrus chuckled and jumped down from the dune.
“…You aimed to empower them?” Elsid's voice sounded from beside him.
“I wouldn’t use that word, but I do intend to make them stronger.”
Zyrus didn’t explain further and jumped on the back of Zirnitra. Some things were better seen than heard after all.