Darius ultimately received 607.500 rozoni—about 34.500 more rozoni than he would have gotten if he had accepted the young man's initial offer—after someone else came to determine the precise total cost of the crystals.
"Saw that? That’s how you calculate crystals."
"Please excuse our newcomer, sir. It won’t happen again."
"It better not."
The new man that came and calculated Darius’ total income smiled nervously while trying to apologize for his colleague once again, keeping his head down until Darius left the area.
.
"Haaah~ what bullshit…"
Although he put on a front to intimidate and get more cash, his irritation was genuine. Although justified, he forgot to take into consideration the mercenaries’ bad image. But now that he already went through the trouble, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to just try and get haired by one of the three powers.
Alright, let’s calm down. It’s not the first time I have had to deal with this. Now for the next step...
Now that he had enough money on him, the next stop was the market since he needed to resupply with ammo and maybe a new gun.
For now, I’ll need better armor. These metallic plates could fail to block even a sniper bullet. Talking about bullets, I also need more ammo and a better knife. Should I also buy a vehicle? I have about enough money to buy a motorcycle, but... I’d rather keep them since I might need to buy materials for the gadgets I wish to create. Sigh~ now that I think, I better not waste too much money. I need them to create my future weapons.
Thinking of this, Darius just bought the strictly required equipment and went back to the SAA to check if maybe he could complete some missions.
After looking around for a bit, he saw more requests by the Blue Spark talking about multiple groups of golems that gave a hard time to the recognition squads that patrolled the areas. They wanted those golems that disguised themselves as ruins and ambushed the soldiers to be removed.
That sounds like something I could deal with if I used my actual equipment correctly. However, I’ll need more explosives. Fuck, back to the market.
After another stroll through the market, Darius made sure to buy a lot of explosives, since when dealing with monsters such as golems, the best answer was always a good bomb.
After taking the request on his own and going back to his room to change into his armor, he went outside the gate and into the destroyed parts of the city on his own. Of course, many at the gate stared at him confused, some even talking crap behind his back.
"Oy man, I recommend not going solo, no matter how experienced you might be. This place is not like the southern camp, where the borders are loose enough to almost leave them open."
"Thanks, but I’m good."
A mage that was part of a Blue Spark squadron saw Darius advance on his own towards the deeper side of the Danger Zone, wanting to warn him out of kindness. But after hearing his calm and firm tone, the man just shook his head and sighed, turning to leave.
"Fine, do as you wish."
After about half an hour of walking on his own through a destroyed urban area that was once a part of the eastern city, Darius encountered no dangers as he was walking at the border between the territories of different types of monsters. He was able to tell by the color of the miasma in the air. Although it was purple in general, the color slightly differed depending on what monsters resided in the respective area. And although it was dark, he was able to differentiate the colors by using glasses specially constructed to lower the purple nuance of light and intensify the other spectrum of colors. Since even the lightning was purple, everything would appear the same color no matter where you looked, so such glasses were a must if one wished to adventure outside for longer periods of time.
This purple has a slightly darker nuance, which means there are demons around... Maybe some failed experiments escaped the trap? …Given that the area has a gray hue, it must be the home of the miasma-golems that emerged when miasma spirits animated concrete fragments. From what I remember, further in front, the miasma must be slightly reddish, so there must be a base of corrupted cultists. Although corrupted by the miasma, the cult is able to control them in fighting against the city’s squadrons. However, what I’m searching for is further in…
What Darius was searching for right now were the materials required to create the gadgets that once gave him the power to become the [Demon Lord] of the cult. And as the main element, he needed the [Heart of a Miasma Spirit]. Of course, he would also hunt down golems, which is why he took the mission in the first place.
[Miasma Spirits] were shadowy creatures born where the miasma was purer, and their abilities were to possess and integrate with someone or something and turn it into a weapon of mass destruction. Just like one can imagine, those were spirits and ghosts, so the possibility of grabbing their "hearts" was night impossible. However, Aura (the goddess) taught the Spirit Wielders (the heroes) how to extract the heart from a Miasma Spirit, since those gadgets were made with the goddess’ knowledge. Darius was a human, so normally he couldn’t do that as he couldn’t control the mana around in the first place. That was normally speaking. But obviously, at this point, Darius was no longer normal.
He concentrated on his palm and felt a light buzz while a light wind gently touched his hand even through the glove, making him feel a thin but present strand of air that swirled to his command. That was mana, and thanks to his vast knowledge, although in insignificant amounts, he was still able to control it.
What I learned from my past life is that every living being possesses the ability to control mana, more or less. However, what we lack is knowledge on how to do so willingly and how to breathe correctly to do this in the first place. After getting consumed by the miasma and being ruled by my desire for knowledge to gain more power, I learned how to breathe and how to control both miasma and mana, although ever so slightly. I tried to train and develop this ability, but I simply couldn’t fathom how I should train it in the first place. Doing it continuously only helped me use the thin strand of mana or miasma easier, but it did not necessarily raise its quantity. In the end, I had to use Aura’s knowledge to find an artificial way to gather and control the energies more efficiently. And now I’ll be doing the same.
He lowered his hand and placed it back on his riffle as he wandered at the edge between the two territories.
It could take forever…
He walked down the road and couldn’t help sighing as he was so deep inside the ruined city, and yet he still had to walk another half an hour to reach the intended destination. He started thinking that maybe owning a car wasn’t that wasteful.
-VROOM!-
Just as he thought that, he saw an armored Jeep come his way from the front at high speed, while behind it large boulders were rolling towards them to squash them.
"… What the heck are they doing?"
The car was part of the Blue Spark Army based on the paint on the plated vehicle, but Darius looked confused as he observed how, from inside the Jeep, lightning and fireballs were shot towards the boulders with no effect.
As a mage, less focus means less power. They’re able to materialize the abilities, but if they don’t concentrate on them, it would just appear as a few pretty sparks and nothing more… Sigh~ those kids got intimidated by the monsters.
Shaking his head, Darius took off his bag, dropped two bricks of C4, and connected them to a button in his hand. The car was still a few seconds away, but Darius didn’t even rush as he walked to the other side of the road and waited.
-BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEP!-
The driver of the car tried to warn Darius after seeing him sit at the edge of the road and giving them free-way to move forward, but he simply waved his hand as to continue on, not minding the approaching danger.
"Oy moron! Quick, hide somewhere! Can’t you see the golems?!"
"Just go."
"W-what?!"
The driver took out his head through the window and tried to shout warnings at Darius after being close enough, but he didn’t mind him as he just said it in a calm voice. Maybe because he was a mage who focused on sound, he was able to hear Darius’ words quite clearly, although he was still at quite a distance, annoyingly pressing on the acceleration.
Just as the car passed over the C4 bricks, the boulders followed and-
-BIP-
Darius pressed on the button as a thundering explosion shattered the boulders in pieces, with a few huge rocks shooting right past Darius’ head without even making him flinch.
Now we take out the core, and…
As he approached the concrete debris, he noticed three cores trying to recover the shattered pieces but failing when a bullet shattered them, releasing a dense miasma.
When a Miasma Spirit was possessing something, it would integrate into the heart and brain, if it had one, or create a core itself. Once that heart was destroyed, the spirit would die as well, returning to, as Aura said, "the dimension it came from".
The cores of inanimate beings like golems were still precious since they could be used as containers for holding miasma and mana, normally used to create spirit pills after remodeling them.
In-game, a core was about 100 rozoni, but in here they are 10 times that, so I can say I made quite a bit of money for now. However, I still need to use these as a container to hold the Spirit Heart.
As Darius collected the cores, more people got down from inside the armored vehicle after quickly stopping. The explosion made them quickly press on the brakes to find out what happened, only to see Darius walk nonchalantly with a gun in his hand, putting holes in the two cores and collecting them like it was nobody’s business.
"This guy is… crazy."
"Crazy good… you mean."
Three men and two women, all younger than Darius, got down and stared confusedly at Darius, not sure how to react. In the end, the driver walked closer, and with an awkward smile, he waved at Darius.
"Y-yo, thank you for saving us. I don’t know what would’ve happened if not for you… And sorry for calling you a moron."
Darius glanced at him once, then looked at their car. It had a few dents here and there, but overall, it was still usable and good to go.
These guys are about as strong as that wind-woman back when I ran my last mission as squad 7’s captain. The only difference between them and her is that she has a ton more first-hand experience in combat compared to these kids. If she was a soldier, then these guys were simple students, incomparable to her.
Making a short smile, Darius looked at the guy and asked,
"I didn’t help you for nothing. I request your help, think you can do it?"
"Eh? W-well, I can’t leave this debt unpaid, so… tell me what you need."
Hearing this, Darius’ smile widened, and after a few minutes, he was inside their car, going back the way they just came from, all of them having white faces.
"I-I understand that Mr. Daniel wishes to go collect some materials for his mission. But don’t you think it’s a bit dangerous to go too far? We had already passed the golems’ territory, and it was already that dangerous. We are slowly going towards the demons’ territory."
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The demons’ territory was the cult’s corrupted base. But because those people have a more demonic appearance with red eyes and horns with magic powers, everyone takes them for demons and not necessarily a cult.
Hearing that, Darius nodded with a neutral face and said,
"I know. Where I need to be, it's right over the demons’ territory."
"B-but that’s the Miasma Spirits’ territory!"
"Aren’t you just a normal human? Why do you even want to go so deep in?"
"I have my reasons."
The members of the party shook their heads confused but said nothing, as the deal was to leave him there and then quickly return on the same path shown by Darius.
"Here, quickly make right."
"Eh? W-why? We’ll just enter inside those boulders’ territory if we do so."
"Listen to me and do so."
Just as he made a turn to the right and entered the golems’ territory,
-GROAAAAGH~!-
A loud and rough roar resounded behind a run-down building, making everyone’s hearts freeze.
"W-was that a wyvern?"
"W-why is a wyvern here?! Aren’t those normally further up in the North?!"
"…"
Darius said nothing, as he knew that half a year after the heroes’ appearance, the wyverns would strike the seashore of the eastern city, which would be destroyed by more marine monsters. However, that will happen because of another reason.
"The demons have the ability to control some monsters. I heard they’re training the wyverns from the north. I’m not that surprised if some of the demons from these parts also started doing the same thing."
"W-what?! How do you know that?"
"If that’s true, then we need to report it to Commander Marton."
The party members talked between themselves worriedly, but Darius said nothing until-
-WHOOOMM~!-
A loud and deep sound reverberated through the air as the ground shook violently, buildings behind them crumbling and falling everywhere around; as for the buildings further away, still whole windows were completely shattered by the strong shockwave.
A loud explosion made the earth shake, and the scream of the wyvern resounded again. Everyone muted after hearing this, as they all knew what it was. That’s the field boss-ranked golem, and its power was known to destroy buildings with a swing of its large concrete arms. It was also moving high distances by jumping high in the sky. The moment it fell, the ground would quake and buildings would fall.
"I don’t think there’s any need to panic for now about some wyvern invasion. Until they reach us, they’ll have to deal with the other monsters on their way. Don’t forget that they live in territories not because they want friendly neighbors but because they’re hostile to one another as well. Rarely you’ll see monsters of different species fight or live together."
"T-that’s true…"
The group calmed down at Darius’ comment, and after a few more minutes, the miasma finally changed color from gray-purple to bright-purple. This showed that they entered the territory of the Miasma Spirits, who don’t integrate with objects but with living beings, normally waiting for someone foolish enough to enter their territory and turn them into demons.
"Here is good enough. And as we agreed upon, here are your C4s."
Darius offered the driver five bricks of C4 with a button to activate them, and the driver smiled wryly.
At first, the group had no wish to go deeper inside the Danger Zone, as they barely escaped not long ago. However, they had it hard, especially because they were overly confident in their magic abilities and had no desire to take on any type of weapon. The group was made of young people, around Darius’ age or even younger, and this only made it more obvious as to why they were so arrogant to adventure inside the Danger Zone with only a few magic-amplifying gadgets. But after offering them a few explosives and teaching them how to activate them, Darius was able to convince the group to send him all the way to the Miasma Spirits’ territory.
"Now be sure to take the exact same route back. Except for the last part. Try to go around the area where the buildings collapsed thanks to that big rock. In the case of enemies, don’t engage in battle and just run. And if they’re faster, you already know how to use those bricks."
"Yes, thanks. And... are you sure you don’t want us to stay with you? You’ll take about 1 hour back to the safe zone if you rush your steps, but about 3 hours if we’re talking about treading carefully. And around these places, you will need to tread especially carefully."
"Don’t you worry for me. I know what I’m doing."
Darius turned while waving confidently, and the group didn’t say anymore, unsure what he was thinking at this point.
After the group left, he took out a small go-pro camera and equipped it with his helmet. Thanks to its very small design, the camera was no bigger than a thicker clip, while its resolution was enough to reach 1800p. He decided to film everything from now on and also give out explanations, since his next step was to share his rich knowledge about monsters to teach the human forces how to hunt them more efficiently. To do that, he will need a great deal of assistance from the three great guilds, but as to how he’ll receive that help, Darius decided to just leave it for later and gather as much film as possible.
After everything was ready, he went in deeper, and while holding onto a gun and a knife, he took out a silver cross he stole from a street vendor while still inside Sin City.
I had no time to melt the silver, so I’ll have to deal with it in this form.
It was known that silver and gold were good metals against spirit-type entities, not necessarily because they had some holy element in them but because they were good mana-conductors. Those were also the metals most used in creating weapons and armor for mages and Spirit Wielders.
He went on forward while he enveloped the silver chain of the cross on the simple knife’s blade and placed the cross at the tip, tying it with a thread. He continued on forward while listening to the silence, holding his gun in a calm manner.
-GROAAAGH!-
A grotesque scream resounded, and from between the rubble, a half-corpse of some guy rushed towards him from between the ruins.
-POW!-
With one bullet, Darius struck the heart of the zombie-like creature, and after releasing a dark smoke-like mist, it fell unmoving.
A zombie-type demon… what a waste of a bullet. I guess it’s only natural to meet the lowest-tier monsters at the edge of the territory.
Darius frowned annoyed, and continued on forward, when, from between more bushes and ruins of buildings, more undead-type monsters like dogs, cats, and humans appeared. There were even some pigeons and rats, making Darius’ forehead throb.
My God… so many wasted bullets will follow…
The next moment, loud sounds of gunfire together with shrieks and howls resounded through the area for about 15 minutes.
Changing another magazine, Darius decided to put the gun away after continuing on forward and seeing how the purple color of the air around him seemingly turned brighter.
I must be in the area between the middle and the edge of the territory.
He took out his rifle, and, just as he expected, this time a mystic beast appeared in front of him.
-CHAW~!-
"Oh… I didn’t expect this."
The very first monster that appeared before him was a griffon. Better said, a possessed griffon who got a power-up after combining with a Dark Spirit.
Come on, even in the game, this was a boss-tier monster. You can’t just appear out of nowhere…
Even Darius couldn’t hold his poker face anymore, as the pressure released by the beast was more than what a normal human being could handle. Even so, he still breathed in and out, circulating his inner energy, calmed down, and took a combat-ready position. He aimed the FAMAS towards the griffon and shot with a speed of about 1000 bullets per minute.
Although its’ offensive power was strong enough to destroy a whole battalion on its own, it was obvious that the monster must’ve been corrupted not long ago, its defensive powers still having a long way until completely developing.
-CHAWWW~!-
After receiving repeated scratches on its head from bullets, the griffon took flight. Although the damage was minimal, it still annoyed it, aiming at him and going towards its prey like a hawk, but with speed that made a booming noise.
"Hup!"
Already knowing about its ridiculous speed, Darius jumped out of the area before it could change its trajectory, missing and flying away. Even so, the wind pressure alone sent Darius flying and crashing onto more boulders, having to adjust his position mid-air and land on the boulders on all four, then back on the ground. The concrete wall collapsed under the weight, and Darius had to quickly twist his body to land on his fours again, grabbing onto the ground to stop sliding while sustaining more damage to his armor from the flying boulders and rocks.
Thanks to the armor, the impact was greatly diminished, but he still felt his insides shake for a moment.
-BOOM!-
Leaving a grenade in the place where he was a while back, the griffon rushed right towards where he was, and the explosion enveloped it whole, blowing up in front of its head together with one wing and the front claws. Normally, that explosion would have blown a normal griffon’s head, but for this one, it just cracked its head and stunned it for a moment.
Now, quick.
Taking this opportunity, he quickly dashed towards the bloody griffon that swayed left and right, dazed, and after mounting it, he stabbed the plasma knife in its back, then introduced the muzzle of the riffle inside the wound that was right beside the heart and pressed on the trigger.
-PRRRRRR-!!-
Black blood spewed out as the bullets penetrated through the back of the monster and were already outside the front, making a mess of its insides together with the heart. Black smoke evaded through the body, showing that the monster was now completely dead. Going towards its head, he quickly cut it open with the knife then grabbed the Boss-rank crystal.
I was damn lucky this time….
Darius thought to himself while looking at the monster.
Being a boss, it could’ve easily killed him by using its many skills, such as the already-known miasma beam. Or creating strong and sharp winds with its wings, or even shooting sharp feathers like knives at him. There were so many ways that he could have died, but because he gave it no time to react, Darius was able to get out of this as the winner.
Normally, a griffon had no interesting abilities except for its strong peak, sharp claws, and deadly wings. What was truly dangerous was how smart a griffon was, able to adapt mid-combat and quickly discern weaknesses from traps. However, once possessed, its intelligence would drop significantly while its arrogance would remain.
Darius’ luck was that the griffon greatly underestimated him as he emanated no mana, taking him for a normal human. Thanks to that, the griffon thought that using only its basic combat abilities was more than enough to deal with it. But if it were any smarter, it would’ve used its demonic spells from the get-go, giving Darius no chance at reacting.
He went in further after putting the monster core in one of his backpacks’ pockets and tried to keep his senses sharp for any pure Miasma Spirit wandering around.
-HOOOWSH~-
The wind was whistling while a purple mist started to settle. Darius went further in, and as the place became eerier and eerier, the temperature also dropped to be colder and colder. This was a sign that he was closing in on the desired area. However, that also meant there were more dangers along the way.
In that place, he threw around more bricks of C4 after connecting them to his button, shot a few rounds in the air to make some noise, then retreated. He quickly hid inside some ruins and tried to control his breathing to slow his heartbeat and lower his presence. After a few moments,
-GROWL~-…
More monsters and beasts started gathering, together with Miasma Spirits, haunting the area like flying ghastly heads that released purple smoke. The heads had different appearances; some were humanoid, some were animal heads, and some were monstrous, as if showing the spirits of the different beings that died in these cursed lands.
Chyaaa~!
Not long after they appeared, the heads easily detected Darius and opened their mouths in a silent howl, and all the other demonic monsters turned his way, growling threateningly.
"Too late."
He took out his button and instantly pressed it, blowing up the whole area and quickly getting out of the ruins.
-GHAAAWWOO~!-
GROAAAGH~!-
GHYAAA~!-
Shrieks resounded as monsters lost parts of their bodies or just dropped dead. But while everything was still in chaos, Darius quickly went and grabbed the head of a humanoid Miasma Spirit after he took off his glove.
The miasma that the spirit was emitting attempted to corrupt him, but Darius concentrated all of his mana and pushed it back. He then used this mana to envelop his entire palm so he could firmly grab the head. Then, with the knife he enveloped by the silver cross, he stabbed through its head and cut it open.
-~~~!!!-
The head screamed silently, and Darius’ heart and insides shook as the silent sound penetrated his whole body and soul. There may have been no sound, but something was still emanating from the spirit in pain as its head was being split open.
"Shut. Up!"
He inserted his hand through the crack he made and searched around. It was feeling like cold gas, but one thing was feeling especially cold: the core of the spirit, or better said, The Heart.
"Got it!"
He grabbed it and pulled hard, showing a ghostly, pulsing purple-black orb that continued to release miasma, like smoke from a smoke bomb. However, that smoke was dangerous enough to make Darius’ hand slowly corrode, even though it was protected by mana, with black veins appearing in his palm.
He quickly opened his backpack and grabbed one of the orbs from before. He placed the heart through the bullet hole on the orb, then just took a smaller piece of an orb to stick it in place with some tape. It sounded ridiculous to actually block something spiritual with tape. But as long as that piece of orb was blocking the hole created by the bullet, then Darius was fine with it, even if it sounded stupid. After all, if it works, then it’s no longer stupid.
"Now, next!"
His hand was trembling from the pain while sweat was covering his forehead, but he knew that he had no choice if he wanted to grow stronger. He moved more quickly because the explosion's thick smoke was slowly dissipating. And since monsters were surrounding the area, he made sure to gather as many hearts as possible.
He grabbed another spirit and did the same, as everything took only a few seconds while the dust screen was still up in the air.
"Guh!"
Some spirits tried to retaliate by going through him and trying to corrupt his organs, but Darius took one of the quarter-spirit pills and pushed back the miasma before it settled inside him while ignoring the raging ghosts. If one had enough mana and acted quick enough by using breathing techniques similar to Reiki or other healing forms, they would be able to expel the miasma from inside before it started corrupting. However, one had to act quickly. Left for more than 5 minutes, and it would already be too late.
-~~~~!!!-
Another spirit dissected, another heart inside the orb. He continued to do so until the dust settled and the hurt beasts who still had an intact head and were able to fight, discovered him.
‘-GROOAAGH~!-
"Yeah, don’t worry. Now it’s your turn."