CHAPTER 85: DESTRUCTION OF THE PRISON AND THE COMPOUND (2)

The prison, the leader's office…

The leader was sitting on the ground, leaning on the wall behind him. His hair was disheveled, and his complexion terrible to behold. Dirt and stains of clay were all over his clothe.

In the middle of the office, on a long table, rested Derek's corpse…

The leader's eyes were glued at the table. Mixed expressions of daze, shock, sorrow, agony and hatred were alternating on his face without end.

He was repeating the scenes of the battle in his mind over and over again, questioning on why he failed to consider the possibility of the enemy having scholar magician and special grade artifact holder in their ranks.

He went to the compound to carry out a death sentence on the inhabitants, he was intending to kill every single warrior and magician in that place, to sooth his and his wife's sorrow and sadness.

However, in the end, things spiraled out of his control, reaching a conclusion that was far beyond the realm of his expectations.

Now, both of his sons were dead, while the killers are alive and kicking.

"It's all because of that damn artifact of his… if he could only… could only have advanced to the second rank, then… those filth wouldn't have been able to kill him no matter what they did…" with a bloodshot eyes, the prison leader spat out with intense hatred.

For a magician to advance to the second rank, first; he had to advance his artifact to the forth level, and rise the advancement percent to 100%.

Once that is done, and the magician gets a hold of tier-2 core from a magical beast, the artifact would then unlock the rank advancement option. And the magician would get a chance to advance to the second rank.

However, in his son's case, even after he raised the percent to 100% and got a hold of tier-2 magical core, nothing happened…!

No matter what his son did, the damn option just wouldn't show up.

As a result, the leader used the core on himself and advanced to the second rank.

Afterward, and to solve Derek's advancement problem, he thought of killing Curtis, and take his gemstone. Maybe Derek's artifact was so special, that it can only advance the rank using gemstones.

However, and before he could find an excuse to kill Curtis, one of the bloodline magicians in the prison reached the rank advancement conditions, yet, his artifact too didn't display the advancement option.

After that, and to confirm that matter, the prison leader helped another bloodline magician to reach the rank advancement threshold.

The result was still the same.

This meant that those who got the bloodline type artifact wouldn't be able to advance beyond the first rank. It was either that, or there was some sort of hidden condition to be met, to allow the advancement.

The arrival of the first update confirmed that the artifacts weren't perfect. This meant that with time, the full advancement conditions for the bloodline type artifacts might be revealed.

However, and till then, he intended to have his son make full use of his bloodline advantage against other rank-1 magicians. Hence, he brought him to this battle with him.

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However, in the end…

To make matters worse, the warriors and magicians in the prison were completely subdued by fear, due to the enemy's lightning weapons and the tentacle magician.

There was no chance of another attack.

Right now, the only thing that was holding the prison leader from going full ballistic, and descend into a state of rampage, was his grandson, Derek's son.

As time went on, the prison's leader expression stilled… he had reached a decision.

He looked at the still corpse on the table. Then, in a hoarse voice, he spoke: "Derek… Your father has done you injustice. I shouldn't have let you go against the enemy by yourself…" saying so, a look of savagery flickered across his eyes. "However, rest assured… Before I bury you in the ground, I'll bury the compound bastards first…!"

Finishing his words, the leader shouted, in a booming voice: "Clark! Bring Curtis over…"

Outside the office, standing at the corner of the corridor, the man named Clark shuddered like a weak leaf in a turbulent wind.

For the past two days, and ever since they returned from the battle, the leader's temper has been like a flaming torch. Everyone was terrified of him, and none one wanted to get anywhere near him.

Truth be told, if the outside world wasn't as dangerous, Clark was sure that most of the people here would have fled away, and sought refuge elsewhere. In fact, if they hadn't formed a death feud with the compound people, they would have escaped there and begged for forgiveness and acceptance.

Unfortunately, that was no longer a viable option.

More ever, aside from the compound, there was no other human gathering, so, basically, they were stuck here with the leader.

Hearing the leader's roar, Clark's face instantly went pale: "YES… YES LEADEER…!"

'Curtis, You poor bastard… just what kind of misfortune would befall you today…' Harboring these kinds of thoughts, Clark dashed away, like a scurrying animal, to fetch Curtis.

Not long afterward…

"What…! Did you hear wrong…? Are you sure he wanted me, and not someone else?"

Curtis's face was ashen. What he didn't want the most has come to be.

Although, in the battle, he had fled away… however, given that the others refused to fight, this action of his was greatly overshadowed.

Also, and although the leader was known for being excessively merciless, but he wasn't completely unreasonable… Hence, and since that the option to leave the prison to the outside world without having rank-2 offensive spell was basically a suicide, Curtis gritted his teeth and decide to stay and see how things go.

Truth be told, the outside world was filled with beasts. The time he spent there was basically a struggle at the edge of death. It was a slow death process.

When his brother was alive, he didn't suffer as much. As even though his brother was only rank-1 magician, however, he had a very powerful offensive spells, they could even injure tier-2 beast. But, after the battle at the borders, things completely changed.

Anyway, Curtis pretty much preferred to try his chances with the furious leader than outside with the beasts.

Clenching his hands tightly, and with an aghast face, Curtis walked past Clark, who had the 'I'm glad am not in your shoe' kind of look, moving toward the leader's office.

'He's not going to kill me, right…?'

The leader was a tyrant, but he wasn't stupid. If he started killing those that backed off from the battle, then there was a high chance that the others might assemble together and revolt, launching retaliation against him, his brother, and his wife.

After all, the number of casualties the prison suffered in the compound wasn't light, and the dead fighter's relatives had a grudge against him for leading their loved ones to death for his own proposes.

Also, and now that the biggest pillar that consolidated his authority, his son Derek, had died… the leader wouldn't dare attempt such a stupid move… would he…?

Harboring such thoughts, Curtis made his way to the leader's office with heavy steps.

Pushing the door open, Curtis's heart almost leapt to his throat, and his face was drained from color.

The curtains inside the office were all down, making the office very dim lighted. The place was brimming with excessive blood thirst, grimness, and a powerful stench of death.

The frightening atmosphere inside made Curtis feel as though he was about to walk into a dungeon and not an office.

In the middle of the office, laid the corpse of Derek… Next to him, stood the leader…

It has been two days since the battle in the compound; yet, the usual stench of corpses was still to reek. Maybe the decomposition process has yet to begin, or maybe it has, but, the decay has yet to reach the stage of emitting stench.

The leader was standing straight, his expression normal, however… the look in his eyes was something else…

Inside the dim lighted room, the leader's eyes were like two still lakes, appearing peaceful. However, and upon closer look, one could see that they were glowing with demonic, ice aura.

The apparent calmness of the leader was masking immeasurable ruthlessness and malevolence. This made him look like a demon in human skin.

Curtis's heart started throbbing violently, like a war drum. He preferred the leader to act in explosive temper, to go crazy with anger, to smash things about, to throw curses, to throw some punches at him… anything other than this frightening calmness.

In one of the dark corners of the office, a subtle presence was lurking about, observing the situation.

This faint aura gave Curtis some reassurance.

Someone was watching the developments here. If the leader was to make the wrong move, the others would unite and launch an all out offense on the leader and his remaining family.

Swallowing his witless fear with much difficulty, Curtis forced his weak legs to carry him inside the office.

His breathing was ragged to the point of producing buffs of turbid air with every exhale. Even though he himself was ruthless person, however, the leader's ability to stay calm in such critical time made him fear the man even more.

Seeing Curtis walks in, the leader's lip edge rose to form a smile that didn't look like smile:"Curtis… oh Curtis, oh Curtis… you are really smart, you know."

"Escaping at that particular moment shows that you are very assertive and decisive person, you are quite the capable man. You know, I wish I had several individuals like you here…"

"Anyway, now that our campaign had failed on the compound, the remaining survivors would impose a great danger to us. On the short run, they won't do a thing, and they will spend the time in getting more cores and increasing their strength. This however, will be a great danger on us, in the long run. Hence, measures must be taken."

Saying so, the subtle light in the leader's eyes intensified, and his smile widened, as he looked directly at Curtis.

At once, the surrounding temperature went down by an obvious margin.

Without knowing why, Curtis's heart sank, as a bad premonition shrouded his soul.

He felt that the next words leaving the leader's mouth would spill a disaster.

…