“It’s right up ahead.” A guy wearing light leather armor around his chest and wrist said as he gazed at the unnamed forest.
“We arrived days earlier than expected. Lucky.” Another guy who was carrying a big hammer said.
“Stay focused,” The guy carrying a sword on his waist reminded the others. “We are here for a job. Go in, take the kid, and get out. If anyone stands in our way, kill them. Don’t mess around like you two always do. Just kill them. Understand?”
“Yeah yeah,” The hammer guy waved his hands listlessly while the leather armor guy nodded.
“Let’s go.” The swordsman pointed at the forest.
-----
On the eighteen days after the four met, Grillion took Toby somewhere. The old goblin said it was a place Toby needed to see.
“Can’t you just tell me where we’re going, Gramp?” Toby asked Grillion.
“You’ll see when we get there,” Grillion said as he dashed through the forest.
They have been traveling for about half an hour now. It was such a boring trip. They didn’t do anything other than running, in Toby’s case, floating, all that time. To make it less boring, Toby practiced picking up small rocks, leaves, or branches on the ground using [Magic Hand] and threw them at whatever he saw. He threw them at a tree, at a fruit, at a root, at a rock. Some hit, some missed.
It seemed pointless but he could feel it, he was getting better. Just a little better.
As they kept going, he saw a black tree. It wasn’t because the tree was burned. No. The tree itself was simply black. Black trunk, black root, black branches, black leaves, black fruit that looked like tears. Everything related to this tree was black. The only exception was the ground.
Its body was as straight as a tower, like any other tree. But its branches twisted and turned and coiled like a giant with snakes for arms. Using those arms, the giant aimed to extend its reach toward all life in the forest.
“We’re here.” Grillion stopped and stood below the black tree.
Toby didn’t know why, but he felt like he knew this tree. No, he didn’t just know it. He had some kind of connection with this tree.
“You can feel it, can't you, little Toby?” Grillion gazed at the black sky that stopped all sunlight.
“…What is this, Gramp?” Toby asked with a tone like a stretched rubber band.
“I don’t know.” Grillion shook his head.
“You don’t know?”
“I just know that this is what I need to show you. It was part of the prophecy I received when I started my journey. It has been longer than the time needed to marinate a decade-old cheese now.” He turned toward Toby. “But I finally found you, this era’s Dark Lord.”
Toby heard the wind playfully running through the leaves as he gazed at Grillion’s unwavering eyes. For some reason, those cool and calming gusts of wind felt so distant.
“…Can I trust you, Gramp?”
“That’s something for you to decide. I have no control over whether you trust me or not.”
“Did you help me knowing that I was The Dark Lord?”
“I didn’t see your red eyes when you sleep.”
“What do red eyes have to do with it?”
“According to legends, only three types of beings have red eyes. The first is Heroes. They have red eyes when they activate Light Element, something that only Heroes can use. The second is Guardian Beasts. They are born with red eyes to indicate their status as a pillar of support for the region they protect. The third is…”
“Dark Lords,” Toby mumbled.
“Yes.” Grillion nodded.
“How come you know that I wasn’t a Guardian Beast or a Hero?”
“Guardian Beasts are tied to two or three Elements at most - the Elements most prominent in their region. No matter what they do, no matter what Skills they have, they can only use the Elements they were born with. But you can control pure Mana itself. There are no Elemental properties in your Skills.”
“What if I was a Hero?”
“Then your eyes only turn red sometimes, not all the time.”
“I see, that’s concerning.”
“It is indeed.”
Toby fixed his gaze on the goblin. He thought he knew a fair bit about this old goblin, but it seemed that it was merely his delusion. Grillion wanted something from him.
It was still the same thing, huh? When will you learn, fucking idiot? Toby had a self-mocking smile.
“What do you want from me, Grillion?”
Grillion opened his eyes wide from how cold Toby sounded.
“Little Toby, I…” He tried to say something but stopped when Toby shook his head. Grillion couldn’t see Toby’s calm smile or his joking gestures when he messed around most of the time. They were all gone. All that was left were dull and tired eyes.
“I want your help with something. Something important to me.”
“What is it?”
“I want to create a disk that can permanently boost intelligence. It’s something extremely difficult, borderline impossible.”
“And you want me to help with that just because I’m The Dark Lord?” Toby sneered.
“No.” Grillion denied. “I want you to help because you are a good person.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“A good person doesn’t suggest abandoning two helpless children.”
“But you still help them regardless,” Grillion said. “You said you wanted to abandon them when we first met. Yet, the way I see it, it was because you thought it was a trap and didn’t want me to get hurt.”
“…”
“You are a good person, little Toby. Don’t deny that of yourself.”
Grillion took a deep breath. “You always have a choice to refuse, little Toby. I can’t force you to. But know this. I have never lied to you, just like how I never added rotten eggs to my dishes. Not before, not now, not ever.”
“You said you came here to find inspiration for your dish to Rank Up.”
“I didn’t lie, little Toby. I came here with multiple goals in mind.”
“You didn't lie, but you still told half-truth.”
“Yes.”
Toby looked up at the sky. The mix of barely visible blue sky, the green of leaves, and the black of this strange-looking tree held an oddly familiar and calming yet chaotic feeling to it.
After gazing at that mixed sky for a long time, Toby let out a sigh and said, “I’ll think about it… Gramp.”
Grillion smiled like he had a mountain on his chest. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah, what do I need to do with this… thing? I don’t even know if it is actually a tree or not.”
“Well, like I said. I don’t know.”
Toby sighed, “You really should have thought about these kinds of things, Gramp. It’s not like I can just place my hand on this tree and it will open a door to a secret room or something.”
He placed his flipper on the tree trunk to make a point.
To his surprise, the moment he touched the trunk, his Mana was sucked by the tree. It wasn’t just pure Mana either; there was something specific about the Mana the tree was taking. Pure Mana was like a river that flowed without stopping, but this Mana had something in it that shifted and turned from one shape to another in a matter of milliseconds. It wasn’t a constant flow, but an ever-changing beast instead.
“Let GO of me, you fuck.” Toby yelled as he yanked his flipper away from the tree.
Once again, Toby was surprised as the tree shivered like it was delighted after eating something tasty. A gap big enough to fit three human adults walking side by side opened up on its trunk. It wasn’t a door nor a secret room, but a staircase leading down.
“I stand corrected. I can just place my hand on it and open a secret room.” Toby shook his numbed flipper.
“Shall we?” Grillion took the lead as he pulled out a torch and lit it up.
“Yeah, lead the way, Gramp.”
As the two went down the spiral staircase, all they saw was darkness. They didn’t know how far down they traveled, but it felt like they were at least five stories down before a smooth metallic door appeared in front of them.
Strangely enough, it was something Toby was familiar with.
“What the hell?” Toby exclaimed. “An elevator?”
“Welcome to Research Base Number Four. Please stand still for the identification process.” A voice devoid of life and emotion made itself known before sending a wave of Mana toward them.
When the Mana wave hit Toby, he felt the same sensation as when the tree sucked his Mana.
“Dark Element detected. New entry added. Welcome to Research Base Number Four, Dark Lord No.13.” The voice said as the elevator door opened on its own.
Turning toward Grillion, Toby saw how the goblin was just as, if not more, shaken than him.
“What kind of language was that? And what is this?”
“We should go in, Gramp,” Toby said as he floated into the elevator.
Seeing that Toby was already inside the elevator, Grillion followed inside.
Once the two of them were inside, the door closed, and then the elevator went down. There were four egg-shaped crystals on the ceiling of the elevator. They gave off light but flickered on and off constantly. One of them even broke completely and had no light.
Toby thought it was strange enough, but he got one-upped when sound came from a horn-like device at the top right of the elevator. He facepalmed when Christmas music, the jingle bell song, was played.
“This song is pretty good, isn't it little Toby? Better than many bards’ songs.” Grillion said as he lightly moved his head from side to side with the rhythm.
Oh god. There’s a victim even in another world now. Toby had a long face as he thought that.
Toby had to suffer a bit longer in this catchy torture before the door opened exactly when the song ended.
I’m going to kill the fucker who made that. If he was already dead, I’m going to resurrect him and kill him again.
Toby thought as he and Grillion came out of the elevator into a studio-apartment-like room.
The light also came from those egg-shaped crystals. But they were in better condition, as all twenty of the crystals were shining. They weren’t bright, some were also flickering, but it was better than nothing. Around the room, there were stainless steel tables and cabinets on each side of the room; each had stains and marks from different experiments. Some were bent, some were burned, some were frozen, some had perfectly round holes in them, and some had withered bonsai on them.
But all the tables and cabinets didn’t have anything on or in them. No tools, no documents, no research notes. Nothing.
The only thing left in this room that looked like someone went mad and destroyed it all was a single notebook that had a cover with the image of some baseball player on it. It was placed on the table in the middle of the room along with a stone ring. The entire room just reeked of the “this place is an important place that will drag you into a chain of events that will change your life and the course of history” smell.
Toby looked at the floating baseball notebook. And asked no one.
“AI, what is this room?”
“You can speak that strange language too, little Toby? And I thought you knowing Goblish was already strange.” Grillion exclaimed. “And who are you talking to?”
“This is Research Base Number Four, built by Dark Lord No.12, Jill López. This is the place Jill López used to research Mana and how it interacts with the Elements.” The same emotionless voice from the elevator answered.
“What?” Grillion looked around. “Where did that voice come from?”
“It’s fine, Gramp. It’s just a voice.” Toby dismissed it casually as he continued to ask the AI. “What happened here? Tell me everything, from the beginning.”
“Denied. Dark Lord No.13 does not have the authority to access the information database.”
“Ok. I guess that’s fair.” Toby nodded. “Then what can you tell me?”
“Dark Lord No.13 has the right to inherit Dark Lord No.12’s, Jill López’s, research notes and the right to access the last message Dark Lord No.12 left behind.”
“Show me the message.”
When Toby said that, a hologram appeared in front of them.
Grillion looked at the hologram and asked, “Did you do this little Toby?”
“Yes,” Toby nodded. “It’s a message from the one who created this place.” He answered before staring at the hologram made out of green lines.
The Dark Lord No.12 looked like a woman in her late 50s. She had some wrinkles on her slightly sagged cheek and big forehead, but not many. She wore an oversized lab coat that hid all the scars she must have had. But what drew Toby’s attention the most was the dark circles beneath her eyes. She looked like someone who worked two days straight without sleep to finish a project proposal just before the deadline.
“My successor, I got bad news.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “We are cursed.”
Her gaze moved around as if to take one last look at everything one last time before looking at the recorder again.
“To let you take my word seriously, I’ll tell you this. I’m the 12th generation Dark Lord, Jill López. I came from Earth, just like you.” She took a deep breath. “And because of the curse on all Dark Lords, I killed everyone in my family, my guild, my kingdom. I destroyed everyone and everything I ever cherished. Their mangled and bloodied bodies are still burning alongside my kingdom as we speak.”
A single tear fell from her eyes before she wiped it away.
“I don’t have much time left, so I’ll be brief.” She held up the notebook and the ring. “This is my notebook. It contains all of my research about Mana and Elements. And this is The Dark Lord’s Treasury, the inventory passed down from Dark Lord to Dark Lord.”
She put the items down. “I won’t sugarcoat it, the moment you accept these, you’ll have to continue our effort in removing the curse once and for all. We have already laid the foundation. All you have to do is grow strong enough to execute the plan.” Tears fell down her eyes uncontrollably.
“I could have ended it in my generation. But I was too weak, too attached to what I had to do what I must. I’m sorry. That I must pass this burden on to you. I’m truly sorry.” She reached out and turned off the recorder.
Toby gazed at the empty spot for a moment before turning around.
-----
Lily heard knocks on the door.
“I’ll get it. It must be big bro Toby and Grandpa Grill. They have been out for a long time already.” Lukas said as he dashed toward the door.
But when he was close, Lily felt malice directed at them from whoever was outside. She shouted, “LUKAS, GET AWAY.”
Lukas couldn’t react before the door was kicked open and slammed into his face, sending him tumbling back. Two men stood at the opened entrance, a sword user and a hammer user. The one who kicked the door was the hammer user.