Chapter 243: Encountering a Failure Again
The black-robed man turned around completely.
Messy hair covered most of his face. His eye sockets were deeply sunken, his skin was almost sickly pale, and the black robe covering his body was stained with long-dried blood and dirt. If not for those eyes that remained disturbingly bright, he would have looked no different from the Failures who had spent years wandering the fringe regions of the First Layer.
Failures... Players who had been trapped on the First Layer for years, unable to complete their advancement trials, forced to watch batch after batch of newcomers surpass them.
And the man standing before him was clearly one of them.
"Zich Grave." The man grinned. "The champion of this year’s Chosen Tournament."
His gaze quickly moved past Zich and landed on Tiamant, the greed in his eyes completely undisguised.
"I was wondering why that old thing on the verge of disappearing suddenly forced all three Beast Altars to awaken. So the real prize wasn’t the Myriad Beast Soul Spring. It was you."
Zich said nothing. The man did not seem to care and simply laughed to himself.
"Marcus Reed. Remember that name." The grin on his face widened. "After all, once I leave the First Layer, that name won’t be associated with the word ’Failure’ for much longer."
Marcus had already been stuck on the First Layer for several years.
His level continued to rise, and his class continued to grow stronger, yet the advancement mission leading to the Second Layer remained like an insurmountable wall before him.
Other Failures began robbing newcomers, plundering the resources of lower-level Players, and some even completely abandoned any hope of advancing.
Marcus did not. His class, Soul Plunderer, could strengthen him by devouring and refining souls.
So he began searching for another path.
Several months ago, he discovered an extremely small spatial fracture at the edge of Myriad Beast Mountain. Using the Soul Plunderer’s ability to conceal his soul aura, he passed through the fracture and entered the Myriad Beast Burial Ground.
The Ancient Beast Soul refused to acknowledge him.
The three Beast Altars refused to awaken for him.
So he used another method.
Soul Control Nails.
"It took me five years to get this far."
Marcus raised his right hand, and the black chains surrounding them simultaneously rose.
"And you only needed a few months. Pretty unfair, don’t you think?"
Zich replied indifferently, "What does that have to do with me?"
The smile on Marcus’s face froze for an instant.
Zich had already raised his eyes.
"How long you’ve been trapped here. Whether you can enter the Second Layer. None of it has anything to do with me."
Marcus remained silent for two seconds before suddenly laughing even more crazily.
"Good. Then I’ll make this simple."
He raised his hand and pointed at Tiamant.
"Leave that dragon behind. You can take your Trial Marks, your championship fame, and that pitiful pride of yours and leave."
Zich’s answer consisted of a single word.
"No."
Boom!
The black chains suddenly shot forward.
Tiamant raised its head.
"ROAR!"
The instant the deep dragon roar spread outward, the foremost chains began trembling violently before exploding one after another.
Farther away, the Beast Souls being forcibly dragged by the black nails all stopped simultaneously.
Even though their soul cores remained restrained by the Soul Control Nails, their heads still instinctively lowered little by little toward Tiamant.
Marcus’s pupils contracted.
"A Level 1 soul can actually make Beast Souls that were once above Level 30 lower their heads?"
His shock lasted only for a moment.
In the next second, the greed in his eyes completely transformed into fanaticism.
"Good! The more extraordinary you are, the more valuable your soul will be!"
Marcus abruptly clenched his five fingers.
Puchi!
Countless black nails simultaneously drove deeper.
The Beast Souls that had lowered their heads immediately released miserable roars. Under the forceful control of the nails, they raised their heads once more and charged toward Zich.
Tiamant could suppress them through its bloodline.
But it could not directly remove the control already embedded within their soul cores.
Zich did not choose to confront them head-on.
"Slimy."
"Bo!"
A mass of liquid filled with life energy immediately shot from Slimy’s mouth and landed on Iron, the Blood Leech, and Zich.
[Vital Surge.]
The injuries left behind by the Third Trial quickly began to stabilize. Although they could not immediately recover to their peak condition, at the very least, their wounds were no longer worsening.
At that moment, the Ancient Beast Soul’s voice sounded again in Zich’s head.
"There are seven primary Soul Control Nails around the Myriad Beast Soul Spring. As long as they remain, he can continue controlling these remnant souls."
Zich’s gaze swept across the charging Beast Souls.
These Beast Souls were themselves part of the Burial Ground, and the quest rewards were explicitly tied to the number he managed to save, so he couldn’t get rid of them.
"Tiamant, suppress them."
The dragon’s pressure spread outward once again.
The movements of the dozens of Beast Souls at the front visibly slowed.
Meanwhile, the Skeleton beside Zich seized the opportunity to charge toward the side.
In the next instant, Zich’s gaze locked onto an enormous tiger soul with a pair of broken skeletal wings.
[Wingbone Tiger Remnant Soul]
[Level Before Death: 28]
Embedded inside its skull was a pitch-black nail.
Buzz!
[Spirit Exchange!]
Zich and the Skeleton instantly exchanged positions.
The Wingbone Tiger had barely turned around when Tiamant’s dragon pressure caused it to hesitate for an instant.
Simultaneously, pale soul flames ignited in Zich’s palm.
He did not attack the tiger soul. Instead, his five fingers pressed directly against the black nail.
Boom!
[Spirit Flame!]
Crack!
The black nail shattered instantly.
[Black Soul Control Nail destroyed.]
[Remaining: 6/7.]
The Wingbone Tiger’s body suddenly stiffened.
In the next second, the madness in its eyes completely disappeared.
ROAR!
The enormous remnant soul turned around. Instead of attacking Zich, it charged directly toward Marcus.
"Useless."
Marcus’s expression darkened as he casually waved his hand.
Boom!
Black soul energy tore the Wingbone Tiger apart.
But this time, the relaxed expression on his face had completely disappeared.
"Spirit Exchange..."
"Looks like the champion’s rewards weren’t all useless after all."
As he spoke, he suddenly raised his other hand.
The enormous soul orb that had been floating above his palm began to crack.
Crack. Crack, crack, crack—
Six thick arms were the first to emerge from the shattered soul orb.
Immediately afterward, an enormous ape covered in broken bone armor slowly stepped out, its body so massive that it nearly reached the dark ceiling above the Burial Ground.
Marcus looked at it, and a smile returned to his face.
"I spent five years preparing to leave the First Layer. Do you really think I’d let some sixteen-year-old newcomer steal this opportunity from me?"
Black soul energy surged wildly through the Soul Control Nails embedded in the ground and poured into the giant ape’s body.
The Six-Armed Burial Ape slowly turned its head and looked toward Tiamant.