Bro, I'm not an Undead!

…

No one expected the mundane hook that Aurolio threw to completely obliterate the head of the ugly blue creature that had been relieved from its frozen state. Not Ryte, not the five Mages, not Gillewart and certainly not Skullius.

While he hadn’t witnessed what the Null Badubs could do first hand, the verbal hype around them even from Arch-Mages had led him to believe that to kill one of these bastards, even Aurolio needed to exert some effort.

But no.

The pale man swung his arm and dark blood splattered on the floor of the dark cube.

“Impossible!” one of the Grandmaster Mages remarked while slack jawed.

The others held their tongues and continued observing, their shock hidden behind shaken faces.

Ryte narrowed his eyes, and glanced at Skullius.

The Hybrid Luman whom he had expected to have already been aware of the prowess of the pale fellow he came with, also showed surprise, which answered quite a bit of the questions he had.

One of the other Arch-Mages, an elderly woman with chocolate brown hair stepped forward. She reached near the corpse of the Null Badub and crouched down to dip her finger into the creature’s sprawled blood.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Aurolio warned, prompting the Arch-Mage to stop.

The elderly woman looked at Aurolio with a calm expression and said:

“Enlighten me.”

The pale man swiped away the blood on his hand and walked closer to the Arch-Mage.

“The blood is poisonous. You can take a sample if you like. You’re into that stuff, right? Also, as shady as it sounds, I advise that you stop your attempts at killing these beasts. In the event that you are successful, you may die.”

…!

Surprise coursed through the group.

Killing the Null Badubs was fatal in itself?

Skullius didn’t believe it. How would Aurolio even know something like that? Or was he perhaps hypothesising? Or bluffing?

The female Arch-Mage gave him a curious look.

“So you’re the one who killed one of them before?”

“Yes,” Aurolio replied while flashing her a smile. “And I just happen to be an expert.”

Everyone including Ryte and Skullius looked at Aurolio with suspicion.

The pale man decided to add more substantial fluff to clear their doubts and make his case.

“My name is Aurolio Velanqi, Head of the Velanqi Family. Some of you know me. My technique makes it so that I can never be defeated, even against powerful opponents. Also, contingencies that some unique beasts or men have… they are rendered powerless in the face of my technique, and if my overall strength is similar to that of the enemy, their durability barely matters when I go in for an attack.”

The elderly female Arch-Mage rose and narrowed her eyes.

“So you are the one? I’ve heard of you,” she said with a scoff. “Your reputation precedes you.”

“It does,” Aurolio said with a smile before turning to the other Mages who had doubts in their eyes but did not voice them. “Since you’re having difficulty killing these monsters, and some of you see no value in studying them to an… excessive degree, let me get them off your hands. I can kill them all just as easily as I killed this one… and the last.”

One of the other Arch-Mage looked at Aurolio and blinked a couple of times.

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“Precisely,” Aurolio said shamelessly.

Everyone was baffled.

Before anyone else had a chance to speak, Ryte intervened.

“Are you certain of what you’re saying?” the Arch-Mage asked the pale man. “What led you to the conclusion that these beasts have such a frightening trait?”

Aurolio took a shallow breath and crouched down over the corpse of the dead Null Badub. He then ran his finger over the creature’s skin.

“As you may have noticed, there is not a single trace of mana on this beast or within it. It is not made of from any energy any of you can recognise. Twice now, I’ve felt fragments of the essence that makes up these beasts beating against me when they die. If not for my technique, I’m convinced I would have died.”

Skullius frowned.

Really?

Was that really a thing?

If he thought back to the Null beasts he had summoned before…

The blue skinned winged creature he had called on back in the Fire Breeder Cluster which the Grand Flame Bringer had killed…

Nothing happened to the Cluster General afterwards.

The dozen legged beast he had summoned during his evaluation at the Guilds Association, which Alaris had killed…

Nothing had happened to the examination officer afterwards.

So, was Aurolio telling the truth?

If the expansion on this supposed technique of Aurolio’s was true, and that was a big IF, then it could make sense. The Null Badubs were brought here by the Null Devil King. Skullius had confirmed this after the bastard had said:

‘I’ll leave my unwanted followers, six Null Badubs for you to deal with. Surely YOU take care of that much.’

So perhaps they were different.

Heck, they were different!

No one but Aurolio had managed to kill them until now, and it made sense that he wouldn’t die from their post-death trait, if it was real. After all, the pale man had a natural counter in Voided Death Essence which he seemingly could manipulate infinitely better than Skullius could manipulate Null Life Essence.

“To be frank, maybe it’s just me. Maybe powerful benders of energies like yourselves could survive after FINALLY managing to kill one of these beasts through harsh effort…” Aurolio stressed, which bought him a few cross looks from the Mages, “… If that is the case, then great. But if you’re not as invulnerable as you think, what will you do if one of you drops dead?”

While most experts would have been made to at least feel the slightest hints of fear from Aurolio’s words, the Mages didn’t seem all that concerned with their lives. Most of them here had lived for a very long time, and weren’t adverse to the death in the natural sense. It was the purpose of the death that mattered to them, rather than the thought of dying.

Truly, if one of them died just for these blue bastards, then that would be… a waste.

“What do you think?” Arch-Mage Ryte turned to Skullius.

The Hybrid Luman was startled.

He thought Ryte was asking his peers, but no, the esteemed Energy Former was looking to him since he was the one who had come partnered with Aurolio.

Weirdly enough, Skullius felt like Ryte didn’t like Aurolio very much, given the several unpleasant glances he had shot at the pale man.

But that wasn’t important. If his say could bring about some measure of sway, then…

Skullius was silent for a few seconds as all eyes turned to him.

“<Ahem>. If I understand this correctly, all of you would like to do some extensive experimentation on these beasts, right? That’s reasonable, considering what they are capable of. However, you don’t need all four of them, considering the dangers they pose.”

Suddenly, one of the Arch-Mages shot Skullius a glare and boomed:

“Is that right? Don’t think we haven’t noticed! You get something out of this, don’t you? Why else would you be so hell bent on killing these beasts otherwise? Ooh, and don’t patronise me by claiming it’s for the good and safety of the city! Both your eyes speak nothing of blamelessly good nature.”

‘Of course not,’ Skullius thought.

And to think Aurolio thought these old fogeys would allow him to do as he pleased just because he had killed one of the Null Badubs?

Mages were too damn stubborn!

Clearing his throat, Skullius gave a reply.

“If it wasn’t obvious, sir Mage, we want to grow. Maybe for you, cumulative mana experience is easy to acquire, but for us, it’s not. I’m merely at the Advancement Stage as a Swordsman and Aurolio, while powerful, is still at the Master Stage with barely any opportunities to reach the Incandescent Stage because of his ridiculous technique.”

The honest truth was the Hybrid Luman’s reply. Well, some of it.

Aurolio was surprised that Skullius gave that away, but it seemed to be a rather convincing argument.

The Mages seemed to look at them in a different light.

It was true that for these powerful Mages, acquiring experience wasn’t that difficult and for the most part, they barely focused on their Stages and instead made it a point to increase their skill in magecraft.

For non-Mages, things were different. Any category of classes that wasn’t Energy Forming – Arma using and Form Using – did not have quite as robust potential for growth after all, and most with these classes were left depending on Stages when things were rough.

The amount of experience these beasts gave must have been attractive for these two hunt them down.

The female Arch-Mage narrowed her eyes. As she looked at Aurolio now, she seemed convinced with this reason than the former.

While it seemed contradictory for Aurolio to be having trouble getting experience with his technique, given his current circumstances as a participant in the Premium Age Royale, it actually made sense.

Long journeys to find sufficiently powerful Cluster beasts and all would be close to impossible. So, the pale man finding a close source of cumulative mana experience and doing his best to attain it wasn’t impossible.

Ryte nodded to Skullius, and then turned to Aurolio.

“You said there are no traces of mana within these beasts. And it’s true, we noticed the same. So how exactly are you acquiring this mana experience, which is what you so dearly desire?” he asked.

The other Mages had noted this detail, but had thought there was something they were missing.

Now that Ryte had mentioned it…

“My technique-”

“Of course it is!” Ryte interrupted Aurolio with an exasperated cry and the wave of his hand.

The other Mages seemed to be fed up with this as well.

What kind of technique was this?!

Maybe they should study Aurolio instead of the Null beasts? How about that?!

Some of the Mages knew of Aurolio, and his title as the strongest among the Families, including some of the Incandescent Stage Family Heads out there, so him claiming to have a technique that closed the gap between him and monstrous foes wasn’t a reach.

It was just annoying to hear him blurt out about it over and over again.

Also, since they couldn’t confirm for sure if his technique also somehow counted a beast without traces of mana to his growth, they gave up trying to argue.

If the older Arch-Mages advocating for these beasts to be killed off heard of what Aurolio had said, the matter would have been done anyway.

Skullius then chipped in.

“As I was saying. You don’t need all four remaining beasts. You could allow us to handle three and leave you the one to do whatever you want with it. Even the burden then would be a bit manageable for you, right, Arch-Mage Ryte?”

The esteemed Energy Former looked to Skullius and chuckled.

He faced his peers.

“I’ve been against keeping these beasts here since we discovered how powerful they are. You know this. I for one am willing to concede, unlike the others. This compromise is a better fit, if you are unwilling to let them go entirely. Don’t you think?” he said.

The Mages looked at each other, reluctance glowing in their sights.

The female Arch-Mage sighed.

“I have no qualms with it. I was already done anyway,” she said while wiggling a vial full of the dark blood from the dead Null Badub which Aurolio had said was poisonous.

The others didn’t seem opposed to it either, mainly because Ryte was supporting this decision, and it wouldn’t be too bad.

“Good then,” Arch-Mage Ryte said before turning to Skullius, and telling him he and Aurolio had their answer.

The Hybrid Luman sighed.

It seemed that it wasn’t logic that won the war in the end.

Even claiming that murder was fatal wasn’t enough to dissuade the Mages!

It took support from someone whom they respected, honesty and an appeal for compromise!

What a hefty price to pay!

And it was both more and less than what Skullius had expected to fork out for the Tie of Exchange between him and Aurolio.

Worse yet, he wasn’t done working his ass off!

Now came the time for him to know why exactly Aurolio wanted him here.