Chapter 78: Followed back

Karl remained silent as everyone’s gaze settled on him.

Fuck.

The System had just consumed the exact thing they needed to complete the dungeon.

Before Karl could even begin thinking about how he was supposed to explain that, the System’s voice sounded in his mind again.

[I understand host that you have been unfilial but did you really think this System would leave you trapped here?]

Karl paused and then a faint black light appeared above his palm and moments later a familiar token dropped into his hand.

The Reaper’s Order, it looked exactly the same as before, except the feeling coming from it was completely different.

The strange power and Death Energy it once carried had disappeared, leaving behind something that felt almost hollow.

What the hell did you do? How did you preserve it? And will this thing even work anymore?

[Stop bombarding this System with questions.]

Karl’s eyebrow twitched.

[During Host’s First Transition, the abilities and essence contained within the Reaper’s Order were absorbed while this System preserved the remaining token.]

[The Reaper’s Order was an extremely high-grade auxiliary artifact. The soldiers, mages and other golems throughout Reaper’s Sanctuary were controlled through it and were also a consequence of its abilities.]

Karl looked at the token again.

[However, directly possessing an ability is naturally superior to relying upon an external artifact.]

[The essence absorbed from the Reaper’s Order contributed to the formation of Undead Transmutation.]

Karl raised an eyebrow before slowly nodding.

Well, well it aeems you’re not completely trash after all.

[...]

Before the System could respond, Leon walked over and waved a hand in front of Karl’s face.

"Oi, are you lost in another trance now, bastard?"

Karl returned his attention outside and looked at him.

"Oh? Nothing, just nothing."

He then held up the token.

"Anyway, here’s the Order."

Leon looked at it strangely before taking a closer look.

"Huh? Didn’t you cut this thing in two?"

Karl glanced at the restored token.

"Seems the dungeon wanted the Order whole, so it returned it like this."

Leon accepted that easily enough and looked around the ruined plaza.

"Then why is nothing happening?"

Almost the moment the words left his mouth, the ground beneath them started trembling.

The shaking quickly spread throughout the Sanctuary as cracks of light appeared high above the city, everyone looked upward.

Then—

CRACK!

The entire dungeon sky shattered and the darkness covering the Sanctuary broke apart piece by piece and an enormous sun appeared overhead for the first time in who knew how many centuries.

At the same time, the incredibly dense Death Energy and Mana throughout the region slowly began thinning and settling.

Mira watched the changing sky for a moment before something clicked.

"Oh, I see."

Karl and Leon looked toward her.

"Remember the diary? That man wrote that the dungeon had already broken into the wilderness, but for some reason the World Will was still containing the entire region like an open dungeon."

Karl immediately understood.

"So now that the dungeon has been cleared...it’s finally being assimilated into the outside world."

Leon clicked his tongue as he looked across the city.

"kek it seems this isn’t the first dungeon we’ve cleared without leaving a copy behind."

Karl nodded.

"Yeah."

But internally, his thoughts were somewhere completely different.

Damn it, where’s my rating?

My rating, damn it!

Almost immediately afterward, the Reaper’s Order in his hand began cracking.

Karl looked down as black fractures spread across the token before the entire thing broke apart into particles and disappeared.

Then the notifications finally arrived.

[Reaper’s Sanctuary successfully cleared.]

[Dungeon Objective completed.]

A huge amount of EXP was immediately distributed among everyone who had participated in clearing the dungeon.

Karl’s stored level had already jumped considerably after his Transition, but another large amount of EXP still entered him.

Then a surprised voice came from nearby, galzan was looking at a panel in front of himself with widened eyes.

His expression slowly changed before a huge smile appeared on his face.

"I got experience."

After remaining stuck at Level 130 for nearly seven hundred years, simply seeing his EXP increase again seemed enough to leave him happier than anything else that had happened since they met.

Then the final dungeon evaluation appeared.

[Dungeon Clear Evaluation: SSS Rank.]

Karl smiled, there it is and almost immediately afterward, the System followed.

[Mission completed.]

[Reaper’s Sanctuary is cleared.]

[Host learned the past of the Sanctuary.]

[Host received the highest evaluation.]

[Rewards stored.]

Another notification appeared soon after.

[Would you like your achievement to be announced globally?]

Karl answered almost immediately.

"No."

Leon looked at him and nodded.

"Yeah, not the best idea when we’re already on a massive hit list."

Karl had the same thought, they had nothing to gain from announcing it afterall.

The dungeon rewards appeared next.

[Reaper’s Eye]

[An ocular relic of the Reaper race. Allows the user to perceive Death Energy, life force, soul traces, hidden spiritual phenomena and certain concealed existences.]

Karl’s interest was immediately caught and then another reward appeared.

[Reaper’s Coffin]

[A high-grade undead cultivation and restoration artifact. An undead placed inside can recover, stabilize damaged existence imprints and gradually refine itself using supplied Death Energy.]

Karl looked at that one with a strange expression.

For a normal Necromancer, something like this would probably be a divine artifact.

For him...

Then came the final reward.

[Book of the Reaper]

[Contains accumulated knowledge of the Reaper race regarding Death Energy, Grims, souls, death-related abilities, Domains and their methods of manipulating death.]

Karl’s eyes stayed on that description for slightly longer.

The Reaper’s Eye was useful, but the book was probably what interested him most.

There was far too much about Death Energy, Grims and even his own Domain that he still didn’t properly understand.

Leon looked through the rewards and sighed heavily.

"Yeah, of course everything’s suited to you."

He placed a hand over his chest dramatically.

"The rich keep becoming richer whilst the heavens ignore the plight of the poor."

Karl ignored him and soon after, space near the plaza began distorting and a large portal slowly opened.

Karl looked toward Galzan.

"Well, I guess you’re free to go now hope you enjoy your days."

Galzan looked at him for a moment before nodding.

"Thank you and I sincerely hope we never, ever meet again."

Karl chuckled.

"Likewise."

He stepped into the portal while Leon and Mira followed directly behind him.

The world flashed and amoment later, Karl opened his eyes and found himself standing in the Reed family garden again.

Before he could even look around properly, a scream tore through his ears.

"What the fuck!?"

Karl, Leon and Mira immediately turned around.

Galzan stood several metres behind them with a completely bewildered expression.

He looked around at the unfamiliar garden before staring at Karl.

"Why the fuck was I pulled behind you?"

"And where the hell am I?"