Chapter 216: Meeting Raiju

Moon came closer to the remnants of Lyncarter. "You are not a sinner. These bastards, all of them, don’t deserve those words."

Crash~

He threw the black orb in his hand. "All of these bastards were necromancers!"

While Moon was inspecting the orb, he did as he always did with any item that ran or could run on Echo. He sent a small amount of Echo to inspect and check it.

He couldn’t hold his curiosity; why did all of them have this black orb? He didn’t feel anything from it either.

He tried to check it with his status window, but the system didn’t recognize it as an item, so he sent his Echo in last.

And when he did, it linked to a space inside the orb, allowing the user to see what was actually inside.

Death Echo and undead.

These orbs were the storage items Ed had mentioned to Moon before the rift swallowed him.

"Bro, you built a trap to hunt necromancers; the administrator of the second floor sure played this right." Moon shook his head. Building a trap that would kill anyone who had a trace of Death Echo on themselves or their belongings must have been the work of the administrator, or so Moon believed.

It wasn’t the work of someone who would sacrifice themselves willingly.

But the quest didn’t give Moon more time to think about this.

[Congratulations]

[You have completed a multi-millennia-old quest]

[You have inherited Lyncarter’s Inventory]

"Inventory?" Moon asked, skeptical. "Don’t the items there go to the Tower Reward system once someone dies? I don’t even have an inventory. What’s going on?"

[ERROR!]

Moon chuckled. "Figures..."

[The Second-Floor Administrator is intervening.]

[The Second-Floor Administrator is inspecting Ascender Moon]

"Ah, not again," Moon lamented. "Fucked, so fucked." He felt like a rat getting caught in a butcher’s kitchen.

His experience with administrators was anything but pleasant, and now, he was expecting the worst. Yet, against all odds...

[The Second-Floor Administrator is showing interest]

[The Second-Floor Administrator is actively placing Lyncarter’s Inventory inside the corrupted space]

A few items fell to the ground, but Moon didn’t know what they were. They didn’t look like weapons.

He turned his gaze, glued to the system messages again.

[The Second-Floor Administrator is registering Lyncarter’s Combat Art {Static Art} to your system window]

[Congratulations]

[You have gained {Static Art} of the three Foundational Arts]

[The Second-Floor Administrator is registering Lyncarter’s Combat Art {Walker’s Stride} to your system window]

[Congratulations]

[You have gained {Walker’s Stride}]

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH," Moon screamed; he fell to his knees and punched the ground. "WHY, DAMMIT, WHY? I CAN’T USE COMBAT ARTS!"

Moon screamed to himself, lamenting.

He took a few breaths, trying to calm himself down. It couldn’t be the end of the rewards, or so he thought.

Thus, he once again waited for rewards.

[Quest Complete]

[Transporting Ascender Moon]

"Wait, I didn’t get any rewards!" Moon cried, but he was instead rewarded with the sensation of being kicked.

Falling horizontally, Moon watched as the space where he stood grew smaller and further away. It closed in on itself and began to transform.

Rapidly, scenes ran before his eyes, until in one moment, he was standing with the space that had compressed into a ring, falling right into his hand.

Moon blinked. "The hell just happened?" he exclaimed.

He looked at the ring, which was white with a pattern of coiling colourless strands engraved on its body. It seemed to be Lyncarter’s proof of authority.

Moon sent his Spark Echo to inspect it; he wasn’t sure what was actually happening.

"HOLY!" Moon startled; the ring almost fell from his hands.

The ring held all the skeletons, now standing on their own feet. It was full of Death Echo, and it also held the black orbs containing the undead.

There was also the frightening skeleton, the remnant of Lyncarter himself.

Moon suddenly felt frightened. "What am I gonna do now?" he asked. "If anyone finds out about this, no matter how many times I swear ’I’m not a necromancer’, no one would believe me."

Moon shook his head. Still, he put the ring on the middle finger of his right hand, next to the ring that once belonged to Dara.

"Lyncarter, I seriously want to throw this ring away and run for it," he lamented before looking around.

"Where the hell am I anyway?" he asked.

Looking around, it was a dark place, but Moon could see to a certain extent. He walked around and soon found a ray of golden light from the second floor.

Moon came closer. "I have to dig too?" He shook his head.

"Is there anyone inside?" A voice came from outside all of a sudden. It was a voice closer to a growl than a normal human voice.

"HEY, DO YOU HAVE DIGGING TOOLS?" Moon shouted to make sure he was heard.

"Tools? Haha, there’s no need for that," the one outside spoke in the same voice that sounded like a beast ripping prey.

Moon frowned, not sure what the guy outside meant. Still, he didn’t seem to harbour any ill intent.

Moon waited quietly for a moment, listening to the sounds of rapid digging. The spot where the ray of golden light shone through began to widen slowly.

Gradually, Moon could see the cave brightening around him.

"Step back if you’re near the opening," the outside helper advised.

"AIGHT!" Moon shouted before moving deep inside the cave. He wasn’t sure what the helper would do until...

WHOOOOOOOOOSH~

A strong gust of wind came, clearing the rubble and dust away from the entrance, finally giving Moon his freedom.

Moon took a few steps back away from the dust cloud.

Moments later, it began to clear... He squinted at the bright light, slowly walking out now that the wind was gone and the entrance was open.

"Thanks for you..." Moon unsheathed Liquid Mountain. "What are you?"

Now he could finally see the helper’s features. Thick blue fur covered its back, white bright fur on the underside. Two long horns rose from its skull, pointing one-fourth forward and sharply aiming outward three-fourths.

It stood on four long paws, and its maw was full of teeth so familiar to Moon.

"Is that how you repay your helper, you ingrate human?" the helper asked.

"Helper my ass, you’re a greater swamp wolf! How do you speak?" Moon asked.

"Swamp wolf? You useless thing, don’t compare me to those bastards!" The helper cursed in Moon’s face. "Don’t lump us with those bastards!"

"All wolves are monsters!" Moon refused to let it go; he didn’t trust it. His trauma from wolves was too much to be ignored.

"Are you a necromancer then?" the blue wolf asked.

Moon’s eyes widened; his gaze darted around, then to his ring.

"Necromancers are trash, and they’re humans. You must be one of them, right, human?" The wolf slowly growled.

’An analogy?’ Moon’s face fell, but he was pleasantly surprised.

He ended up nodding. "I get your point," he said, lowering Liquid Mountain.

"What are you then?" he asked, finally ready to listen.

He had once been assaulted by Rowa for being suspected of being undead; she too was blinded by hatred for the undead.

Moon was at risk of being killed at any moment due to the fact that all those who possessed death energy were deemed undead.

Even if he was the sole living person with it, he was still an exception.

So he decided to calm down for now. He hated wolves and goblins more than anything except for floating eyeballs.

"I’m Raiju, the leader of Wind and Lightning," the blue wolf introduced himself.

"What are you doing here, though?" Moon asked.

"About that, I’m here for the trial but can’t find my way to the Defence Faction."