To read up to 15 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW
-------------
For a moment, as Eden fell, all feelings left his body, and he thought he was dying.
But then, his back slammed into the ground, and the pain returned with a vengeance. He ignored it and looked up at the figure in front of him, shadowed by the thick necrotic energy.
The Guardian was still standing, but its entire head was covered in flames. It stood still for a moment, a moment that seemed to stretch for eternity.
But then, Eden's worst fear came to pass. The Guardian… moved. It started to fall, only to catch itself with a hard step, planting its foot into the ground and causing cracks to appear in the grey stone.
The front part of its helm had been melted by the flames, giving it a demonic edge, and the face underneath had become unrecognizable due to the burns.
Still, in that ravaged mess, two red lights locked onto Eden, their intent unchanged. The Guardian had a mission.
It took another step, and it stumbled, but Eden understood that it would not fall, not before him.
The Guardian had a mission, and it would not fall. It would not fail.
Eden's left hand was missing, along with a part of his forearm. They had been burnt off. The rest of his arm was also burned black. If he had not conjured the fireball inside the Guardian's helm, the flames would have spread to the rest of his body as well.
But now, Eden was left with only one arm, his HP had taken a considerable dip, both because of the burns and the mana potion, and he had no MP left. Jason's Machete was behind the knight, not that it would have done him much good.
The Guardian did not bother to pick up its sword, going for the faster and more efficient way, which was to stomp Eden's head.
The armoured knight stopped next to Eden, its blazing red orbits staring down at Eden as it raised its foot for the final blow.
BANG!
The Guardian, who had been about to finish him off, froze, the upper half of his head exploding.
The great knight, the Guardian of the Underworld, who had seemed invincible a moment before, was finally felled. His body fell with a loud metallic clang.
Eden had taken out his last weapon, his weakest Glock 19, and fired a shot into the Guardian's unprotected face.
Eden was still on the ground, but he had taken out his last, weakest weapon: his Glock 19. And he had fired a shot into the Guardian's unprotected face.
Even after the Guardian fell, Eden did not move; his gaze was fixed on him. Just in case he rose again to finish his mission.
But he did not.
Upon coming to this realization, Eden spat out a mouthful of blood and let out a weak chuckle, before dropping his gun and taking out a first Minor Health Potion.
It was hard to uncork with a single hand, so he used his teeth before drinking the potion. Without the vial, this time.
It tasted bitter, but he swirled it in his mouth all the same, his injuries starting to heal as he finally swallowed it, recovering a part of his HP.
Although this did not put him back on his feet, he was no longer in a critical condition, so Eden started picking the pieces of glass still embedded deep into his mouth.
It was unbelievably painful, but compared to the thrill of brushing paths with death and coming out on top, it was nothing.
After losing some more HP from all the bleeding, Eden managed to get all the glass shards out before downing two more health potions, recovering 50 HP.
He first intended to stop there and keep his last three health potions, but even at half HP, he did not feel much better, so he drank two more of them, raising his HP back to its maximum.
Unfortunately, while the wounds in his mouth did heal, he did not regrow a hand. The pain from his left arm, while having lessened, had not disappeared either.
The prospect of having lost a hand did not make Eden despair, though. It annoyed him, for sure, since it would handicap him for the rest of his mission. However, whenever one returned from a mission, they would receive the opportunity to be healed. Operator 666 had called it rejuvenation.
Eden was pretty sure it could regrow a hand. He knew for a fact that many kinds of magics in the different fantasy worlds were capable of such feats, especially the stronger ones, so it would make sense for the system capable of sending players to these worlds to be able to do the same.
Besides, it was either losing a hand or dying.
In any case, since he was on the ground, Eden decided to recover his MP first. The necrotic mana in the room was so strong that he recovered about one MP per second, so he did not even bother using his Talent.
Instead, he propped himself up against a wall and rested for the few minutes it took him to recover all of his MP. He grabbed the Necronomicon as well, so that next time he took it out, the additional MP would come along.
With the Necronomicon equipped, Eden had 210 max MP, meaning it only took three and a half to recover completely. It was not very long, but enough for Eden to take a breather.
Getting up, Eden looked down at the fallen figure of the knight and cautiously approached.
The Guardian's face had already been made unrecognizable from the burns, so the gunshot had only made matters worse.
Still, the Guardian's two eyes were opened and intact, now staring into the void, empty of any light.
Then, Eden used Analysis on his equipment and understood why he had been so strong. His whole set of armour was Uncommon Rank, and his greatsword had been even greater.
[Hellsteel Greatsword]
[Rank: Rare]
[Attack: +90]
[Strength: +3]
[Physique: +1]
[Forged in Hellfire: This blade remains razor sharp without the need for maintenance. Automatically recovers its durability over time.]
[Hell's Wrath: Cover the length of the blade in flames for one minute, dealing 20 additional fire damage. Cost: 80 MP.]
The weapon was powerful, that was for sure. Unfortunately, even with two hands, Eden doubted he would be able to wield it with his current Strength. So with a single hand, even lifting it from the ground would be a tantamount task.
Before worrying about this, though, Eden turned his attention to the other object in the room, the one that had been the cause of all this mess. It was a skull, though it was entirely black.
Eden used his Analysis on it.
[Skull of Mictlantecuhtli]
[Rank: Epic]
[Curse of Darkness: Corrodes anything in its proximity with necrotic mana. Using the skull will result in the user becoming cursed by the spirit of Mictlantecuhtli unless the proper preparations are made.]
Reading the attributes of the Skull, Eden could not help but frown. Its rank was the highest Eden had ever seen; he did not even know how many ranks higher than Rare it was.
Yet, its status was disappointing. Eden knew he was not seeing everything, as Morgan had qualified the item to be a key. To what exactly, Eden did not know, but it had to be something important.
But even then, this item was not a piece of equipment meant to be used in battle. Maybe its corruption could be used, but Eden doubted it would make any difference between allies and enemies.
Besides, its effects were so potent in the cave because it was a closed space and had been there for a long time, leaving time for the necrotic energy it emitted to accumulate. When taken out outside, while still dangerous, its lethality would no doubt be lowered.
Maybe the skull had powerful hidden effects, but there was nothing Eden could see.
So from the looks of it, it was not worth Eden risking his life to break the contract over. He would very much rather get the System's reward for completing the task.
And who knows, Morgan might even throw in a little extra. But whether it would come from Morgan or the System, there had to be something more.
As good as the notebook was, it was not worth the trouble Eden went through. He had managed to prevail in the end thanks to his unique Talent, but he did not believe that anyone of his level could clear it without some unique preparations.
Since danger and opportunities were supposed to come together, there had to be an additional reward.
Deciding not to touch the skull for now, Eden picked up Jason's Machete. Although it had held up admirably and not been broken by that blow from the Hellsteel Greatsword, there was still a noticeable chip on the blade.
It was not far from breaking down.
Sheathing it with a sigh, Eden then proceeded to put all of the Guardian's equipment into his inventory.
As it turned out, the man under the armor… was just a man. Probably enhanced by some mystical means, but a man nonetheless. Nothing abnormal stood about him.
His loot secured, Eden turned to the mystical symbols placed on the walls. He had no pens, but just leaving them there without recording them would be a shame.
Eden knew the Necronomicon was filled to the brim with writings, but he had not opened the notebook on alchemy Morgan had given him. He was glad to see that there were some blank pages left.
So, using his blood as ink, Eden wrote down the symbols on the walls into the notebook. It was a bit messy because Eden was tracing them with his finger, but he eventually managed to write down everything. He would remember to bring a pen next time.
Finally, Eden turned to the Skull, and with a fair share of excitement, he grabbed it off its pedestal.
The moment he did, the symbols on the walls glowed even brighter than before as a veritable tide of necrotic mana was shot out of the skull. It still failed to do anything to Eden, though, as it was not a proper attack.
Eden watched the walls carefully, fearing they would be a final countermeasure against anyone eyeing the skull, but they did not attack. Instead, Eden suddenly felt like the air itself turned heavy. It felt almost like when that priest from the Holy Order had tried to pressure him, except that instead of a holy aura, it was an aura of death that was pressing down on him.
[Intelligence
check…]
[Intelligence check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
[Wisdom check…]
[Wisdom check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
Eden felt movement behind him, and to his shock, he saw the Guardian stirring. His eyes widening, he leapt at the Guardian, shouting, "No you're not!"
Since he only had the skull in his hand, he smashed it into the Guardian's face. He figured it would hold firm, considering its rank.
Eden repeatedly smashed the Epic Rank Skull into the Guardian's face, yet instead of doing damage, the Guardian's face only seemed to be getting reconstructed by his blows.
Snarling at the useless thing, Eden placed his left stump into the jaw to set it in place and grabbed the Necronomicon with his right hand, ready to kill it again, no matter if he had to lose another limb.
The Guardian rose from the ground, his muscled body standing taunt, his red eyes set on Eden. His face, now reconstructed and unprotected, showed itself to be just a normal face. He looked a little heroic, maybe, but the complete lack of facial expression made it hard to give it any quality.
Eden was already prepared to use another Strengthened Fireball, believing that without his armor, the Guardian would not be able to resist it even if it was not summoned right in his face.
However, Eden suddenly felt the Necronomicon tremble, and a connection was established between himself and the Guardian in front of him.
This time, Eden could feel it clearly as it was his very soul that was brought out. His soul was connected to the Guardian's through the Necronomicon, and although Eden was not sure what it was trying to do, he could feel the Guardian's soul struggle vehemently.
But the Guardian might have a will of steel; it was as fragile as a wet piece of paper before Eden, as he only needed a thought to crush it.
[You have enslaved the soul of 'Guardian of the Underworld'.]