Serum: C180 (Patreon)

The Sky King hovered a distance away from a city.

It was a major branch city. And branch cities in the Otherworld were quite literal in their meaning.

A massive tree stood at the center of this city, boasting a gargantuan height of nearly 6 miles. However, this tree was merely an offshoot of the World Tree, though it happened to be one of the more important ones.

Surrounding the tree for miles was a metropolis with a population of about 3 million elves. And to the west of this city, there was a massive pit mining operation to pull out a dense Aeralite deposit. It was a city that flourished around this mine and became a small economic center that contained various industries such as crafting, enchanting, mineral processing, and more.

Pandora observed the city from the command center, her face placid.

Her eyes flickered back and forth between the mountain and the tree in the distance. Her mind posed hundreds of questions, answers, hypotheticals and possibilities in the span of just a few minutes.

She sat there in silence, nobody daring to disturb her.

When she pondered over what to do, there was very little logic involved, yet she seemed to be in tune with calculative forces beyond even her own comprehension.

There was very little rhyme or reason behind all of her thousands of thoughts. She couldn't even keep track of it all. It was like her brain was a mess of images, sounds, and dreams that never seemed to guide her down any particular path of decision making.

But she let it all flow as it wanted, like her mind wasn’t her own. And at some point, one of her thoughts became constant.

And then, those thousands of thoughts locked in around that singular constant, falling into place while outlining everything she needed and wanted to do.

Before long, she had made her decision as if the answer was brought to her by the divine.

“Dock us on the opposite end of that mine. Keep us out of sight. We will be here for the next month.”

“Understood.”

The Captain followed her orders stiffly, taking the Sky King around the open pit mine and placing it somewhere inconspicuous.

Once they were docked, everyone in the command center went silent and turned toward Pandora.

She sat there for another minute in silence before speaking.

“Captain.”

“Awaiting orders.”

“Prepare to infiltrate the city. We have two targets. The first is the mining operation. At some point, we will need to get in there, so open the channels for me. I don’t need information, just a way in.”

“Understood.”

“The second target is their water reservoir. Find its location and give me an in depth report on all facilities they use for irrigation, sewage, filtration, and transportation. Nothing happens until both of these orders are carried out, so get it done.”

“Orders received.”

With that, the Captain walked out with several others. Pandora remained there, a small smile blooming on her face as she continued to scheme.

Then, she turned on her heel and headed to her own little workshop.

It was a secluded room not far from Exos’ workshop. It wasn’t even as big, but it was completely filled.

There were several tables around the room, all of them covered in books, vials, glass bottles, and odd magic devices. The liquids going through all of these items radiated assortments of colors, some of them giving off smoke and bubbling within their containers.

She walked up to one of her tables that carried an assembly line of beakers. Inside of the bottle at the end was a black tar-like liquid.

Then, she took out a small vial from within her personal pocket ring.

Inside of that vial was a shimmering green liquid. At first glance it both looked and felt like some sort of vitality potion that would rejuvenate and nourish the body.

But the reality was far different.

Upon opening the vial, she poured just a drop into the beaker before her, mixing the liquid with the black tar.

And the two mixed, bubbling until the black color evaporated.

The process took a few minutes, and when it was finished, the only thing left was a crystal clear liquid that looked even clearer than water.

She lifted it and brought it over to Exos’ workshop.

There, Exos was working on yet another project. But he stood when he saw Pandora.

“Good afterno-”

“I need one of your animals.”

She spoke while walking to a cage in the workshop.

Inside of it was a robust reptilian. It had been pacified, so it didn’t make noise as she approached.

She opened the cage, walking over to a bowl inside of it that contained water.

And she poured a mere drop of the clear liquid in. It mixed seamlessly with the water. There was nothing different about it, even its aura.

Then, she shut the cage and walked away.

“Let me know when something happens.”

She left the workshop with those words, leaving Exos confused.

He looked over, seeing the reptile drink the water out of curiosity, but even after 10 minutes, nothing happened.

So he let it be, going back to his own work.

……

…

“Where is Eight?!”

A bellowing voice echoed through the courtyard, causing all its inhabitants to wince.

None of the enslaved humans or vampires spoke a word, because they truly didn’t know where Eight had gone.

Except for one person, Gianna. She frowned as the guards all yelled and threatened them, remembering what she had been told only several minutes earlier.

Suddenly, one of those guards walked over and dragged a man out, throwing him to the floor and pushing a spear up to his throat.

“Where is he?! Tell me, or I’ll cut your head off right here!”

“Stop!”

Seeing that the guard was really going to kill him, Gianna stepped out with a shout.

The guard’s head whipped toward her, his gaze positively menacing as if he wanted nothing more than to rip her throat out.

But she mustered her courage and stood her ground.

“I know where he went.”

“Oh? Tell me.”

“He left.”

“What?”

The guard’s face turned befuddled, as if he couldn't fathom that possibility.

Gianna just stood there, not deigning to repeat herself.

After several seconds, the guard walked over and grabbed her throat, lifting her off the ground.

“He left? You expect me to believe anybody can just leave this place? You better tell me where he’s hiding, or I’ll wring your neck.”

“Huhh!!”

He threw her to the floor, letting her suck in a mouthful of air.

Rubbing her bruised neck in pain, she grit her teeth.

“He’s not hiding, and he has a message. He said if you kill any of us, he’ll come for you. That goes for all of the guards.”

“...Bwahahaha!”

The guard burst out in a fit of laughter, as did several others nearby.

Then, once he went silent, he grabbed her hair and raised her off the floor.

“Agh! Put me down!”

“He’s gonna kill me?! Please, I can only take so much bullshit! But since he wants to play that game, I’ll give him what he wants.”

*Shing!*

The guard’s spear slid over, pressing up against her neck and drawing blood.

“Come out here, Eight! Or will you only kill me after I’ve taken her head off! If that’s the case, I’ll give you the excuse!”

[Don’t regret your decision.]

“...”

The guard suddenly froze, his eyes drifting down.

There, in the middle of the courtyard only several feet away, was a black cat.

The guard was captivated by its golden eyes and deathly black fur. It was a majestic creature.

But it could talk, which distracted him more than any other fact.

Everyone else had their eyes on the cat as well. It just sat there, staring at the guard.

And so, nobody noticed when the guard suddenly fell.

*CLANG*

“Ugh…”

Gianna fell as the guard collapsed, his armor slamming against the ground.

That drew everyone’s attention as well, making them look away from the cat and at the guard’s body which was now without a head.

The entire camp was silent. A guard had just died right in front of them. They couldn’t even find the culprit, and the cat had disappeared at some point too.

If not for the dead guard, they would have a hard time believing anything had happened.

Gianna stood, looking around before getting back in line.

She then looked at another guard with much more confidence.

“Guard, hurry up and take roll.”

“...Yes…”

The guard wasn’t sure what to say. While this should be causing a commotion, none of the slaves were rebelling and nobody else was dying. They entered a stalemate

So the group of slaves was quickly dismissed while the dead guard was left untouched.

None of the other guards wanted to step in. One of their strongest had died without a sound. What could they do?

But the situation was weird. If Eight could so easily kill them all from the shadows, why not just destroy the entire camp?

Through the rest of that day, the slaves also went on about their business as if nothing had happened. They went to the mines and gathered enough for their quotas while also receiving the same amount of food as they always had.

In fact, instead of them ordering the slaves around, it was Gianna who kept them working.

It was almost awkward how weird things quickly became.

On top of that, news came down that their true strongest combatant and overseer, the Heir Eleanor, was reassigned.

It wasn’t like she did anything anyway, but with this mysterious man holding a knife against their throats, they didn’t know what to do.

So, the camp operated as normal. Although the guards were almost reluctant to even hurt the slaves, they continued to stand guard.

And no messages were sent out about the situation either. This left the camp in an odd state of mutinous obedience.

As for Dirk, the instigator of all this, he worked within the mines, digging tirelessly deeper into the mountain. His instincts acted like a guiding light in the pitch black depths.

But whatever he was trying to find was still far away. He also had to continue digging out ore for the other workers so they didn’t have to break themselves.

As for why he was having Gianna push to keep things as normal as possible, that was because he still had to find the resistance. And he could only do so if this camp still existed, waiting for them to come to him.

Basically, he had turned this entire camp into bait. Although he was maintaining the suffering of all the slaves and risking an information leak, he could only concern himself with so much. He had a mission to complete that took precedence over the comfort of these people, not to mention his own training.

That was why he left the matters of daily operations to Gianna, effectively turning her into this camp’s leader while he disappeared deep into the mine.

Most of his time was spent digging, but anytime he wasn’t, he was working on his martial arts.

He hadn’t expected to run into Eleanor, but it was only beneficial for his progress. He had told Grandpa Qoi that he would only need a month to achieve basic martial mastery, but that time was actually shortened.

During his battle with her, he had tested his sword against her own. While she obviously wasn’t as constructive as Grandpa Qoi, guiding all his strikes to perfection, he was still able to find his way to sword mastery.

It was as simple as gauging the force in each exchange. By comparing the effects of his strikes with Eleanor, her responses, and how he handled each of her own strikes, he could figure out how to perfect each of his sword strikes.

Plus, Eleanor was an Heir, someone who had mastered the basics of the sword thoroughly. As she had stated, she wasn’t some common foot soldier who may neglect the basics to push toward something more advanced without the best foundation.

Her training was top tier, as was her sword technique. So Dirk, although almost killed in the process, was able to glean the best of what the sword had to offer from her.

Now, he only needed to work on the other weapons.

And utilizing a pickaxe actually helped with things like his axe mastery.

Not only that, but there was one weapon that he didn’t even need to practice with.

One night, when Dirk stepped outside for more training, he slipped into the forest and pulled out a bow.

It was a high quality bow pulled straight from the Dark Kingdom’s treasury. While only a Tier 5 bow, it stood at the pinnacle of its level.

But it was heavily enchanted, giving it myriads of special effects relating to spatial warping and the like. So Dirk didn’t even think about using it while fighting Eleanor since he was trying to match her strictly with the sword and his anima.

Not only that, but if there was any weapon Dirk couldn’t be more confident in, it was the bow.

And that inherent skill showed itself when he knocked and arrow and pulled it back for the first time.

As he pulled it back, he could feel all his muscles correcting themselves, drawing the bowstring back as the arrow was guided toward its maximum potential.

And just as quickly, he let it loose.

The arrow sailed through the forest in a straight line, colliding squarely with a tree.

And when it made contact with the trunk, the wood splintered open, the trunk exploding as the arrow plowed straight through it.

It blew up the trunks of three more trees in its path before landing on the 5th tree, sticking itself halfway through and stopping.

Dirk nodded, feeling like there was nothing he could do to perfect the usage of his bow.

In fact, he held back. So much as holding a bow felt dangerous to him.

Because he was so proficient with ranged weapons, he felt he could develop his own bow technique on the spot. Let alone annihilating four trees, he could probably bombard a city as if he were artillery. There was so much he could do with it that he felt the bow was practically begging him to unleash its full potential, as if nobody but him could do so.

But if he took even a single step further with the bow, he would cut himself off. Even the slightest alteration to a basic shot would put him on the path of no return.

If it were anybody else, they would utilize those feelings and become a martial genius over night. But Dirk was shooting higher, and doing so would only limit him.

So he put the bow away, clearing his mind of its image.

The spear, the sword, the axe, the bow.

These seemed to be the primary four weapons. Anything else was a variation of these four, at least in this world.

And then there was hand to hand combat, comprised of boxing, kickboxing, grappling, and several other styles that utilized every part of the body as a weapon.

But Dirk didn’t feel like he needed to learn absolutely everything. He wouldn’t need to learn how to use a halberd, a pike, a kukri, a crossbow, zweihander, gladius, or any other specialty weapon.

What was more important was bringing all his martial styles together. He should be able to pick up any weapon and understand how to use it, no matter what it was. And more than that, he had to follow the advice of that Martial Master, the Kimin Godsum.

Use a sword as if it were an axe, an axe as if it were a bow, a bow as if it were an axe, a spear as if it were your hands.

When he got to the point where all martial styles merged into one universal art, then he would achieve mastery. Of course, that wouldn’t come until he was a much higher rank, but starting now wouldn’t hurt.

So Dirk utilized his time to find constants among all the basic skillsets of every weapon he could think of. He tried and tested everything he could think of, even doing things that seemed completely illogical like chopping trees with a spear and throwing his sword like an arrow.

Like that, time continued to pass as he waited for the resistance to show.

And it wasn’t until two weeks later that he finally finished one of his objectives.