Dark King

Dean was able to catch a little animal which was similar to a pangolin. He injected the God’s marrow that he had prepared in advance.

Previous time he didn’t want to test God’s marrow on animals because the results may not be able to reflect the characteristics of God’s marrow perfectly. After all, human and animal body structures were different. God’s marrow was in sense a medicine. There were some special reactions that couldn’t be verified if the medicine was tested on animals.

Dean picked up the little animal and was about to take it back to shelter after the injection was over.

However, the animal struggled up in an instant. It’s eyes turned reddish while blood stains began to emerge from its scales. In an instant the docile animal had become a bloodthirsty monster.

Dean was startled as he let loose the animal. He didn’t think that God’s marrow would be effective so fast.

Hiss~ The little animal crouched down the moment it landed and jumped at Dean.

Dean’s body flashed and escaped the animal’s attack. The next moment animal’s body turned stiff and it stopped moving. It fell to the ground as its claws tried to desperately buckle the ground.

In about 7 or 8 seconds its body rolled and stopped moving at all. Blood began to flow out from its eyes, mouth, ears and others parts of the body. It was dead.

Dean’s face turned gloomy. He had deliberately used only one drop of God’s marrow and mixed it with water before injecting it to the animal’s body. Dean knew that injected whole bottle of God’s marrow would not be wise. However, even a drop was enough to kill the animal.

“God’s marrow is toxic …” Dean felt all the hair on his body stand ereft. He felt tempted when he gave two bottles of God’s marrow to Eugene. He had regretted it after giving those bottle to Eugene. However, it seems the God’s marrow was really problematic!

Of course, there was a small possibility. The body structure of the animal wasn’t suited and couldn’t bear the effects of the God’s marrow even though he had used only a drop!

After a moment, Dean bent over and dig a pit. He buried the animal in it.

He went back to their home. Dean’s face was calm as usual but his heart was gloomy.

If the God’s marrow was toxic then it meant that the enemies within the Dragon clan couldn’t wait to deal with him!

Outside the giant wall was very dangerous place, especially the wasteland. They knew that there was a ‘possibility’ that Dean may die outside. However it seems those people were interested in changing that ‘possibility’ into ‘reality’ as soon as possible.

“Those who planned to frame me must know that with my current identity I can’t investigate and know which faction is behind this move. I won’t know for sure whether it’s the people who support Aisha or Hailey. But, I wouldn’t go for such a stupid move if I were Hailey. My presence is an important piece for her in this game!” Dean whispered.

“Most probably it’s the people who support Aisha that wanted me to die as soon as possible. They hope that I won’t ‘lag’ her behind if I am dead.”

Anger burst out in his heart as he pondered about the issue.

He understood how these people solved problems. If not for his past encounters in prison, dark church and other places Dean knew that he wouldn’t be so vigilant.

He would be dead if he wasn’t vigilant!

“It seems that it will be very hard to survive in the dragon clan… ” Dean pondered. He greeted Eugene with a smile and went into his own room. He closed the door and the smile on his face disappeared. He looked at the box with the God’s marrows. He knew that he couldn’t use them any longer.

However, it meant that he wouldn’t be able to use God’s marrows to enhance his own strength!

“I have to rely on parasitic soul worms …” He looked at the finger long 8 tubes that had parasitic soul worms. The problem was that parasitic soul worms couldn’t be fostered for long. The soul worms were dynamic when they were given to him. But right now they were lazily lying in the tubes.

But the good thing was that he could use the blood of the soul worms to enhance both his magic marks and his own strength.

The problem was that this approach was too wasteful. It was very difficult to find rare monsters let alone kill them!

However, he couldn’t think another way. He had to enhance his own strength before going to wasteland.

The probability of his safety in the wasteland would be higher if he enhanced his own strength.

Dean came to sit on bed. He took one of the soul worms. He recognized the soul worm. It was the soul worm used by the Linda who he had killed. The soul worm would bring its user ability to control the blood and immunity to certain toxins.

He took a syringe and filled it with the soul worm’s blood and began to absorb it.

“The God’s marrow is problematic so the only solution is to use parasitic soul worms for now…even though it’s a waste.” Dean’s mind was in peace as he absorbed the blood of the parasitic soul worms. He knew that if they had problems too then he would be dead for sure.

It didn’t take long for him to finish the absorption of the first parasitic soul worm’s blood. He continued to absorb the second one.

He was at bottleneck as a senior hunter when he was captured by the Dragon clan. After the absorption of the first parasitic soul worm he reached the state where he had to advance to primary limitless. Dean planned to inject blood of the other 7 soul worms to enhance his magic marks.

…

…

He used another 6 soul worms and injected them to the magic marks on his chest. However the deified magic mark was still as dark as ink. It’s shape hadn’t changed much.

Dean wryly smiled as he had expected this situation. He had realized this situation when he had advanced from intermediate hunter to senior hunter level. The deified legendary magic marks needed more soul worms in quality and quantity for the next evolution. It seems that 8 rare parasitic soul worms would be enough for him to reach the primary limitless level. However, for his magic marks to evolve it wouldn’t be enough.

However, it was hard to get rare parasitic soul worms.

“It seems that it will be very hard to become a primary limitless in the foreseeable future in the Dragon clan…” Dean pondered. This time the resources were given for free but he had to rely on his points to exchange for them in the future.

However this exchange system meant that he will have to rely on Dragon clan for long time. It was kind of an enslavement meant for the workers of the clan. If he followed this system then he would never be able to get out of the cycle.

Dean touched the magic marks on his chest and put on his clothes. Most probably he would be the first senior hunter to go to wasteland for mission in the history of the dragon clan.

His eyes lit up as he looked at the box.

The next day.

At down.

Ian, Ruby and Rosemarie were training in the field near the house. Eugene was watching them spar.

Dean woke up and ate his breakfast. Afterwards he came over to the training field to say ‘hi’ to the team.

Ian stopped boxing with Ruby and looked at Dean: “Do you wanna spar?”

“Not yet. I haven’t finished absorbing the God’s marrow. I will as soon as I reach the primary limitless level.” Dean shrugged his shoulders: “I’ll go around to stroll a bit.”

Ruby grinned: “Kiddo, you should learn from Eugene. The more you are abused by fighting against a stronger person the more you will grow. Ain’t it?”

“I am not a sadist.” Dean went away.

Ruby laughed but didn’t notice that Dean didn’t mean ‘masochist’ but ‘sadist’. (there is a Chinese word play in here)

He was away from the training field but he could still hear the voices of Ruby and Ian who were sparring. He came to the mountains and checked that no one was around. He removed one bottle of the God’s marrow and threw it to ground. The place was grassy and it wasn’t fully concealed. The bottle of God’s marrow didn’t seem conspicuous but as if was left behind by someone.

In short time, Dean left God’s marrows all over the mountain.

Along the way he met members of the dragon clan. However neither him nor the other side took the initiative to greet as they didn’t know each other.

He returned back to the residence. He took few God’s marrows that were left in the room and began to wander in the other mountains.

“I can’t find who was aiming to harm me. So I hope no one will blame for what I do right now.” A trace of coldness flashed past his eyes. As the saying goes it was wrong to own a debt and don’t pay back. However he couldn’t find the creditors so he had to make sure that those creditors take the initiative to find him.

The unlucky people in this game would be the greedy ones that would pick up the God’s marrows and use them.

He knew that those people were innocent but he had to decisive and solve out his own problem: “If you want to blame then blame the higher ups of the Dragon clan…”

Dean’s face was calm as he leisurely walked back to the training field. At the moment Eugene was sparring with the woman called Rosemary. Eugene was sweating a lot while the Rosemary was as cold as an iceberg.

Dean sat on the side and looked at them.

As a bystander he was able to see the difference between the combat arts of the two. Eugene’s actions were too large in range and he wasted physical strength. However, Rosemary would directly attack without any extra moves.

Dean knew that he couldn’t see all those gaps if he only looked at Eugene. The contrast was visible because of the Rosemary’s swift and decisive actions.

He knew this kind of perception was result of the contrast that both of them were showing while in a spar.

“Light needs darkness… Darkness needs light to cover it… ” Dean thought about Holy Church and the Dark Church of the outer wall. The Monastery used this simple trick to fool everyone. The understanding of truth was different because of the contrasting organizations.

However, no matter what which organization you joined the ultimate power behind the scenes belonged to Pope and the Monastery.

“What are you thinking?” Ian sat by him while he drank a glass of water.

Dean smiled: “They are very powerful.”

“Are they?” Ian looked at Rosemary and Eugene: “Are you talking about Rosemary? She is just playing around. I asked her to accompany Eugene in spars. You will have to practice too. After all, the reaction of your body and consciousness wouldn’t match after the absorption of the God’s marrow. It will be very wrong to directly face monsters in this state.”

Dean slightly nodded.

Another day passed.

Dean was counting days. On the fifth day he heard the news from Ian’s mouth. Two members from the 13th team were poisoned and sent to infirmary. The team wouldn’t be able to go to mission because they would need new members.

The other teams were aware of the matter because the news rapidly spread within the mountain.

Ruby, Rosemary and others strangely looked at each other when they heard news from Ian.

How could someone get poisoned in the mountains? The only possibility was food poisoning but how could that be?

If it wasn’t food poisoning then who would be so bold to deliberately poison members of the dragon clan?