With the undead constructs dealt with, cleaning up the remnants of Darius’ forces wasn’t much of a problem. Even the weaker people from Dober got involved in mopping up skeletons and zombies.
Aaron had assisted for a while, but soon found his thoughts elsewhere. Despite causing him no harm, Darius’ corrupted aether was still a problem that needed solving.
He could see the way it was affecting the land. The grass had shriveled up, turning gray and lifeless. People coughed as they walked through the corrupted land; their auras felt weak and wavering. The trees were dying, too, and there wasn’t a beast in sight.
This wasn’t good. Dober couldn’t prosper with corruption of this kind sinking into the land, even if it could survive.
Although he could also feel his core drawing in the corrupted aether and turning it into energy naturally.
I wonder…
Aaron closed his eyes and cycled his core, pushing it further and pulling in great amounts of aether around. And to his surprise, it actually worked. With little effort, he was converting the corrupted aether. However, there was a problem. More corrupted aether was pouring in and taking the place of everything he converted.
Hmm, this isn’t good enough. Not on its own, at least.
Aaron looked into the distance. He couldn’t see it from here, but he could sense the local source of the aether. He would have to deal with that.
Across from him, surrounded by many warriors who had fought the undead, Julius was chatting with Talia and Soohyun. He turned to Aaron and waved him over. “Come over here, Aaron. Join us! Let’s celebrate! I can have a feast cooked up in honor of your return and defeat of the undead! We got ales from your friend, too. Let’s all rest for a bit. We’ve been fighting non-stop since you left. The people could do with a little relaxation.”
“That sounds great, but not yet. Not for me, at least. I’m going to go stop by my place and then deal with this corruption. Until this corruption is removed, the battle isn’t over. After that, I’ll join you.”
“Oh, fine. Suit yourself. I’ll try to keep the celebrations to a minimum until you return.”
“We’ll join you,” Talia said, and Soohyun nodded.
“No, you stay. It’s fine. Besides, I think it might be best if you stick around for now. I’m sure the guards would appreciate some time off, and with you and Soohyun here, they’ll be able to relax a bit. But also, whatever is spreading the corrupted aether, it will be much stronger at the source. Likely strong enough to affect you.”
“Right,” Talia said. “Okay. We’ll get this place up and running again. And join you once you’ve dealt with what’s causing the aether.”
“Sounds good. And Julius.”
“Yes?”
“Thanks for keeping this place afloat. I didn’t expect Darius to skip the dungeon. It seems he has caused a lot of trouble while we’ve been gone.”
“I did everything I could. And it’s not just us, either. We heard word from many settlements. The undead are everywhere, and his deathly corruption spreads every day. Some have probably already fallen.”
“Good to know. We’ll have to deal with that too. Well, I'd better be off then.”
Aaron jumped into the air, blasting mana from his anchors, and shot toward his cabin in seconds.
The moment he got there, he was immediately greeted by Treg and a patrol of goblin wolf riders. Alongside Sooty.
Zero went to the other wolves, and they howled a conversation as Aaron met Treg.
His cabin and the surrounding farms looked much different from when he left. A crude, spiked palisade had been raised around it, dotted by shoddy watchtowers. It looked more like a goblin camp than his once picturesque farm, especially with the crops dying. And the temple poking out from the camp looked very out of place.
“What has happened here?”
“Master! Treg is so glad to see you! We needed defenses to keep monsters out! We apologize for changing things, but the battle was fierce. If not for wolves, we gobbos likely would have fallen.”
“I tried telling them, bossman.” Sooty shrugged.
“It’s fine. Besides,” Aaron said, eyeing the goblin girl Sooty was hanging off of. “I have a feeling you were busy with other things. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. You did well to keep them out. And we can fix this up later.”
“Thank you for your forgiveness! We will make it up to you, right, gobbos?!”
“Aye!” They shouted. “For the big boss!”
“Hey!” Sooty said. “Ye misunderstand me!”
“Like hell I do. At least she looks happy.”
“Oh, she is, bossman. She is. You should hear her when I—”
“Stop! That’s already too many details!”
Leading a procession through the goblin crowd, Bobo came with his faithful, head bowed as he reached Aaron. “Our lord has returned, as I prophesied! He has fought back the darkness and will dispel the evil from this land—as was told! All hail the great one!”
“All hail the great one!”
Bobo’s people fell to their knees chanting “All hail the great one!” at Aaron’s feet.
“Oh, not this guy,” Aaron muttered under his breath.
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It wasn’t just Bobo, though. His followers had actually grown, not by a lot, but by enough to trouble Aaron. He had hoped that this fad would die out on its own.
“It is good to see you, great one! In your absence, we have built more idols in dedication to you. Would you like a tour?”
“No—wait, what the fuck is that?” Aaron pointed.
“Oh, our most marvelous work! We gathered our SC up, and from the System Store, we purchased a most valuable gift. A viewing screen from which we could follow the boss fight from your dungeon.”
“Wait, you can do that? Whatever. Why build that?”
In his absence, Bobo and his people had erected a huge golden statue with Aaron in a rather compromised position, with Talia, Elmira, and Lord Draxas hanging off of him.
“After your appearance on that talk show, we thought this would please the great one.”
“That thing needs to come down immediately!”
“Yes, I’m sorry, great one! We didn’t mean to offend!” Bobo said and snapped his fingers. “To work, people! We take down the statue immediately!”
As they rushed off to work, Aaron sighed.
I gotta get out of here.
But first, he found Mark and Zach and dropped off all the crafting supplies he had looted in the dungeon. His aether rock was strictly for him, but he left it in case someone came along who could actually work with the stuff.
As for the rest of the items, like his considerable haul of alien alloys, they were free to be used as necessary.
“This is quite the haul. We can’t use most of this. And what we can’t use, we can trade with other crafters in town. Who knows? With all this, we might even be able to convince a smith to join us here. With another crafter, we’d have more input to craft better and more varied gear without having to leave to trade.”
“Sounds good to me. You do your thing,” Aaron said, glancing around at their improved workshop that was growing bigger every time he saw it.
“Will do, Aaron! We’ll make sure to put something aside for you, too.”
Aaron nodded. “Thanks. Oh, if you get time, I’d appreciate some pants.”
“It’s going at the top of the list!” Marko exclaimed.
He still had a Skill to pick before he ran off, and he looked over to the temple, but hesitated.
I’ll pick my Skill first.
The moment he opened his Skill selection, his eyes went wide with delight.
Ghost Wings [Mythical] Gifted to the shinigami by the undead Wight Dragon. When activated, this Skill provides the shinigami with ghostly wings. These wings do not follow the usual laws of physics and do not flap but rather exert aether to create lift. The speed and power of flight provided by these wings are directly relative to the aether used to power them, and as such, their potential is only limited by their user.
Aaron didn’t need to read the other options to know that this was what he wanted. He had been dying for a travel Skill, and this seemed just up his alley.
Although the more he thought about it, the more it was a strange Skill to unlock. He had been using his mana anchors to fly this entire time, and while somewhat similar in the sense that the wings weren’t really wings, based on the description, they were still quite different from what he expected to get.
Was this just because he was constantly converting aether? Or something to do with his run-in with the Death God, and his temporarily corrupted core?
Though, it wasn’t as if he were about to complain; being aether-related seemed like a boon. And while the Skill didn’t immediately jump off the screen at him, the fact that it was Mythical meant that it had to have a pretty high ceiling.
With a wide smile that he couldn’t wipe from his face, Aaron placed all his free points in Agility, as it was his main Stat that was falling behind the most. Then, he decided to check his status page.
[ Name: Aaron Dober ]
[ Age: 23 ]
[ Race: Human [ Shinigami ] ]
[ Grade: D ]
[ HP: 231500 ]
[ MP: 138100 ]
[ SP: 457700 ]
[ AP: 18939 ]
[ Class: Precise Bombardier Pugilist, lvl 139 ]
[ Profession: Ogre Gastronomist, lvl 94 ]
[ Stats ]
[ Strength: 3574 (+2041) ]
[ Vitality: 2315 (+1465) ]
[ Fortitude: 4577 (+2857) ]
[ Dexterity: 3061 (+1693) ]
[ Agility: 2515 (+1410) ]
[ Intelligence: 2224 (+1238) ]
[ Willpower: 1381 (+890) ]
[ Charisma: 1182 (+730) ]
[ Perception: 1866 (+1054) ]
[ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer, Stamina Control Prodigy, Mana Control Prodigy, Vitality Control Prodigy, Holder of a True Blessing, In the Eyes of the Gods, Aether Wielder, World Overlord, Endurer, Dominator, Challenger, Shadow Trials Hall of Famer, Leviathan Slayer, Pack Leader, Core Prodigy, Divine Eviction, Genocide Prodigy, Death God’s Daddy ]
[ Traits: Fate Weaver (Alpha), Major Blessing of Oozagh the Rotund, True Blessing of Yendal the Empty-Handed, Herald of a God, Death Cheat, Pack Alpha, Tandem Assault ]
[ Racial Skills: Inspect, Lingua Multiversa, World Map. Reap ]
[ Profession Passive Skills (3/3): Mass Produced Cooking!, Conductive Gut, Condensed Adipose Fusion ]
[ Profession Active Skills (6/6): Spirit Toes, Oozagh’s Breath, Foul Ichor, Unsightly Degustation, Spirit Tongue, Spirit Hands ]
[ Class Passive Skills (4/4): Soul, Body, and Mind, Equal and Opposite, Girth by Length, Power by Volume, Pinpoint Accuracy ]
[ Class Active Skills (8/8): Soul Shattering Strike, Spectral Projection, Gorgon’s Soul Vortex, Unbound Cataclysmic Haymaker, Wraith Phase, Spectral Bullet Punch, Bombardier Fist, Spirit Wings ]
“Not bad. Not bad at all.”
He was turning into a real monster. He already had incredible skill, and now he had massive Stats to match.
Looking over the horizon, it was time to deal with the aether infecting his lands. But then, he absolutely needed to do some cooking and push his Profession to D-grade.
A thought also struck him when he saw the temple. He had more or less forgotten about his parasite ring and immediately slipped it on.
In his defense, he had been focused on beating the dungeon as best he could. But now there was really no reason not to wear it. At least while dealing with Darius’ minions.
I’ll come back for you shortly, Aaron thought as he looked at the temple.
He needed a bit of core training with the parasite ring, and Darius’ minions were the perfect punching bags to take it out on. After all, if possible, he’d rather avoid another scolding from Yendal.
This shouldn’t take too long even with the ring on.
He also had his mana anchors to figure out and loot from the auction house.
He dipped into his spatial storage again and found the lot key for the abandoned storage.
“Recover from Centurion Prime? Fuck. So I do need to go back somehow? I really wish we’d gotten those tokens now.”
He spotted the evolutionary fruit as well and whistled to call Zero over.
“Hey boy! Look what I’ve got for you!”
Zero’s maw bent into a smile, and the wolf started to pant as Aaron dangled the fruit over it.
“There you go,” Aaron said, and Zero snatched the fruit up.
As Zero bit into the fruit, the wolf coughed, its eyes changed color, and its fur began to ripple as if something was changing it.
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