Chapter 158: Life Energy
"How would you like to pay, sir?" the woman asked.
She was sensing that something was wrong here and she just might need to call security.
"O- Oh, so he really didn’t pay for anything? Neither the food nor the drinks? Nothing?" Green was drenched in cold sweat, he was understanding what had happened.
"W- We have to pay? Why? Uh... How much is it?" Blue almost fainted as he asked meekly.
"Your total would be 1.8 million paiso." the woman announced and the two men fainted at once.
They had never even seen that much money in their life, the money they had touched during their life was probably less than a million.
They had been tricked, that guy was not rich but a fraud and gave them the taste of their own medicine.
’F- Fuck, he really put a green hat on us, I shouldn’t have listened to this bastard...’ Blue thought, pretending to be dead, hoping they would just throw him out.
However, soon after Neil had left, the atmosphere inside the hotel changed completely, it became dark and cold.
The shadows began to dance and several monstrous figures rose.
In the next second, the monsters attacked the humans, tearing them all apart, throwing the ripped bodies around.
Green and Blue were even more startled as they heard faint screams and then felt warm blood splash over their bodies.
And the sight before them was blood-curdling, the monsters were slaughtering them all.
The two stood up and began to run towards the exit, unfortunately they weren’t fast enough and were killed in the next moment.
It was a bloody scene even worse than the previous crime scenes, all the people inside were killed in such a brutal manner that it was impossible to tell which limb or part belonged to whom.
Finally the shadows disappeared, leaving behind a dreadful sight.
...
Neil was walking towards the boundary wall, quite satisfied from the free meal, he was wondering how the expressions of the two men would be when they found out the truth.
He even wondered if he should go back to see but decided otherwise, only Neil knew how frozen their expressions must have become.
The border wasn’t far, after running for a few minutes he arrived near the boundary that divided the human and fishmen territory.
Thankfully the relation between the two was good so he didn’t have to sneak to the other side.
He could have entered that domain through other ways too but this was the fastest and would allow him to take the cores quickly.
Soon he arrived near the guard posts, they asked some basic questions and then allowed him to move to the other side.
Many people were moving from one side to the other, especially since there was going to be a big event soon in the human territory.
After crossing the boundary, all Neil could see was forest, thankfully though quite a lot of taxis and shops were also available there, just for the humans travelling over.
But instead of taking a vehicle, Neil decided to go there on his own, his destination was not too far away.
At least the first one was not.
"Oh right I forgot to check the reward I had gotten after killing Xander." Neil mumbled and after crossing some distance he decided to stop and check them.
[You have obtained one 4th Origin Gold Class Gene potion.]
First was the gene potion, now Neil possessed two 4th Origin gene points, one of silver class and the other of gold class.
Though for now they were useless, but would be pretty handy later on.
"Hmm next is." Neil looked at the next reward.
[You have obtained the Title ’Lord of Lords!’]
"Oh, what is this now?" Neil opened its description.
[Lord of Lords]
[Description]: A lord who shelters other lords and rules over them. With this title, you can make other domains a part of your own and the lords of those domains will be your subjects.
You can freely use the abilities of those domains which will also be strengthened by becoming a part of your domain.
Neil read the description and was quite surprised, that was a... wonderful thing, for now it won’t be too effective.
But as he absorbed more domains into his own, the strength would keep increasing exponentially, and he could make the domains of his allies move along.
This would truly be a great help.
And at last, he looked at the final thing.
[You have obtained a skill Escape!]
"..." The name told a lot about the skill but also not quite.
[Escape]
[Description]: A skill that allows you to disappear completely for a minute.
"That is short..." Neil mumbled, so it would allow him to be invisible for a minute?
Well that’s not bad.
Lord of Lords couldn’t be used yet, but the Escape skill could be tried.
So Neil decided to get used to it in case he would need it later on.
[Escape Activated!]
The moment he activated the skill, Neil’s body disappeared completely.
The scent, sound, all of it was gone. He had disappeared as if he never existed.
Neil observed his surroundings, this was good. Soon one minute ended and he wondered if he could keep using it.
While the skill was activated it was consuming too much essence, so Neil decided to only use it when extremely necessary.
Just as the skill was about to deactivate he activated it again and he remained in the disappearing state, and essence continued to be consumed in the same manner.
So he turned it off for now, this would come in handy.
He had heard about such skills which can turn people invisible or hide their presence, but they shouldn’t be consuming so much essence.
Maybe it wasn’t as good, there wasn’t anything Neil could do about it but wait for a better one maybe.
No rank was mentioned either.
"Nemo, how far away- COUGH"
In the midst of speaking, Neil suddenly broke out in a violent wave of coughs, feeling as if his throat and chest were breaking apart.
After coughing a few times he felt something warm on his palm and upon looking over, he saw that his palm was covered in black blood.
He felt dizzy and weak, a sudden wave of tiredness struck him, and pain filled his chest and head.
He coughed a few more times as more blood came out, Neil stumbled back and fell, breathing heavily.
Confusion clouded his mind and his gaze was becoming blurry, countless questions popped into his mind but he couldn’t even speak a word.
He could hear Nemo’s worried voice but couldn’t understand a word she was saying.
What was happening? Was it because of that skill? That shouldn’t be the case.
Was it because of something he had eaten? But with his poison tolerance alone he should be fine, so why? What had gone wrong?
Neil couldn’t think of a single reason for this sudden change, it was too abrupt and severe as if all strength had been sucked out of his body.
Nemo tried calling out to him then she even scanned his body but couldn’t find anything until she noticed something very very bizarre.
"..." Freya also noticed his strange state, she was surprised, wondering how Neil even got to such a state.
After a few minutes, Neil felt a bit better but the dizziness remained.
"HUFF Nemo, do you know what it was?" lying on the grass in the forest he asked.
"Yes master, I did find something strange which I don’t know much about. It’s just too strange." Nemo spoke, her voice full of unease and confusion.
"What is... haa it?" Neil asked, he closed his eyes to take a short break. He was suddenly feeling a slight ache all over his body.
"Somehow it seems your internal organs have weakened greatly, I don’t know, there are many such changes. It’s affecting your entire body, I don’t know what is causing it." Nemo replied, she was also very confused by it all.
Freya however was able to know exactly what was wrong with him at one glance. For a moment she was happy that this human was suffering but now she would die too if his body was gone.
So, whether she wanted to or not, they were stuck together and she would have to help him.
"It is your life energy, it seems pretty weak. You lost a large amount of it, which equals you losing many many years of your life." Freya suddenly spoke.
A person at the 3rd origin and Neil’s strength could easily live for several hundred years, yet Neil had lost most of his life?
Really, just what is happening?
"Life energy? You weren’t behind it right?" he asked, though even if she was it’s not like she would accept.
"Of course not, I can’t do that. And now we have already formed that contract, and since your body is deteriorating it’ll be bad for me too." Freya explained, rolling her eyes.
"And I’m a warrior, I would never resort to such petty tricks-" Freya spoke proudly.
"Heh petty tricks? Was it not you who was doing all that in Carceral Citadel secretly?" he asked.
"COUGH Anyway, how did you end up losing so much of your life energy? Even if you don’t lose anymore, I would assume your body will fall apart in a year or so, if not less." Freya spoke directly.
"...I have no idea what is going on. I haven’t noticed anything at all before, ugh and suddenly now sigh" this was too frustrating.
"Hmm it cannot be an effect of something you consumed since you are a phantom too, tell me if you possess some dangerous skill." she then asked.
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Thanks for reading...