“It was as Esteemed Grandmother expected!” Mike said as soon as he returned to the strange cave they were hiding in, This place was under the sea, next to the main island. It seemed to be a secret base of some sort. “They are gathering the heirs for some kind of assessment…” he added, looking down from the control room at the kids who were training martial arts down below under the supervision of many elders. This was his grandmother’s secret base!

“Oh… Perfect, I was worried they would take their fucking time…” Ann said, looking at Mike. She wanted all the traitors to show themselves to grab them in one move! “Was the rest of the heirs settled?” she asked.

“Yes… But they were not pleased… Did you have to lock them up like that?” Mike asked.

“One of them was the poisoner, and he must be working for Marcos… If not for him, I would have not hurried down there!” she said. “I can’t trust them now… Beside You and Alice that is…” she sighed.

“I understand…” Mike said, squeezing his fist. “When can we check the Jaded room?” he asked, he was worried about his brother.

“Don’t worry about Victor… that kid is more resourceful than you can imagine!” she said, with a strange twinkle in her eyes. “Follow me…” she said, leaving the control room.

Mike frowned and quickly followed as she guided him through the intricate tunnels, and after walking for half an hour.

Mike didn’t dare to talk, and Ann was not in the mood for a chat.

In the end, they seemed to reach their destination when Ann stood in front of a huge door and took a deep breath.

“This is the center of the main island… Right under the Main hall…. Normally, only the patriarch can come here…” she said, seemingly hesitating for a moment. “Mind your manners!” she said as she pushed the door open then walked in followed by Mike into the dark hall.

She bowed… Mike quickly imitated her.

“Ann greats the protectors…” she said, bowing down.

“You may raise…” an old voice said, making Mike rise up and slowly make out the details in the darkness.

In the center of the hall, there was a large crystal that stretched all the way into the ceiling, and inside of it, Mike could make out a black heart that was slowly beating!
Around the crystal, on black jade beds, four extremely old men were sitting in a lotus position. It was as if the Crystal was a bonfire and they were sitting around it to get warm on a cold day.

“Protectors…I will need your help… Marcos…” Ann said toward the men.

“We already saw what happened…”

“We see everything…”

“But, Marcos is the Patriarch…”

Three of the men said, making Ann’s face change. Without the protectors, she would be in a very shitty situation

“But that bastard dared to collide with outsiders… So he lost his right…” the last old man said, making Ann sigh in relief as all of them looked at her. The atmosphere was no longer cold.

“Lass… Ever since you were a brat, you liked to use others…” one man said, sighing.

“I learned from the best…” she answered.

“Haven’t you been creating some kind of army with unique bloodlines?” the other asked. “Why not use them?”

“They are not ready, Their level is just too low, and I don’t want bloodshed in the family…” she said, telling the truth.

“Indeed… Well said!” another protector sighed, in his breath, Mike could feel the aura of a ferocious beast. “But if you need us to appear, you would have to deploy the barrier, or the world would attack us!”

“Don’t worry, I already contacted Theodore, and he is taking care of it!” she said. “We need it anyway in case they try to escape…”

“Good…” the last one finally spoke. “Hopefully, you will not let them trick you again…” he said.

“Ahh… I don’t know how they did it… Marcos seemed to have somehow cured the SSS-ranked Poison I used on him to keep him in check, and that bastard must have found some loophole in the contract I made him sign… I just didn’t expect him to have the balls…” she explained. “And for the last few years, I couldn’t really directly oversee anything due to my poisoning… You know that the only one I truly trust was Ariana…”

“Regardless… You were the one who made him Patriarch, to begin with, if he didn’t collide with outsiders, we wouldn’t have helped you! Let this be a lesson for you…” he said.

“This young one knows…. “ Ann bowed, “May I know who he collided with?”

“A brat who thinks he is too smart… He is way above your league, don’t care about him…” one old man said. “He can’t enter this world anyway, so we just have to take care of his minions…”

“Ahh…” Ann didn’t like not getting the answers she wanted, but those old foggys were not cooperating.

“Is this one Theodore's son?” one protector suddenly asked, pointing to Mike with his bony hand.

“Yes… I think he is the best candidate for the patriarch's seat…” Ann said.

“Oh… Indeed. That strange high-grade bloodline that runs through Theodore, runs in him too… ” one old man said, as he raised his head and took a whiff of Mike’s smell.

“Bruce would not like that…” another old man said. It was as if he was teasing Ann.

“Bill, Bruce’s kid is too aggressive and calculating… He is not suitable to be a patriarch…” Ann quickly said.

“You too are very aggressive and calculating…” the first old man interrupted.

“Ah… And look where I ended up!” She confessed, “Every age has its needs!” she added.

“Indeed… We will test Bill when the time comes…” the last protector said. “And we will test you too…” he told Mike who kept his silence. He didn’t care for all of this at the moment, he was just really worried about Victor, wanting to hurry to the Jaded room to check on his life jade!

…

“So… You sold the girls in the end?” the guard asked as the old master left the town alone just before dawn.

“They were too naughty for a man my age… And I found a good master for them, “ Victor replied, “Thanks for the hospitality!” he added, throwing a piece of silver to the man.

“Our pleasure… Going to the demon lands?”

“That’s the plan… Maybe find some artifact to pay for my retirement, and I also need to get my level up,” he said. He checked things in town, many people who came here had only one goal and that was to cross into the demon lands to kill demons and level up.
Some chose to do missions for the temple or go after bounties, but as an old man, Victor knew that it was not reasonable to act like a youth, so he made up a reason.
As people leveled up, their lives increased, this was a known fact, so many old men who feared death more than demons tended to try their luck beyond the gorge!

“We all do when we grow older…” the guard nodded. “If you got anything good, make sure to return before the auction in five days… It would be a waste to have to wait for three months to sell your loot.”

“Can’t the shops take it?”

“The money is in the Auction!” the old guard simply said.

“I see… thanks man…”

“Take care, and be careful on the road. If I were you, I would stick to the right side of the road… When it is this late, some boys go out to play and might mistake you for a demon!”

“Noted!” Victor said, throwing another Silver to the guard before leaving.

He wanted to leave earlier, but the girls in the cauldron seemed to have gone berserk after making them see what he really looked like when he activated all his bloodlines. He had to knock them out after 10 rounds or they would have really died of exhaustion without realizing it!.

He only tried his charm on Lily before, and she was the one who told him not to reveal it to the rest of his harem. She was right… He did try looking at himself in the mirror, it was a mistake. He almost turned gay for real if he didn’t remember that the handsome man who was looking back at him was himself… His charm was really too fatal!

He sighed, checking on the cauldron one last time by sending his consciousness into it.

The cauldron as a whole was divided into 12 compartments.

6 upper ones that were suitable to be lived in and 6 lower ones that were meant to store materials.

At the moment he had 3 separate groups of girls. The ones Rita got, and we're still building a village, the ones Tom got and were still in the phase of recovery and were starting to train in the manual he left them... That dark scion Mavis was still plotting escape too… He needed to find a good place to dump her, but this place was not safe for mortals...
Wait... If he let them out here, could they become players? Maybe he would try something in the morning!

In the last compartment, he left the two half-elves who needed some long sleep… The hut they were in was relocated by Victor from the village, and he planned to leave it as his ‘resting’ place.

Damn it, he had many things to do and he needed some time before some idiots swallowed the baits he scattered, so the first thing to do for now was to leave town to provide an ally and maybe go take a look at the Death Gorge… Places like that usually had treasures at their bottom.

Victor slowly made his way toward the gorge following the official road.

Along the way, he encountered many random groups who were ‘casually’ hanging around or returning from the demon lands with spoils.

Still, by made sure to stick to the right side of the road as the old guard told him no one touched him. This must have been some rule between the locals.

It took him about 2 hours to reach the Gorge, and it was already dark with the clear sky illuminated by two moons.

Victor sighed as he looked around. This Gorge was by all means far larger than anything he expected. It was as if a huge sword slashed the earth, separating the two sides and leaving mirror-like cliffs. Its width was about 300 feet, and its depth was immeasurable. He couldn’t see its bottom when he looked down, not even with his enhanced eyes.

Between the two sides, a huge 20-foot-wide bridge stood majestically. It was constructed out of some strange metal that made it appear as if it was cast from one piece!

Oh… He heard about this material, one of the toughest materials around!
It is not rare, but not common either, its perk though was the fact that mining it is a nightmare as it would require Mythril-made pickaxes, and even with them it was very tricky as any cuts made over it would usually heal up with the slightest Mana in the air, so it required some specialized techniques to separate.

And even after managing to get some chunks, working it is nearly impossible as it would always return to its primary shape no matter how hard it was forged.

He read once that working it was one of the secrets of the dwarfs, but their technique could only create small objects, nothing like this!

“Is this your first time here?” one guard asked as Victor reached the entrance of the bridge. Unlike the ones in town, this one was dressed in white and had the strange temple symbol on his sleeves.

“Yes… This is amazing… How the hell did they build such a thing?” Victor asked. He was considering stealing the technique.

“No idea… An ancient artifact, it was built way before the time of the Blight king…” he said.

“Oh…” Victor said with disappointment. He had no idea who this Blight king was, he needed to visit some library, but those were only available in big cities in this world.

“Do you have a pass?” the guard asked.

“Yeah…” Victor nodded, taking out the token he got earlier.

“You can go then…” the guard said, grabbing the pass.

“Thanks…” Victor said, giving the guard one last look before he turned and began walking on the bridge. “By the way… How deep is this gorge?” he asked.

“No one who ever descended returned…” the guard said, shrugging his shoulders. “If you intend to take a look, be careful around the edges, it acts like quicksand, and might drag you down!”

“Thanks again!” Victor nodded, throwing the man a silver that the latter gladly took.

This guy was a slave too! The same with the temple guards he noticed in town at the temple door.

The temple definitely was not a good thing, they were either trying to control the world by leveraging their power to slowly expand, or they had already fallen for the demons…

Hopefully, he was on;y making baseless assumptions…. If not, he would have to go give them a visit and ask some questions.

Victor sighed, and as an old man he slowly made his way across the bridge, trying to appraise it all the way, still, nothing could be found about its builder, just some strange symbols.

He could use his Akeshic scholar skill against them, but he only got two more activations this month and he didn’t want to waste them here. Such a skill was very valuable in another world that had many variables!

Soon he reached the other side, where there was a tower guard by a gatekeeper.
“Off to hunt demons?” the guard asked.

“Yes… I lost all my money raising a few ungrateful girls… Now I have to go to work to get a few more!” Victor sighed.

“I see… Do you have suitable weapons?” the guard nodded with a friendly smile as he casually checked Victor’s gear.

“I am a wizard!” Victor said, raising a black wooden cane IT was curved using poison from some very durable wood, making it look like some very cheap wizard cane. “I am also an expert in hand-to-hand fighting techniques! I trained it in bed, with many beautiful…”

“Ahh… Take care then…” the guard interrupted in an uninterested and a little disappointed voice, as he put away the talisman hidden in his hand. This guy was not a prey worth robbing.

“Kids these days…” Victor sighed, shaking his head. “If only they knew how much I f*cked their mothers in my youth, they would treat me with respect, calling me fa…..” his voice trailed off as he got away, leaving the guard who stood for a moment trying to comprehend what he just heard. Was he just cursed at?

“Wait…” he wanted to say something, but to his surprise, there was no one in front of him as the old man was already 100 feet away…

“Damn it… I will break his fucking jaw when he returns!” the guard silently cursed. If he knew how Vulgar this old man was, he would have marked him, allowing the men to go beat the fuck out of him!

...

Victor didn’t care, as he just crossed the bridge to end his trial… He was not planning to go into the demon’s territory yet.

So as soon as he was far enough from the bridge, he slowed down and looked around. He was planning to return to the Gorge and explore it.

“𐋅፱𐌌ል𐌍!” out of nowhere, a three-headed lizard demon attacked right from underneath Vcior. It was as if it was waiting in the sand.

SLASH

The MAN-EATING SAND LIZARD lost its life in one slash. Sadly it was only at level 20, not enough to give Victor much experience…

Did demons here react in the same way they did in his world?

Victor wondered as tried to grab its corpse, but it disintegrated, leaving behind a black GEM and a skill book.

Yes... It was the same.

When a demon died, the world seemed to absorb its corpse and leave behind something that reflected the demon’s ability. It was the same when he got the shadow-shifting Ring after killing that demon.

This is what that old guard talked about… They must be doing an auction or something for demon-acquired artifacts… He must go take a look!

“I will also return to hunt here later…” he said to the desert, facing east before turning and heading back to the gorge to a place far from the bridge.

Along the way two more low-level demons attacked him, sadly this time they didn’t drop anything as their level was under 10.

Reaching the Gorge, Victor sighed as he slowly approached, moments later it was as if something was dragging him down, making him use all his strength and step back while preparing his sword…

There was nothing. It was the ground near the edges, as the guard said, it acted like quicksand.

“Shit… “ he cursed as he appraised it. This place was full of strange materials, just like his world would become after the Reckoning.

Victor slowly activated his levitation skill, making sure everything was working he slowly approached the edge of the gorge and looked down… It was bottomless…

Putting on a couple of defensive talismans, he slightly activated his bloodline, making two pairs of draconic wings spring on his back. He slowly spread them and then jumped.
Although he could use his levitation skill to go down, from experience he preferred to use his wings as he was not sure if there was some artifact that interfered with skills down below.

Slowly he began to be destined, the gorge around him becoming darker and darker, forcing him to transform his eyes also… Now he could see, barely.

Strangely enough, nothing changed after he declined for more than 300 feet.

This place was deeper than he expected and it had a strange feature, as the deeper he got, the clearer the air got… It was as if the sand was not falling here…

Looking around, he realized why. The cliffs… It was as if they were mirrors, but they were made of glass as they were absorbing the sand, and integrating it with them.

Victor was beginning to consider leaving for now, and delaying the exploration when he felt a change.

All of a sudden his health bar began to decline…
He quickly moved his wings and flew up for 10 feet or so, and the health decline stopped.

“What is going on?” he asked as he appraised everything around him… He could see nothing… nothing at all, just the normal cliffs.

Thinking for a moment, Victor activated his Akashic scholar skill and asked.

“Why did my health decline?”

He quickly paid.

Oh… The answer was helpful... Like hell!

Wait...

Victor frowned as he looked down, and strangely enough, he became able to see it… a black viscous smoke-like matter that filled the entire gorge below him.

Did using the Acashic record skill enhance his appraisal? Or was it the opposite? His realizing the existence of the energy allowed him to see and appraise it?

He had no idea…

The question was now what to do?

He took a healing pill, activated a few more protection talismans, and decided to try to descend once more.

As he descended his health bar began to decline…

The more he descended the faster it emptied.

He was able to get 30 more feet, but had to go right up again… The more he went down the more concentrated this Death energy became.

Strange… What was this? He had never really read about anything like this…

Could it be that there is no way down?

Victor was a little reluctant… The fact that this place was protected by this energy, meant that the bottom was full of treasures!

“How to overcome Death energy?” Victor finally asked the Akashic Record. It was his last question this month, but he was really tempted.

Victor pressed Yes...

“Go fuck yourself!” Victor cursed. He was really considering that he should have used the underflow bug on the order points instead of on the Authority… Damn, it… he felt poor, he could only work hard and slowly accumulate order points using his physical strength and labor…

He paused…

Earlier, his CHAOS DRAGON body was able to withstand the pull of space… What if it could also overcome death energy?

Deciding to confirm this, Victor first used his disguise to hide any energy that might leak, then he activated his bloodline, making his hair turn white, his eyes turn gold, two long horns grow from his forehead and his wings expand three times as a dragon tail sprung from his back.

He felt powerful!

Taking a deep breath, slowly, he began to descend…

Foot after foot...

He slowly smiled... He was right!

His Health bar was not decreasing, but his Stamina and Mana were tough…. It was very slow as if his body was resisting the Death energy’s erosion.

Victor quickly took a stamina pill and a mana pill… They were enough…

“GOOD!” Victor said as he quickened his descent.

He descended then descended even more…

Slowly, he was getting impatient and began to speed up, keeping his eye on his health bar.

Then he descended.

Down and down he went…

It was really deep.

Really, really deep…

Was there no end to this?

He was seriously getting bored.

If only he could call Margret... He would have really enjoyed some 'chat'!

Damn!

He tried looking through the eyes of his blood slaves...

There was nothing interesting... Just the usual.

Tom, that pervert, was really making him angry.

Damn it...

Just when Victor was really considering it was no longer worth it, he spotted something… The bottom! It was way way deeper than he ever expected, as it was more than 20,000 feet.

He slowed down, intending to touch down, then he abruptly stopped one foot above ground, moving his wings to stabilize himself… What was below his feet was not soil, but corpses… Mountains after mountains of what appeared to be fresh corpses that had just died!