Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Mana Devouring Blade

…

[You killed the Corpse Demon]

[You’ve received 20 XP]

[You’ve received 37 chivalry points]

[Collecting the reward from the Kill Order…]

[You have obtained the expertise of the Corpse Demon – Mana Growth; after evaluation, the expertise is found to be invalid, do you wish to convert it into a valid expertise?]

…

“Huh? The effect of the Kill Order was actually to steal the expertise from the slain?”

Roger was slightly surprised.

Mana growth itself was an excellent expertise that could increase the amount of mana of the caster.

But the profession of Hermit Ranger did not even have a MP bar, so naturally it was invalid.

So he decisively chose “Yes”!

…

[You have gained a new expertise – Mana Devouring Blade]

[Mana Devouring Blade (2nd Circle Expertise): You can specify a weapon to acquire the characteristics of a ‘Mana Devouring Treasured Weapon’ ​during close combat]

[Mana Devouring Treasured Weapon: Every attack has a 1% chance to permanently steal the enemy’s MP and store it. After the mana is full, you can launch a ‘Magic Critical Attack’ (Magic Critical Attack will cause a higher damage on the weapon.)]

…

“Permanently stealing MP, this is so targeted.”

“I must not let anyone know of this expertise!”

Seeing this expertise, Roger’s first reaction was not joy but alarm

Just as the 100% magic resistance, the existence of Mana Devouring Blade would also cause panic and hatred among the mages.

Once exposed, the consequences would be disastrous!

Pondering on it again and again, he still chose to designate Red Moon as his [Mana Devouring Blade].

The reason was simple.

Generally, when Red Moon was used, it meant that things had developed to an irredeemable situation.

At that time, the only thing Roger had to consider was how to kill the enemy.

Thinking about it now, he realised that the post on the message board had not lied to him.

The profession of Hermit Ranger was indeed designed for targeting the mages.

It just so happened that Mystra had a terrifyingly huge number of mages.

Even the monsters that were rampant in the wilderness were 70% to 80% of the magic type.

Roger felt at ease like a fish in water.

…

“We made it!”

The moment Roger sliced through the Corpse Demon, the spells the Corpse Demon deployed had lost their effects.

The Pool of Decay was automatically lifted, and all the skeleton soldiers were also driven back to the Reaper’s Realm. The originally crowded battlefield suddenly became empty.

Dorothy dropped the shield and sword in her hands for the first time, and then ran all the way to Roger and hugged him tightly.

“Thank you!”

“We finally avenged Kane… Woo woo woo…”

At the beginning, her words were clear, but gradually, they were replaced by sobs.

Roger stroked her hair lightly without uttering a word.

The other adventurers also hugged each other and celebrated.

At the end, they gathered around Roger and waited quietly.

Dorothy’s crying gradually ceased.

“Don’t try to toss me into the sky.” Roger warned.

A few young people looked at each other. One fat guy among them reacted very quickly, and immediately laughed, “Then should we toss Dorothy instead?”

Dorothy wiped a tear; her expression returned to normal, and only her eyes remained severely red and swollen.

She glared at them and took out her authority as the captain. “Stop fooling around.”

“We are now very close to Bone Burial Ground. There may be dangerous monsters in the night. We need to find a safe camping site immediately.”

“It’s time to get ready to return!”

The young people shook their heads disappointedly.

But they also knew that Dorothy was right.

Although Corpse Demon had died, it did not mean that this place had become absolutely safe.

“Don’t worry, we have already found the camping site.” Terry jumped in and eased the tension with a smile, “I had asked the scout team to watch out for this before.”

“Less than an hour away from here, there is an abandoned safe house previously set up by the Lord’s Mansion for the mine. We can camp over there tonight.”

Dorothy nodded. She knew she could trust Uncle Terry with things.

Immediately, everyone hurriedly cleaned up the battlefield, getting ready to embark on the way back.

But at this moment, Roger suddenly stopped them. “Are we just going off like this? Are we not collecting the spoils from killing the Corpse Demon?”

“Spoils?” Dorothy looked around. “Where are the spoils?”

“Shouldn’t the Corpse Demon’s belongings be in his lair?” Before she finished speaking, she realised it herself. “No, since they were migrating, then he must have brought all the belongings with him.”

“But we didn’t find any place to hide things!”

This was something that also confused everyone else.

They even explored the tunnel, only to find an earth burrowing worm that had been dead for a long time – the Corpse Demon had used the [Absolute Enslavement Curse] on it, causing the earth burrowing worm to die following the death of the Corpse Demon.

As for the rest of the battlefield, it was even less likely to be able to hide things.

Roger did not keep everyone in suspense, and directly pointed to the dark silhouette not far away and said, “Just pick a few people and drag that away.”

“I bet that when we find the place to camp, it will give everyone a surprise.”

Hearing this, everyone looked in that direction.

It was the suture monster that had been temporarily resided in by the Corpse Demon.

The night wind blew past.

The belly of the suture monster’s body bulged, and suddenly a silvery object fell out.

…

Two hours later, near the safe house in the southern mine.

The blazing bonfire lit up everyone’s faces, which were all full of joy.

The success of the crusade was certainly a very important reason for this, but the spoils found in the belly of the suture monster were the fuse that ignited the atmosphere.

The Corpse Demon was indeed very cunning.

This suture monster was not only its residence, but also its small vault.

From the belly of the Suture Monster, Roger had found a lot of spoils.

The first was money.

Corpse Demon used to be a mage in Gem City. Although it had been living in the wilderness these years, it still had a lot of money.

Roger counted and found that there were 58 silver dimes and more than 6000 copper orders!

When converted according to the formula that 1 silver dime was approximately equal to 100 copper orders, this was equivalent to 11800 copper orders.

This was indeed an astronomical figure.

After discussing with everyone, Roger finally decided on a three-to-seven split.

Roger seven, the remaining three.

In fact, he didn’t want that much at all.

But Dorothy and Terry both insisted that three-to-seven was the bottom line.

Because everyone knew in their hearts that without Roger, they would have never had any chance to defeat the Corpse Demon – they might not even be able to force him to reveal his true self.

“This distribution is actually taking advantage of you!” Since Dorothy said so, Roger did not refuse.

In fact, the rest of the people also played a big role to allow him to be able to defeat the Corpse Demon.

Hermit Ranger’s characteristic was that he was very strong in solo fights, and the characteristic of Ten Years One Strike determined that Hermit Ranger was the most powerful when his energy was preserved.

If other people had not desperately removed all obstacles that come in Roger’s path, he might not be able to leave the first three moves to the Corpse Demon.

In that case, the power of Slash of the Eye would be greatly reduced.

This battle was actually a mutual achievement.

…

Next were the magic scrolls and magic books.

The distribution plan was still three-to-seven.

Considering his trip that would start after this, Roger decided to hand over some of his coins and take away all the scrolls and books.

The value of these things was very high, but it was difficult to sell them at high prices in Tongma Town.

On the contrary, there was a very mature magic item circulation market in Gems City, and maybe he could make a small profit.

Since it was Roger who spoke, the rest of the people were naturally happy to do him the favour.

Soon, after paying 2,700 copper orders, Roger’s luggage had gained a stuffed backpack, which was bulging with 7 magic scrolls and 4 magic books.

“Huh?”

When Roger was rearranging the backpack, he unintentionally found a piece of gold-gilded letter paper from the interlayer of a magic book.

It was an invitation letter.

On it were only two lines of elegant fonts: “I sincerely invite you to visit my Magic Herb Garden on September 14th, Platform of Star Dome, please do come!”

What made Roger’s mood turmoil was the signature below —— “Lord Villan of Northern Deer County”.

“Villan… Mage Villan.”

“It’s really him.”

Roger’s emotions were somewhat indecipherable.

He was a little shocked, but at the same time, a little relieved.

At this moment, he finally understood why the name and the vertical pupil on the cover of [The Book of Evil] were somewhat familiar to him.

Villanius was Villan, the Mage Lord Villan.

It was the BOSS at the end of the stage that had tortured Roger for almost a week before he had teleported! (Note 1)

…

Note 1: See Chapter 1 164250 Explosive Magic Frogs.