Chapter 1284

For some time, Chalm had fallen into a strange hell. The people were infected with a rage, which managed to keep them from falling under the complete control of the dungeon. This was done by Elaya in a play to buy time and save the place. Suffice it to say, that the city becoming a zombie-infested prison wasn’t great for growth.

Once I returned and freed the people from their bondage though, they had been changed. Every person there had a bit of karmic infection in their hearts. It was a darkness that started to change them in ways not even Elaya could predict. Those who hadn’t been sucked into Chalm’s trap, like the ones in old Chalm forced to live under Astria’s oppression, found the people of Chalm to be strangely more intense.

They seemed stronger. They worked harder. Those that had been riddled with past traumas seemed to no longer be affected by them. They didn’t become afraid easily, and they were leveling at an alarming rate, despite their lifestyles not changing. They might not have understood this, but their strange connection to the dungeon allowed them to level as the dungeon grew. Productivity boomed, and the Osterians who had arrived and recently set up a camp outside of the city even had to admire them.

A man from Chalm was equal to any Osterian. That saying would start to spread. Considering how Osterians saw humans, this was an extreme compliment.

At that moment, the city was still in a state of repair. There was much to do, and the people were hard at work doing it. Those in Chalm were restoring the city, while the Osterians were reclaiming parts of the wilderness, using the wood in the construction of new buildings which would one day become the Osterian district of Chalm.

At some point, everyone in the city who was working stopped and looked in a particular direction. Those that didn’t have a karmic connection to the dungeon looked around in confusion at their peers. As they tried to figure out where they were looking, they came to realize the direction was the lord’s manor. The ground started to shake, and a light seemed to appear.

Soon, everyone was looking in that direction, because a pillar of light exploded out. It was evening time and the sun was setting, but it suddenly felt like noonday as this light silently erupted from the city. It emanated from a place just behind the lord’s manor. There were very few who knew what was there, but those who did know that this was the former fairy spring, which had been seemingly connected directly into a god dungeon, forming a strange ecosystem of mana generation that previously had been unheard of.

The pillar of light rose into the sky, and then slowly bent, eventually turning in a certain direction. That direction was Dioshin. Those in Dioshin who had noticed the light coming began to panic. They thought Aberis had lunched some kind of magical weapon of mass destruction at them. The light came closer and closer and then shot over their heads. Only when it passed did they start to calm down. That was when the lights began to fall.

“It looks like I have a destiny with this new lord. Karr forfeited his life to stop me, but his successor seems to have followed in his footsteps.”

“My lord, what should we do?” The man still looked confused.

King Roth threw the empty bottles to the ground and then stepped on them. “Let the people know, particularly the rabbitkin, that I personally took care of Lady Death. This was a plot of Aberis. That is why the souls freed are coming from their direction. They had been harvesting the souls of Dioshin for some dastardly and evil purpose. Thankfully, I was able to stop them in time.

The messenger gasped, his eyes widening. “They did such a thing?”

“Would I lie?” He growled.

“O-of course not! But, my lord, the Dioshin people will be furious. They won’t accept this! They’ll demand war! In your current shape...”

King Roth chuckled. “I think I have one last battle in me, for the people. Spread the word. With this, the rabbits will drop their rebellion and join us. Once we’ve ended this conflict and mobilized, we’ll move on the wilderness and show this lord of Chalm what a true king looks like.”

He glanced down at one remaining bottle in his hand that still had liquid in it and smiled. As for King Roth, he would claim the fairy spring’s waters of life, and use it to become immortal!