The Last King Of Darkness
Chapter 151 - 110: The First Action

Chapter 151: Chapter 110: The First Action

In the tranquil dream realm, the light-colored fog flowed silently.

Somewhat unlike before, in front of the Obelisk, at the corner of the cabin, various resources had piled up into a small mountain.

Aside from a large quantity of canned food, there were also all sorts of potions, bullets, Fuel Elements, materials, and emergency items.

This level of wilderness survival capability would completely outdo Bear Grylls, who only eats beef.

After tidying up for a while, Rod came to the back of the Obelisk, where the invading words still hadn’t appeared—the face of the monument was empty.

But Rod did not feel at ease; instead, he had a sense of emptiness, as if he couldn’t find a place to land.

He moved to the front, where the three stars were still shining brightly. The light of "Justice Execution" seemed somewhat dim beneath the other two fully illuminated stars.

There was no helping it, without "Soul Firewood," the stars lacked a core, and fueling them was extremely inefficient and consumed a lot.

And of all the materials to make "Soul Firewood," the most important was a complete and powerful soul.

Without it, 50,000 Souls Without Spirit and 100 units of Spirituality were needed as a substitute.

This was a difficult number to accept, and also Rod’s main purpose here.

Such an opportunity didn’t exist in the Royal City, and looking back on it, the last mission was extremely fortunate—encounters like that were rare.

Here’s hoping this time it will work out.

Rod sighed softly in his mind. Without that luck, his only option would be to spend a long time hunting monsters in the sewers.

Glancing over, the number in the upper right corner of the Obelisk showed he only had 14,622 souls and 62 units of Spirituality.

Far from the number needed for the substitute.

I really don’t want to become the King of the Sewers, then it would be impossible to find any girls.

Sigh.

Rod set aside these miscellaneous thoughts and returned to the Stone Platform, lit the candles, and placed four sticks of Puppet Wood and forty units of living Spirituality on the platform to create four Wood Puppets.

These were sculptures of monsters woven together from countless dry branches, only the size of a thumb, simply inject Spiritual Energy and one could summon a wood puppet to fight for you.

Rod wasn’t entirely sure how strong these puppets were, but he thought they couldn’t be too weak.

Now, he had four Wood Puppets, eight "Soul Ashes of the Brain-eating Demons," and on top of that, Theodore’s Phantom. He shouldn’t be afraid of common dangers anymore.

Rod opened the Storage beneath the Stone Platform; inside were two Sun Stones, 34 units of living Spirituality, 90 grams of Star Light Ruby Powder, 100 Soul Red Crystals, a Green Grass Potion, a Holy White Tree Fruit, two Guardians of Darkness, and some miscellaneous items.

The passage of time in the Storage was nearly at a standstill, and the space inside was much larger than it appeared from the outside. Rod almost stored all his Spiritual materials and items there.

It had transformed from initially empty to now full of a dazzling array of items, making Rod unconsciously smile a little.

Closing the Storage, Rod took down the Book of Knowledge from the bookshelf and asked for the hundredth time, "Everything you know about the dream realm."

The pages of the Book of Knowledge rustled as they turned; every blank page instantly filled with text, until the entire book had been flipped through, then it stopped.

Rod skillfully turned to page twenty-three and continued his studies.

The language of the dream realm was the most complex he had ever seen. It was both cuneiform and had phonemes, syllables, notes, and morphemes. Every stroke had various functions, and a change in a single punctuation mark could alter the entire meaning of the word.

Especially since they also had very complex grammatical couplings.

There was nothing more torturous than reading this stuff.

However, the knowledge of the dream realm was connected to his life and death, and this particular page was about the knowledge of invasions.

No matter what, he had to decipher it.

With one hand on the Book of Knowledge and the other on the torn-up "Ancient Language" and "Evolution of Language" that he brought into the dream realm and stuck together, Rod studied the expressive, implicit, explicit, original, and derived meanings of each character.

"...During the excretion of garbage, the stars flash brightly... damn, what the hell is this?"

Rod spread his hands, collapsed on the ground, feeling his brain was twisted into knots. Studying this stuff for more than a clock hour was unbearable even for a dog.

With a bang, the Book of Knowledge closed on its own, unable to stand being open for so long.

This guy... Rod sighed and was about to get up.

Just then, he felt a tight sensation below him, followed by an intense dropping feeling, and everything before his eyes became blurry.

Someone was coming!

Rod realized instantly, closed his eyes, and concentrated his focus.

A second later, when he opened his eyes again, he saw Mina’s delicate and beautiful face.

"How did you get here?"

Rod asked in surprise, quickly withdrawing his gestures and sitting up, only to bump headfirst into something soft and cottony.

Mina let out a shriek, pushed Rod away with one hand, rolled off his bed, her face slightly flushed as she rebuked, "You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Trying to take advantage of me, aren’t you? I’ve been calling you for ages, but you’ve been pretending to sleep, only to wake up as soon as I climbed up."

Rod composed himself, carefully unbuttoned his sleeves, and propped himself up to see Mina dressed in a long green shirt and pants, a wide belt around her waist, and a large bag slung on her back—a traveler’s outfit, which didn’t seem like she was there for a night raid.

He asked with slight disappointment, "What’s the matter?"

Mina’s eyes widened as she spoke angrily, "What’s the matter? There’s an emergency mission! We’re setting off right away!"

Rod perked up immediately, jumping up like a carp leaping out of water, "Really? That’s great! Let’s hurry!"

On the contrary, Mina was taken aback. Before she could react, Rod had already brushed past her, rushing out of the room.

"What are you spacing out for? Let’s go!"

All of a sudden, Mina revealed a smile, stepping forward to graciously take Rod’s arm, chiding, "Rod, you sleep like the dead. I thought you didn’t want to take part in the mission and were trying to avoid it on purpose."

Rod felt the gentle touch on his arm and laughed, "How could that be? Hunting monsters and demons is our calling; defending the Royal City’s Holy Fire is our mission. I wish I could eliminate all the harmful beings that lurk in the shadows, letting the light of the fire illuminate every corner of the earth, allowing our kin to bathe freely in its glow, without ever having to fear death and suffering again."

Mina looked at Rod, "Is that really true? Is that really your dream?"

"Of course, it’s true. Haven’t you seen how I’d rather sleep in the sewers than miss out on hunting monsters? As for Lauren, that ungrateful wretch, I earned him a major achievement, yet he locked me up in the academy, not allowing me to leave. When I went to him asking for some missions, wanting to participate in some action, he also declined, insisting on some nonsense about needing rest and how frequent battles would affect physical and mental health. I suggested he send a couple of girls to keep me company, and he actually got mad, saying something about having Kashan not being enough. Brother, Kashan could practically be my brother..."

Rod couldn’t help but complain, feeling incredibly frustrated for some time, with "Justice Execution" eating away at his humanity as the invasion remained stagnant.

Truth be told, deep down, Rod was quite anxious.

He had finally heard that they were going to hunt some Giant Dragon and had eagerly volunteered to join, only to be harshly reprimanded by Lauren and even reported to the Dean, causing him to be confined to the academy for several days.

As a result, he had harbored a lot of resentment in that period.

In the midst of his complaints, Rod failed to notice Mina’s gaze towards him shining with ever-increasing light.

Soon, they arrived from the underground room to the castle’s spacious hall. Rod glanced around and saw that quite a few people were already standing there, including Dean Vera and the cloaked Calier, with more people still coming up from below.

The lighting inside the hall was dim, deliberately simulated to mimic the faint light of night.

Vera snapped his fingers and the huge pattern at the ceiling brightened rapidly, turning the main hall as bright as day in no time.

He looked around the room, and once everyone had arrived, he said loudly,

"Dear students, I apologize for waking you in the middle of the night, but you will come to know that this is just a common occurrence in combat."

The cloaked Calier sneered, "Dean Vera, I think we should cut the nonsense. Combatants only need to focus on matters related to battle."

Vera gave Calier’s pale, narrow face a glance, saying indifferently, "Fine."

His voice then changed, becoming colder and firmer.

"We’ve received notification from the General Military Department. The Dark Tide has arrived a day early, causing a surge in defensive pressure everywhere. The Seventh Defense Zone’s Sword Pass has been attacked by numerous Evil Spirits, and the Spiritual Power Generator has been damaged. Special orders have been issued for Jinworth’s stealth division to form a reinforcement squad and head there for support immediately."

As his words came to an end, there was a slight stir among the crowd.

A student shouted, "But, Your Eminence, we’ve only just completed the tests and haven’t even begun our training."

Vera’s steely gaze instantly focused on his face, replying coldly,

"Sir Calier has already mentioned, monsters won’t wait for us. If you think you need to be fully prepared before you act, then you will never be ready to act."

Calier let out another hissing laugh,

"Dean Vera is right, I won’t wait for your training to be finished before sending you out on missions. Orders are everything. In Calier’s stealth division, those who ask such questions will be severely punished. Jinworth is just too gentle."

Vera’s expression did not change as he continued,

"The mission involves Evil Spirits and requires at least two exceptional scouts with high Spiritual Vision. Rod from Redstone Village and Anna from Mushroom City, do you have any problems?"

Both answered in unison, "No."

Anna glanced at him and covered her mouth with a light laugh, "Little junior, I didn’t expect us to be on a mission together so soon."

Vera continued, "The mission requires the repair of the Spiritual Power Generator; we need a researcher to accompany us. Mina, do you have any problems?"

Mina spoke out loud, "No."

She clutched Rod’s arm tightly, giving a glance to Anna not far away, who, however, did not look back at them.

Next, Vera arranged for ten main combatants.

Among them, Beowood and the Reslin trio were known to Rod.

At last, Vera said, "The circumstances are a bit special, so I’ve decided to send two instructors and a teacher to accompany the team..."

Calier suddenly interrupted, "Dean Vera, this doesn’t follow protocol, does it? This is a Class Three mission, which is quite dangerous, and the battle configuration is already sufficient."

Vera coldly replied, "This is the stealth branch’s first mission; we have surplus personnel at the base, and I believe we can dispatch additional staff to ensure safety."

Their icy glares met in mid-air, neither backing down.

After a stalemate, Calier turned his head, laughing hissing, "Alright, but you can’t always do this. Our battle configurations are always understaffed; they need to get used to fighting in harsher conditions."

Vera nodded slightly, "You’re right, Sir Calier, I will keep that in mind."

He turned around, his steely cold gaze reflecting a strange brilliance in the bright light.

"To Jinworth’s stealth branch, commencing the first operation. Move out."