“Tell the Acolytes to move the hosts to the ritual chamber, we will perform the dark baptism at midnight when the hour is nigh.”

“It shall be done.”

A large group of hooded people was standing in the middle of a village square that was seemingly deserted. The plants that had been here had long lost their shimmer, the roads were filled with weeds and the buildings were falling apart. It was clear that this place had long been deserted by its original inhabitants.

At this point in time, the majority of the hooded figures were gathered before a spire. This spire was in the shape of a double helix that continued upwards as if two pointy monster tongues were curling around each other.

Around it there were several of these acolytes, their words were incoherent for a regular person to understand but they were certainly chanting something. The thing in the middle of this unkempt village’s square continued to give out strange waves of energy along with bizarre symbols appearing on its surface.

They were all kneeling with their faces down, slamming their heads into the ground. Even if there were rocks they didn’t care for, they continued to chant and bow while their blood flowed into the soil. While they were wearing long robes the bony fingers beneath them told a tale.

The man shouting out orders had a slightly different robe along with a large ornate staff that looked like a deformed tree branch. On the focal point, there was an obsidian gem that shined with an eerie glow whenever he shouted out his orders. The people that were listening to him were quick to follow his orders as they turned around to go towards their new visitors.

A large group of merchants had made its way into their village. The wagons along with the people in it were being slowly pulled towards the inside of this town. Each and every person from the races seemed to be in some kind of dream state. They were all slumped over, the only indication of them being alive were their chests that were moving as they took in slow breaths.

The various animals that were pulling these wagons were awake, yet there was also something peculiar. Their eyes were pitch black and devoid of life. Even when these strange hooded individuals approached them they didn’t react. It was the reverse, they followed the instructions of the ones in this village as they pulled the heavy wagons towards the village square.

In the front was the one containing what seemed to be the main force of this convoy and their first target. After it was pulled towards the square the robed ones turned towards the entry point that was in the back. There they saw two people, one of them was a large brutish looking woman.

Opposite her was another person dressed in shiny silver armor. While the woman looked fully passed out the other one was in a strange position. The acolytes at first thought that he might be awake but without any reactions, they concluded that he had just passed out while sitting and with his arms crossed over each other.

“Take him.”

The people that were called acolytes moved toward the armored man. The two large people were somewhat blocking the way towards the inside of this wagon where a large portion of the guards was hiding. Yet once one of the robed figures grasped the man’s writs something they didn’t account for happened.

“GAHHHH!”

Without a warning the man’s hand was electrocuted, his body went instantly limp and he dropped down to his knees. The others around him were quick to back away while in horror. In their minds this was an unforeseen development, could this person still be conscious? Yet even when they pulled out their curved daggers and waited for the battle it didn’t come. Instead, they could see their perceived enemy just slumping forward.

“He appears to be affected by the great relic, there must be some kind of protective spell at work here”

One of the men in the robes made his judgment known to the others that were still nervous. It made sense, there were various ways to protect oneself even when unconscious. The runes on the armor quickly became apparent as they started glowing bluish light after the discharge to their ally's hand.

“We must be careful with this one, first let us get this large woman out then.”

After the first discharge of what seemed to be a lightning spell, they decided to be cautious. No one wanted to risk being blasted by the unknown magic, they also did not know what could set it off. Was it only touch or was there more to it? There were various protective spells, hexes, and charms that a person could be affected by. If they weren’t careful someone could die or even worse cause their target to wake up from the imposed slumber.

For this reason, they moved toward the sleeping woman first. This wasn’t easy either as she was quite heavy, even with the increased stats their classes gave them it took more than two people to get her out of there while also making sure not to touch the armored person on the opposite end.

This woman along with the others was then pulled to the side and onto a smaller cart. On it, there were already several other sleeping bodies that they would howl away towards the secret chamber. Their ritual could only be completed during late-night hours, before it was too late they needed to get enough people there.

Finally, after the heavy woman was out of the picture it was time to move the armored man that was in the way of the wagon’s entrance. Touching him directly was out of the picture thus they decided to use some special bindings.

This special rope was placed at the front of the wagon space where the man was resting. Then one of the robed figures brought out an unsuspecting bell which he soon used to produce a faint chime. His words were quiet but it was clearly a special chant that together with this bell was used to activate the hex.

The regular-looking rope soon started to be affected by the chant. It was as if it was transformed into something like a snake covered in darkish energy. With the spell activated the chanter could from a safe range entangle the target’s hands and upper body while making sure to not overdo it.

As before when the rope started entangling itself with the man’s arms and wrist there was a magical discharge. Blue lightning energy traveled through the magical rope but this didn’t stop it. The item continued to wrap itself around the targeted person from a safe distance. Soon the rope was ready to be pulled by the people there and without a worry for their safety.

“Help me, brothers.”

The three that logged the large woman away returned soon to help their allies. They gripped the magical rope firmly and started pulling to finally get the man out of the cart. He was also quite heavy and with the way the rope was fastened it only made things tougher but in a minute all of them heard a large thud as the armored man dropped down to the ground.

“Good, now brothers let us pull him towards the others… Wait, what is that?”

After the man’s body dropped down they continued to drag him along which made them unable to notice the change. After the impact, the armor started to give out a glow that began at the chest area. It allowed the runic spell to activate without them noticing, only when runes started appearing on the armored man's back did the robed figures notice.

Various magical effects were activated in a second that manifested themselves before them. Firstly a large explosion of mana that pushed everything away from where the man was, this was followed by a seemingly random hail of mana bolts.

This was a peculiar spectacle as they shot out of various spots of the man’s armor that were exposed. There was no rhyme or reason to their direction as if the magic spell had trouble discerning the intended targets. The rope that was around the man was quickly eviscerated while the ones holding it backed away in shock.

“The great one will protect us!"

The seemingly random mana bolts that shot up suddenly changed direction and headed for the group of people that were messing with the armored man's position. But before the attack spell could collide with their bodies each and every one of them held out a strange medallion that produced a shield of dark energy.

The assault didn't last for long and thanks to their protective medallion's the robed figures remained mostly uninjured. Only a few received minor injuries from the initial pushback but no lives were taken. What was left was the armored man laying on his stomach with a magical barrier protecting his body.

The man that used the magical rope commented on the strange sight. He approached with a stone in his hand which he threw towards the mana barrier. As he expected, the magical shield caused the rock to be shocked by the same blue electrical energy as before.

“What should we do?”

Asked one of the robed people while looking at the man that previously used the magical rope to entangle their target.

“This person must be someone important, this amount of magical protection is very uncommon. We need to report this to the dark enchanter, he will decide his fate. Leave him for now, this protective spell won’t last forever.”

Their target was still unresponsive and affected by their secret relic’s power. There was no imminent danger to them or their cause. They needed to continue with their order first as the dark priests would certainly punish them if the people were not ready to accept the baptism. Later they could bring this up while their leader decided on the fate of this one.

…..

‘This should be it, just like before this thing instantly reacts when its runic structures are in danger of being destroyed.’

Roland was looking down at the horrific monsters that were climbing towards the large tree. At this moment he was standing on one of the large branches of this strange tree in the middle of the village. He had quickly realized that this place was just an illusion, very similar to the one he had witnessed all those years ago. When activating his debugging skill he could see runes everywhere.

He was unsure if it was because this illusion was somewhat inferior to the one he experienced previously or if it was because of his growth. But when straining his mana senses he could feel a faint difference from the real world. This was probably not something a non-mage class could feel so he was sure the others would remain trapped inside this illusion.

Then there was the discomfort he felt by knowing that his protective measures against getting affected by illusory spells didn't work at all. He had prepared several spells that should be able to shield him from such things beforehand but they didn't aid him at all. This meant that either this relic was just that powerful that the inferior spells didn't work on it, or that he was lacking the understanding of how this illusion was activated.

‘Probably not the best time to worry about that, the people I was with probably won't be able to tell if this was an illusion, even if they did they won't know how to leave it.'

Thanks to his debugging skill he was quickly able to determine where the core of this runic spell was. When he was a low-level tier 1 Runic Blacksmith he had some difficulty breaking it but now things were different. He would be able to instantly get out of here and the monsters that were coming his way would not be able to stop him.

But if someone else wanted to get out of here, they would probably need to do something more drastic. This whole tree was the center of this illusory spell, the only way he could see the spell being broken without knowing where the core rune was would be to destroy the whole tree instead.

Yet this tree was huge and when damaged the person would find themselves being attacked from all directions. Roland was unsure if they could die if killed by these monsters or if the monsters were even capable of doing such a feat. Instead, he theorized that they would probably restrain the one under the spell in some fashion until the caster outside delivered the killing blow.

‘Did the Abyssal Cult find me or is this about something else?’

While getting ready to destroy the core rune his mind was in disarray. The moment this was destroyed he would be put into the real world where his enemies were waiting for him. The scenes of the past that he managed to forget started resurfacing.

The image of the strange Warlock and elf that stabbed him in the shoulder was the first to come back. If these two were behind this, would he be able to contend with them in his current state?

His level was high for a tier 2 class and he had a better stat multiplier but was this enough to compete against true tier 3 classes? A lot of time had passed since his run-in with them so they would have probably gained more levels. Their gear could have also been enhanced which put him at a big disadvantage.

There were no hidden allies that could help him here. He had gone through most of the people in the caravan and while some adventurers were above his level, they were not tier 3. Without anyone to rely on he might have to make a difficult decision that would most likely be detrimental to the people, he was with. Yet to know how his chances were he needed to get out of here.

Finally, he pressed on a spot that was above the branch he was standing on. This time around he would not need to be too drastic. His knowledge of runes had already progressed towards tier 3 as he had gone through many schematics. With regard to that, he could consider himself someone that was one foot toward tier 3 but who lacked the permission to unlock higher tier skills.

Before the monsters could get to him the world started crumbling around him. The whole place looked as if it was cracking as many spider-like threads appeared everywhere. Monsters that were after him all halted in their place as everything started to vanish and turn white. Soon like all those years ago he appeared back in the real world.

‘Huh, what’s going on?’

The first thing that he noticed was that he was not in his cart but laying down on his face outside it. The alarm in his armor was constantly buzzing and jolting his body with a small electrical jolt as it was trying to wake him up from his slumber.

‘I see… the defensive routine was activated while I was out.’

Roland knew that enemies could be waiting outside. Like all those years ago he expected these cultists to be confident in their runic relic. Even back then when he woke up the tier 3 class holders didn’t know it, thus he believed that if he didn’t show any signs of waking up he would remain unnoticed.

Luckily for him even when he was down on his face and unable to move he could still monitor the situation. First, he disabled the alarm that was running to see if he could hear his enemies around him. To his surprise the whole place was silent, besides the buzzing of his mana barrier, there wasn’t much he could detect.

This brought him towards his next step which was to examine his radar. There he could see various dots moving around. The first thing that he noticed was the lack of any red ones which indicated that there weren’t any monsters around. The number of people there was vast but there was something off.

‘Why are there so many of them in one spot… are they getting moved somewhere?’

Many circles were overlapping over each other as if they were stacked in one location. It was clear that they were being moved towards one location which wasn’t that far away from where he was in now.

He could only speculate due to the shield that was around his body. Roland had implemented various features into his armor that would activate if he was ever knocked out cold or attacked when he was asleep.

It seemed that these cultists had managed to drag him out of the cart but were unable to pierce the strong mana shield that utilized his vast mana reserves. Even when he was in the dream world his mp would continue to regenerate which seems to have saved him for now.

‘There are two life signals close to me, did they leave some guards to monitor my situation?’

Roland could only speculate that the cultist found his mana shield too hard to deal with for now. Without being able to pierce the spell waiting for the mana to run out was the easiest solution to the problem. Even he would run out of mp after more time passed.

With that in mind he finally moved slowly tilted his head up. There in the distance, he saw a person dressed in a pitch-black robe. They were standing with their head facing in another direction, in their hand, they had a suspiciously familiar dagger that when he saw made his shoulder throb.

‘It’s really those bastards… but this guy…’

Name:

Zaxary

Classes:

T1 Dark Acolyte L16

T1 Scout L 25

The first thing that he noticed about this person was their low level. They didn’t seem to be paying much attention as they continued to repeat some incoherent words while looking towards the middle of the village. There he saw a larger version of the spiral relic he had destroyed.

‘That thing will be a lot harder to destroy, but this guy shouldn’t be a problem.’

Now came the big decision that he was afraid to make. The way before him looked to be relatively safe, the guards around him were weak and he would probably be able to take them out with ease. The big question was, what should he do after freeing himself? Should he help the others or flee while the cultists were unaware of his escape…