Chapter 67: Unwanted Guest

“Star Church? Weren’t you a knight of a kingdom?” I was confused. From their talks, I thought he was a knight of the princess. How come he suddenly became a church’s holy knight?

“Stargaze Kingdom is under our church’s scrutiny. I and a few others sent to keep an eye on all the key figures of the empire. I was to be the personal knight of the fifth princess. But she was too careful and suspicious, so I could only be a reserve knight.” It was confusing as I couldn’t put my head around these politics between organizations. But, not gonna lie here, I was helluva excited about this. Of course, as a third party bystander.

I have neither the will nor the desire to get involved with’em.

The Evolved Nightmare Seed had another hidden function I wasn’t aware of. It gave me absolute control over my victim’s mind. Even without asking him questions, I already knew everything about him. Previously it did have this ability, but not as strong. After scanning his memories, I got to know that if he didn’t return in a week, the people of the church will come to investigate.

They have a way to find out their people’s last location. From this Muen’s memories, I got to know that the Star Church is a massive organization boasting a power that won’t necessarily lose to one of the great kingdoms of the continent. But, not everything was bad news. I also got to know a lot of things from his memories. The much-needed information about the world was one of them.

Until today I didn’t know the world I summoned to didn’t have a name. Moreover, my current location, or to be more precise, the location of the dungeon was a bit special. It was sandwiched between two humongous empires who were not in a good relationship with each other. The Stargaze kingdom was a very small power in the ocean of great dynasties that inhabited the Axdion Continent.

Then the most enthralling thing I came to know was this magical world. Gods exist, and they walk among the men. It came to me as a huge shock. But, it wasn’t as shocking as knowing that the gods could be killed. And since they can be killed, they can also be made. Shocking indeed! And since gods exist, so do their opposites, the demons.

…

With all the information I got from Muen, it took me a while to digest. And while I was busy with that, a very unwelcomed guest has arrived at our floor. It was an orc with a stocky build. Unlike Logier’s tribe, this orc had red skin with black tribal markings around his neck. He wore a piece of animal skin loin-cloth to hide his modesty.

Like every orc out there, it had a pig face riddled with scars. And one of its jutting teeth was broken. It held a battle-ax, looking chipped from wear and tear. At present, it was steadily and carefully advancing through the tunnel that led to our forest.

A bunch of newly spawned goblins immediately noticed him and came running towards him. The orc swiped his ax before many headless bodies fell to the ground in a shower of blood and severed heads. Throughout the whole process, the orc’s facial muscles didn’t change in the slightest. It kept advancing steadily.

“They are here.” The orc muttered to himself as its mouth opened wide to reveal a set of zagged shark-like teeth. Its eyes roamed across the dense vegetation and landed on where our habitat was. His eyes flashed in a deep red color as a skull symbol appeared on its forehead. Letting out a low-pitched squeal, it walked towards that direction unhurriedly.

…

I was sitting on a piece of rock as I sorted out all the information I downloaded from Muen. Suddenly I felt a chilling sensation washing over me. I had this exact feeling thrice in my life. Once when I met the Fallen that killed the human me, the second time was when I met the Hobgoblin, and finally during Logier’s descent to demonization.

After having felt it thrice, how can I not know what this thing was?

And therefore, after feeling such a dense dose of killing intent, I stopped everything and stood up with my guard raised high. Although I felt the killing intent, it wasn’t as bad as the last two times. I didn’t feel like running or oozing cold sweat all over. Despite that, I applied caution to the maximum. Even against a rabbit, a lion goes all out.

Meanwhile, I equipped the title Returnee. The Resist passive could save me in case of a sudden fatal attack.

From beyond the shadow of the trees, an orc came out in all its hulking glory. My guard went up a few notches after seeing him. I activated Infrared Vision and silently stood in its way. The orc, however, didn’t even spare me a glance. Seeing his right hand flaring up in red, I hurriedly stepped forward to close in the gap.

In the meantime, I equipped the Lord of Orcs and Goblins title, eliciting a frown from the monster. It said that I will be looked upon favorably by all the orcs and goblins. It wasn’t the case with this orc, though. Because the moment I equipped the new title, a skull symbol appeared on its forehead. The skull symbol glowed so brightly that I had to look away in fear of going blind.

After a quick look at my stats, my confidence soared. 47 DEF wasn’t easy to breakthrough. It will definitely take a lot of work for the monster to get past it.

Or so I had thought.

Orc just swiped its ax at me. It didn’t even touch me.

-40 HP

But I took damage. Moreover, the damage was just too high to ignore, considering it was just a casual strike from him. Despite that, I risked everything and touched its forearm.

Pestilence’s Servant

As the passive activated, I received all the knowledge of the diseases and disorders he was suffering. And then I backed away and made some distance between us. I clapped my hand loudly and faced them towards the confused looking orc.

Poison Mist!

[Skill Poison Mist activated.]

[-50 MP]

[Mist duration: 14 seconds]

With the notification, faint green smoke exhausted out of my palm before surrounding me and the orc. The AoE of the mist was 20 meters, pretty big considering it was still at level 0.

[HP: 1437/1487]

[-50 HP]

[-50 HP]

His HP dropped at a very fast pace, but the amount of HP it had(which shocked me by the way) was so much that it can endure until it gets out of the AoE. And it did just that. It soon recognized the mist as a form of poison and backed away until it was out of the green mist zone.

After ten seconds, it was left with 1217 HP out of the original 1487.

“Interesting!” It was then the orc talked. His voice was chilly and carried a hint of overbearingness. I could tell that he was annoyed. “A mere Imp dares to lay its hand on this great me!” Its baritone voice depicted how annoyed it must have felt, having to taste pain at my hands.

“I didn’t lay my hands, yet,” I replied cheekily. “It was just my ability,” I added before revealing my rows of shark-like teeth in a sneering smile. I had this dislike towards self-entitled people who think they are superior to everyone. This orc’s words completely triggered me as it pulled out some unwanted memories.

“Silence, maggot!” It roared and swung its chipped ax at me. But I have already predicted it happening from his body temperature fluctuation. I easily avoided it by sidestepping. At the same time, I nimbly closed the gap between us and threw a punch at his stomach.

“Hmph! What is that supposed to do?” The orc scoffed. Clearly, my 40 points in strength couldn’t do anything to him. But punching him to submission wasn’t even close to my true intention.

Pestilence’s Servant!

My passive activated as I gathered all the disorder and disease history on the orc’s body. With my goal achieved, I retreated. The orc looked at me smugly as a mocking sneer appeared on his ugly pig face.

“Hmph! A mere little Imp, you dream of hurting a Bloodyvore Tribe’s orc? Die, you bastard!” The orc roared and charged at me. However, at that time, I was too busy digesting the information. Still, I was aware of the battle and sidestepped his charge again. My agility was higher than his, so I was able to literally dance around him.

After a while, I found the perfect way to deal with him.

First, I used Cast Illusion on it.

[Cast Illusion succeeded.]

[Target is now under your spell for 12 seconds.]

Twelve seconds was more than enough time to execute my plan. While it stood dazed like a statue, I touched its body as a sickly, yellowish-green aura surrounded my palm.

[Plague Bearer: Improvement is activated.]

Using the newest skill, I fiddled with a type of bacterial infection it had in its body. This bacterial infection will rot all his internal organs. It’s mode of transmission to all over the body was through the blood.

Using my Improvement skill, I enhanced the infection rate, proliferation rate, and its deadlyness into max. Still unconvinced, I changed the bacteria’s original enzyme secretion to something even more fatal to its host.

With everything done, I jumped back to make a distance between us. There were still a few seconds left before he wakes up. But the effect of my ‘improvements’ has already appeared on its body.

And then I saw one of the most disgusting sights I have ever seen in my life.