Would you look at that, two chapters in one day. Well, I technically wrote the last chapter yesterday...

Chapter 19: Palazar

After having been away from home for an entire year, I had finally returned home with Eric and Aylard, as well as the ten elite guards. We held a celebration and feasted and drank for an entire day. Not so much blood, but delicious foods and wines. After all, we vampires can enjoy food and wine as well, but it doesn’t satisfy our hunger like blood does.

In the days that followed, I noticed the men and women of the castle would be very sneaky around each other. The servants and guards didn’t dare enter relationships, after all they were our property, but they naturally couldn’t help but fall in love with each other, so they would sneak around to do their things. Therefore I decided to implement a system. If you managed to do a contribution to our society, you would be allowed to be together with your love and have children. These people wouldn’t be used as food for newborn vampires, as well as their children. But if you were to have a child without permission, the child would be killed, and in some cases the offenders as well.

As for how the contribution system would work, they would get it from tasks and missions, and they could also tell one of the vampires about the deal, then if they are lucky they could become said vampires personal guard or servant, allowing the couple to get married.

Thus another year went by. In this year the Barca family had grown in prestige. They were now one of the major families, and they had even gotten some of the nobles on our side. Erwin and Joan had some success as well. Erwin had entered the peak stage of rank B. At this rate he might become an A rank before turning sixty. Even though he was forty now, the gap between rank B and A was huge. Spending twenty years on the gap would be very quick. Rommel was over 140 years old before he became an A rank. So Erwin was indeed very talented, rivalling the Royal Clan. For some reason almost everyone from the Royal Clan was very talented as well. For example, the crown prince entered A rank before he was sixty years old.

Our plan was progressing smoothly. We had communicated with the Barca family through voice transmitters. Transmitters that could reach such distances were very expensive, especially in a place like this, with low natural energy. Things like voice transmitters and teleportation arrays all relied on natural energy, but voice transmitters didn’t require much natural energy.

Other than this, there wasn’t much that happen in this year. But Sara, Marcus’s daughter, spent a lot of time in the village these days. I was quite curious as to what she was doing down there. Maybe she had made some friends. After all I told her to make some human friends while she could, but she shouldn’t be able to remember that, since she was a toddler back then. Now she’s already eighteen years old. They grow up so quick. On the note of growing up quick, there’s Little Isaac. After he was made a vampire, his growth didn’t stop indeed. At least for a while, it didn’t. When he was twelve years old, he stopped aging all of a sudden. Now he’s a twenty two years old man in the body of a twelve years old boy. He’s quite perplexed by it, but there is nothing I can do. Maybe in the future he’ll be able to manipulate his body, who knows. We can only hope.

Since I was curious about Sara, I decided to tail her to the village. Like a shadow I followed her down to the village one evening. She seemed to be well known down there, since a lot of people were greeting her as “Princess” or “Princess Sara”. Seems like she had the reputation of a princess, though that’s not weird. After all she’s is quite the beauty, if I do say so myself. I continued tailing her, until she arrived at a small house and entered it. Inside she was greeted by a boy, or young man. He seemed to be the same age as her, but he was alone in the house. Either his parents were out, or he just lived alone. I decided to wait and see what happens. For a while the two talked about this and that. Like life in the village, or the affairs of the castle. Then after about an hour or two, things got hotter. They started making out, and a smile crept onto my face. So this was their relationship. To think she found herself a boyfriend. That guy was quite lucky.

I had been quite bored listening to their antics, so I decided that I would play with them a bit. You know, scare them. My body flashed and disappeared from the tree I was resting on. I appeared on a chair in the house, but the two lovebirds didn’t notice me. I put the most serious looking face on that I could, and waited. Moments later my body appeared in the eyesight of the boy.

“W-who are you?!” he questioned, but it only took moments until Sara noticed me.

“U-U-Uncle? W-w-w-what are you doing here?” she exclaimed in fright and embarrassment. The couple quickly let go of each other.

“I was wondering why you spent so much time on down here. To think that you were together with a lowly commoner, and a weak one at that. He isn’t even a warrior!” I said in the most serious tone I could muster. The boy was really scared and looked at Sara with begging eyes.

“S-S-Sara, that’s your u-u-uncle? As in the Lord?” He asked nervously.

“Y-yes. It’s my uncle, Isaac Coldblood, lord of Sanguine Regis and Bloodmoon Village.” She said, equally as nervous. The boy’s face paled. He looked around, as if looking for help, or a way out, but in the end he flexed his muscles, then walked forwards nervously. After standing two meters away from me, he got down on his knees, and kowtowed.

“Lord, please let me be with your niece, I truly do love her!” He basically shouted.

My face darkened, and just my glare could almost kill a man. Then in the heat of the moment, I burst out laughing. The two lovebirds looked up, they were confused. What was going on now? Eventually I calmed down.

“Relax kids, I was just toying with you. I don’t care whom you love, as long as he isn’t a coward or something. And this boy is definitely no coward, to actually stand up to me. I’ve made people piss their pants just by looking at them. Very well, I approve of you boy! It’s about time that I make you into a vampire as well Sara. Very well, I’ll listen to your unspoken wish, and make this boy into a vampire as well. Tell me boy, what’s your name?”

The boy was surprised and very much shocked. He wasn’t shocked at me being a vampire, since that had become common knowledge in both Sanguine Regis and Bloodmoon, after all they couldn’t leave this place anyway. No, he was shocked that I accepted him. He never thought that a noble being like me would ever accept a commoner like him. But what he didn’t know is that I myself, was no more than a mere commoner once. Therefore I decided to accept this courageous boy. The boy stood up nervously.

“My name is Arno, my lord. I wish to bestow my greatest thank to you, for letting me be with Sara, and for allowing me the Blessing of the Vampire.” He said.

“Don’t mind it. Well then, I’ll leave you two to your devices. Come to the castle later and find me.” I said, then left. This time I didn’t leave like a shadow, but walked the streets like a normal person. The villagers were shocked to see me. Not all of them could recognize me, since I didn’t appear down here much. Last time they saw me was three years ago, when I left for the Royal Capital. When I came back it had been the middle of the night, so they didn’t get to see me.

The next day, Sara and Arno returned to the castle, hand in hand. Her parents were surprised at the sudden development, and even a bit against it, but when they heard my decision they immediately accepted. There was no going against my wishes. It wasn’t even possible. Thus I made Sara and Arno into vampires. Little Isaac was a bit unhappy that his little sister looked way older than he did. Arno was also very surprised when he met his girlfriend’s older brother.

After their maturing period was over, I decided to test their abilities. It turned out that Arno was actually quite talented, even for a pureblood vampire, so I decided that I would train him myself. After these ten years, my skill with weapons wasn’t any lower than that of Lilia and Aylard. After all I spent more time training than they, they had to train the guards as well, after all. Thus I had gained my first disciple.

I spent the next year teaching swordsmanship, archery and magic. Of course I didn’t neglect my own training. Arno’s skill quickly increased, but he was still way behind everyone else of course, but with time he might even surpass Lilia. He really was talented. He was probably one of those rare talented people that are born once in a millennia. Too bad that he was born as commoner. Luckily I managed to find him, so I could nurture him into a proper warrior.

After I had spent one year training Arno, I started getting a bit bored. After all I had spent around thirteen years doing nothing, but training or traveling to and from the Royal Capital. In a spontaneous decision, I decided to leave. I would go travel somewhere for a while, and have a bit of an adventure. A vacation of sorts. The experience would be good as well, I hadn’t been in many dangerous situations. I also decided to leave on my own. My dear wives were against it though, they wanted to come too, but I still decided to go alone. Thus the next day everyone stood outside the castle, bidding me farewell. Thus I left Sanguine Regis, for a while.

As I was running at speeds several times quicker than the speed of sound, I was thinking of where to go. It was at that moment that I remembered a certain place. A place that I visited many years ago, back when I saved Lilia and Aylard. There was a dungeon there. Not much was known about that dungeon, since it was quite strong for such a desolate place as Fenlai, or even the Kingdom of Kalderon. I decided to go back there. After running at full speed for a few days, I arrived outside that familiar cave. I entered and ventured through, until I arrived at the very large door.

I had arrived at The Tomb of Palazar. Countless people had died here, but I doubt many peak stage A rankers have been here, so it should be safe. With a gust of wind, from my wind magic, I opened the door. Inside I arrived at a long hallway, inhabited by a single, weak skeleton. With a gaze, I blew it away with my wind magic again. A skeleton like this didn’t pose any danger at all. It wasn’t even an F rank, it was just there for the sake of being there. Even a normal person could beat it. I walked through the hall until I arrived at the next floor.

This floor was much more dangerous than the last one, filled with several skeletons of the F rank, but it was still nothing in front of me. As I walked past them, they were all blown to pieces by my magic. This floor was passed like a breeze. Then the next floor came, and the next, until I finally arrived at the fifth floor. This floor was filled with skeletons, all at the peak of rank F, but no matter how many there were, they were all blown obliterated in the blink of an eye. I arrived at that familiar place where the door which was bigger than the others was at. I knew that inside this room I would meet a disgusting monster, much stronger than the others, but it probably wouldn’t be stronger than D rank. Even back then I would be able to beat it. The only reason I ran was because I was frightened by its appearance. After all, it was very scary looking.

I opened the door and entered the big round hall. There was that familiar abomination, the fat body with an eye in its stomach. Its helmet shaped head, with two big horns protruding from each side. The arms with the huge claws, bigger than even my body, and lastly the legs with the natural bone spike armour.

“We meet again.” I said as I walked towards it. I stopped in the middle of the room, when the monster started running towards me. The monster lifted its arm and smashed it on my body causing a cloud of smoke. But to its dismay, when the smoke cloud disappeared, my body also disappeared. I floated behind his shoulder that was guarded by the shoulder guard.

“Too slow.” I said, then casually tapped my hand on its shoulder. In an instant the body flew down on the ground, and was crushed, splattering blood all over the room, but not a speck of blood hit my body.

“With that appearance you would think you were stronger…” I said, then casually walked out of the room, down to the next floor. In the next floor the monsters were just as strong and numerous as in the last floor, there was no difference, but in the next room, they were at the E rank. It was still no challenge though. I swept through the floors, until I arrived at the tenth floor. In this floor there were a few treasures, but they weren’t worth much, so I ignored them and ventured into the next room, the boss room. In this room there was a bigger, better armed skeleton. I didn’t want to spend time on it, so I flashed past it and exited the room, as the skeleton fell to pieces.

A spent a few hours casually going through the floors, killing monsters and skeletons, and sometimes the bosses. There was a boss every fifth floor. The monsters of the dungeon didn’t increase in strength as quickly as in the first five floor, so it took a lot of time to get to the stronger monsters. Eventually I made it fifty floors down. It took a really long time, as every floor was very big. Of course I could have flashed through them in an instant, but I didn’t. At this boss floor things were more interesting. I finally met a boss at the same stage as me, the peak of rank B. But naturally he still wouldn’t stand a chance against me, since I transcended a whole rank, and was comparable to peak A rankers. But I still decided to play a bit with it.

The boss was in the form of a skeleton knight, wearing black plate armour, and it was almost three meters tall. I casually walked into the room, and stood at the end. The skeleton slowly looked up, meeting my eyes. It started slowly walking towards me, but quickly sped up into a run. When it was two meters in front of me, it swung its sword. In response I quickly unsheathed my sword and blocked it. The skeleton kept swinging, and I kept blocking in the nick of time. The skeleton swung faster and faster, as its confidence increased, thinking that I was only able to block. A smirk fell on my face, and I casually waved with my hand, causing the skeleton knight to get blown away, crashing into the other side of the room.

“Don’t get conceited.” I said, as I started slowly walking towards it. The skeleton got back up on its legs, then charged back at me, restarting its flurry of swings. This time I didn’t block them, but instead opted to dodge. I quickly dodged the swings, making it look like my body was in several places at once, leaving after images. The skeleton swung harder and harder, faster and faster, as its rage increased. Suddenly I grabbed its sword with my hand, stopping it in an instant. The skeleton looked despaired, then I swung my sword down on its head, cleaving it in two and channelling fire magic through the sword, burning it to ashes.

‘That was fun.’ I thought, as I left the boss room to continue downwards. After venturing another twenty five floors down, just the monsters were B ranked. When I arrived at floor eighty, I met my first A ranked monster, being at the middle stage. For some reason, all the bosses so far were at the same stage as the skeleton knight. This fight would be slightly harder, I wouldn’t be able to beat it in one move.

At this time I had spent two weeks in the dungeon. Luckily there were some biological monsters in here with blood. Even then, I could still last two weeks without blood, but it would be very nasty and I would weaken a bit.

The boss of the eightieth floor was a Dread Knight. It was another being clad in entirely black armour, but I couldn’t see its face or any other body part, so I wasn’t sure whether it was another skeleton or not. As I entered the room, the Dread Knight didn’t give me even a moment and immediately charged at me. Using its two handed bastard sword it cleaved at me, much faster than the previous bosses. I dodged to side and sent returned my own sword at him, but he managed to block it, but I didn’t let it recover and sent an ice spear at him. The ice spear hit his armour, although it was crushed it still managed to send him staggering back a meter or two.

“A worthy candidate has appeared.” The Dread Knight said with a low raspy voice, much to my surprise. I jumped back a bit.

“You can talk?” I asked, easily keeping my calm.

“Yes, the bosses you meet from here are all intelligent beings with sentience. You are far stronger than you appear to be. You are only at the peak stage of rank B, but you are stronger than me. It is the duty of us guardians to protect this place and find someone worthy. Since you are so abnormal in a way that only the legendary beings can be, I have already decided your worth.” The Dread Knight said. This was interesting.

“So I’m worthy? What then?” I asked.

“I shall explain to you. If you can make me admit defeat, and make all the other bosses admit defeat, then you have passed. That would mean that we deemed you worthy. The only exception to this is the last boss. Him, you must kill. After he has died, you shall receive the inheritance of Great Lord Palazar, and yourself become the Great Lord of the Tomb of Palazar.” The Dread Knight explained.

“I see. Then does that mean you have admitted your defeat?” I asked.

“It does.” The Dread Night said, kneeling himself in front of me.

“Good.” I said, then passed by the Dread Knight, passing the eightieth floor. After this boss I found that the monsters increased greatly in both strength and numbers. The monsters of this floor were all at the peak of rank B. I spent several days traversing through the long corridors and large halls, until I made it to the end of the 85th floor, arriving in front of a large door, once again. I opened the door and met the boss. This boss was a beautiful man, wearing dark light armour. He was a high demon, summoned from the demon realm. The high demon was an immortal creature, like us vampires, but they didn’t have the power boost that we had. Only Demon Dukes and above have that. I walked into the room and looked the demon in the eye.

“I have received the approval of the Dread Knight, and thus come here, seeking your approval.” I announced. The demon looked very surprised to see me.

“I see. That’s very good. It’s been millennia since someone made it this far, and the first time someone received the approval of even one of us. Show me what you got.” He said with a beautiful voice that could almost rival a vampire’s voice. The demon immediately charged at me, and fired a barrage of fire blasts at me. I immediately responded by making an earth wall, but the wall was melted away in mere seconds. I wouldn’t be able to contend against him with magic, since I was only a High Warlock. He seemed to be at least a Middle Arcanist, and he was also a middle A ranker. This fight would be a lot tougher than before.

The demon sent another barrage of fire blasts at me. I responded with a large water stream, immediately causing lots of steam. I charged at him with my sword, appearing in front of him in an instant. I swiped the sword, but the demon backed away and I only managed to cut a wound on torso. The demon responded by sending numerous fire blades at me. I tried to dodge, but A few managed to hit me, making a few wounds on my body, but much to the demons dismay, they healed in a matter of seconds. The demon looked on in shock.

“Holy shit! You’re at the peak of rank B, but physically you’re far stronger than I am, and you heal so quickly.” He exclaimed, but he didn’t stall any longer and charged right at me again with another fire spell. He made a wall of fire around me, then sent hundreds of fire blades. I couldn’t dodge easily because of the fire, so many blades hit me, one even managed to hit me in the arm. My arm was cleaved right off, which angered me quite a bit. I put huge amounts of mana into a wind spell and blew all the fires away, then charged at the demon. In an instant I appeared behind him and pierced my sword through his chest, making him spit out blood. I then focused my healing on my missing forearm, making it regenerate rapidly. In a few seconds it had regenerated. After that I pulled out my sword and grabbed his throat with my new arm.

“Do you give up?” I asked coldly.

“Yes, yes, I give up!” He shouted. I let go of my grip and let him fall to the ground.

“I deem you worthy. You regenerated your arm in seconds, that’s insane! And even though you’re clearly a High Warlock, the amount of mana you put into that spell was huge! You’re clearly superior to me.” He said praisingly.

“Alright. I’ll be on my way then.” I said, then left the stunned demon behind.

Once more I traversed through the floors, but it got significantly harder now. I had to fight monster at the early stage of rank A, and were quite a few of them. I spent a full two months going through the next five floors, until I arrived at the next boss room. This was floor 90, so there should only be two more after this one. If the dungeon is a hundred floors deep that is. I hesitantly opened the boss door, and entered inside.

Inside this boss room there was a woman clad in Norse armour. She calmly looked at me.

“You are the first one to ever make it here. Did you get the approval of the others?” She asked with a calm and serene voice.

“Yes, I did.” I answered.

“I see. I am the Valkyrie Kára, and I shall be thy opponent.” She said, then charged at me with her spear. This woman was at the late stage of rank A. She thrusted her spear towards me, trying to pierce through my head, but I quickly dodged to the side, then kicked towards her stomach, with my superior speed coupled with her being in the middle of an attack, I managed to hit her and send her flying. As she was flying I charged in front of her and punched her stomach, making her crash down to the floor. Kára quickly recovered and charged me again, this time sending a flurry of spear thrusts at me. Once more I dodged them all, and unsheathed my sword. I slashed my sword at her, but she blocked with her metal spear. I slashed again, but she blocked again. I continued slashing at her, but she would block every time. I decided to try a new tactic. I started using my superior speed to dodge around her and attack her from angles. Eventually I managed to hit her arm, making a big gaping wound. Kára backed away after she was wounded, but recovered quickly. She started attacking me in a frenzy and I could only dodge around and block. After a few exchanges I decided to fight back again, so I suddenly disappeared from her vision, and attacked her from behind, but she reacted quickly and turned around to block, but she was too slow and I managed to cut into her shoulder before she got away.

I once again charged at her, but the moment I was in front of her, I jumped up above. There, I made a huge spear of fire and sent it at her. She managed to easily dodge the fire spear to the side of the fire spear, but to her dismay I had disappeared. She looked around her in panic, but she couldn’t find me. All of a sudden a longsword pierced out of the huge fire next to her, and pierced right into her stomach. While she was still surprised I took out the sword and chopped of both her arms in quick succession, making her scream in pain. Then I held my sword to her throat, ready to slice it in two at a moment’s notice. I glared her in the eyes with my soul piercing gaze.

“I give up.” She said with a weak voice.

“Good choice. Now go and get those arms reattached before it’s too late.” I said, before turning around and also leaving her behind. She had been the strongest one yet, but she was still a stage beneath me, so she wasn’t too much of a challenge. The next one is who I was nervous about. He or she might be a peak stage. If that’s the case, then it will be a lot harder.

Once more I traversed the halls of the Tomb of Palazar. I was glad to find that the normal monsters didn’t increase in strength further, and they weren’t as numerous as in the earlier floors, where there hadn’t been any A rankers. I spent another four months going through the next five floors.

Eventually it was time to face the next boss.

The atmosphere in this room was much darker. There was a man that looked very familiar to the Dread Knight, except he had a blood red cape, and looked a bit more ornamental. It was the Dread Lord.

“Thou hath arrived, challenger. I am the Dread Lord, and I shall see if thou art worthy. I know that the others have given thee thy worthiness, but now it is my turn.” He said and slowly walked up to me. He had a huge sword in his hands, which he quickly swung at me, but I dodged rather easily. I continued swinging, only for me to dodge. He was also at the late stage of rank A, just like the Valkyrie. As he swung once more, I swung back and our swords clashed. We continued swinging at each other, but it was clear that I held the upper hand, as he was forced to back away. I swung twice in quick succession, first pushing his sword back, then attacking again going for the kill, but the Dread Lord responded by grabbing my sword with his hand, causing a small crack in his gloves, but he had hold of my sword. I responded by swinging my body and nimbly kicking him in the head making his body go flying.

I charged back at him, as he laid on the floor and chopped my sword at his arm full power. His arm was directly chopped off, but my own sword couldn’t handle it shattered.

“Well, shit!” I exclaimed as I looked at my shattered sword. But it mattered not. I transformed my hands into claws. My vampire claws were extremely hard and sharp, so they were an even better weapon than the sword. I charged at him full speed, at tried to pierce his chest with my claw, but he managed to block it with his sword, but then I thrusted the other claw forwards and pierced right through his armour into his chest and directly grabbed his heart. Seems like he really was a living being.

“You give up? Or do you perhaps not want your heart?” I asked.

“Thou hast won upon me. I surrender to the Great Thee, and shall serve thee, if thou can defeat the last enemy.” The Dread Lord said, as I let go of his heart. Once more I left the boss behind, as I continued on my journey. The next boss would be the last one, it seems. He will probably be at the peak stage of rank A. It would be a hard fight. But I had to get there first.

Thus I continued down the road until I got the last floor, after another three months. This door was the biggest yet, at least a hundred meters tall. I opened it with my colossal strength, and entered the room of the last enemy, as the Dread Lord called it. This room really was different. It was huge! Far bigger than the other rooms, you could even fit a dragon in here. In the centre of this room stood the so called “Last Enemy”.

What stood before me was a skeleton, wearing black robes. His eye sockets were completely empty of life and he just stood there, staring into nothingness. I knew what this was. It was a failed lich. A failed lich is what happens when you try to become a lich, but die in the progress. Your carcass would be left as a mindless monster that will just stand there for eternity, only moving when another being appears near them. They will try to kill everything that comes near them.

The room was very cold and there was ice all over. Seems like it was an Ice Lich. I carefully ventured forwards. When I got within a few tens of meters of the lich it finally reacted. It immediately sent a flurry of ice spikes at me, but I managed to dodge with ease. I charged up to it, while it sent flurry after flurry of ice spikes after, without hitting me, and eventually I arrived before it. Slashed at it with my new sword that I found on my way down here. This sword was far better than my previous one, and was even enchanted with a fire effect. Quite perfect for my current opponent. As I was about to slash at the lich, it quickly backed away, and sent a huge ice fist in my face. I flew several meters back before I managed to regain my balance. This would indeed be a hard fight, for I was fighting a High Arcanist. A High Arcanist was as strong as or sometimes even stronger than a peak stage A ranker.

I charged at the lich again, this time ready. In a blink of an eye I was behind it. I hit the borders of its cloak before it got away and sent barrages of ice spears after me. Ice spears were much more powerful and much quicker than normal ice spikes. I dodged most of the ice spears, but a few managed to hit me. At least I managed to make the lich’s cloak catch fire. Again I charged at the lich, but this time I was going in side steps, going from side to side, evading his ice spears. I arrived in front of the lich and swiped my sword at it. This time I managed to land a clean hit, sending the lich flying. I continued my charge right away, but when I was about to slash at the lich, it discharged another spell. Thousands upon thousands of ice spears pierced up from the ground. I quickly dodged, but a few of them still managed to hit me. The lich didn’t rest and used another spell, making it rain with ice spears, while even more ice spears were piercing up from the ground. I was moving about in a flurry, trying to dodge the spears, but several still pierced into my body, making my blood flow.

I decided to put a large amount of mana into a fire spell. I made a fire hurricane appear, melting the ice spears, then I charged at the lich again. I managed to creep up to it and sent a flurry of attacks at it. The lich used several spells to block and dodge, but I eventually managed to hit it a few times, making a few areas on its body catch fire. The lich sent several large ice boulders at me, while quickly escaping backwards. After it had gotten a good distance away, it raised its hands. Suddenly the air got even colder, and ice started appearing in the air. Quickly huge amounts of ice spears and ice spikes appeared, while the winds were growing stronger and stronger. I knew something was going on, so I quickly rushed at the lich, but it was too late. An ice blizzard appeared, sending hundreds and thousands of ice spears and spikes all over. I was moving in a dodging frenzy, but I couldn’t dodge them all. I decided it was all or nothing, so I charged full speed forwards, dodging as many spears as possible, but many still hit me. My body was covered in blood when I finally arrived at the lich.

I was mad now. I crazily pounded my sword at him, not caring about anything else. The lich sent several spells at me, but I just let them hit as I hit the lich. There was blood everywhere around us, but the lich was also being hurt. Eventually I managed to hit it in the arm, chopping it right off. The lich returned the gesture by sending an ice sword at me, cutting my arm of as well. I prepared to slash my sword at him, but suddenly stopped and rushed behind him. The lich wasn’t prepared, so I managed to hit it right in the shoulder, decapitating the other arm. In its fury, the lich sent several full powered ice boulders at me, sending me flying.

Both of us were heavily injured. I had lost an arm, and had suffered hundreds of wounds, and the lich had lost both arms, but the difference between us was that I had my healing factor. All my small wounds had healed already, but I didn’t have the energy to rapidly heal my arm, so it was slowly healing. The lich on the other hand didn’t have it so easy.

It was time to end this. The lich started channelling its mana into a last attack, while I charged at it. I channelled huge amounts of mana into my fire sword, making huge flames. The lizard made another ice blizzard, while I chopped at him with my full power. A huge flame storm and a huge ice blizzard clashed. I kept pushing up to the lich, while the lich put all his strength into the blizzard. I continued pouring my mana into the sword, as the flame storm grew bigger. Eventually I finally stood before the Failed Ice Lich. I put the sword above my head, then using the entirety of my power, I let the storm fall upon the lich. The flames raged for a hundred meters around us, then grew smaller and smaller. Eventually the flames disappeared, leaving nothing, but ashes.

I won. As I thought this thought, I fell to my knees, exhausted. I had spent all my energy on that last attack, and had finally managed to win. If I didn’t have this sword and didn’t have huge amounts and mana and extremely fine control over it, then I might not have won.

After resting for a while, I started creeping to the end of the huge hall, to the small door at the end. After a while, I finally got there. I opened up the room, only to arrive in another room. In this room there were a few familiar figures. They were the previous guardians, the Dread Knight, the High Demon, the Valkyrie Kára, and lastly the Dread Lord.

“Congratulations on your victory, Master.” The four guardians said

“Inside this next room is the inheritance of the previous Master. We will wait for Master out here, so take your time.” The High Demon said. I nodded to them, I didn’t even have the energy to talk, then walked to the door they pointed to. When I entered the room, the door closed behind me on its own. I didn’t mind it and walked to the desk in front of me. On the desk there was a letter. I sat down in front of the desk and started reading the letter.

“Hello there stranger. Since you’re reading this, then it means you have passed the trial of the dungeon, and defeated all the guardians, making them submit, and most of all, you have defeated me. My name is Palazar, I am the one that created this dungeon. The reason that I’m writing this is because I failed at becoming a lich. I was attacked in the middle of the ritual, thus failing it. I’m writing this because you are my inheritor. By passing the test, you have shown your worth and that you are indeed a powerful being, perhaps as powerful as me, perhaps stronger, perhaps weaker.

The version of me that you fought was of course greatly weakened, as I was at the SSS rank. But alas, as a mortal being, I am not able to become an X ranker, thus becoming immortal. That’s why I tried to become a lich, as they are immortal beings, but alas the chance of success is low, and I was even attacked. But that is all in the past. I leave you everything that I owned here in my Tomb of Palazar. And I also leave you with a request. Whether it’s even possible or not, I do not know, but I wish for you to avenge me! If my enemy is still alive that is. I do not know how long it has been since I died, since I cannot see the future, but this enemy of mine should still have around seven thousand years of lifespan left.

As for who this enemy is, it is Alazar, my own brother! I leave only this request for you. Whether you do it or not, is up to you. There is one more thing you should know. There is a spell book here, called “Energy Manipulation Magic”. It’s a very rare kind of magic, and you won’t be able to leave this place until you learn it. I won’t ask you to master it, since that would take millennia, only learn the basics. That is the final test for becoming my inheritor. How long it takes is up to you.”

‘I won’t be able to leave before learning the Energy Manipulation Magic? That’s bad. I need to destroy the Royal Clan, but if this takes too long then that will be impossible.’ Oh well, there was only one thing I could do, and that was to start reading, but before that I needed to rest for a while. I looked around the place and conveniently found a bedroom and crept into bed.

Like that I slept for a whole two months until I woke up again. As soon as I woke, I started looking for that book, then sat down at the desk, and started reading.

End of chapter 19