NOVGO.NET Chapter 428: A True Mentor!
Chapter 428: A True Mentor!
━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━
A scream escaped Lizzy…
Even as she opened her eyes, she questioned the world. She had just escaped the Shaman’s nightmare, and yet there was an even more nightmarish creature before her?!
Black scales oozing blood.
Claws so sharp yet slightly twisted.
And then there was the tattoo… a curse?!
But then she couldn’t help but freeze. The creature that smelled of slaughter and destruction had a satisfied smile on its face as it kept hugging her as if a pillow.
And that’s when she finally recognized him…
“Wait, don’t tell me you’re?!”
Jack already wasn’t a newborn anymore. Devouring countless in the Arena had changed his appearance and aura, making him go from newborn to teenager instantly!
Hell, had it not been for that crazed smile of his— No, that didn’t matter right now. Lizzy grabbed him, carrying him with all her might, soon exiting an even more crazed Arena.
Everywhere they went, glares were sent their way…
Some were in awe at witnessing a miracle.
Some simply oozed with killing intent.
Some showed disdain for the cursed.
Yet Lizzy ignored it all, carrying his limp body across the Fire Realm, eventually reaching a certain cave full of broken shamanic trinkets and an equally broken ’mentor’.
The poor lizard barely raised a scale as she entered:
“You’re back, fake apprentice of mine.”
All around him were empty bottles of lizardnip, his eyes bulging from the intoxication. How much had he been drinking? The answer was YES!
But he still managed to point his finger. In the corner of the Cave, there was a bloodied mountain?!
Newborn corpses, stacked to high heaven, filling the place and oozing balefulness. All of them were curses, all written on the dead newborns, ones full of sheer resentment!
“T-This… it can’t be?!”
The curses were addressed… to HER?!
Then why was she completely fine? Why wasn’t she writhing on the ground in pain? Why wasn’t she— and that’s when she saw it. Her mentor holding an old scale of hers?!
He had taken all those curses upon himself?! As he moved, wriggling curses swam on his body, yet he didn’t mind it, simply giving a self-deprecating smile.
“I’m truly getting old, and blind, and so very tired. I don’t have it in me to fight anymore. Just let me drink in peace, alright? As for you, you know what to do…”
He didn’t mention anything that was happening.
He didn’t even justify himself either.
He simply kept drinking.
Not because he was despairing, but because those goddamn curses truly hurt like a bitch! He’d drink until he became numb to the world and himself alike!
He’d drink until— Ah right, one last thing:
“Fuck them all up, alright?”
That’s the last thing he said before falling asleep hugging a bottle as tightly as Jack was hugging her at that very moment. Seeing this, a sigh escaped Lizzy.
“Thank you… teacher.”
For once, she actually meant it.
Yet a second later, she got busy. She went through the destroyed cave, probably an aftermath of those goddamn curses, quickly finding all she needed.
Had she been a player, she would have received countless notifications…
[Obtained Medicinal Ingredients!]
[Obtained LOTS of Poisons!]
[Ding! Mixed them All?!]
Before her stood a VERY doubtful bubble bath that smelled of sulfur?!
But then an insane idea suddenly crossed her mind, one that would have given anyone watching PTSD for sure as she started… tossing cursed corpses in there too?!
[Warning! Warning! Brewing Resentment!]
[Warning! Warning! Brewing Resentment!]
[Warning! Warning! Brewing Resentment!]
In a matter of seconds, the pool became EXPLOSIVE!
Pure miasma oozed out of it, newborn ghosts seemingly hovering above it, trying to escape the bubbling water. And as if that wasn’t crazy enough, that’s when she threw him in!
She grabbed Jack by his scaly neck and— Throw: sent him right in with a splash! The corrupted energy was swirling so crazily that even a sleeping mentor woke up.
“WHAT?! We’re under attack! Quick, Lizzy, run! We—”
But that’s when he froze, tongue hanging out, the scene before him too insane… and that was coming from a lizard who had literally just taken dozens of curses like a madman!
The teenage lizard in the pond started trashing relentlessly, clearly in pain. But it became even stranger as he KEPT trashing about. Hell, he should have died instantly?!
At this moment, a certain mentor was stunned sober.
“Y-You… what have you done?!”
“Just gifting him curses.”
Gifting curses?! What kind of bullshit was this?! The old mentor instantly rushed to help the kid, only for Lizzy’s slender arm to stop him, her meaning clear ’Just watch’.
Just watch? It was already a miracle that the youngster had survived so long! If they kept watching, then all their earlier efforts to hatch it would go to waste, and— WTF?!
He was so shell-shocked he felt drunk again. Was he imagining it, or had the youngster just turned around and started devouring those curses?! W-what the actual fuck was this?!
Jack kept going, eating and eating some more.
Curses?! So what? Those came from his victims! Anyone else would have been weakened by guilt, but he had none of it. So what if he had killed newborns made of data?
Instead, he kept cackling inwardly:
’Trying to curse me? I’ll just devour you again!!!’
With the Old Lizard taking the brunt of the curse power, and Lizzy offering what was left to him, Jack now had the perfect opportunity to power up! He channeled it all until…
[You Truly Are Demonic Beyond Belief!]
[Demon King’s Weapon Aspect Leveled UP!]
[D-Did You Just Imbue Newborn Ghosts In Your—?!]
That’s when Jack finally regained his senses.
He had gone from berserker to having a weird dream about devouring youngster ghosts, and now he awoke in a messy cave full of destroyed trinkets and two gawking lizards.
But then a second later, a laugh escaped Lizzy:
“Good, you’re back! Let’s get ready for—”
Jack didn’t even listen. He instantly dashed toward the trembling old man, slashing a defenseless throat?! Under Lizzy’s horrified gaze, his claws made contact and—
A flash of green light appeared and blocked it?!
[Curse of the Scaly God Activating!]
[You Cannot Hurt Lizardmen!]
[*PS: You’re Fucked!]
Clicking his tongue, Jack couldn’t help but sigh.
“Just as I thought. That’s one hell of a debuff. Fuck, would have been so much easier to just kill everyone. Oh well, whatever. Now, what were you saying? Getting ready for…”
A certain trembling Old Lizard suddenly crumbled to the ground like a wet noodle. What the actual fuck was that?! This THING before them clearly wasn’t a lizard!
The shaman wasn’t that strong, but he wasn’t blind either. This was clearly that one dragon-summoned soul from back then. How?! He should have lost all memories and—
That’s when the creature turned toward him, grinning.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff old timer…”
Why did it feel like he could read his thoughts?! Why was he being so calm?! Wasn’t he worried that he’d tell Tan’Hos about him?! And how had he survived the curses?!
Once again, the latter glanced back, giving a gentle look.
“Worried? Of course not! You’ve done so much for me, you’re obviously a friend! Besides, are you planning to go against Scaly’s wishes? No way!”
Fuck, he really could read one’s thoughts! A trembling old lizard started shivering even more. It was already too late, he’d be seen as an accomplice at this rate! Goddamnit!
Decades were suddenly shaved off his lifespan, so suddenly that he almost lost track of his surroundings. Yet, it wasn’t a big loss for the other two were still fucking scheming.
“The next step will be THE Training Grounds, and it won’t be easy. Countless challenges, impossible tasks, and you’ll be public enemy number one for sure!”
“Public enemy? I just have to crush them all…”