Deadmeat Saga

In the Tabarga Temple-

Princess Libania finished receiving a new oracle half an hour later and couldn't help but sigh in relief.

"High Priestess, what did our lord say?" The Reverand, who was beside her, carefully asked.

"The crisis is averted, and the heroes triumphed over the corrupted Ma Yang and the Echo behind him." Princess Libania smiled.

"Good, good, good!" The Reverand's eyes lit up.

Killing Ma Yang was already a cause for celebration, but they also killed an Echo! It was a heroic achievement!

The Echoes are a minority, but each is S-rank and above, handpicked at birth for their immense potential. A piece of power of IT enters them in the womb when their soul is at its lowest, converting them. It wasn't possession, but more like becoming an inferior Champion of a god but not quite there, akin to an Echo of its power, thus their name. This production method also makes them impossible to eradicate, popping up every few hundred years.

The number of Echos is limited, only a few dozen in the entire continent, and their production is low, perhaps producing one every decade or two. However, they could live several times more than other powerhouses and create The Corrupted, mass-produced soldiers. However, The Corrupted also had a hierarchy. The Corrupted status increased fighting power but ebbed at the user's sanity and lifespan, making them expendables. But those favored gain the blessing of their unspeakable patron, lowering the backlash to a minimum. Ma Yang was the latter, a high-value chess piece that can infinitely grow stronger.

Fortunately, before Ma Yang could become a menace, he was killed off, and even the Echo behind him was angered to the point of revealing itself, resulting in its demise. It could be said to be the best-case scenario!

"The heroes have achieved an incredibly meritorious deed. The current bounty is insufficient." Princess Libania reminded.

"Yes, yes. I will requisition for the bounty for an Echo to give to the heroes. It would likely take a few days with all the bureaucratic nonsense." The Reverand readily nodded.

The Main Temple had a hefty bounty for each Echo slain. Because of this, the Echoes were highly secretive. They might remain inactive for hundreds of years before they strike.

"Then we shall return. I also need to start summoning the next Otherworlder posthaste. Make the preparations." The princess said. Even if Ma Yang fell to corruption, her duty to summon a new Otherworlder didn't change. Most Otherworlders were not like that. Ma Yang was just a nutcase.

"Yes, high priestess." The Reverand nodded.

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Meanwhile-

In all parts of the world, the Echoes, hiding in plain sight, noticed the death of one of their companions, and they knew who it was and how he died. They saw him and another man charge at each other, feeling furious, but that emotion turned into horror as the man suddenly activated a top berserker ability, Rampage, and roared. In his last moments, he saw a big fist smashing squarely into his face. That was all they saw.

Unfortunately, they couldn't read his final thoughts, that the man was a Pure-Blooded Tyrant, or they would have been like a steered hornet nest.

Three masked Echoes who planned to help block the temple's reinforcements with their forces to help Ma Yang grow saw it as well, knowing the mission failed, and even worse, they lost a precious Echo.

"Ianuarius, that hotheaded kid. As a chess player, he jumped onto the board and got swept by pawns. Disgraceful." A man appearing in his mid-twenties said with a displeased voice.

"He is a 60-year-old fledgling who is ambitious. Most of us who die are 100 years old or younger." A middle-aged man replied, unmoved as an ancient tree.

To others, 60 was enough to be a grandfather or great-grandfather, far from being called a kid. However, to the Echoes, their aging process stagnates when they hit 18, progressing dozens of times slower. As a result, they are hormonally the same as a hot-blooded young adult until they reach a hundred years old. The man in his mid-twenties was already over a hundred years old, and the middle-aged man was well into his fifth century.

They are also usually more mighty as they age due to training, awakening new talents, and feedback from their god. Because of these reasons, all Echoes must train for the first twenty years after reaching maturity. They also encouraged them to train for a few more decades, especially for self-control, but Ianuarius ignored this advice, leaving to do his own thing after 20 years. They didn't know the details, but he established himself in Tabarga for twenty years.

"If Ianuarius succeeded, he would have been greatly rewarded by the great one. It is understandable to lose his marbles." A mature and appealing woman lightly shook her head.

If they succeeded, the Southwestern Coast would become a bloodbath. It was a blood sacrifice to their god, and it would inevitably weaken the human forces, rewarding anyone who participated, especially the head of the operation. By luck, Ianuarius stumbled upon Ma Yang in Tabarga when he cut off one of his prostitute's arms and foresaw his demise, stalking him for days while convincing them, his seniors, to help him block the temple's reinforcements. His plan would have succeeded, yielding results they couldn't dream of if it were not for that adventurer party meddling.

"However, that man... Who is he? I don't remember him from the intelligence reports. He has the strength of an SS-rank berserker. For Ianuarius, a stealth-type rogue, to stupidly face him head-on like that, he deserved to die." The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes.

The Echoes had spies everywhere, using various channels to obtain information. They had centuries to build and control such networks, after all.

"He is likely someone from a major nation or one of the three superpowers who came over during the last two weeks. There is no way such a powerhouse would stay in a tiny place like the Nehan Kingdom." The young man said.

"I will investigate and see who receives the bounty. It should be easier from there." The woman suggested.

The other two nodded before taking their forces and scattering in three directions. There was no point in staying there, after all.

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At this time, Gerhart rode toward Droham while checking his spoils from absorbing Ma Yang and the Echo. Initially, he was afraid he might absorb the Corrupted and the weird blessing, but it seemed the Relic detested them.

 

Detected Malicious Power. Undigestable. (Requires Stage 2 Ascension)

Filtering- Success.

Absorbed compatible Reality Coordinate and Reality Identity.

The reality invasion function is locked. Requires Stage 4 Ascension.

 

The Relic considered them both malicious, which was unsurprising. Gerhart was also disgusted by them. He admitted that the Corrupt state was powerful, but Gerhart didn't want it. It was too dangerous and might have some hidden strings, like becoming someone's puppet.

And what remained of Ma Yang proved it. His body became a pile of foul-smelling black ashes instead of regular ashes.

He was also astonished at the added bits about a Compatible Reality Coordinate and Reality Identity. They were presumably added due to Ma Yang being an otherworlder. However, since he needed to reach Stage 4 Ascension, he shelved any thoughts about it for now.

However, he was also surprised by what happened when he absorbed the Echo.

 

Detected the Power Extension of a powerful entity.

Assessing- WARNING!

This power cannot be covertly absorbed and contains undigestable malicious power(Requires Stage 3 Ascension)

Filtering- Success.

 

What became of the Echo was that it became a pile of foul-smelling black goo. It was disgusting! Luckily, he already searched the body before absorbing what he needed, acquiring two identity cards, a badge, a teleportation scroll, a black dagger, and some loose change. He figured he might know the man's identity with the identity cards. And that badge might belong to the Echoes, so he planned to hand it to the temples.

With that settled, Gerhart burned the remains of both bodies, especially the Echo's, with potent fire magic, destroying them before leaving the scene.

Either way, he got some of the GOOD stuff from absorbing them.

 

Talents from Ma Yang: Translation(Humans), Furious Sword Cultivator, Cultivation Prodigy, Heaven Rewards the Righteous.

 

{Unique Talent - Translation(Humans): Can translate all known human languages.}

{Unique Talent - Furious Sword Cultivator: You are the cultivator of the Furious Sword technique, a wrathful technique to smite the sinners of heaven. Drastically increases affinity to swordsmanship and berserker techniques.}

{Unique Talent - Cultivation Prodigy: You are a cultivation prodigy sensitive toward energies. Drastically increases affinity toward Body Forging, Meditation, Temperance, senses, and intuition.}

{Unique Talent - Heaven Rewards the Righteous: The heavens reward those who act righteously! As long as you are righteous in your heart, the heavens shall support you!}

 

Translation(Humans) was fantastic! He could now speak and understand all human languages. Furious Sword Cultivator enhanced his talent for Swordsmanship and Berserkage, and he also absorbed Ma Yang's techniques and could use Furious Sword Frenzy along with Rampage, improving his abilities further. Cultivation Prodigy's affinity to Body Forging and Meditation was okay, but what attracted him more was the sensitivity, intuition, and temperance it gave. It made him calmer and made him able to react better to situations.

As for Heaven Rewards the Righteous-

"So, as long as I do righteous things, I get rewarded? Where are the criteria in Righteous? What stops me from being a self-righteous jerk who convinces himself he is doing the right thing?" Gerhart immediately noticed the disgusting loophole in this talent and understood why Ma Yang behaved as he did, or at least the motive. He figured Ma Yang himself had mental issues.

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However, Gerhart noticed the broad spectrum of the term Righteousness.

"It says that being Righteous brings rewards. But being Righteous doesn't mean killing evil beings but being morally right and justifiable. For example, protecting the weak, helping the poor, curing the sick, freeing slaves, stopping wars, solving famines and epidemics, and other good deeds. If Ma Yang thought in this direction, wouldn't he avoid falling to the wrong path? He could have been a complete saint!" Gerhart thought.

He realized the immense untapped potential of this talent and how much Ma Yang wasted it. If steered in the right direction, one didn't need to spill a drop of blood to become a top powerhouse. And to Gerhart, who viewed everyone as treasure, it was a great talent!

 

Talents from the Echo: Great Assassin, Great Dark Tempter, Superior Agent, Adored by Shadows, Deep Transformation(Partial).

Stat Grade Improvement: SS-grade Agility, SS-grade Dexterity, SS-grade Perception.

 

{Unique Talent - Great Dark Tempter: Majorly increases charm, charisma, seduction, manipulation, and persuasion. You find it easier to know how to convince others to do your bidding and steer the desires in their heart, especially lustful, dark, and forbidden ones.}

{Unique Talent - Superior Agent: Greatly increases Agility, Dexterity, Perception, Intelligence, Charm, Persuasion, Information Gathering, and Linguistic abilities. Also greatly increases affinity toward acting, disguising, stealth, assassination, and poison-making skills.}

{Unique Talent - Deep Transformation(Partial): Can partially transform the body into a look that is not too different. Immune to detection methods of a lower level.}

 

Gerhart was surprised that this guy had two tier-7 talents, Great Assassin and Great Dark Tempter! Luckily, only one was combat-related, and it was stealth-oriented rather than frontal confrontation.

Through his momentary loss of rationality, overconfidence, and luck, the Echo stupidly attacked Gerhart head-on instead of using his talents as an assassin to hide and bide his time. Even if heavily wounded, the Echo could have used a Teleportation Scroll to escape, but unfortunately, he died on the first hit.

Either way, Gerhart greatly benefitted. What made him satisfied the most was Deep Transformation, a superior version of Transformation. Hopefully, it would make True Sight less effective.

"I will grant it to the others later." Gerhart thought as he continued riding.

Just like that, by evening, the group arrived at Droham.