Lumian approached the edge of the dark water and summoned his monster. After a brief splash on the still surface, the Cannibal Dolphin emerged, lifting its head to look at him with cold, deep eyes.
"Hunt some beasts," Lumian ordered calmly.
The Cannibal Dolphin immediately sank back into the depths of the gloomy sea, leaving only a dark whirlpool in its wake.
Lumian was certain that this sea was a terrifying place, teeming with corrupt monsters, tyrannical demons, and indescribable beings. Who knew what horrifying creatures lurked in its abyss.
Originally, the dolphin was merely an echo of the Awakened beast he had slain on his first night. However, by turning it into a subordinate beast and granting it the Mark of the King, he felt an anxious curiosity to see the results.
He could clearly sense the bond connecting him to his subordinate, though he was unaware of what it was doing at that precise moment.
A few minutes passed before an ethereal voice resonated in his mind:
[You have slain an Awakened beast: Deep-Sea Eel]
[Your core strengthens]
Lumian nodded, satisfied. His assumptions were correct: if someone bearing his mark killed a monster, he too would obtain fragments for his core. With this method, and if he shared the Mark of the King with a sufficient number of people…
A wave of emotion swept through him, but his defect snuffed it out immediately, leaving only a warm clarity in his chest. He didn't mind. If he could form a marked army, he would reach the rank of Inactive Titan at a ridiculous speed.
He mentally summoned the runes and confirmed that the fragments had increased: there were now 269, one more than the 268 he had after converting the shell demon into his subordinate beast.
Lumian lay down on the ash-covered ground beneath the great tree's canopy. The constant, distant, deep sound of the dark sea was even relaxing to him.
---
Over the next few hours, the spell's voice continued to inform him of the kills made by his aquatic monster. Lumian noticed something important: he only received a third of the fragments; the other part went to his subordinate.
For every four fragments generated, one went to him and three to the marked beast. Upon discovering this, he mentally drafted a plan to continue evolving.
Once he reached the Dark City, he would let the Awakened shell demon roam freely and hunt monsters. That way, he would obtain fragments… or perhaps, even memories.
When the dark sea began to recede, Lumian dismissed his subordinate and entered his Sea of Soul. He summoned the runes to check his progress.
---
Name: Cannibal Dolphin
Type:Subordinate Beast
Core:[52/2000]
Attributes:[Water], [Minor Agility]
Description:A being that devours its kin upon birth.
---
Satisfied, he left the monster recovering in the depths of his Sea of Soul.
He stood up, stretched calmly, and after waiting for the sea to fully retreat, he made his way toward the Bony Ridge. He had agreed to meet Asael there the previous day.
---
Lumian returned to the Bony Ridge, approaching the great skeleton of the leviathan. Upon arriving, he saw a figure begin to descend rapidly along the gigantic bones. After a few seconds, he recognized Asael's face, who smiled upon seeing him.
"Hey, for a moment I thought you'd forgotten about me," Asael said, jumping the last stretch and landing softly. "I was going to drag you out of that place even if I had to break a few of your bones."
Lumian feigned an exaggerated expression of horror.
"By the gods,would you really do that?"
"Yes."
"I guess you really would,"concluded Lumian, observing his companion with a half-smile. "And did you get what you were looking for?"
"One could say so,"replied Lumian, then furrowed his brow as if remembering something. "There was an egg of a Great Devil hidden among the tree's branches."
Asael's eyes widened.
"AGreat Devil?! Are you joking?"
"No,"Lumian denied calmly. "It was just an unhatched egg, so I cracked it open and gained a new attribute."
Asael leaned forward, interested.
"Which attribute?"
"It's called Mark of the King.It allows me to mark monsters or people to make them stronger," Lumian explained.
"Well,I'm happy for you," said Asael, then lowered his voice. "Though I also saw something interesting."
"What is it?"
"I saw it while I was at the top of the bones.Something enormous was approaching, though from the distance it just looked like a black smudge moving this way."
Lumian's eyes widened, but his defect kept his mind cold and clear.
Could it be possible?he thought. He quickly shook off his brief stupor and asked:
"Where is it?"
"A few kilometers in that direction,"Asael pointed north, beyond the Bony Ridge. "Is it important?"
"Yes,"Lumian affirmed. "You remember I mentioned I was going to start a war against the monsters to get us out of the Dream World, right?"
Asael nodded solemnly.
"To do that,we first need to gather some prerequisites, and one of them is memories. The statue will take us close to where two of them are."
"So we're going to ride a mysterious entity that will take us who-knows-where?"Asael asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes,"Lumian's reply was so flat it was almost comical given the tension of the moment.
"Alright,"said the blond, a gleam of excitement in his eyes.
Lumian blinked.
"Aren't you scared?"
"Lumian,after everything we've been through this past week, nothing can surprise me anymore."
"True,"Lumian admitted.
He then summoned the shell demon, which appeared crouched beside them, its black armor gleaming under the ashen light of the sky.
"Why is it bigger and its armor black now?"Asael asked, observing curiously.
"It's because of my new attribute.I simply marked it, and it became like this."
Asael summoned his own echo, the Shell Centurion, an imposing Awakened monster.
Both creatures began to advance at great speed through the gray, lifeless coral. The weaker monsters fled in terror at the presence of a Centurion alongside an Awakened Demon.