"Ten years on ......"

Looking at the furnishings in the hidden room, Shia opened his arms with emotion, as if he wanted to hold everything in the room in his arms.

A whole decade has passed since that incident happened.

As a travellers, in these years, he did not have any laziness, every day he was diligently preparing: trying to become stronger, making money like crazy, collecting raw materials ......

Everything, just for this moment in front of him.

His luck was good, even though some rare materials took a lot of effort, he still found them in the end, otherwise, it would have taken much longer.

Shia, whose full name is Shia Adelaide, comes from the southernmost province of Sacco in the Hyrum Empire, and grew up in a village with a population of no more than two hundred, where his father, who holds the title of Viscount, is the minor lord.

Although it sounds like quite good, but in fact is not imagined that kind of extravagant and gorgeous aristocratic life.

In addition to hunting, the village's agricultural production is the only source of income, where the climate is wet and cold, sunshine is not enough, crops ripen once a year, sold to the nearest town, the money returned to shave off layers of taxes to the Empire, the villagers have very little left.

Therefore, the whole village is living a very poor life.

In Shia's impression, since childhood, the main food on the table has always been dry hard black bread and bland vegetable soup, and soon after he learned to walk, his father was forcibly pulled over to participate in labor.

Although his father was more or less a nobleman, but only from the ancestors inherited the title, in addition to bringing him a certain status, and did not give the corresponding decency.

For example, although the family has a manor, but a total of only a few acres in size, but also because it has not spent money on maintenance and repair, resulting in a very dilapidated look.

Shia grew up in this small manor, in addition to his mother and father and a sister (biological) who went to the royal capital to study because of her excellent magical talent, there is only one young maid left.

Poverty, stability, warmth, fullness ...... This is the true picture of life.

The original Shia thought that this is some kind of daily series of farming stream setting, with his character and code of peace and happiness, in fact, live quite leisurely and quiet, and even some times think that this continues, in the future someday inherit the title and estate, and then married the family maid lady, give birth to two big fat boy, there is nothing wrong.

After all, like their family such as a small border noble, no foundation of power, there is no need to pay attention to what the family pair.

So Shia for all this is not much dissatisfaction, for the delayed awakening of the golden finger, it seems not so much to look forward to.

But life is always full of drama.

Especially in this unreasonable world, there exists an extremely bloody word that oppresses ordinary civilians all the time, involving them in strife and making the already difficult life even more miserable.

That vocabulary is called war.

Just overnight, the original quiet and peaceful idyllic life instantly collapsed, the so-called farming flow of the illusion of spears and war horses were instantly torn apart, turned into a completely different style of painting.

The sound of fighting, the sound of horses' hooves, the sound of fire, screaming ......

When Shia woke up from his sleep, the whole village had been stained with blood and flames, and the evil executioner with a villainous icy smile broke the entrance to the manor.

His father and mother fought to protect him until the last moment and died very tragically.

Then it was Shia's turn.

The group of invaders who claimed to be from a hostile country did not spare a child who was still underage, and to them, life seemed as cheap as a straw.

Shia was stabbed in the chest by a cold lance and nailed to the wall, blood gushing like a spring.

But until the second before he died, he stared hard at the leader of the light-armored knight without uttering a word.

Seemingly angered by the boy's eyes, the knight stepped forward with some displeasure and reached out to crush his skull - before losing consciousness, Shia vaguely saw that the lining of the opponent's light armor covering his entire body seemed to bear a sun emblem embroidered with gold silk, symbolizing the family line to which the knight was loyal.

The tragedy that night, in addition to the young maid into the city on business escaped death, only one survivor.

When Shia woke up again, it was light out.

The wounds on his body had completely recovered, even the slightest pain had disappeared, and only the remaining holes in his clothes and the broken walls outside the manor showed how horrific the evil had happened last night.

He did not die.

Not only did he not die, but he also felt an unprecedented surge of power in his body.

Although late, but the otherworldly golden fingers belonging to Shia, finally awakened.

But for him at that time, this could not be considered a surprise.

That day, it was Shia's sixth birthday.

......

Shia opened his eyes, took his thoughts back and glanced at the silver mirror beside him.

In the mirror was printed a handsome looking black-haired teenager, tall and thin, indifferent, the whole man hidden inside a wide covering dark robe.

Looking around, the small room was filled with all sorts of objects: stacks of manuscript paper everywhere, bottles and jars of liquid, the remains of unknown creatures, shiny magic gems ...... The most striking of these is definitely the strange pattern painted on the wooden floor.

The lines of the pattern are very distorted, and the whole is flushed with a bizarre bright red color, looking like an upside-down bloody mouth, emitting a playful mockery.

This is a ritual recorded in the Book of Taboos, used to communicate with certain evil and mysterious beings.

A closer look reveals that the lines that make up the pattern have many materials placed on the corners according to a pattern, each of which looks valuable, and these precious magical materials are what Shia has been preparing for the past ten years.

In order to these materials, he made money through various ways and channels, spending tens of thousands of gold coins, which barely collected the number of rituals that can be performed once.

This is a considerable amount of wealth, even in the pricey royal capital, not just anyone can afford to take out.

And before and after spending so much money, Shia wants to do, is only the successful completion of the current ceremony.

In order to become stronger.

"So, one last confirmation."

"The sacrificial materials are placed in the correct position."

"The shielding boundary is functioning properly."

"Spiritual state is fair."

The surrounding fire candles were dark and bright.

In such an environment, Shia, who was wearing a robe and concentrating on his work, looked like a cultist.

In fact, what he is about to do, no matter from which perspective, is also enough to be branded as a cultist, even if he is put in the Tower of Judgment is not too much.

Because -

He, Shia Adelaide, was about to launch a ritual to communicate with the most taboo existence in the entire continent - the extremely demon woman who was sealed in the deepest part of the endless black fog, enough to destroy the world.

And then, be killed by her!

It is not a fanatical belief that transcends life, nor is it some extreme fetish hidden deep inside, Shia knows very well that his own psychological and spiritual aspects are perfectly normal.

Just because he looks like a cultist doesn't mean that he is blinded by madness.

In fact, Shia understands exactly what he is doing and what the consequences will be.

Ultimately, he started this ritual to communicate with the forbidden being in order to become stronger.

In order to become stronger, in order to have the power of revenge, he can do anything.

But don't get me wrong, sacrificing to the darkness in exchange for a brief period of power or whatever is too low for Shia.

And this way is easy to be compelled by some unnamed existence, after all, his dictionary can not be "equivalent exchange" such words, the greater the probability is to be eaten clean, and then become a walking corpse.

He simply wanted to communicate with the unknown witch through this ritual, to transport himself there, and then be killed by her.

By being killed, you can become stronger.

Doesn't that sound a bit unbelievable?

That night ten years ago, after Shia woke up from the darkness with his whole body recovered as before and found himself becoming stronger than before, it was also this incredible.

[The host has died and successfully reached the opening conditions, the Infinite Kryptonian Life System is at your service.

[Your level has been raised from LV.1 to LV.3!

At that time, the newly resurrected Shia was still immersed in sorrow and pain, and had no time to care about the sudden change in style brought about by the appearance of the system, so it was temporarily set aside.

And only after he left home for the royal capital did he have time to study the system's functions.

Apart from the slightly clichéd personal status interface, the only function of the system has just been mentioned.

Get killed, get stronger.

No matter what form it takes, as long as Shia's status finally arrives at death, then he will be instantly resurrected and receive a certain amount of experience value, thus upgrading.

This is like playing an online game where you can kryptonite, and as long as you have enough money, you can become an invincible soft-money player.

The only difference is that Shia has to kryptonite his own life.

In addition to kryptonite, no matter how he tries to use means other than the system, such as exercise, meditation, taking drugs and other methods to improve strength, there is no effect.

This is also one of the reasons why Shia must open this ceremony.

Of course, for what kind of people killed this point, the system still has restrictions, otherwise Shia has long become immortal existence, this alone is enough for him to be invincible.

Only limited to villains.

Only those who are defined as villains by the system to kill Shia can be resurrected and become stronger.

For example, on that night ten years ago, the army led by the knight in light armor destroyed Shia's village and launched a massacre, so bloody executioner behavior and the devil, naturally defined by the system as a villain.

So, after Shia was killed by the knight of the Sun family crest to resurrect, and relied on experience directly rose two levels.

In the years since he got the system, Shia has been very actively looking for targets that can be defined as villains by the system, actively provoking them and then being killed.

He succeeded and relied on this method to become stronger quickly in a short period of time.

But as his level gradually increased, the experience value he received after being killed by those villains became less and less, even to the point where he could not make him upgrade.

Shia could not help but start thinking.

According to the theory of online games, after their own level, low-level monsters will no longer be able to provide experience value, want to upgrade, you must find stronger monsters to kill.

Is this the same reasoning as fighting monsters to upgrade?

The stronger the villain that killed him, the more experience value he will get?

With this thought in mind, Shia started a new attempt.

This time, however, he no longer focused on the list of those unworthy mountain bandits, but focused on the list of wanted criminals in the empire, and searched for them one by one from the bottom to the top.

As expected, the long-stagnant experience bar began to soar again.

Unfortunately, it was still a good time.

Only about a year has passed, and the experience value that the vicious criminals can provide is gradually becoming insignificant.

Until finally, even the cult leader on the Empire's most wanted list with a bounty of over 10 million gold coins could not provide enough experience value after a spell was carried out on him.

The leader of the largest cult that had been wreaking havoc on the entire country definitely had the combat power of one of the top 20 strongest people in the empire, and was the originator of the horrific "Blood Moon Tragedy" that had brutally blood sacrificed tens of thousands of civilians in order to summon an evil god.

But even such a strong man, after killing him still can not provide experience value for Shia.

And at that time, Shia was only [LV.26].

If you want to continue to upgrade, you can only go to a more powerful villain.

To say that the entire empire, more powerful than the cult leader is not without existence, but those people, can really be defined by the system as a villain?

After some meditation, Shia finally turned his attention to a forbidden place.

If you spread out the vast map of the Rand continent, then you can find at a glance, in the northern most part of the continent, the gaping canyon area, there is a stained black ink like an area, where there is no human or other racial power range marked.

It is not that humans do not want to occupy there, but to try for many years, there is still no way.

The source of the curse, the kingdom of the dead, hell ...... Compared to various with theological color called, human scholars prefer to use the endless black fog to call that area.

The horrible black fog that enveloped half of the northern continent has existed for thousands of years, and where it passes, not a blade of grass grows, ordinary people will die instantly if they get a trace of it, even the empire's strongest people sent to explore can not survive for a long time within, many times without success.

It is impossible to trace its source, nor to predict its end, always exist, threatening, this is the endless black fog.

And according to the secret speculation recorded in the ancient books, these appalling black fog, simply a certain forbidden existence inadvertently spilled out of the power!

Legend has it that, at the beginning of the creation of the gods, there was once an extremely demonic woman on the continent of Rand.

The demoness was born unknowable and would bring a dark curse to everything in the world, wherever she went, death would come, and all the creatures she touched would wither and wither, and the whole world was filled with black mist, deprived of life, and the creatures of countless races died.

As time goes by, the witch becomes more and more powerful.

Later, she even has the power of the gods, just wave your hand, you can make the whole continent to destruction!

Eventually, this move of the witch angered the gods of creation.

In order to punish the Witch, He and several other gods joined forces and sent the Witch into the abyss, and used absolute power to seal her there, never to see the light of day.

About this forbidden existence, the book mentioned only so much, and basically are incoherent, half rely on Shia's own deduction to reach a conclusion.

But this information is enough.

If this world is compared to a game, then the extreme demon woman sealed in the deepest part of the endless black fog is definitely enough to be called a world-class villainous big boss in front of all players.

According to the description in the literature, the demon girl definitely has the power of the gods level, even the strongest person in the Hylan Empire to challenge, I'm afraid they can not take a move.

The mortal body can never be compared to the gods, this is one of the immutable truths of the whole continent.

But for Shia, there could be no better news than this.

According to the rules of the system, the stronger the witch is, the more experience value she can gain after being killed, and the faster her strength will improve.

He was already a little impatient.

"Since that's the case ...... then let's start."

After double-checking, Shia gazed at the strange pattern on the ground and said softly.

He slowly squatted down and covered his hands on the wooden floor.

As his left hand touched the pattern on the floor, a soft white light slowly blossomed in the palm of Shia's hand.

Although his current magical realm was only that of an ordinary apprentice, after years of practice, he was already able to do the most basic of magical channeling, so it was only as if the ball of white light had touched a sponge and quickly merged into the lines depicted on the floor, making its way forward.

The ritual magical conductivity formation, drawn with a mixture of the blood of magical beasts and mercury, which is extremely conductive, was expensive and highlighted its importance at the moment.

As the white light grew stronger, the entire magical conduction array was channeled by Shia's magic, emanating a dazzling glow in the small, hidden room.

"Buzz-"

In the next moment, a small wooden box in one of the corners suddenly made a sound.

Inside it was placed a purple witch-demon heart that had long since dried up, but under the effect of the formation, a faint pulsation came from it.

With this as the dividing point, the room, which had been silent, resounded one after another with the response of the ritual materials, and the various magical ores emitted a beautiful glow, like a lyre in harmony.

The main materials were the rare organs of twelve exotic creatures, and the nodes of the magical matrix placed the Moon White Crystal Ore, Blood Red Stone, Essence of Eerie Night's Spit, Scales of the Abyssal Serpent, Skeleton of the Void Demon and four other rare transcendent materials, looking at this, those who didn't know might think he was trying to communicate with some evil god.

But in reality, these materials were only one of the necessary conditions for connecting to the Abyss.

So far, it was all following the guidelines in the Book of Taboos.

Shia wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He was only an apprentice magician, and his magic power could not afford a ritual of this magnitude. After a short while, Shia felt like he was being drained.

Seeing this, he hastily picked up the green magic stone placed aside and held it in his hand to replenish the dried up source of magic power.

Almost every second that passed, dozens or hundreds of gold coins were used up, this feeling was really painful, no wonder those old guys from the Magic Association had to fight in front of the Finance Minister's office every year over the research funding.

The industry of magic research is purely and simply burning money.

After a few more moments, the strange smiley face on the floor became more and more lifelike, which signified that the Magic Guiding Formation was about to be refined, and as Shia watched, his heart beat slightly faster.

It was time for the crucial step.

He carefully pulled out a test tube from his pocket, and by the light of the magic, he could see a thin, small layer of shiny substance settling at the bottom of the test tube.

This was the powder of the Voidworld Stone, a rare treasure even in the prosperous capital of the kingdom, worth a thousand pieces of gold to describe its preciousness, and widely used in strategic magic such as teleportation arrays.

Shia gently poured the powder into his palm and chanted an obscure and archaic incantation under his breath, then rose and walked slowly around the formation with a rhythmic pace.

The white light, which had been quite soft, gradually turned scarlet as the strange smile became more and more real, adding a bit of madness and evil to the whole ritual once again.

Whispers and whispers of laughter were faintly heard in the void, making people feel irritable.

Shia's face remained unchanged, and at the moment when the formation was about to reach a climax, he flicked the dust out of his hand and dropped it into the mouth of the upside-down laughing man.

"Boom..."

A string of silvery flames suddenly rose from the centre of the magical guidance formation, burning the dust of those imaginary boundary stones as if the strange laugh was opening its mouth wide and devouring it greedily!

Along with the burning flames, a teleportation channel that could only allow one person to pass through slowly emerged, like a plane of tumbling mercury, making it impossible to see through the interior.

"It's working."

Shia wiped the sweat from his forehead and a small smile appeared on his pale face.

Ten years of hard work had finally paid off.

Praying to the gods in times of distress, and instead of the gods giving an answer, the evil existence that the world reviled had become his last hope.

If he could have revenge, even if he fell into evil, he would not hesitate!

There was not much hesitation.

The next moment, he stretched out his hand towards the teleportation channel, as if to take hold of his future and

A powerful attraction came through and Shia disappeared very abruptly into the same place.

The movement in the room gradually subsided, leaving only the upside-down pattern depicted on the floor as if it were emitting mockery.

......

"Dang!"

With a muffled sound, Shia's body fell heavily onto the smooth, cold ground.

The consequence of passing through the unstable teleportation array was that his stomach was now churning and his brain was dizzy, as if he had been tied to a small boat and then sailed into a storm-ridden sea.

He took a deep breath, sensing that his surroundings were somewhat cold and damp, and stood up shakily, covering his forehead.

Although the surroundings were somewhat gloomy and the only illumination was the miserable white magic lights that lit up the nearby walls, with this faint glow, Shia looked around and took in the scene around him.

He ...... seemed to be in the middle of the main hall of a palace.

On either side were thick stone pillars carved with reliefs, and the road in the middle stretched towards the interior of the palace, so that the view inside was not really visible.

As a rule, the teleportation ceremony should have succeeded, otherwise the passage could not have been opened.

But according to the documents, the witch was sealed in the abyss of the northern continent, and there was no mention of such a palace at all, and judging from the style of the decoration it should not belong to recent times, which means that this place should have existed for a long time.

Could it be that some link had gone wrong and transported itself to another unnameable one?

A bewildered Shia sighed.

No matter where he was killed anyway, he would respawn back to the previously set resurrection point, so he wasn't worried.

As things stood, there was nothing to do but keep moving forward.

About five minutes later, a new scene gradually appeared in front of him, and Shia couldn't help but open his eyes wide.

This was a palace, so even if there were two rows of heavily armoured guards and a throne with a majestic-looking palace master sitting on top of it, it should not be out of place.

But that was not what Shia saw.

What appeared in front of him was an endless expanse of verdant grass, pink flowers growing alongside it, and a tree several hundred feet thick.

The branches of the tree were illuminated by a warm yellow magical light source, spreading shadows over the grass, swaying slightly and shading the trees.

It was strange enough that such a scene appeared in the present setting.

But even stranger was the fact that there was a woman leaning gently against the trunk of a tree, sitting quietly in the shade.