The group found the fallen creatures. Since the golems that Kyros summoned had moved the dead bodies closer, the group was immediately able to do a quick count of the creatures.

“Nine Lizards and Seven Golems! This is awesome!” One of the knights rejoiced.

Kyros was immediately observing the limbs of the golems to see if his plans could work.

“Alright. Cut off the limbs of all the clay golems. Also, cut the legs of these golems in half… They look long enough to become additional logs.” Kyros ordered the team.

The group followed with curious looks, and then when all the limbs of the clay golems were removed, Kyros arranged them ahead and gave more instructions on how to move all the creatures easily.

The limbs were used as some form of sleds that rolled as the bodies moved on top of it like a conveyor. The knights would pass the limbs at the very end and move them to the front to keep the conveyor-like sled moving.

The knights were impressed at Kyros’s solution, and the group was able to transport the heavy bodies of the creatures easily and would only lift them when they reached impassable terrains due to the rocks around them.

But the way they did it made it easier for them to carry the creatures and would have them retain their strength.

Along the way, Kyros made the group aware of an ore deposit around the rocks as well as a silver one.

“This could be useful,” Kyros stated as he pointed out how his family would soon be present.

The knights agreed and made their plans to make it easier for them to gather these things.

“It’s just ore and stuff. I’m sure that even if we report it to the kingdom, they wouldn’t mind.” One of the knights suggested.

Kyros also nodded.

“That’s the plan. We should make our group move quicker. We do not know if the other knight’s groups would move inside here.”

“Once your father is here, and he sends the group a message, they won’t have to go through the trouble of retracing our steps. It might take less than three days for your family to be here with the urgent tasks ahead. It might even just take two days! Besides… We can stay here for a long time anyway.” One of the knights laughed.

Kyros was silent. He wanted things to move fast because he intended to have the kingdom send their men to help him fight the next level of the temple.

Kyros willed to make the stats appear again.

—

Nephilim Sealing Temple

Status: Kyros Unleashed

Nephilim Training Commencing!

Shade Level: 2 Interim (15:21:13:19 remaining to start Level 2)

Temple Level: 4 (1284/10000 points to Level 5)

—

“I have to manage my time properly. I have a feeling that the reason why there is such a long gap was to give me time to prepare for the next level.”

“You’re afraid of the next level?”

“The temple is clearly sentient. So it may force me to fight another army that my current skills can’t handle. I’m afraid that if it’s just the Steele family and me, many will die.”

“You’re right. You even got the sword. If it were me, managing the temple, and I gave you that time, I will give you something that is impossible for you to handle.” Calaminus agreed.

“Hence, I need to get the kingdom here and all their wicked men to fight for me. I wonder… If I clear the stage early, will the gap for the next level be longer?”

As they continued, Kyros suddenly noticed an alert.

[Lifeforms within 500 meters from the temple detected.]

“Oh? Someone is there?” Kyros noticed.

“It’s a good thing we decided to leave uncle there. But who could this be?”

Kyros used his ability Micro-Management to bring up the screen and could see his body. The knights with him couldn’t be commended as they weren’t part of his summoned team. He could see a grey fog of war on the path they just passed, ultimately leading to the temple.

The five hundred meter location around the temple was visible. And when Kyros watched what his uncle was doing, he was startled.

“Uncle is fighting someone?” Kyros was confused.

What happened to the plan?

Kyros took a closer look and found several men giving chase to his uncle. Aron would occasionally stand and deliver several strikes when there were only a few enemies nearby.

“Vampires?!” Kyros was shocked.

“Oh? To think a vampire clan will attack you guys here. This will pose some problems. If you kill them or let them live, it will still force whatever vampire clan to investigate this place.” Calaminus laughed.

“This long gap between the levels are also tests. It’s testing me to see how I take advantage of all the chaos and circumstances that happen in between. I really should be more serious with the next level.” Kyros sighed.

Kyros revealed no expressions to his group.

“Where’s Uncle?” Kyros asked.

One of the knights took out the Signal Compass and looked at it.

They were growing closer to Aron, but then they noticed that the compass was trembling. As if Aron was moving back and forth.

“Is he moving towards this place?” One knight asked.

“That’s strange for the compass to move like that. Men! Continue to bring the corpses down. I’ll scout ahead. Be ready to arrange the corpses if I tell you. I’ll send my shadow familiar. If you see it, then we may have to fight enemies. If I go instead of the shadow familiar, then we initiate our scare plan.” Kyros explained and immediately left.

Kyros activated Shadow Cloak and hastily made his way.

Aron and the band of vampires had already disappeared past the visible area of the temple.

After several minutes, Kyros could hear fighting.

“Give up, Knight! The darkness is our ally here!” A vampire laughed.

“The darkness beyond here will kill all of you!” Aron shouted back.

“We shall see!” The vampire laughed.

Kyros stopped moving and hid in the darkness. Soon Aron and the Vampires continued their chase.

Kyros counted their numbers and noticed that the group had three small slaves who were in charge of carrying their luggage.

“Twelve vampires and three slaves. They have quite some dark energy. I wonder…” Kyros had suddenly felt a strange hunger. He hadn’t eaten any dark beings in nearly three days. The exotic taste of darkness was something Kyros had grown fond of. He even tried to eat a few of the Golem’s darkness, but it couldn’t compare to the pure darkness of the Shadow Ghouls.

He even thought of eating the Shadow Ghouls to his sword but realized it would take five days for another Shadow Ghoul to be born in the sword and relented.

But now, he felt the darkness of these vampires were coming close to that level.

“Those Crest… The Dark Shine kingdom? And they must be from the Blood Blade clan… So as early as now, the Eldrich have been sending their minions all over the place. Good. All the more reason to kill them.” Kyros gripped his sword as he recalled the Eldrich race.

He summoned the Shadow Ghouls and the Shadow Familiar and continued to chase.

Only Aron had a torch with him. Vampires could see well in the dark and chase without any hindrance.

But what they couldn’t see was the darkness itself that they had passed by.

Kyros, who they had passed, was now the one giving chase.

Aron’s fighting skill was still impressive. Even under disadvantageous conditions, he still managed to fight back and even managed to wound several vampires who attacked impatiently. Aron continued to retreat after throwing off the two vampires.

The Vampires continued to chase Aron, and those who Aron had wounded had fallen at the back to heal themselves. Aron was able to wound and cut many of them who would go back and apply healing magic.

Kyros took the opportunity and began his assassination.

The Vermillion sword that was coated in the dark energy of the cloak slashed through and easily decapitated the vampire. The other sword struck the other vampire in the heart.

The vampire tried to squeal, but Kyros activated Dark Consumer.

The vampire was stunned as he was now able to see the dark form of Kyros.

“The darkness…” He muttered in shock as he died.

Kyros continued to drain the energy of the vampire.

It was then that the Sword of a Thousand Grudges began to tremble.

“Oh? It looks like Soul Trapper is working. So monster souls don’t make the cut for soul trapper? Or does this sword require a certain level of intelligence from the creature?” Kyros wondered.

—

Sword of a Thousand Grudges (Lvl. 2)

Attack: 20 -> 21

Durability: 30

Recovers durability when exposed to Dark Energy.

Shadow Ghoul Familiar (5 ->6)

Soul Trapper

Heart of the Fallen (1)

—

Kyros saw the increase in stats.

“I should have used this sword to kill the others instead! Oh well…” Kyros regretted his actions but then continued his chase.

The vampires were so focused on attacking Aron that they did not notice the darkness moving.

Kyros stabbed another vampire at the back using the Vermillion Sword. Almost immediately before the vampire could even scream, a sword stabbed down and impaled it on its mouth.

Kyros timed the attack together with another clash against Aron.

The sword began to tremble once more as it sealed another soul.

Kyros saw no increase in level, but the amount of Shadow Ghouls it could summon had increased to seven.

One of the slaves had noticed what happened as the vampire that died was right in front of her.

“Little girl, do you want to be free?” Kyros asked the slave. The slave was a dhampir.

The slave was petrified as she saw the darkness talk to him. But slowly, the darkness moved out to reveal Kyros’s face.

“Who is the vampire that turned you? It looks like you’ve had a terrible life.” Kyros noticed the many wounds on her face.

The slave-girl pointed ahead.

Kyros knew that this slave was Marked with various Vampire arts, making her unable to betray her master.

Kyros smiled and chased after the group.

The other two slaves were also dhampirs and were Marked slaves.

Kyros decided to take in these new slaves and chased after the other vampires.

This time, Kyros summoned the seven Shadow Ghouls and began to harass the other vampires.

“AGH! What are these?!” A vampire shouted.

“Darkness! It’s the Darkness! Another vampire shouted.

Aron realized that this must be Kyros.

“I told you!” Aron laughed as he took courage and attacked the vampire closest to him.

The Vampires at the front were stunned, but before they could properly arrange themselves, Aron’s powerful Force Energy erupted.

The sword he wielded began to glow with bright light.

“Paladin?!” A vampire was stunned.

Kyros, on the other hand, knew better. This was the Steele family’s special art. This was how Kyros managed to become the coveted Celestial Paladin in his previous life. While Paladin used Holy Power, Celestial Paladin’s imitated that path through Force energy.

Aron Steele and Branze Steele would teach Kyros the foundations of this job.

The Force Energy became a bright light, and Aron slashed it towards one of the vampires who used his dark powers to resist it.

SLASH!

The sword slashed through the dark energy and killed the vampire.