Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 179: Playing with Fire

Jim’s aura erupted with newfound power as he soared into the air, shining like a star. More and more people in the plaza joined in, and string after string of energy connected to Jim, layering on top of those already empowering him.

"See the difference?!" Jim shouted, his voice echoing across the plaza. "Someone ignored by a god can never stand up to one as powerful as me! I think it’s time for a change in leadership!"

Even with all the power-ups Jim had received, Thalion wasn’t worried in the slightest. Normally, this situation would have been welcome. What better excuse to kill a few people and remind everyone that challenging him was suicidal?

Unfortunately, there were many innocent people here who wanted nothing to do with Jim's attempted coup, and they scrambled away from the plaza, pushing through the packed streets. Kaldrek and the other guards perked up, eyes sharp, as they moved quickly toward the center of the commotion. Thalion didn’t want to start an all-out war. Not only would it mean too many deaths, but there was also the risk of accidentally killing bystanders caught in the chaos.

"Even with over fifteen people empowering you, you’re still so weak." Thalion’s voice was cold and cutting. He floated forward, eyes narrowing. "Amalia, get your pet back on the leash. Send him out to gather materials if you want to live."

His words were laced with menace, and as he spoke, he partially unleashed the dense killing intent of the Sanguine Thorn.

Amalia, who had already looked surprised by Jim’s outburst, now appeared frightened. Power-drunk and delusional, Jim genuinely believed himself stronger than Thalion. But anyone who had witnessed the battle with the undead knew better. Many hadn’t seen how Thalion had personally engaged the vampires. Jim and the witches had been quick to spread false tales of how Jim had repelled the undead, forcing the vampires to flee.

What they conveniently omitted was the real reason for the retreat: Thalion had already killed several vampires, and the rest had fled in panic. Most people didn’t know this perhaps not even Jim himself. Or maybe the mindfuckery of the witches had clouded his memory.

Amalia, however, was definitely one of the few who understood the truth. She knew Jim wouldn’t win this fight—even if he had been stronger, which he wasn’t. Thalion was simply too skilled, his mastery spread across far too many aspects of combat.

Realizing the danger, Amalia glided upward, positioning herself beside Jim. Her lips moved quickly, whispering words meant only for him, while her hand slowly stroked his right arm.

Thalion’s title allowed him to sense the flow of energy Amalia poured into Jim. The man shuddered under her touch, and his once-defiant expression faltered.

No wonder. His mind must have been hit hard by whatever charm or manipulation she was using. Without another word, Jim descended slowly, his posture slumping, as if unable to form a coherent thought.

Perfect. In Thalion’s eyes, this was the best possible outcome.

But Thalion wasn’t done.

"Wait." His voice was like ice, cutting through the murmuring crowd. "We’re not finished here. I take mutiny very seriously. The fact that Jim and you are still alive is a sign of my goodwill. But even my benevolence has limits."

The last words came out as a hiss, and with a casual wave of his hand, Thalion unleashed another surge of the Sanguine Thorn's killing intent.

The effect was immediate. He watched as sweat began to drip down the faces of many in the crowd. Even Amalia’s eyes grew wider, her confidence crumbling.

"You’d better bring me the blood of the most powerful beasts in this region," Thalion continued, voice booming across the plaza. "That’s not all. I want detailed reports on every location where beasts with high darkness affinity can be found. If you find one, you bring it to me alive. And you’d better bring me enough to satisfy me" his eyes locked onto Amalia’s, " or I’ll hang you from my tower as a warning to the next Blessed who dares try to kill me."

The crowd froze, and tension thickened the air.

"He would have never tried to kill you!" one of Amalia’s witches protested, her voice trembling as she desperately tried to diffuse the situation.

Thalion’s gaze snapped toward her.

"Silence." His voice was razor-sharp, leaving no room for argument. "And get your asses out there. The clock is ticking."

The Blessed scattered immediately, scrambling to get out of his sight as fast as possible.

Once they were gone, Thalion let out a low sigh, the tension in his posture easing slightly.

"For those not part of this sex club, continue as planned," he added, his tone calmer but no less commanding.

He knew exactly what the witches were doing. They were preparing Jim as a weapon, shaping him into a sword meant to kill him. But for now, their services were too valuable to justify slaughtering them outright.

With the blessed hunting for darkness-affinity beasts, Thalion had to admit that their formations were useful and they had only used supportive techniques this time. He was certain that the undead would have fortified bases, ones they'd eventually need to break open.

And when that time came? That solar beam of theirs would be perfect.

But Thalion’s mind was already elsewhere, drifting toward grander plans. Killing them now would grant him experience, sure but why settle for that?

Why not harvest them properly?

He wondered if it might be possible to forcibly merge them with a wind crystal or a blood crystal while flooding their bodies with healing potions.

They wouldn’t be able to use the crystals, and the constant pain would be unbearable but Thalion didn’t care in the slightest. With the power of a crystal constantly flowing through their bodies, their blood should also reach new heights he could constantly farm.

In fact, he was already considering an even darker experiment.

Could he simultaneously place them inside the Black Pillar in his basement? It had clearly lost its luster since he acquired it, likely due to the many crystals he had transformed within it.

The thought made him smirk.

Yes. There was still so much more he could do.

If he could make more of those fear crystals, he could empower his armor even further. Or why not feed them to the elemental? Darkness was already strong on its own, but adding a powerful mental attack that could deter even the sturdiest soul?

That was definitely something he wanted to explore. He had only a few days of preparation left before the teleport to the final stage. It likely wouldn’t be enough time to charge the pillar, turn a crystal, and allow the elemental to feed on it. But it was certainly a project he looked forward to pursuing in the future. It was unlikely he'd manage it in the coming days.

No, his focus had to remain on merging the umbral predator with the darkness elemental first. The fear-based enhancements would have to wait. It shouldn’t be impossible to feed something like a crystal to the elemental after the fusion anyway.

Speaking of the darkness elemental, it was progressing well and had almost finished devouring the first crystal. Now at level fifty-eight, its aura had grown significantly. Thalion was confident that if a normal soldier encountered the elemental, it could put up a serious fight.

Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary at the moment, and he watched for a while as the creature happily munched on the black crystal. Things were going very well for now, but the future was far less certain.

What if Kael and the others approached his base? Could he simply attack them? In the end, they were still supposed to be allies against the undead. If you ignore the fact that they would try to kill him. Such a situation would be perfect for Jim or the witches to exploit. And then there were the undead and the special quest that still needed to be completed.

Thalion had a significant advantage over everyone he had fought in the tutorial, thanks to his training in the golden palace. Ankhet must have had hundreds of thousands of years to refine his techniques and body-tempering methods. If Ankhet was allowed to be reborn, even at a fraction of his former power level, it would spell disaster. Thalion was certain of that.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

There was also the looming threat of the fifth-stage undead. If they had access to an undead swarm of their own, things could become extremely difficult. And what about the orcs and elves? A few small groups of orcs had joined his base, but otherwise, they had vanished.

The elves, on the other hand, hadn’t been spotted at all. There were currently ninety-seven thousand survivors left in the tutorial. Sixteen thousand were in his base, another two thousand were with Kael, and Seraphina likely had around the same number. The other camps they had discovered on the third stage collectively housed roughly four thousand people.

Then there was Steven, whose base had been relatively small, with only about a thousand people. While some of these estimates might have been off, Thalion was fairly certain about one thing: he knew of only around twenty-six thousand humans still alive in the tutorial.

The stages were growing increasingly vast, so it was likely that many survivors simply hadn’t crossed paths. But the question remained. How many undead were on the fifth stage? And how many elves? The elves must have been quite powerful if none had been seen. The only time Thalion had encountered a small group of them was back in the second stage.

There was so much information he still needed to gather. On top of that, there were the backstabbers in his own base to worry about. His mission for the coming days would focus solely on cultivation and preparing the umbral predator for its fusion with the darkness elemental and the crystal.

For that, he had multiple mountains of plants ready for consumption with abyssal devourer. Once the plants were gone, he would switch to crystals. He could easily dissolve crystals with his skill, and the darkness energy they provided far surpassed that of any ordinary material.

Of course, he wouldn’t touch the crystals in the blood pond or the aquarium. There were more than enough small wind crystals available, which would do just fine. They still had hundreds of unused wind crystals, certainly enough to last until the end of the week. Before attempting the fusion, he wanted to consult the voice of the system about his plans.

Perhaps some gods had already intervened, and he might get some valuable information for free. That would be the best-case scenario, as one mistake with the elemental and the empowered crystal could result in a catastrophic explosion. Thalion wasn’t entirely sure if his insane recovery speed would be enough to save him if that happened.

By the end of the week, he hoped the formation would be complete and the former giant wind crystal fully transformed into a darkness crystal. More powerful crystals took longer to process than standard ones, but Thalion was confident the conversion would be finished before the teleportation to the fifth stage. He wasn’t sure how many crystals he could successfully fuse, but he planned to push the limits as much as possible. One crystal had already been almost too much for Eagly, but the umbral predator was far sturdier and had a significantly faster recovery speed.

Thalion was confident the umbral predator could handle much more than Eagly ever could. The only thing he dreaded was the inevitable pain the fusion would cause. The storm crystal fusion had been agonizing, and this process would undoubtedly be far worse. He had also considered upgrading his sword and armor with a larger crystal, but the risk was simply too great for him at the moment.

What if it didn’t work and his armor or sword were destroyed in the process? That risk was just too much. His armor and sword were already incredibly powerful, and none of the other smiths had managed anything similar. Of course, part of the reason was that those smiths were focused on mass-producing equipment for the people in the base, not on crafting ridiculously powerful items that could blow up and waste precious materials.

All in all, it would be best to use the time to empower the Umbral Predator as much as possible. He would undergo an intense training cycle, balancing between eating, using the body-tempering manual, and standing on the gravity array to push his limits further.

<--

"No, you need to sidestep first and swing more like this!" one of the Raha shouted at Thorwald.

They had been sparring for hours, and it felt like Thorwald was making no progress at all. He tried to follow the Raha's instructions, but he wasn’t getting any closer to landing a hit on the creature—not even once. The Rahas were veterans of countless battles, with some boasting over three hundred years of experience.

What baffled Thorwald was how someone could live for centuries and still remain in early E-grade. He hadn’t asked, though. Why should he care about the lives of such weaklings? They lacked the potential he possessed and would inevitably fall behind. Compared to them, Thorwald would rise quickly after his evolution.

But that evolution was another source of frustration. He couldn’t evolve right now because reaching the peak of E-grade would take far longer than advancing through F-grade. This meant he had to win many more battles to prove himself worthy. A weak class would only make things harder. Sure, it would give him an edge in the tutorial and for a short time afterward, but in the coming years, he would fall behind and lose everything he had built.

Of course, there were those with Solarion’s divine blessing who could protect him, but Thorwald didn’t want to rely on that. He wanted to be stronger than everyone else. This special quest was the perfect opportunity to prove it. No one should be able to fight the Raha—not when none of them were under level ninety and their skills were unmatched.

The key was avoiding an all-out conflict. They would need to pick the Raha off one by one. Thorwald grinned mischievously at the thought. He was especially looking forward to meeting Steven, Kael, Kai, Sylas, and Thalion again. Thorwald had progressed so much in the last few weeks.

The Rahas had taught him countless new techniques, including specialized body-tempering methods and ways to upgrade skills. His current combat training had pushed him to new heights, and his strength had grown exponentially. He even found himself thinking about the Umbral Predator again. Their next encounter would be entirely different. This time, Thorwald was confident he could beat the beast to death without even using his axe.

His confidence wasn’t unfounded. He had recently unlocked a powerful boosting skill that gave him a massive increase in all stats for a short period. The only downside was that it burned through his resources at an accelerated rate. But so far, it had always been worth it. Even the Raha couldn’t block his swings when he was fully empowered.

Resource consumption was an issue, but Thorwald had found a solution. The Raha could craft flasks that replenished stamina and mana almost completely. He could only take two of these bottles per day, but that was more than enough to overwhelm every beast he had faced on the fifth stage.

The Rahas had also upgraded both his armor and weapon, elevating them to mythic rarity. With that equipment alone, he felt confident enough to take on almost any enemy by himself. No material he had encountered so far could withstand his fully empowered swing.

A wide smile crept across his face as he thought about Steven, who had been hunting alone for days to stay ahead in power. Now, all of Steven's efforts were meaningless. One swing of Thorwald's axe would be enough to carve the guy in half without resistance.

His armor had also been specially enhanced to resist mana-based attacks, like those white flames Steven always shot from his lance. But that wasn’t the only adaptation. His helmet was now covered with intricate runes designed to block any mental assault.

No doubt remained, Thorwald now stood at the apex.

The credits he had earned over the last few weeks had been spent entirely on war equipment. The undead would fall before him, and after that, he would hunt down every human who had ever dared to cross his path.