The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

Dayton raised his head and smiled: "Do not worry. I said that the magic marks result after the soul worm enters your body. But after it drills into your body it dies. It's just dead. However, its linked to your body. Don't forget magic mark is a deadly location. It is as important as your head and heart. Remember to protect it in the future and for the best don't reveal the location of your magic marks to anyone else."

  Dudian was pleased. He was worried that the worm would take over at some point. It was good to know that it was dead! At the same time, as he understood from Dayton's words, everyone has different magic marks on different positions. His was on his chest while the other hunters have in different parts.

  "Originally, the headquarters intended to look at your performance. If your performance was good, so in another two years, you would be able to get a lot of money and there would be a chance for your to study at Hunter Academy. Then you would be qualified to buy a 'parasite' which would truly qualify you as a hunters"

  "Unexpectedly, you have turned into a hunter ahead of time. Actually, it saved headquarters a lot funds that they were going to spend to buy a 'parasitic soul bug'. Moreover you may not know but magic marks from jumanzhi is very rare. I believe that most of the other hunters would be very jealous of you."

  Dudian said: "I would have to thank the consortium for training me anyway. By the way, Mr Day you said that the consortium buys 'parasitic soul bug'. From where?"

  "This parasite takes the monster's soul as food." Dayton did not mind to explain to Dudian: "Generally they will give special power to the monster but at the same time they will die! That's why the hunters can't transfer their powers between each other."

  "Although the consortium has the ability to capture the infected monster, but there is no way to find the parasitic soul worms. Unless you will directly feed on the monster that is. But the monster is not allowed back to the well so the only way to get them is to buy from the Holy Church. God of light have bestowed them with a cradle which can save the living parasitic soul worm but the price is extremely expensive."

  No wonder, Holy Church as a religious organization was able to recruit large number of guards and knights. Even all the consortia had to give them face. In addition to the original 'faith', they have strong grasp on many things.

  "This is a secret! Your status as a hunter is not publicly available yet so even others in our headquarters are not aware of it. " Dayton smiled and said: "This is to protect you! I hope you do not wantonly share it in public. The headquarters there will soon send someone over to confirm your identity. Afterwards you will be able to apply for identity procedures!"

  Dudian nodded slightly. In addition to protecting Dudian, the real purpose was to protect the news from other consortiums.

  "Oh, there is one thing." Dayton suddenly spoke up: "You have submitted seven soul crystals which are commonly known as cold crystals. The price of each piece is a gold coin. Although your identity is not public yet, but this is in accordance with the proportion give to hunters. If you were a scavenger, then you would only get one silver coin for each."

  "Soul crystal?" Dudian referred to them as dark blue balls. However he was speechless in his heart. The different in proportion between scavengers and hunters was about ten times. He was a seed recruit and had 30 percent proportion. So the hunters had 300 percent more income than a scavenger?

  Dayton smiled as he saw Dudian's surprised expression: "Anyway, you have to go hunter headquarters. I'm goint to be straight with you. The scavengers pay 50 percent of the consignment as transportation fees to the consortium. Moreover, cost of material identification, taxes and the other fees are deducted form the rest of the 50 percent. So the amount that is left to scavengers is not much."

  Dudian was stunned, he could not help but secretly sigh. Consortium was ruthless when it came to making money. Scavengers would go through dire situations, face radiation and life-threatening monsters to find materials and bring back to consortium. At the end they would be assigned with very small part of the overall result. By telling them that they could get a lot profits, was nothing but lie. They were being swindled.

  "Businessman with real power never trade but rob!" Dudian felt after hearing all the details.

  "What is the crystallization of the soul?" Dudian asked curiously.

  Chapter 80: Juranzhi

  "This is confidential." Dayton faintly smiled: "However, as the one with the qualifications of a hunter I can disclose to you a thing or two. The raw materials for the "God's blessing" are taken from these crystals for enhancement of the physical strength. The human who is infected would have his/her sould crystallized because of the resentment. As a result a degenerate undead or monster is made up."

  Dudian was confused a bit.

  He remembered that after he was branded with the magic marks while he was in coma he was able to absord the soul crystal and it didn't hurt.

  Was the magic mark the real reason?

  "Even hunters can not use them directly?" Asked Dudian.

  Dayton shook his head, "can not."

  Dudian was shocked as his heart beat rapidly increased. Hunter's can't use the soul crystals? But he can, ah! At least, he absorbed the melting dark blue ball. He hasn't felt any strangeness in his body. If there was it would have to show itself during the 'cleaning' days. Both of the doctors should have detected the signs of infection as they must be experienced.

  Magic marks!

  Hunter's magic marks are different, so they have different abilities. An idea popped up in Dudian's mind: " I thought that my magic marks real ability was super smell!? But it seems... it is to digest the cold crystals!"

  Or, is digestion of cold crystals is only one of the characteristics?

  He was excited because if his speculation was true then he could secretly absorb the power from cold crystals. Although a cold crystal is equal to a gold coind which is 10,000 copper coins but power was power.

  "You can go to the Ministry of Finance and receive your seven gold coins after you produce your identity card. As for the other materials, after they are inspected and identified in the "Temple of Elements", you will get your share. It will usually take about half about a month at least, maybe even a month! "Dayton smiled.

  Dudian asked in curiosity, "Templte of Elements?"

  Dayton smiled but did not elaborate: "People from the headquarters should be coming soon. You go and wait outside."

  Dudian saw that he did not say much, but also the didn't force for it. He got up and said: "Thank you, Mr. Dayton, then I will leave."

  "Ok."

  After Dudian left the room, Dayton looked at the middle-aged butler next to him and asked with a light laugh: "What do you think?

  "Very smart, great potential for a little guy," the middle-aged housekeeper said respectfully.

  Dayton slightly nodded, sighed, said: "Yes. ah, unfortunately ... ... after all, he doesn't have a 'light physique'. His life is limited and the price of 'that' thing is too expensive. Unless the top hunter, he won't have enough capital to buy a little."

  "Unfortunately," middle-aged housekeeper nodded.

  Dayton gently tapped the pen in his hand on the desktop and spoke out: " The hunter who died in area no 8. This little guy must know the truth. But he didn't say anything and we can not torture the truth out of him. Even the hunter's headquarters would not be reluctant to use torture. After all, there has been a loss of hunter and there is a rare new replacement. Moreover it has magic marks from a rare level 9 juranzhi. They should leave him alone "

  Middle-aged housekeeper nodded slightly, said: "The kid said that he had burned the juranzhi's body to death. He spoke a little bit in nervous tone, but his eyes were calm. There is no way to disguise it, I suspect, he really burned it to death. "

  He nodded slightly, which he naturally saw. Although Dudian disguised well, but his ability to know people is still extremely sensitive.

  ...

  ...

  Mellon Foundation, Hunter Headquarters.


  An office in the castle.

  Bang! A slender whitte palm shot on the table. The owner of the palm is the red head woman with the scarlet armor. She angrily stared at the bald middle-aged man behind the ask. She almost growled: "My brother! My family! There are so many things unclear about my brother's death! I have checked and there is a recently recruited new hunter in Huasheng consortium. I just want our consortium to pull few strings. I want to go and ask few questions!"

  Bald middle-aged looked calm. She was spitting at his face as she screaming around. He didn't even rub his face but quietly said: "You should be clear, we have no evidence. Even if their hunters secretly sneaked in, we have nothing to blame on them. You have yourself found the remains of his armor in juranzhi's stomach. His body has been digested with only small residue left. I know that you are angry because your brother has diead. But the beast who killed your brother is already dead! What do you want to do? "

  "I want to take revenge !" Scarlet armored woman growled: "Even if my brother was killed by the beast, I will not allow others to pick up my brother's results. There was no parasitic soul worm next to the beast. There had to be someone else close by. My brother died in vain and somebody else gains the booty?! I won't allow it! "

  Bald middle-aged replied in calm tone: "I can understand that you can not accept. But to harmd the interests of the consortium, I will not allow. You better not have any little tricks, the consortium will investigate everything clearly and you will get a proper explanation too!"

  "I hurt the interests of the consortium?" Scarlet armored woman could not help but laugh. Tears came out as she spoke: "My brother is dead. You tell me, in these years how much interest have he brought to the consortium! Do you think I don't know? "

  Bald middle-aged man knew that he shouldn't have said so. A slip of tongue. He slightly frowned: "I said, the consortium will give you a satisfactory account. If we find that person and confirmed that they belond to other consortium, we will never let this go. You can rest assured but you can not go on take action on your own! If caught by the other consortium, you will suffer a major loss!"

  The woman stopped laughing, looked at him mockingly, did not say anything and turned to leave.

  At this point, the door of the room was suddenly opened. A guard trot in. He saluted the woman in a respectful manner and then came to towards the bal middle-aged man and said: "Your honor. This is the news from scavenger headquarters."

  Bald middle-aged frowned, but still tore the evnelope apart and skimmed through the content.

  Middle-aged man was slightly stunned. He looked at woman's back and saw that she didn't notice it. He was slightly relieved as he quickly closed the envelope and told: "You should go now."

  Even though there was quite a distance but the woman had heard guard's words. A murderous intention flashed by her eyes as she strode out of the room.

  As the woman left, the middle-aged man wrote a new letter and quickly released the order.

  ...

  ...

  Chapter 81: Conflict

  Dudian went down to first floor of the Scavenger headquarter to find the Finance Department to receive the seven gold coins.

  The seven gold coins was worth 10 years of savings of an ordinary family which lived in residential district! Even Jura who had a high-paying job was paid a total of only five or six silver coins as monthly salary. A gold coin was equal to ten thousand dollars from the old era's currency. But in this era the salary of the middle class was very low. Dudian would be rich according to today's standards.

  And this was just a small part of his scavenging.

  Dudian was filled with emotion as he held the heavy and smooth gold. But he was not excited at all. After all, he earned it in a sense in exchange for his life. Moreover, if not because of his hunter identity he could only get seven silver coins.

  Therefore, if the scavenger wanted to get rich still he/she had to rely on luck to pick special items while searching for the materials.

  "I don't know how much the others thing that I have brought back will amount to." Dudian secretly thought. Although seven gold coins would be an amazing amount for the residential district standards but if he wants to run an alchemy lab this kind of money won't satisfy his appetite.

  As he took the gold coins he came to sit in the hall.

  It didn't take long before a stir of sounds occurred in the hall. Dudian looked up and saw a tall figure. A woman who was wearing a scarlet armor pushed the door of the hall and walked in with big steps.

  Dudian glimpse over the silver medal hanging on her shoulder. Three years ago he had seen the same medal on Fernando. However Fernando's was copper while the one she had was silver with two eagles engraved on it.

  The staff in the hall and the consortium scavengers who were present also noted the medal on woman's shoulder. After all, her armor was too eye-catching. It was as if blood flowing down through her body. It was totally different from scavenger's soft armor and easily attracted attention.

  "It's a Hunter!"

  The people in the hall suddenly quiet down as they were carefully watching the woman.

  "Let the person in charge to come out here now." Scarlet armored woman stood in the middle of the hall shouted out.

  Two girls who were responsible for the reception looked nervous. One of them hastily promised the scarlet armored woman while the other trot into the next room. Soon, Peter and another old steward came out. They saw the medal on her shoulder. Peter's face instantly changed. He bent forward and respectfully said: "Welcome hunter! Would you mind telling us the reason of your visit..."

  She lifted her hand and interrupted his speech: "The scavengers who had been to the area no 8. Call the out now!"

  Peter and the lean old man were surprised. They looked at each other and caught the meaning in their eyes. Peter respectfully said: "Honorable hunter, they are gone back to their homes. We need some time to gather them."

  The woman said in a cold tone: "Do not dawdle in front of me! I'll see them before the sunset today... Hum... You wait! "

  Peter was covered in cold sweat: "Yes, yes, absolutely can not delay."

  The woman caught the Dudian in the periphery as he was resting in the sofa. Her eyebrows lifted as she saw him drink the milk tea.

  Peter also detected her vision and noted Dudian. He hastened forward and screamed: "Boy, haven't you noticed the honorable hunter!? Are you stunned? Why haven't you saluted her yet? Do it and get out!"

  Dudian saw a hint of anxiousness in his eyes. He immediately understood that Peter is trying to support him. According to woman's words the hunter who died in area no 8 is somehow related to her. He frowned slightly as he did not expect the trouble to be so fast in finding him. But he didn't worry about anything as he nodded towards the woman, then got up and was ready to leave.

  "And so on." Woman looked cold at him, said: "Are you a new scavenger?

  Dudian paused, looking back at her, "Yes."

  "So ... ..." Woman squinted her eyes: "Have you been to area no 8?

  Dudian looked at her eyes. There was cold chill concentrated in her eyes. As long as he would nod she would immediately shot and kill him without a slight frown. There was a bit of resentment in his eyes as he said: "Yes!"

  Her original brown gray eyes became somewhat dark red as she spoke in cold tone: "Why? Why didn't you die? A garbage like you survives... Why? Why death hasn't taken you?"

  Her skin color on the arms became a bit crimson as if confested.

  Peter who saw the scene, hurriedly said: "Honorable hunter, Dean is our seed object. The headquarters pay a special attention to his cultivation because he may become a hunter in the future. Please do not be offended with him. If he has offended you anyhow, I'm sure if you give him the chance for an apology...... "

  "Scroll!" Woman roared back.

  Peter was stunned.

  Woman stood up as her eyes were staring at Dudian. Actually she had never left him from her vision. Her eyes were full of res
entment, anger and sadness.

  Dudian thought she was investigating the evidences. He didn't think that she was seeking for a person to vent her anger on. He saw the strange expression in her eyes. He couldn't help as his heart was moved as he asked: "The hunter who died in the area no 8. What is his relation to you?"

  "Shut up!" Scarlet woman angrily raised her hand to beat over.

  Dudian face slightly changed as he quickly hurried back his body. He escaped the palm in matter of a breath. He quickly stepped back a few steps to open up a distance. Once again they stared at each other. He knew that if an ordinary scavenger was here they would long be dead because of the palm attack. At least they would be seriously injured. He was very clear that without the power of the hunter, he would face the same fate.

  Peter the other's palm attach and was scared. However when saw Dudian escape he was speecless.

  Woman also startled a bit. She looked up at Dudian as the grief in her eyes turned into coldness: "You are a new scavenger. Even if you were blessed twenty times, or even thirty times, you wouldn't be able to react at such a rate. What are you!?"

  Dudian's eyes become cold. Although the woman acted because of her grief, but the palm attack was not concerned about its severity that could cause. Perhaps in her eyes, even accidentally killing a scavenger would only result in few criticisms. Maybe the consortium will take the initiative to shelter her or help her eliminate the evidence and confession to avoid the trial of ruling.

  She knew that there won't be punishment even if she murdered someone.

  "Today, this slap, I will write it down." Dudian said staring at her: "The others give me a good, I will pay ten times. They give me a pain, I will retaliate hundred times!

  "Ah?" Woman's face turned as cold as ice "alone, you dare to threaten me?"

  Chapter 82: Appointment

  "Stop!"

  A voice echoed out.

  Suddenly a burly figure appeared between the scarlet armored woman and Dudian. His hand instantly touched woman's thigh to stop her using a kick to Dudian. As his hand blocked the attacked, the burly figures face slightly changed because of the power of attack. He made two steps backwards as he resisted the momentum.