#84 Fire Incarnate
"In this world, winning is everything. Winners are validated and losers are denied. This is the way of this corrupted world." I said in a completely emotionless voice while glancing at all people inside the room.
Once my words resounded inside the room, everyone quieted down and not even a word could be heard from anyone.
"...I wouldn't expect any less from someone from the Empire. Your words hold some truth in them." The boss of the Gravekeepers replied with a slightly sad smile.
"W-What do you mean, Akashi?" Tsukushi asked me with a shaky voice while looking at me with a shocked expression.
"Who do you think has written history?" I asked but no one answered me.
"Victors did. They can say whatever they want and we still won't have any idea what is the truth and what is the lie. What you can do is only believe in your own beliefs that you have set by yourself and not by someone's teachings." I said with closed eyes and an indifferent expression.
"But wouldn't it be wrong if everyone behaved like that?" Poney asked me with a confused expression.
"What is bad? What is right? Once again...the victor is the just and the loser is wrong. Poney, do you live for other's people happiness or for your own happiness?" I opened my eyes and asked with a small smile.
"...I- I want to make everyone happy..." She replied with a bit of difficulty.
"...Why? Will that make you happy too? There are numerous types of people among all those people who you want to make a smile and be happy. Not to mention that you don't know them at all...don't you want to care more about your close friends rather than unknown people who might not even appreciate your efforts?" I asked with a teasing smile.
"..." She looked at the ground while thinking hard about my words.
"Well, no need to think about it so hard, first, we need to free everyone." I said with a bright smile and closed eyes
---
'...Why does Akashi seem so different out of nowhere?' Poney thought with a slightly sad expression while looking at Akashi's bright smile.
---
"Well, Poney, can you please free the girls? I will save our blondie here" I said with a smirk while approaching the blond-haired guy.
"B-Blondie?" He muttered with a dumbfounded expression.
"Sure!" Poney nodded and quickly went to free the girls.
I freed the boy and while he introduced himself to me and I got to know that he is Natala and his other teammates are Gin and Balluck. The silver-haired girl is Gin and the white-haired girl is Balluck.
"Thank you for rescuing us...we couldn't do much against them" Natala thanked me while rubbing his wrist with an ashamed expression.
"Mm..." I nodded and looked at Poney's side just to see that Gin's boobs were still hanging out in open.
"?! What?" She noticed my stare and covered herself with her arms.
"Here you go, it looks like there is nothing you can use as a cover so you can use my coat for now. I will want it back once we will return." I took off my coat and threw it at her with an indifferent face.
"...Thanks, though you could have said it more nicely." She thanked me and then mumbled something under her nose.
"I am sorry for not treating you like a princess. Next time, I will make sure to kneel while handing out my coat to you." I said with a stoic expression.
She widened her eyes, maybe she didn't expect me to hear her.
"Um, she didn't mean anything bad. It's just that she was harassed by one of the guys so she is in a bad mood." Natala immediately came between me and Gin with an apologetic smile.
"Ease up a bit man, it was just a joke." I said with a teasing smile.
---
'How are we supposed to know that when you have that stoic expression?!' Gin immediately complained, however, this time she made sure to think it to herself and not mumble aloud.
---
"By the way, here you go, Tsukushi" I said and threw at her the skirt she was missing.
"Huh? T-Thanks!" She looked a bit embarrassed while catching it before she thanked me.
Now, the treasures should be anywhere near here...but first, I should take care of Kurome.
"I hope you haven't forgotten about me." The boss of the Gravekeepers said while slowly bleeding out, due to his Danger Beast's genes, he was bleeding very slowly despite having 2 of his limbs cut off.
Everyone turned at him with a confused expression while he just formed a crazy smile.
When I saw that smile...the smile of a man who is about to suicide, I immediately moved and kicked him into the back of his head, intending to knock him out but I was too late and he took his own life.
"? Akashi?" Both Poney and Tsukushi were surprised by seeing this.
---
[+100 XP for killing your enemy]
[+100 XP for defeating the boss of the dungeon]
[+200 XP for clearing a dungeon]
Class: Blade Master (Lv. 7; +13 Str, +13 Agi, +6 Const) 233/640 XP
*RUMBLE* The entire tomb started to shake.
"Go! Take Kurome and quickly get out of here!" I shouted at them and they immediately understood what has just happened.
"But what about you? Why won't you go with us?!" Despite questioning me, Poney quickly took Kurome's petite body onto her back.
"I still have a job to do...That guy had Cornelia's weapon yet she isn't here!" I made up a pretty good excuse but I didn't expect strong disagreement from Poney and Tsukushi.
"Grrr, maybe she is already out of here or someone else found her! You can't remain here while the tomb is about to crumble! Akashi!" Poney gritted her teeth and despite wanting to find Cornelia, she shouted at me these words.
"Poney is right! You must go with us!" Tsukushi nodded her head while helping others with the preparations to storm out of here at full speed.
Tch! How heartwarming once again but I doubt you would be so nice if I said that I want to take a few treasures for myself.
"I can get out of here even if the entire tomb crumbled on top of me! Go now! I will look for Cornelia and others if someone else was also captured!" The shaking was getting tenser and some pillars supporting the ceiling started to slowly crumble down so I shouted at them with a commanding tone.
They took a step back while gulping down when they heard my tone but in the end, they nodded their heads and stormed out of the room through the hole I previously created while leaving me alone in the room.
Finally...
I thought while looking at the ceiling and after a few seconds, I jumped to the hole Poney and others used to escape.
I don't have much time!
I thought with narrowed eyes and put almost all of my Wrigglers to work, I ordered them to fly around, trying to find anything good.
After another minute inside the tomb, the ceiling started to slowly fall down by small bits so I was forced to keep dodging while also looking for treasure. Of course, since I gave my word to Poney, I was also looking for Cornelia...practically.
After some time running around I finally found something thanks to my Wrigglers. When I entered the secret room thought the entrance that was barricaded by an extremely thin wall, I immediately found a lot of shiny things.
Haha, nice! It would be even nicer if the ceiling wasn't falling down on my head each second...
I thought while dodging another part of the ceiling. By this time, everyone should be already near the exit and judging from the intensity of shaking, this tomb will fully crumble in one minute or less.
I quickly took at least half of the gold since I could store it inside my system. However, I made sure to leave something here so the Empire wouldn't get too suspicious.
GOLD: 26116
SILVER: 165
I quickly looked around and found strange katana that was emitting the aura of death or that's how I would describe it. I had no way how to hide such a weapon but I can stuff my pockets with other jewelry that looks extraordinary. That katana must be Teigu or on a similar level...
Since I can't have it...
I thought and quickly tried to burn it with my flames but...
[Insufficient strength to disassemble Teigu!]
?! Fuck! Quickly!
---
Intelligence: 41-> 50
Charisma: 34 -> 40
Free Stat points: 29 -> 14
[You are allowed to upgrade your Special Class: Fire Monarch]
[Things needed for upgrade:
Gold: 10.000...✓
Blood of the Ice elemental Danger Beast...✓
Base Charisma 40...✓
Base Intelligence 50...✓]
---
[Do you wish to upgrade your-]
Fuck yes!
Special Class: Fire Incarnate (+30 Cha, +25 Int, +10 Const, +5 Str, +5 Agi) 0/100 DP (Destruction points)
[Your new special class strengthened your Blacksmith and Beastmaster classes.]
[Fire Form: 200 Energy -> 150 energy]
[...
I ignored other things and immediately tried to burn that katana and few other things that I couldn't carry.
---
[Your blacksmith class gained new attributes!]
[Common Reanimation - can be upgraded]
[Lesser Shock - can be upgraded]
[Lesser Fear - can be upgraded]
[+200 XP to your Blacksmith class for discovering new attribute] x1
[+100 XP to your Blacksmith class for discovering new attribute] x2
Master Blacksmith (Lv. 8; +8 Str, +8 Const) 30/1280 XP
---
I quickly grabbed a few smaller things and stuffed them into my pockets before I looked up to see the entire ceiling falling down on my head.
Tch! [Fire Form]
[Energy: 699/1515]
My entire body turned to the flames but this time, they were much denser and looked also much threatening, the stones that have fallen down on me immediately melted but I noticed that my energy was draining despite spending is already on the transformation.
This must be due to the upgrade...I must try to control this body as if it was my own body.
I thought and started trying to gain control over my entire body and after some time, the stones were no longer melting down while draining my energy.
[Energy: 568/1515]
The rubble quickly buried me and although it was an extremely uncomfortable feeling and it felt like I was suffocating, in truth I didn't even need to breathe in this form, I could only think of a small number of things that could kill me in this form but rubble wasn't one of them. My entire body became completely thin, so much that one could even see through those flames on the other side, I slowly started to climb up through small gaps between the rubble.
----Outside of the Tomb----
*RUMBLE* *BOOM*
The entire pyramid has crumbled down and became only rubble. Once the greatly known tomb of the First Emperor was no more.
"These guys were totally nuts, to actually trigger self-destruct mechanism. They are really determined not to let us have their treasure." Gozuki muttered while glancing at the Uncle Bill who was watching the entire show of tombs crumbling down with his hands behind his back.
Gozuki himself had tattered clothes and looked like he escaped by a hair's breadth.
"It doesn't matter, once we deploy a special unit, we will be able to dig out the treasures. I am more surprised that you have decided to remain here...General Esdeath. Once again, let me thank you for your support during this mission." Uncle Bill said while tearing his eyes off the formerly known tomb while glancing at the woman with long blue hair, wearing a white military uniform.
"No need to. There weren't many enemies anyway...When I entered their lodgings, I noticed that there were hardly any enemies so someone must have bested me." Esdeath replied with a bored expression while sitting on the boulder made out of ice with her legs crossed. Despite her bored look, she was attentively looking at the rubble as if she was looking for someone specifically.
"Is there any specific reason why you remained here, General Esdeath? That is if you don't mind telling me." Gozuki asked with a slightly confused expression.
"Actually, I don't mind. I am waiting for a good friend" Esdeath glanced for a second at Gozuki before she smiled and cleared up his confusion while supporting her chin with her hand, looking quite seductive despite the pose not being specifically seductive at all. The personal power wasn't her only strength as an Ice Queen. After all, people wouldn't start calling her queen just because of her superior control over ice but of course, no one dared to even look at her with lust in their eyes unless they wanted their eyeballs gouged out.
'That woman has a friend?! Here?!' Both Gozuki and Uncle Bill were shocked by this information as they started looking at Esdeath with dumbfounded expressions.