In an unknown place at an unknown time.
A world that had his light robed away, only pitch-black darkness was to see.
At least that was the case of a certain someone.
Like matching lighting up the room, an ominous dark green light appeared out of nowhere, having the form of a skeleton at that too.
Once his empty eyes sockets flared up, the skeleton figure started to move.
"Huh?"
As if he just regained back his senses, Danzel looked confused at his surroundings.
"Where is it-"
Asking himself where he was, he found the darkness around sort of...familiar.
Though he didn't know why he remembered a certain memory.
"That's right! I have been here before! Before I awaken from the cursed lake I was here!"
Danzel exclaimed.
Although he remember though, he couldn't remember as to why he was here before and for how long.
Wherever he tried to remember nothing came in his mind as if it was blank.
A single thing he remembered though.
That before he awaken from the lake, he was for a long time inhabiting this place.
How long it was he didn't know.
He only knew it was for a long time.
"That damned magic caster! Is it because of him that I am here!?" Danzel said in anger.
As he looked around him to see what to do now, he suddenly felt something touching his leg.
"Huh?"
Looking at his leg, Danzel saw the same darkness as before.
'Something is there...'
Feeling another touch much higher to his leg, Danzel was finally able to make a silhouette.
The silhouettes arms looked like they were thrown in a black substance that looked like pitch-black water.
Though in the darkness around him for him to see something extremely weird, he indeed saw it.
Before he could make a sense of what this thing was, another set of arms started to touch his body, with the black water slowly wrapping around him.
"What!?"
Feeling the immediate danger, Danzel punched the silhouette to his face.
Suprincly, the figure let of his body as his whole head was blown away.
Before he could celebrate, dozen of new figures surrounded him and reaches out of his body.
"Those things! They want to turn me into what they are!"
Unwilling to be bound by them, Danzel shook the nearby dark sellouts and resisted their touch.
But the next moment, he was grasped from his jaw by a similar silhouette that was only much stronger than the other.
"D-Dammit! Don't you dare think that I will allow myself to be defeated like this!"
So Danzel said, but any attempt he made to free himself of that silhouette was fruitless.
As the other weaker sellouts started to flock at him and cover his body with some dark fluid.
Danzel felt multiple emotions.
The hatred of the magic caster.
The fear of the unknown.
But among all these emotions one surfaces in Danzel the most.
That was, the unwillingness to give up on his life.
The more he was covered with the black fluid, the more his senses were fading away.
And once he started to feel his own will to be affected.
Danzel, his own will refused.
"My will, shall not be bound, EVER!!!"
As the black fluid was about to cover his head, at last, Danzel voices echoed through the seeming infinity space.
Before the next moment for his body to disappear from that pitch-black place.
****
10 seconds later, in the forest.
Where crows were chewing the flesh of five adventures, not far away from where pieces of bones were lying to the ground.
Something astonishment yet sinister was taking place.
The bones in the ground started to slowly flow in the air while releasing dead mana.
And like a whirlwind, the bones with the mana turned into a storm.
The greenery around this occasion started to wither and lose the little vitality that it had.
Soon the dead mana started creating large bones at surprising speed.
If someone were to search this scene from the sides, they would have thought that an ancient evil or a devil was being summoned to the material world.
But that wasn't correct.
Creating the last set of bones, a two-meter tall skeleton made his appearance, an undead who hated the living.
Taking his steps down, the undead at first stayed unmoving as it was hollow of a will.
But that soon changed as a dark green silhouette merged with the undead body.
With the undead sockets flaring up, the crows who had their meal flew away from horror.
"..."
Starting at his surroundings in silence, Danzel who was silent the whole time broke into frantic laughter.
"Hahahahahahah! It activated! The talent [Undying] went into effect! Hahaha!"
Currently, Danzel was beyond happy.
He knew that he would die from that magic caster.
Since resistance was useless, he had to rely on the talent to somehow get out of his situation alive.
That plan though required the magic caster to have left before his talent take place.
Otherwise, he would be killed not long after his resurrection.
So seeing him that he left, Danzel was released.
"I got to pat myself for picking [Undying] that the resistance..." Danzel said.
Honestly, he was quite tempted to pick either the physical or magic resistance. But since he found 10% not being that much, he went for the talent that guaranteed him to survive at least 1 attack.
"Still, I didn't think that using [Undying] would be so dangerous...I probably shouldn't rely on it anymore." Danzel mumbled as he remember his experience in that dark space.
'Going there every time I use the skill is kinda...' Shaking his head, he started looking around him, only to see nothing of his possession being left intact.
"He took even the ring..."
Going into his knees, he picked up the fragments of the Veren blade with a grievance.
"Sigh...I shouldn't even have dealt with humans, to begin with. Being a hermit, earning experience for a decade or two would probably be the best idea now. After all, are creating the Veren rune Is impossible..."
Looking towards the adventurers that he killed before, he found the one that was supposedly called Bernard and... He started to strip him naked for his armor.
"Hmmm, no one of them has a helmet with them..."
As his head turned towards the magic caster that drilled him with earth needles and her river, he but a grin on his face.
Ripping off the hoody that the robes had, he whirl it around his head and poke two holes in the hood in where his ethereal eyes were.
"That should suffice for now..."
Danzel said as he didn't care about how weird he might look to others.
"Now where should I go?" Danzel scratches his skull as the map that he had was taken away.
"Ugh..who cares. All I need to do is to get as much faraway from this kingdom. If that magic caster learns that I am still alive he might teleport me to...finish...me"
Danzel said as he come to a halt.
As if he remembers something, Danzel who was originally running away from Nercana went into a full sprint there, or more specifically the church.
"Dammit!" Cursing out loud, Danzel remembers something.
That was the contracts of the kids!
He left them to the church!
Though the magic caster found him, Danzel guessed or rather hoped he didn't know where his base was.
Although he could ask around in search with the help of the association, finding his base with just the contract seemed unimaginable to Danzel.
But the cause of the existence of Merrick the church was bound to be found.
Him being still alive proofed that they didn't find it, or at least the magic caster hasn't.
As if he were dead, the contracts wouldn't activate.
But if the contracts were being found to be working and that magic caster takes a sniff of it, Danzel days would be numbered.
'I got to destroy the evidence. After that, I will be free to start a new or collect XP for a few years...'
Those thoughts were for the future though.
Although his body felt stiff and somewhat weak, that didn't stop Danzel from running non:-stop at Nercana.
Arriving there, his steps hasten towards the church.
Once he made that none was there, he walked in the front door and punched around the keyhole, making the luck break open.
Naturally, Kayn and the other kids got imminently alarmed by this.
"Who are you!?" Kayn said, to the unknown figure before him.
"Tch, I will deal with you guys later."Danzel said as he ignored their stunned expression.
Recognizing the voice, Kayn looked only at him before he left for his work area.
" I got to hurry..."
Removing the damaged armor and hoody, Danzel equipped himself with some unturned gear and took the small magic mask as he gave every helmet to Honor.
As he continued packing his staffing in a hurry, the contract behind the stone table started to lighten up and explode in the bottle that they were one by one.
"What the.,"
Seeing that scene, Danzel marched upstairs with a long sword in his hand.
'Let's hope he isn't who I think it is....'
