Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Skullius had been telling the truth.r

It was impossible to kill Hobbu Bobbu outright. r

That's why he had devised a series of plans to take him down without the need to overpower him with raw strength.r

Using the Medial Whisperer of Charms had not worked against Hobbu Bobbu as the first attempt, and the King's Matted Glory had only served to distract the giant goblin without inflicting damage.r

From there though, that was when Skullius had intricately lined up the cards to victory.r

When he had sunken into the darkness, he had gathered a vast amount of mana, the exact same amount that he had in his mana core. Because of his continuing growth in manipulating mana in general, Skullius had mastered the ability to create a basic mana core. A fake one.r

While hiding himself in the darkness, he had dragged the Conforming Trickerteer and inserted his mana into it, activating its unique ability; the power to morph itself into a duplicate of its user which could emulate their thoughts, speech, abilities and even their favoured tools passively. The results with this were not as impressive according to Skullius' standards but luckily the same thing could also be done actively with golden brown set of armour. r

The downside was that this required the user to do absolutely nothing but focus on the Conforming Trickerteer, which would limit their movement and require an enormous amount of mana. r

For Skullius, that was unacceptable. He needed to act while the Trickerteer did its part, thus he had planted the half a skull mark on the Legendary item to let the Precept of Light handle its motion.r

With the fake core he had created planted in it, the Conforming Trickerteer had acted as Skullius from the moment it rushed to touch Hobbu Bobbu's chest and failed in its attempt to end the battle. Only when the Preeminent Attegoth was destroyed did Skullius finally make his move with a layer of dark purple outlining his figure.r

This was something Skullius had wanted to designate as a simple ability, a skill he had created for stealth's sake. To hide his presence when he needed without doing anything flashy.r

[Absolute Zero].r

Fortunately for him, the same principle that applied to [Boundless Evil], [Saint Lumis' Benign Arc] and [Destined Warp Steps] from his Insurgent Magnus powers also gripped this skill, making it vastly more powerful than it should have been.r

Now it not only hid his presence effectively aside from his voice, but all other features about him could be masked as long as he willed it. For higher tier opponents, the effect might not be as perfect, but if they were distracted, it worked like a charm. Even against a Tier 11 Finite Sword god!r

That said, what was this intervention from Skullius' Insurgent Magnus Class?r

Well, it was the same thing that happened to his [Wing of Embrace], changing it to [Wing of the Just], a more powerful variant.r

(Refer to Ch.421).r

[Just Light] favoured the abilities [Saint Lumis' Benign Arc] and [Destined Warp Steps] while [Evil Darkness] favoured [Absolute Zero] and [Boundless Evil], transforming them into better versions of what they were supposed to be!r

Pheeew....r

Skullius took deep breaths as tendrils of his darkness dug into Hobbu Bobbu's body, their coil strong enough to reach the walls to his defences.r

But of course they would be a fight. This bastard was still a powerful Cluster beast after all, one with a proud personality and probably high levels of mental discipline.r

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough in the face of [Immoral Authority].r

If Skullius had only been using even the evolved form of [Basic Evil Invasion], he would have failed without a doubt. However, [Immoral Authority] was a mix of this and [Basic Evil Sanction]. Its power was to dig into a target's mind and body, using their deeds as a consolidating basis.r

Like [Basic Evil Sanction], [Immoral Authority] considered how much 'evil' there was in a target.r

Skullius figured that the giant goblin wasn't some blameless saint, proof of this being the fact that Hobbu Bobbu had killed hundreds of his own earlier without mercy, which, to [Immoral Authority] qualified as evil.r

As such, this evil within Hobbu Bobbu was moulded by Skullius to shatter the giant goblin's resistance easily, the Hybrid Luman's consciousness invading the Finite Sword god's mind, memories and secrets!r

'Ah....' r

Skullius felt as if he was sinking into an ocean full of living, squirming fish, these fish being swimming memories that he imposed his consciousness onto in order to absorb all the knowledge Hobbu Bobbu had!r

He sucked in the goblin's thoughts through the metaphorical darkness he had and...r

...!r

It was a tidal wave of information!r

He saw it all.r

678 years.r

That's how old Hobbu Bobbu was.r

He saw everything from when the Hau Kaka goblin was born. To his memories as he slowly grew up while being tended to by a... rather hideous elderly goblin with an honestly horrifying face!r

Was it age?r

Was it lack of skin lotion?r

Urgh.r

Who knew?r

As the memories kept flowing into Skullius steadily, he watched Hobbu Bobbu spend more time with this old female goblin, his body growing with years as well as his strength. From these events, many things started to become clear to Skullius.r

'I see. So that's how it is,' he thought.r

Everything he saw next made even more sense.r

No wonder he saw many anomalies here!r

The stream of information continued.r

The strenuous training Hobbu Bobbu did as it was revealed to him with excruciating detail, his intense physical routine and growing pride as he became an unmatched champion even among the OTHER goblins was astounding.r

How the goblin grew out of the circles of normal folds of his kin and entered an ascended state of existence where he was revered...r

Where even this world recognised him enough to give him a powerful natural treasure...r

Everything sank into Skullius down to this very moment and after what truly seemed like 678 years, Skullius finally returned to the present.r

Hobbu Bobbu's frame had fallen onto the ground, the wild waves of Nitros that had been present having disappeared.r

Skullius had fallen along with the Finite Sword god and the last wisps of darkness were sinking into him from the goblin.r

The Hybrid Luman took a very, very deep breath as [Immoral Authority] finalised his gains.r

Yes.r

His gains.r

[You have acquired the memories of the 'Hobbu Bobbu']r

[A part of 'Hobbu Bobbu' now lives within you permanently as a shard of darkness]r

[Due to the wide disparity between the target and the user, recalculation and modification of gains is mandatory]r

Skullius' flesh quaked and rippled. r

The memories he had received ran wildly not only in his [Omniscient Thought Cracker], but within his body as well, as if trying to make his flesh recall what they represented. They could not yet accept that they had a different host. But still, they would try.r

It would have come as a shock to most, but [Immoral Authority] was unlike [Basic Evil Sanction]. When Skullius used it on someone, he would actually be able to extract deeper memories... as well as their skills!r

[Recalculation and modification has been completed]r

[Due to the user not having the class 'Finite Sword god', lesser versions of the extracted skills will be given]r

[You have acquired 'Ghost Rending Divine Sword Art']r

[You have acquired 'Unmatched Sword Sense']r

[You have acquired 'Lost Wraith']r

[You have acquired 'Swordmaster's Quiescence']r

['Just Light' has deemed 'Lost Wraith' profound enough to latch onto, changing it to 'Lucent Apparition']r

As these notifications came in, Skullius twitched with his eyes rolled up, his blood vessels thrombin unhealthily, expanding and contracting as if funnelling bags of data into different facets of his body!r

Truly, this was an incredible boon.r

Powers that came from a Sword god rushed into Skullius, all of them at the peak of the Special tier of skills and with nigh limitless potential for growth.r

Skullius felt it all being processed by his body.r

"Ah..."r

It took a full two minutes for him to finally come back to his senses as he took deep breaths.r

"Haha... that was wild," he said while stumbling to stand.r

The first thing he did was turn to the giant body of his opponent. r

Hobbu Bobbu was still alive but just like everything that he had used [Basic Evil Sanction] on and now [Immoral Authority], he became an empty husk that had challenges in having coherent thought.r

"You really were strong," Skullius said as he sent a burst of Mortal Ruin to decapitate the giant goblin.r

This was the first time Skullius was wounding Hobbu Bobbu since their fight. r

Ridiculous.r

He couldn't help but shake his head.r

With the giant's death...r

[You have killed (XI) LV521 Hau Kaka Goblin. 12,765 EXP awarded]r

[Congratulations, you have killed a Cluster General]r

The cumulative mana experience from the Finite Sword god was drawn towards Skullius in a massive tide that came from both its body and soul!r

This was easily the most experience Skullius had ever gained since his awakening!r

Considering that having a blue core meant that it was harder to harvest experience, with even strong Advancement Stage experts netting him 29 to 40 EXP a pop, this was nothing short of incredible!r

Hobbu Bobbu truly was a monster!r

"Cluster General, huh?" Skullius gave a short laugh as he gazed upon the guidance field notification.r

From the giant goblin's memories, he had discovered a chilling fact about this Cluster.r

Yes, Hobbu Bobbu was a Cluster General as he had surmised before, but he wasn't THE Cluster General.r

"This is the first Cluster I've seen with more than one Cluster General," the Hybrid Luman said.r

Indeed.r

There were two Cluster Generals within this world!r