Eldritch Creature's Guide

In the course of their journey to the Goldtooth Fortress City, Samiel and Yvriane were having an enjoyable conversation as they discussed the previous mission for The Guild. Unfortunately, they didn't succeed in procuring the slaves since Samiel's Undeads had destroyed and killed everything in their way.

It is not likely that anything else could have been done because, from what he knew, they would be practically worthless as slaves because their lifespan was limited to only a few months, and no legitimate slave trader would buy a slave whose lifespan was only four to seven months.

If you were to invest in slaves like that, you'd probably end up with a bad investment, considering that slaves were mostly purchased to provide labor. Still, there were also some species that bought slaves for the purpose of food, experiments and ritual material, as well as for the purpose of performing experiments on them.

Due to the synergy, whose side-effects were decomposing their bodies, they would be practically worthless even in that aspect, so Samiel wasn't that sad about the loss of potential money. If the situation was different and the humans present at the fortress were healthy, then he would probably be pretty pissed because he would have missed a large sum of money.

Slavery was one of the biggest and most lucrative businesses in the Cosmos, and there were astronomical amounts of money flowing into the slave market each year. Numerous factions were either directly or indirectly involved in the slave trade because it was such a lucrative industry and one could obtain astronomical riches through slave trading.

It was fortunate for him that he had been able to get a great deal of those "Super Soldier Serums" in the Hall of Kadath, which would bring him a nice amount of Contribution Points. He took the mission from the Hall of Kadath to obtain samples of those things after reporting the phenomenon that had occurred to them when they teleported to the 8th Floor and were attacked by a squad of soldiers of the Human Brotherhood who had taken these synergies.

Especially since they were created within the laboratories of the Germinal Order, with support oéf either Magisterium or the Avalon Kingdom with the possibility of being higher than 90%, the situation was grave. Rarely would one see a collaboration of more than 2 Gates of the 13 Gates, and even if only two of them collaborated on something, the cooperation itself would be pretty shallow.

"Whatever... we will be soon reaching the Goldtooth within two hours, and then we can go somewhere for dinner."

Samiel stated as he adjusted his bandana over his face when he suddenly heard some Magical Beasts approaching their location. This was pretty ironic because Yvraine took one of the F-Ranked Mission from The Guild, which was about capturing a Bronze-Tier Magical Beast, minimally at Level 40 alive and delivering it to the local restaurant.

Pretty funny thing because they were going to the said restaurant for dinner, as it was the exclusive one for the richest and most powerful in the Goldtooth Fortress City. Of course, capturing a Level 40 Bronze-Tier Magical Beast alive was way harder than killing it. This was because capturing an enemy, and restraining it without causing severe injuries or killing, required way more power.

Following Samiel, Yvraine, too, perked up as she got into a battle stance and readied her twin sword when she saw Samiel getting wary. His senses were even keener than hers, especially after his evolution closer to pure Eldritch Creature.

"It is an Earth Drake."

Samiel stated when he saw the creature approaching them.

The Earth Drakes were subspecies of Dragons, vastly inferior though as they belonged to the category of Drakes and were on the same level as Wyrms and Wyverns. This precise Earth Drake was around 4 meters long and two meters tall.

It looked like an overgrown lizard, though, but its sharp draconic features, especially on its face and one pair of horns, were unmistakable proof of its draconic ancestry. Unfrutnaly for the drakes, their species were not the most intelligent ones, and even at the Legendary Level, they had intelligence mostly on the level of an average Ork.

So, they were stupid, plainly said. But even though drakes as a whole were not the most intelligent species in existence, that didn't make them any less dangerous. They were still top predators, terrifying when provoked.

The Earth Drakes could burrow through the ground and attack from unpredicted places, not to mention they had near-perfect sensory abilities, as they could sense their foes that were standing on the earth; with this, they could practically observe the entire battlefield with relative ease. Not to mention, this ability was making it very hard to ambush an Earth Drake.

"It is probably underground. The possibility of that is very high, so we need to jump."

Samiel said as the two of them jumped on top of the branch of a tree that was near to them, and as the ground shook violently, the jaws of an Earth Drake emerged from the ground when the creature crawled out of the ground.

It was at this point that Yvraine took a careful look at the Earth Drake, as the creature, though not particularly intelligent or strong, was cunning enough to return under the ground as soon as it realized that it had not managed to catch anything of significance.

Samiel was running the calculations with the Level 4 Transcendental Ability Architect as he analyzed the entire area before he looked at the spot five meters from him, near the tree where Yvraine had jumped on, as he conjured several ice weapons through the Winter Ruler almost instantaneously and immediately shot them toward it.

In a split of a second the Earth Drake appeared once more, with its huge jaws attempting to attack the tree where Yvraine was sitting on its branch while immediately after it crawled out, it was hit by several ice weapons.

All of them were blunt weapons, mainly hammers, as Samiel didn't aim even to injure the Earth Drake but rather just to knock it out, which was half-done because the impact was so strong that the Earth Drake crawled entirely out of the ground.

From the outside looks, one could observe that the poor Magical Beast was disoriented and was looking around it, searching for the potential enemies or for whatever was going on, as instantly, something hit it on its head when Yvraine landed on the head of the Earth Drake, knocking it out effectively.

"That we have... but right now, the question is, how are we going to transport the Earth Drake back to The Guild?"

They were still around two hours away from the Goldtooth Fortress City or so, and the Magical Beast that weighed severe tonnes was knocked out and sleeping. While Samiel could carry it around, in truth, he didn't wish to and his Familiar surprisingly disappeared.

"I will order some of the Undeads to carry it, and when we are close to the city, we will wake it up and drag it in chains."

Samiel proposed, as he didn't wish to use his Undeads in front of the Demons of the Goldtooth City because that would get into the ears of the Golden-Horden Demon Tribe really fast. Some smarter individuals may get clues about his true identity, which he wanted to hide so that he could have some leisure time during his stay.

***

8th Floor, Demon Continent, Goldtooth Fortress City, two hours later.

After both of them presented their proof of identity, which The Guild specifically issued in the form of their Guild's Card, Samiel entered the city with Yvraine; as they were dragging with it Level 40 Bronze-Tier Magical Beast, Earth Drake.

The Magical Beast itself was chained in strong chains that were preventing it from attacking or running away, as Samiel was pulling it over with his superior strength over the beast. Soon enough, we have arrived at the local branch of The Guild, where I went just ave the Earth Drake to the person responsible for it and went to the Branch Manager.

When Samiel arrived at the office of the Branch Manager Krasimir Holdermann, he was currently drinking some blood; from the smell, Samiel could judge it was dragon blood. Considering that the man before him was Kindred and Branch Manager, he should have enough money to buy himself dragon blood.

Sometimes dragons themselves would be selling their own blood to the Pale Bloods or Kindreds for outrageous sums of money and other treasures, and of course, they would buy it. Mainly because for them, it was not only the best way to increase their Levels very fast but also because the blood of evolutionary superior species tasted the best.

And while Samiel was no bloodsucker, he could attest to the same thing when it came to Souls. Souls from the stronger species taste better than those of the weaker species.

"Holy Son Zentaur and Crown Princess Silvermoon, it is my pleasure to host you once again. What has brought you to my humble abode?"

He questioned with a toothy grin as Samiel presented him with a bunch of things that we had obtained from the fortress. There was no shortage of plans, information, and things that we had obtained from the fortress of the Human Brotherhood.

He started briefly reading through them, and as his expression remained neutral, it was very hard to find out what he was thinking.

"For that, you will get an additional 5,000 Credits... is there anything?"

Branch Manager Krasimir Holdermann stated as Samiel registered that he got deposited 10,000 Credits in his account at the Vaultbank. After smiling in satisfaction, he and Yvraine took several vials of the Super Soldier Serums and other genetic concoctions they found in the underground dungeons under the fortress of the Human Brotherhood.

"You should be already aware of what that thing is... how much will the Golden-Horned Tribe pay for those vials?"

Samiel asked as he saw that the Branch Manager Krasimir Holdermann was typing out something on his Holo-Brain before he returned back to the two of them.

"100,000 Credits for each of you."

Samiel grimaced before he switched to his business mode. Even though the 100,000 Credits may sound like a lot, and it was a lot, he knew the current situation of the Demons and what they were facing at the hands of the bunch of mad and genetically strengthened humans.

One needed to know that the Demons were one of the races that constantly waged war on the humans in countless upon countless Lower Worlds and in many of them, the situation was varied, but mainly stalemate between the two of them.

Because these Serums were specifically targeted for the mortals, it could greatly affect the balance in those battlefields and then, subsequently, the number of the top powerhouses of the Demon Tribes.

Who would ascend to the Legendary status if all mortals were killed? This was a relatively clever plan by the Avalon Kingdom on how to weaken the Demon Tribes drastically and, at the same time, increase the collective strength of the humans, whom then the Avalon Kingdom would absorb into its ranks.

"Million for each of us... I know that the Demon Tribes are currently having problems in countless Lower Worlds, and if these little things get mass-produced by the Germinal Order and the Avalon Kingdom, then the Demon Tribes would suffer the most."

Branch Manager Krasimir Holdermann once again wrote something through the Holo-Brain and soon enough, not even a second later, he received the answer.

"They have agreed and will pay triple if you can provide one more sample for each Tier."

Probably the Demon Tribes wanted to experiment with these things to unfold their potential and possibly, create some countermeasures, like, for example, some specific curse, that would target the substance and destroy it in the host's body or whatever.

Samiel knew how desperate they were for the perfect samples, probably because, from the raids on other fortresses, they didn't manage to obtain anything aside from decaying corpses and garbage. And all of this only increased the despair they were living through, as they couldn't manage to get their hands on a perfect undamaged and unopened sample.

Samples that all now belonged to Samiel and Yvraine.

If he was right in his assumptions, the one he raided with Yvraine should act as a supply depot with the Super Soldier Serums for the remaining ones. Samiel knew that three million Credits was just a drop in the sea to a faction like the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe, but he would obtain far more if he submitted the rest of the serums to the Hall of Kadath.

That was because the Hall would then sell the synergies in bulk to the Demon Tribal Conclave for some outrageous price, and he would benefit greatly from the business deal.

Both of them then handed over vials of the Serums for each Tier they managed to obtain and got paid 3 million Credits on their accounts on the Vaultbank. Three million Credits was a tremendous sum of money, which was equivalent to 3,000 Silver-Tier Mana Crystals or 300 of Gold-Tier Mana Crystals.

Either way, Samiel was pretty satisfied with this because he got the resources he needed to increase his Level, as his progress was getting slower and slower. Even in the Bronze-Tier, he already required Silver-Tier Mana Crystals to have unhindered progress. In the Silver-Tier, he would probably require either an astronomical amount of the Silver-Tier Mana Crystals or Gold-Tier ones.

This was a huge disadvantage for him due to his racial heritage. Of course, there existed at least a partial solution to his pseudo-problem, which was to increase proficiency with the Nuclear Void Mana Control Method.

With the increased proficiency with the Nuclear Void Mana Control Method would allow him to utilize the Mana Crystals more efficiently and even increase his Level more affordably with requiring fewer resources.

Of course, nothing was for free in this reality, and the Nuclear Void Mana Control Method was extremely difficult to practice. Samiel was very happy for even a single percentage that he got in proficiency for the Nuclear Void Mana Control Method.

"Thank you for your services, Branch Manager."

Samiel stated as he, together with Yvraine, then returned to their inn to have some rest and basically wait and see until the war erupted on the 8th Floor because right now, there was a weird and uneasy calmness before the storm.