Lord of The Karmic Armada-Chapter 28: Dilemma

The elf tribe leader, Hansel, after disappearing from the border location where the fight took place, went after the human who had caused so many unnecessary casualties. He followed the trail of the human by detecting previous movements within the darkness.

The entire elven tribe area, naturally encompassed by its border, was filled with so much darkness that one could almost touch it. It was similar to a very dense fog. Unlike the elves, who did not cause even the slightest disturbance in the heavy fog of darkness with their movements, creatures who were not in tune with darkness or did not possess more than 80% darkness affinity did cause disturbance in it.

Valtar, in this case, was such a being. So, he unknowingly left a trail behind on the path he took. Thankfully, after going straight for a while, he made zigzag movements due to his persistent sense of danger. Because of this, after a certain point, the elf wasn't able to find his trail anymore. Though Hansel had the greatest understanding of the darkness element in the entire forest, he was not omnipotent.

After losing the barely noticeable trail of disturbance in the calm sea of darkness, Hansel eventually could not find any more clues as to which direction the human had gone.

This was also because, much like a ripple in a pond, after a certain time without further disturbance, the darkness naturally returned to a still and unmoving state.

Now, he could only search manually, following his instincts to find more clues.

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On the other hand, Valtar, after jumping from one direction to another like a monkey, could finally take a moment to rest since he felt the sense of danger weakening by the second. It seemed he had somehow managed to divert the Elven leader in the wrong direction.

Taking five to ten minutes to calm himself and let his body relax, he felt a bit better. His attention then shifted to the cores of the elves he had killed and brought with him.

If not for the mortal sense of danger he had felt earlier, he would have naturally consumed them all then and there. Valtar thought for a moment and then said,

"Don't let the cores I eat take effect immediately. After I eat them all, convert or compress them to the best quality substance possible—or whatever, just do your magic. You know what I mean."

Valtar was naturally commanding the system.

[The system does not lack common sense, and this is a task that would have been done automatically,] the system replied in its robotic voice.

"Sure, sure, of course," Valtar replied, his tone overflowing with slight mockery.

System: [———————]

He did not linger anymore and swallowed all the cores one after another but did not feel any change in himself, which was naturally because of his command to the system.

Lastly, the third-stage core of the third elder remained as he looked at it.

It was almost like a beautiful sphere. The substance inside was pitch black, somewhat liquid-like, but the most attractive part of it compared to the second-stage cores of the elves was that, for some reason, the dark substance inside seemed slightly enchanting.

He found himself staring at it, simply pleased by its appearance. But he shook his head and ate it without further thought.

Right after, the system showered him with notifications.

[All cores consumed]

[Converting.....]

[All core energies have been converted]

[Merging and purifying.....]

[Conversion completed]

[Initiating absorption.....]

[Ding! Absorption completed]

[Darkness Affinity: 30%]

[The skill 'Shadow Steps' has been slightly enhanced.]

Valtar was pleasantly surprised by the fact that 'Shadow Steps' had been slightly enhanced. He almost wanted to test it out but disregarded the thought. If he did not keep himself hidden properly, the damn elf leader might just cut off his head without him even realizing it.

After this, he turned his attention to the next important matter. Noticing his internal command, the system diligently obeyed as Valtar's mind seemed to enter a tunnel of deep darkness, a part of his existence was becoming estranged.

After what felt like an eternity traveling through a dark wormhole, his mind finally settled, as he opened his eyes.

Or at least made the action of it.

He could see himself in a locked-up room somewhere, with more dead bodies in that particular room.

While he did feel like he could control this body, it was far too different from moving his own body and he could immediately feel this body itself was not alive.

Suddenly, his attention was drawn to an old and strong voice:

"We are the creatures of darkness, the darkness that is feared by all. If not, why would we dare to go against the Fae folk?"

"And our leader is the pinnacle representation of that darkness."

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"So how can a rat do anything after entering the deep dark cave when the master of the cave wishes to squash him?"

For a moment, Valtar became confused about who this voice belonged to, but judging by the speech, it did not seem to be the tribe leader.

While he could indeed hear the voice, it was mostly because of disabling his vision, which enhanced his other senses due to the passive effects of the skill 'Sensory Perception.'

It surprised Valtar that this skill was working in this particular state as well.

Now, what exactly was Valtar doing?

To clarify the situation just in case the readers were confused—

{Author: Wink'''}

What Valtar had done after consuming the cores was activate one of the features of the 'Ghost Summon' skill. He could partially possess the bodies of the summoned ghosts, controlling them with more precision. By default, this ability enabled Valtar to see through the eyes of the possessed body.

It was a more direct and precise way of controlling the bodies, something the ghosts themselves could not do, as they could only heed very basic commands.

Because his skill 'Sensory Perception' still seemed to be working fine even when possessing bodies via the 'Ghost Summon' skill, he could vaguely sense two elves standing guard right outside the door.

The discussion among the elves continued, but unfortunately for Valtar, they weren't revealing any vital information—only the fact that the one giving the speech seemed supremely confident in the tribe leader.

This did not surprise him much. The old man's words weren't arrogance but truth. If the Elven leader were not dangerous, his 'Karmic Intuition' skill and survival instinct would not have warned him so greatly.

Valtar shook his head and disregarded the unnecessary thoughts clouding his mind. His mind was turning its gears as an opportunity seemed to present itself before him.

And this seemed to be the only way forward.

There was no way to simply evade the Elven tribe leader and go after the other tribe members in the underground cave. Hansel would not allow it. In the end, he had to face Hansel. Yet, if he did so now, there was an 80% chance he would die for sure, and there were no other opportunities to increase his strength at the moment.

So, in the end, this dangerous plan was his only option.

He almost felt downright disgusted by a particular notion of what he needed to do, but regardless, there was no other choice.

He had to survive.

No matter what.