Netherborne [An OP Monster Isekai]-Chapter 70. Reptile Hunting
Alice’s eyes weren’t just a subtle golden color. They were like molten gold that shimmered in the dim light—practically glowing. Likewise, her blood vessels, clearly visible through her pale skin, were like thin threads of gold, giving her a glowing complexion—which was odd since she no longer needed blood as a Darkness Mana Body.
Victor scrutinized Alice, checking for any other signs of change. “Feel any different?”
Alice shook her head. “Nope. Same as always.” Please visit ƒ𝐫𝗲𝒆𝑤𝚎𝐛𝙣𝐨𝙫𝙚𝚕. 𝒄o𝓂
“Mhm…” Victor hummed. “A visual effect, then? If this happens to everyone with all the card types, then this could be a useful way for people to identify each other’s status. For example, if everyone with a green card had glowing green eyes, then it would be easy to tell they were nobles of Necron without flaunting their cards all the time.”
Victor turned back to the computer and told it to produce another card. The hologram reappeared, and after hitting the confirm button, the screen flashed blue, and the hologram became physical. “Here, Genus, take this.” He handed the enormous dragon that was sitting on his haunches the card. Genus didn’t even need to reach out a paw to hold the golden card—instead, he used telekinesis to hover the card in front of his face.
He then pricked his paw, and a droplet of noble dragon blood hit the card. The card vanished, and a flash of golden light covered the shiny dragon. Due to Genus already being a golden chrome dragon and his thick scales protecting his skin, the effect was a lot less noticeable, but when he opened his eyes…the liquid gold pupils were hard to ignore.
“Wow!” Alice giggled. “Somehow, you are even shinier now!”
Genus looked in the reflection of his chrome scale and saw his new pupils—and to everyone’s surprise broke down in tears.
“Hey, what’s wrong? We can change it back.” Victor didn’t understand why the dragon would have such an adverse reaction to such a change.
“T-these eyes…are my father’s eyes.” Genus stood up to his full height—his enormous head looming over Alice and being on the same level as Victor. He then puffed out his chest, and golden flames erupted out his nostrils. “My Arcgold family has gone through so much due to those Arcwing bastards. My father and brothers were slaughtered, and I don’t even know if my mother is still alive after I was banished to the lowlands.” He snarled as mana blanketed the room. “It’s about time they paid for their arrogance—I shall avenge my father!”
Victor’s opinion of Genus Arcgold had fluctuated during this trip. But after spending months by his side and watching the prideful noble dragon endure so many things without complaint, Victor felt the dragon was admirable. Genus almost starved to death but survived by eating insects and weird slugs. Also, as a cold-blooded creature, he tolerated months of freezing environments and even resorted to cannibalism to prevail.
Throughout the entire time, Genus followed Victor’s every order or request, only once questioning him when it involved the weird castle on the eightieth floor. Which showed Genus’s willingness to stand up against orders he didn’t believe in or thought were stupid. He was a free thinker that got on with the job without complaint.
He may not be the strongest dragon, but he would make a fine puppet ruler. “Do not fear, Genus. We will be paying the dragons a visit first.” Victor returned to the computer and again brought up the artifact creation screen. Before heading out, he knew he wouldn’t return to this computer for a while, so he wanted to make a few more cards. But before that, he made one more gold card for himself.
Once more, the hologram became real, and he assimilated himself with the card. His many glowing blue eyes became swirling gold among his shadowy body. He didn’t have blood vessels, but his meter-long claws took on a black-and-gold tint. “Mhm, not bad.” Victor summoned his status to check if anything had changed.
[Name: Victor(Main Body)]
[Race: World Core]
[Class: Demon Core]
[Skills…]
[Name: Victor(Avatar)]
[Race: Netherborne]
[Class: Demon Lord]
[Level: 905]
[Stat Points: 903+ Million]
(Lifeforce STABLE - 10451 Days)
[Skills…]
[Consume X]
[Raise Undead X]
[Shadow Magic X]
[Annihilating Aura X]
[Freezing Cone X]
[Stealth X]
[Doom Ray X]
[Spirit Movement VI]
[Artifact (Royal Card) Abilities…]
[Soul Link]
[Revive]
[Telepathy]
[Spatial Inventory]
[Floor Teleportation Access]
[Terrain Manipulation]
Almost any ability he could add to an artifact…his Demon Core body could already do—but when it came to his Netherborne body, it lacked skills such as a Spatial Inventory, which would be vital for his next plan. I needed a way to carry the cards around. Anyway, time to make the other cards.
Starting from the next highest rank of his new noble system, he created a black card that looked to be made from a shard of obsidian. The obsidian cardholders will be my equivalent of dukes. Basically, nobles that I highly trust, such as Henry, Toby, and Andrew.
[Black Card]
Skills:
[Soul Link]
[Revive]
[Telepathy]
[Spatial Inventory]
[Floor Teleportation Access]
[Terrain Manipulation]
[Create Artifact?]
“Yes,” Victor replied, but he made sure to set the computer to make more than one. He wanted around fifty of these just for safekeeping. The computer’s fans whirled as it produced card after card, the hologram flashing faster than the eye could see. Finally, he deposited all the cards into his Spatial Inventory. Luckily, its size seemed equivalent to his own magical power…so it was near limitless.
Checking back with his Demon Core body, Victor confirmed that he still had plenty of land under control and the creation of the artifacts was just a drop in the bucket compared to the ambient mana of the Cursed Forest.
The Cursed Forest had a similar landmass to a large European country, easily six hundred fifty kilometers across. I should create the blue and green cards and then get out of here and deal with that mess. Unfortunately, the other World Cores were still closing in. Luckily, there were no signs of external armies yet.
Next, it was time to create the blue card out of sapphires and green cards out of emeralds. These two cards were much the same as the black card but with the Floor Teleportation Access and Terrain Manipulation skills removed. I want around five hundred blue cards and ten thousand green cards for now. Selecting the options, the computer fans spun up even more and got to work.
The process took around ten minutes, and by the end, Victor had a large stack of cards in his inventory. “Right.” He turned to his companions. “Henry, you can have a black card.”
“Thank you, Master.” Henry trotted forward and accepted the card. Once assimilated with the obsidian shard, his body flashed with black light. Henry stood two meters tall. The human torso already had raven hair that ran down his back, but now Henry also had black veins, and his pupils were like liquid obsidian, which matched his spear. The horse’s head had retained its scarlet eyes, suggesting that the horse and human body may have separate souls.
Victor then called back Wiggles. The ground trembled as his favorite pet came barreling through the metal wall. His circular mouth of razor teeth, easily the size of people, took up the entire wall. “Come here, Wiggles. Do you want to be a high noble?” His pet didn’t seem to understand, but that was fine. Victor floated over, slashed the side of the titanic earthworm’s mouth, and let some neon-green blood drip onto the black card.
Wiggles already had black scales and a distinct lack of eyes, so the change was small, but now Wiggles could do something that terrified even him…Teleportation. The idea of this monstrosity materializing out of thin air was enough to give even him nightmares. Maybe Wiggles could become the boogeyman of Necron?
The creature made a happy-sounding noise.
“Wiggles, can you use teleportation—?” The green metal wall was all that greeted him as Wiggles vanished from his spot. Then there was an audible pop as air rushed to fill the sudden massive vacuum. “Oh, shit…” Victor checked the black ocean and saw Wiggles thousands of kilometers above him, likely on the top floor of the dungeon. Near the dragons…
Victor looked at his companions. Standing in the corner of the room were the undead dragons. He had acquired them when Alice had gone through her transformation back on the fiftieth floor. They were two Senior-size dragons, a bit larger than Genus, and black-scaled—meaning they were from the Arcnight family.
They never spoke much unless Victor asked them a direct question, which he had done once or twice when Genus had been sleeping. However, they preferred to give one-word answers when asked a direction questions and were mostly unhelpful. Their pride as dragons somehow competed with the mind control of his Raise Undead skill. So Victor ignored them for the most part.
Victor searched his memories to see if they had ever given him their names. While Alice had been sleeping and before he attached them to vines to carry the floating platform, he swore he asked their names. Was it Kekren and Turen? Then, deciding to depend on his excellent memory, he rolled with those names.
“Kekren and Turen.” Luckily the two senior dragons looked toward him with their rainbow pupil eyes. “You are both undead and under my command. From your experience over the last few months, you know the dragons on the surface stand no chance against me.”
“That is correct…my lord,” Kekren responded in a deep growl. “What is your point?”
Victor frowned. He really disliked their attitude. That was why Genus was so great compared to them as a servant. “My pet has already gone ahead, and we will join it soon. Let me make this clear: I do not want to wipe out the dragons. I am open to negotiations. Would you be able to conduct those for me?”
This time Turen, the smaller of the two Senior dragons, snorted but remained silent.
Victor scowled. He had hoped that over the last few months and after seeing his overwhelming power, the dragons would kneel at his feet like dogs or beg for their race to be spared…but even when under his Raise Undead skill, they were this prideful? Victor was starting to see no hope in controlling the dragon race peacefully.
“Genus, would you mind ruling over a dead species?” Victor loomed over the shiny dragon, and his many golden glowing eyes fixated on him. “Because I feel ruling them alive would be more effort than it’s worth.”
Genus Arcgold showed his ivory teeth and grinned. “Master, my thoughts are much the same. So long as my family is spared,” he turned his head and snarled at the two Senior zombie dragons, “then I do not care for the rest. I can rule over them, dead or alive. It matters not to me.”
Victor laughed. “Perfect. You three…” He pointed a golden-tinted claw at the two Senior zombie dragons and the smaller dragon Henry had been using as a mount. “Defend this place for all of eternity. Do not let anyone inside other than those possessing a Black card or Royal card. Also, stay outside and don’t touch or destroy anything inside this room.”
The three dragons bowed their heads and said in perfect unison, “Your wish is our command.” Regarding taking orders, the Raise Undead skill was irrefutable. It was when he asked their personal opinions that they could resist its mind-controlling powers.
“All right, team, let’s go reptile hunting!” Victor felt the Royal card manifest inside his mind, and like an elevator control panel, he could select a floor when he activated the Floor Teleportation Access skill. “See you guys on the first floor!”
There were four audible pops as Victor, Alice, Genus, and Henry vanished from the room and reappeared on the first floor of the dungeon to a chaotic scene.
