Myriad's Conquest 19 A Conversation

's.h.i.+EET!!!'

Adrian screamed inside his mind as he falls down into the darkness below.

*Crash*

*Rumble*

"URGHH! F*CK!"

Adrian crashed into the bottom with a loud voice, but that was not over, debris was raining down from above, hitting some part of his body. He felt dizzy for a moment and could only be laying on the ground. Soon, he raised his body slightly while groaning and get himself to a sitting position.

His left arm felt a bit painful, Adrian had used it to lessen the shock from the crash. It may be due to that it feels hurt currently. Luckily, the arm wasn't dislocated.

Adrian starts looking up above, the floor where he was walking on earlier has turned into a hole. It's quite high, honestly. Between 20 to 25 meters from up there and all the way down to the bottom. He can't believe that he had felled from that height.

He sighed and shakes his head.

Since Adrian's surrounding was extremely dark, Gloria's Defender on his right hand automatically exuded a warm light, which illuminated the area around him partially. He could finally saw what the bottom he fell into looked like.

"THE h.e.l.l?!?!' He was greatly surprised.

Adrian actually sitting on top of mountains of skulls. He hastily rose up and jumped to the ground.

'F*ck! No wonder it doesn't feel that hurt when I'd crashed before.'

'I'm starting to hate this place!'

He cursed inwardly. This palace has given him lots of headaches.

Next, Adrian scanned the surrounding sight with his eyes. This area appears to be a cavern some sort and since there were piles of skulls everywhere, it must be utilized as a catacomb before the city was abandoned.

"LORD!"

"LORD DORNAN!!!"

Leo's voice echoed from above.

"IM HERE!!"

Adrian shouted with all his might and waved the s.h.i.+ning Gloria's Defender.

Peeking from the hole, Leo could see a bright light moving around and the Lord faintly visible in the bottom. He was extremely shocked and worry as he saw Adrian fell along with the floor before. After all, it happened when the Lord's safety was supposed to be his responsibility, he couldn't help but feel guilty.

Actually, it's not Leo's fault, though. Adrian was the one who separated himself from anyone else. So it was totally his own fault he ended up in this dark cavern.

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT, LORD?!?!"

"IM FINE! QUICK, CALL ZILONG OVER!"

Zilong and the rest of the men were still inside the Armory. They probably haven't realized that their Lord and Leo has gone missing as they were too busy with the weapons.

"YES, LORD!" Leo complied and immediately went away to call Zilong.

"Hahaha. I can't believe you really fell. That was hilarious, hahaha."

Suddenly, the mocking voice of a male resounds.

"Who's there?!"

Adrian was startled, he became extremely vigilance.

He quickly traced the voice's source, but after looking around to every direction, he couldn't find the person who said those words. As a result, he couldn't stop himself from being agitated, it's already too many surprises in one day, he had enough of it.

Adrian roared, "Show yourself! Don't hide!"

"Easy... Don't be so angry, will you?"

After the voice resounds again, an almost transparent, glowing humanoid figure emerged from the piles of bones. Adrian narrowed his eyes because that was the same figure he had chased on earlier.

"Hey... Greetings." Greeted the transparent figure, while waving its hand slightly.

Seeing from a close distance, the figure's visage was completely revealed. Just like the voice, it's appearance was a male, with medium curly hair, sharp eyes full of mischievous kind of gazes, sleek and handsome jaw bone, tall height, and a well-defined muscled body that was covered from neck to toe by exquisite light armor. In short, it's a good-looking man.

The transparent man was grinning when Adrian scrutinized him.

"Vargas..."

Adrian muttered under his breath. Even though he said those in low volume, the transparent man still able to hear it.

Astonishment appeared on the man's face, his grin became wide as he gleefully asked, "Y... You know my name?"

"Vargas Lieger."

"How's that possible?!" The man completely shocked after he heard Adrian uttered his full name.

Then, he frantically spoke to himself without caring about other things, "Did he use Status Check on me? Nah... that skill won't work appraising ghosts. Then, did I've somehow already become a legend and famous outside this place? No... No, that shouldn't be... Back then, I've only just arrived at this realm... But maybe... hehehe."

Adrian was getting impatient, seeing this strange transparent man only speaking to himself agitated him more, "Ehem."

Adrian's cough snapped the transparent man from his daydreaming moment, "Oh... Sorry about that, I seem too, hehehe... Nevermind..."

The man continued to spoke, "Ehem... Before you get more annoyed, let me introduce myself, properly. My name is Vargas Lieger. I'm one of the Archon of the Gloria's Temple... well... a former, though. Since I'm already dead, hahaha. Anyway, a pleasure to meet you... ehm... I didn't know your name, Sir..."

The man was waiting for Adrian to introduce his own name. However, the person himself didn't open his mouth at all.

'Gloria's Temple? And he was already dead? That means he's a ghost or remnant of a soul, right?'

He instead, lost in his own thought. The transparent man was still waiting patiently, Adrian sighed and answered reluctantly, "Adrian Dornan, the Lord of Seastar."

The man smiled joyfully, "I see, Sir Adrian. A pleasure to knowing you..."

"My turn to ask about something, then. How could you have the same name as the blue tiger beast in the forest? Is he your pet or something?"

The fact that both the ghost and Vargas Guardian Tiger beast have the same name greatly startled Adrian, he already feels the beast has a weird name when he encountered it in Yarra. But he never would have imagined the ghost and the beast was somehow connected.

'Does the beast protect him? There is a Guardian word within its name after all."

Hearing that, Vargas, the transparent man's expression changed and he solemnly said, "You've already met Ralka, aren't you? Yes, he's my companion since long ago..."

A fierce glint flashed across Adrian's eyes, "Can you please stop that beast? It already destroyed a village, causing dozens of people killed, even now that pet of yours has terrorized my domain these past few days. It's truly problematic."

Vargas sighed, "That's the problem. He won't listen to me at all or to me in this form to be exact. Which is why, I want you to help me with something, and it's related to Ralka's disobedience. This request also the reason why I'm beckoning you to follow me before." Said him, helplessly.

Adrian became even more vigilance. Trusting the words of a strange sarcastic ghost, he had just met? Nonsense!

Vargas could also feel that Adrian was wary of him and being on guard against him, but just as he wants to spoke to him again...

"MILORD!!! LORD DORNAN!!!"

Zilong's earth-shattering voice echoed from the hole's direction.

"ZI!! DOWN HERE! I'M FINE!" Adrian replied and waving Gloria's Defender again.

Zilong was greatly elated when he saw Adrian at the bottom.

"LORD?! ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"I'M ALRIGHT! Don't worry."

"PLEASE WAIT, LORD! LET ME FIND SOME ROPES, FIRST."

Then, a commotion was happening near the hole as Zilong ordered the militias to search for any ropes that could be found.

Adrian looked back at Vargas and saw him just standing still in his original position with a smile hanging on his face.

He was a little bit curious about his request so he inquired, "What kind of help do you want?"

"I'll have you know about it, of course. But before that, I need to show you something first. It's just nearby, won't you follow me?"

'I fell into this cavern when I've followed him earlier. Who knows what will happen if I follow him again.'

Even though he thinks like that, Adrian extremely curious about the thing that Vargas had wanted to show him.

"What about my men, then? They'll be worried if I'm suddenly gone again..."

"You can just order them into here too. There is a path located in the west wing that can them to this place. I'm sure your men could easily find it."

After pondering for a while, Adrian sighed once more. This time, curiosity gets the better of him.

Besides, Adrian realized that the ghost appearance was actually a good thing for him. Because this Vargas would be a great source of information concerning what happened to the city, this, in turn, will make the investigation quest much easier to be solved.

"ZI?!" He shouted again.

"LORD?! PLEASE WAIT, WE"RE STILL LOOKING FOR ROPES."

"NO, FORGET IT! There is a staircase somewhere on the west wing that can lead you down here. Take the militia and get in here, fast!"

"YES, LORD! We'll find it immediately."

Adrian then remembered something important. He quickly shouted once more before Zilong leave.

"AND ZI! Get some men to move all the weapons we found earlier from the Armory to the Palace's door. Don't leave even a single weapon behind. Are you clear?"

"AFFIRMATIVE, LORD!" Thus, Zilong and the militia quickly executing their orders.

"Hey, sir. Those weapons are mine, you know." Vargas protested.

Adrian muted, he merely stared at Vargas indifferently.

Vargas shrugged, he spoke defeatedly, "Fine, you can have them. They do not actually belong to me, anyway."

"You've said you want to show something to me, right? What are you waiting for, then?"

"Yes... Yes... This way, please." Vargas excitingly replied.

He guides Adrian towards a small pa.s.sage at the north side of the cavern.

Adrian cautiously maintained some distance from the ghost as he followed him. Since silence was awkward, Adrian thoughts he might as well ask some questions.

"Are you one of the city's original residents?"

Vargas shook his head, "No... But the royal family of Phoenicia makes me an honorary guest of this city due to my special position within the Temple of Gloria and the circ.u.mstances at that time."

"I've never heard of Phoenicia... They're the ruler of this city right?"

"Indeed they are... Phoenicia Dynasty was one of the most powerful kingdoms in this realm back then. They controlled this entire island as well as the surrounding archipelago."

Naturally, Adrian also knew that Wilderness Island was not the only island existed in this local region east of Eires Continent. The island was part of a large collection of scattered islands known as Meera Archipelago. This archipelago consists of five large islands and dozens of other albeit smaller islands.

Even though there were still four large islands nearby, their size couldn't be compared to Wilderness at all.

From its western edge close to Eires, all the way to the eastern edge, the archipelago was stretched with the distance of almost 1,000 km. A close comparison would be to that of Indonesia Archipelago, but it's obvious that Meera was much smaller in size.

'Its natural this dynasty was one of the most powerful then. They were able to control a large archipelago, after all. That's not an easy endeavor.'

"At that time, I was dispatched to help the only branch of the Temple in this realm, which located in this very city, Carthag," Vargas added.

"To help them in what exactly?"

Vargas glanced back at Adrian briefly, before answering in a weak voice, "Helping them against the Devil Invasion."

Adrian gasped and his eyes widened. He also knew that Gloria's realm had suffered an invasion by the Devil race 400 years ago.

'So this ruin is 400 years old already, huh. s.h.i.+t! This ghost has been here for that long too!'

"Seeing this city has become a ruin and the fact that you have become a ghost. I reckon you failed, right?"

Vargas sighed, "Yeah... I've witnessed the last and the brave King of Phoenicia, Barca slain by a Devil Duke, who also happens to be the commander of the invasion, during a battle near the coast... A week later, it was my turn to be killed and the city was sacked."

Adrian couldn't see Vargas's expression when he said that as he was facing forward. But judging from his sorrowful voice, he could discern that Vargas was extremely sad and disappointed.

*Ding!*

[System Notification: The objective for the quest "Investigate the ruin in the northern forest" has been updated and upgraded due to the new information.]

[Quest: Uncover the secret of Carthag: (0/1).]

System notification rang inside Adrian's brain.

His brow slightly raised, 'It looks like the quest objective has changed... My decision to follow him is proven to be a correct one. There's no need to search for records anymore, probably.'

"If I may ask again... Why are you still here, then? I've heard that a ghost is only remnants of a soul of a person who died with extreme unwillingness and might still have some unfinished business. Is that why you're here?" Asked Adrian curiously.

By now, he was no longer fully on guard against Vargas, but he still keeps some vigilance.

"Hahaha... That knowledge is so cliche and completely wrong, my friend. Of course, that's not why I'm stuck here."

Vargas laughed hard, he was really amused by Adrian's lack of knowledge about ghosts. Vargas cannot be blamed, though. Adrian got his knowledge from mumbo jumbo stuff back on earth, which might be completely different from the reality of this Myriad's Universe.

He wants to explain several things about them to Adrian. However, he realized they already arrived near the place he wanted to show.

"Alright, we're here... This is it, our destination."

Both of them standing in front of a black door at the end of the pa.s.sage.