The Dark Demon Lord - Chapter 65

*HMPHH*

The sound of someone breathing from their nose appeared in the forest. It was a sad sound and one could even hear the breath tremble.

Arnin was silently watching Akig eat the rabbit with tears running down his cheek. “Why did this happen? Why am I a Hybrid? Now, no one will like me.” He finally finished the rabbit, however he felt extremely sorrowful. As a child, he didn’t want to be different from his friends. He wanted to be the same so that he could continue playing with them, however now that he knew he was different, he felt that no one would ever play with him.

“Akig, you need to stop acting like a child. Being a Hybrid is not a bad thing, rather it is actually extremely rare and good.” Arnin slowly explained. “Look again at all the damage you did. Do you think any of your friends could do this?” He asked.

Akig was silent. After looking at the scene again and again, even he felt that his strength was extremely high. This type of damage was not something his friends could do, not even if they trained for many years.

“What should I do then? Will people still want to be friends with me after knowing that I’m only half human?” Akig still had this concern. Afterall, he was still a child, and to him, friends were very important.

Arnin shook his head, and couldn’t help but sigh. “You need to understand something, Akig. From now on, you will be staying here. You will not be going back to the academy until you are stronger.” Arnin looked at Akig with little to no expression on his face. “In this world, people will want to be friends with the strong. If you are strong, everyone will be your friend, however if you are weak, then no one will like you.” His words were like waves crashing onto Akig’s heart.

What Arnin said was actually not entirely true. If the strong were the only ones that could have friends, than Arnin would have been the most popular person in the universe, but that wasn’t the case. People hated and feared Arnin, many wanted him dead, some even desiring to torture him, and make him live a life that would be worse than death.

“What about my three friends? We always play together and they don’t care about my strength.” Akig said in an almost mouse-like voice.

“If your friends find out that you are only half human, they will hate you. Do you want that?” Arnin glared at Akig and questioned.

“N-no! I don’t want to be hated!” Akig firmly rejected the idea of being hated.

“Then you have to get stronger.” Arnin said with a look of seriousness. He also felt that Akig was extremely strong and had great potential. All Hybrid creatures were extremely talented and powerful.

“T-then what should I do? How will I become stronger?” Akig calmed down and got up from the ground. He wiped snot and tears off of his face, and looked at Arnin with resolution. ‘I will not be hated! I will become stronger so that I can still have friends.’

“If you want to become stronger, then you will do everything that I say. I will make it so that in the future, no one in Afloria will look down on you.” Arnin said with seriousness. When Akig heard Arnin’s words, he couldn’t help but become emotional, however he was also oblivious to one fact.

‘Akig is such an easy person to control. Once he becomes stronger, I will be able to dominate Afloria with him as one of my generals.’ Arnin couldn’t help but inwardly smile. He didn’t care about Akig’s friendships with others, all he cared about was his usefulness.

“Now then, the first step to making you stronger is very easy. You will live in this forest all day and come back at night. If you want to eat, you will hunt. If you want to drink, you will find water.” Arnin’s words thundered inside Akig’s head. ‘This is the perfect training method for him. He will need to embrace his animal instincts, and slowly awaken his tiger bloodline. While he is doing this, I will be able to collect all the ingredients needed to make him the low leveled Bloodline Pill.’

“H-how am I going to survive out here? The beasts are much stronger than me.” Akig’s eyes became red once again.

“Don’t worry, I will make sure that you aren’t here alone. I will allow your friends to train with you.” Arnin smiled wickedly. He had a plan to make him stronger.

“Really? My friends can come here as well?” Akig’s eyes brightened when he heard this. The three friends that he always hung out with were from his village. They grew up together, and so they were extremely close. If he could train with them, he wouldn’t mind hunting and eating in the forest.

“Now then, I am going to head back. For now, you come back with me and once I bring your friends over, you will begin your training.” Arnin turned around as he spoke and headed towards the exit of the forest.

Akig was no longer crying, instead, he was feeling extremely happy. He looked at Arnin with gratification, however Arnin’s face carried a wicked smile. No one knew what he was thinking.

Soon, they arrived back at the house. The sky was darkening and Arnin decided to leave the dimension. “You can sleep in the house for now. I will bring your friends tomorrow.” Arnin walked towards the hexagonal hole inside his bedroom, but just when he was about to insert his sphere, he found Akig curiously looking down at the basement.

“Akig!” Arnin said in a deep voice.

He was startled, and quickly looked at Arnin, who had a serious face. “Yeah?”

Arnin glanced at the basement, before looking at Akig once more. “No one is allowed to enter the basement. If I find that you have entered without my permission, then I will make sure that you stay weak, and have no friends.” Arnin said seriously. Akig jumped back, before quickly nodding his head. He walked away from the stairs that went down in the basement, burying his curiosity.

The sphere entered the hexagonal hole before Arnin vanished from sight. He appeared back in front of the Alchemy building, and went back towards his house in the Moth residential area. The sky was darkening, and Arnin wanted to head back to his home and rest. He had many things that needed to be done now. He had to find the Blood Devouring Flower, and begin the hunt for ingredients of the Flame Suppressant Pill. Not only that, but he needed to get stronger, much stronger.

Arnin was a little excited about all of the things that needed to be done. The boredom he had faced as the strongest in the universe was now gone with all of the excitement in Afloria.

—————————–

After reaching his house, Arnin noticed that Vilis was still in the midst of his evolution. He saw changes in Vilis’ body, and noticed that he was now much larger, and his fur was becoming somewhat lighter, with hints of white here and there. Not only that, but Arnin noticed an extra horn growing from Vilis’ forehead. Arnin nodded his head, and began to feel the fluctuations that Vilis released.

‘Hmm, his aura is higher then Essence Manifest now. Let’s see how far he can evolve. He can’t go too high in realm cultivation, or I won’t be able to concoct the low level Bloodline Pill for Akig.’ Arnin’s expression became somewhat serious. Vilis had most likely reached the realm of a Rank Two beast by now, but his evolution didn’t seem to be nearing completion anytime soon. This was troublesome for Arnin.

Arnin sighed, and shook his head. If Vilis’ strength did become higher than he wanted, then he could just try and strengthen Akig a little more. He walked past Vilis, and sat down in the middle of the room. He crossed his legs and began to silently cultivate.

‘I have already created the cultivation manual, and even have an elemental seed from a combination of three elements.’ Arnin thought in his head. He already had the elements of light, darkness, and fire combined, but he began to think about combining other elements together.

A combination were able to exponentially increase the power of each component, which made it very beneficial to the cultivator, however it was also extremely difficult to control and create.

Arnin pondered which elements he should combine, but then he suddenly remembered a very important skill that he had in his past life. Reincarnation. This was a skill that Arnin didn’t have complete control over, as he could only use it on himself, and not on others. Although his control wasn’t high, he still had a good understanding of the power. Reincarnation was a mixture of life and death. One would die, and then gain life once again. This was an ability that every phoenix possesed.

‘I have death and life stored in my body, so maybe I can try and create the seed of Reincarnation?’ Arnin considered. Once this thought took hold, it was hard to extinguish.

Arnin smiled as he decided to create such a seed. Although there was a large chance of failure, or even a completely different power being created, Arnin wanted to try. Reincarnation was a very peculiar subject which greatly interested Arnin. In the past, he infiltrated the great Phoenix clan and began a massacre because he wanted to see how a phoenix would reincarnate after death.

This whole experiment lasted about a thousand years before Arnin was able to understand what he wanted. The problem that frustrated him was that he could not control the reincarnation of others. He simply didn’t have the power to.

Now that he possessed the elements of life and death, there was a chance he could control reincarnation.

With that thought in mind, Arnin decided to head over to the Essence Tower. It never closed, and was always opened for students to utilize. He wanted to head over and see if he could create the elemental seed using the vast amount of essence.

He got up and walked towards the door.

*BUZZ*

Suddenly, a buzzing sound began to resound in the house. Arnin raised his eyebrows and he looked around.

*BUZZ*

Arnin followed the sound, and found that it was coming from underneath a wooden plank. He immediately knew that it had to do with the mysterious page Fae had given him. ‘Seems like there is finally a reaction.’

Arnin had a smirk on his face as he removed the plank and brought out the bag that contained the page. He pulled the page out, and noticed that there were some words written on it.

He tried to read the writing, but found that it was in a language that he couldn’t understand. ‘Maybe I need to research this language, or find Fae and have her decipher this for me.’ Arnin had this thought, but decided that he would figure out the information later. He only had some interest towards the mysterious page, so there was no need for him to wrack his brain to figure it out.

“I’m going to first head for the Tower before doing anything else.” Arnin prioritized increasing his own strength over anything else. It was one of the only things that mattered to him. If his strength didn’t increase, then what was the point of him reincarnating?

Arnin stuffed the mysterious page into his interspatial bag, and quickly headed towards the Essence Tower.

——————-

An hour later, he finally arrived at the tower. Right now, he had an abundance of points. With around a thousand points he would be able to enter the tenth floor with no problem. Although the cost was very high, around 365 academic points, that would take a little more than a third of his total points.

He found that the person who was at the first floor desk was not Surk, rather it was a teacher, but not only that, it was a teacher he knew.

“Teacher Xaac.” Arnin called out to him as he approached. The latter looked over, and was somewhat surprised to see Arnin.

“Arnin, what are you doing here so late?” Xaac, of course, knew Arnin’s name after the whole incident involving him beating two students behind the Tower’s training field.

“I am here to cultivate.” Xaac nodded his head when he heard what Arnin was there for. Although it was late, there were still many students that were cultivating in the Tower.

“Would you like me to help find you a room on the first floor?” Xaac asked with a smile, however it was a little forced. Initially, he only thought of Arnin as a very talented child, but after the whole incident behind the Tower, his impression of Arnin was a little different.

“No, I want to go higher than that. I want to enter the tenth floor.” Arnin words entered Xaac’s ears, almost causing him to fall down.

“A-Arnin, you must be joking? The tenth floor is filled with the strongest students in the academy. All of them have already reached Elemental Formation realm.” As a teacher, Xaac had to make sure that Arnin wouldn’t do anything that he was unable to do. Although he was aware that Arnin was extremely strong for his age, he knew that there was no way Arnin would be able to beat an Elemental Formation cultivator, at least not for now.

“Teacher Xaac, it is alright. Just send me to the tenth floor. I will handle the rest myself.” Arnin said without much of an expression.

Xaac shook his head, and was a little hesitant before extending his hand out. “Alright, pass me your Identity card.” Arnin handed it over to Xaac, who took out the points required. “Here you go.” He then hesitated before asking Arnin once again. “Are you sure that you want to head over to the tenth floor? If you change your mind, I can immediately give you back the points.”

“Teacher, I have already decided.” Arnin said before walking away towards the platform that would lead to the higher floors. Xaac watched Arnin disappear with bitterness.

“These students really are becoming more and more gutsy.” He said, before sitting down on a chair.

Arnin appeared on the tenth floor. When he stepped off of the platform, he began to stagger. Sweat poured down, as if he was sitting right next to the sun.

‘This floor really is much higher leveled. The amount of components is too high, and is even suffocating me.’ Arnin continued to sweat as a smile formed on his face.