179 Dekan felt that the Shadow World was in a hurry.
At the beach on the southwestern coast of the Holy Country.
Under the courtyard sunshade, both Dekan and Cornelia lay in beach chairs, wearing sunglasses while basking in the sun.
They had already enjoyed a splendid seven-day, two-person vacation.
Now the deadline for the Shadow World’s task was approaching.
“I must say, this Shadow World wasn’t bad—it was much better than the previous two.”
“I want to come back again.”
“Definitely coming back to the Holy Country.”
“Anyway, it’s all good as long as you’re along, meow!”
Teacher Cat, despite always criticizing Dekan’s peculiarities, invariably stayed close to Dekan and Cornelia after each pleasant moment.
Finally, the Shadow World greeted the countdown stage while they were at ease.
After being forcibly transported out of the Shadow World, they temporarily found themselves in a known small interstitial space.
This was a temporary spot between the Shadow World and the real world, a place to settle rewards.
Soon, the quest interface also started to update, giving off the impression that it wanted to rush them out.
[Shadow World Holy Rite Withered Lore has been completed]
[Calculations underway]
[Evaluation being generated]
[Due to highly coordinated team actions, team settlement will be applied]
[Challenger: Dekan & Cornelia & Dami]
“Hold on, who is Dami?”
Dekan asked somewhat puzzled.
Teacher Cat leapt onto his head and clung to his hair, meowing furiously.
“Dami is me, meow! Have you known me for so long and still don’t even know my name?!”
“Ah? I thought you were just called Teacher Cat.”
Dekan replied with an air of surprise.
This got Teacher Cat even angrier!
“I’m not going home today, meow! I’ll go stay with Cornelia!”
“Doesn’t matter who you stay with among the two of us?”
“Meow… seems true enough…”
As they were chatting, the Shadow World was also continuously updating the settlement information.
[Successfully unlocked hidden objectives 2 and 3 in this story-based Shadow World via unconventional means, successfully completed the killing of the ultimate nemesis Countess Lislinna, and successfully prompted Marquis Roderick’s self-destruction.]
[The team has achieved the following feats]
[Cant Tolerate You Much Longer E—Premature force-destruction of Shadow World’s difficulty through unconventional means]
[Impoverished Village Creator A—Accumulated an amount of money far exceeding the limits of a small town.]
[Absolutely Non-Conforming S—Passed smoothly through the Shadow World mechanism without adhering to its original conditions.]
[Beast Race Disaster SSS—1 bloodline marquis’s death, 1 bloodline countess killed, 5 destroyed bloodline retainers of the sixth rank.]
[Music Education E—This time you didn’t destroy any pianos.]
…
[Sacred Country Seven-Day Excursion A—An achievement that contrasts with the style of this Shadow World]
Seeing this, Dekan furrowed his brow.
The “Cant Tolerate You Much Longer” could it be what the Shadow World wants to say?
And the “Music Education” part, isn’t that a bit of stereotype?
[Achievement Review Complete, Evaluation Finalized]
[You were an unpredictable nightmare, both for the vampire race and the Holy Country. Still, in the southern borders of the Holy Country, many lives were saved because of you—even though this history has been forgotten by everyone.]
[Team’s Overall Evaluation: SSS]
[Due to the high synergy and significant task objective contributions achieved through close collaboration between Dekan and another non-team challenger, a Collaborative Feature will be awarded.]
[Dekan & Morion receive the Collaborative Feature: Conniving Together.]
[Conniving Together: When both appear in the same Shadow World, Dekan has a higher probability of gaining authority roles, and Morion a higher chance of acquiring merchant status.]
Dekan, looking at the prompt, felt that today’s Shadow World was unusually aggressive.
[Reward Settlement: Rank Enhancement (Dekan 3rd stage → 4th stage, Cornelia 4th stage → 4th stage, Dami 5th stage → 5th stage), Blood Annihilation (a sixth-rank epic spell card)]
“Why is there only one this time, meow?”
“It’s an epic sixth-rank spell card; it’s pretty good. Maybe the other slightly less premium card or material went to Morion.”
Reasonably speaking, with such a domineering name, the card should indeed have formidable effects.
Dekan grabbed the card floating in the air, noticing the occasional flow of orange arcs on the card.
“Not bad for a sixth-rank epic card.”
The terrifying magical power contained in the card could be sensed the moment Dekan touched it.
[Blood Annihilation]
[Category: Spell Card]
[Grade: Orange Epic]
[Rank: 6]
[Effect: After a 10-second recitation, purge all states and disable all equipment effects. Inflicts catastrophic damage on oneself and deals equivalent damage and destruction effects to all living and inanimate objects within range. Cool down time: 30 days.]
[Note: The last spell used by Marquis Roderick before his death.]
“Meow?”
Teacher Cat looked at the spell card while resting on Dekan’s head, a dazed expression on its face.
“…”
Dekan fell silent as well, finally sensing the malice originating from the Shadow World.
The Shadow World’s final rewards were related to their contributions and the enemies they defeated or the spoils they obtained within it.
This time, their strongest adversary was Marquis Roderick.
Given the SSS rating, even if they received only a single card, it should have been at least a sixth-rank epic card.
However, the exact epic card related to Marquis Roderick was left to chance.
Unfortunately,
They got the sickest one!
Roderick’s self-destruction!
This card probably has unparalleled area damage and destructive power.
But it’s a consumable.
Use it once, and both the card and the user will vanish together!
Clearly, the Shadow World desired Dekan’s demise.
“This card’s broken, meow. Only Marquis Roderick would use it, right?”
Teacher Cat called out in disappointment upon seeing the orange-colored epic card.
A sixth-rank soul-unbounded epic card could fetch a sky-high price. Teacher Cat would profit from a portion of it if sold.
But this card would not sell!
Regardless of its strength, any use would turn the wielder into a pile of poop.
Still,
Teacher Cat discovered Dekan showing no disappointment but rather high-fiving Cornelia!
“Are you two…”
Teacher Cat widened its eyes upon noticing their reactions.
It realized that someone might genuinely find a way to repeatedly use this card!
“Are you two thinking of selling this card to Chloix, for him to harm others?! ”
Dekan: “What else? With Chloix’s wealth, buying it certainly wouldn’t be a problem.”
Cornelia: “Perfect pairing!”
“Shadow World, you’re still too young.”
Dekan smirked, shaking his head.
The Shadow World failed to foresee that Dekan had a good brother who had never made a joint appearance yet and could convert all magical damage to healing.
Thus, using [Blood Annihilation] on Chloix would ensure his survival while restoring him to full health from a critical state!
This effectively added a lifesaving card.
Once triggered, it would cause a massive wave of group healing that would reduce even priests and bomb enthusiasts to tears.
As long as [Blood Annihilation] was in Chloix’s possession, he could confidently announce—
“I am the nuclear bomb!”
