Chapter 177 – Trapped


    The skull spun in the air, giggling as it flew from one side of the field to another. Niki blinked his eyes as he saw a skeleton receive the skull with his sword, striking it toward the other side.


    "What the hell are they doing?" muttered the confused Niki as he stared at the skeleton, joyfully jumping around. The one who seemed the most thrilled was none other than the beheaded skeleton. "Are they having a match of some sorts?"


    Niki never thought that his undead would be this aware. When undead are mentioned, like those in the City of Rohan, one would imagine lifeless monsters. However, these skeletons had more energy than three Nikisbined.


    "Gaaah," roared a giant ghoul as he grabbed the skull and crushed it. It was histest undead monster, Ghoul Soldier. He encountered one in his past life, a rare undead famed for his strength but neither agility nor intelligence.


    Unlike the rest of his skeletons, it also devoured the living, which seemed content with just killing them. However, Niki noticed that it grew stronger after eating a corpse earlier, making him pleased.


    The other skeletons seemed upset with the monster, who wasughing (?), and the mage even fired a chaos arrow at it. Niki did not try to prevent this but watched with interest as the attack struck the ghoul.


    However, the ghoul did not die or need regeneration but only had a small wound on his chest. The giantnky monster hunched forward as he examined his chest before screaming at the mage.


    The two sides then got into a fight, a ghoul versus five skeletons with one of them headless. The oue was not clear, but it was a mess.


    "Enough," sighed Niki as he jumped from the bedrock. "I don''t mind if you y around like this, but don''t forget that we can be attacked at any moment. Do not hurt each other."


    "Goooo…" thenky giant monster lowered his head, looking ashamed. Niki thought it was cute, but others would disagree, seeing its rotten wounds.


    "I have to say that I expected another skeleton mage," stared Niki at the ghoul with a pondering expression. "However, you came out. I like you, but what can you do other than being a wall?"


    Niki did not need an undead to defend itself because it would generate anyway. The monster in front of him was known for its strength, but it had slow reflexes.


    "Jeee," grinned the ghoul as it grabbed Niki by the waist and lifted him. Niki did not resist, nor did he panic, as he learned to trust the undead. The ghoul ced him on top of his shoulder, big enough for Niki to sit.


    "You must be at least four meters tall,"ughed Niki as he grabbed the bandages on the rotten head. "Are you going to carry me from now on?"


    The ghoul happily nodded, and Niki almost lost bnce. Nikiughed while the rest of the undead looked at the ghoul with hate. Then, they surrounded him as if trying to protect Niki.


    The scene was almostical, but a strange emotion rose in his heart. Niki never felt such devoted worship by anyone before, always trying to win his favor. The group of the undead then set sail toward their next destination, Abani Ruins.


    The darkness stretched far, but it had an end. The ghoul took enormous strides that turned into a clumsy sprint. After getting used to the method of transportation, Niki realized that it was indeed more efficient.


    Along the way, Niki took out some of his gold and jewels, which belong to the Rainmaker House, and fed it to his skill. Unfortunately, his fight against the high spirit and Lilith consumed his Absolute Charge, and he needed to sacrifice a lot of gold to refill it.


    "I am buying my life," muttered Niki as he watched the gold disappear into his palm as if it had a mouth. The skill was fully charged after consuming half of the gold, and it was a terrifying amount. "Ten thousand gold."


    This money belonged to a fearsome family, but Niki was not worried about it being traced. The Rainmaker House can never track down what does not exist anymore.


    "Maybe that miss has some intel about Hyde," muttered Niki as he yawned. Then, as he stood to the side, he took out the notebook and started reading it. The young miss was a zealous documenter of everything, all to the most obscure details.


    His undead monsters were fighting some giant lizard at the moment, which was stronger than they could handle. However, it seems Ghoul showed its powers atst and pinned the monster down as the rest attacked it.


    "Battle of Alil Vige?" frowned Niki as he read the title. This section mentioned a month ago battle after the assassination attempt against the Rosian princess.


    Memories shed in his mind as he remembered what should have happened. Niki pretended to be the retainer of the princess and used the ritual to which she was its offering to sneak into Celestia.


    That means that after the ritual failed and Niki sneaked into Celestia, the princess and his friend, which was also her childhood friend, escaped beyond the border to Alil Vige.


    "This was the beginning of a war in my past life," muttered Niki. "However, the rise of the undead prevented both kingdoms from emerging victorious. However, this time, the darkness came in the way and prevented the war from escting."


    The darkness crippled the world by its appearance, and kingdoms worked together for the first time in centuries to find ways to re-establish their trade routes. However, Niki knew that this was temporary peace.


    There was a reason that domains appearedter down the line. The gods grew powerful the more they were worshiped, and their candidates were the same. This pushed the lords into fighting against each other for power and supremacy.


    This was the reason that Niki hated Celestia and everyone who represented it. This pushed him into thinking about Valkyrie, who was the reason his life was ruined ever since he got into the academy.


    "I was toyed with," Niki gritted his teeth as he almost ripped the notebook apart. "That is not the time for this. This lifetime has a living Lucas, and I wonder what happened to him."


    His eyes read the rest of the notebook as his undead killed the monster. A crystal appeared quietly in his subspace, piling with the others.


    "The Bastard of Griffin," Niki found a mention of him at the end of the pages. However, this was the section for the result of the battle. "Critically injured by a dark being. Lost an arm."


    The words came out of his mouth and turned into dust, gathering on his skin, prickling it with goosebumps. Niki stared at the words, and his hands started trembling.


    "This was also… because of me?"ughed Niki. "Am I cursed to hurt those I care about? I tried. I swear I tried to make sure that they were safe. However," he startedughing at the irony. "I still ended up hurting him. This is ridiculous!" he roared as he threw the notebook, and it rolled across the dirt.


    The undead stopped moving as they red at him breathing rapidly. Niki could feel his vision growing narrower and darker. His existence suddenly seemed small, as if he was trapped by something greater than himself.


    "Haha," he hollowlyughed. "I am trapped by nothing. This is who I am. I tried to avoid being a carrier of suffering, but it seems that I can never escape such a fate. Those I care about will be hurt, so all I need to do is to stop caring."


    Niki epted that this was his fate. The world returned to normal as he breathed deeply, but something inside him snapped. He realized that he was delusional, even thinking that he had a ce in anyone''s heart.


    They would all turn against him in the end after he hurt them. Niki was like this all along. His parents threw him away the moment he arrived, and he was since then discarded.


    His monsters were trembling because of his rage, and they hurried to kneel in front of him. Niki turned to them with a nk expression before giving a wide smile.


    "You cannot be hurt, right?" he said with almost relief. "You are immortal monsters that I brought from the underworld. You will never betray me, and I will never hurt you. You are all I need."


    The undead monsters kept kneeling for him. There were only six of them now, but Niki vowed to make them growrger. Then, he will take revenge on the world that discarded him.


    A crystal appeared in his hand, and it was one of those farmed by his undead. Niki waited for them to pile before he strengthened himself.


    The stats were all over the ce, as he could not control what monsters his undead found. However, they were plenty for him to grow stronger.


    Other people had to hunt for crystals independently, depending on luck. As for Niki, his undead killed for him, and luck was the one to depend on him.