My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 911: Chapter 912: Did You Know

Seras pulled the reins of the nocturnal stag, stopping her actions on the narrow forest path trapped between a few giant trees. It made everyone stop.

Damon raised his head from behind Renata.

“What, why did you stop? We need to move.”

Seras glanced in front of her. There was a serious expression on her face as she took out her tachi, raising it high in front of her.

“Show yourself,” she bellowed as the sounds of trees rustling behind them grew.

Damon did not sense anything. There was no one there. Nothing was there. It was just the forest.

Then something moved.

When he blinked again, there was something there, or someone. He saw Seras’s hands tighten on her tachi. Whatever this thing was, its power was overwhelming.

It was terrifying.

There in front of them stood a lone entity. It was white. This was because it was made of bones. There was a round, blood red orb in its stomach, or where its stomach would be. A phylactery. This was all Damon needed to know. This was a…

“Lich.”

From the overwhelming aura, Damon felt his very hands shake from its deep and terrifying aura.

“A grand lich,” Seras said, sensing its aura in the seventh class advancement. This was even higher ranked than she was.

It wore a robe and carried a staff that was clearly a high level magical artifact.

This was an intelligent entity.

“Dammit,” Damon cursed. They had not even gone too far into the forest yet. Why were they meeting an ancient horror?

The longer this lich lived, or could this even be called living, the more experienced and powerful it was.

“May I ask who you are, old one?” Seras spoke with her guard up. She did not want this to end in a fight, because it would mean the end of the expedition. Everyone here would die except her, but even she would be hard pressed to win or even survive.

“Who am I… I am not someone you would know. I would say my name, though it would be of little significance.”

Seras bit her lips. He wanted her to say her name first. She slightly moved her mana and put herself on guard against curses.

She briefly contemplated using the holy relic from the temple, but that was a final use weapon in case she had to fight a demon lord.

“I am Seras Blade. I am the leader of this expedition unit, and we only wish for safe passage.”

The lich did not move.

“You have disturbed the peace of this forest, Seras Blade. The forest is angry and demands retribution,” he spoke in a deep and aged voice, yet it was still firm and showed no weakness.

“The forest is alive. It does not know peace. Am I not part of it as well? Why would it want retribution? This is simply the natural way of things,” she responded.

The lich paused. That was a logical thought. The forest was in fact an ecosystem, and everything that existed within it was part of its ecosystem. Life and death happened here, and even man was part of the forest as long as they lived there.

“I see you are a person of knowledge, Seras Blade. Very well then. I shall give you all a chance to pass. In exchange, you must tell me knowledge that I do not know.”

Seras frowned as the lich spoke. It continued.

“The knowledge must interest me, and it must not contain falsehoods. In exchange, I will also allow you to ask me three questions.”

“What happens if the knowledge does not interest you?” Damon asked from behind Renata.

The lich glanced at him. His gaze seemed to linger on Damon, as if trying to see through him.

“You are touched by many things. Many terrible things. You will not live long.”

It stomped its staff in the ground as a wave of black magical energy spread and forced all the creatures hunting them away.

“If that is so, then you shall perish,” the lich answered.

Damon sighed, shaking his head.

He really hated riddles and monsters that used them. It was the same in Lysithara when they had run into the Keeper of False Truths.

Seras nodded slowly.

“Very well then. We accept your terms.”

She glanced at Damon, then nodded.

She dismounted her stag and walked back to him. He dismounted and joined her. The other squad leaders and Renata joined as well, as did Wendy. Damon considered summoning Matia. He shook his head, stopping the thought. She was his trump card. He would only summon her when he was absolutely out of options to save his life.

Seras glanced at them.

“We can buy time with this. I doubt he would want to wait too long, so in the meantime let us gather what eccentric knowledge we have and see what impresses him.”

Damon held his chin.

“Normal knowledge would not be much use for something like that. We can try magic, but he would probably be disinterested in any spell we know. We could try history, but judging from his outfit, I would say he lived from the first epoch, so he has probably seen it all.”

Seras crossed her arms.

“Alright then. Let us see what we have. Renata, you gather input from everyone, and we will read through and see what is best.”

Renata nodded and left. The squad leaders did too.

A few minutes later, they returned with all sorts of knowledge from complex magic, history, and even pointless trivia. After much thought…

None of them seemed useful.

Seras sighed as the evening sun was setting. She walked up to the lich.

“Knowledge is vast, and we do not know what will interest you. I ask that you give us until dawn to give you our answers.”

The lich had not moved for hours and remained standing there.

“Very well then. I shall wait. I have lived many years. A night is but a moment in my undeath.”

Seras let out a sigh as they set up camp. No monsters approached, even though she could sense them watching. That was good. The lich was a deterrent against any attacks.

For the whole night, Seras, Damon, and Renata tried to figure something out to no avail. The results were insignificant.

At dawn, Seras went to face the lich. The expedition unit was packed and ready to go, having rested the night on eggshells.

She took out a scroll and handed it to him.

It was old and worn, the exact kind of scroll that was hard to decipher. It was priceless, and Seras had found it in a dungeon after slaying a dragon.

“This is a fragment of a scroll left by the great sage Athor in the second epoch. It contains knowledge of a ritual to resurrect the dead.”

The lich glanced at it, then tossed it back at Seras’s feet like it was garbage.

“Yes, Athor. The boy. He came to me years ago with the full edition of my scrolls. Why would I want knowledge that I had authored years ago?”

Seras’s hands trembled. What kind of terrible luck was this, to find the author of a fragment of the scroll she had kept all these years? He referred to the great sage Athor as a boy. Of course he would know the spell. He was a lich.

Nothing she could think of on the fly would impress the lich. She held her tachi. It seemed it was down to the last option. Combat.

Crunch.

Damon stepped on some branches and came in between them.

He took out a chair from his shadow and placed it between them. His face was calm as he sat down. In his heart, he was screaming and cursing himself, but he remained calm due to his skill, Remorseless, which was keeping him steady in this moment of crisis.

Damon sighed, shaking his head.

“Ahhhhh. The age of gods ended too quickly. A shame you did not get to experience it. How young you must be. You missed out on conversing with gods that walked among us.”

Seras forced a calm expression. The lich would not allow lies. If Damon lied, they would lose, and therefore face the worst case scenario.

“I imagine you have,” the lich spoke calmly.

Damon nodded slowly, his expression wistful.

“I have. I even killed a god. The knowledge I know might be something you have never heard of.”

He said might, because saying might was technically not a lie.

The lich glanced at this bold man who seemed more like a boy. Surely a boy would not be at the fourth class advancement.

“Then share. What is it that you ’might’ know that I do not?”

It repeated the word might.

Damon stayed calm. Honestly, he was winging it here.

“Did you know that the Unknown God actually predated his own existence?”

Damon said calmly, leaning back and even pulling out a table from his shadow storage along with an expensive bottle of wine.

He snapped his fingers as Renata reluctantly stepped forward and poured him a glass. He lifted the cup to his mouth, then waved his hand dismissively at the lich, who did not seem affected by his words. Inside his heart, he was cursing how much knowledge the lich had.

“Fine, fine. That is boring. You do not want to know it. Forget it.”

“Wait,” the lich said with a calm voice.

“What do you mean, predated his existence?”

Damon tried to suppress his smile but failed. He took a sip of his wine.

He could not help it, but he had to do it.

“Ahhh, so ignorant of the omniverse around you.”

The lich took a step forward, curious about what Damon knew. Damon had a feeling that if he did not give an interesting enough explanation, the lich would disembowel him.