In an endless abyss, Ray continued to fall in an unknown realm. His eyes were closed, focusing on his magic.
Although he had made it to the end goal, to get his hands on Orcus, still one step remained. To own Orcus, it had to turn into part of his soul, yet they were two different beings.
A human and the last remaining pieces of a giant didn't match together; for that sole reason, Ray had opened his soul to the environment around him.
"When I'm one with the pit itself, then it'ss over." He had already done 20 percent of the task; all the time in the river helped him.
Unlike his previous time, the pit didn't deflect him; he had taken Orcus by force, and as a result, it had reached the point of breaking completely.
"You have heard the origin of the river of torment, right?" Orcus's voice came from within him and the outside at the same time.
"Yeah."
"Why did the giant go on the mission to die?"
Ray said without hesitation, "If they succeeded, there would be no torment; everyone would talk about their great discovery. This whole place is a shadow in the sea of forgotten love and death; none of that matters as long as you win."
After some time, the voice once more asked him, "What would you do if you failed again?"
"I shall try until my last breath; if I die before reaching my goal, so be it. Since the first life I took, I have been ready to die." Ray had his own suspicions about the sudden questions.
He opened his hands toward the empty void: "My old friend, heart of the giant, let's live out our lives to the fullest."
"Since when did you know about my identity?"
Ray laughed. "From the beginning."
From the start, Orcus reminded him of himself, a life full of mistakes. Together they could be the perfect pair.
The landscape around him changed him from scratch; he had returned to his crafting station. The biggest difference was that he had brought something with him.
"At the end, we met each other." Ray summoned his own weapon.
A scythe came to life in his hand; first a spine grew in his hand, with a skull at the end of it. From the skull, a blade made out of bones rose, light reflected on the edges of the blade, and on earth nothing existed that could stop its blade.
The description of Orcus became part of his system:
Weapon: Orcus
Rarity: mythical
Passive: 30% boost to all stats
Level: 1 (0/5)
Magical weapons had two types, legendary ones being the most common ones and mythical ones that were so rare that most generals didn't have mythical weapons either.
"In your last life, you were legendary too." Ray smiled; now his stats could reach a level 4 easily. Before the final fight, Orcus was level 9, and it gave him a 50 percent boost; with simple math, it could reach 100% on that level.
Ray used the five bloodstones that he had gotten from Jade on Orcus; with a small shake of its body, its bones became more white.
"30 percent boost..."
The next level needed 20 blood stones to upgrade.
"Before you can speak once more, it will take a long time, but the world shall know us once more." He smiled as he sent it back to his soul. For now, he couldn't use Orcus in public with Marian and Alexandria's eyes on him.
He checked his stats before moving toward his bedroom.
Strength: 151
Mind: 360
Magic: 128
"The journey through the river of torment itself gave me 40 points in mind, not bad. Now I craft bloodstones every 2 months."
His problem with the supply of dark crystals remained, but for now a greater problem lurked in the shadows.
"Three pseudo-immortals that pull the strings... They should have their own plans to get rid of me."
An elevator ceded him to floor 51, and from there, another elevator took him to the last floor.
"If there are three of them, there are three of us too." A smirk grew on his lips; although all three of them wanted to kill each other, faced with a greater enemy, an alliance could be easily shaped.
Two new missions:
Fuck an office lady in the military.
Reward: 4000 exp
Kill a person with an affinity for a demon's heart.
Reward: 100000 coins
He knew that the mission for killing a cardinal would return soon, but a side mission from Famine was not that bad for one night. A few women were on his mind, but that had to stay for another day.
"In the dungeons, there will be many Cardinals."
Soon, his room greeted him. He threw himself on the bed; his mind and body needed rest more than anything, but even with the extreme tiredness in his body, he checked his phone.
"Two days had passed? Not that important." Hundreds of unread messages were on his phone from Rose and Yelena, and even some from Kaine.
After answering their messages and saying that he needed to rest for another week, he called his mentor. After a few rings, Marian picked up the phone: "What is it?"
"For dungeons, I want to forfeit." Ray got straight to the point.
"Why?"
"My crafting station went very, very wrong; my mind is on the verge of collapsing. It will be certain death for me."
"Are you ok?"
Ray acted as if he could barely talk: "After a long rest, I will be ok."
"Take care; I will tell Alexanderia you only focus on yourself."
"Thank you."
As he got off the call, another arrangement still remained for him.
In his system only two other people were close enough with him that he could massage through it.
"We must meet in person."
"Why?"
"Why?"
"In short, three pseudo-immortals are after our heads. I will explain in detail."
"Four days, in my village."
Both Ray and Jade trusted Katarina with her safety measures, so both of them didn't say anything else.
Ray closed his eyes; a deep slumber awaited him.