"Mhhm...as the crystal has the status of being damaged, then there should be a way to repair the crystal. Somehow at least...

" Danzel said as he inspected the crystal in his hand.

Looking at the `wound´, he quickly noticed that mana was leaking to the air and gathering small amounts of mana at the same time, as their nature of being mana crystals.

It was similar to how a gas canister was continuously being filled with said gas, only for it to escape to the outside because of a small hole.

And the fact that there was more mana leaking than it naturally gathered, made the crystals, which was of the highest quality he ever saw, to be essentially useless.

It did disappoint him, but not enough to discourage the thought of finding a great treasure.

"Just the fact that it didn´t break when I removed the piece of metal is already a win. It being useful is just a luxury at this point. I even got enough time to figure out how to fix it, with me being an immortal.

" Danzel said as he went back to the throne room with the crystal in his hand.

`Well, even if it wasn´t damaged, I got no clue how to practically use that thing.´ Danzel thought to himself bitterly.

Although he had sort of an idea of how the equipment was made and how enchantments played a huge role in using crystals.

Danzel wasn´t much for learning how to make such enchantment for several reasons.

One compared to runesmithing, enchantments apparently required a bunch of materials. Which as an undead without the help of one associated wasn´t fishable to get a steady supply.

But the biggest reason why he didn´t decide to jump in on that suspect was because of the lack of XP.

Since runes were getting quite expensive, having something similar draining his XP piles was a big no-no for him.

"Maybe in a few hundred years I could go in the subject of enchanting, but for now runes are much better,

" Danzel said aimlessly as he stopped in front of the golden throne.

Staring at it for a moment, he put the crystal to one of the arms of the throne before dusting the sand away from the throne.

When he finished, he stared at the throne and then back at the carving of the King kneeling to the ground a massive hole being in the sky, which a light let out something that fell on the former possessor of this throne.

The carvings on the wall seemed to be done without looking after details like the other carvings.

Even though Danzel didn´t get what the carving was trying to say.

He could somewhat understand what the one that carved the pictured felt about thanks to his experience of carving himself runes.

Although not the same as those masterpieces, the required detail could be similar when carving.

`It´s as if the one who carved this seemed to be in a hurry- No, maybe desperate?-´

But among those guesses, one of them seemed to fit the best.

"Maybe he went mad...

" Danzel said as his eyes were focused on the giant hole of the sky in the carving.

"Though I ain´t sure if you accept it or not...

" Danzel said as he carefully seated me and rested his back on the throne.

"But I will be taking your tower as my residence from here on.

"

The sun looked down to the opening of the tower, casting this sunlight that illuminated the whole last floor together with the sand that was being carried by the wind into the tower.

Pulling his hood back while removing the helmet from his face, the undead who was seated on a golden throne looked up to the sky in silence.

"...

"

With his ethereal dark green flaring eyes, he opponent his mouth and muttered to himself.

"I need to continue...

"

Standing up the throne and drawing his sword out of his sheath, Danzel walked away from the throne.

`There are still many things that have to be done. I can´t waste my time on this temporary peaceful moment.´ Danzel thought as he was about to start his sword training.

"Ah right, the Sun Timer...

"

Bringing out the device that displayed the time of the day, he placed it on the opposite arm of the throne that was the crystal.

"Mhmm, now I will know how much time would pass...

" Danzel said in a solemn tone.

But instead of starting his training, he still looked at the Sun Timer in silence.

Not much later, he sighted internally while bringing the device back into his storage ring.

"I don´t need it...

" Danzel said while starting training with pure the longsword, as he didn´t have an arm to carry the shield too.

With millions on XP to be gained and nothing else to read nor to carve runes ( he doesn´t want to carve the weapons of his skeletons).

He could only train on his swordsmanship to gain a reliable XP.

Ignoring the temporary peace that he found after all those years.

He decided not to get distracted by it and focus on his task.

Be it hours, days, or even months.

Danzel continued to swing his sword as fast and accurately as possible without showing any signs of rust.

As he needed none.

While his sense of time is slowly drowned by the endless training.

He failed to realize how much he had changed from his past self.

The Danzel that worked hard and took breaks for a change of page was nowhere to be seen.

Only an undead remained that tirelessly swung his sword.

It was a small change.

Maybe even an insignificant one.

The fact was, that such change wasn't discovered by the said undead.

***

In the vast among desert, where life was a scarcely under the watch full eyes of the sun.

But scarcely didn't mean extinct.

The proof of that was a village though the distance that we're able to be seen.

Although it was a village, the people walking in the streets while others were trading and shouting to catch their customers attention

A group of two women and two guys came into the town, their expression being tired looking from the bangs under their eyes.

"Finally here...

" An explorer with a sword in a sheath and a shield on his arm explained in relief.

"Hey, don't fall to the ground already. Who do you think will carry you later huh, Sean?

" Isamu kicked Sean's tired a*s while sighting to himself.

'Although we finally arrived...everyone else died.'

Losing more than 10 people that he knew was no easy thing to shallow done. More of it is the case if from such people you owned your life multiple times.

Though what happened was terrible, he saw enough death for him to not linger on what was already done.

"So you two, what will you be doing right now? I and Sean wanted to grab something to eat in the tavern. We don't mind if you guys come.

" Isamu said to the beautiful girls behind him.

"As I was planning to eat something anyway, I might as well join you.

" The babe Sylva said.

Having walked days of ice-cold and heat melting temperature.

Having Sylvas agreement, he looked on their priests, who only nodded as her reply.

Sean by the side who saw that interaction between these two gave thumps up on Isamu.

"You...

" Without having the strength to deal with Sean's behavior, he sighed out loud.

"Sigh...let's just go eat something and call it a day.

"

With a silent agreement of everyone, they entered the closed tavern.

Finding soon a table that allowed them all to sit down, they all began ordering a huge portion of food together with some liquor to go with it.

As soon as their order came, marching from the door were several hooded figures walking inside with each having a different high size.

One of them so tall that it would heart once neck to see.

Many murmurs started to appear, with some being wary of them while others' speculation was happening.

"Hmm, who are those freaks? Wearing a cloak and all. Don't you agree Isamu?

" Sean asked Isamu, only for no response to come back.

Swallowing the piece of meat in his mouth, Sean turned to Isamu.

"Hey, why aren't you responding-, is something wrong Isamu?

" Sean asked confused by the angered face that Isamu was showing.

Before he could ask the reason for it, he started up and headed towards the cloaked figures.

Pulling his map out of his pockets, he slammed the paper on their table

"You! You tricked us!

" Isamu yelled towards the cloaked figure in the middle.

"Hey, you limp down there! You got anything against us!? If you leave now I might spare you

" a female voice said while glancing at Isamus's direction with killing intent high enough to make him sweat.

'This feeling...'

As Isamu was repacking himself of seeking trouble from that group, the man that he meant answered him.

"Aren't you of the group that purchased a map of time not long ago from me? Without a doubt, there was a tower as I said. So if I may ask, how did I trick you?

Gritting his teeth, he pointed at his finger on the much older voice.

"Though you told us there will be a monster, you didn't tell us of the necromancer residing in those ruins! Because of him, we had to retreat with some of us dying even!

" Isamu yelled, knowing full well that he was in the wrong.

It was their leaders and his decision to buy the map of those cloaked groups.

It was well known that ruins would contain never before seen monsters or deadly traps which were very likely for the ones to die meeting them.

Exploring new places even by the risk of danger.

Those were explorers.

After sending on the group for a while, he quickly apologized and left some coins as an excuse.

Seeing the man who suddenly came to their table today something interesting, the cloaked figure who had a female voice bent closer into the table.

"Hey boss, might you know that necromancer that this guy mentioned?

" She asked.

Shaking his head, he replied simply.

"No

"

Starting sharply under his cloaks, the man brought a map out and spread it open for the group to see.

Pointing at a certain

"Forget about that necromancer, we got much bigger targets to chase after.

"

Looking at every party member of his, the man said while his finger was still on the map.

"As we are only here to target the much bigger fish.

"

In the map that this was holding, there were multiple crossed red circles in the pages around.

And out of all the crossed circles.

There was one particular name written on top of those circles.

And that was...

Devil.