155 Chapter 155: Soul Tricker

Abium didn't halt his attack. He instantly cast both 'Mind-Freeze' and 'Aura of Hallucination' at Goblin Zack while teleporting right behind him.

Then, he thrust his green aura coated sword at the Goblin's heart with full force.

For the first time, Goblin Zack showed a sense of wariness. But he didn't panic even when his mind got attacked by two first-tier spells. Although he couldn't think properly, years of experience came to Goblin Zack's mind, and he instantly moved his Scarlet's sword. Goblin Zack blocked Abium's sword and gave Abium an evil, mocking smirk. But Abium stayed motionlessly and spoke coldly,

''Now.''

Hearing his words, Zack got confused and soon felt a sharp pain from his nape.

Before Zack could understand what the hell was happening, another shadow appeared behind him and directly decapitated his head!

Edith, who had all been stayed in the shadows, used the opportunity and assassinated the Goblin skillfully.

He died without even knowing who had killed him!

Abuim quickly breathed out a sigh of relief as he saw the falling head.

''That was faster than I expected,'' Kate muttered with a shocked face. Only Abium knew how fatal it would be if a single person made a mistake and sighed in his heart.

After that, Abium quickly tossed the almost damaged Dagger into his ring, picked up the Legendary Scarlet Sword from the dead body's hand, and then scrutinize it.

'Hmm, this Scarlet sword really is forged by a legendary blacksmith. Moreover, the blacksmith forged this sword using Magic lava metal and Red Adamantine. You can use this sword till you become a legendary swordsman.' Azolla scanned that Scarlet sword and replied instantly.

Hearing her explanation, Abium smile became wider as he nodded his head joyfully and then stored it inside his spatial ring along with the sheath. After that, he checked the goblin's body and became disappointed as he didn't find any artifacts. But he soon cast those thoughts away and turned his attention towards Cedric.

''Can you use this body and make a marionette using parasite?'' He asked while narrowing his eyebrows.

Hearing Abium's words, not only Cedric, even Ringer, who was hiding in Cedric's mind, got shocked. This time, Ringer was damn sure that this Royal Elf knew more about him and grew more cautious.

He instantly thought of killing the royal elf by forcefully taking over Cedric's body, but after some thought, he dismissed that idea. Although Ringer was just a part of real Dark God Ringer's consciousness, he had the strength to kill everyone here. But he didn't think that was necessary.

'Brat, he knows more about us. Kill him when an opportunity arises. Otherwise, he will be a thorn in our path.' Ringer began to speak with while planting a malicious seed in Cedric's mind. Hearing this, Cedric froze for a moment and immediately retorted,

'He will be a thorn to you old man, not me.'

Cedric knew this Dark god was scheming inside his mind to kill this mysterious mage and fell into a dilemma. Yes, he did swear his loyalty to this elf. But loyalty? He was a thief!

If an opportunity arises, he wouldn't show any hesitation to this mysterious mage and even devour his soul with his new abilities.

But that thought soon ended as he remembered that there was a Dark god's consciousness hiding inside his mind. Cedric could vaguely guess this mysterious mage must have some way to separate this parasite from his body and might help him eliminate this parasite once and for all. As Cedric was deeply thinking, Ringer began to speak again,

'Brat, I know you trust this elf and already planned to become his follower. But you can't live under someone like this for the rest of your life.' Ringer immediately changed his words when he found out this guy was stubborn.

Hearing this, Cedric thought for a moment and replied solemnly,

'I will think about it.'

Hearing his words, Ringer got disappointed a little but didn't say anything. He knew there would be many opportunities, and all he had to do was planting more malicious seeds inside his mind and completely control him when Cedric became weakened.

Meanwhile, Cedric turned his face towards Abium and replied,

''My lord, I can't use the 'Parasite Marionette' bloodline spell on a dead person without enough spirit power. Moreover, I can only be able to marionette a person who has the strength of an official mage. If I want to marionette a second-tier mage, then I need to be a first-tier Warlock.''

Abium got surprised a bit when learning more about this bloodline spell and thought inwardly,

'His spirit power is already increased to 6 points. Hmm, it seems he can only be able to use three bloodline spells.' Abium made a calculation and asked,

''What do you need to do to break through into an official Warlock?''

Cedric got startled a bit when hearing this question and quickly fell silent as he started asking his question to Ringer.

After a few seconds, Cedric expression got worsened, and replied,

''My lord, if I want to become an official Warlock, then I have to defeat an official tier Mind worm or official tier Warlock who had Mind worm bloodline and devour the blood essence from their body.''

Hearing those words, Abium smiled and nodded.

''Hmm, I think we can find one of those Mind worms in this dungeon's other layers. Let's go. I want to see what is hidden in this temple.'' Abium thought for a bit and spoke solemnly. Meanwhile, Cedric didn't reveal the whole truth and kept some information hidden from others.

After discussing with Ringer, Cedric found out that most of the living things in this dungeon were already parasitized. The chance of encountering an official tier mind worm or Official warlock was very high. Moreover, he heard from Ringer that most of the first-tier beasts had Mind worm bloodline and already made some plans to obtain the blood essence. At first, he thought of revealing all the information to the mysterious elven mage but soon stopped himself.

'I must act cautiously.' Cedric thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Abium and others shifted their gaze towards the Dark God's temple entrance and cautiously stepped towards it. Although Cedric said that no enemies were hiding inside the temple, Abium wouldn't bet his life on some Dark God's words.

As they stealthily entered the temple through the entrance, Abium's amber eyes widened. He noticed that the entrance door suddenly closed from behind, leaving the temple filled with complete darkness. Without hesitation, he conjured his crimson wings and wrapped everyone. The next instant, he felt stabbing pain from those wings and noticed multiple dark spears coated with purple poisons were stabbing his wings continuously.

He instantly guessed these spears must be traps set by that goblin and got more serious. He knew how scary an assassin's traps were. After a few seconds, even his 'War Angel's wings' spell couldn't be able to withstand all those attacks and was on the verge of breaking as the last poison spear landed.

The dark hall soon returned to complete silence, making others feel like they were being stared at by countless poisonous snakes. Abium quickly conjured two red balls of crimson flame out of thin air and maintained it to float in the air to illuminate the dark hall as he stared at the destroyed hall. No one spoke a word and stayed still as if a frozen spell struck them.

Abium silently began to scan the whole temple and soon got shocked when he saw the number of traps laid inside the large temple. There were many broken stone slabs, pits, and many strange changes were made in the hall. He noticed the whole hall was already turned into multiple small rooms, and there were even spider-like nets appeared everywhere.

'What the hell?! He really was a scary one. No, I should say he must be a psychopath or a madman. Damn, he laid 8540 traps inside this temple! Moreover, all these traps are enough to kill even a second-tier mage without any problem.' Abium stared at all those traps with cold sweat on his face.

If Abium didn't have Azolla's scanning function, he would have already given up on the divine fragment located in the altar of the Temple of Dark god. Abium silently looked at everyone and began to speak,

''That assassin laid a total of 8540 traps. And all of them are interlinked with one another, so destroying is not an option.'' Abium wore a bitter smile on his face and added,

''Our only choice is to face them one by one and win against that dead assassin. Also, we don't have any choice because the first trap he set inside this temple was space lock spell.''

Hearing Abium's words, Rizz's expression began to turn pale. The only one who had calm expression was Abium, Kate, and Edith. Edith was already skilled in the assassination, and she knew keeping one's mind calm in these types of situations was a must. As for Kate, she was a Thieves guild leader, so she also knew a few things about magician's traps.

Abium was relieved by both of their responses and started to analyze the traps carefully. There were tripwire traps, stone slabs, Magic sound traps, ceiling lower traps, poisonous gas traps, pit traps, arrow traps, etc. were placed everywhere. Abium knew a simple mistake could cause everyone to die miserably. After some study, he explained those trap methods to Edith and Kate and asked them to think of a way to counter those traps.

At first, both of them managed to deactivate easily or countered those traps. But they began to face difficulty after deactivating more than a hundred traps. Well, their minds became numb due to those repeated traps and got more frustrated. When looking from outside, everyone thought the temple's interior must be smaller. But as Abium checked the temple outline, he knew he was wrong.

'That damned goblin assassin turned this temple into a complex thief's locker.' Abium cursed under his breath and began to explain the next trap's outline to both of them.

The group stayed inside the temple and continuously deactivated those traps for the next 6 days. At the end of the sixth day, Kate and Edith managed to destroy the last poison gas trap and breathed out a sigh of relief.

The temple was only filled with debris and broken weapons. Moreover, everyone was injured, and Fennelis even had a few burn marks on her hands. After placing the deactivated trap box, Kate and Edith stood up solemnly and said in unison.

''It's over!''

Everyone let out a relieved sigh and sat down on the ground with a tired expression on their faces. Meanwhile, Abium still maintained those two conjured flame balls and shifted his gaze towards a strange foggy area. Even Azolla's scan function couldn't be pass through that fog, causing Abium to guard up even more.

He fastened his steps towards the grey fog and soon noticed he entered into a strange large room. An altar table was placed at the end of the large room, and there were multiple strange types of bowls were placed on it. There was a strange magic circle drawn on the floor in front of an altar, and it was emitting a bright red color.

There were twelve candles lit around that red magic circle, and also many strange organs with pure dark elemental energies were placed near those candles. Simultaneously, Abium squinted his eyes as he saw 12 naked humans were tied up on stone pillars and appeared creepier. All of them were severely wounded and were barely breathing.

He also noticed their eyes were robbed, and every one of them was moaning in pain. After giving one sympathy look, Abium silently shifted his gaze towards the altar table. He locked his eyes on a half-meter tall mud worm statue and narrowed his eyes.

'Sacrificial altar?'

After glancing at the surroundings, he walked near to the center and arrived at the front of the red magic circle.

'That goblin must be stayed in this temple for a long time and seems to be preparing for something.' Abium muttered inwardly and turned his head towards the small humanoid creature laid motionlessly at the center.

'Another goblin?' Abium creased his brows and soon widened his eyes as he noticed that goblin's mouth was muttering on its own like a puppet!

'Damn it! It must be a resurrection ceremony! This goblin Zack seems to be a crafty one. If not for Azolla's help, we would have died already by those traps, and this ceremony would have been completed.' Cold sweats dripped from his forehead as he stared at the ceremonial ritual circle in awe and astonishment!

Abium could easily tell that the goblin was prepared for a resurrection ceremony and sighed heavily. The next instant, he conjured a ball of fire and sent it towards the worm statue. But soon, his fireball got blocked by a strange invisible force and disappeared completely with a puff. Abium was not surprised by that strange power and once again conjured another ball of fire. But this time, he directly threw it towards one of the naked humans and killed him mercilessly.

His lips began to curl upward as he conjured eleven red orbs and threw those orbs towards all humans. The next instant, those orbs exploded while sending shockwaves and killed everyone mercilessly. But Abium didn't stop there and began to destroy those candles next using the same red orb spell.

Once he destroyed all those candles, the red glow in the mysterious circle began to dim drastically and soon vanished. Without minding the creepy magic circle, Abium took out the Scarlet Sword and began to walk towards the muttering puppet Goblin. He knew it was an empty shell just performing a resurrection ceremony and slashed his sword at its head.

A heartbeat later, the goblin's mouth stopped muttering as its head got decapitated, causing the red creepy magic circle to broke into million pieces.

Abium didn't relax a bit even after cutting that goblin's head and slowly walked upon the altar steps. Within seconds, he appeared in front of the altar table and looked at those strange dishes in disgust.

After looking at those strange rotten meats, fried worms, and another dish made of human eyes, he got nausea. He couldn't stand there seeing those strange dishes any longer and immediately pushed them off from the table. After that, he threw a ball of fire and burned everything.

'Damn it! What the hell did he put to make these dishes? It still makes me want to puke.' Abium cursed that damned goblin and finally shifted his gaze towards the mud worm statue. He could still feel some mysterious force inside the statue and quickly punched it using his hand at the worm statue's head.

The head with a strange white gem embedded single eye broke from the body and shattered into multiple pieces. Abium quickly moved his hand at a faster speed and quickly grabbed a small thumb-sized white gem.

'Divine Fragment!'

He could feel a large amount of spirit power hidden inside the fragment and got overjoyed.

'This is not a divine fragment, kid.' Azolla said inside his mind, damping the mood.

Abium froze for a moment and then asked hurriedly.

'What is it then?'

'It's called Soul Tricker. Some ancient mages used these artifacts to harvest soul powers from mortals' souls and increased their own strength. But their actions attracted Lawful Gods' attention. It is also one of the reasons that Lawful Gods banished ancient mages from entering our world. I didn't expect to see one here.' Azolla said calmly.

'Oh? Can you tell me more about this artifact?' Abium asked in interest.

'Soul Trickers are not strange artifacts during the Ancient time. You can capture one's soul with the help of this artifact and extract one-tenth of the person's soul power. But you have to be more careful when using these types of artifacts. These artifacts come under the Taboo artifact section, and it will attract Lawful Gods' attention.'

Abium got stunned inside and then nodded his head in understanding.

After that, he placed his spiritual imprint on the Soul Tricker and checked it. Unlike the divine fragment, the Soul Tricker had more complex mystical magic patterns and looked creepier.

His consciousness entered inside the Soul Tracker and appeared in some creepy room filled with strange engravings and characters in a second. He drifted in the room to understand the meaning of those strange engravings and characters and then moved to the next section. It was a large white hall filled with endless white and red clouds.

'Chaos and Lawful power are mixed inside.' He frowned for a moment and soon withdrew his consciousness from the Soul Tricker.

After that, he stored it inside his spatial ring and waited patiently while fixing his gazes on the creepy worm statue. He also noticed a strange box hidden beneath the worm statue and thought of giving it to others. After a few minutes, others also entered the altar room and stared at the surroundings with dumbfounded faces. Abium gave them a short explanation and then broke the remaining statue with a kick.

A second later, the black stone began to break and revealed a small pit covered by a thin layer of a red metal sheet.

'Red Adamantite!' Azolla said excitingly inside his mind. Nodding his head, Abium quickly opened the red adamantite sheet and looked inside.

Inside the sheet, a head-sized box made up of the same red adamantite was placed. A soft smile appeared on Abium's face as he picked that box with his hand and sifted through it. He then let out a sigh as he saw only a simple lock was placed in it and opened it without hesitation.

With a click, that box opened smoothly and sent a strange type of magic wave in all directions. It soon entered into everyone's body and formed into some black cross mark on everyone's hand!

An instant later, Abium's smiling face froze.