Hail the King

An unprecedented energy appeared in the deepest part of Fei’s soul. Compared with the golden liquid droplets and the two clouds of golden mist, this energy was thicker and more powerful. It even had a faint spirit and flowed around Fei intimately as if it was his lover. To Fei, this energy wasn’t unfamiliar; he had interacted with this energy before.

“Those two clouds of golden mist are the essences of Ancient Talic and Korlic after I defeated them on the summit of Mount Arreat in the Normal Mode. I thought they only contained the understanding that the Ancients had towards skill [Whirlwind] and [Leap Attack], but it seems like I was wrong. They seem like two seeds, and they are the catalyst to the body transformation that I experienced just now. No wonder I had to battle those Barbarian Ancients; at the time, I was wondering why I, a Barbarian, had to battle my ancestors. This must be the reason! It is an indirect way of power inheritance. Only the Barbarians who could defeat the Ancients could inherit the god-tier techniques of the Barbarian Clan.”

Many thoughts flashed in Fei’s head.

“Except for the energy from the two Ancients and the 50 drops of the golden liquid…… this intimate sensation…… it is from Angela!” Fei was shocked.

He was already concerned about this when Angela fainted; there were too many secrets on her, and she didn’t even know about them! Her ability to communicate with Demon Beasts and command them, the purest soul, and how she summoned a higher power to heal Fei yesterday in battle…… Fei had no idea where he should start.

“This sensation is not hostile at all! It feels like it is going to work together with the other two powers to push my body onto another level!”

After sensing that, Fei opened his body to those energies without any hesitation.

Time passed by quickly yet slowly. Everything around Fei was frozen in time, yet, Fei was able to sense the river of time flowing through his body rapidly. As if he was watching a game of chess, he felt like he was watching time passing by him as an outsider, and he wasn’t affected by it at all.

After god knows how long, that beam of golden light finally disappeared.

Fei’s body returned to normal, and the screams and roars of monsters sounded beside him. Also, the evil energy wrapped around his body again. He was standing in front of the entrance to [The Den of Devil] on the [Blood Boor] outside of [Rogue Encampment], and he felt like he was dreaming a moment ago.

Fei stretched his body, and he felt a lot of power.

The King felt like he was hallucinating; he felt like he could punch a hole in the sky, create numerous cracks in the ground using his feet, and blow mountains away using his breath.

The world in front of him was clearer as if he changed an old black-and-white television to the most advanced 4K television. It was strange; Fei felt like this world slowly opened up its arms towards him. A lot of things and incidents he couldn’t understand before were slowly revealing themselves in front of him, and he could get to the truth as long as he was willing to dig.

Two dark-red buttons appeared in his peripherals; one was [Character Status], and the other one was [Skill Tree]. Fei was extremely familiar with the two already.

He leveled up.

“The Barbarian Character is already level 99, and that should be the highest level there is. If I continue to level up, would I reach level 100? What would happen if I reach level 100?”

Fei thought about that as he opened up the status panel of the Barbarian.

He looked at it and froze.

“Name: Fei. Level: Nightmare Mode level 1. Strength: 30, Vitality: 20, Dexterity: 25, Energy: 10. Fire Resistance: 0, Cold Resistance: 0, Lightning Resistance: 0, Poison Resistance: 0. Residual attribute points: 5……”

Also, as a side discovery, Fei realized that the words on the status panel turned silver in the Nightmare Mode.

“Great! This means that I won’t encounter another Elena,” Fei relaxed after he got to this conclusion. However, to be sure, he walked around [Rogue Encampment] and double checked with all other NPCs. In the end, the same conclusion held; the NPCs were all dull and lifeless like the NPCs in the actual game. As he walked around the camp, he got his first quest in the Nightmare Mode from a new dull Akara, which was [The Den of Evil].

The sky in this world was extra-gloomy, and this world was stained by the power of evil even more compared to the world in the Normal Mode.

As soon as Fei stepped outside the camp, the intense evil energy rushed at him.

Fei quickly encountered the first monster in the Nightmare Mode, a [Spike Fiend].

Compared with the same monster in the Normal Mode, this [Spike Fiend] was twice the size; it looked like a calf. What shocked Fei the most was that this monster which could be counted as the weakest monster in Diablo World had the strength that was equivalent to a peak Nine-Star Warrior. Its strength was 100 times stronger than its counterpart in the Normal Mode!

Tink!

Fei struck this monster with his blade, and the [Spike Fiend] instantly died.

At the moment, Fei could easily take care of Nine-Star Warriors.

In the next second, something magnificent happened. A drop of a type of golden liquid flowed out of this monster’s corpse, and it quickly dashed into Fei’s body.

“This……” As a heated current flowed through his body, it gave Fei an enjoyable and comfortable sensation.

This was very different compared to the Normal Mode. Fei recalled that a vague white fog would appear after he killed a monster and would enter his body, and the pleasant and comfortable sensation he just experienced would only occur when he was leveling up in the Normal Mode.

Fei thought about this as he started to kill monsters to level up.

He soon encountered two more types of monsters, [Fallen Shaman] and [Zombie]. Compared with their counterparts in the Normal Mode, these monsters were 100 times stronger in terms of damage and defense. Even though Fei was very cautious, he was injured and had to use several bottles of [Full Rejuvenation Potion].

When he was finally about to arrive at [The Den of Evil], he already killed about 50 monsters, and about 50 drops of the golden liquid entered his body.

When the 50th drop of the golden liquid entered his body, something magical occurred.

As if time paused in this world, a beam of golden light dashed down from the gloomy sky and enveloped Fei completely. Like a unique catalyst, an explosive ‘chemical change’ took place in Fei’s body; every single cell in his body was collapsing and exploding. After everything returned to the origin state, the energy started to shoot outward and formed numerous new cells.

At this moment, two clouds of golden mist flowed out of Fei’s body and bathed his body in them thoroughly.

The 50 drops of the golden liquid combined with these two clouds of golden mist. Together, they rushed through every single Warrior Energy Channel in Fei’s body and continued to reform and nurture his bones and flesh. Like the sand grains on the beach that were being washed by the waves of the ocean, Fei’s body would change every time this energy flowed through.

Fei clearly sensed that his body was becoming stronger and more powerful by the second.

It was a change in quality.

It was a complete elevation in the lifeform.

After the golden energy went through Fei’s body for the 99th time, an unprecedented energy appeared in the deepest part of Fei’s soul.