Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

Chapter 562: Challenges Marlene’s version (part 7)

Seeing the notification in front of him, Daimon couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, the skill that he just obtained was quite… interesting.

[A new skill has been created due to a specific action]

[Corrupted Treasure Trove Lv1 (passive): Allows the host to gather the energy of greed produced by other living beings and store it in the cursed trove for future usage (once a certain amount has been collected the skill will be automatically updated)]

A strange red treasure chest with black metal spikes, appeared in front of Daimon to then enter his body.

'Hey, Eve, normally getting a skill means that I'll be able to use it on the spot, so why is it different this time?', he inwardly asked.

The frame of this skill was of a dim black color, similar to the "Terror Contractor" skill, so before he read the description he was honestly interested on the skill, but it didn't have an immediate effect, instead it was more like the array that used to be engraved on the ceiling of the castle, which actually disappeared along with Agrak.

'Mm, for a detailed explanation I would have to tell you the differences between the skills you get, unfortunately that is restricted as of current, however I think you'll like the outcome, sorry', said Evangeline with an apologetic voice.

Daimon didn't hold it against her, Evangeline was already doing more than what she had as an administrator, as Daimon's next words suggested.

'It's fine, thanks for helping me with "that", I'll make sure to complete more missions so that we can have a nice conversation without restrictions.

'W-Who helped you, that guy tried to dine and dash against the system so of course I had to teach him a lesson… if you really want to thank me, hurry up and upgrade the system humph!', despite her "harsh" words, the blurred image at the core of Daimon's mind was cutely smiling from ear to ear.

Daimon chuckled, he grabbed the remaining wisp of silver light and the information regarding the "Seal of Greed" was displayed in front of him.

[Seal of Greed: The seal implanted into the the essence of the Corrupted Gains Belliel Royal lineage, that has been purified and condensed through the system, the original soul imprint has been replaced by the host's one and can now be bestowed by the host (The compatibility with the target will be displayed for the host to see, limited to negative oriented races only)]

'So, is this how those guys turn other races into Nethereals, is this a lineage or is it something like the information encrypted on it, similar to what Ophelia gave me to restore Grace's lineage?', wondered Daimon.

This was the first time Daimon got something like this, so he was in a loss about what to do with it, it said that he could bestow it to others, but then what will happen, will the one that receives it turn into a bizarre looking monster like those artificial nethereals, or perhaps the result will be completely different.

'Well, it does say that it has been purified and condensed and since that guy looked exactly like a human, so the result should be quite good', he concluded.

Anyway, both this "Seal" and the skill he got were merely bonuses, what he aimed at was the remaining things inside the wisp of silver light.

While earlier Agrak sneered upon seeing Daimon making a great entrance and big declarations as if he was the owner of the place, something he affiliated to him being a young and lowly mortal, when has Daimon wasted his breath on his enemies, unless there was a hidden motive, by the time the enemy finishes his monologue, Disaster would have already pierced his face.

From the very beginning Daimon carefully chose not only his actions but even his words, to get the result he wanted, the bet he did with Agrak which included not only his life and the one of all the nethereals in this place, but also everything he owned, was actually the second plan.

Originally, he was simply going to slash all the nethereals down with Disaster, inside this castle violence wasn't allowed thanks to the array, unfortunately such a thing didn't apply to him and Agrak who was the only one that could pose a threat, wasn't a fighter, unlike Ophelia, that guy had no real battle power left, only that suppression type ability he used to pressure others, which was also useless against him.

Naturally, he discussed his plan with the involved parties beforehand and as his administrator and more importantly his friend, Evangeline immediately told him the problem with it.

'Normally I'm pretty sure you could get the information you want from that guy one way or another, but there is a better option, that will benefit not only you but the system~'.

And with those tempting words, the second plan took form, since Daimon wasn't in a position to waste time due to the current situation, he didn't have the time to torture Agrak until he was sure that he would be telling the truth, so basically Daimon tricked the nethereal into betting everything he had, which included his memories.

Now, it's not like there are no spells to read other people's memories, the problem is that they require preparation and the result is most of the time not the desired, since with a single session the target will either die or have its mind damaged, so at most the process can be used two or three times to retrieve very specific memories, this is something Daimon learned thanks to a surprise visit to the Revy's punishment elder's "office" that Erin prepared for him.

So, this time with Evangeline's cooperation, he could get the maximum benefits from that guy, similar to what happened with Karla, the system could turn Agrak's existence into something useful for Daimon, the problem is that not everything could be saved, the system was also restricted, to its current level after all, so Daimon made Agrak remind the subjects he wanted before ending the game.

Namely, the information about the war that caused the current situation, the involved parties which included the nethereal's bosses that were causing so much trouble and last but not least, what Marlene needed.

And those were the memories that he stole from Agrak with the help of the system, along with a part of his existence and whatever else the system took from him, according to Evangeline the system didn't work for free after all, but it was a win-win situation so who cared, he got what he wanted as well as a few extra bonuses.

If anything, Evangeline sounded a bit sleepy since interfering made her use "origin", which is something Daimon only learned not too long ago thanks to his recent interaction with other administrators, but she herself confirmed that with a few hours of sleep she'll be perfectly fine, thanks to Daimon's abnormal origin production capacity.

All the previous is the reason as to why Eve told Daimon that he could be quite a good scammer, he led Agrak by the nose from the very beginning, at the end that poor bastard not only ended being sold but he even helped the one who sold him to count the money, it was a really stupid end.

'I'm going to rest for a bit, don't flirt with the angelfish princess too much~', jokingly said Evangeline before she returned to sleep like usual.

Daimon slightly shook his head, he was about to call Marlene when he felt a slight tug coming from his pocket, his black Sea Emblem came out and then turned into the rune shark to then open a portal once again.

Daimon frowned, he shouldn't still have around fifteen minutes left before having to go to the next challenge, he has been keeping track of time and he hadn't reached the around two to three hours which he spent with Daphne during her challenge.

The Rune shark made a turn in the air and then it shrank before letting a token fall on Daimon's hand as the emblem returned to his pocket, the token was similar to the one that Daphne received earlier so that she could return to Daimon's side once her restoration process finished.

'So, she can't come with me either, well she had something to do here anyway', thought Daimon as he snapped his fingers.

The air trembled a bit before a large stream of boxes, troves, shelves filled with books, scrolls and other miscellaneous things flew from all over the castle, those were all Agrak's possessions which he bet against Daimon's life, since he lost naturally, they were Daimon's loot now.

Unfortunately, he had no time to look through all of it now, but he could still notice that there were quite a few interesting things among it, anyway for now he focused in the memories he stole from Agrak and separated a series of five objects as well as a book which were now floating in front of him.

"It seems like that guy indeed took a liking to you, he played quite a few tricks to get you to stay behind, here, this book has the method to lift a race scale curse, basically is a portable array, but it doesn't work with mana, the book has to be charged with Nether for it to work and that will only erase the curse on the one that obtained the book, for the others, the materials had to be processed by an alchemist to then perform a ritual", he said as he handed the things to Marlene.

The angelfish princess held the materials as if her life depended on it, before she gave Daimon a gratitude filled gaze, but that only lasted a couple of seconds before she slightly smirked.

"Hehe, do I detect a tinge of jealousy, don't worry as your friend whose life is worth more than everything and everyone in this castle, I won't be going anywhere~", she said.

Daimon's right eyebrow twitched as he gazed at the smiling angelfish princess, she was wearing a white and blue short dress with detached sleeves, her hair which had a mix of blond and blue shades, cascaded all the way down to her waist, making a nice contrast with her blue eyes, overall she had that "rebellious" attitude wasn't a side effect of her realm regressing to the Lord rank, considering her overall lifespan she would be in her early twenties at most, which would be "younger" than even Liz, age-wise she'll be classified on a similar age group as Elaine.

That embarrassing speech was part of the plan to trick Agrak, otherwise why would he have forced himself to say such a cheesy line, when he prefers to demonstrate how much he treasures his friends through actions instead.

Still since she wanted to play it like this, when has Daimon been afraid of anyone.

"Oh, those are some bold words for someone that was red as an apple over a slight peck on the cheek, perhaps that was a first, I'll have to ask Thea when I see her later", he said.

As expected, Marlene's face exploded in red as she remembered such an embarrassing moment, before she could react Daimon threw the token and her and then jumped into the portal not without saying.

"Hurry up and use all the remaining nether to lift your curse, when you finish you can use the token to return with us".

Daimon's words, made the angelfish princess return to the real world, seeing the portal closing she immediately shouted.

"Daimon, I'll get you for this!".

The portal closed the next second, leaving behind a slightly flustered Marlene who bit her lower lip to then open the book which seemed to have turned into a whale that started inhaling all the remaining nether in the castle.

"So, what if he was the first….", mumbled the angelfish princess before she focused on the book which's pages started leafing through as it absorbed the nether in the air.

…

Inside the dimensional tunnel, Daimon who still managed to listen to Marlene's shout, chuckled in response, only to listen to Evangeline's sleepy but teasing voice.

'Waking me up with all that flirting, just wait until I tell the others about it~'.

Daimon cleared his throat in response, he simply got back at Marlene for trying to embarrass him, anyway he put the matter at the back of his mind for the time being, his body was being guided by the dimensional tunnel to his next stop, without the need of him doing anything.

Which was perfect as there was something he had to do, looking through the memories he stole from Agrak, more accurately he wanted intel on the ones that he will be facing later on.

'That guy mentioned three people in particular "Bane" "Asmadian" and "Balax", let's see what came to his mind when he remembered those bastards', thought Daimon, due to the promptness of the situation, he couldn't get all of Agrak's memories, so he made him think on the subjects in which he was interested, but even then, it's not like he could control what would come to Agrak's mind.

But any intel would come in handy and information about the Nethereal bosses would be quite even more useful for him, though he already had an idea about two of them…

For Daimon, the scenery suddenly changed from the dimensional tunnel to a strangely familiar corridor, it was that black stone corridor which he had to go through before entering Neptune.

Daimon looked at his surroundings, since these were Agrak's memories, he couldn't interact with anything, but he could stop and then continue if needed, it was like watching a movie while also participating on it.

Anyway, the memory barely started and he already gained something, this corridor in which Agrak who was still alive with his real body back then, was walking through, was the one he visited before.

Back at the memory, Daimon saw Agrak opening arriving at the end of the corridor, similar to what he experienced, there was some kind of nethereal which worked as a gatekeeper, fused with the wall.

"Prince Belliel, the three Lords are having a conversation with a special "guest" right now, what can I do for you?", asked the strange nethereal gatekeeper.

"Humph, they might have been given the title of Lords but I am a prince, I have the right to attend the meeting with that traitor, move I have something I want to confirm", said Agrak as he showed a token with a spiked treasure chest engraved on it to the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper seemed to be in a predicament but ultimately, it could only open the door, apparently though Agrak didn't seem to hold a high authority among the Nethereals, like the ones inside, his status made up for it, so he crashed the "secret" meeting.

Inside the room, Daimon could see a large table as well as four people, three sat at one side and the last one was sitting in front of them, meaning that there were indeed two different parties here.

"Huh, what the hell are you doing here, brat of the Belliel?", a hoarse and old voice came from the one of the three nethereals, the one at the left most seat to be more accurate.

Daimon observed the origin of the scolding voice, it was a nethereal fully clad in a black skeletal armor.

"You are having a strategical meeting and didn't tell me beforehand, so what do you think I came here for, old sack of bones", angrily said Agrak.

"Heh, since when does a second-generation silk pants like you, is interested in the art of war", a sarcastic voice came from the nethereal sat at the right seat, unlike the tall black armored one, this one was wearing a white mage robe that made him look like an erudite, as for his appearance, he looked like a young man in his late twenties, but obviously that wasn't the case.

Before Agrak could retort, the man in the middle a towering bulky guy in his early thirties, wearing blood red armor, smacked his hand against the table, making the whole room tremble a bit.

"Enough, Agrak, this is an important meeting, the enemies are starting to gain territory over us, brother White here came to propose an alliance to finally get this over with, your prince title holds no authority over the troops, you want to listen, fine, sit down and shut up", he aggressively said.

Having gotten what he wanted, Agrak sat casually sat down next to the smooth looking guy at the right, previously only the three nethereals who were sitting looking at the entrance were visible, for Agrak and the same applied to Daimon as this was that guy's memory.

But now, the one sitting in front of them became clear for him and to no one's surprise, that guy held some resemblance with Arlion.

At this point in history, none of the presents was aware that a part of their secrets would be exposed to a third party, due to Agrak's stupidity, but who could blame them, it's not like they could see the future right.