Chapter 118: Desperate Straits 3

“Joko, you’re lower-ranked than I am, and your fighting strength is pathetic by comparison. More importantly, this is my territory. You come hunting on my turf, and now you even want to cause trouble for me?” Mandar said coldly. “For the old fellow’s sake, I’ll let this go once. Now get out. Otherwise, don’t blame me for what happens next.”

As he spoke, Mandar glanced toward Kent. Judging from Joko’s behavior, he had already begun to suspect that her current condition had something to do with the two humans before him.

Joko’s heart sank the moment she heard him.

She looked first at Kent, then at Daphne, and quickly changed tactics.

“Mandar,” she said, “I went through quite a lot of trouble to catch these two. How about we divide the prey evenly? You can have the dark elf girl. Haven’t you always enjoyed devouring the flesh and blood of virgins? I’ll take the human. What do you say?”

Mandar was genuinely tempted.

A Death Knight had to consume fresh flesh and blood every so often. Otherwise, the physical body it occupied would gradually deteriorate and eventually collapse.

But before Mandar could answer, Kent shouted first.

“Don’t agree to it! She was only able to erase so much of her memory because of me. If you hand me over to her, it won’t be long before she recovers—and then she’ll come back and kill you!”

Mandar’s heart tightened.

“Joko, are you still not leaving?”

Whether the human mage was telling the truth hardly mattered. If there was even a chance that his words were true, then once Joko recovered, she would certainly not let Mandar off easily.

Mandar had spent several hundred years cultivating to reach his present strength. He had no intention of throwing all that away.

Besides, creatures of the undead were notorious for devouring one another.

With that thought in mind, Mandar’s tone grew even more arrogant.

“Damn it! Can’t you just keep your mouth shut?” Joko snapped at Kent.

She stared at him with such hatred that she seemed ready to tear out his soul and swallow it on the spot.

But faced with Mandar and the countless ghosts surrounding him, she had no choice but to suppress her rage.

Taking a deep breath, Joko turned back to Mandar and said solemnly, “Mandar, I know a secret concerning the old fellow. I’ll trade that secret for this human. What do you say?”

Mandar’s expression changed slightly.

“Fine. Come inside first. We’ll talk in detail.”

The moment he finished speaking, Mandar seized Kent and Daphne and shot deeper into the cavern.

Joko watched him disappear into the darkness and had no choice but to follow.

If Kent had not been so important to her, she would not have spared Mandar a second glance.

Mandar carried Kent and Daphne into another cavern chamber.

The place was bitterly cold.

Kent had barely registered the chill when a sharp pain shot through his back. Mandar had thrown him onto the stone floor.

A moment later, something soft crashed down on top of him.

Kent immediately knew it was Daphne.

The impact nearly snapped his waist in two.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Kent forced himself to look at her.

His expression changed at once.

Daphne’s face had gone deathly pale.

At the same time, a cold voice sounded beside his ear.

“If you’re thinking of escaping, go ahead and try.”

Kent looked up and saw Joko and Mandar walking out of the chamber.

Only then did he take stock of his surroundings.

He and Daphne had been left inside a stone room. The air was freezing, and the entire chamber was saturated with an oppressive aura of death.

Kent immediately realized what was happening.

The dense death energy was invading Daphne’s body.

Without hesitation, he circulated the fire-element mana within him, then pulled Daphne tightly into his arms.

Warmth spread from his body into hers.

Little by little, the color returned to Daphne’s face.

She rested against Kent’s chest in silence.

In her heart, Daphne believed that neither of them would survive this place.

So she said nothing.

She merely pressed herself closer into Kent’s embrace, quietly feeling the warmth of his chest.

“The old fellow...”

Kent, however, seemed completely unaware of the strange tenderness of the moment.

His mind was racing.

“Who exactly is this old fellow? Could he be the true master of this temple?”

He continued turning the question over in his mind.

“Kent...”

Daphne lifted her face and looked up at him.

Her voice was soft, and her eyes were filled with deep attachment.

“Kent, we’re both going to die, aren’t we? Before that happens... can I ask you something?”

Kent had just opened his mouth to answer when loud laughter suddenly came from outside the chamber.

“Hahaha! Joko, my dear, then it’s settled! The virgin dark elf belongs to me, and the human mage belongs to you!”

It was Mandar’s voice.

Judging from the delight in his laughter, whatever Joko had offered him must have been extremely valuable.

After hearing Joko reveal some of the secrets surrounding the old fellow, Mandar no longer felt it necessary to make things overly difficult for her. Joko had already sworn that she had no intention of keeping the human mage alive. All she wanted was to devour his soul.

Besides, Mandar’s ambitions had long since extended beyond a single cavern. What he wanted was the entire temple.

And truth be told, it had been many years since he had last tasted the fresh flesh and blood of a virgin. This one was even an elf. As far as Mandar was concerned, a dark elf was still an elf.

In the past, Mandar had only heard rumors about the old fellow. Every so often, the mysterious master of this place would consume large numbers of humans, devouring both their blood and their souls.

Mandar had always wondered exactly what sort of creature the old fellow was. For a time, he had even suspected that the master of the temple might be another Death Knight.

But according to what Joko had just told him, the truth was quite different.

The old fellow had suffered an extremely serious injury and had spent the past several hundred years recovering from it. From time to time, he would even fall into prolonged periods of slumber.

As for what race the old fellow actually belonged to, even Joko did not know.

Still, Mandar was delighted by what he had learned.

Every magical creature above Level Six in this region had been branded with some form of mental imprint by the old fellow. Because of that imprint, none of them could disobey his commands.

Yet strangely enough, not one of them had ever actually seen him.

Joko’s main responsibility in this place was simply to relay the old fellow’s orders to the lowly slaves outside and make sure that whatever he required was provided.

Eventually, Mandar and Joko reached an agreement.

The exact terms, however, could not be spoken aloud. If either of them tried to state them openly, they risked triggering the mental imprint the old fellow had planted within them.

Mandar’s own duty was straightforward enough. He was responsible for guarding this part of the temple and obeying the old fellow whenever he was summoned.

“Kent...”

Daphne’s eyes were filled with tears.

Death stood right before them, close enough that she could almost feel its breath. Terror had drained all the color from her face, and her body trembled uncontrollably.

Her arms were locked tightly around Kent as she pressed herself against him with all her strength, as though his embrace were the only safe place left in the world.

Kent had run out of ideas.

Joko alone had been enough to force him into desperate flight. Now there was a Death Knight as well.

No matter how quickly his mind worked, he could think of no way out.

All he could do was gently pat Daphne on the back.

A deep sense of helplessness settled over him.

With a bitter smile, Kent wrapped his arms around her and allowed his thoughts to drift.

He thought of his family back on Earth.

He thought of Dailis. He had not even had the chance to marry her yet.

He thought of Niuniu.

He even thought of that strange little pig.

The more he remembered, the more painful it became.

His expression slowly turned pale.

I wonder... if I die this time, will I somehow cross into another world again?

In the end, that single thought filled his mind.

Even so, his arms remained wrapped around Daphne.

“Heh heh. If you frighten someone this badly, the meat won’t taste as good.”

Mandar and Joko stepped back into the chamber.

The moment they entered, they saw Kent and Daphne holding each other tightly, both of them deathly pale.

Mandar gave a sinister chuckle.

In truth, what he enjoyed most was tormenting his prey before consuming their flesh and blood. It was said that creatures tasted better after they had been thoroughly terrified and tortured.

“Then I’ll take the mage and be on my way,” Joko said.

The moment she saw Kent, a surge of secret delight rose within her.

As long as she devoured the human mage’s soul, she would gain the ability to consume ghosts without limit.

And once that happened, every creature dwelling beneath the earth would eventually fall under her rule.

If such a day truly came, then the first creature she intended to deal with would be the Death Knight standing before her now.

“Do as you please,” Mandar replied.

Mandar knew that Joko advanced by devouring souls. Such matters were closely guarded secrets among undead creatures and were rarely revealed to outsiders.

But at that moment, he had little interest in Joko’s methods.

His pale gray eyes were fixed entirely on Daphne.

He had already caught the unmistakable scent of untouched virgin flesh upon her.

The smell was almost unbearable.

Mandar could barely restrain himself from lunging forward at once and feasting on her to his heart’s content.

That was why he gave Joko only the briefest of replies.

“Do as you please.”