Martial Online.

In the underground town, it was never clear whether it was day or night.

The lights were always on, and most of the people had different sleep rhythms, some sleeping during the day and some at night.

The small inn, right under the shadow of the gray castle, had a slanted roof with a chimney poking through the top. The roof was made of wood shingles that were weathered and worn, giving the inn a charmingly rustic appearance.

At the current moment, on the inn's top floor, Ambrose was twirling a knife in his hand, seemingly deep in thought.

The lantern on the table flickered, which lit up the room with a warm, golden glow. Without that, the room would be shrouded in utter darkness, as the light from the street lamps didn't quite reach this part of the inn.

'This crystal…'

Ambrose looked at a small black crystal beside the lantern that had a strange purple, swirling mist inside. It was supposed to be a magical tool to improve his latent magic abilities.

However, it sounded quite shady, as Ambrose wasn't familiar with this world's magic, and who knows, the Sage Edegron could very well be lying.

'This is annoying…'

Ambrose looked sour, as he hated being unknowledgeable about these things.

On the other hand, it wouldn't make sense for them to try to poison him with the crystal when they could've as easily just put a knife through his heart.

In Casper's eyes, he should be a weakling with a naive mindset who ended up being assassinated and somehow got lucky enough to inherit the Deathwalker ability.

It would not make sense for them to make things difficult and try to poison him.

'Well, I think what Sage Edegron said was true.' Ambrose looked at the crystal and thought. 'Even if I improved my latent magic ability, I would still be weak, as according to them, it takes years to learn magic.

'Even if they decide to kill me later, I would still be defenseless against them. Well, that's at least what they think.'

Ambrose picked up the small crystal, moved it in his rough hand, and then opened his mouth wide before tossing the crystal into his mouth and swallowing it whole.

"Argh!" Ambrose grunted with an uncomfortable feeling as his veins started glowing purple. "That tasted like glass and blueberries!"

At that moment, his eyes shot out a ray of purple light that illuminated the entire room.

Memories that span thousands of years flooded his mind, overwhelming him with knowledge and power beyond his wildest dreams.

The crystal showed what he could become.

In that memory, he was standing on a mountain of corpses, a sword in his hand, wearing a crown of thorns.

Around him, glowing planets circled him as if he were the center of the universe, and his left hand was slightly open with purple mist curling out of it.

Those planets were creations of his ultimate magic.

At the bottom of the mountain of corpses, thousands of gold cloaked magicians chanted their spells and attacked him with all of their combined might.

However, with a single whisper, Ambrose destroyed all the magicians in an instant.

They were turned into ash and dust, their power no match for his ultimate magic.

"I am… Him"ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ No(ᴠ)ᴇlFire.nᴇt

Ambrose whispered coldly towards the darkness beyond, and at that moment, the memories shattered like fragile glass, waking him up to reality.

"Ouch…"

He touched his head for a moment as he felt like his head was splitting, but that strange sensation of pain vanished as fast as it appeared.

"That crystal is a powerful tool of corruption."

Ambrose said out loud with a concerned expression.

"This is how they get others to assassinate. The crystal gives them empty promises of ultimate power, but no one ever reaches that goal.

"Only one person can be that ultimate power."

"Is this what they are after? Being the ultimate power of this world."

There was a moment when he was wanting that kind of power, but he quickly regained his focus.

It was easier to corrupt those with weak minds and those that Black Hand had been tricking since their births.

Casper and Edegron most likely believed that this was enough to make Ambrose their loyal servant. However, they were very much mistaken.

"I guess my latent magic ability has now been awakened."

Ambrose opened and closed his palms, trying to feel the magic flowing through his veins, but he was feeling the same as before.

'I suppose I should try to meditate now and go see my mana pool.'

Ambrose twirled the knife and put it down on the desk before taking a seat on his rough bed. He then sat cross-legged, put his hands on his lap in a meditative position, and closed his eyes.

At that moment, all the sounds vanished from his world.

The distant footsteps, the echoing voices from downstairs, and the faint crackling of the flames inside the lantern all disappeared, leaving him in complete silence and solitude.

Ambrose was sucked into his mind, where memories and thoughts swirled around him in a chaotic dance, threatening to overwhelm his senses.

"Go away!" He shouted into the dark void and moved his hands as if he were closing curtains, which caused all the swirling things to vanish.

It was now a completely dark place, except there was something glowing in the distance.

'It must be there.'

Ambrose started running down the dark expanse towards the distant glow.

It felt like he had run several hours, but only a few seconds had actually passed in reality.

Even after a few hours of running, Ambrose thought he didn't get anywhere close to the distant glow.

He briefly closed his eyes at that time, and when he opened them again, the distant glow was all around him.

He was not only surrounded, but he was floating over something glowing that spanned a long distance.

On the ground, there was some kind of pool of glowing liquid.

'This must be a mana pool, but why is it so goddamn big!'

Ambrose's eyes widened in fascination as he saw that the mana pool was probably the size of a football field!

"I thought it should be the size of a hand, but this is insane!"

At that moment, hands started to reach out to the pool as if they were trying to catch Ambrose no matter what.

After the hands, screaming faces emerged from the glowing water, and their skin started melting off, revealing grotesque features beneath.

Ambrose had seen a lot of strange things in Martial Online, but this truly took him off guard as he recognized all the faces!

They were the people he had killed in Martial Online!

Splash!

A large splash came from the water, and a black-beared man emerged from the water, screaming in pain while his skin melted off.

He was none other than Mars!

However, even Mars' skin melted off, and he was reduced to a screaming skeleton who was desperately trying to grab Ambrose.

"No wonder this is considered Dark Art. This is truly the pinnacle of horror."

Ambrose gulped roughly and was truly surprised at how many people he had killed. There were thousands of people trying to reach their arms out of the glowing water, but none of them were successful.

At that moment, his hands started emitting a purple mist that slowly enveloped the whole world around him. All the darkness disappeared, and now everything was filled with a bright, purple light.

"Just how strong am I in this world?" Ambrose wondered as he looked around at the transformed world before him.

Swoosh!

Ambrose closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was back in the room, sitting with his legs crossed.

"Ah…"

He held his head in his hands, as that was a surreal experience.

'Magic…'

Ambrose revealed his face from his hands again and opened his palm, then summoned a little bit of the purple mist to the outside world.

He then made the purple mist turn into a dagger—a beautiful purple dagger with embossed silver designs on the hilt.

Then he snapped his fingers, and hundreds of similar-looking daggers appeared in the sky, floating around him like a majestic dance of deadly beauty.

'I was never able to summon this many knives in Martial Online. Not only wasn't I able to do that, I wasn't able to make them real, as they were always made out of golden light.

'Now, I can make them real!

'It's either that my mastery of magic has now improved by leaps and bounds, or I am simply much more powerful being here than anywhere else.'

A small smile crept up on Ambrose's face.

It was an intoxicating feeling to be so powerful.

His body could feel that he was incredibly powerful—a man capable of wielding incredible power and shaping the world around him in ways he never thought possible.

However, he didn't know just how strong he truly was.

'I'll need to test my strength.'

Ambrose cracked his knuckles and began to wonder who his target could be.