Her Alchemy and Potioneering, particularly when it came to making poisons, had reached an extremely high level, and if used properly, she would have been able to amass an incredible amount of wealth through completely legitimate means.
Unfortunately, history had proved that this woman was unwilling to give up on attaining power, and she wasn’t someone that was easily convinced.
Marvin came here to learn about her Potioneering, and to get her Alchemy Items.
And if he had to kill her, it would be just a matter of getting rid of a trouble for the Anzeds. He could do it on the way.
After all, Hathaway was the current Anzed Witch Queen, so getting rid of one of her enemies was the least he could do for her.
…
There were traps all over the Rotten Mushroom Swamp, but Marvin knew of a path that safely went around the center of the swamp.
That path was actually an escape route that the Snake Witch had left. To use it, one would have to circumvent Devil Town and enter the swamp from the southern wildlands.
The Snake Witch had felt that the Dark River was a sufficient obstacle that it should be fine to leave this small path for times when she would need to leave.
But it was too bad for her that Loremaster Marvin had arrived in this world.
She was likely to die this day in her swamp!
…
A faint rotten smell floated in the air.
Will-o’-wisps and the occasional exploding mushrooms made sure that anyone taking this path had to stay alert.
Marvin activated his Stealth and slowly walked forward along the muddy path, going from cover to cover.
He knew that he had to remain careful.
The Snake Witch was a very crafty person. She had set up many traps and monitoring items on the path.
If he was careless and triggered something, it would give the Snake Witch some time to prepare.
The Snake Witch was a Legend in the 3rd Era, so the fact that she was still alive now meant that she must have a lot of skill.
Marvin was confident that he could kill the Snake Witch if he caught her off guard.
If she was prepared, it would be a lot more troublesome.
Thus, he proceeded very carefully as he approached the almost unmoving Dark River.
‘Living all her life in a place where even the birds don’t dare to shit. Even a regular person would become abnormal after all this time…’
Marvin inwardly sighed.
Just as he had this thought, a crow landed on a large clump of grass in the river ahead of him, making Marvin stop.
The crow’s eyes were red, and it pecked at the grass. From the gaps in the grass, it could be seen that there was a thick, shredded corpse!
Marvin glanced at it and determined that it was the corpse of a lizard.
He still didn’t move.
This crow was one of the creatures that the Snake Witch used to monitor the surroundings. Although Marvin’s Stealth was high, in front of an intelligent lifeform that had been tampered with, it was better not to risk exposing himself.
Marvin decided to go with the safest option.
Wait!
As a Legend rogue, Marvin knew the importance of waiting, and he also had the patience to do so.
He would wait for that crow to fly away and then take the opportunity to jump to the clump of grass.
That pile of grass was floating very slowly down the river. If it moved too far away, who knew when he would see another pile of grass?
In this swamp, rashly using a displacement skill could likely be sensed by the Witch.
Marvin had to be extremely low-key.
But looking at the distance between him and that clump of grass, Marvin couldn’t help wanting to scratch his head a bit.
‘Looks a bit far.’
‘If I do a long jump and then use the second midair jump, I can probably land on it, but that kind of movement skill might trigger an alarm of some sort…’
Marvin was thinking about the best approach for him to take, when suddenly, he realized something.
‘Hold on… My Dexterity…’
‘My body… When did I break through?!’
When his sight fell onto his interface, he suddenly became stunned and overjoyed.
Because at this moment he saw that under the attributes section of his interface, it was written:
[Dexterity: 35] (Post-Godly Dexterity)
Chapter 598: Killing Instinct
Chapter 598: Killing Instinct
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
The six main attributes had always caused Marvin headaches, as they were the most difficult things to improve.
At this point, even if he increased the level of his Legend Class, he wouldn’t gain any more attribute points from it.
To increase his attributes now, he had to do it like the natives did, by temper himself.
Marvin had previously tempered his Strength and Constitution with the former leader of the Night Walkers, Sean, increasing those attributes to some extent.
Although the Essence Absorption System that he possessed was amazing, it had its limits.
After reaching the Legend realm, the essences that would still give him noticeable benefits were becoming fewer and fewer.
Naturally, this was related to the battle experience he got from killing monsters.
The only real help he could receive from the Essence Absorption System was when he killed lifeforms on the same level as Divine Servants.
But even so, after playing around with the system, Marvin had come to the conclusion that transforming those essences into attribute points was absurdly inefficient. Thus, Marvin decided to convert all his battle experience into skill points. Although that wasn’t particularly efficient either, it wasn’t like there was much else for him to do with the experience now.
Thus, there hadn’t been much of a change in his attributes for a long time.
These six attributes were the foundation of his body.
After becoming a Legend, he gained all sorts of specialties upgraded his body implicitly.
After all, the body was very complicated and couldn’t just be summarized accurately into six attributes.
But then again, with the continuous improvement of Marvin’s power, the other attributes had been complemented in other aspects. It was just that Dexterity had been stuck at 30 points for all this time.
He was very clear about this, but couldn’t do much about it.
The boundary of Godly Dexterity was the limit that Humans could reach.
It was like like an invisible shackle. To break through the limit, one would have to use special means, like ascending to Godhood, turning into a Lich, accepting the gift of a Greater Devil, or practicing extremely secret techniques.
But the last was too rare, far too difficult to discover.
Marvin had also been looking for a way to break through besides ascending and ultimately chose to nurture his False Divine Vessel.
Even though the Fairy didn’t speak much about it, he could feel that the advanced Divine Vessel was very precious. He could feel a formidable power stored inside, but that power was still condensing and hadn’t burst out yet.
The False Divine Vessel was a very long-term investment so it would be quite a while before it paid returns.
Marvin prepared to wait patiently for that.
But he didn’t think that he would randomly break through so suddenly.
He was filled with a pleasant feeling of surprise!
If not for that crow still waiting there, Marvin would have likely jumped up in excitement!
‘When did it happen?!’
He started recalling the recent events… and finally, the scene of the fight with the Black Knight appeared in his mind.
It seemed like it might have been the provocation of Sodom’s Blades, which could have triggered something in the advanced False Divine Vessel. Everything seemed too shocking.
Marv
in had obtained an ability in the battle, and this ability was associated with the advanced Divine Vessel.
[Post-Godly Dexterity: With the help of the advanced False Divine Vessel, you broke through the Plane’s Laws and gained an Advanced Authority]
[Post-Godly Dexterity: The power being restrained for a long time in your body has been unleashed. Dexterity +4]
[Post-Godly Dexterity: Detected trace of the Plane Will’s approval, bonus Dexterity +1]
[Post-Godly Dexterity: Your Dexterity reached 35]
…
35!
No wonder he was able to handle the Black Knight so easily!
No wonder Sangore had looked at him as if seeing a monster.
Marvin didn’t even notice it back then, but he was overjoyed now that he found out.
He finally broke through.
This meant that he had accomplished something that his predecessors weren’t able to, and his strength had substantially increased yet again!
Sodom’s Blades!
Post-Godly Dexterity!
These two things alone were enough to let Marvin establish himself among the most powerful of Legends.
But Marvin’s potential didn’t stop there.
Each level in the Ruler of the Night class would give him extremely frightening skills. Eternal Night Seal and Ruler’s Wrath both proved it.
Moreover, the advanced False Divine Vessel’s strength not only helped Marvin break through the Dexterity limit. In the Post-Godly Dexterity line, there was also faint box on the side.
[Killing Instinct] (Nurturing…)
It was clear that this Killing Instinct was another ability of the false Divine Vessel that he could unlock.
He couldn’t use it yet, but Marvin believed that the ability would definitely be related to the Slaughter Domain. Moreover, it was very likely that it would increase Marvin’s fighting strength tremendously once more.
Thinking of this, Marvin immediately felt like he was brimming with power.
With a treasure like the advanced False Divine Vessel, how could he have any worries that his strength wouldn’t increase in the near future?
…
The appearance of Post-Godly Dexterity proved that Marvin’s rate of growth had no issues.
Gods weren’t the only ones that could become stronger. There were many powerhouses in ancient times who had used their own methods, and Marvin believed he would manage to do something similar.
Like the Ruler of the Night.
He calmed down after the wave of joy.
Marvin wasn’t that would lose himself in success.
He calmly waited a few more minutes before that crow slowly flew away.
A bit after it took off, it turned around to give another look, as if it instinctively felt something. But Marvin’s Stealth was too strong, so the crow flapped its wings and flew away.
The next step was to quickly reach the core of the swamp.
Thanks to the guilds’ forum posts, Marvin actually knew his way around the swamp somewhat, so there shouldn’t be any problems on that end.
He crossed the river and continued following the path, relying on his outstanding Dexterity to move very quickly.
Soon, he left the outer [Mushroom Area] of the swamp.
The cabin could already be seen far away in the distance.
He stood behind some tall grass, studying his surroundings.
He was now in an area known as the [Lizard Area].
As the name implied, the snake Witch raised many lizards there. These lizards had the ability to sense minute differences in heat. If he was too close, he would be likely be discovered in spite of his incredible Stealth. Silently going through the Lizard Area to kill the Witch was normally just a fantasy.
In the game, some guilds formed a few groups of Legends and forced their way over.
But luckily, a lone Ranger found out a trick, which Marvin was currently using.
Thus, he wasn’t too worried at the moment. He checked the movements of several lizards before finally jumping, not toward the cabin, but actually toward the dense foggy area to the west.
There, the fog was extremely thick, but the strange part was that there was a warm radiance from the foggy mist. Any normal person would probably hesitate to wander into a strange, dense mist near the dwelling of someone so well known for making poisons.
Marvin remained calm, slowing down his pace as he moved toward the [Courtyard Area].
Inside the Courtyard Area, there was a small ravine filled with odd holes leading to the surface.
Sunshine would occasionally pierce through from the surface to enter the Underdark.
Naturally, this was one of the favorite places of the Snake Witch.
Chapter 599: Starting the Operation
Chapter 599: Starting the Operation
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
From what Marvin knew, although the Snake Witch was cold-hearted and unyielding, she still had a fatal weak point.
The Witch Queen’s curse made her unable to see the sun, or else her skin would fester. But she was originally a Human from the surface.
Longing for the sun was an instinct that every normal lifeform had.
The information he knew of suggested that the Snake Witch frequently left the well-protected cabin for the surroundings of the Courtyard Area, looking from a distance at the rare sunshine piercing into the Underdark.
Even from that distance, she could feel the temperature rise somewhat.
Maybe this was the driving force behind her desire to remove the curse.
But for Marvin, this was a way to bypass her defenses.
After all, even if he was powerful, forcibly breaking into the lair of a millennium-old Witch would be very risky.
The soil in the path that Marvin was walking along had become a lot more solid.
A great amount of moisture had slowly disappeared into the fog, and solid ground had replaced the natural mud-trap that had covered most of the swamp.
Marvin followed the path based on what he could remember, feeling about on his way, before ultimately finding the Courtyard Area.
The so-called courtyard was actually a small hole.
Marvin’s biological clock was still following the rhythm of the surface, so he knew that it was night up there and that there would be no light in the courtyard.
The terrain was very complicated. In short, it was small underground ravine with a handful of exits. It was like going through a tunnel filled with cobwebs, with passages on the sides.
But even Marvin, who had a lot of information about the Underdark, didn’t know where the other passages led to.
The most important part of the Courtyard Area was a pile of rocks that was very strange. A poplar tree was growing out of the center of that pile of rocks.
The poplar tree seemed seriously undernourished, but it didn’t have any signs of being tainted in any way. It was just a normal tree.
In the frightening Underdark, it was simply a miracle for this kind of tree to survive.
Marvin knew that this definitely had to be because the Snake Witch was taking good care of it.
If not for the sunshine coming into the Courtyard Area, this poplar tree would surely have died by now.
He thought about it for a while before walking over to the pile of rocks and standing under the poplar tree.
Looking up, he saw a long, dark tunnel. Even with Darksight, Marvin was still unable to see the surface through the tunnel.
But he was certain that this small opening was the one mentioned in the post.
The poplar tree was quite withered, with almost no leaves left. Marvin looked at his surroundings and then lowered his body while using the Hide skill of his Ranger class.
Since the class had reached level 10, his Hide ability was very powerful.
He had the bonuses from his Ranger and Ruler of the Night specialties, so it shouldn’t be possible to notice him hiding by the poplar tree.<
br />
Even if the sunshine shone down on him, Marvin was certain that he wouldn’t be found by that Snake Witch.
Although his strength had increased greatly, he still remained vigilant of his enemies.
Being careless had been the downfall of many incredible powerhouses, so Marvin would be careful not to make such a mistake because he treasured this chance at a new life.
…
Time passed very slowly.
Marvin was extremely patient, and he knew that the Snake Witch didn’t come to the Courtyard Area every day.
But if he couldn’t catch the Witch within three days, he would have to take the initiative.
After all, he had agreed with Jessica about when to meet up again before setting off.
And when they left the Rosen Strongholds, Marvin was almost certain that the team of Legends would depart fairly soon.
If he lagged behind by too much, that team would be annihilated and Marvin would have to face the Final Ghost Mother without their help. Marvin knew that the chances of success would be much lower.
And that was even if he could get the rumored sword that could slay the Final Ghost Mother.
As he waited, most of the Underdark seemed unfathomably quiet.
This silence could make people go crazy and cause some people with weak willpower to be tempted by the devilish voices whispering by their ears. These voices weren’t illusions; they came from the Devils of the Nine Hells.
Because of the plane’s barriers, it was difficult for the Devils to reach Feinan.
But the Underdark was different because it was located at the lowest part of Feinan and was much closer to the Nine Hells. It was even said that it was possible to reach some lower planes from the depths of the Underdark.
This rumor wasn’t completely preposterous. After all, Marvin had personally seen the river Styx flowing in front of him.
The Underworld was the lowest plane, the river Styx flowed through the Underdark to the Underworld, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the depths of the Underdark could link to Hell or the Abyss on the way.
…
Two days later.
As Marvin was approaching the limit of how long he was willing to wait, ripples appeared in the deadly silent air ahead of him.
Marvin still maintained his concealed posture, calmly leaning against the side of the poplar tree opposite the cabin.
Night Ranger - Full Series - 735 Chapters Page 340