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An aesthetic flying vessel in the shape of a fiery bird flew at an incredible speed, following the path of the mighty Kètūki River. Its speed caused monstrous ripples in the atmosphere as it broke through the air boundary, leaving behind multiple waves of river water.
Aboard the aerial ship, Shadow ve had just digested and refined energy derived from the Naginas that he had just devoured. With a loud popping sound, foul-smelling ck dirt was expelled from every orifice and he had multiple breakthroughs.
Opening his eyes, he waved his hand, and a chilling dark me set aze, burning the dirt into smithereens.
p! p! p!... The sound of apuse chimed in the smallpartment as Damien* and La entered the chamber.
"Atta bouy!" Damien spoke, praising him.
La joined the fun by praising and lifting him up to the sky.
Shadow ve bowed slightly and responded, "Thanks for the kind words, milord!"
Damien tried examining his current strength with his system. However, the stats came out the same as before, along with the reasoning that, without leaving the current body he was possessing, the system couldn''t ssify Shadow ve''s raw strength.
Therefore, Damien asked instead, "Shadow, how do you feel now? And how much do you get stronger?"
"I feel…better. Umm," Shadow ve further added, stretching his body. "Perhaps, if I were to fight those earlier three Naginas then, I can ughter them easily without relying on red Katana."
"Good! It turns out,ing to this Ex is a great call. Plus, I''ve got to experience a lot of exciting moments. And I got my God Crystal too." Damien saidzily. "For now, let''s go back home."
Seeing his tedious appearance, La thought about something and jumped into their conversation. "Who knows when we will return here, Mr. Darhk? I have an idea. And I think you would like it."
"Alright, go on."
Pulling out a red Crystal stone, La said, "Mister seems to like this stone. And as a previous ve, I knew a lot of ces where they mined such stones." Then she added with a grin, "How about looting them all?"
"Hmm, it sounds–great!" Damien agreed. "Okay, let''s do it. However, I don''t like small loots. So, let''s start with Leader KóKó Chá''s pce."
Later, after a brief meeting, the ship shifted its course toward Bourbon Town.
Adding another colossal sum of white angelic grace energy from his palm, the ship sped up rapidly.
They first stopped in a nearby town and blended while hunting for information.
****
A weekter, a rumor spread quickly across thergend where the Kètuki River runs, practically the entire easternmost region of Meadow Valley Continent. It was regarding the rise of a terrifying, oddball banditprising two humans and a snake man named Jugo.
Yes, under Damien''s well-crafted n, Shadow ve, who was in the body of the already deceased Chieftain Jugo, visited several markets and collected roughly ny-five percent of the secret coordinates of the Crystal Stone Mines in this eastern side of Meadow Valley Continent.
After learning enough and understanding the powers behind them, they started their operations by looting from one mine to another. And in the next five days, they had already dried up over 500 grade-1 Crystal Mines, 356 grade-2 Crystal Mines, and 99 Grade-3 Crystal Mines. There were a few skirmishes, but they were all for nothing since they left piles of corpses behind.
Soon their reputation preceded them as they were given the nickname The Three Gluttonous Butchers!
Today, after gaining special intel about the location of a Grade 4 Mine, Damien and his gangs went straight there. This time, the moment they arrived they were ambushed by thousands of powerful Nagina Experts. Indeed, it was a trap!
Still, with a red katana, Shadow ve beheaded all of them within ten minutes. Whereas La sniped all the other weaker guards.
After tidying up the piles of bloody corpses, La said, "Uncle Shadow, go on. Your feast is ready!" pointing at the piles of the corpse.
While Shadow ve was devouring the corpses, La asked the suave-looking youth who had been standing still all this time, "Sorry, it''s my fault for getting into this trap. I''m ready to ept my punishment." Then she knelt in front of him.
Damien ignored her and started looking around.
It became even more unforgettable for La that she couldn''t hold the awkwardness anymore. So she opened her mouth once again, "Teacher, please punish this silly disciple." It even got to the point where she started weeping at the thought that he might disown her and discard her.
Her tears kept dripping on the dusty ground.
Suddenly, she felt a warm hand touching her head. So she looked up with her teary eyes. "Please, don''t leave me here, mister Darhk!" She said, pleading with a shaky tone.
"There there," Beaming brightly, Damien patted her head and responded with a gentle voice, "Stop getting wild ideas girl. You''re my one and only disciple. How silly of you… I''m not abandoning you, sweetheart."
After assuring her, he further added looking at a particr spot, "Instead, do me a favor. Observed the surroundings with your Ocr technique and informed Shadow to dig them all out."
Even though La had an inferiorityplex, she was witty enough to catch the under-lining meaning in his words.
So, she activated his ocr eye technique, and soon the threema-like eye shards rotated around the periphery of her corneas. Then she undid the skill.
After learning from La the exact locations deep underground, Shadow ve excavated five enormous Red Crystal Stones the size of mountain rocks.
Damien observed each of them with satisfaction and put all of them inside a Purple Spatial Beast''s Eyeball. "I believe these will be enough. Let''s leave immediately! We''ve already caused too much uproar… Hmm, stronger experts will eventually be after us."
He then brought out the flying vessel. And they quickly left the ce for the Beetal Oak Tree Forest.
Unbeknownst to them, a team of NAGINA led by Countess Meera had already been after them…. (please, stay tuned!)