The Ossuary King: Infinite Power

Chapter 5

Time is a strange thing in the Eternal Ossuary. There is no sun to mark the passing of the days. There is only the shifting thickness of the grey fog and the occasional blood-red glow of the moon that appears once a month. 

For Lucien, the first few weeks were a blur of survival and pain. But as the months rolled by, the boy who had been thrown away like trash began to change.

Lucien lived in a small, narrow cave tucked into the side of a cliff made of compressed bone. It wasn't a comfortable home, but it was safe. The walls of the cave were lined with glowing moss that he had found by signing in at a place called the Cave of Whispers. The moss gave off a soft, blue light and, more importantly, it acted as a natural alarm. If anything entered the cave, the moss would turn a deep, angry red.

Lucien sat in the center of the cave, his legs crossed. He looked nothing like the broken, bloody boy from the iron gates. His hair had grown long, tied back with a strip of leather. His body was lean and packed with dense, hard muscle. His skin had a faint, metallic sheen to it, the mark of the Primordial Chaos Body.

In his hand, he held a fruit. It was a "Spirit-Pear" from the Orchard of the Departed, a strange, twisted forest of trees that grew not from soil, but from the ribcages of ancient monsters. The fruit was translucent, glowing with a soft white light.

He took a bite. The fruit was cold—so cold it made his teeth ache—but as soon as the juice hit his tongue, a wave of pure energy exploded in his mouth.

[Ding! Host has consumed a High-Grade Spirit Fruit.]

[Experience gained. Chaos Essence refined.]

[Current Level: 20 (Grave-Seeker Realm).]

Lucien let out a long breath. A small cloud of black vapor escaped his lips. At Level 20, he was no longer a "nobody." In the outside world, a twenty-year-old at Level 20 would be considered a genius in a small city. But Lucien was only sixteen, and he had reached this level in a few months, in a place where most people couldn't survive for ten minutes.

"The Orchard was a good find," Lucien whispered to himself.

He had signed in there three days ago. The reward had been a permanent supply of these fruits. They didn't just fill his stomach; they helped his God-Devouring Veins grow. Every day, his veins became wider and stronger, capable of holding more power.

He looked at his rusted sword, leaning against the cave wall. It didn't look like much, but when he held it, the Grandmaster Sword Intent made him feel like he could slice through the sky itself.

"I am strong enough to survive the outer rim," Lucien thought, his eyes turning cold. "But I am not yet strong enough to walk back through those gates and demand an apology in blood."

He stood up, intending to head toward a new sign-in location he had spotted with his Eyes of Truth. It was a place where the fog was particularly thick, smelling of old incense and dead magic.

Suddenly, his moss turned red.

Lucien froze. He pressed his back against the cold wall of the cave, his hand flying to the hilt of his rusted sword. He closed his eyes and expanded his senses.

Usually, the only things that moved near his cave were Grave-Rats or the occasional wandering skeleton. But this was different. He heard footsteps. Many footsteps. And they were rhythmic, heavy—the sound of boots on stone.

And then, he heard something he hadn't heard in months: human voices.

"This place is disgusting," a female voice complained. It was a high, arrogant voice, the kind that belonged to someone who had never known a day of hardship. "Why must the Ancestral Relic be hidden in such a filthy hole?"

"Patience, Senior Sister Seraphina," a male voice replied, sounding nervous and eager to please. "The map from the Cloud-Soaring Sect is never wrong. The Soul-Anchoring Jade must be near the Titan’s Spine. We are almost there."

Lucien’s heart skipped a beat. Cloud-Soaring Sect? He knew that name. They were one of the top three sects in the Empire, almost as powerful as his own family’s clan.

He crept toward the mouth of the cave, staying hidden in the shadows. Using his Eyes of Truth, he looked through the mist.

A group of five young people was walking through the valley below. They wore beautiful, flowing white robes embroidered with blue clouds. The girl in the lead—Seraphina—was stunningly beautiful, with long black hair and a sword at her waist that sparkled with expensive gems. Her skin was pale and perfect, clearly protected by a high-level mana barrier.

Behind her were four male disciples, all of them looking around with expressions of fear and disgust.

"Look!" one of the disciples pointed toward a ledge near Lucien’s cave. "There’s something moving!"

Lucien pulled back, but he was a second too late.

"Is it a ghoul?" Seraphina asked, her voice filled with loathing. She raised a hand, and a ball of bright, white light appeared in her palm, illuminating the side of the cliff.

The light hit Lucien. To them, he looked like a nightmare. He was dressed in blackened, torn rags. His hair was messy, and his eyes—thanks to the Eyes of Truth—glowed with a faint, unnatural light.

"It’s just a lowly ghoul," one of the boys laughed, drawing his sword. "A scavenger living in the rocks. Should I kill it, Senior Sister? It might have some spirit stones hidden in its nest."

Seraphina sneered, looking at Lucien as if he were a bug. "Don't waste your mana on such a pathetic thing. It’s probably been driven mad by the Miasma. It’s already dead; it just hasn't realized it yet. Let’s move on. The Jade is more important."

Lucien watched them walk away. His grip on his sword hilt was so tight his knuckles were white.