novelODS Chapter 22 The Mark of the Dark Favored
Chapter 22 The Mark of the Dark Favored
In the abandoned village, You Che sat in his house, checking his personal panel.
He had confirmed that his current location was not at the original target location of the teleportation array.
The original destination of the scroll that Divine Blessing returned should have been either the cathedral in the capital or, at the very least, a church in one of the major cities.
However, he was thrown into the northern border of the kingdom, near the border, which was even outside the coverage of the Obsidian Defense Line and almost bordering the northern border.
The reason for this... is not difficult to determine.
[Personal Panel]
[Name: You Che]
Level: 3 (Experience Points: 289/300)
[HP: 19/120]
[Spiritual Power: 10/10]
[Special Status: Mark of the Dark Favored]
You Che found an old mirror in the room and looked at himself. Sure enough, he saw a faint, black lip print on his forehead.
His face immediately turned extremely gloomy.
"...Bronya, I...you...!"
[Mark of the Dark Favorite: A mark personally bestowed by Bronya, the Dark Favorite. It cannot be erased. The holder will receive Bronya's continuous attention and become a source of dark power, making it easier for dark power to gather and for dark races to proliferate wherever they go.]
Even in games, it's rare to see such long descriptions, and their effect is quite clear.
Simply put, this thing is like Bronya putting a GPS on him, and it even recharges itself and can even radiate to the surrounding area and affect the environment.
You Che remembers that there was an important side NPC in the game who was given this mark. As a result, he was a combat hero, but he ended up not being able to go home and could only hide in the mountains and forests, serving as a hidden quest giver.
Once you're branded with this thing, others will see you as half a member of the dark race, regardless of your own will.
After all, it would attract dark forces and even breed dark races, so wouldn't that be a walking source of infection?
The key issue is that this thing cannot be removed, even if you go to the Grand Cathedral in the capital.
The fact that Youche's teleportation was interfered with, and that he ended up in this remote, abandoned village, was precisely due to the influence of this mark.
Basically, it can be understood that when the church receives the transmission request, the firewall in operation detects that there is a virus in the file, so it blocks the transmission directly.
Fortunately, Yuche was lucky enough that although he was kicked out, he still ended up on the edge of the kingdom's heartland. If he had ended up in some desolate wilderness in the border region, he would probably have been in Bronya's hands by the time he opened his eyes.
As for whether there's truly no way to remove this mark...
Yu Che clearly remembered that the game's setting book mentioned that there were theoretically only two ways to remove this mark: one was to seek a "miracle" to descend, and the other was to defeat the Four Heavenly Kings who had placed the mark on him.
You Che: "..."
Clearly, neither of these is something he can do.
The last time a "miracle" appeared was during the First Dark Ages, a period that has become part of history.
As for defeating Bronya... Yu Che certainly wished he could tear that damned puppet apart right now, but it was obvious that the difference in strength was too great.
Even in the game, any one of the Four Heavenly Kings is a boss in the most difficult raid at the end of the game, and the official win rate statistics have never been less than 10%, so it is definitely not something he can compete with now.
"But sooner or later..."
You Che's eyes flashed. As a former top player, he had of course defeated this BOSS in the game and knew the methods to defeat her.
It's obviously too early to think about those things now, but at least he has a clear goal.
That is to use his terrible background as a wanderer to gain strength that can even surpass the top players of the past game era, and then make Bronya pay for her blood debt!
Therefore, he was indeed not in a hurry to go to the capital, because he needed to make some adjustments to his original development plan.
But first of all...
"Ugh... Ouch!!"
Hearing familiar groans and roars, You Che leaped up and looked outside. Sure enough, he saw several freshly unearthed, rotting corpses emerging from nearby houses and staggering toward him.
[Rotting Corpse (LV2)], [Rotting Corpse (LV3)], [Rotting Corpse (LV3)]...
Bronya's mark would make ordinary people avoid him like the plague, but conversely, it could not protect him from the dark races—unless they were individuals with a certain level of intelligence who could recognize the mark.
Therefore, Yu Che could not ignore these lower-level dark races.
"—They came way too fast!" Yu Che cursed.
Not long has passed since he woke up, yet rotting corpses have already been born here?
...Well, obviously, we also need to factor in the time he was unconscious. You Che himself could estimate that he was probably unconscious for about half a day.
But does that mean that when he's all alone in the future, he won't even be able to sleep well?
As You Che cursed, he opened his magic pocket. However, he paused noticeably when he put his hand inside.
And the first rotting corpse has already pounced!
"Pfft—"
A sharp blade flashed, severing the still-fragile arm of the rotting corpse. And that wasn't all; a crimson light erupted from the severed wound, then blasted the entire arm to smithereens!
With a flick of his wrist, You Che grasped the hound's claws in his hand, and with his other hand, he pulled out a jade-green dagger.
"...I'm in a really bad mood right now, you guys are just unlucky!"
The blade flashed!
Newly hatched skeletal corpses are slow-moving, their limbs are relatively fragile, and their level is low. They pose no threat whatsoever to a player of You Che's caliber.
You Che moved back and forth among the rotting corpses a few times, severing all their limbs and causing them to fall to the ground.
He then finished off the newly spawned enemies one by one with ease.
[You have reached the required experience points and have been upgraded to LV4.]
Looking at the upgrade notification in his personal panel, You Che let out a heavy sigh.
He had only recently reached LV3 before the final battle in the town, but because he participated in the final battle and dealt some damage, he still received a small portion of experience points.
In addition, the few rotten corpses he had just dealt with, which were of similar level to him, gave him enough experience points to level up.
You Che had no interest in cleaning up the bodies of these innocent victims. He plucked a large blade of grass from a nearby tree, wiped his knife clean, searched the village, found some necessary camping supplies, and then left.
This village was of little value to begin with, and the mark on him would cause the rotten corpses buried in the ground to resurrect as dark races, so there was no need to keep it any longer.
More than that, he also needed to check his backpack and revise his plans for the future.
He had just realized that Baron Grammer's magic pocket seemed to have been teleported here with him...