There were six people sitting at the Black Tower table, five of whom were Tier III, and the last Tier IV. They stopped their conversation as Eden approached, and looked at him warily.
Knowing he had to establish an impression of strength for their deal, Eden looked at a nearby free chair. He did not even look at the Tier 0 next to it, placing a hand on it as he said, "I'm taking this."
But as he was about to drag the chair along to the Black Tower table, the Tier 0 squeaked, "T-the seat is taken, actually."
This caused Eden to stop, and the surrounding Players to stare. It was one thing for a newbie to stand up to a Tier III, and it was another when that Tier III was Eden. Even if they did not know of his Demon King Title, he was not known for being a Saint either.
Eden did not feel offended though. In fact, he felt interested, more than anything, so he took a peek at the newbie's status.
[Name: Ludwig]
[Title: None]
[Talent: ?]
[Perks: None]
[HP: 50/50]
[MP: 70/70]
[Strength: 7]
[Agility: 9]
[Physique: 5]
[Intelligence: 7]
[Wisdom: 7]
[Resistances: None]
[Weaknesses: None]
As expected, his status was about as vanilla as it could be. This was someone fresh out of their tutorial. He sounded scared, but as Eden stared at him, he stared back.
This was impressive in its own right. Although Eden was holding back on his aura, there was still a humongous gap between them. Tier Suppression was not an arbitrary System feature, it was the difference between souls, between entities of vastly different levels.
So even with his aura held back, a Tier 0 should have been uncomfortable looking at him. It was something Eden had always ignored thanks to his Talent, so he assumed the kid had a good Talent too. Probably one tied to his soul.
After a beat of silence, Eden smiled, tipping his head slightly, acknowledging, "My bad then."
He did not let go of the chair, but silently cast a spell to duplicate the chair. No spell circle manifested as he had cast it silently, so it looked like a second chair popped out of nowhere.
After giving the newbie, Ludwig, a last look, Eden dragged the duplicate chair over to the Black Tower table, sitting down at their table as he greeted with a cheer, "Ho there, I got some business for you."
The Tier III Players stared at him silently while their leader, the Tier IV woman called Angrboda, sat still as a doll, her gaze unsettling as she spoke in a monotone voice, "You humiliated Bartholomew as a Tier 0, listening to your offer is the least I can do."
Bartholomew, Eden had learned, was the name of that Saint from the Holy Order he had encountered back on his first time on the Market Place. He was also a Tier IV.
Eden conjured a blank piece of paper, and Inscribed the number and types of corpses he had stored as he explained, "I got corpses. Some Tier II Dragons in varying states, a ton of demons, negative energy beings and some Tier III gods. Their divinity was stripped, but their flesh remains Tier III."
The few divinities Eden had gotten from the gods he had slain had vanished from his control the moment he exited the Dungeons and Dragons universe. It was not a big loss, considering he could not do much with them.
Eden ended up listing everything, with the exception of Tiamat, on the paper. Although she was probably the most expensive corpse, since she was the strongest physically, it was still within his goals to improve upon his Transmutation magic, so he planned to keep her for now.
Angrboda gave the list a quick glance, likely using a Skill to read it all instantly, before nodding, "You may consider us interested. How much do you want for them?"
She was avoiding making the first offer, which was Bartering 101, so Eden laid back in his seat, and instead of answering, informed her, "I've dabbled in necromancy and alchemy myself."
Before Angrboda could say something to that, one of the Tier III interjected dryly, "So happy for you. Want us to throw you a party?"
Eden's vibe remained lax and calm, but his eyes snapped to him, this guy whose name was Enrique. He stared at him, explaining slowly and steadily, "The reason I am saying this, is that you're not going to bullshit me. If your Guild is any good at it, you will be able to make full use of these corpses, including those damaged ones. This represents hundreds of Tier II fighters, as well as a few Tier III ones."
Enrique gave him a face, but none of them disputed his words, so he offered, "For that kind of quantity, 5 million should be an acceptable price. Nearly a dozen Tier III, over a hundred Tier II corpses."
Although Eden had slain over a hundred millions beings in the Abyss, Eden had also stayed for over 500 years in the Abyss, which was more than enough for them to rot. Moreover, since the stronger ones always got Eden's attention first, Eden mostly killed Tier I trash during his last fifty years in the Forgotten Layer of the Abyss.
Angrboda held his gaze, but Eden could tell her mind she was somewhere else. Likely communicating with someone else from her Guild. After a few seconds, she was focused on him again as she approved, "If the quality is satisfactory, and they are not ruined, then that number is acceptable."
Satisfied, Eden held up a finger, transmitting an order to his Simulacrum to place all the corpses in a new demiplane, before opening a rift to it. The sudden tear in space got the attention of people again, and Angrboda nodded to Stryfe, another of her Tier III subordinates, who stepped inside with a serious look.
Things were supposed to be simple from there, but they never were. After a few seconds, Eden, who had kept a close eye on what was happening inside, sensed something wrong, and working alongside his Simulacrum, sealed the demiplane with the same runes that had been trapping the Skull of Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlantecuhtli himself.
He had had the time to study them in the Abyss, and they were fully capable of sealing a Tier III.
At the same time, seeing the rift suddenly disappear, the shadows around Angrboda bellowed, rising to stand around her, but Eden spoke first, his voice calm and composed despite the slight, "Really? You're trying to steal from me?"
While the other Tier III with her stood up, ready to fight, his words caused Angrboda to pause and hold up a hand, asking quietly, "Are you sure?" To Eden, it did not sound like they had planned to do this, but that hardly mattered now that things had reached this point.
Eden rolled his eyes, giving Maggie a glance. She looked disapproving, but some things just had to be done, "I don't care whether this was planned or your guy is a stupid greedy fuck. People gotta learn you can't just fuck me."
Without leaving them the time to reply, he snapped his fingers for no other reason than dramatic flair, and teleported inside the demiplane.
It was somewhat cramped, with all the corpses put together, but Eden appeared in a relatively empty space, right above Stryfe. It took the Black Tower Player a second to notice him, and a flicker of fear flashed over his face, before his expression hardened, and he activated his skill.
Instantly, several corpses arose, including that of Bhaal, one of the Dead Three. That was what Eden had felt.
Maybe he thought that would be a good way to stop Eden, but Eden did not even give the corpses a glance, focusing entirely on Stryfe as he asked in a dry tone, "You do realize I killed these before, right? Do you really think they will save you?"
Stryfe was about to speak, but Eden suddenly enlarged to his true form, and with a flap of his wings, appeared in front of him in an instant. Before he could do anything, Eden grabbed his upper body whole with his hand, and pinched his head between two fingers, sending a strong burst of mana straight into his brain.
Eden was no expert in counter-magic, but that was enough to disrupt whatever skill Stryfe had been about to cast. At the same time, his link to the corpses was fractured, and they dropped back to the ground.
Although the Source of Mana was located in the heart, it was the brain that controlled everything. Eden was sure disrupting the Source of Mana would also work, but messing with someone's heart tended to have side effects, and he happened to still have some use for this guy.
Stryfe tried to resist, but it was only now that he realized how hopelessly outmatched he was.
[Name: Stryfe]
[Title: The Silent Death, Darth Stryfe]
[Talent: ?]
[Perks: Tier III, Bog of the Underworld I, Indomitable Will II, Power of the Dark III]
[HP: 900/900]
[MP: 1450/1890]
[FP: 2156/3402]
[Strength: 80]
[Agility: 100]
[Physique: 90]
[Intelligence: 105]
[Wisdom: 109]
[Force: 126]
[Resistances: Lightning III, Necrotic III]
[Weaknesses: None]
If one only took his Attributes into account, then this Stryfe was about as powerful as an Intermediate God back in Dungeons and Dragons. However, important natives were generally more talented than Players of the same level, and this Player was such an example.
Despite having his own power System, Stryfe only had a single Perk that was at Tier III, and even then it was not very powerful. If Eden had to guess, it had something to do with the Force from Star Wars.
For Perks, between 100 and 180% efficiency was the realm of Tier I, 181 and 260 for Tier II, and 261 and 340% for Tier III. Eden was a bit of an odd case because all his attributes were boosted to the very limit of his Tier, but other Players did not go through what he did.
So even though Stryfe's Power of the Dark was at Tier III, based on his FP energy, the boost was only at 270%, or the very bottom of a Tier III Perk.
To his credit, Eden did feel some mild resistance, but he kept his grip firm, stopping just shy of crushing the guy into paste. Eden Strength was at 103, and boosted to 340%, while Stryfe only had 80 Strength with no boosts from Perks. His equipment was far from enough to bridge that gap.
Eden looked down at the flailing Black Tower Player in his hand, tightening his grip enough to make his bones creak and cause the man to scream in pain, and said, "Congratulations, you've been promoted to the position of example on why not to piss off Ozymandias. I assure you, this is a very competitive position."
The screaming only intensified from there.
Five minutes later, Eden reappeared in the Nightmare Realm in his human size, right where he had left. The Black Tower Players had all left, and a furious-looking Maggie was waiting for him in their spot.
His reappearance understandably drew gazes, only to find he was not alone, as he was carrying the Black Tower Player by the nape.
In their five minutes together, Eden had flayed him, stripping his skin from his flesh, making him wear it like a coat while making sure he remained alive.
Eden could feel that Maggie was furious, and not just at the Black Tower members, but he met her gaze with his own of steel, explaining, "Sorry for messing with your floor, but this had to be done."
Maggie's response was to take out a revolver with a cannon far too long for a normal one, pointing it right at his forehead. It felt dangerous. Still, he did not flinch, and only looked at her as she growled, "You managed to break the one fucking rule in my bar. The one fucking rule!"
Eden raised an eyebrow as he noticed something in the background. Although he was not sure what kind of reaction to expect from them, greed was certainly the one. Then, as he noticed the screens displaying his name, and increased bounty, he understood.
[Wanted- Ozymandias]
[Bounty: 8 000 000 Dream Points]
[Issuer: Black Tower, Hall of Perfection, Holy Order, Immortals, Hero's Alliance, Freedom Alliance, Reapers.]
That landed him straight in third place in highest bounties. They had moved fast.
Leaning his forehead into the barrel, Eden gave Maggie a smile, arguing, "Letter and spirit of the law, rings a bell? Not stealing millions from someone else is an informal law, but if you want to go letter of the law, our friend here," he dropped Stryfe to the ground, who groaned in pain, "is not dead yet."
Turning his head to look at the rest of the room, he added, "Besides, it looks like we already have a few greedy rabbits who want to take this outside. Who knows, maybe one of them will get lucky and will take the problem off your hands."
Maggie looked like she had a lemon forced down her throat with how bitter her expression got, but she still retrieved her gun, her voice like a cold blade as she spat, "Always so proud, aren't you? My protection is worth nothing if I just let people attack each other in my bar."
She gestured towards the exit, adding, "You take care of this mess outside, or you will be banned from this establishment for life."
Although she sounded pissed and accusatory, Eden could see an olive branch when he saw one. She might be genuinely angry with him, it was obvious to all he already intended on going outside.
Giving her a small nod, Eden sent a challenging look at the rest of the Players present, especially those from Guilds. The sudden raise in his bounty was no coincidence, and was very unlikely caused by Black Tower alone.
His guess was that the various guilds that had a tooth against him had profited of the opportunity to raise the bounty dramatically, and throw the high Tier independent Players into the fight.
It was a far better option than expanding their own forces on him. Besides, now that he knew it was possible to go back to worlds they had already visited, he expected the bases of the various guilds to be in secure worlds, and possibly spread out too.
So even if they wanted to, getting their forces over to the Nexus in time would be nigh impossible, hence why they would rely on the greed of other Players. Besides, even if they were close, it was a sound strategy to send the independent grunts after him first, and then swoop in when he was tired.
Rubbing the blood off his hands, Eden walked through the exit, with a rather thick stream of Players following behind. As he walked out however, Eden was surprised to receive a couple of messages. One was from Stitch, and the other from Lady Phoenix.
[Satoru Gojo: I heard there was trouble. Should I come?]
[Lady Phoenix: The offer from the Divine Beast Palace still stands.]
Both offers were surprising, but Eden replied to the two with the same message.
[Ozymandias: You can watch if you want.]
Closing the system prompt, Eden turned to look at one of the independent Players following him, and smiled excitedly, saying, "I feel like I'm back on Earth, getting in a bar fight! Isn't that exciting?"
The guy's expression froze, and he stared at Eden for a moment, before muttering something under his beard about crazy people and walking back inside the Nightmare Realm.
It was a welcome surprise, although his actions did not incite the others into leaving too.
Meanwhile, the area outside the bar had filled up in his absence, although it was mostly the summons from the Black Tower members. The other Players quickly joined up, surrounding Eden and cutting off any exit routes.
The crowd was not even exclusively made of Tier III Players, as there were even some Tier II ones who thought they might get lucky. However, there was only one Tier IV Player visible, and that was Angrboda.
Under their gazes, Eden's form started growing, until he reached his full 5 meters tall form. Although life was easier with a regular human's size, he felt more comfortable fighting in his true form.
Slowly letting go of the seals on his presence and aura, Eden rose in the air, his black wings still. He did not need his wings to fly, they simply made him faster. This was thanks to his deep understanding and connection to space, which not only allowed him to teleport essentially at will, but also fly unaided.
Although he spoke to everyone, he kept his gaze squared on Angrboda as he announced, "I want you to understand that this is a statement, not something driven by emotions. So if you try to escape, I'm not even going to try to stop you. I won't be holding a grudge either, so if you are ever interested in a deal, and you survive today, you're welcome to hit me up."
Eden could see they thought he was crazy. And he might be, but he was speaking the truth. He personally did not see anything wrong with trying to aim for his bounty, as it would be enough to buy a Tier IV item.
Besides, he had basically invited them to attend.
Still, Eden pointed his finger at one of the guys standing in the back, a Player from Black Tower, Enrique, and added, "Except you. You're dying today."
The moment he said that, he flapped his wings once, and reached Enrique in an instant. Enrique did not even see him coming.
One moment he was standing there, and the next he was flattened into the ground, his remains sliced up. Only as his soul attached itself to Eden did it seem to realized what had happened.
Eden expected this to start the fight, but as he looked around, he was astonished to find all the independent Players fleeing.
It was so unexpected that he felt at a loss for moment. His actions so far, while they might have seemed to be fueled by pride, were actually an intimidation tactic. To show other Players that he was not a free Tier IV weapon, but an immovable object into which they would inevitably crash if they tried anything.
And even if he ended up being not so immovable, he could always flee. Although there was a seal on space, Eden could feel that were he to wish to, it wouldn't be able to stop him from teleporting to his safe room.
While Eden stood in stunned silence, the Black Tower Players, the only ones left, spread out in a formation. The remaining four Tier III Players blocked a cardinal direction each, and set up a sort of pseudo-domain.
Shadows spread out from each of them, quickly forming a giant sphere of darkness. Eden felt it try to affect him, to spread a corruption to him, but his Perfected Form completely blocked the damage, which had to be under 300, and his Talent countered the debuffs.
However, the domain was not only a harmful one, as all their summons appeared to be empowered, and the shadows around Angrboda danced.
Eden could have countered with his own Domain Expansion, but he felt curious as to his current capabilities without it. He did not even cast Avatar of Wrath straight away, keeping Stryfe's soul attached to him as he stared at Angrboda as he realized something.
The shadows around her were not simply dancing, they were concentrating, solidifying into a large shadow lance.
Eden did not even see it fire, and only realized it had been released when his perception of time slowed down. However, he guessed it was more geared towards speed than power as the danger he felt from it, while not faint by any means, was not deadly either.
With time slowed, he got a better look at it. It was three meters long, and space itself trembled in its path, destabilizing the pseudo-domain. It was certainly a powerful attack.
In response to it, Eden did not dodge, but instead cast a couple of 7th Circle Shields in its path.
The shadow lance collided with the first one, and proved to be a powerful attack from a Tier IV Player as it obliterated it, and did the same to the second shield, before slamming into Eden's chest, forcing him a whole meter back.
It took 50 HP out of his 3502 pool.
It might sound ridiculous, but it proved the absolute power behind the attack.
[Shield (7th Circle): Create a small magical barrier one centimeter across capable of absorbing 875 (1185) of any damage source coming in contact with it. Last for 0.1 second. Cost: 1370 (350) MP.]
This was Eden's 7th Circle Shield. His Shield always had the capacity to absorb the full damage from a spell two Circles above its own, so these were the standards for 9th Circle spells.
Also, with his Perfected One III Perk, not only did Eden reduce all incurred damage by 300, he also had his natural defence value derived from his 103 Physique that was 340% efficient.
In other words, that shadow lance had smashed through two Shields with 1185 HP, his 300 damage reduction, his natural defence, and 50 HP. Adding everything up, it had dealt a total of 2720 theoretical damage, and that was without counter his Physique attribute.
Of course, as always, it was a theoretical value, but still, it was one big attack.
As impressive as that magic had been though, in the end, it had only taken away a fraction of Eden's HP, and it was his turn now.