Cursed Immortality

After deciding to hunt those zombies, Jacob didn't hesitate and looked for a target.

When the entire horde passed Jacob's hiding spot, and there were no more zombies behind, holding his swords, Jacob crept toward the zombie at the very end of the horde.

Those zombies were clearly going somewhere without any alertness to their surroundings.

Jacob's sword flashed right behind the zombie's rotten neck, making it mute, and before the zombie could even make some random sound and alert the zombie in front, who was only a few feet ahead, the pierced zombie's body vanished into Jacob's pendant.

Jacob didn't linger and instantly hid in the closest building before those zombies could notice anything.

He then took out the zombie, who was still alive but completely helpless as its mouth was completely blocked by Jacob's blade. It tried to struggle, but Jacob was too quick, and with his second blade, he sliced its head in half.

A zombie magic core was always in their head enshrouded within the dead flame, and Jacob precisely cut while keeping this in mind not to damage the magic core if there was one.

Although he didn't know if the magic core could handle his blade strike, he didn't take a chance, and that's why he captured the zombie alive to make sure it won't happen.

The moment the zombie's head was split into two, the zombie was dead. Jacob didn't pay any attention to it. He looked at the cleaved skull and the black brain within. A blue dead flame was flickering in the center before it was depleted.

Jacob frowned since there was nothing else besides the empty hole left by the dead flame, which meant this zombie was coreless.

So, he took his swords and moved on to the next zombie at the end of the horde.

With all those buildings making it an excellent spot for Jacob to hide and pulverize the zombies, he started to hunt them one by one.

Those zombies have no strong will like an intelligent species, so they were all easily pulled by Jacob in the infinity pendant after he gave them a shock by piercing them with his sword.

After hunting four zombies like this, he still didn't acquire any magic core.

Now it was his fifth zombie, and just like before, he sliced apart its head in two. This time unlike before, the dead flame was slightly bright, and when it was exhausted, a shining emerald magic core.

'An Earth Core!' Jacob's eyes gleamed for a moment before he simply stowed it away because he already had a 1-star earth element magic core.

But still, this gave him hope since there were over 300 zombies outside, and they were moving west of the dark ruins without paying any attention to their surroundings.

This gave Jacob more confidence as he started to capture two zombies from then onward.

After pulverizing seven more zombies, he finally acquired another red color magic core, a 1-star fire element core. Now he only needed the wind-type magic core, which should be gray.

So, he started to kill those clueless zombies even more passionately, and after killing for half a day his 68th zombie, which was burly from the other zombies and had a strange marking over his rotten skin, he finally acquired a Wind Core.

But to his surprise, there were two bright white spots within this crystal-like core, and Jacob instantly knew it was a 2-star wind core, not a 1-star!

The bright white spots in them could easily distinguish the magic core ranks. An initial 1-star magic core would not have any bright white spot, while a fully developed 1-star magic core that was on the verge of entering the 2-star rank would have a bright white spot.

When a magic core reaches the 2-star initial rank, another bright white spot will be emerged within it, all the way up to 9 such white spots at the 9-star magic core.

These bright white spots were called the Stars, and that's why they were ranked in Star Ranks from 1 to 9.

Jacob looked at the zombie again. It had a faint marking around its neck, and he mused, 'Is this a high-level zombie? Its strength should be around tier 7 or tier 8. The classification of the Dark Beings is quite vague, and only those skeletons were fully recorded. The zombies were not described in-depth.'

Jacob mused as he looked at the zombie deeply. He had to admit, besides those vague lines around its neck; it looked exactly the same as those other zombies he had killed.

But he didn't go out hunting anymore since he was quite exhausted after ambushing so many zombies. Since this place was filled with undead, he would get his chance again.

Jacob's goal was to collect every element magic core up to 3-stars since the 4-star magic cores fall into the categories of the Extraordinary Tiers.

While at it, he would also look for clues about the second and third conditions. He was no longer in a hurry as this place was quite extensive, and he wasn't here for even three days, so he didn't rush things.

After calling it a day, Jacob found a destroyed building with an attack basement and started eating the raw meat he had stored in his pendant.

---

While Jacob was resting, the reaming zombie horde, after walking for 3 hours, reached a plaza where even more zombies, skeleton soldiers, and warriors were gathering.

Ten Dark Beings stood in the center of this plaza over a broken high pillar.

Five of them were fully armed skeletons holding shields and swords or halberds. They were Skeleton Grand Warriors, and all of them were extraordinary tiers!

While the other five were pale skin zombies with white eyeballs, but their skin was not completely rotten as they had a black tattoo like marking around their necks.

These zombies were called Sane Zombies and were also extraordinary tiers of Dark Beings and highly intelligent like the Skeleton Grand Warriors.

The Sane Zombies could control zombie hordes and also create more zombies from their special toxic if the cure wasn't taken within an hour.

That's why the Sane Zombies were even more dreaded existence than the Skeleton Grand Warriors since they turned their victims into zombie slaves, which was far worse than death.

At this moment, all ten extraordinary rank dark beings open their mouths, creating eerier sounds, and the sea of Dark Begins in front of them turned stoic.

Those ten then do something strange, they fall onto their knees, and all those low-level dark beings also follow in their tracks.

At this moment, the sound of powerful steps and something sharp hitting the ground rang within the silent plaza.

Soon a cloaked figure holding a pitch-black staff with a crimson orb imbued on top of it walked on the top of the broken pillar.

A spooky voice in a strange language rang from the cloaked figure holding the staff, "My Children! I summon everything because it is time to start the Conquest of Doom!

"We have given those preys too much leverage, but they don't know good for bad and dare to break a shackle sneakily. So be it. Since they want to take advantage of our forbearance and want to get eaten, we'll gladly accept their wish!

"The King will arrive with his army in three days, and we'll break the reaming shackles before hunting every one last prey!"

Those Dark Beings started to make clamor as they became restless.

However, at this moment, a deep voice filled with rage rang within the vicinity, speaking in the same language, "Lich Minister, do you really want to break the other shackles as well and call the wrath of High Beings by breaking the Grace Treaty?!"

The Lich Minister laugh out loud in an eerily manner while smacking his staff on the pillar, creating shock waves. He replied angrily with killing intent, "2nd Freedom Lord, it's you guys who broke the Grace Treaty, and now you're blaming us for it?! Do you think we are fools to wait any longer before you claim the High Position by destroying another shackle!?"

The 2nd Freedom Lord's angry voice also boomed in rebuke, "Lich Minister, you know there is no one from the Freedom Plains present since you barely let anyone out or stay in this place. You're literally garrisoning this place!

"Do you think just because you guys won the old High Position, you can bully us?! I dare you to try to break another shackle, and I'll make damn sure this whole plain got annihilated!"

The voice was filled with boundless rage as it rang within the vicinity and the aura behind it was even more ghastly, not inferior to Lich Minister.

However, Lich Minister didn't back down and roared coldly, "Then I want to see how you can annihilate the whole plain. My King will be here in three days. Let me see if you guys can still play dirty tricks!

"After getting rid of the remaining shackles, My King will make everyone our slaves... again. Hahahahah…"