608 The Origin of the Three Races

"O' dwarf that brings the promised hammer, please come in. I have been waiting for you." 

Alex and Nelson were startled to hear and see something like this, so they exchanged looks.

"What are we going to do?" Alex asked through thought transmission.

"I believe we should come in with this portal. After all, we are going to talk about the one who brought the hammer. According to the dwarf, he will treat us as an equal no matter if we are from the outside." Nelson informed him.

Although it sounded the most reasonable choice, Alex still pondered it over. "Alright. We should."

Nelson nodded and went through the portal first to check whether it was alright. Normally, Nelson would react with only a second after entering because he would know the original place would be safe or not.

Unfortunately, he never received any single word from Nelson, so he entered the portal himself. 

Surprisingly, he entered into a huge room… looking like a royal palace hall. With some white pillars supporting the room, the red carpet that stretched from the door into a throne. The only difference was how big the throne and the ruler was. 

The ruler was a skeleton shrouded by black energy that covered his face and entire body. Alex could see behind the black energy was a skull with some blue lights forming into its eyes and other things. He was fully covered with a long red robe, so Alex couldn't see the other bones.

And in front of him, Nelson stood in front of this ruler and looked very tiny. Alex needed to look up to see this six-meter skeleton even though he was a bit far from them, showing how tall the skeleton was.

The Undying King glanced at Nelson for a second before turning to Alex. "Welcome to my humble palace, O's promised one."

The pacifying tone from the Undying King echoed through the hall.

Alex looked left and right before glancing at Nelson, who later nodded his head. He slowly stepped forward, walking through the red carpet.

"I know you are confused, but I will surely explain everything clearly." The Undying King raised his hand first before placing it on his… heart… and bowing to Alex like a gentleman. "I am Atlas, the Undying King, as well as the first ruler of the Undead Race in this place." 

Alex glanced at Nelson once again, knowing he must say something to make Atlas act like this.

"I believe you don't have much information regarding this place, especially since the ruler of Dwarf refused to talk. It is an ancient pact between our two… no, three races that if one wishes to seek information, they shall come to me." The Undying King's deep voice resounded on Alex's ears. "What do you want to know?"

"First of all, I want to know something. Are you my enemy?"

"I want to borrow the altar to create a weapon." Alex thought for a moment and said.

"Weapons? Ah, You must be acquainted with that half-dragon and half-phoenix person from back then." Atlas didn't know about his purpose but recalled Teodross as soon as Alex mentioned weapons. "The weapons should be a sword and a spear. Yes, I can lend you an altar… though I have a wish that I hope you can consider." 

Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see through this person. It turned out his energy was far stronger than Zekhram. Although he didn't know his exact cultivation, it should be higher than 7-Star Martial Saint. Inside his body were also two colors, which were black and pink. Alex realized that this person also possessed a space element and somehow related to that rune earlier.

"A wish? What is your wish?" Alex asked. 

"It's something simple for you who possesses a Space Element. I… No, we just want you to open the array for us."

"What for? I am sure you know that I can't do that without reason, right? After all, I still have friends outside this place… And if something happens to them by bringing you out, I-" 

"I know." Atlas stopped him and explained the reason, but in the form of a story. "The reason might be ridiculous for you, but it will make sense if I explain it from the start. Would you have time for this little story?" 

Alex nodded.

"First of all, you must be wondering why we are different from outside people? We are not humans, but beastmen, undeads, and dwarfs." The Undying King paused for a moment, inciting Alex's curiosity. "The answer is simple. We are not from this world."

"!!!" Alex's eyes widened. He had expected something like this, but there was still a problem with the idea. Stina came from another world, but there was a portal that connected this world to that world. If they were also from another world, where would their portal be?

"You want me to open the barrier so you can cross the barrier and go home, right?" Just as he asked that question, another thought flashed in his mind. 'Wait, if they want to go back, why don't they just go back since they know the portal location… unless the teleportation array is not in this barrier.

"Yes. We want to go back to our world, and the first thing we need to do is to cross this barrier that traps us for a few thousand years." Atlas nodded. 

"Why don't you break out of this place using your Space Element or Arr- I mean, Rune?" Alex asked.

Atlas was surprised that Alex knew the existence of Rune. He thought for a moment and said. "Rune is actually a unique thing that only our world possesses. This is especially true that we, undead, are the only one that can use it. Not dwarf, not beastman.

"First of all, I shall tell you about our world first. Our world consists of three races which are Dwarf, Beastman, and Undead. The Dwarfs will create weapons and machinery, the Beastmen will fight in the front, while we, the Undeads, will support them.

"Rune is something similar to Array, but it's more suited to be planted on weapons and buildings. Just like the portal from earlier, I used the rune that I planted to connect this place and that wall. We even can enhance someone's body using a rune, which we usually use to strengthen the beastmen.

"However, Rune can't learn Array and vice versa. You must have understood this earlier, considering you know the existence of Rune. I can't break the array and you can't break my rune. This is why we are stuck in this place for a few thousand years." The Undying King finished his explanation.

"I haven't understood why you would come here and why you can't come back and get sealed in this place?" Alex narrowed his eyes.

"After getting some breakthrough in the machinery, we build a plan that is capable of crossing the vacuum outside our world. It's the combination of the craft and rune. Back then, we are so happy and decide to explore the worlds around us.

"Unfortunately, we are attacked by someone and our ship is ruined. To save all of our lives, we decide to come to the nearest world, which is this place." Atlas said with a pained voice. 

"But because this world is filled with humans, they have treated you with hostility and sealed you in this place." Alex continued Atlas's story.

"Yes. We fought back but still couldn't win against them. Luckily, the other two leaders and I still managed to push the enemies and ended up sealed in this place instead of destruction."

"But how will you go home if the ship is broken?" Alex asked.

"Of course. We still have the ship and fixed it three thousand years ago with limited resources. Only, we lack one thing." 

"Which is?"

"A Blood Gem! This blood gem is the source of energy for us. The undeads wished to have a mortal body by creating them and while researching about the blood, we stumbled and created this Blood Gem." The Undying King explained.

Alex frowned on this topic. He didn't know why but felt this topic would lead to one of his problems.

"Our Blood Gem could create a rune in one body to possess a certain control of blood… And it's only the blood of the dead like us. It will combine the blood, genetics, soul, and many other things into a pill that theoretically would give us a mortal body. We stored the blood from the dying dwarfs and beastmen under their permission, and it contained a huge amount of energy that was capable of running the ship. Even if we broke this barrier, we wouldn't be able to get away without Blood Gem and might lead to another war between them and us." 

Alex's eyebrows twitched as he could relate this to a certain influence. It was Black Devil Sect. 'Don't tell me, the Black Devil Sect actually got this one and stored it inside their sect?' 

Nelson looked at Alex and nodded his head. "I have seen that in their base. According to them, it's a sacred ritual or something, but this might be the actual case." 

"..." Alex was speechless before letting out a long sigh. "To think this is the case…" 

"Do you happen to know something about it?" 

"Yeah. In fact, they are our enemy right now." Alex nodded. "So it seems your wish and my objective is aligned." 

"That's great. If the dwarf wish is to open the barrier, my wish is to recover the Blood Gem. As for the payment, I can lend you the Soul Altar as well as reinforcing your weapons with Runes. I believe it will also benefit you." The Undying King nodded. 

Alex thought for a moment and nodded. He wanted to destroy Black Devil Sect all along, so there was no change of plan. He wondered about the Black Devil Sect imitation from Nilis Continent but thought it must be some disciples that created an imitation. If he could get something double with the same target, he had no choice other than to accept.

"How about showing me the weapons? It won't take too long." 

Alex took out the two weapons and presented it to the Undying King.

A bone staff with a shining green jade inside the skull appeared in Atlas's hand. He slowly floated toward the two weapons and raised his other hand, revealing his hand. 

His index finger bone touched the weapon first and created a few complex blue lines in his sword. The process only took fifteen minutes for the sword and another fifteen minutes for the spear.

On the surface, there were only a few natural blue lines that wouldn't make the enemy suspicious, so Alex felt relieved, knowing he wouldn't attract something dangerous with these blue lines.

"I have increased this weapon sharpness. If Zekhram can finish these weapons, you might be able to destroy rank 7 weapons in an instant. As for the rank 8 weapons, nothing will match these weapons strength." 

Unlike Zekhram, it looked like the Undying King wasn't that cheapskate by giving him an advance payment.

"How about trying to test the two weapons first?" The Undying King asked while creating another portal. The blue lines connected with each other before turning into a swirling blue whirlpool. In the middle of the portal reflected the scene where they would actually head. It was a forest filled with dying trees and mountains.

Alex took a look at his weapon and spear first to check their energy. Luckily, the energy itself seemed to be in harmony with the original energy. He wanted to channel his Spiritual Energy here out of curiosity, but it would bring him into some unpleasant situations.

He ended up accepting Atlas's invitation. "Sure."

They walked together to the portal with Nelson following right behind Alex.