Cheat Awakening

Experience more content on empire

"Tsk, that fellow indeed overestimated himself, I've never seen someone as idiot as him," Jormungandr remarked, rising from the ground. "While my expectations weren't high to begin with, such an easy victory surprised even me."

"But what was that powerful object? That big guy died so easily," Maya, still unable to believe her eyes, asked with shock. In her impression, Jormungandr seemed to be the weakest divine beast among the three, but it turned out that what she knew was just the tip of the iceberg.

"I didn't kill him," Jormungandr explained while shaking his head. "That small orb was called 'Imprisonment Ball'. Upon hitting the target, it shot a powerful net. Once the target was caught in it, he automatically teleported to The Labyrinth Prison. From there as everyone knows getting out without my permission is near impossible for him."

"But this thing also has many shortcomings; If the target attacks the net with magic or avoids it before completely getting envelopment, he can easily break free from it. But with that big guy's IQ, I knew this trick would work as long as I let him have the illusion that he has an absolute advantage against me," He chuckled as he introduced the Imprisonment Ball.

If not for the fact that Maya was too little in height compared to him, who is more than 100 meters tall, he wouldn't mind giving her one. Anyway, the labyrinth prison is vast, and if there are some other races' guests coming, then those lonely dragons there will be very happy and make less trouble for him.

Maya's eyes lit up. "That's a fantastic tool! If you have a smaller version suitable for someone my size, I'd definitely be interested in acquiring a few. I also want to deal with a few annoying troublemakers. They are recently getting on my nerves," She spoke angrily, recalling some unpleasant memories.

"Sure, you can take as many as you want. The price is 5 soul stones. Very cheap, right? I know it, but you are the Big Sister of Myne, so a little discount is no problem," Jormungandr replied, giving Maya a wink and smiling like a greedy businessman who is about to make a small fortune.

"5 soul stones? Are you kidding me? Why don't you just rob me? Don't try to fool me; I know the true value of such a device very well. I can only give you 2 soul stones for it. If not, then forget it.

I might as well waste some time and throw those bastards into your labyrinth prison. I do know its location quite well," Maya scoffed disdainfully at Jormungandr as if watching a mentally retracted dragon.

Jormungandr sighed dramatically. "Don't be hasty, our negotiation has just begun. What kind of salesman would I be if I didn't start with an unreasonable price? Only then can we reduce the price bit by bit... sigh, forget it. You're no fun.

Two soul stones it is. How many do you want?" He asked disappointingly after seeing that his fat sheep was about to slip out of his claws.

"Can you two..."

"For now, twenty should suffice," Maya Maya pondered for a moment and replied thoughtfully, ignoring a certain individual who wanted to interfere in their matter.

"Although twenty is not many, but anyway, better than nothing. By the way, do you want to see my other prod..."

Bang!

While Maya and Jormungandr negotiated, Fenrir, frustrated by their bickering, almost swiped at them with her paw. Suddenly, an explosion startled everyone. They saw Stygian levitating in the air, surrounded by a heavy dark aura with eyes glowing like red torches, looking quite dangerous.

His long hair floated freely upside, defying gravity, But sadly his beard remained stubbornly unaffected, otherwise it would be quite a sight to see. The bone throne on which he was sitting had turned into powder, the apparent source of the sound.

"It seems he couldn't hold back anymore. We managed to completely piss him off," Ymir calmly said, standing in front of everyone, ready to become the first unlucky guy to sacrifice himself for the greater good and withstand Stygian's anger.

Ymir's words proved accurate; he clearly knew how to read people's moods. Stygian clearly couldn't hold back his anger anymore. Initially, he only wanted to defeat the three unknown powerful entities with overwhelming force, hoping they would submit and become his servants. However, he had become the greatest joke instead.

Not only had he failed to break their will, but also lost his three most powerful generals. If it were an equal battle, then he might not be so angry, but it wasn't, his generals showed no resistance and were beaten to death as if the other party was bullying children. What pained him the most was that, in over 200 years, none of the three had come to his aid despite raising them so hard.

Logically speaking it was not different from wasting resources.

On the brink of exploding out of rage, and urgently needing someone to vent pressure on, Stygian still managed to hold back and issued one final ultimatum. "This is my last offer to you all: either join me honestly, and you'll all be rich and happy, or get ready to accept your death and become my eternal slaves,"

"What's the monthly salary? And any other benefits?" Maya, whose brain circuits were 90% similar to Myne's, asked with a curious look, eliciting weird glances from the other three members of her team.

"One thousand low-grade soul stones, with bonuses based on performance.

I am a generous master, as long as you are willing to work hard, all reasonable requests are acceptable," Stygian, although surprised by Maya's weird question, seized the opportunity and hurriedly threw a tempting offer, making it clear that he was super rich master and willing to throw money around, unless they were fools who couldn't see through his act, anyone can say he is thinking very highly of them.

"Damn! That's so rich!" Jormungandr, who frequently conducted interdimensional business, almost blurted out an expletive in surprise.

If he didn't firmly believe that Stygian was spouting nonsense, after witnessing how he sacrificed his other servants for fun and had no intention of leaving his current boss, who was not only generous but also caring and very gentle, he might have immediately embraced Stygian's offer with open wide arms.

"Indeed, appearances can be deceiving, one could never judge a book by its cover.

If we hadn't witnessed his power and the way he squandered his money on useless fools blindly, no one would think that such a seemingly destitute guy, who appears as a beggar at first glance, is exceptionally wealthy," Maya nodded in agreement, equally shocked and surprised by the wealth Stygian revealed as Jormungandr.

For both of them, money clearly mattered a lot. In comparison, Fenrir and Ymir, who lived a secluded life like barbarians—one in a dense forest and the other in a certain magical giant tree—showed literally no reaction. For them, money was nothing but a source of trouble, especially when you have a little brother who always comes asking for money, making various excuses and never returning.

"So... will you join me?" Stygian inquired, despite sensing mockery from Maya and Jormungandr, extended a final offer.

"Hahaha, of course not. Your offer is indeed very generous compared to others, but we are different. We are all elites. Didn't you see how easily we beat up your nobodies? If you want us to join your camp, then this amount is definitely not enough.

Of course, if you change low-grade soul stones to high-grade, then I don't know about the others, but I am more than willing to join you," Jormungandr, amusement laced in his voice, replied.

Maya, feigning seriousness despite barely containing laughter, added "Me too. Although I know most old geezers like you always have ulterior motives toward young and beautiful ladies like me and do everything to get inside our skirts, even then, rejecting such a generous offer would be very regretful. So, I don't mind enduring a few months working under you."

BOOM!

This time, Stygian didn't speak nonsense. As soon as Maya finished joking, he directly went into berserk mode. A torrent of crazy dark aura erupted from his body like a tsunami, blowing away Maya, who was the weakest and smallest in the team and was momentarily thrown back by the force.

"Let me show you why people fear dark mages so much..."

"ᚦᛖ ᛈᛚᚨᚾᛏ ᚹᛟᚱᛚᛞ (Plandoom)"

As soon as Stygian finished saying his weirdly uttered arcane phrase, the earth beneath Fenrir exploded like fireworks and tentacle-like monstrous vines emerged from the ground, tightly wrapping around her body.

Fenrir, initially valiant, quickly created a gravity force field around her, but she still underestimated the power of these living vines. Not only did they easily shatter her defences, but they also tightened around her body like a rope, leaving no room for struggle. But this was only the beginning.

Sharp, solid steel-like points thorns grew on those vines, piercing through Fenrir's body, making her cry out in pain.

Jormungandr and Ymir, who had managed to escape from those crazy plants since they weren't the main target, wanted to save Fenrir. However, before they could take action, the weird plants sensing their intent, slithered towards them like serpents seeking prey.