This Lich Requests More Remuneration

Chapter 76 - 76 76 Trust in Fates Arrangement

?Chapter 76: Chapter 76 Trust in Fate’s Arrangement Chapter 76: Chapter 76 Trust in Fate’s Arrangement Although a Lich can be reborn over and over, few Liches detonate their own bodies when they haven’t been driven to desperation.

The body of a Lich is created by the constant accumulation of dark magic power, and it is itself a high-order Undead. The magic power that Amberser requires for casting spells is saved up bit by bit over time.

A body like that is almost as precious as the Life Casket.

At any time, having the body destroyed is a heavy blow to a Lich, which is why no one expected Amberser to self-destruct on the spot.

The dark magic power that had been refined to its utmost limit erupted in an instant, forming a pitch-black tide that swept across all directions, enveloping all the Magipuppet Automatons that had been summoned.

Wherever the black tide went, the air began to fill with a suffocating stench, and numerous distorted and deformed vermin appeared: double-headed spiders, tumorous centipedes, worms covered in eyes… These bizarre creatures were not physical entities, but curses formed due to the overly rich concentration of dark magic power.

Just as poisonous gas forms when rotten things gather, a malevolent curse naturally arises when the concentration of dark magic power reaches a certain level.

Even the lifeless Magipuppet Automatons were quickly corroded in this black tide, decaying into scrap metal in short order.

Diper could only keep using his legendary power to repair his private carriage, or else it too would have been corroded by Amberser’s decisive self-destruction.

The surging black tide lasted for two or three minutes before dissipating, leaving behind nothing but rusted metal debris.

Diper looked at the remains strewn on the ground and cursed viciously.

However, Amberser couldn’t hear him anymore. After self-destructing, his consciousness had already broken through the spatial blockade and returned to his Life Casket.

The Lich’s Life Casket is a very special thing.

Many people mistakenly believe that the Life Casket is the Lich’s weakness, the place where the Soul is kept.

But that is not the case; the Lich’s Soul is always on the body, otherwise, how could they react swiftly and cast spells instantaneously? Remote control would definitely have delays.

Amberser’s Soul Fire was always inside his body, but when the body was destroyed, it could break through any blockade, allowing the Soul Fire to be directly transported to the prepared Life Casket.

The Life Casket is an escape route, an absolutely safe passageway.

In the history of the continent, no one has been able to cut off the connection between the Lich’s Soul and the Life Casket – not dimensional anchors, not spatial separation, not banishment… none could block the escape effect of the Life Casket.

Maybe the Wishing Spell could, but no one would use the Wishing Spell to make such a trivial wish.

Once the Soul enters the Life Casket, the Lich can begin to be reborn.

The time for rebirth depends on the Lich’s preparation. If they have prepared a new body in advance, then they can be reborn quickly, without much disparity in strength. This is precisely what makes Liches so formidable: you’re out of mana and potions, but they get a respawn right there – a nightmare for most Adventurers.

That’s why this saying is passed down in the Nine Great Kingdoms: you must find the Lich’s Life Casket before you can kill a Lich, or else it’s all for naught.

Amberser’s Soul returned to the Life Casket, in a space slightly larger than an ordinary coffin.

Nearly liquefied dark magic power filled the space, and Amberser began to rapidly absorb this dark magic power in preparation for rebirth.

It was undoubtedly a very lengthy process, but there was no helping it. After all, Amberser had not been a Lich for long and, unlike those old fellows who had been around for hundreds of years, he did not have too much time to prepare, so rebirth was troublesome.

But it wasn’t a big problem. His Life Casket was in a very safe state, unlikely to be discovered.

Not just because Amberser had made many fakes; indeed, all the so-called fakes were actually shells for the Life Casket. Amberser’s real Life Casket was not hidden inside any shell but continuously transported among these shells.

Within each Mithril Box, Amberser had inscribed a space Magic Array. Besides expanding the storage space, there was also the effect of mutual transportation.

Unless the Mithril Box was opened in a normal way, the space Magic Array inside would be destroyed, and the real Life Casket would never be transported to that damaged shell.

Beyond that, there were many additional restrictions.

For example, the Life Casket wouldn’t be transported to a location where there were other shells within a certain range. Only isolated Mithril shells potentially had the real Life Casket inside. This was mainly to prevent the current situation: the house getting raided and hundreds of caskets gathered together as Amberser walked into a trap.

These gathered shells automatically became fakes, and the true Life Casket would never be transferred into this pile. Only after being separated and stored at distant locations could they become shells capable of transfer again.

There were also restrictions like shells near Holy Light energy that couldn’t be transported, shells moved frequently within a certain time period couldn’t be transported… basically, every conceivable setting was added.

So even though Amberser wasn’t certain about the location of his Life Casket, it was definitely in a state of safety.

Actually, there was an even better option, a legendary spell called the Owo Fragmentation of the Life Casket. It truly splits the Life Casket into countless pieces, ensuring the Lich’s rebirth as long as one fragment remains. However, Amberser’s abilities were insufficient to cast this spell.

So he could only rely on wit and numbers to mimic the Owo Fragmentation of the Life Casket, a lower substitute version that’s a stroke of genius.

His body was slowly reconstructing; the skull was the first to be restored, as it was the resting place of the Soul Fire, and only with the head could others follow.

Though his own safety wasn’t an issue, the fact that Diper had forced him to self-destruct made Amberser feel somewhat unwilling to accept it.

He had originally thought that Alchemy City was focused entirely on the sewer, and he could escape the tower first, then find an opportunity to sneak into the sewer and wait for the chance to seize the ultimate fruit of the Wishing Ritual.

As long as he left that tower, it would be too simple to hide somewhere in the vast Alchemy City.

He had already reached the door, only to be blocked by Diper at the last moment.

Was the Wishing Ritual in the sewers truly beyond his reach? Those bastards couldn’t do that to him; that was his reward for surrendering those Paladins. Being swindled of money made Amberser’s skin crawl.

“No, I should calm down. In the previous prophecy, there was a segment where I appeared in the sewer, presiding over the ritual. At the time, I hadn’t understood which ritual it was, but now it seems likely to be the Wishing Ritual. Given my nature, I wouldn’t come forward to preside over the ritual unless I was sure to gain an advantage. So, they wouldn’t be able to complete the ritual before my rebirth.

“The prophecy will surely come to pass; fate is within me!”

Amberser consoled himself, quietly waiting for his rebirth.

The skull was slowly taking shape, but the Dark Magic Power stored within the Life Casket was nearly depleted; he felt at most he could regenerate half of the neck.

“Ah, if only I had a few hundred more years, like the Lich, which grows more powerful with age, similar to certain professions.”

His bones applied the Levitation Spell, pushed open the lid of the coffin, and Amberser’s head left the Life Casket and returned to the realm of reality.

Such a large skull emerging from the Mithril Box, and at the moment the box closed, the true Life Casket was once again teleported to another location to prevent Amberser from being ambushed as soon as someone opened the door.

Amberser then tried to look around, sensing that something was amiss.

Before him was a dimly lit yet incredibly lavish room that seemed to be crafted entirely from silver and traced with intricate patterns in gold. This was not for sheer luxury; Amberser recognized at a glance that these patterns were the intricate pathways of Magic Arrays, stacked layer upon layer, infused with countless magical effects.

Upon closer inspection, he realized this wasn’t ordinary silver and gold but Mithril and Adamantine… just the materials alone were worth more than all of his Life Caskets combined.

“Such a luxurious palace; have I been to such a place before? Or has one of the Life Caskets I carelessly tossed aside been collected here?”

This speculation was plausible, for Amberser’s Life Casket was placed on an altar, surrounded by complex Magic Arrays.

Amberser felt that the situation was rather grim because this might well be the interior of a Spellcaster’s Mage’s Tower. Surely he wasn’t so unlucky to be destroyed immediately after rebirth, was he?

The Dark Magic Power in the Life Casket had been used up; to be reborn again would take at least twenty to thirty years.

“No, trust in fate’s arrangement.”

Once more, Amberser consoled himself with thoughts of wealth being at heaven’s discretion, preparing to quietly leave the opulent room and escape the unfamiliar Mage’s Tower.

A sliver of Dark Magic Power drifted out of Amberser’s mouth, carefully probing the surroundings.

As soon as it left the range of the altar, the Magic Arrays around lit up brightly, followed by the sound of Magic Scrolls burning.

A semi-transparent energy expanded, enveloping the entire room; Amberser’s head could only remain stuck in the posture of exhaling black smoke, unable to move any further, even the Dark Magic Power he had expelled was frozen mid-air by this transparent energy.

Amberser’s extensive knowledge came into play, and he immediately recognized this as the effect of a Time Stasis Spell. A near-Legendary level spell that could seal everything within a certain range, causing it to enter a state of time suspension. While it’s called a suspension, true complete time stop is impossible, and it’s actually a significant slowdown of time’s passage, which appears as a complete halt.

Moreover, this spell was cast using a scroll, which would have burned at least five hundred thousand Gold Coins.

Amberser was slightly taken aback at the extravagance; he himself wouldn’t have spent five hundred thousand Gold Coins to protect a Life Casket.

And Amberser, with only a head remaining and in a state of vulnerability, couldn’t use any spells to break free even though he knew how, leaving him like an insect trapped in amber, waiting for someone to release him.

It shouldn’t take too long.

Whoever would use such high-grade defensive magic must value this Life Casket greatly. Now that the spell had been triggered, the owner of the Mage’s Tower should appear soon, right?

Who could it be?

In a state of nervous curiosity, a formidable group of Death Knights rushed in, clutching their Black Flame Longswords, vigilantly searching for traces of the intruder.

Following the Death Knights, a beauty clad in a black robe with a graceful figure appeared at the doorway of the room.

Upon seeing Amberser, she showed a look of surprise and hastened to his side, addressing the skull, “I thought it was a fake Life Casket; did you actually entrust the true Life Casket to my care?”