A little over 20-minutes later, Daz checked the skill upgrade that he wanted to purchase one final time before actually spending his merit points.

Industrial Item Box [S-Rank (Higher Tier)] Description

A skill commonly used by intergalactic conglomerates to easily ferry their goods and spaceships between galaxies with minimal fuel usage.

How incredibly pointless. You're really upgrading Lesser Item Box so much just to move a body and a sword? Well, it's your money to piss away, I suppose.

Level 1 Abilities Can store 50 items, 5 of which may be up to 50,000-cubic-meters in size, 10 of which may be up to 25,000-cubic-meters in size. The remaining 35 may only be up to 10,000-cubic-meters in size. Price 300,000 (3,000,000) Merit Points [90% reduction due to the skill [Item Box] being level 10]

Daz had spent a few minutes repeatedly storing and retrieving rocks and broken artefacts that were lying around near his feet until his Lesser Item Box had reached level 10. Once it had, he spent 50,000 merit points to replace it with the better Item Box.

Immediately, he spent several more minutes maxing that skill, hence why he was now about to upgrade it again with a full price reduction.

He was actually surprised at how explosively the size-limit grew, but at the same time, the skill's secret let Daz know that only the items the host could store were ones personally owned by them, restricting it somewhat.

Thankfully, something without an owner would become his the moment he claimed it.

'Confirm the purchase. I need it regardless for the Overgiant's corpse, so while there are more unique item boxes out there, I just need one with a huge upper limit on the cubic-meter size of what's being stored,' Daz said to the system.

Confirmed. The total merit balance of the host is now: 118,221,990 [-300,000].

'Now, let's try this again,' Daz thought as he pressed his palm against the enormous greatsword and thought, 'Store.'

Like magic, the towering weapon instantly disappeared from sight. Expectedly, the ground began rumbling as the walls of the sword's old 'sheath' began crumbling.

The reaper just stood there stoically as the world shook around him. 'I should buy a reinforcement based skill, or, like, a hardening skill. Similar to Rimmy's passive Hardening, but an active one able to increase the structural soundness of a building or a wall. You'd kind of expect a digger class to have that as a given.'

He cracked his neck lightly and added, 'Well, I have Crystallisation, but that's a bit different.'

Before too long, the collapse of the crevice's walls had finally stopped. Seeing that, Daz asked the system a question, 'System, how deep does this go? The core's at the bottom, of that, I'm sure, but I need to know if it's at a depth that I can physically endure.'

Confirmed. The [Scar Of Atlantis]' deepest point is 9,342-meters-deep. The host will feel more uncomfortable and the risk of hallucinations shall increase, but otherwise, the host shall remain unaffected.

Daz raised an eyebrow. 'It even has a name? Well, regardless, I guess I'll be fine then.'

With that now confirmed, he hooked his foot into Hamson's circular handle and controlled the shovel to take him down into the pitch-black depths of the Scar of Atlantis.

'What?' Daz asked once he had reached the bottom of the trench. 'How the hell is there a room down here, and not only that, but it looks completely undamaged?'

Indeed, just as he had said in his mind, at the place where the tip of the giant greatsword used to be, lay a perfectly pristine room that had no windows, no structural damage as well as perfect-condition murals and golden decals on its walls.

'Well, here's hoping the king's spirit is in there, I'm pretty sure it's the city's core, after all,' Daz thought as he tried his best to ignore the extra pressure his body was enduring.

Thankfully, the isolated room had a door. Daz stopped just outside of it and wondered, 'Since the room seems to be sealed... Is it full of water, or not?'

Not wanting to risk destroying anything inside of it by opening the door, Daz spent 5-minutes utilising Hamson's skill Earth Wall. With that, he was able to effectively seal off the room's only entrance.

With that done, he tried to store the pressurised water that was in the small chamber he'd created. Thankfully, his Industrial Item Box allowed him to contain the liquid and it only counted as a single item.

"I can finally talk now," Daz said as he took his helmet off and ran his fingers through his soaking-wet hair.

Warning. Please be advised that the host is currently in a location with no breathable air or substance, and thus, the host shall lose 1 point of Lifeforce every second.

"Huh, I guess I did make an airtight vacuum, didn't I?" Daz remarked as he pulled up his status and watched his Lifeforce slowly drain. "Well, this is a non-issue unless I stay here for, like, what, a little over 55-hours? Man, Intelligence is pretty handy. I could never do such calculations so quickly in my head before..."

After muttering that, Daz slowly pushed open the door to the room and braced himself to get blasted with a wave of water. Thankfully, it would seem that he had been correct. There wasn't even a drop of liquid to be seen in this room.

"Is this... a bedroom?" Daz asked himself upon seeing the king-sized bed at the back of the room. "And... are those skeletons?"

He walked closer to get a better look. Indeed, he was right again. Lying peacefully on the bed were two long-dead corpses-turned-skeletons.

They were adorned in fancy jewellery and one of them was far smaller than the other. "Mother and daughter? No, mother and son? Still, no legs, huh? I guess they had a boneless fin or something so it decomposed entirely, leaving only their torsos and up... odd."

'Is it really so peculiar, Child of Man?' an archaic and wise-sounding voice asked from Daz's side.

The reaper didn't jump nor did he get startled. He slowly peeled his eyes away from the bodies and glanced at the spirit that had just spoken to him. "King Mofolo, I presume?"

'Oh? A Child of Man speaks Alphandic? How interesting. Yes, I was once called that, but now, I am merely a remnant of a lost people. a failure, some might say. I am not deserving of the title of king,' the spirit that was roughly twice the size of Daz claimed as it chuckled self-deprecatingly.

He then floated over to the bed and slowly caressed his incorporeal hand across the skull of the dead woman. A heavy sigh escaped his lips before he turned to look at Daz.

'For a Child of Man to be able to see me, and for him to own a strange floating ring above his head as well as possess a foreign spirit follower, I must conclude that the system has staked its claim on Frila once more, correct?' the spirit of Mofolo asked.

Daz gave him a confused look. "Frila?"

'Have the Children of Man been calling the very planet you stand on something other than its maiden name?' Mofolo inquired.

"Uh, we call it Earth. I suppose Gaia in some cases, but mostly Earth," Daz replied.

The spirit of Mofolo looked saddened by this revelation. 'I see... Just another aspect of Frila's culture lost in the wake of the system's assimilation attempts, I see.'

"Assimilation attempts? Do you mean the tests?" Daz wasn't expecting this ghost to know so much about the system, but perhaps he had stumbled across a wealth of knowledge in regards to the powerful entity that had so violently changed the world as they knew it?

Mofolo's spirit shook his head. 'I am afraid I cannot speak any more on this, Child of Man. As all that remains of my people, I do not wish to be erased like so many in the past have by foolishly talking of things that the system would prefer were kept private. You shall know in time, assuming you live long enough. I cannot influence your decisions with information before you reach that point, however, despite how much I would like to do so.'

'For the soul of a king of powerful fish people that lived and died, what, thousands of years ago? Well, despite that, he's fairly friendly,' Daz commented internally before he said, "Is that so? That's a shame, but I understand."

It wouldn't be the first time that something similar to this had happened, and regardless, Daz knew that the dead Alphorian hadn't spoken a lie yet, so he had no reason to dispute the ghost.

Gazing at the smaller skeleton with love and deep regret in his eyes, the former king of Atlantis posed the reaper a question. 'What have you come here for, Child of Man? I know that you have removed the Child of Giants' sword, and I thank you for that. Had you not, I would be unable to assume this form.'

Daz nodded. "Well, to be truthful, I came here to claim Atlantis since my sister told me it's the most expensive mythical city of Earth- eh, Frila."

'I see. And the reason you removed the sword and came down to my and my family's bedchamber and tomb?' the spirit asked with a hint of dissatisfaction in its tone.

Daz's wariness rose slightly, but he still chose to be honest. "The system told me that I had to remove the sword for Atlantis to become an official system-sanctioned city. I also have to destroy you or enlist you into my service since you're still technically the ruler of this place - which I can do since I am a reaper, not a human."

'I see... Very well, I shall submit to you, however, only if you can swear to do something for me,' Mofolo's spirit surprisingly replied.

'Uh, that was a bit too easy...' Daz chose not to question it for just now and nodded his head instead. "Tell me what you want, if it's reasonable, then sure. I'd rather not destroy you if I can, after all."

'Haha...' Sadness clouded the Alphorian ghost's expression before a deep rage took its place. 'The Child of Giants that came here and eliminated my people... I wish for you to do what he has done unto me.' The old king stared deeply into Daz's eyes as he declared, 'Become the force of destruction that will erase the Overgiants from existence. Man, woman, child, all of them. Promise this for me, and I shall do anything you ask.'

'What a tall request,' Daz thought in brief hesitation. 'Maybe it'd be wiser to just absorb him and turn him into stat points? Giving Hamson another powerful spirit to upgrade him is appealing, but is that really worth swearing to one day perform genocide? I could always just lie... Hmm... We- Wait. What the fuck's going on?'

At that exact moment, Daz's vision went hazy and everything became a blur. A moment later, the spirit of King Mofolo shifted and morphed until it looked like Daz from two years ago.

His hair was brown just like his eyes, his face was plainer and he was wearing clothes covered in blood.

"What the-"

"I'll kill you," the younger Daz said with raw venom in his tone.

The actual Daz narrowed his eyes. 'A hallucination?'

"I swear, no matter what it costs me, I'll kill you one day, Father," the younger Daz announced as his clenched fists trembled. "I'll make you pay."

"I truly, from the bottom of my heart, Darenzo, hope that you do." Those words had come from the real Daz's mouth, but not with his voice. His mind reeled in shock. 'The fuck? Am I... Am I Father?'

Almost like a mirage, Daz and his younger version's bodies changed shape once again. Now, Daz was King Mofolo and his other self had become, well, him, but his face and eyes seemed particularly devoid of life.

"Kill all of the Overgiants? Sure. Easily done given I've the time to plan and prepare. Now, if you would, fuse with my shovel," 'Daz' demanded with an eerie level of passiveness in his tone. He seemed so... uncaring.

The real Daz frowned internally. 'Is that what I would have been like had I not regained my emotions? How could I not even think twice about agreeing to kill an entire species of people? I'd understand if I was lying, but I'm not... Well, if this is a hallucination, then who knows what's real and what isn't...'

His mouth opened and King Mofolo's words came out. 'Excellent. I'm glad that we seem to be alike in some respects. I'll tell you everything that I know about the Children of Giants. I'll also take you to the Overgiant's corpse...'

At that moment everything faded and returned to reality. Daz held his forehead and leaned over.

Reika looked very concerned. 'I-Insolent Fool? Are you okay?'

Daz slowly nodded. "I'm fine. Anyway, genocide of the Overgiants? I understand your hatred, trust me, but was his kind responsible for sending him to Earth? Was he not a 12-star mercenary under the system's command? I can't just kill innocent people for no good reason. Give me one. Give me a reason worth killing for. Either that or ask for something else."

The spirit of King Mofolo smiled deeply upon hearing that. 'A reason? You wish for a reason? Very well. Why do his people deserve mercy when mine did not? I detest the system, but I will have you swear under it to eradicate all Children of Giants, should you disagree, I will destroy Atlantis' true core, wiping this city from the face of Frila. I would rather it be lost for eternity than used by a Child of Man unwilling to enact my last will.'

"What? True core?" Again, Daz was confused. It hardly helped that he was still recovering from his hallucination or vision or whatever it was that he'd experienced mere moments ago.