” It’s the corrosion of death, a phenomenon that only happens when a high level undead is cursed by the god of death themselves ” Lucius said as he looked at Max

” Zogaroth or whatever was the wind elemental master’s name seems to have fought a battle with the god of death Hades and survived with his curse. Naturally, if he’s been here inside the mage tower for thousands of years he’s bound to be in a rough shape or long dead.

But approaching the mage tower to test this theory is near impossible, the corrosion will constantly wear out our vitality stat, and it’s not a loss I can bear ” Lucius said as he looked at Max to give his thoughts

” I agree, it’s not something I’d risk my life for or the life of my men, I think it’s only wise to raid the houses here on the surface to try find something valuable, while finding the basement level entrance that Severus suggested existed below our feet to find new ways into the mage tower.

Either way, I think we can split and start looting now, as per the contract we will pool all our loot together in the end and distribute it evenly ” Max responded as Lucius nodded and split ways with Max along with his four guards.

On the other hand, Max distributed his soldiers into groups of 5 and scattered them across the city to find valuable loot while he stuck with Severus, Asiva, Anna, Sebastian and Zippo himself to continue exploring.

While on the surface it seemed like Max had agreed with Lucius and gave up on exploring the mage tower for now, in reality that was not the case at all.

Once his [ scan ] assured him that Lucius was out of the range to peer into his matters, Max instantly used Perfect Cloning to summon his clone.

The mana around him mobilised as within seconds an exact replica of Max was created.

Although the group had already witnessed Max’s ability a couple of times, they were still spooked by the uncanny resemblance every time Max did summon his clone.

Since physically entering the place was not a viable option for Max he had decided to send the clone in his stead.

There was no way in hell that Max let the secret of Zogaroth remain undiscovered, especially since it could provide some clues regarding the circumstances surrounding his brother’s death.

The only reason why he pretended to agree with Lucius was because he could not let that prince find out about his cloning skill.

” Go in, find out everything and come back to me alive! I need to fuse with you this time to gain the memories of your experience even if it might cause me a headache ” Max instructed the clone as he sent it inside the mage tower.

If his calculations were right, the clone could survive the corruption for about 12 minutes before he would need to bail out. His only hope in such a situation was for the clone to manage to discover something useful within those 12 minutes.

***********

( Meanwhile Roya )

Roya, the former prince Roy, cried brutally after recalling the ordeal she faced today.

She had her sex forcefully changed from female to male and had started to be given secret training by Red Umbrella group on how to pleasure men.

Initially she did not think much of it and harboured plans of running away at the first opportunity that presented itself, but her thoughts to escape were shattered today after she experienced something traumatic.

Today was the first day where she was made to serve a real customer and although the job details only required for her to do hand services, things quickly spiralled out of control for her.

Before today, she only had to train with red umbrella employees who were clean and had some sympathy for her learning curve. But today the first customer she served was fat and had a large bush covering his stick.

Roya did not feel like serving him at all, but reluctantly she did wrap her hand around it albeit only after turning away her head in disgust.

The man kept shouting lewd encouragement and demeaning remarks about her chest and her pretty face which made Roya feel very uncomfortable, however, she hit her boiling point when the man insisted that she put her mouth around it to service him.

Roya outright rejected this request and when the man tried to man-handle her, she used her tier3 strength to quickly suppress him as she broke his arm.

Roya felt quite smug hearing the man cry in pain as the Red Umbrella security swept in to perform damage control.

Roya thought that the man would be punished to have made a move on her and that she would not be blamed for the matter, but the reality of the situation turned out to be quite different.

The man was actually some bigshot merchant and a regular of the group, and somehow the higher ups decided that the best way to settle the matter was to force Roya to please the man with her body.

Roya rejected the idea vehemently, she did not wish to be a part of this compensation plan, but unfortunately for her she was forcefully fed pills that temporarily blocked her mana circuit and dropped her strength to that of a tier0 individual.

What followed was a very painful night where she was violated by the merchant, used for his pleasure and slapped around mercilessly, as the once mighty Kingsman clan heir could do nothing but take it.

It was only when she was back in her room in the morning that the tears started to flow and the trauma of the experience started to truly seep in. However, the trauma was caused less by the fact that she went through this experience, but more because of the fact that she realised that not more than a month ago, she was also like this fat merchant.

Her past treatment of her whores as a man was no different from how the merchant treated her today, as she finally understood the true meaning of karma.

The experience was both traumatic and eye opening for Roya who was now on the cusp of undergoing a metamorphosis.

/// A/N – Chapter 8/20, end of day 2 ///