"...Dark elve?" Danzel said uncertain.

The dark elves he knew, which werent many to say the less had a brown skin color compared to the guy in front of him. Though he had the two pointing ears set on him, he didnt know if his dark gray skin counted as a dark elve or not.

`Is he from a sub-species of the elve race? That could explain it...

Such a question though didnt make Danzel forget to get on his guard against the dark gray elve that almost killed him by tearing holes through all his armor and body.

Though he still had [Undying] to save him from the death realm once, that couldnt be said for the same of his armor.

Danzel turned his body more to the right of where Skull Claw was resting so that his shield would hide his other hand gripping the hilt of his sword.

The dark elve with the crimson eyes frowned upon seeing that.

"Call me Azrael, not a dark elve. And there is no need to be warry of me. If I wanted to kill you, I would even finish you on our spar instead of waiting till now and since Velkir accepted you as one of our own, we can be considered allies, if not colleagues." Azrael said.

`Colleagues, huh?

Knowing that the crimson eyes elve Azrael was saying the truth, Danzel lowered his guard but by no hand did he stop being warry of the elve named Azrael.

"So? What can I do for you...Azrael." Danzel said awkwardly.

Looking around his surroundings as if he were wary of something or someone, the crimson eyes elve Azrael turned around and pointed at a house made out of stone.

"Follow, we will talk in my house."

"..."

Hesitant, Danzel decided to follow Azrael to the house.

Having made a deal with Velkir the Lich, Danzel doubted that the elve would try to kill him.

Danzel didnt like to rely on his fate at the hands of others, but time and time again it is shown that it is the case.

Mostly the reason is that he lacked the strength to reinforce the fate of his own will. After all, if he were stronger two years ago and managed to defeat the shadow merchant Hanson, he doubted that he would even go to the desert, to begin with.

`I will need to get stronger faster so that I can decide my own fate. Danzel thought with burning determination.

Unbeknownst to Danzel's thoughts, Azrael pushed the door curtain and entered the house, closely followed by Danzel.

Upon entering, Danzel felt a weird sensation passing through his body.

`This feeling is similar to the entrance of the treasury. Danzel thought as he stared at the door.

As if reading his mind, Azrael soon confirmed his suspicion.

"You felt it? Anyway, dont worry about it. Is just a barrier that I have placed."

"I see..."

Taking his eyes away from the door, Danzel was stunned to see the inside of the house.

Compared to the Lich's house which was just a table and the two thrones, this one had multiple decorations on the wall and the table which was made out of wood was filled with paper that had weird magic circles and messy handwriting. Heck, Danzel guessed that the ink used for writing could be blood or at least something similar based on its crimson color.

He didnt even want to consider what all the other alchemy tools and potions were or the possible usage of those.

`That Azrael guy must even have something similar to my storage ring. There is no other explanation as to where all this stuff came from.

At least that was Danzel's best guess.

Why the room was so messy when it should have been placed not long ago was a mystery that Danzel didnt want to take part in.

"I hope you dont mind this mess. Anyway, you can seat wherever you-oh, never mind..." Azrael said while looking at the chairs he had and Danzel's large body.

"I wanted to talk about a few things that I noticed between our spar. Mainly of that illusion or whatever it was that you cast on me. How did you do it and was it an illusion in the first place?"

`Is he talking about [Mortal Reminder]?

Being his only soul-based skill, Danzel was very hesitant to reveal the exact content of one of his trump cards. Since the skill was that of combination with his soul affinity, one didnt have to be a genius to figure out that the illusion wasnt as simple as it is shown to be.

After all, its effects take place in one's soul, which was a concept that Danzel was very unfamiliar with.

He knew that saying that it was just an illusion wouldnt cut it as Azrael's way of speech suggested that he himself was unsure if it was an illusion or not.

So he decided to mix the truth with lies instead of revealing his trump card.

"It was indeed an illusion. The same moment my sword harmed you, a mark was also placed to inflict the illusion that you suffered. I can activate the mark wherever I want, but it also disappears when activated. Nothing more, nothing less."

Hearing Danzel answer made Azrael have a look of understanding before turning into a frown the next second.

Without saying anything, crimson blood escaped from his body and traveled around his hand.

Seeing that Danzel went ahead to draw his swords but was shortly interrupted by Azraels words.

"There was another thing that confused me." Azrael said as his arm was now covered with the hardened crimson blood like a gauntlet.

"I dont mean to insult you, but with your strength alone, you shouldnt even be able to pierce my armor, to begin with. And yet you still managed to scratch my palm and inflicted that...cursed mark. How did you do it"

The pair of crimson eyes looked at Danzel, leaving no room for negotiation for Danzel.

Grumbling from the inside, Danzel raised his sword and showed the carving of his runes. Hiding his identity from this group was now pointless with his name revealed.

"The reason why I managed to hurt you was that the material that your armor was made of was blood. Those runes that you can see are able to suck the blood of others and control it. Although the control part isnt perfect, it was enough to push away a small part of the blood to inflict you a scratch."

Staring at the runes on his sword with fascination, Azrael made a flask filled with some red content appear from thin air, confirming Danzel's suspicion about him having a storage ring.

"Can you show me how those runes work?" Azrael said as he gave him the flask.

"This flask contains some of my blood, feel free to use it."

"..."

Taking the flask in hand, he bathed his sword with the content of the flask.

Falling on top of the sword and descending to the ground, the blood suddenly halted mid-air before starting to circle around Danzel's sword like several snakes going up and forth, creating a loop of blood.

Lowering his sword, Danzel let the bloodstream fall to the ground.

"Hmm, interesting." Azrael nodded to himself as he gather the spilled blood and placed it in a new flask.

"Say, your name was Danzel, Rue Danzel was it not?"

"Yeah, that's indeed for what I go by with." Danzel nodded.

"Mhm, I am Azrael Darkwood. I know our start wasn't the best, but I hope that we can cooperate in the future. That rune you showed me, in particular, brought my interest you see..." Azrael said without even trying to hide his ulterior motives.

"As long it benefits us both..."

Shaking each other hands, Danzel left the dark elve to dwell on his own work.

He didn't what he could gain out of the cooperation between the dark elve as of yet, but making connections with him wouldn't hurt.

At least he believed so.

The dark elve showed a straightforward personality and didn't seem to like hiding his intention. Making in Danzel's opinion easier to deal with than Velkir the Lich.

Right as he was about to leave, Azrael stopped him in his tracks.

"Ah, I forgot to mention. My sister has quite a difficult personality, but compared to me...she is a nice person. So give her a chance when you meet her."

"I will keep that in mind..."

Leaving Azrael's house, Danzel went back to Skull Claw and jumped on her back.

"Sigh, what a day..."

Looking at the sun already setting, Danzel gazed at all the houses and activated the skill [Eyes of the Damned].

'Hmm, that one in the right is where that old fossil and the little girl are... On the opposite side is probably this guy's sister based on how she glows and in the last house was probably the big guy.'

He was curious as to what races the big guy with the halberd and the exotic duo were, but not so much to go out of his way to find out.

Though there was an empty house in the distance that he guessed was for him, he didn't plan on staying as of yet.

Instead, he opened up his status to see where to spend the XP that he gathered through all the time.