Chapter 58: A Gathering?

He was being framed.

Ryuzo saw through the situation at a glance, yet he knew that no matter how he tried to explain, no one would believe him.

He was merely a newcomer, while the fellow before him who called himself Slit-Eyed Keli was undoubtedly a veteran of this place.

An ordinary person might have cowered in the face of this, but who was Ryuzo? He had faced the challenges of the Feathered Serpent and stood toe-to-toe with a demon preparing to break through to level 15; how could he possibly be intimidated by such a petty trick?

The sun crystal on the death staff in his left hand flashed with a brilliant white light. The exact moment everyone was temporarily blinded, he drew the slender rapier hanging at his waist and slashed a 'Z' mark across Slit-Eyed Keli's face.

As Ryuzo stepped back a short distance, Slit-Eyed Keli clutched his face and shrieked, "Someone is attacking! Someone is committing murder..."

"Shut up," Ryuzo said coldly. With a flick of his wrist, a blade of wind swept from the tip of his sword, slicing into the ground right before Keli's feet.

The next instant, Slit-Eyed Keli obediently snapped his mouth shut, stepping back in terror and not daring to look Ryuzo in the eye even slightly.

At this point, the onlookers realized that Ryuzo was neither a hopeful amateur nor a freeloader looking to stir up trouble like Slit-Eyed Keli; he was already a fully-fledged transcendental. Such individuals enjoyed certain privileges in a gathering place like this—as long as they didn't commit outright murder, they could practically walk unhindered.

Soon, Ryuzo noticed that the powerless individuals were keeping a wide berth, while a few others seemed to have taken note of him.

However, the blow he had just dealt to Slit-Eyed Keli had frightened away any opportunists hoping to fish in troubled waters, and consequently, no one came forward to explain the situation to him.

He had to rely entirely on his own observation to analyze the surroundings.

Ryuzo estimated there were around a hundred people in this space, though fewer than forty truly possessed any transcendental potential. The remainder were entirely ordinary people, alongside seven or eight individuals who appeared to be professional practitioners.

They were quite easy to identify; unlike ordinary folk, they all bore distinct characteristics of their respective professions.

Ryuzo noticed one man whose physical build was more than twice that of a normal person. The web of this man's palms was covered in thick calluses, and from his aura, it was evident he was a skilled swordsman who had already crossed into the professional tier through swordplay.

Individuals of this caliber typically possessed extremely sharp instincts. Noticing Ryuzo looking his way, the man gave a slight nod of acknowledgment.

However, neither of them had any intention of striking up a conversation; they simply stayed quietly in their respective spots.

After about half an hour, Ryuzo suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from overhead.

He looked up and saw a multitude of bizarre beetles crawling down from a tree root. These beetles clearly did not belong to the swamp's ecosystem; instead, they resembled a mutated variant of scarabs from the desert. Ryuzo noticed faint, barely visible black markings on their green carapaces, forming the subtle shape of a tiny skull on each beetle's back.

The number of these beetles was massive. After crawling down from the root, they took flight directly and finally gathered in the exact center of the cavern, piling up together.

This reminded Ryuzo of how Victor's insects had previously slowly assembled into a humanoid shape.

"Everyone has arrived. Let's take a seat first. My true body is still on the way, my apologies, I had rather a lot of things to deal with today."

"It's quite alright, Mr. Insect. We can wait a little longer."

Hearing the voice emerging from the cluster of beetles, most of the people chimed in one after another.

Ryuzo said nothing, merely observing the entity's methods. He could sense that this was not the work of a necromancer; rather, it was the method of a priest, much like what he had witnessed previously in the Golden City.

Moreover, despite the eerie nature of this route, the entity worshipped the Sun God—those beetles carried a distinct trace of sunlight's warmth.

Had Ryuzo not possessed a faint affinity for the Sun God himself, and had he not spent time under actual sunlight, he would never have been able to perceive that warmth.

Yet the people of this Southern Swamp plane had likely never laid eyes on the sun in their entire lives, let alone discovered the anomaly here.

Without Ryuzo noticing, as the beetle humanoid arrived, the crowd had gathered inward, naturally dividing themselves into four distinct circles. The innermost circle was naturally occupied by the professional-tier transcendents.

The next circle outward consisted of transcendents with potential; they possessed self-awareness and kept strictly to their stations.

Further out were the freeloaders tagging along for various purposes—some came to scam newcomers, some to trade for goods, and others were simply passersby. Hence, they occupied the outer fringes and had no desire to squeeze into the inner tiers.

Finally, the outermost ring was formed by newcomers like Ryuzo. Some possessed strength while others had very little, but they all shared one common sentiment: they had no desire to get too close to that beetle-man.

Ryuzo found a spot far enough back to maintain a clear view of the interior area, waiting for the arrival of the beetle-man.

About another minute later, those beetles were unexpectedly ignited. From amidst the flames, a skeleton-like entity stepped forward.

Ryuzo noticed that the moment it appeared, all the burning beetles were completely absorbed into its body. Following this, its frame rapidly filled out, transforming under the flames into a desiccated, mummified corpse.

In any other plane, the appearance of such a figure would undoubtedly terrify many.

Yet here in the Southern Swamp plane, necromancers and death knights were officially recognized professions. Ordinary folk might see them less often, but transcendents had all witnessed active the undead to some degree; such a minor spectacle was not enough to unnerve them.

Instead, Ryuzo watched with curious detachment, realizing that this skeleton-like entity was not even the true form of the master of this place, but rather an undead servant akin to Videnina.

Could the master of this domain possibly be a necromancer? If so, why would they go through all this trouble?

One had to remember that in the Southern Swamp plane, only necromancers and death knights could become players. Even if they managed to gather a massive following, there was simply no way to bring ordinary people into the game.

With a hint of doubt, Ryuzo's gaze toward the crowd shifted subtly. He had a lingering feeling that something wasn't quite right here.

At that exact moment, the skeleton spoke.