Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Chapter 126  Count Desmond

"So close!"

Alex exclaimed with nervousness.

He had just finished absorbing the 14th Soul orb, one of the two D rank soul orbs.

It had been 3 days since the whole ordeal with the mercenaries had ended, and other than eating and sleeping, Alex had spent that whole time focusing on absorbing all of his newly gained Soul orbs.

Right now, he was sitting at 77% progress through E+ rank, and with only 1 Soul orb remaining, he was cutting it quite close.

'I hope this one does the trick…'

Unfortunately, when he reached E+ rank, the progress he gained towards the next level lessened with each Soul orb absorbed, which led him to this point.

He looked at the last remaining D rank soul orb with his nerves feeling a little tense.

If this didn't give him that last 23%, then he'd be stuck at E+ rank and whether he was able to fight on par with the Count would be entirely down to luck.

'My estimate of this lot of Soul orbs only pushing me to D- rank was completely wrong — I might not even make it there in the end…'

Of course, to anyone paying attention to Alex's situation over the past few days, they would be right to point out the fact that he still had over 20 Mutant class beast cores sitting in his storage space.

However, Alex knew the difference between using beast cores and Soul orbs to push himself through the ranks, and it wasn't small by any means.

He had already made the mistake of absorbing beast cores in the past instead of Soul orbs, and it had cost him dearly in terms of potential strength.

If Alex had been absorbing Soul orbs, and only soul orbs from the very beginning, then he'd probably be able to fight the Count while he was still at E+ rank.

But he didn't, so he'd have to make up for it in the long run.

The moment he had learned that his Soul orbs were the most valuable energy resource in the universe, he had forgone any ideas of ever using a beast core to up his strength ever again.

Alex sighed. It seemed that he was a bit impatient to reach D- rank so that he could fight the Count as soon as he could.

Alex started doing some meditative exercises that he had read about online in the past when he was bored.

'I need to calm down, my judgement has already been impaired by my obsession with reaching D- rank, and if this keeps up, then I might even get too ahead of myself and die in the process.'

Alex started doing some meditative exercises that he had read about online in the past when he was bored.

Thankfully, it seemed they weren't a total scam and his riled up emotions had settled 5 minutes later.

"Now I can start the process of absorbing the final orb." n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Alex looked at the luminescent red orb sitting in his palm, and didn't hesitate any longer.

***

"Men, stop the carriages! We've arrived."

Count Desmond jumped off his horse, suited up in a glistening suit of armour, and ordered his lackeys.

'It's almost time! The moment I become a Variant awaits!'

Count Desmond thought to himself.

He had been working towards this plan ever since he had discovered that sacrificial exchange formation a few years ago.

Unfortunately, he couldn't set it up inside Evermoor city as it was simply too large and too populated with people and awakened from all over the place.

If he tried to do anything like, say, sacrifice a few tens of thousands of unawakened people, then his actions would never go unnoticed in such a city.

This meant that he had to make a bunch of empty promises to a few lesser nobles, Barons to be exact.

Bertram was one of these Barons, and he was stupid enough to believe that the count would ever give him the chance of becoming a Variant too.

No, that right was reserved only for himself and his son, the Viscount.

"Mike, get over here."

Nearby, Mike stopped talking to one of the guards immediately and rushed over to the Count.

"Tell me the details of this town. I want to know its population, how many awakened there are, and the names of the strongest people who live here."

Count Desmond didn't waste any time in giving orders to get what he wanted.

He had spent the last 4 years waiting for this moment, and he wasn't keen on waiting any longer.

The longer he waited, the more likely that something could pop up and completely spoil his years of effort.

Something like a certain brat named Alex for example.

It wouldn't take Alex long to have figured out that the Count had tricked him into doing his own clean-up work while the Count himself had already set off for Monty town to officially start his plan.

"Uh- Ahem, there's around 30,000 people living here, give or take a few hundred. As for the awakened, there are 551 of them in total, with 95% of them being F- rank awakened, who've been stuck at that rank for various reasons. The strongest person in this village is Martha, the butcher. She currently sits at D+ rank, but she's only an Ordinary class. Bertram would have been the next strongest after her if he wasn't dead. As for the rest, they're mostly weak F+ or E- ranks and can be ignored."

Mike cleared his throat and spilled everything he knew about Monty town, feeding the Count all of the information he wanted to know.

If Alex were there, he would be shocked to find out that Martha was actually a D+ rank, as when he first met her and dealt with her, he only got a general feeling that she was F+ rank the whole time.

Count Desmond also thought this too, as the reports Bertram and Kilian fed to him had all stated that she was at most an E- rank retired adventurer.

'It seems there's something deeper going on in this town… But it won't matter, as they'll all be dead in a day anyway.'

Clearly Desmond knew something was up with this place that he wasn't aware of, but he seemed unconcerned with such things.