Chapter 1274: Dark Range
Sam left Gravin's realm and made his way to another realm. Now, he doesn't need to carry the staff in his hands and he also made some modifications to his metal mask.
Instead of covering the face as a whole, it is mostly covering the upper half of the face. With his mouth and chin visible outside.
It gave out a less eerie feeling to the others. He also changed his hairstyle. He cut it short, just the way he used to have it in his real body.
Now, he felt more comfortable with this body than before. He doesn't have to limp, he has two hands to use and he can run and hop at an extremely high speed that is suitable for his cultivation level.
He is currently going to a nearby planet in the same realm. It has a special location called the Dark Range.
It is a mountain range with a lot of dark elemental energy and even many variations of dark elemental energy. He heard of the location from Gravin and he was amused by the story behind it.
It all started many centuries ago with some dark elemental beasts called the Twilight Elephants. These elephants have one of the most basic behaviors of a normal elephant. They move to an elephant graveyard when they are on the verge of death.
They used this Dark Range as that spot. This place used to have nothing. It was just a large lump of stone with mediocre spiritual energy. Even the earth elemental beasts nearby wouldn't go there for the mediocre herbs and resources available in that place. There is no food chain whatsoever in there.
But as the elephants died and their blood and flesh seeped into this area over the years, the terrain changed.
Dark elemental energy and death energy along with the natural cursed energy prevailed and soon the whole range changed.
The mountain range that used to be desolate and useless has changed into something else.
Now, the mountain range houses hundreds of ghosts of the Twilight elephants along with the undead and ghosts of both elephants and other creatures that came in the hopes of feasting on an almost dead elephant.
When the creatures finally started noticing that a large elephant is going to die here and a fresh corpse could be found without any struggle and they could feast on it, it was already late.
The range already started showing some changes. At first, some of the creatures managed to eat the flesh and got away with it, but as the time passed, the range became dangerous and the beasts that went to feast on the corpses of the elephants never came back.
The cultivators took notice of this area and they also went in for the skeletons and tusks of the elephants along with the other beasts.
After all, the bones of many beasts are used in making weapons, defensive artifacts and such. So, many people believed this to be a treasure trove and gradually it became a no man's land to one of the most visited places of the planet.
As for why Sam is going there, it is to get an assistant. After he came back from destroying the Golden Silk Sect and wearing these new limbs, Sam got some new ideas on how to proceed further with the plan.
Sivan's clan is a powerful organization. No matter how disturbed it was with the politics and how despised Sivan is to the youngsters, there is no way they would let someone like Sam deal with him and the rest of their organization.
So, he needs a proper plan and he is sure that his regular plans wouldn't work. Dayus must have already explained everything related to his plan to this guy which is the reason they managed to come to the Desert city and lay down a perfect ambush.
This time, Sam needs to be a lot more cunning but should appear direct at the same time.
For this reason, he thought of a plan and for that he needs a dark elemental user and if that is not possible, he needs a specter that is powerful enough.
Both of them are not easy to obtain, but he has no choice but to try.
He reached the Dark range in a day.
There is a town that was established not too far from that place. The organization nearby managed to coin the land fast enough and established this town after they understood the importance of the range.
Sam went there to gather the information. He went to the restaurant to have a meal and got some information from the conversations of the other patrons and also the waiters.
He got some information regarding the top dogs of the Dark range. People come here in hopes of finding some treasure. They might obtain some special fruits that grow in this place, they might catch a special beast that has mutated or some people even come here looking for some special undead creatures, especially necromancers.
Some curse users come here to get some material that could be used as a good curse carrier.
There are three expedition teams that run the show in this dark range. One of them is the team directly under the control of the organization that established the town.
The town government is not exactly solid, they are just there to take care of the administrative work and provide a moderately safe place for the merchants. The only proper rule in the town is that fights are not allowed.
Everyone would follow these rules, including the three top dog expedition teams, but if the fight ever broke out and the members of these government expedition team were involved, they would always be supported within the town as long as the dispute is not too obvious and that expedition team has the vast network of spies within the town which helps them get some extra information.
The second expedition group belongs to the rival organization that barely missed the opportunity to establish the town.
They are second in everything to the point that they are called the Second team in the town which they absolutely hate.
The Third team is created by a group of friends that don't belong to any organization. Only three people of the group are fixed. They are called the Three ghosts in the town. They go on expeditions by themselves and they do the scouting of the mountain range.
In fact, they are the only ones daring enough to stay in the mountain range overnight.
The rest of the expedition teams barely do that. Sam got as much information from the three groups as possible.
Most of the members are dark elemental users. At least the important members that have authority to call some shots.
The three people in the Three ghosts are also dark elemental members. Sam is sure that he wouldn't be able to poach a guy from the main members of the Government group and the Second group, his best choice is to find some secondary members who joined these two groups directly without any links to the organization.
Or he has to convince one of the three ghosts to come with him.
If he couldn't do any of this, he has to find the best specter in the mountain range and employ one of these groups to help him capture it.
No matter what decision it is, he decided to join the expeditions of the three groups and look at their performance first hand before proceeding with his further plans.
So, he waited for the expedition groups to announce their next expeditions.
Luckily, he didn't have to wait for long. The very next day, the second group announced their expedition.
The second group has two teams. One is the scouting team led by a necromancer and the second one is the main fighting team.
The scouting is obviously smaller, but its members are also fixed. They are all the members of their organization and they have complete loyalty to the group.
While the recruited external members will be added to the main fighting group.
Sam read the expedition details posted on a notice board in the bar.
They are looking for ten members and it would be better if they are warriors who are good in close-range combat.
They are going into a valley within the mountain range and they are looking for a special specter. Anything that was found individually apart from the specter, could be kept by the person and if something was found by the group, then they will sell it and the profits will be shared. Apart from that, there is no payment for the people who join the group.
Sam was amused by this. The expedition groups clearly knew that everyone that came here would be dying to get into the top three groups and they wouldn't need any payment. After all, with the top three groups, people can go deeper and have a higher chance of finding something valuable.
In every expedition even though the group had only one goal in mind, they would always find some extra valuable items which would then be sold and the profits are divided.