After investigating some broken houses and the debris left by whoever used to live there, he could only guess that this city should be some kingdom's capital and if it was, there had to be a palace or castle.
And after seeing all those dark beings teeming the central area, he was 80% sure that what he was looking for was in the central area. But the question was, how should he fool those corpses and sneak there?
So, Jacob came up with a terrible but only idea that could get him into the central area.
At this moment, he was looking at the rotten skin of a zombie. He just peeled off with a slightly hesitant look on his face.
'Fuck it all!' Jacob cussed before his clothes vanished, revealing his ripped body, and he started to 'dress' as a zombie.
Although it was a novel experience, given a choice, Jacob didn't want to do it again. Just wearing rotten skin over his own made his skin crawl. Especially when he wore the 'skin mask.'
To make it look even more realistic, he even had zombie lenses which were made with real eyes, and after making sure he 'smelled' like a zombie, he wore the tattered rag of pants.
Now he looked like a zombie with the marking around the neck, and as long as he won't open his mouth or bleed, no one would tell it was living under the zombie's skin.
He'll be fine as long as Jacob's luck won't turn for worse and some dark being has X-ray eyes.
After making sure there was no flaw, he didn't go toward the central area but started looking for a zombie horde to see if those zombies could tell if he was a fake zombie or not.
As usual, he didn't have to move for long before he found 21 zombies moving in a daze. There wasn't any zombie with marking within them. He slowly started to move toward them as he pretended to be in a trance.
Three zombies suddenly jolted as they turned their heads toward Jacob, but after giving him a momentary glance, they didn't pay any attention and continued walking.
Jacob's eyes behind the white lenses shimmered in relief, 'Now, I should be fine.'
Done with his test, he ditched the group and headed toward the central area of the ruined city. It didn't take long before he was only a street away from the central area.
There was a vast road ahead which was blocked by a huge number of skeletons and zombies as they just stood there in a trance. Furthermore, the building around this road was also filled with dark beings.
That's why Jacob didn't dare to try to infiltrate the area without preparation. If an extraordinary being was overseeing this place as well, he might get discovered, and he won't be able to escape at that time.
Controlling his heart rate and making it as slow as he could, Jacob slowly moved toward the crowd of dark beings standing there like statues.
Instantly, all those dead white eyeballs and those empty eye sockets turned toward Jacob, who was walking toward them under the dim light.
Jacob felt cold sweat as all those dark beings were staring at him, but he maintained his calm. Since they didn't attack him upright, then this meant his disguise was working.
When Jacob was only a meter away from that crowd, his sense was at an all-time high. The moment he senses something, he'll withdraw at full speed.
As he entered the crowds, he avoided touching those static dark beings and slowly crawled as he crossed one after another.
In that silence only, Jacob's footsteps could be heard even though he was barefoot.
Jacob felt like he was walking on a thin sheet of ice, and the moment he slipped, he'll be thrown into hell!
The only relief was those dark beings didn't seem to have any hostility toward each other and were just standing there under someone's order.
It might be because they were only ordered to attack anyone other than a dark being who tried to cross this passage, or they simply didn't think their own kind could betray them. Or something entirely different.
Whichever the reason was, as long as Jacob wasn't attacked, he was content.
However, when Jacob walked for almost an hour and the dark beings were not ending at all, he started to wonder just how many of them they were in that place. They literally seemed endless, and they were on every corner.
Furthermore, Jacob was currently walking between skeleton warriors and zombies with markings, which made his scalp tingle with trepidation.
'Just what is going on? How come they're swarming this place, and why are there so many of them here?' The more he thought about it, the more vigilant Jacob felt.
The number of dark beings was growing these past days, and he didn't know why but he had this grim feeling that it might have something to do with the condition he cleared.
Furthermore, there wasn't any sign of life in this place, making Jacob even warier of Dark Beings' strange movement.
At this moment, he suddenly spotted something which made his eyes dilate.
He saw a broken high pillar a few hundred meters from his position. On that pillar was a bone throne, and someone was sitting on it with a pitch-black staff with a shimmering red crystal on top of it.
Lastly, there were ten figures standing behind the bone throne like statues.
Even in this dark, that place was hard to miss because behind that pillar was a broken wall that was lit with bright magic torches and behind that wall was a silhouette of a castle!
However, Jacob didn't dare to move forward because those eleven figures on the pillar gave him the most dangerous feeling he ever felt after returning to life, especially that person sitting on the bone throne. Even that Iron Giant, Elbio, pales in comparison.
Furthermore, those skeletons in armor were not hard to guess who they were, and since they were standing behind this person, it was proof enough of that dark being's prowess and authority.
'Just what kind of messed up trial is this where you could just swamp the place with numbers and stop anyone else from clearing the trial?' Jacob felt indignant since he finally found what he was looking for, but he couldn't go there.
He knew that as long as he entered that castle, he would be one step closer to clearing the other condition or finding some clues about it.
But alas, there were over five thousand dark beings, and those eleven terrifying dark beings garrison this place. The moment he alerts them, he will be as good as dead.
However, he didn't understand one thing, 'What are they waiting for, and why are they just static like statues?'
No matter how he looked at it, the situation was too strange.
As if something heard his questions, the figure sitting over the bone throne suddenly raised and smacked his staff over the pillar, creating a crimson shockwave.
"%#$@@@$$@!" (Make way for the Magnificent Dark King!)
Jacob was baffled since he didn't understand what he said, but that voice was extremely eerie. But he noticed something. The moment that voice trailed off, the dark beings came alive as they started stirring.
Jacob's heart palpitated as those thousands of dark beings around him started to move. But he didn't lose his nerves and closely followed those zombies' movements, and he quickly got mixed within their crowd.
Within moments, the entire blocked road was cleared all the way toward the pillar.
Jacob's eyes contracted when he felt tremors under his feet, and he knew something big was coming this way as he quickly stopped breathing entirely.
He knew he had chosen a terrible time to infiltrate the dark beings, and now he was riding a tiger's back.
Thereby, galloping voices became apparent, and soon, a carriage made with bones and drawn by four zombie horses appeared in Jacob's view.
Jacob didn't know who was inside that carriage, but the dark oppression aura emitting from that carriage was no joke. If not for his strong mind, he might even fell unconscious.
Two cloaked riders were closely following behind that carriage, and behind them were Skeleton Grand Warriors and Sane Zombies. Probably five hundred each.
Following behind them were a huge number of skeleton warriors and mark zombies.
Jacob's blood ran cold as he watched that army marching behind that carriage and filling the vast empty road again. It was so crowded that he was an inch away from becoming a sandwich between two zombies.
'I need to leave!'
Jacob felt it was simply suicided to infiltrate that place right now or ever. This force was probably enough to raise one of the four nations to the ground, and he wanted to pull a wool over them; simply laughable.
However, leaving now was easier said than done because the entire dark ruins were teeming with dark beings, and there was no place to hide!