Back to Wild Expanse. Onwards to find more prominent place.

In the same cave where Aren and Luna were forming their spirit core, Aren appeared there right after the voice told them that Wild Expanse was now open.

He closed his eyes after arriving here and took some deep breaths before opening his eyes again.

He didn't want to waste time being pessimistic about the whole situation. That's why he arrived here instantly.

A form of desperation had manifested in his mind, and...he wanted him and those with him to get stronger so the same fate wouldn't befall them.

At this time, Luna also appeared beside Aren, and she had a slightly pale face just like Aren.

"Sigh, that was...hellish. I wonder how many people died?" Luna muttered after sighing.

She then turned to Aren and said with a stern expression, "Let's go, Aren. I also told Auntie and others to enter inside since we must not waste time."

Aren was surprised at Luna's situation as she seemed much finer than him.

Luna was more apathetic than Aren, but that was understandable because of the environment she grew in.

Aren felt bad for people who lost their family members. When he put himself in their situation, he couldn't bear it. That's why he will move forward with the goal of not letting such a thing happening to those around him.

"By the way, Aren. Did you receive the so-called special gift?"

Hearing Luna's question, Aren remembered it and looked inside his inventory.

'What's this?' Thought Aren as he took out a thumb-sized stone with unique patterns carved on it.

[ Mortal Realm Fragment ]

-Authority: 4%.

The information was short and simple, but Aren couldn't understand it. There are other people who received the same thing, but they also obviously couldn't understand anything about it.

Luna looked at the stone and raised her eyebrows, "Is that the special gift? Doesn't look anything special. So? What does it do?"

Aren shook his head before saying, "Nothing. It's something called Realm Fragment, and it's not responding to anything, even spirit energy."

"I see. Well, screw it then." Saying this, Luna moved towards the exit of the cave while saying, "Let's go, we will move and find a bigger population structure of this world just as we decided."

Aren nodded as he put away the thing and moved out of the cave.

"Luna, we will prioritize killing any beast we encounter because that's the only way we can level up our path since the quest reward's exp is not filling up the exp gauge of our path."

Pausing there, Aren noticed something and asked with a raised brow, "Where is tengu?"

Luna chuckled and snapped her finger as darkness appeared from Luna's body and gathered in front of her before materializing into Tengu.

"Do you have to snap your finger to summon it or...," Aren asked with doubt.

Luna almost fell to the ground hearing that and giggled, "Of course not. I just did that cause it's cool, hehehe. I think you are a bit stressed right now. Let's go kill some bloodthirsty beasts."

Aren felt speechless and shook his head with a wry smile.

Afterward, both of them moved in the opposite direction of the town.

After moving for twenty minutes, they encountered a pack of hunchback wolves consisting of ten wolves.

[ Hunchback Wolf ]

-Rank: Common

-Health: [800/800]

-Defense: Physical [200], Soul [50]

-Attack: Physical [500]

-Skills: <Sharp Claws>.

"Wait, I want to try something," Aren said as he stopped Luna.

*Growl....*

The wolves growled at Aren and Luna as they spread out.

Luna tightly held the daggers as she asked, "What do you want to try?"

Aren took out [Cursed Shofar] item from his inventory. With his new eyes, He could see the information in more detail.

[Cursed Shofar]

-Rank: Tier-1 Cursed item.

-Cost: 30 soul energy.

-Effect: Deal 30 soul damage to everyone in a 100-meter radius and stun them for three seconds.

-Note: The user won't take soul damage but will be stunned along with others. The user and others can reduce the stun effect by consuming soul energy. ( The damage is unblockable unless someone can use soul defensive skill. )

"Luna, ask your Undead Tengu if he can protect you from soul-based damage and effects. If he can, then tell him to protect you."

Luna nodded and asked the Tengu about it. After getting the answer, Luna turned to Aren and said, "He says he can."

"Alright, then I will use it," Aren said before blowing the shofar.

*HOOOOONNNNNN...*

A soul wave was released from the shofar that dealt damage to wolves and stunned them.

Even Aren was stunned, but he consumed the soul energy to recover in one second.

On the other hand, Luna also didn't receive soul damage thanks to Tengu and recovered from the stun effect in a second.

Seeing that wolves became dazed, Luna dashed forward with her daggers while also commanding Tengu to attack the wolves.

Aren also controlled his sword and attacked the wolves with <Heavy Strike> skill.

<Heavy Strike>

-Skill Level:1 (Max: 5)

-Skill Rank: B

-Cost: 20 Spirit Energy.

-Effect: Superimpose spirit energy and condense it to release a powerful strike from either your body part or a weapon.

-Note: The damage will increase more according to the weapon.

He didn't use this skill much because it was a melee skill and <Wind Slash> was more powerful.

This skill was also not bad as it packed a similar power of punch as <Wind Slash> but not in a penetrative way. It was, as its name suggested, A heavy strike.

The drawback was that it was melee skill, which means that his body part or the weapon needs to be connected to the target.

But since his sword became Articule gear, it became a bit more powerful, and he could now use it as a ranged weapon, so Aren decided to master this skill as well fully.

Ikaros, the heavy broad sword, flew in front of a wolf as it glowed with spirit energy before heavily striking the wolf.

[-1742]

The wolf was mashed because after the sword hit the wolf, the power behind the heavy strike didn't just slice it but also blasted it as it exploded with condensed spirit energy. That was <Heavy Strike> skill.

[ A hunchback wolf killed, 50 exp gained. ]

The wolves were very weak as they all died in one shot.

Aren killed three wolves, while Luna and Undead Tengu killed the rest.

Luna's path finally leveled up as the first level just needs 100 exp.

[ You have reached level 2 in Deux Shi Maestro Path. ]

[ 1 talent point gained. ]

[ Deux Shi Orb+]:- Upgrade your Deux Shi orb to increase the capacity of Deux Particles by 100 and add one slot to Bounds.

[ Agent of Death ]:- Increase affinity of Death to level 2 and gains a connection to the first layer of the undead realm. ( Unable to learn this talent as the user hasn't comprehended level 1 Death to 100%, and the user's soul power is also insufficient. )

--->Requires 50 points in soul stat and Level 1 Death power to 100%.

"This is so bull!" Luna said with a frown.

Aren looked at her and asked in surprise, "What happened?"

Luna sighed and said, "I got Death Affinity and Darkness Affinity level 1. I don't know what they are, but most importantly, I am supposed to learn Death to 100%," Luna rolled her eyes before pouting, " How ridiculous. How do I learn Death in the first place? By dying?"

Hearing that, Aren hollowly laughed as he also didn't know, "This is all new to us, but I think we will know more about it as we progress. This world is mystical, and there might be more information about it in more prominent places."

"Yeah. Let's go, let's go. I want to know how people learn Death, humph."