57 Forlorn

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Compared to Vengeful Souls, which could be seen outside, Soul Knights and above could only be found in Lairs guarding something very important. Lairs are categorize according to the order: Dark Lair, Doom Lair, Nightmare Lair and Demon Lair from the lowest rank to the highest rank.

The locations of these Lairs would be revealed if one accepted a mission from the Reward Station. One could enter alone or enter with a party of five and that applies to any rank of Lairs. [It's basically a dungeon on gaming terms.]

One could also receive help from the Forlorn, which are what the creatures inside of any civilizations are called. Liam and Carmen are Forlorn as well.

Forlorn are basically the dregs of the society. Their race emerged out of nowhere and their numbers were too huge. Nobody knew just hoe they were made but according to one researcher and some loose tongued Forlorn, their race is a result of a heartless experiment.

Rumors said that there was a madman who lost everything in his life and sunken to depravity, he encountered a sinister inheritance that dabbled into Medicine and Necromancy. Someone said that the madman was so bent into reviving his previous family so he rose become one of the most powerful dark cultivator ever existed. He eventually got so powerful that he could finally re-animate his dead family however, some of the body parts of his family are already gone. Driven by madness, he dissected and used them to fill the missing parts of his family.

To others, his first experiment was a success but to him, it was a complete failure. Even though the new body was alive, it didn't have the memories of his wife, kids, siblings or any people that he wanted to revive. He kept on performing experiments, making theories, searching for rare medicines and inheritances, but his lack of success really weighed heavy in his heart.

He succeeded creating one Forlorn after another but his only desire kept eluding him. The number of failed products stacked until they are enough to fill an entire city and could even start to reproduce, eventually he grew tired of it all and committed suicide, leaving the Forlorn nothing.

After hearing these rumors, the Forlorn were exiled anywhere they go, people were bent on saying that their existence is a defiance towards the heavens and if anyone decided to co-exist with them, they would suffer heavenly retribution, this is also the main reason why they could only stay inside this gloomy and rotten place.

Their race were even more despised when everybody found out that they could cultivate and were exceptionally strong. Some people said that they are a potential threat to Human Race so they used many ways to imprison them inside of the Gray Crags, never allowed to see the sunlight ever again.

All of these made Sieg sigh in disappointment, even though the informations on the jade slips are merely rumors, that alone isn't enough to make the Forlorn worthy of this banishment. If these rumors were true then shouldn't be humans be responsible for the Forlorn? After all, according to the rumors, the one who made their is a human powerhouse. Following this trend, if humans established a good relationship with the Forlorn then human could gain a very powerful ally against beast hordes and other enemy races right? The Forlorn are made out a human and a beast, even though they have certain body parts of a beast, they have the intelligence of a human so negotiations should work with them right?

Sieg couldn't believe that he is the only one that could've of thought of this. There is just no way.

But if so, then why humans banished them? This is what's bothering him really.

"One had to reach a civilization of the Forlorn to be able to slay a Vengeful Soul and above, if they are smart, then they would ask for more details just like me and would eventually found out about the Rewarding Station, Soul Vessels and the rumors behind the Forlorn. Establishing the fact that Forlorn are exceptionally strong, and we could ask for their help, the question is would they help? If the rumors were true, then after all what the humans did to them why would they help us? What's even more absurd is why would the sect establish the Rewarding Station and literally throw us in here so that we could accept an inheritance? The heck, we even need to kill fellow disciples just to gain a map! Do they honestly think that we could hold our ground against these people? I could honestly bet that they were already staying here while having a child were just mere thoughts of our parents.

This is their turf, we are but mere disciples, even if we team up against them if they really wanted to they absolutely annihilate us without taking any real damage. So why here of all the places? And how come the sect managed to negotiate with them while the others can't? There's more to this, whether I would find out while I'm inside or in the future depends on the sect."

Sieg closed his eyes and massaged his temples, worrying too much won't be helpful for him right now. He believed that it is not his place to interfere since knowing more might only result to his death.

He stood up and went outside of the little inn and went towards the Rewarding Station. His objective was clear, and that is to get a soul vessel.

The Rewarding Station looked like a massive metal totem, there are intricate designs or any majestic adornments placed in it, it just a huge metal tower with glimmering sheen and ominous aura.

There is only one entrance to the station, normally there should be a gate or at least a door for the entrance but he found out that there's just an arched opening for the station which somewhat bothered him, nevertheless he decided to go in.

The cold an ominous image outside of the station didn't change much once inside. There were no real decorations inside or any eye-candies either, only some porcelain boards that had inscription and a lone person could be seen inside.

"Welcome Sir, are you here for a Vessel?" The person was part of the Forlorn race, he had a lizard head, a turtle body along with a shell, and lower half of a human. His voice were a little thin compared to his image.

Sieg smiled and nodded his head, then the turtle attendant grabbed something underneath his desk and handed it over to Sieg and said: "Here's your Soul Vessel sir, please do remember that the a vessel of that grade could only hold a maximum of 10 Vengeful ranked souls or two Knight ranked souls, you cannot store any souls above the said rank."

The Soul Vessel looked like a conch shell, it was as white as a pearl and emitting some strange glimmers that looked like an ocean of stars swirling here an there. There's also ten pearls attached in a spiralling manner at the vessel. Sieg didn't know what this meant so he asked the attendant: "What's the use of there pearls?"

"Oh, a pearl would light up if you captured a soul. If all of the pearls are lit up, then that means that the vessel is full." The attendant explained in a friendly manner.

"Okay, where could I find Lairs?"

"Over there sir, place your hand onto any porcelains to activate the contents and just call my attention of you decided." The attendant instructed ince again.

Sieg nodded his head and said: "Thanks." Then he approached one of the porcelain boards and activated one using his spiritual energy to know it's contents.

Then the picture of the whole map appeared before him, he also noticed that a there was a another marking on the map but this one is colored red. At the bottom corner of the image, there were some words written:

(Dark Lair: approx. 15 Wandering Souls and a Vengeful Soul. Rewards: Enhancement.)

"Um, excuse me, but what does this Enhancement mean?" Sieg turned around and asked the attendant.

"Oh, Enhancement means a couple of things, it's either going to be applied to your overall strength, strength of your weapon, or towards your Soul Vessel. There are multiple rewards available, Enhancement being one of them, the rest are: Armors, Talismans, a piece Inheritance or a complete Inheritance." The Forlorn attendant once again explained in a friendly manner.

Sieg was a bit surprised by this, being inquisitive sure got it's advantages. He expressed his thanks and then looked for another porcelain boards available.

There's a lot of these boards inside of this tower and this is just the lowest floor. Even though he could move up a floor he decided to stay here first to have a general grasp of the missions. He viewed multiple missions available already but still didn't made any choices, after searching for a while, he was a bit startled as he saw one particular mission.

"Planting?"