41 Truth Behind The Zone Core
Greg was running with his fastest speed in the forest, afraid that someone will catch up with him.
After running a few miles, he stopped and looked behind.
Seeing as no one was following him, he sighed in relief and made his body to turn back to normal from its ghost form.
Taking off the mask from his face, he raised his wrist and watched the screen before him.
{Bone Ghost} (Dimensional)
○ Rank: Soul Collector
○ Type: Body shaper
○ Powers: Unbreakable Bone, Ghost Body, Soul Touch
• Energy Crystals: 0/1000
Looking at the pieces of information of his newly obtained Soul Creature, he was surprised.
The first thing he noticed was the dimensional title next to the name, which he heard in his head too, but he didn't know what that should mean.
The second thing, which made him really confused was that under the energy crystal bar, there was no information about how many times it could level up.
"Strange...", murmured Greg and looked at his other Soul Creatures.
"Now that I have a few useful Soul Creatures, I think it's time to make them level up, no?", thought Greg as he was looking at his different creatures.
Thinking about which creature he should make to rank up first, his gaze stopped on his fairy's information.
{Wind Sailer} (Mutant)
○ Rank: Manifester
○ Type: Pet (Operational)
○ Powers: Wind Slash, Wind Sailing
• Energy Crystals: 0/500
(Can rank up twice)
After thinking for a while, he nodded and took out a fist-sized crystal with white color from his shadow.
"This is the crystal from the bony ghost I killed. It's definitely a High-class crystal, but how will my pet consume it?"
As he was thinking, he summoned out his fairy and showed her the crystal to see what she will do.
In an instant, as his pet saw it, it flew next to the crystal and touched it. Like ice in hot weather, the white crystal started to melt slowly into the fairy's palm, making her power grow bit by bit with each second.
After 2 minutes, his pet finally finished consuming the crystal. Looking at his watch, he looked at her data and his eyes grew wide.
"O-one hundred??!", shouted Greg after seeing that his fairy got 100 only after consuming one energy crystal from a Soul Collecter ranked creature.
"If I'm right a High-class energy crystal from a third rank creature should only give 20, not 100! Maybe it's because the ghost has the title of dimensional? Aahhh! If I knew this, I wouldn't have given it to her!"
Greg was really angry. If he knew that the crystal would give him 100, then he would be the one who starts to consume it instead of the fairy. Unfortunately, he couldn't change the past, so he could just murmur quietly under his nose.
As he was thinking about what he should have done, suddenly his watch on his wrist started to vibrate.
Looking down, he saw a message popping up on his watch's screen.
'Greg Hyde, you must go into the Soul Association without further hesitation. Any further delay will result in severe punishment.'
Looking at the warning before him, he already guessed what was happening, so in an instant, he started to run toward the city.
***
[In the Soul Association]
In a huge room, Mila, Emma, and Joe were sitting before a group of adults.
Nick was in that group too and was tapping on the desk from time to time, while his face was ice cold.
*Knock~knock*
"Come in."
Opening the door, a man in a black suit bowed slightly and said, "Respected Sir. Greg Hyde has finally arrived."
"Let him in."
Stepping to the side, Greg walked into the room and looked around.
The room was very beautiful while giving off a luxurious feeling to anybody who walked in. On the tables, food and drink could be found, while on the side a huge window with breathtaking scenery could be seen.
Greg looked around with awe, however unfortunately he wasn't here as a guest, but for the purposes of interrogation.
"Take a seat Mr.Hyde.", said a chubby-looking man, who was sitting next to Nick.
Greg looked before him and seeing as his friends were alright, he walked next to them, and with a nod, he sat down.
Seeing as everybody was here, Nick nodded at the man who brought Greg here to close the door and stood up.
"Why I brought you four here is because as you may know, there was a zone break, which with my team we luckily stopped in time. But there was a small incident, which made things a bit interesting."
As he talked, he looked at the four one by one, and finally, his eyes stopped on Greg's figure.
"Maybe you don't know, but after a zone reaches the breaking point, the core will evolve into a creature called Dimensional Creature."
Hearing the familiar name, Greg's eyes instantly grew wide, but to pretend he heard this for the first time, he acted confused.
"These Dimensional Creatures are very rare species, which we the Soul Association try to capture and experiment on them. But why, you ask?", after he said that, he looked at a woman on his side.
Seeing Nick's gaze, the women stood up and started to talk.
"Dimensional Creatures are a type of monsters, which can infinitely rank up if there are enough energy crystals. As you may know, humanity's strongest man has already reached the legendary God rank. However, with time, he stated that there is something even bigger above the last rank. Something that we mortals don't even dare to think of. He tried several attempts to break the rank's barrier and reach that mysterious rank, but every time he did it ended up with failure. But with time, we found out about these Dimensional Creatures and realized that maybe this will be the key to surpass that mysterious barrier. But..."
As the woman finished talking, she looked at Nick on her side.
"Just as my assistant said, we tried to capture the creature, but somehow it disappeared and the only ones who saw what happened were you. After listening to your stories, the last person who saw what happened with the theoretically named Dimensional Creature was you, Greg."
After finishing his talk, all the adult's gaze turned toward Greg's direction.
Feeling their piercing look on his skin, Greg stood up and with a slight bow, he said, "Sir. I was indeed the last one who stayed with the creature, but as a Manifester ranked fighter, what could I possibly do? I didn't have the slightest chance to fight back."
"Then how did you survive?", asked instantly the chubby man angrily next to Nick.
Greg looked up and said, "I was able to survive because of a stranger with a mask on his face. After killing the creature, it instantly disappeared, but as to where, I don't know."
Nick hearing this made his face turn ice cold again and asked, "What was his appearance?"
"If I'm right, he was wearing a black mask which represented a smiling demon and a piece of black clothing. However after he killed the creature, his body instantly changed, turning into a half-transparent figure with grey shining bones."
Hearing this, Nick thought for a moment and said, "It seems that the man doesn't even know its death is around the corner."
"Why?", asked back Greg with a confused look.
"As we said Dimensional Creatures are special, but not only because they can infinitely rank up. No. It's because after successfully making it to rank up, there is a high chance that the power of the creature will overwhelm the owner, resulting in 100% death."
"And what if it successfully ranks up?", asked Joe suddenly from Greg's side.
Nick looked at Joe and answered calmly, "With each ranking up, there is a higher chance to die, but if it somehow reaches the God rank, then there is the possibility that the owner can rank up with its help even further and turn into an immortal."
