The Soul Pearl

Ventus raced towards the north at a fast pace for two hours straight, his mind deadset on finding the king viper before his time ran out. He, however, was forced to stop after a certain time as he found a gathering crowd of beasts gathering at a spot. The beasts were many, counting amongst the hundreds, and they also varied in species as well. There were three major groups that contained a certain variety of beasts that kept a certain distance from each other whilst eyeing an object in front of them that due to their massive numbers was invisible to Ventus's eyes, but the secret wasn't kept for long as Ragnar rung in his mind.

"A soul pearl! they are gathering around a soul pearl kid!"

"A soul pearl? what is that?" Ventus asked.

"It's an artificial treasure that is, in short terms, condensed spirit force" he replied.

"Artificial? then someone made it?" Ventus asked.

"No, in this case, artificial means it is not made with nature's resources, but rather, it is made with soul power, that although it is natural, this specific soul power is made of powerful living beings that fell here, those beings consumed loads of treasures, killed loads of beings and lived for hundreds or thousands of years. Their souls were no longer pure, theirs was a soul that transcended what nature set as a limit, and as such, their soul power became artificial since they "transformed" their souls as such, thus the term, artificial." the dragon explained.

"Then maybe it was the artificial spiritual field that was created this treasure right?" Ventus continued.

"Yes, this one was created due to this place being most likely the highest concentration point of soul power, or an especially powerful spirit tried to make a physical body for himself out of condensed soul power and failed, thus, he and every other spirit dragged in this mess became this soul pearl" Ragnar concluded.

"If it is a soul pearl made of condensed soul power, then it is a treasure for the soul?" Ventus asked.

"Quite correct young one" the avatar decided to reply, " the soul pearl is an exceptional treasure that, depending on the level and the amount of soul power condensed within, can directly allow the user to trigger a soul evolution, and if not, a can greatly increase the strength of one's soul"

"Do tell Ragnar" Ventus spoke, "If I consumed this treasure and directed its power to you, wouldn't you significantly recover your power?"

The dragon was silent for a few moments. He had never imagined that the boy wouldn't think of taking the pearl for himself, but rather, directly offer it to him. He thought that the boy was thinking of increasing his power so that he could more directly aid the kid in combat, but even if that was the case, the gesture of showing preference towards his recovery instead of his own growth did impact the old dragon, and his once mere amusement with the kid silently transformed into a sort of bond that would certainly unite them even further in the future. After the thoughts crossed his mind, he replied with excitement.

"Indeed it would, It would allow me to recover my soul's strength by at least 20%! if I were to recover my soul's power simply with mana refinement, to recover that amount it would take me two years!"

"Only 20%? dang, that's disappointing" Ventus grumbled.

"Only 20%!? kid, if my soul were to recover by 20% in a single bout it would have the soul strength of a master rank magus!" Ragnar retorted indignantly.

"What!? that much?" Ventus spoke excitedly.

With this new information, Ventus was determined to get that pearl more than ever before. If the dragon's soul recovered to such an extent he would have a far easier time in controlling the golden sand, and if he was able to do that, his combat strength would rise exponentially! Ventus's face began to glow as he imagined the possibilities of using the golden sand to make more complex attacks and uses of the material for a few moments, however, after that, his face got serious as he began analyzing the pack of beasts in front of him.

In the most left part stood a pack of mammalian-like beasts that included steel-fur grey wolves, venomous desert rats, flame-coat coyotes, shadow cats and mist rabbits, all of them fierce beasts with muscles, claws and fangs that could shatter stone. In the most right part stood a group of reptiles that included the beasts Ventus was searching for, the golden sand venom dragon, as well as its subordinates, the silver sand poison dragons, but also flame and also earthen wyverns and many smaller lizards. And at the center came the worst part for Ventus, he hated bugs and the centre group was exactly that, a collection of giant-sized bugs and arachnidians, containing several humongous spiders, scorpions, centipedes, beetles and mantises which screeched from time to time towards the other beasts, as if trying to keep them at bay and also threatening them.

And if that wasn't dangerous enough, every single one of those beasts was at the adult beast rank which allowed them to rival, and most times overpower with a certain amount of ease other beings of the same rank such as Junior magus ranked magi.

Ventus face grew grim. If it was just a single beast, he could handle it, two beasts? he would have to struggle but could still win, three beasts and above? flee for his life because he was certain that he would lose. Although he had two god-tier beings residing inside of him, they were restricted by his body's capacity to handle the strain their power could generate on him, and thus, they could help, but not much, or rather, their help was not enough for him to defeat these hundreds of beasts.

If he wished to get both the pearl and accomplish his mission, he would have to use his brains and formulate a plan. And so he did, he figured that the first thing he should accomplish was to get the Golden Sand Venom Dragon's poison sack, if it were before, he had no confidence in extracting it fast enough, but now, with Ragnar's support in controlling the golden sand more efficiently, he was certain that he could quickly get it if he managed to landed a fatal sneak attack on one of them, but to get the soul pearl was going to be another difficulty entirely.

He concluded after a few moments that directly rushing to get the pearl was not going to work since many of the beasts were faster than himself, and even if he managed to make a short burst of speed to surpass those beasts in speed, he would certainly not hold on for long, especially now that he could no longer use any techniques to recover mana, and his passive absorption via the wind mark was not fast enough for this event, as such, he would have to use stealth and distraction to grab the pearl and flee with all his might!

Having decided upon his plan, Ventus began his preparations to quickly kill the King Viper's poison sack and then cause mayhem with his terra control technique so that he could disorient the beast and grab the pearl. He condensed a few mana threads in his hands and was about to slap the ground with his hands when he heard a call behind him.

"Ventus!? Is that you!?"