Spirit Soil or The Prince?
Soul, it is a marvelous thing in the world, no one knows clearly about this thing. Not even a wise sage could understand how a soul was formed, finding the location it coming from, or going after the carrier is dead? Being an attached entity that exists with every living being the moment that entity was formed, yet this entity without a carrier being able to form into a soul is one of a kind. The world has many unknowns to explore and to study, like this entity that is known as a spirit soil the moment it was born, its destiny is to bring prosperity to the living being of the wildlife. However, because of wicked human corruption its mission, the docile, and kind spirit soil become an evildoer instead. The moment it was born, the very forest in the fogging valley receives the blessing from it existent. Yet, if someone were to see it at this moment, he or she would definitely become a part of its existent. Being corroded by the dead aura every day for more than a century, even the kindness that was the one the goal of its living has been changing almost completely.
"Eh! the dining this time is quite special." From time to time the red mist would command the steel eating bear to bring a packs of nearly dead adventurers or spirit beasts for its nourishment.
William pauses his footstep the moment he heard an ethereal sound transmit from deep inside the cave. The eerie feeling here is stronger than the outside with that many skeletons pack like mountains. Every strand of his hair stands up from the crisp feeling he receives. Why it has to be him alone to enter this damn cave? Why not give him some company? What kind of odd job is this? He has to clean up this place empty to console his damaged spirit, before the ethereal could continue William shake his with a mocking laugh, it was like he laughs at himself: "Haha!"
This is the first time the spirit soil heard an echo laughing from the nourishment since corruption. "Don't worry, you will become a part of mine. After we consume everything in this forest, we could break free from the shackle that those humans imprison us." However this is not the first sound that William heard, there is a deeper hatred from within this voice. The word 'Us!' echo within William's ears causing him to goosebumps all over his body.
"Help... Kill me..." Before long as he continues to the deep inside the cave, William heard something again that not quite pleasant to hear. It was like the voice of a miserable child being bully by an adult and there is pleading within this sound. 'What is that voice White drake?' William tries to find his ways toward the source of the voice, yet, he always feels like he walking in a circle. Sometimes, he could hear them as close as to his ears drum, yet, sometimes he could hear it from a very far away place.
'Don't worry, we are close to the core of this place. I could sense the last stand of the spirit soil if you could save it, then save it. It will become an important boost for your future.' After leaving this word White drake become silent again. 'Eh! Don't go yet? how do I deal with this prince from the red mist mouth?' William really does not know how to deal with this thing. Even with his newly customize bombs when he wakes up again with Vernora by his side, it is not good to think about using it, it is not he has infinite of them. He could only assemble it if he has material, yet, in this fogging valley, it is hard to find the resource to create it. Almost everything was spent on dealing with the lizards, he only has a few left at his disposal in case of need. And from this voice, he knows that this prince is likely already awake and he is waiting for something.
From the physical attack of the trio team, William knows that the red mist does not have an actual body. Only by using the sound wave attack of the giant lizard spirit beast, that he could slip into this cave.
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"From this little strength of yours, you still want to kill him, someone who this lord subject to protect now." The red mist keeps defending William from the attack of the giant lizard.
As the miserable adventurers who lock in this shackle of death because of their own agenda, not many of them survive till now. The more dead adventurers the denser the red mist become, it was as the death of them become a part of its strength. And at the outside of the misty wall, there are plenty of adventurers arrive in groups or by themself. Yet, not even one of them is able to penetrate this misty wall. "Dammit, if I am a bit faster, I would be able to enter, too." With the treasures, they had found before arrived here, everyone thinking how many treasures would they could claim if they were able to enter the core that is inside this mist. Everyone does not know how this fogging valley form, but from this experience, they believe there are rewards waiting for them if they could enter the region behind this misty wall. No one would believe the reward would be their dead because of greed create from a free lunch. Not even one of them thinking how the mists that cover the outer region become dissipate, they only know for what they had received at hand.
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The messy hair and the tattered clothes adventurer already arrive near Vernora's team. Yet, he does not come close to her as if he afraid of something. He chose to follow closely behind them, however, he would not dare to come too close to them, too much. Vernora glances at him before continuing on her own with Vimo at their own phase.
"We have to spell all out with this skeletons army, or else we will become one of them." The team leader of the stern face adventurers reminds his team while thinking about how to survive on his own. "Help me!" the scarred face woman already received a bite from a skeleton on her left arm during they retreat toward the mid-region. At first, it is only breeding, yet now the vein on her left arm becomes dark as it spread over to every part of her body and lastly her face. "I am scared." She wants to hug the stern face man, but he retreats his footsteps from her advance. This is the last sentence in her life before she starts to attack her own companions.
The stern face man kick over her waist which sent her flying toward the skeletons army. His team member looks at him with disbelieving eyes, because she is his woman. How could he be this heartless toward his own woman? Then what about them? Right now, everyone starts to judge or only believe only in themself rather than work as a team. With the teamwork break down, their joint effort to defend becomes less effective. Although the skeletons' army movement is slow, they have an endless number and recovery state. From this experience, if they were to receive a bit mark on any part of their body, that place has to be cut off, or else they will become one of them.
"Do you want me to die like her? Don't you see she already become one of them?" The stern face man laid the true fact toward everyone who survives till now. "Don't look at me like a beast, if I were to receive a bite, too, you can also kill me. I rather die as a human than become one of them." He points his index finger at every adventurer who looks at him with scorn eyes. In a world where dogs eat dogs, who cares if you live or die.
"Right now, we better work together. We could not get close nor go to the center region as all of us already see how dangerous that battle between the red mist and that giant lizard." They could only defend themself at the mid-region as they were too afraid to go toward the place of the lizard spirit beast. They want to look at those six people who dare to advance toward the battle between such strong opponents.
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William tries to avoid the attack from the giant lizard spirit beast, yet, he was sent flying into the cave by the red mist instead. Why would the red mist send him inside the cave?
The red mist also worries about the unknowns method that William used to destroy the core formation that used to generate the mists to surround this region. 'Send over!' This is the first time it hears the prince voice after a thousand years of waiting. Since the prince finally awake, its mission almost over. All of the living thing in this place has to die as a sacrifice object and to silent the witness of crime. They could not afford to confront that strong force just yet.
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The battle between them becomes somewhat messy as of now the giant lizard spirit beast chose to defend the six people who the red mist decides to silence the witness of crime. No one would believe this scene no matter what, a moment ago that giant lizard uses everything to attack William. But now, it uses everything to defend the six people behind it. All of the adventurers have a disbelieving expression on their faces, as heaven really turns upside down. How come would a spirit beast side with humans not to mention even defending them? The red mist also stupefied by this change of behavior from the giant lizard, yet it does not care what that lizard thinking. Its only mission now is to kill every single being in this place. Since it could not deal with the giant lizard spirit beast, for the time being, its interests changed to the team of adventurers at the mid-region.
"What's happening?" I look at you, you look at me. The five of them also have a be-wild look on their face, with the exception of the misbehave hair man who they cannot see clearly his face as it is cover his entire face with his tattered appearance. If they were to see his face, they would also be able to see the disbelieving expression from his eyes.
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"Since you have a special void body, I will take care of it instead of wasting with such a natural resource." The prince seems to talk to himself after reviewing what the red mist has had seen what William did at the pond of the giant lizard home ground.
"Void body?" William heard something again as he ventures deeper into this dark cave, beside the deem light that spread from small objects like a starry night from all over the place, no one would think this is a deadly zone. At first, he sees a bloody road that full of skeletons when he sends flying inside the cave, but now he sees an endless starry night. No matter what, he could not communicate with White drake anymore, this somewhat makes him become restless. After telling him to save the spirit soil if he could, there is no longer any communication between and it. It was as their connection has been cut off.
"Haha! you don't even know it. Never mind, I could just digest your memory after consuming your soul."
William finally saw a spark of a dark grey object flying toward his body, as he tries to avoid it, he feels he could not move at all. When that dark grey object arrives beside him, his vision becomes blurred.
"Where is this?" The prince utters in a stuttering voice with a disbelieving and scared tone in it, even though he just awake from a deep slumber, but with his initial strength how could a mere body refinement stage withstand his soul force pressure. It would be an easy task to take over this body, but never would in his dream that he gets plot by such a puny ant.
This is no longer his soul force domain, but this little boy soul domain. How could a body refinement little boy possess an even strong soul domain than himself? Who is this boy? This time he kicks an iron sheet, but there is no regret pill in this world. Wait, wait, but it seems this boy knows nothing about himself, it seems he still has some chance to win over this treasure trove. Those bastards could not even kill him, how could he die at the hand of a body refinement little boy. He would become a laughing stock if what happened today spread out.
'^#@*()_()!' While walking endlessly he finally could see something besides the censored objects laid around like waste materials. There is a word inscribed on a door beside him after he tries to find the core of William's soul force, but he could not understand this word meaning and knowing what kind of language this is. This is the first time he sees such language. If William were here, he would understand at a glance that this is the cleaning and recycling factory for wasted products inside the system. William also does not understand this language, too, but he could decipher it after seeing his waste material processing and throw out afterward. When the prince sees an object flying upward, and there seems like a black hole in this greyish world that would occasionally pull an object out. He becomes incredibly happy because he finally could leave this place. Yet, does he know the hellish agony awaiting his arrival! At first, he chooses to follow the object toward the black hole, yet he would rebound back to the ground.
"I don't believe I cannot break free from here."
After trying to attack with numerous methods, yet, not even a single attack could penetrate the shield that covers the black hole and his power would counter-attack to himself. This causing the prince distress, finally there is a robotic voice echo: 'Object number fifty-five needs a special purify effect before it could use again.' What the hell is going on? Before he could even attack again, he feels abound of a shackle like he was a prisoner who awaits judgment.
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Where is that dark grey object go? The scenes in front of William changed from the starry place to the bloody road and the skeleton packs up again when he wakes up after a sudden past out. After along walking he finally arrives at the center of the cave, he sees an altar of a skeleton-like throne and a dead body on top of that altar floating up in the air. As he goes close to the body, he could see a white object being half stuck within this dead body.
"Kill...me..." The low pleading tone and agony could be heard again after he arrives beside it. 'White drake, what should I do?' There is no response what so ever from white drake, so William decides to check his inner world. However, he rebounds back which causes him stupefied. He really does not know what to do besides the memory of technologies and some other knowledge that he learns from Rosa, everything else is new to him. He sometimes felt like a puppet being used by the system. Without the memory of his past experience from childhood to adulthood if he does not think of himself as the puppet that would be strange. If not because he could decide for himself on how he behaves, he would believe that he was the puppet created for the system.
He places his hand on the white object and thinking about pulling it out afterward there is a feeling of suction over this white object from the corps who deems to be the prince. With the first time when White drake told him to place his hand on top of the ponds, William also wants to test out again that feeling. And it really happened as his thought, if he wants to pull something inside his inner dimension, just a feeling and touching it with his hand, he would successfully absorb it inside. Next time, he would like to test out the living creature. He wants to know if he could place a living creature inside the dimension like Rosy. He never knows why would the wasted material from his creation would appear inside the system, too. There are many things that occur without his knowledge, and it seems White drake is the one behind it.
'Mission successfully complete!'
'According to the stage that is higher than the expectation generated from the system. There is a special bonus reward.' The robotic voice echo even he could not communicate with White drake.
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'What's happened inside? Why would I suddenly feel a loss of connection with the prince?' The red mist who in a good mood and a sense of accomplishment after the prince wakes up. It has to clean up faster before checking his highness situation. It would never believe the master who it serves for more than a millennium would lose to a mortal. It feels restless after the connection still losing after along while. There is still the giant lizard that defending that group of six people, but it would rather deal with them later after checking his highness first. And this group of adventurers already become a zombie-like puppet after receiving its poisons. "I will deal with you later." After leaving these words, the red mist enters the cave and flying toward the altar of the Prince's dead body.
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Inside the cave, William starts to place the bombs in every key location after the message from the system echo out. If he were to go out, he might be caught in the battle between the giant spirit beast and the red mist. He might as well thinking about how to destroy this place so they could run away from here.
"What are you doing? Where is the core spirit inside his highness body?" The rage voice of the red mist causes William's ears to almost explode.
"Who knows?" The last bombs finally place, now he only needs to run toward the entrance to save his life from the explosion effect. But before he could take the chance to run away, he lost his sense again. It was the same as the first time he entered here, but this time he feels a stab of pain, and everything else becomes blurred.