Who's Tricking Who?

Sif closed his eyes, while an invisible ripple moved out from his body and filled the whole area around him.

'One Hundred meters...'

That's right, his Will could extend only a meager one hundred meters. The youth had to make a considerate effort for not start screaming in anger.

He channeled his Will around his own body, controlling the state of his physique. Weak. His muscles contained a ridiculously small quantity of Life Energy. Furthermore, no matter how hard he looked around his lower waist, he couldn't see any semblance of a dantian.

'No cultivation base whatsoever... it has also regressed the power of my soul... What a fucking ridiculous power'

He really was feeling helpless. After spending so much time working on accumulating power and authority, he was back to the starting point.

Sif moved his eyes towards the blond male. For a second, he almost thought of killing him right now and there. An invisible ripple moved out from Sif's body, shrouding the blonde's entire figure.

He could feel the latter's flesh in constant movement, absorbing energy coming from the various rock formations around him. Sif evaluated his chances. He wasn't that good in close handed combat, but he had the surprise factor on his side.

'Nah, what if he comes out with some other broken shit? That bastard has a MC's luck. Better to leave him the fuck alone... plus my Willpower is useless in this kind of direct confrontations'

The thin youth slowly separated himself from the body of the black haired girl next to him and stood up. He gave her a long look and sighed in his mind. It was a shame, but he couldn't afford to bring her along.

Moving silently as a ghost, he walked out of the little crevice and started to follow the northern direction of the tunnel.

He was soon walking deep into a dark tunnel. There were way less luminescent mushrooms in the tunnel, and the path was often blocked by large blocks of coal-like material.

Sif however, didn't care much for lack of light or the obstacles: his Will was enough to scout forward and gave him detailed information on what was in his path. In fact, he was still able to sense what was happening inside the little crevice he left.

The fat youth, the arrogant-looking youth, and the beuty were sleeping. The blonde guy was still immersed in cultivation, he didn't even notice that someone left.

Hidden in the dark that shrouded the tunnel, a look of scorn appeared on Sif's face.

'Probably that moron of Leaf believes that he's being so smart, using all that Vitality Ash to power up so quickly. Except that his body is too frail, he will face a backlash.'

Not only a couple of breath passed by andthe blond youth suddenly started coughing blood. Even so, he kept cultivating, but Sif could tell from his facial expression that he was in terrible pain.

"Why does he cultivate like a retard?" Sif couldn't really understand why someone would cause himself harm like that. The Heavens really love fools the most.

"Who cares, I just want him to stay away from me... until I find a way to deal with his overpowered talisman."

A cold glint appeared on Sif's eyes. He picked up the pace and in a couple of minutes, his Will wasn't able to touch the crevice anymore. Not that he did care though: other than Morgana, those people meant didn't mean much to him.

He simply stopped caring about them, concentrating on scouting in the darkness with his Willpower.

'Uh, finally found them...'

A dozen minutes later he started to see some feeble lights coming from ahead. It took him a couple of minutes to get there, finding himself into a large circular cave with four different tunnels departing in various directions.

A small group of people sat at the center of the cave: two men and a woman.

The two men were on their early forties and both had long black hair bound on the top of their head. They wore the same black daoist robes held at the waist by a thick white cord belt.

The woman was younger, mid-thirties and wore a ruined grey outfit that definitely looked too small for her voluptuous body.

The men were talking to each other, sitting near a campfire while the woman was cooking on a large bronze cauldron on the other side of the fire.

The moment Sif walked out from the tunnel he had been walking through, his cold and secure temperament was substituted by a meek attitude.

One of the two men saw him and pointed him out to his companion. The latter looked at him for a second, then he greeted him with a warm smile.

"Hi friend, you seem lost... did your group leave you behind?"

Sif gave them a half smile, moving towards the two men. "Ay, these tunnels are way harder to navigate than I thought... I just wanted to explore a bit on my own, but I got lost." said the youth while he shook his head.

One of the two men laughed aloud, slapping his chest. " My name is Tong little brother, this is my companion Jiun, we are going down to the third level. You can join us and then once there find someone to walk back with you..."

Sif smiled, sitting right next to the two men. His willpower was still scanning the whole area around him. The large circular grotto was only filled with large chunks of stone.

He could tell that the two were more or less rank 3 fighters, they didn't have any cultivation base and all their fighting potential came from their bodies.

The woman, however, was more complicated: she had a cultivation base and there was a small bird flying around inside it. That meant that she was a summoner and had a spirit familiar.

'A spirit familiar... it should bronze level too, not bad at all'

A bronze level familiar was enough to deal with multiple Rank 3 Fighters. However, she couldn't access her power at all. Her gray tunic meant that she was a slave in this Ash Grotto. Her cultivation based had been sealed and she was forced to mine Vitality Ash and Coal.

"Thank you, brother Tong, my name is Sif by the way..." Sif smiled to the two men. He then looked curiously at the woman that was working on the cauldron.

"Ahahah, little brother Sif we found this one the way, we thought of bringing her with us to liven the journey hahaha..." said Jiun narrowing his eyes towards the woman in gray. "Who knew that she is also a good cook! Hahaha, it's a shame that we will have to leave her back before descending to the third level..."

Sif nodded. He didn't find anything wrong with the behavior of the two men. This was a land where the weak had no right whatsoever.

"Hehehe, brother Sif if you want you can get the first go tonight... what do you think, Blue?" said loudly Jiun, looking at the woman on the other side of the fire. The latter moved her eyes on the thin youth that had joined the party. "I would be honored, young master".

"Ahahaha, see, she likes you!" continued Jiun, playfully pushing Sif.

The thin youth felt a mountain crushing on him. His body was even weaker than a common human, and the one who was pushing him was still a level 3 Fighter.

He didn't hide a painful grimace. The eyes of the two black robbed men shined seeing his expression. "I'm sorry little brother, I thought that you were a Fighter too. You must be a Summoner then. Are you here to try to bind your first ranked familiar?"

Sif nodded, massaging the place where he had been pushed. "I'm going to find a Devious Mole and try to bind it. I even got rid of my normal ranked familiar, I want to be sure to have all that I need to have a chance to bind a bronze ranked beast." Sif's eyes shined with determination, as he looked deep in the fire that was burning before him.

"Uhm, I wouldn't say this to any other person... but I think that we connected brother Sif! I think we can help you get something way better than a fat blind rat!" Tong looked deeply into the youth's eyes. "I know where we can find a Dark Queen Spider!" he continued slapping his chest.

Sif jumped on his feet. He widened his eyes in surprise. "A Dark Queen? Where? Let's go now!"

On the side, Jiun sneered. 'What a fool'. Seeing the young man jumping exited at the very mention of the spider made it even more obvious that they had chosen the right person for the job.

It was evident that this Sif youth had no experience whatsoever. Plus, he wasn't from any big clan or sect he wouldn't be so excited at the mention of a low-level bronze beast. As such, he was the perfect pray.

'Don't blame us, blame your own stupidity' laughed internally the man in black robes.

Tong stood up, waving his hand towards his friend. "Our brother Sif wants us to go get him the Dark Queen now, so we are going to do right that... guide the way, Juin."

"Yes, elder brother." immediately screamed back the other man, starting to move towards one of the tunnels on the left. "It isn't that far from here. We should go and come back in time for dinner."

Sif followed them without any care in the dark. When the shadows covered his face, a smirk appeared on his lips.

'Mph, these morons are worse liars than what I remembered.'