190 The Chain Quest
On the surface, this man seemed to be accusing my humans of this disadvantage. Yet humans here never participated in any apocalypse before.
But other humans did. What? Did other humans not win any apocalypse before? That was unbelievable!
“Humans on other worlds refused to help us, that’s what you mean, right?” I worked my mind fast and found this explanation to be the most logical one.
[You got a sharp mind] and his words confirmed my guess, [Now, shall we return to cultivation?]
“What can I do to fix this?” I wasn’t ready yet to start merging with my bones. I had to find a solution for this, or else my efforts would end up in vain.
[You want to fix this? How?]
“That’s what I’m asking about,” despite expecting this answer before, it still felt bitter to hear it. I knew what he meant by his answer. What could I possibly do to get such a privilege? That was what he asked about.
A privilege given only to those winning an apocalypse wasn’t something that could be bought by any price. I understood that.
Before speaking up with him, I thought this communication system was a gift from the system or a thing related to the races’ big families. I thought it was bought by wealth or gained by influence and authority.
But I was wrong! It was a privilege gained from achieving such a hard milestone for me. Of course that sat the price for such a thing, a price that I had to match to get what I wanted.
Yet the question here was: What would I possibly have and be on the same calibre of this feat? In fact it was nothing! Yet I threw the ball back to him as I said:
“I can do anything to get it… Isn’t there anything I can do in this apocalypse that can grant me such ability?”
[In the apocalypse? You can start working to win it then] His answer didn’t give me any hopes at all. Yet I was stubborn to give up just like that.
“Anything else besides this condition,” I said while having a faint hope to find another way around. I knew things couldn’t be obtained from one route only, that was the nature of the apocalypse.
So there must be other ways around, and I had to keep pushing to know them. “Like heroic calling for example?”
[Heroic Calling? Hahaha, that’s just a reward system for those outstanding personnel in the apocalypse] my words seemed to be amusing to him.
“I meant anything like that, like a mission or a quest that can give me such a handsome reward,” I kept telling myself to keep pushing and never lose hope. And finally I was rewarded…
[A mission? Of course there are few that can grant you what you want. However they are dangerous, absolutely dangerous]
Yes! I resisted the urge to clench my fists and shout in triumph when I heard his words. I knew there must be other ways to gain this privilege, and I knew they must be very dangerous.
“I won’t say no to any challenge.”
[This is suicide! Are you this tired of living?]
“I want to help my people and myself on top of that,” I shrugged, “without such a communication system, nothing I do or others do will matter.”
[Hmm… You indeed have a point here] he paused for a few seconds before adding, [Let me ask you this… Do you know why we devised the apocalypse and spread it across the entire universe?]
Of course I asked myself this question before, but had no info to even guess the answer. Yet him asking me this out of the blue seemed a little weird.
“I dunno about that,” I shook my head while honestly replying to him.
[We live in a universe, yet it’s not the only universe in the big cosmos] he started saying such heaven shaking news, [And for a long time we have had many enemies trying to crush our universe and dominate it. The apocalypse is set to train capable warriors, strong enough to survive these brutal wars]
“You are training us?!!” I had to admit I never expected such a thing before, “by killing us?”
[The weak shall perish so the strong can survive] he gave me such a lame excuse, yet I couldn’t refute that logic. [I have a mission under my jurisdiction, and its reward will be that communication system plus other advantages. Are you interested?]
“It’s about this war, right?” This was the only explanation to what he just said. Or else why would he uncover such scary secrets to me?
[Indeed, you have to go and fight for us, for all of us. Achieving the target set up for you will grant you what you want. Overdoing it means more rewards]
“I can’t say no,” I had to accept this, “what is this mission about? When can I start?”
[Not now of course] his answer was swift and decisive, [You are too weak to survive the journey. First let’s finish up with your cultivation, then I’ll give you a list of missions you have to achieve here before being able to receive my mission]
“A chain quest is then,” I once read in the old records about such types of quests. It started with small quests that would pile up in a long line until leading to the final major quest.
Of course these kinds of quests were the most dangerous ones. After all, the chain nature of these quests was designed to train one’s strength and slowly let him achieve it while getting stronger.
[Yes, so you agree?]
“Sure,” I instantly accepted.
[Good. The first quest is a test. You have to succeed in merging with this bone of yours. Of course failure will give you death, and success will grant you a good material that will aid you in the early stages of the cultivation]
“I accept.”
[Good, then let’s start. Tell me, what do you plan to do with this bone? You know it has an immense amount of cultivation power inside]
“Spiritual power, I know about that,” I nodded before adding, “I have a theory in mind that I wanted to test here.”
[Tell me about it then]
“I know this bone has an amount of spiritual power that’s not only immense but also berserk and wild. In normal cases, my soul won’t sustain it and will eventually collapse.”
[That’s true] ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“Then I’m thinking about building a pseudo cultivation body with it.”
[What is that?]
It was finally time to speak about my theory and learn if I could really do it.
“I want to merge the bone with me, but the energy from it will be channelled and used to build another body that’s connected to my soul but it’s not literally my body.”
[Like a clone?] the higher up seemed to understand my point, [But your race doesn’t have such ability. And to build a new body from scratch without the help of your abilities will require a lot of materials, rare and extremely precious materials… It’s an impossible feat! Even an entire lifetime might not be enough for you to achieve it]
“You got me wrong, sir,” I shook my head, “I don’t need to build a new body at all. I already have one.”
[Where?] the higher up paused before adding, [I scanned your things. You don’t have anything but that Curasee race killed body. Don’t tell me you want to use it!]
“I will and won’t,” I vaguely said, “this body of that race has the ability to parasite anything.”
[But it’s a dead body! It has no soul at all!]
“That’s where I want to ask you about,” I came to one of the puzzles I had in my theory, “can I inject a piece of my soul into it?”
[This…] It seemed he never expected me to say this. I knew part of his silence was originating from his refusal to deal with that race.
After all it was a cursed race, a race that worked their best to hinder the sacred mission of the system and the apocalypse.
I now know why such a resistance was treated in such a decisive and oppressive way. Of course the Curasee race weren’t just trying to make a stand or declare their viewpoint towards the brutality of the apocalypse like I thought earlier.
They were trying to help our enemies to invade our universe. They were traitors, in soul and bone.
“I don’t want anything else but to gain the ability to invade other bodies,” I tried to give more explanation so he wouldn’t misunderstand me.
But it seemed what I did turned over me as he roared next, in a tone that held lots of rage:
[Do you want to infest other races’ bodies and use them to merge with this bone? Are you out of your goddamn mind?]
“No no, that’s not what I meant,” I hurriedly said, before adding to correct this big misunderstanding, “what I want is to infest my shadow, turning it into a living thing able to sustain the bone’s spiritual power.”
[Your shadow?!!] His explosive tone calmed down fast.
“Yes, I frankly got the idea from the shadow master I just killed from the illusionist race.”
[But… You aren’t a reincarnator to begin with]
“I know, that’s why I want to use that Curasee useless body in my inventory to make up for this missing step,” he finally got what I wanted to do and started to think on the same line with me.
[This… is one of the craziest ideas I ever heard recently…]
“Will it work?” I didn’t care if it was crazy or not, “Is there a way to transfer part of my soul into this dead body?”
[There is many ways to do so indeed] he said before pausing for few seconds, [I can get you something but you have to pay a price for it]
“I’ll pay.”
[One million soul points for it]
“I can pay that,” at this moment, I was grateful that I didn’t touch my soul point stockpile before starting cultivation. Or else I’d end up regretting that and postponing the entire process.
[It will be painful] the higher up said, [It’s a tool to cut part of your soul. You need to be awake, as that part of the soul will decay fast if you didn’t use it in five minutes]
“I can handle pain.”
[Also you need another item to inject that part into the dead body of the Curasee]
“I’ll pay the price,” at this point I doubted that this higher up was trying to empty my entire reserve of soul points. And his next price proved that to me.
[You need to pay another million soul points]
I looked at my current soul point reserve… It was slightly over two million points by now. “I’ll pay,” but I was ready to do anything and get this process done.
[Then your plan is to cut part of your soul, endure the pain before planting it inside that dead body of the Curasee. Then you’ll take over his abilities and invade your shadow… Who told you your shadow will be enough to sustain the immense berserk spiritual energy from that bone?]
“My shadow can have many shadows linked to it before,” I said what I noticed during my past encounter with that illusionist archlord, “so it must be flexible and have the ability to sustain a dense amount of energy, unlike my true body and soul.”
[Interesting…] he just said that without giving me a clear answer, [But you have to know that even the merge will be with your shadow, your true soul will feel everything. If you lost consciousness during this, the entire process will fail and you’ll die]
Something told me this higher up was originally a merchant! Without the need for him to say anything else, I figured out that he was trying to sell me another item.
“I’ll pay then for any item to help me stay conscious during the process!”
[And that Curasee race body is slightly decayed. You did a great job in killing him but you have to cure it first]
“I’ll pay for that as well!”
Damn! Don’t tell me he was aiming towards everything I got! Come on! My soul reserve has already hit rock bottom. What? Don’t tell me he was aiming at my coins, wealth and my inventory as well? Damn!