SPIRIT SOUL

The Door of Fortification was still shining in the same faint blue hue. The glimmer made Kyle feel confident that he wouldn't run into too many problems.

At least that was what he assumed based on the combat prowess of Arashi and himself.

His Spirit Soul was already at the Late Fortification stage, while Kyle was just a little behind.

But, he would catch up to him soon.

To his dismay, the first hurdle of the very first Trial made him frown deeply as he began to sigh, releasing the frustration that began to accumulate within him.

No sooner had Kyle accessed the moment he stepped through the door, he immediately encountered something he was not good at- a maze.

Nevertheless, he had a rough idea of how he could pass through the Trials.

It was something he had learned when he was young- always taking the left route and sticking to it no matter what.

If he were to encounter a dead-end, he could have to go back to the last intersection and take the second path left before advancing from anew.

After marking the path with the dead-end, he would slowly find his way through the maze.

This path would cost him time and would probably take extremely long if he was unfortunate. But, Kyle had no idea what he was supposed to do other than that.

Mazes were something that couldn't be figured out without seeing the entire form just like a massive jigsaw puzzle. And to his misfortune, Kyle could only see the entrance.

Other than that, his sight was obstructed and he couldn't see anything beyond the walls. They touched the ceiling that was more than five meters in height.

With the rough plan in mind, Kyle only tested out how strong the walls were.

For that, he used the heavy longsword to hit the walls and check the resistance that he met.

And, the walls seemed to be quite strong. Even after using his entire physical strength in a single strike with his sword, Kyle could only create shallow scratches on the hard concrete.

Because of that, he knew that it was not possible for him to cheat.

His hopes of hacking through the walls and creating a shortcut through the maze disappeared.

But that was not a problem, and Kyle stored away from the longsword once again.

So far, he had not encountered any beast.

Thus, he could let go of the weapon and concentrate on finding a way out.

It was eerie to be all alone in the maze that radiated mysteriousness.

However, he had a way to tackle the nervousness.

While walking through the maze, he was eating and drinking to his heart's content.

He was savoring every single food item that the castle had presented to him as a reward.

Meanwhile, Arashi had woken up from his long sleep.

Kyle didn't feel drowsy even after he had eaten his fill.

This was contrary to how it would normally work.

Nevertheless, with enough energy left, Kyle wanted to explore the maze.

After spending some time in it, he realized that it couldn't be as easy to pass through as it seemed.

He had already expected to encounter beasts and all kinds of dangers within the maze.

Though he hadn't come across one didn't mean that the maze was completely devoid of dangers.

He believed he would encounter them sooner or later.

It was only logical to happen, owing to the difficulty of the Tutorial.

Thus, Kyle remained vigilant while and after he had eaten his fill.

An entire hour passed, and Kyle couldn't help but feel annoyed. He had expected to encounter dangerous beasts or deadly traps, but until now, nothing had pooped up unexpectedly.

Due to that, the dreary maze that looked the same no matter where he looked caused Kyle to feel bored.

Fortunately, Kyle knew that this was exactly what the creator of the maze had in mind. The creator probably wanted the challenger to let his guard down.

Thus, he remained vigilant about his surroundings.

For now, he set aside his urge to cultivate.

He wanted to be alert while walking around and cultivating simultaneously would lessen his focus tremendously.

However, he didn't need to feel bad about it. After all, he had Arashi!

Arashi could absorb and convert energy into soul force and give it to him.

And, once Kyle's body was filled, the little Spirit Soul would leave his body to take the lead.

It would then allow Kyle to annex the generated soul force slowly.

That was the plan Kyle had in his mind.

But without knowing how dangerous the maze truly was, it couldn't be called a smart decision to do what he had planned.

As such, he let it be for the moment.

While he was busy thinking, something happened.

As he was moving ahead, he stepped on a particular stone.

Immediately, Kyle sensed faint energy ripples being sent somewhere, causing him to instinctively enter a defensive stance.

Just a fraction of a second later, he noticed two changes in his surroundings.

First, the wall on his left opened just a little to reveal a small hole.

In a matter of a second, an arrow popped out of the hole and was shot at a terrifying velocity that made Kyle frown.

At the same time, the floor in front of him split open, unveiling a several-meter-deep pit with spikes on the ground.

Because of the combination of traps, Kyle's first reaction was to exert the Swift Steps movement technique.

Twisting his body, while taking a step back, only now Kyle realize that the two changes he had perceived hadn't been everything.

Right behind him, another pit had opened up.

And, the only place he could stand on, was a one-meter-long path he was already standing on!

By the time he noticed this, Kyle knew that it was already too late.

The deep pits made him feel momentarily dizzy.

He shot both of his hands on either side while trying to retain his balance, preventing him from falling down.

Slipping on the path would mean instant death. Luckily, Kyle's instincts saved his life once again.

He instinctively released his entire soul force, while activating his wind affinity, creating a fierce wind, which he blasted towards the arrow.

It was nothing complex, but sheer brute force, against the dangers of the arrow's velocity and the power it had been shot with.

Fortunately, the arrow's strength and velocity were comparable to being shot with a Mid Ranked bow. Under normal circumstances, this would be unable to kill him.

As such, he had first acted instinctively, only to alter the arrow's advance the moment it collided with the fierce wind.

Flying past him, it hit the maze's wall next to him, only to be deflected by it before falling to the ground.

Afterward, nothing happened for the next minute.

Then, slowly the spiked pits were once again covered by the maze's concrete ground.

Despite the cover, Kyle didn't immediately advance.

Instead, he intently looked at the ground in front of him and tried to come up with ideas to save himself if he were to fall into a spiked pit.

This shouldn't happen as long as he was careful enough. But problems could occur much faster than one expected.

Thus, Kyle continued his advance, when he was confident that nothing could go wrong.

He could not be certain of the same, but so far his gut feeling and careful advancement had kept him alive and safe.

There hadn't been a single major incident during the following days.

In the end, there had been hundreds of traps, and all kinds of Undead beings that were roaming the maze, but nothing could stop him until now as he advanced in a seemingly simple manner.

The traps were not lethal enough to force him to act desperately and make mistakes because of that. Meanwhile, the Skeletons were at most at the Mid Fortification stage, and always less than 30 in number.

Nevertheless, all of this was hindering his advance, and Kyle felt that he was too slow in crossing the first Trial.

However, that was not a problem because he wasn't lacking anything that could force him to rush through the maze.

Kyle was not sure if that was intentional, but there was no way someone could have expected to encounter a food shortage if one didn't own the Unlimited Supply rune or a large stock of preservable food.

While the days had passed without major incidents, Kyle had finally reached the Late Fortification stage.

This was a great achievement for him, and he was even more delighted to check the vessel's state. He assumed that it was 70% completed, which was another good news!

With that information, Kyle could roughly gauge how long it would take him to enter the Vitae stage.

To his surprise, it was much sooner than he had planned.

And all of that was because Arashi had evolved!

The evolution had both begun and completed much sooner than Kyle had expected.

As such, his rough plan about what he had to do next went for a toss.

However, he chuckled humorlessly to recall that his plans had been scrapped days ago.

All of his planning and strategy evaporated into thin air, the moment they had encountered the Tenux storm.

It was the reason for all kinds of mysterious events to happen.

It was also the reason why he was now inside an Inheritance Site that was filled with all kinds of undead beings.

Even if he didn't want the inheritance of some being that had to do with the undead there was no reason for him to reject the rewards he could obtain.

He hadn't come here of his own free will or choice. So why should he fight for his life in every single trial and not take the rewards?

Inheritances of powerful beings were always a mystery and could be all kinds of things.

As such, one would only be able to figure out what they were when one had passed all trials.

However, there was an unofficial rule about inheritance.

Each trial was designed quite unique because they tested all kinds of things.

They required the most unique knowledge about specific themes that had to do with the final inheritance.

And if one was alert, he could easily pick the hints scattered all around the trials to figure out what the final inheritance was.

This had been another reason for him to purchase the tome about the Castle's history and heritage.

Fortunately, Kyle's first assumption of the inheritance had been proven correct.

He inferred this based upon the clues about the heritage, such as the death aura that swept through the entire castle, the crowds of undead beings he faced, and much more.

He still didn't know what the inheritance was.

But it was possibly a cultivation technique that focused on immortality obtained through the rejection of life itself.

However, it might as well be a technique that explained how Undead cores were created, with the additional techniques that were required to bind souls to it.

Kyle didn't like that, but the castle's creator wouldn't care if he liked it or not.

The only thing Kyle could do was to pass through the trials and obtain whatever he could reap.

He was already annoyed that he had been separated from Selene, and also the Jars.

Thus the more rewards, the better Kyle would feel.

'I shouldn't waste too much time inside the trials… Otherwise, Selene would advance by leaps and bounds, leaving me behind just because I'm occupied with different things!'

Though Kyle worried about it, he knew that this wouldn't happen.

He believed in his bond with Selene.

Furthermore, he had yet to nurture her cultivation veins, allowing her to reach an even higher cultivation speed.

It was more likely that he would become stronger than her by using Arashi's terrifyingly high energy absorption and conversion rate!

He didn't think that it would be possible to leave the mysterious place he had been teleported to for the time being.

This was sad, but Kyle felt that the consciousness that had been sealed within the golden glowing black scale had been passively helping him.

Even if he couldn't be certain about this because the mysterious woman sounded as if she wanted to play with him, there had been a specific tone in her voice.

Due to this, he believed that something didn't add up.

Furthermore, if she had wanted entertainment, she could have teleported him to a different and more dangerous area.

But that hadn't been the case, and Kyle was fully aware of this.

Despite the seemingly dangerous beasts that had been hibernating inside the swamp, he was alive.

In the end, he had been forced inside the Castle, without being able to retaliate.

This was extremely annoying and mostly based on the fact that his cultivation was too low.

Additionally, his sheer will hadn't been enough to restrict the castle's strong pull.

Maybe, the mysterious woman had wanted him to encounter the castle.

If he thought about it, it was not unlikely in his opinion.

But Kyle couldn't tell what exactly it was that she required from him.

Was it his talent, owing to the combination of possessing a Spirit Soul and the Nurture ability, or did she have something else in mind?

There was no way for him to know a definite answer yet.

But Kyle's earlier assumption about the mysterious woman's intention had hit bull's eye.

She didn't care about entertainment at all.

And the only thing she had tried to do was to help him.

She had sensed that he could become a dangerous force against those beings she had also faced in the past!

What Kyle was also oblivious to, were the changes that had occurred inside the Sadorla forest and adjacent Kingdoms.

After the flower had grown inside the center of the Sadorla forest, it had led to the growth of mutated crops.

Not only had the Tenux storm materialized, but the other kingdoms around had noticed the existence of the unique flower.

With some research, they had found out its use which spread through like wildfire.

Not long after, all of the kingdoms wanted the flower for themselves.

As such, several more races, and kingdoms were clearly showing signs of infiltrating the Sadorla forest. It was an open piece of land and not claimed by any of the three adjacent races.

With that in mind, the Lahin, Thunderclaw and Razgra kingdoms had been forced to enter a truce with each other.

This had been done in an attempt to prevent the other kingdoms from obtaining what they had been trying to claim for themselves.

Having two opponents that were roughly as strong as themselves was much better than having multiple more rivals that had the same goal.

Unfortunately, the truce between the three kingdoms broke before it was even fully established.

Neither the other races nor the kingdoms were stupid enough to believe that it would be useful to claim a territory that was not adjacent to their own kingdom.

Too many problems could occur, and having an alliance with an adjacent kingdom would solve this and many other problems.

As such, war was bound to break out, and the already ice-thin layer of balance would soon crumble to pieces.

Meanwhile, Kyle had no idea about the turbulent times the Sadorla forest had entered while he was encountering the first major incident within the castle's maze.