SPIRIT SOUL

As all six souls of the deceased mooses were at the Initial phase of the Vitae stage, Kyle had more than enough to start experimenting.

This was even more so the case because they were at the same cultivation base as he was.

This made them the ideal choice for testing things.

Thus, after they had been stored inside the Soul storage, Kyle and Beatrice stored the corpses of the few mooses before he took a look at her.

He was not sure if she was fine, or if she had problems with anything after her combat prowess had suddenly been increased by a large margin.

Luckily, everything seemed to be fine, and when Beatrice saw him throw her a worried glance, she couldn't help but smile while trying to hide her exhaustion.

"I was a little bit too excited to fight living opponents, don't bother about my condition. That's just a momentary weakened state…I forgot that I lost my entire cultivation, so I overdid it a little bit, and ended up like that!"

She seemed nonchalant, but Kyle could clearly perceive that she was everything but fine.

Because of that, he hastened up his experiment by releasing one soul at the Initial Vitae stage after another.

Through this, he wanted to test out his body's limit of devouring souls at the same stage.

In the end, he found out that it were only three, which were neither high nor low.

But Kyle couldn't be bothered about that because his limit changed the moment he used the soul particles of the three devoured souls to empower his Nurture ability.

Following that, he released the remaining souls from the Soul storage.

The number of souls flowing out of his body was an indicator that it had turned into an endless pit.

As long as he could transfer his soul particles into an supply of energy for the Nurture ability, he could store a gigantic number of said particles.

This was interesting, but, at the same time, the Soul storage had certain advantages the Nurture ability couldn't make use of.

One of these advantages was that soul particles were better as nourishment for a Spirit Soul growth.

That had been one reason why Kyle had chosen the Soul storage as a reward from the Razkadan castle, allowing him to store souls within it.

However, even more, important for him was that the Soul storage was a clue to turn seemingly inconspicuous items into storage for souls!

Ever since wielding Nitran's Scythe, he had become interested in procuring items that could store the souls of the beings he killed. It freed him from the need to grasp them as he was currently forced to do.

If he were to fight hundreds of opponents, he would lose too many souls at once.

He only had two hands and no matter how hard he tried, the period before they ascended was too short for him to switch between killing, grasping the souls, and continuing to fight.

With that in mind, Kyle knew that he would have to research how to replicate the Scythe's effect to store the soul of a beast the moment it was killed.

Yet, he also knew that this was something that had he would have to work on for a few years.

His knowledge was too shallow to forge a weapon like the Reaper's Scythe, even if he wanted to solely copy the soul storing function.

As such, the Soul storage was the best device for him…as of now.

Using some of his nurture ability, he invigorated Beatrice.

There was a visible change in her as her weakened state was quickly dispersed.

But, oddly enough it required the energy two souls of the Initial Vitae stage had provided.

This was something Kyle hadn't expected, but it didn't bother him as long as Beatrice would be able to move without any issues.

With that in mind, he used the remainder of the energy left from his initial pool of the Nurture ability for Arashi's growth, further accelerating it.

Afterward, Kyle made use of a trace of soul force his soul core had replenished to empower the Nurture ability, and to be able to perceive the hues of beings that could be nurtured by him.

This function of his ability was too powerful to be wasted, after all!

Leaving the small battlefield, they approached the center of the green Miasma that was becoming thicker the closer they came.

Kyle believed that they would find something special in the center.

Now, even Beatrice was slowly growing convinced that his prediction was correct.

That was only the case because they found a few more places where the surroundings had been terraformed. There were certain structures built around and all of them were radiating the green Miasma.

Despite being able to see this, Beatrice was unable to tell what exactly the origin of the Miasma was.

In the end, even Kyle was not sure of it.

Though, he was able to perceive more than Beatrice owing to the hues that permeated the green Miasma tightly.

Thus, he was able to see that the green Miasma was not produced in or near the structures, but that something, most likely a pipe, led the Miasma to the structures.

Seeing the Miasma pressed together underground and leading towards the structures, Kyle was even more interested in the question about who created the Miasma and structures.

Everything looked extremely old, to the extent that they resembled ancient ruins.

Furthermore, the structures under the ground he presumed to pipe were all leading towards the center of the Miasma, the thickest area, through which he was unable to see.

However, that was what he could only see through his naked eye.

Even though his sight was restricted to the point that the Nurture ability only allowed him to see the hues of the beings he could nurture, he was able to see many more hues behind the green Miasma!

This was only something he spotted when they came closer to the Miasma.

Only now did they notice that there was more behind the Miasma than they had first thought.

Thus, Kyle's belief that someone had created the Miasma to protect a certain area or place, was imprinted in his mind, even if it had yet to be proven.

The green Miasma could be a natural occurrence, after all.

And there was the possibility that a few individuals were making use of it to spread it through pipes, releasing them inside different structures.

Whether these individuals wanted to protect, or hide something didn't matter to Kyle or Beatrice.

All they wanted to do was to procure information about the Lahin kingdom's location.

Other than that, Kyle felt that the mutation of the unique flower that was located in the Sadorla forest, couldn't be underestimated.

There were too many unknown variables and factors Kyle didn't know about the flower.

He didn't even know what the flower could do, what the mutation was, so he knew almost nothing about it except its existence.

But considering that the three kingdoms adjacent to the Sadorla forest had wanted to claim the forest for themselves, without letting anyone know, it was not difficult to figure out that the flower was more valuable than he initially thought.

With that in mind, he believed that the mutation and the irregular Tenux storm were two factors that might have attracted the attention of other races and kingdoms.

If this were to be true, it was rather disadvantageous, which caused Kyle to feel a little bit restless for the last few months.

However, before he hadn't been able to pay any attention to his worries.

Rather, Kyle had to use his utmost efforts to survive, which had been his highest priority.

It was only logical to prioritize one's life above anything else.

But, after he left the flying island, his mind was distracted more often than usual.

In most cases, he wondered if Selene was fine, and how the situation in the Sadorla forest was, just like today.

But soon they both entered the thick green Miasma that held back beings without mana.

After inserting more soul particles into the Nurture ability, Kyle could see the hues of other beings more clearly. It was to the extent that the closest hues formed a hazy outline around the beings.

This allowed him and Beatrice, whom he warned, to keep their calm when they emerged from the thick green Miasma.

No sooner had they stepped out of the dense cloud, they spotted a being waiting for them.

It was tall and had long, scaled legs, a bulky upper body, and a reptilian head that was highlighted by horns that protruded from either side of its head.

However, oddly enough the face of the being looked more humane than Kyle expected.

In fact, the entire being, despite its weird proportions, the scales, and the tail that he saw only now, Kyle couldn't help but feel that there were more human-like races than he had first assumed.

'Even in my past life, the majority of races were either formless, could choose and change their form according to their needs with only a few prerequisites.

They were oddly, or human-like, or at least similar to humans in certain aspects!'

Kyle had never been sure of what this meant, but even in his past life, he believed that the body of humans must be the most suitable to survive in the vast universe.

He wasn't sure if the intelligence of races and their form had a connection, but he seriously doubted it.

However, what he could say for sure was that the form of humans was suitable for a balanced life.

Being a human allowed him to do all multiple things with his hands, including to forge weapons that could replace natural weapons of beasts, and other kinds of things.

Despite this belief, Kyle had difficulties accepting that so many races had evolved in a similar way.

It may not be the same, but it was still intriguing enough for him to be interested in the being in front of him.

The being seemed to have two cultivation veins, but only the path of Maest seemed to have awoken.

It was both an interesting, and a worrisome factor.

After seeing this, Kyle took back his earlier assumption that the possible creator of the green Miasma was a genius.

''Will we encounter individuals that only awoke the Pryr cultivation vein?... Probably not. They must have been exiled or died, I guess?''

As he kept mumbling to himself, a few seconds of awkward silence passed between Beatrice, him, and the inhabitant of the settlement they had entered.

Only after a few moments, did Kyle regain his senses, which allowed him to use a second or two to make up his mind about a way to start a conversation.

"Hello Sir! I have to apologize for the sudden intrusion. My name is Kyle, and this is my companion, Beatrice. We come from far away and are on a journey through the Shalivra valley.

On our way, we were searching for signs of a settlement, which is how we ended up here! I hope we did not cause any inconvenience, but if this may be the case, I sincerely apologize, and we will leave immediately."

Bowing lightly, Kyle tried to be as polite in his request as possible.

But, the human-like being just stared at him as if he was an alien as it began to speak.

"Fasdro Malig Kadarn!"

When Kyle heard this, he felt dumbfounded for a moment.

The being in front of him was speaking in the ancient language using one of the oldest dialects at that.

As such, despite having learned little of the ancient language from Beatrice during the last few weeks, Kyle could hardly understand him.

He strained his memory to recall what he knew of the ancient language and what the distinct dialect could mean.

Adapting was not an issue because Beatrice's ancient language was spoken in different dialects as well as the five old Undeads had all taught her.

Thus, it was not much of an issue to converse with the being.

But, before Kyle could even start speaking, Beatrice had already intervened, translating what Kyle had said to the ancient language.

Despite hating to bow, she did it, knowing that it was a necessary formality, and something she couldn't skip. After all, they had entered an unknown territory, the settlement of a race she had never heard of.

Right now, her own strength was not enough to act arrogant in front of them!

Seeing that Beatrice was able to talk with him, the being averted his attention from Kyle to her.

Yet, his expression did not change as his words remained the same.

"We don't accept outsiders!"

Frowning a bit, Beatrice gave a depressed sigh.

Though she had understood it the first time already, she had hoped to hear a different answer.

Kyle understood the words of the being later which caused him to contemplate inwardly.

Nevertheless, he acted as if he was oblivious to his words as he asked in the ancient language.

"Can you, at least, tell us the direction to the Sadorla forest, or Lahin kingdom? We got lost on our path, and are trying to find a way out of the gigantic forest! This settlement was the only sign of intelligent lifeforms we came across. Please help us out!"

However, it were these words that caused the being to stare at Kyle in astonishment as he asked,

"You...two were not accidentally drawn to this place…but voluntarily entered it?"