Noctis quickly calmed down and noticed that daylight had shone onto the alcove that he was in, which indicated that it was already sometime in the morning. He sat back down and circulated the natural energy of the world to check the overall state of his body.
To not much of his surprise, his arm fully healed and he also had broken through to the Third Level of the Mortal Blood realm!
Noctis couldn't help but lightly smile because he had gained huge benefits during the time that he was in the Insight World. Not only did he comprehend more into the 'Qi Essence' insight and had reached the initial stage for the 'Berserk Might' insight, but his cultivation base had broken through once again.
Not even a full day had passed since he broke through to the Second Level of the Mortal Blood realm after pressuring himself to fight the large groups of Forest Wild Boars much earlier in the day. In addition, Noctis realized that being in the life and death struggle against the Silver Dire Wolf had also played a huge role in advancing to the next cultivation level.
The biggest gain to take out of all this was that Noctis's strength was directly amplified thanks to being in the initial stage of the 'Berserk Might' insight. This not only increases his chances of survival, but this allowed him to evenly fight against an opponent that was one higher level than him!
There was a clear difference between fighting an opponent that is from the 100 Races compared to fighting a creature. Noctis was able to easily kill the Forest Wild Boars because of his quick and decisive movements, as well as his combat ability. This was about the same when he was able to kill the Silver Dire Wolf despite it being a higher level than him, but the major factor was that he landed one major killing blow and had to go through an intense struggle right afterwards.
Both times were against creatures that had limited intelligence and abilities, which means that Noctis was able to overall handle them because he had the power of insight! It is known that only certain creatures have the ability to utilize the power of insight, but they are very high-leveled and extremely hard to come across.
Noctis would have to adapt a very different style of combat against an opponent that was from the 100 Races because he couldn't underestimate their intelligence and abilities! Every cultivator that Noctis comes across would mean that not only do they have the power of insight, but they could utilize it in different ways if they had certain techniques or skills for it!
This is where the 'Berserk Might' insight truly shines because Noctis would be able to ignore this gap in strength. The berserk attribute would allow the individual to have an explosive increase in overall power, which was actually a permanent effect!
It is a mysterious, yet dominant insight that is very rare to comprehend in all of the 100 Races… even research has not fully developed an explanation as to why it even grants such a huge increase in strength, but one thing for sure is that the cultivators who have comprehended it would similarly feel the effect it had on their mind and bodies.
The 'Berserk Might' insight is actually like a double-edged sword in that it would greatly affect one's mind and body in exchange for great power. Upon use, the individual could become insane as if the mind would act up in a disordered manner, while the state of energies throughout the body would flare up and become chaotic. There are times when a cultivator would be unable to control themselves after continuous uses, and would result in something known as 'Bloodlust Crave.'
The 'bloodlust crave' is self-explanatory and it only occurs when the cultivator had completely lost themselves and becomes deprived of basic cognitive abilities. They essentially become a blood-craved beast and turns into an extreme danger to society since they can't distinguish between enemy or ally. This turns into a point where instead of being the hunter, they become the hunted! Since comprehension towards this insight is already a rare accomplishment, it would mean that one's name would become quite well known… but this would evidently work against that individual if they would ever fall into the 'bloodlust crave.'
Noctis knew all about this before he even accessed the 'Berserk Might' grand temple and had activated the initial stage pillar during the last few minutes in the Insight World. He wasn't worried at all that he would lose his mind and fall into the 'bloodlust crave' because he had Old Great One Animo's inheritance!
Old Great One Animo had focused its entire all-mighty existence towards the overall aspect of the power within the mind, so how could its inheritor fall into such a ridiculous thing!?
Noctis had an enormous advantage regarding the 'Berserk Might' insight that all the other cultivators who have comprehended it didn't possess. Old Great One Animo's inheritance granted him a bridge connection between his mind and body, so it practically negated any long continuous effects that would solely affect one over the other.
Noctis would initially feel the consequences upon activating the 'Berserk Might' insight, but there was definitely no way for him to fall into the 'bloodlust crave.' He would have plenty of enough time and chances for him to get used to the drawbacks to his mind and body, so he generally didn't care about it and thought more about the positive aspect!
Noctis spent some time stabilizing his cultivation base before he stood up again and spoke to Spirit Magi,
"Let's go… it's time for us to move again. Unfortunately, I fell off the cliff with the Silver Dire Wolf, so I might as well spend some time around this area before going back up again. I want to see if I can make another breakthrough!"
Noctis resolutely said as he began to move forward, and Spirit Magi closely followed from behind before calmly replying,
["It seems that you have gotten great benefits from the Insight World… you have only spent a couple of minutes in there, but you have found a way to maximize it to your interests. Although I am a spirit created by the Old Great One Animo, I do not know everything regarding the Insight World. I think it is because the all-mighty being wanted the inheritor to uncover the secrets of that world by themself… it should be best this way!"]
Noctis nodded in response to Spirit Magi's words as the spirit was floating around him. He spent a couple of minutes walking and discovered that the area that he was in was reminiscent of the forest region before he had fallen off the cliff. He didn't think much of it before he was able to find more animals, specifically Forest Wild Boars that he had already encountered.
Noctis didn't spend much effort and was able to simply deal with them along the way. He realized that they were much easier to fight against since he had gotten stronger and his cultivation base had increased to the Third Level of the Mortal Blood realm. Due to this increase, he had a slightly bigger supply of qi essence and his regeneration of it was faster.
He spent some more time exploring in this forest area before he had found a landmark!
Noctis walked past the few remaining trees in his way and had arrived at a spacious area with just a single tall and bulky tree. This tree was unlike any of the trees he had seen because not only was it noticeable due to its massive size, but it had a unique physical appearance!
It was an oak tree, but its tree trunk was much grayer than usual and there were occasional black spots all around it. Its twigs looked as if they intertwined and superimposed on one another which extended to about 10-20 meters in length, and could seemingly blot out the sun if one were to stand right underneath it. Some of its roots even popped out of the ground and made it look like they were branches that were scattered in all directions. The most eye-catching about this tree was its orange-red leaves, which could easily be spotted from miles away. All the other trees around this forest area had green leaves, which made Noctis think that this tree was most likely planted a long time ago.
Noctis arrived near the tree and decided to circle around it, but once he went behind it, he discovered something which made him become very surprised… he had actually discovered a corpse!
Noctis furrowed his brows and kneeled right beside it in order to closely observe it. He determined that it was a man and that he must've died a couple of years ago since the corpse had largely decayed, but wasn't at a point where it was practically just dry bones. The man was also a soldier… and a rather high-ranking one as well because Noctis was able to recognize the uniform that the corpse was wearing.
It had belonged to the Greenwich Kingdom under the Solaire Empire!
In the other side of Mount Trinity was the border to Greenwich Kingdom, so Noctis was able to deduce that if a soldier's corpse that belonged to Greenwich Kingdom was here, then he was much closer to its borders rather than the borders of Hayden Kingdom.
Noctis didn't understand why there was a single corpse that had belonged to Greenwich Kingdom be right beside this unique-looking tree, but what he did know about the kingdom was that it had a long conflict against Hayden Kingdom. He thought to himself that these two kingdoms were most likely still fighting over control of Mount Trinity…
Noctis thought up of a more important matter, so he didn't think about anything else, before rummaging through the corpse for loot. Shortly after, he was able to find an emblem badge that belonged to Greenwich Kingdom and a folded note that only had smudge of dirt on it.
He placed the emblem badge on the ground before holding up the folded note in his hands and patted away the dirt. Noctis faintly smiled and then opened the note before reading the content inside:
"As the moonlight shines from the southeastern skies,
A mirage appears within the beauty of a waterfall's rise,
Gather insight within the depths to cut the ties,
All to gain the holy item as a prize."
Noctis widened his eyes and couldn't help but read through the note several times, but he felt like the more he read it, the more he became thoroughly confused!
He didn't expect that the note would actually be a puzzle at all!
Noctis wondered why the soldier would even have this note in the first place, but he was still very curious about it because it clearly led to the location of a great treasure!
There were only a few clues that he could point out: moonlight would indicate that it was night time and the main location would have to be near a waterfall that…rises? He also had to gather insight, but he didn't know of which type and that he had to dive within the depths to cut off some sort of ties… cut off ties to the mirage?
Noctis didn't want to believe that the general location would be near a waterfall because there were countless of waterfalls in the Dawnfire World! He could only arrive at the fact that he found this note in the corpse's body that is still within Mount Trinity, so if anything, the location would have to be in the waterfalls in Mount Trinity, which would greatly shorten his search to a few of them.
Noctis helplessly sighed, but at least he now had a goal in mind and was willing to go through with it. If he was able to find this 'holy item,' then he wondered what would happen… he hoped that it was something that would increase his overall strength!
He picked up the emblem badge from the ground and decided to store it inside the Fallen Space-Time Chasm, along with the puzzle note that he still had no answers to. Noctis thought to himself that he probably would read through it again in the future if he gained an idea…
Noctis slowly stood up and was about to leave the area, but then he realized that the corpse strangely didn't have a weapon on it. The corpse was naturally from a male soldier, so that person should have carried a weapon when he was still alive, but there wasn't any near the body.
Noctis slightly frowned because if he found a weapon, then it would greatly increase his combat ability!
He didn't give up and searched the surrounding area before finding what seemed like a metal spear that was several meters away from the corpse, but the pointed tip was firmly stuck to the ground. Noctis moved closer to it and pulled the long shaft to free the spear. He became successful, but he wasn't happy about it because he soon realized that the metal spear was very rusty and looked as if it was ready to break at any moment!
Noctis didn't want to keep it, but at the same time he wondered if he could somehow restore it in the nearby future. He closed his eyes and was about to store it in the Fallen Space-Time Chasm, but then he suddenly heard Spirit Ster's voice,
"Wait a damn minute, kid! Didn't I say that only small objects could fit in the Fallen Space-Time Chasm!? If my eyes are correct, in what goddamn way is this long spear you have here a short object huh? There's absolutely no way something like this could – wait what!? I-Impossible, how did it fit!?" |
Spirit Ster's voice cut off at the end because Noctis had actually been able to store the rusty metal spear inside!
Noctis ignored Spirit Ster's questions while it was ranting, but then casually replied to the spirit as it was still dumb-struck,
"I felt that I could store it inside the Fallen Space-Time Chasm… didn't you say that I was its owner, therefore I would have the strongest connection to it?" Noctis gave out a smirk and didn't continue before he left the surrounding area, but had caused Spirit Ster to still remain speechless…