Adam looked above him and saw Ardrith with his wings unfurled, flying above him. His face looked exhausted, it had obviously taken quite a lot from him to stop this attack.
Now that he was free of danger, Adam could look around him… and he was a little disappointed. He expected a room full of all kinds of treasures, but it was nothing like this.
They were currently standing in a black cube like room, and the only thing in the room was a red vial on a table. Above him, Ardrith said "Don't worry, the treasury of that Evil God has been placed somewhere else. Once you take control of this tower, you will be able to get everything he ever owned."
Adam nodded and approached the table, and took the vial in his hand.
[Xarnin's Blood] (Quest Item)
Description: Give this to the Vampire King for a handsome reward.
Now sure this was the item he needed to bring to the Vampire King, the cure to their curse, Adam quickly put it in his inventory. Although he didn't know how they were going to cure so many people with such a little vial, that wasn't his problem.
He then looked at Ardrith and asked "Now, how can I refine this artifact and make it mine." Ardrith got down to the ground and said "You need to fuse your spirit with the tower, just like I did. Normally it would take you years to refine a Divine Artifact, but because I already most of the job you only have to connect your spirit with mine, and I will be able to transfer the ownership of the tower to you."
Adam asked "Don't you only own a part of the tower?" Ardrith nodded and replied "I do, but I refined the hardest part. If you can control the part I control, you will naturally control the rest of the tower since you are a living person. Now, are you ready?"
Adam nodded with a passive face, showing no excitement over acquiring a Divine Artifact. Ardrith felt Adam was a little weird, but he didn't pick on it as he was too excited. He was finally going to get what he wanted for so many years.
He approached Adam and moved his hand towards Adam's forehead and said "All you need to do is to accept the link I will start to form." Adam nodded and felt something poke his mind.
Although he never really used his mind in such ways and didn't know how to use his mind, he instinctively knew what to do, and soon his and Ardrith's spirit were connected.
As they did, Adam started feeling a new connection form, over the room that surrounded them.
However, as Adam was connecting deeper and deeper with the tower, he felt Ardrith's spirit draw dangerously close to his own, and he asked "What are you doing?"
Ardrith, who had maintained a smile until now, had his face turn crazed as he said "You fool, it is too late now. I will take your magnificent body and…"
However, he didn't even get to finish his sentence when a giant transparent hand appeared on Adam's back and grabbed Ardrith. Ardrith didn't even see it move as it grabbed around him. The hand forcefully pulled Ardrith away from Adam, stopping him from doing whatever he wanted to.
Ardrith tried to move away and destroy the hand, but he was paralyzed by the hand. If he were alive, his face would have paled as he felt the grave danger he was in.
Adam looked at the spirit, and the hand started clenching harder and harder. Ardrith felt an indescribable pain as he shouted "Stop! Don't!"
Adam stopped the hand's movement, and said "Indeed, I want to ask you something. First, who are you? Xarnin or Ardrith?"
The spirit gritted his teeth and said "I really am Ardrith." Adam nodded, and said "So your plan was to absorb my soul, strengthening your own, and take possession of my body… Well, you can die now."
Ardrith screamed "Don't kill me! If you do, I will destroy this tower." Unfortunately for Ardrith, Adam was clear minded, and greed wasn't one of his flaws.
"I don't care." With those words, Adam clenched his hand forcefully, destroying Ardrith spirit, effectively killing him. As he did so, he received several notifications, but his surroundings also started trembling.
Adam ran to one of the walls, and tried to make the exit appear. Unfortunately, no door appeared, making him sigh. He already expected this. But he didn't have a choice.
Letting Ardrith live would endanger his soul, while he only his body would die if he was destroyed alongside the tower. He would rather lose a level rather than endanger his soul and possibly die for real.
However, as Adam was getting ready to die, the wall in front of him shifted a bit, and a hand print appeared. After hesitating for a second, Adam put his hand on the hand print.
As he did so, he felt something pierce through the skin of his hand, drawing out a little blood. Adam couldn't even take his hand off as it was firmly held in place by a strange force, but he wouldn't even if he could.
After a moment, the trembling gradually stopped as Adam started feeling his connection with the tower deepen. He couldn't exactly tell how, but he somehow knew he was now out of danger.
Since his hand was still stuck to the wall, he decided he could now read the messages he had received from the system.
[You have killed 'Spirit of Ardrith'!]
[You have failed the quest 'Save Ardrith'!]
[You have completed the hidden quest 'Kill the Undead Emperor's Spirit'! Head to the Holy Temple to receive your reward.]
[You have completed the quest 'Clear the Blood Tower'! Go see the Vampire King to receive your reward.]
[You have formed a connection with the Divine Artifact 'Blood Tower', binding in process.]
As he read the five messages, Adam finally had a smile plaster on his face. The hidden quest was a pleasant surprise, he wondered what he would get from it. From the start he hadn't trusted Ardrith, it was the spirit of the Undead Emperor after all.
That's why, when he reached the Floor filled with spirits, he decided to train on one more skill.
Spirit Hand (A): Form a hand with your spirit. Can be used to manipulate still objects, if used against a living body stun them for two seconds and deal 200% of spirit damage, and if used directly against a spirit, they become defenseless if their spirit is weaker than yours, and suffer 5000% spirit damage if they are stronger. Cost: Spirit Exhaustion.
This was a great skill to use against a spirit, and he had prepared it specifically for Ardrith. As for it's cost, it wasn't as bad as it sounded. All the skill did was form a hand with his spirit, so just like when he used his body, using it for too long would tire him.
Here, [Spirit Hand] was the same, the longer he used it, the more his spirit would be exhausted, but he only had to rest to heal his spirit to it's best state.
Moreover, learning this skill indeed was a good surprise as it allowed him to grasp the Sovereign Concept of Spirit, an arcane concept that few people in this world mastered.
Since it seemed it would take some time for the binding process to finish, Adam also sent a look at his status, which had changed quite a lot since he entered this tower. Not in term of stats of course, but rather skills and concepts.
Name: Valiant Heart
Level: 45
Title: Strith's Champion
Race: Northman
Class: Aqua Sovereign
Rank: Bronze
HP: 150000/150000
Aura: 157578/157578
Strength (+30 per level): 3900 (14400)
Agility (+10 per level): 2430 (11140)
Endurance (+10 per level): 2430 (11390)
Will: 2920 (12310)
Free AP: 0
Rules: -Sovereign Concept of Water (3%) Elemental manipulation
-Sovereign Concept of Fire (2.2%) Elemental manipulation
-Sovereign Concept of Self (1.4%) Makes attack and defense x% stronger
-Sovereign Concept of Sword (2%) Makes attack 2*x% stronger with a sword
-Advanced Concept of Gale (1%) Elemental manipulation
-Sovereign Concept of Spirit (1.8%) Soul becomes x% stronger
Skills: -Mighty Strike (E)
-Water Breathing (E)
-Aqua Slash (D)
-Charge (D)
-Wind Blade (D)
-Parry (D)
-Lunar Smite (C)
-Swift Steps (B)
-Aqua Smite (B)
-Crushing Blow (C)
-Ice Statue (B)
-Whirlwind Slash (C)
-Totemic Rage (A)
-Barbarous Roar (B)
-Misty Escape (B)
-Great Ice Breath (B)
-Tidal Wave (A)
-Ice Crunch (A)
-Spirit Hand (A)
For his skills, the mastery of each skill had disappeared as he had perfectly mastered all of his skills. As for his stats, they were even better than they seemed since he also received a 28% boost to each of them thanks to the Godslayer's Heart.
Ten minutes quickly went by after that, when Adam received one final notification.
[Binding Successful! The Divine Artifact 'Blood Tower' is now bound to you! Do you want to see it's effects?]
Adam grinned as he accepted readily.