Once ‹Grey Plague Assimilation› was used, the flesh of the dead bandit started to rot at a visible rate, it was like a disease hidden within his bloodline flared up and started going through a lethal mutation. Once faint wisps of grey smoke began forming, Kale stepped back and drank some energy replenishing potions to recover the lost energy, the grey smoke was using the corpses around it as fuel to grow on its own.
"Go get some bags from the tent, and also pack the loot, we are going to move soon," Kale reminded Fynn who was intently looking at the unnatural phenomenon of grey smoke, his eyes carried fear, wariness, nervousness and mostly curiosity.
The things he saw in the last few hours were completely different from the ones he had seen before. Especially, Kale, who looked like a teenager but had the temperament and means of a mysterious old veteran.
***
The Ghost Lady controlled the fragile body of the woman as she walked through the tunnel used for mining, after walking for several minutes she arrived at the place she was looking for. On her right, she saw a naturally made hole blocked by several stones.
She removed the stones one by one, once the opening was big enough for her to move in, she sneaked in and slowly proceeded.
Inside the cave, a lengthy snake, big as an adult anaconda in terms of size was quietly sleeping. Suddenly, it opened its eyes and raised its head, the snake hissed, a long forked tongue came out of its mouth and smelled the air.
The snake smelled the fragrance of the woman's flesh and its appetite was triggered, due to keeping an eye on the eggs it wasn't able to hunt for prey for quite some time.
The snake was still pondering if it should move for the hunt when it saw round stones rolling down from the small entrance of the cave. The snake got enraged, with its limited intelligence the snake thought that the woman was trying to attack it using those stones from the other side, burring it inside.
The hungry appetite affected the snake's reasoning and boosted its anger. The snake acted, it decided to hunt the woman, the snake quickly came out of the entrance of the cave but by that time, the woman had already noticed it and ran away, although she fled as fast as could, she was still a mortal, the snake knew that it chased after her at a quick speed.
The chasing was continued for a few minutes, then the snake finally found its target, it opened its mouth and exhaled, the green mist came out its mouth and moved towards the woman, it was a simple attack, and yet, it cut all the escape routes of the woman and turned her skin green at the touch, the woman fainted on spot and fell to the ground.
The snake happily coiled its body around her, crushing her bones and rupturing her organs, after making sure she died, the snake opened its mouth and swallowed her whole body at once, as a result, its belly inflated and a bulge appeared on its body. The snake then slowly headed back towards its nest, completely unaware of the fact that the controller of the woman's body was floating above its head.
On the way, the snake smelled something very awful while hissing, it looked up and saw a stream of grey smoke all over the ceiling, it felt something wrong and hurried on its way. When it reached the entrance hole leading to the cave, it was furious because the snake saw that grey smoke was filling the entrance of the cave.
The bad smell from the smoke was making it want to throw up the prey it had swallowed, but the snake was stubborn, it held on and barged into the smoke wall, just then, although its white scales remained unaffected, its eyes started to hurt like someone pinched lemon juice in them.
This was most the grey smoke could do. ‹Grey Plague Assimilation› was a strong technique but its strength mainly depends on two factors, one its user and the other is the target, used as fuel to grow, the bandits were far weaker than the Blood & Bone Snake, that was why its scales were completely unaffected and only its eyes that were a weaker part, ached on contact.
The snake quickly retreated, it screeched in anger, the snake then realized something and looked at another side of the mine, where the grey smoke was coming from.
It realized that the preparator behind this was probably outside.
Having no choice, the snake-headed towards the entrance of the mine, soon it saw the light on the other side. The snake had just dashed out of the tunnel that the ground below it moved and a net made of black thread surface, instantly entrapping it.
The snake quickly reacted, and tried using sheer force to break it, when the snake felt that the thread was not easy to break, it spat out the poison mist on it, under the effect of the poison mist, the thread started to corrode.
Hiss... Hiss...
When the snake was hissing in resentment, a stone came from the distance and struck its head, the snake turned silent for a moment, it raised its head and looked into the distance where a stoneman was fleeing without looking back.
In the next second, the snake was irritated beyond reasoning, it stretched its tied body and dragged the net with it as it chased the stoneman.
Fynn run at his full speed, on the way he took out a bottle containing some green paste Kale gave him, and applied it to his clothes, the paste gave a very bad smell, and felt cold on touch.
The effect of the paste made it hard for wild animals to willingly approach or discover him, nonetheless, the snake chased him because of pure anger but due to it having swallowed the woman earlier, its speed was far slower compared to before.
On the other side, Kale finally arrived at the entrance of the inheritance cave, under his control, the grey smoke made way for him, once he entered the cave, Kale immediately started to empty the books on the shelves into his bag.
Once the shelves were empty, he broke the lock on the other rack. On opening it, he saw a navy blue mage robe, a wooden, several other accessories into it, Kale didn't think twice before putting on the rob and placing the staff on his back, once he did that, he felt his mana reserves increasing at an incredible rate, however, he ignored the changed and focused on putting other things into the bags.
Kale took a deep breath as he saw the two full bags in front of him, he then turned to the deep pit in the centre, rows of eggs that looked like chicken eggs were arranged into it.
'So many eggs? If the set is complete there is a high chance for a leader to born within them,' Kale thought, he got on his knees as he observed to find an egg that might look different from others but even after a minute, he found nothing.
When a beast with a high fertility rate gives birth in a large number, it is bound to produce one or two offspring with higher potential, that's how Uncommon, Rare or above grade beasts are usually born.
Shortly, his eyes brightened, Kale got an idea, he closed his eyes and activated ‹Life Sense›, a wave of mana spread around him, he focused and saw countless tiny green dots gathered in front of him.
He kept scanning through the dots, after a few more seconds of efforts his eyes landed on a green dot that was bigger as well as denser compared to others, the small dot was brimming with vitality. Kale opened his eyes and quickly sorted out the eggs in a row, soon he found what he was looking for, it was an egg similar to others but there was a green ring at its bottom.
Kale carefully wrapped it into a soft cloth and placed it into his empty lunch box before putting it into his backpack, he then thought for a moment before also picking other eggs from the pit and arranging them into his backpack.
After he arranged around 35 eggs, he stopped, just now he got a fragment of information as a message from the Ghost Lady.
The image of the snake ceased chasing after Fynn came to his mind, the snake was furiously looking into the distance with a reluctant gaze, it hesitated for a moment before it turned around and made its way back.
Strong beasts had their territory moreover, the snake was weakened and had to take care of its nest, once its anger decreased it realized its mistake and hurried back.
Kale stopped collecting more eggs, he picked up the two bags on the ground and made his way out.
After a while, the snake came back and made its way into the mine tunnel.
Soon after, angry hissing sounds began to echo in the tunnel, the snake had realized it had been tricked but it still couldn't come out to take revenge because most of the eggs were unharmed and it had to take care of them.
This was why Kale didn't destroy the eggs even when he had the chance, as for the increasing beast population, who cares about it? He was not interested in becoming a Hero in the shadows.
Kale had already left the mountain, and met up with Fynn, he heard the angry hissing sounds of the snake and kept hiding.
On next morning, he climbed the mountain again to dig out the «Soul Beads».
After he finished collecting them, he realized five «Ghost Beads» failed during the process and got destroyed, from the remaining ones, almost half of them had the enigma of beasts meaning they now homed the Ghost of Beasts, the humane races had an advantage in soul strength but it was only when compared to other creatures of same life level. The wilderness was home to many strong beasts who died in the region.
The latter, a little more than half, had the enigma of different men, they were «Soul Beads» that homed the now formed ghosts of bandits.
***
Three days later...
Kale came back to Carran Town with Fynn, for the moment he put the stuff he brought, inside the inn, but there was a problem for him, he wanted to leave the inn, he clearly knew that he wasn't allowed to take the untamed wild beast eggs into an inn, moreover he now wanted more privacy.
Because of these reasons, he decided to rent or even buy a house if the price was acceptable, after looting bandits and getting the inheritance he had quite some money on him, even if lacked it, he could sell some equipment or spellbooks. For now, he wasn't sure how much assets he had on him because he didn't get time to calculate properly due to the hurried trip.
As a result, after placing the luggage in the inn, he directly went into one and only Francis Property Dealer's Office in the whole town, to show him some rentable or buyable house in a quieter area for living.
Francis was a short man with blonde hair and brown eyes, he was a little skinny and looked amateur but his temperament was calm and his way of talking was very professional.
He showed six houses that met the conditions set by Kale on the same day, but somehow they didn't match Kale's taste.
Right now...
Kale came out from a two-story stone house with Fynn and Francis.
Francis had an amiable smile on his face as he asked "Do you like it?"
Kale sighed "Isn't there a place, more secluded and quiet, I prefer it to also have a lawn or garden if possible, I want the house quieter in the sense that there aren't many people living around it, my friend has trouble meditating if there is no pin-drop silence," Kale side while looking at Fynn.
Francis was silent for a while, he was really putting efforts into this job because the bag filled with silvers thrown on his office table by Fynn was still in his mind, according to him, Kale and his friend were from a very rich family, a client he cannot let go.
Kale had long removed the metal collar from Fynn's neck before entering the town, he only introduced him as a friend to those who asked about him, he wasn't fool enough to introduce him as a slave while being a citizen of Blazing Sun Kingdom.
Francis thought of something, he hesitated a little and asked "Sir, do you believe in ghosts?"
Kale's eyelids flickered, he first looked at the Ghost Lady who was flying around in the air, even passing through Francis's body as she flew, then at his face.
"Not actually," Kale said with an awkward expression, then added "I heard that only Necromancers can see them, who knows if it's just a rumour,"
Kale had given Ghost Lady a fixed set of commands previously, according to which she was fully allowed to leave the «Ghost Bead» and patrol any unknown area he visited for the first time, to check for any unexpected ambush.
Kale might have started to live in a more peaceful world but he had no intention to get rusty.
"If it's like this, then I know one more house that meets your requirements, though it is a little away from the town," Francis said with a smile.