Rudolph rested and recovered half of his aether and stamina before extracting the beast core from the Salamander. He eagerly sliced open the beast's belly and took out a scorching red core. The core had a similar shape and size to the Hyena's core but the energy inside was far more potent than the core of the Basic ranked Hyena. In addition, the core also contained a considerable amount of fire aether, which transmitted warmth as Rudolph held it in his hands.
"Do you have anything I can store this in? A bag perhaps?" he asked.
"Let me see," Aryn said and inspected his spatial ring, took out a strapped leather pouch from inside, and emptied it before handing it to Rudolph.
He placed the core inside and strapped the pouch to his waist, tugging to make sure that it was tied securely. He then proceeded to cut the beast's forehead but unfortunately, all that effort of prying open the Salamander's hard scaly skull proved to be vain as he didn't find the essence crystal.
He was looking forward to increasing his fire affinity after seeing the destruction caused by the Apocalypse Fireball. The Salamander's side had been charred black where the Fireball exploded and the black flames continued to eat away and erode the carcass even after its death.
"Shall we go now?" Aryn asked.
Disappointed, Rudolph nodded and followed the elf out of the glade, towards their destination. They continued onwards for two hours while Rudolph decided what to do with his free stat points. He had opened the soul archives, expecting to find 18 free stat points but somehow there were only 10 of them.
'Where are the rest of them?'
His confusion didn't last long when he read his stats.
'The 8 points have automatically been assigned to the four body mechanic stats except for the Vitality stat. These 8 must be the points from leveling up my class. '
He also noticed that these 8 stats have contributed 80 points to his Overall Combat Ability. By following this mechanism, every stat point would add 10 points to his Overall Combat Ability.
'Considering that my Overall Combat Ability is 1490, it would take me around 1870 additional points to reach Aryn's level.' he thought, looking at the elf who was fiddling with a pendant, occasionally pressing it against his forehead and mumbling incoherent words. 'And that translates to an exact 187 stat points that I have to invest in my soul archives to reach the level he's at.'
He sighed at the enormous difference between their stats. If he gains the same amount of stats each time, he would have to level 10 times to reach Aryn's level, not taking in his further progress.
Rudolph's stamina and aether had completely recovered and he was itching for a fight but under Aryn's lead, they completely avoided any powerful beasts that might have hindered their progress and the ones he killed didn't provide him with enough origin or experience for him to level up.
Daylight was fading and they had to find a shelter before they fell pray to the nocturnal creatures of the forest; they hunted in packs and most were above Iron rank.
After four hours of tedious journey, they stood on top of a cliff overlooking a vast city. Aryn took out a map to verify their location.
"If I am not mistaken, those are the ruins of the ancient Veriol City," he said, pointing to the city below. "We will make our stay there."
Rudolph's gaze only lingered for a while before they both descended the cliff towards the ruined city entrance.
His shallow steps took him inside the City, barred by an eroded gate, flaked with rust. The white stoned city walls which he had no doubt were once glorious lay crumbling in several places and the ramparts reduced to piles of grey rubble. The iron hinges creaked and squeaked as the desolate wind blew across the ashen city.
"What happened to this place?" Rudolph said, turning and twisting to look around the place.
"Something dreadful.," Aryn said.
"Dreadful?"
"One day the whole city was found washed in blood," Aryn said. "Nobody knows what happened here but some say it was the work of a powerful soul evolver while others say it was the beast tide. To this day, the city remains one of the biggest mysteries of Acadia and has been left abandoned since then."
Rudolph stopped in his tracks after he heard Aryn.
"I think I am okay with resting in the forest," Rudolph said and turned around to leave. All of a sudden, he found the dark forest a lot more hospitable than a city that reeked of terror. He could have sworn he smelled blood in the air.
"Don't worry, the incident happened thousands of years ago," he said and continues walking. "Besides, we aren't the only ones here."
Before he could ask what he meant by that, he saw a group of people coming toward them. Two of them were males and one had his face covered by a hood and a cloak, making it impossible to ascertain his identity.
He tried to identify the hooded person and the others behind him but the information was vague and filled with question marks.
Overall Combat Ability:????
Human (????)
Name:????
Health Points:????
There were also others, a bearded man, reclining against a ruined building and a humanoid green-scaled person that sat in the shade of a broken statue, who stopped grinding knives against the broken cobblestone as he stared at the newcomers with its serpentine eyes. Rudolph was sure the humanoid beast was one of the races of Xanthia that Aryn had mentioned in the passing.
He tried to identify them but failed, possibly due to the distance between them.
"Keep your guard up," Aryn said, taking the staff off his back.
Rudolph didn't need to be told. He was already circulating the aether inside his body, ready to summon his katana in case things went sideways.
"This place isn't for the likes of you, elf." one of the men said, blocking their path. His bulging muscles showed through his sleeveless leather tunic and he carried a war hammer on his back.
Overall Combat Ability:????
Human (????)
Name:????
Health Points:????
"I don't want any conflict, I come in peace," Aryn said as he had already expected this to happen.
"Didn't you hear what he said? Piss off! Or else–" the second man said. He wore a runic silver plate armor and carried a long sword.
Overall Combat Ability:????
Human (????)
Name:????
Health Points:????
"Or else what?" Rudolph interfered. If possible, he didn't want to resort to violence where words can solve a conflict. Not because he was scared, but because a swordsman exercises balance over everything, be it emotions, power, or any aspect of life – that's what the legacy has thought him.
But it doesn't mean that he would take this lying down, if they wanted a fight, he would gladly comply. He had a sword and right now to him, everything looked like a bamboo pole.
"I thought you were mute," the burly man sneered and shook his head, "What a pity! If I were you, I would have killed myself for getting acquainted with a filthy elf."
Rudolph realized two things in consecutive order:
One, these people, or maybe the humans here held prejudice against the elves, that's what he had concurred from this conversation. He glanced at Aryn who stood with an indifferent expression. He would ask him later.
Second, none of the two buffoons had any real say in what would happen, instead, it was the hooded figure that held the most significance. The two buffoons would occasionally glance at the hooded figure, asking for permission and that didn't escape Rudolph's eye.
"This isn't your Human kingdom, Tyril," Aryn said, addressing the silver-plated, blond-haired man. "I would exercise caution if I were you."
"Tyril, Killian. Step back!" a melodious voice rang from under the hood.
'So it's a she.' Rudolph thought.
The figure lifted her hood, revealing a head full of dark blue hair, adorned over aqueous eyes and a beautiful face. The beauty surpassed any supermodel Rudolph had seen back on Earth.
"And you are?" Rudolph asked. He was surprised to find that he didn't feel particularly smitten with her beauty. Him from before might have started salivating at the sight but the current him was unaffected. Power really does change people, it changed him.
"You don't deserve to know my lady's name." the monkey named Tyril spoke.
Tyril was a cool name, too bad it was lost on a monkey.
"Didn't your parents teach you not to interfere when adults are talking?" Rudolph said.
"You son of a–"
Slap!
A crisp sound rang through the broken street.
"Step back! Didn't you hear me!" the woman said.
Half of Tyril's face was covered in ice and so was the woman's hand as she folded her arm back into her cloak.
"Report to the tower the first thing when we get back," she ordered.
"Yes, my lady," Tyril said and stepped back, his hands clenched into fists.
The woman turned her icy gaze towards Rudolph and said, "What made you turn your back to humanity? Power? Or maybe wealth? Kill him and I can offer you double of what he promised."
"Save your words. I am not doing anything," he said, without any hesitation. Hmph! Wealth? Power? Did he lack any of those? He certainly did but would he turn his back on Aryn for them? Of course not! Sure, he look nothing less than a beggar in his current state but the woman didn't have to make it any more obvious.
He didn't care what feud they had with Aryn or elves but the latter had saved his life, taught him about the soul archives and most importantly, Aryn was a friend. He would rather kill himself than turn his back on a friend.
"Do you know the consequences of befriending an elf?" she asked.
"I tend to forget things," Rudolph said, trying to appear indifferent.
'Of course, I don't know. I just got here two days ago.'
"Good. You have some backbone. I hope you don't regret your actions." she said and turned to leave. "Tyril, Killian, let them through."
"Is that a threat?" Rudolph asked.
The woman didn't reply and walked away into the distance, the other two following behind her.
—_— —_— — _— — _—
When they were at distance, the man named Killian spoke, "Why did you let them pass, my lady? With their measly strength, they never stood a chance against you."
"Never underestimate your opponents Killian. The elf you saw had ranked second in the qualifiers. Now, you should know that even Buldar failed to reach the top 5 of the qualifiers and he was ranked at Iron lll that time." the woman said.
"He's the heretic from the Mercer Family?" Tyril chimed in.
The lady chose not to reply and continued, "But he isn't the main reason I backed out. It was the human who accompanies him."
This time even Killian was stunned, "But my lady he hasn't even broken through to the iron rank, how powerful can he be?"
The bulky man was unsure of his lady's evaluation. He could believe that the elf posed a certain threat as the damned race had always been unpredictable but the same couldn't be said for the human beside him. He had inspected the guy but he failed to exert any pressure on him.
"Looks can be deceiving Killian. The man felt ethereal to me like he couldn't be touched. He had a sense of sharpness to him, similar to a sheathed sword. Everything about him was unknown to me and it's always the unknown that possesses the most threat."
"My lady is wise." Killian bowed and started at Rudolph who stood in the distance. It was rare for her to compliment anyone, and if she was right, then a new figure was about to rise in this world; if he lived long enough for that to happen.
—_— —_— —_— —_— —_—
"What was that all about?" Aryn asked as he chewed on the sizzling Salamander meat. The glow from the burning firewood reflected in his face.
"Exactly what you saw. Ehlenfay and the humans hate each other." Aryn said as he stared into the burning flames of firewood and rubbed his arms. The night had brought with it a bone-chilling cold. Thankfully, he had stocked on dry wood before they left the beach.
"Why? There must be a reason." Rudolph asked.
"Long story short, the ehlenfay consider themselves superior to the humans. Being the first race to ever exist in the universe, their tolerance for the beings who came after them and shared the benefits of soul archives isn't high." Aryn said. "On top of that humans also did everything they could to intensify the flames of hatred due to their devious deeds. The kidnapping of elves, slavery, destruction of the ecosystem, and many other deeds made the ehlenfay wage war with them, resulting in both sides suffering countless losses. Now after many eons, the hatred remains and that is the primary reason those guys acted like that when they saw me."
"What about you? Do you hate humans too?" Rudolph asked.
"Now?" Aryn said, shaking his head. "I don't."
"Before?" he continued, "Yes. I aversed humans, a little too much for my liking."
"What changed your mind?" Rudolph asked.
"Eh, it was a woman, a human woman named Miranda. I owe that to her."
"Was?"
"She died," Aryn said and drew a picture on the cobblestones with the burned end of the stick. "She died protecting me."
"Someone with a backstory, huh." Rudolph said, leaning back against the ruined house."Care to share?"
"It's a long story."
Rudolph gazed at the starless sky, "It's a long night too. Unless you plan on sleeping early, we got a lot of time."
Aryn was about to say something when the bearded man from before came toward him.
"By Lorcan's beard. This cold will be the death of me." he said, rubbing his arms and approaching them, "Do you mind if I join ya boys?"
Rudolph used identification and the result was the same as he had received from the previous trio. But he didn't sense any malice from the person before him.
'Maybe my identification skill isn't ranked high enough or maybe they have an equipment or skill that renders identification useless.' he thought of the only reasons he found plausible.
"Not at all," Rudolph said. "More the merrier."
He shuffled over to let the person sit down and held up the barbequed Salamander. "Want some?"
"Certainly." the man took the stick and tore off the meat in one big bite.
He then turned his face towards the lizard man and called him out, "Hey! You too can come over here. We have plenty of food."
The man looked lost for a second before walking over to the fire.
"Thanks," he said, taking the grilled meat from Rudolph. His voice sounded like stones grating against the asphalt.
"No need," Rudolph said and turned his attention to the trio who sat at a distance. "You know the feud aside, you are gonna get frozen if you stay there. So why don't you guys come over too?"
The trio ignored him and continued to do whatever they were doing.
"Okay," he said and stuffed his mouth with more meat. Even without any condiments, the beast meat tasted surprisingly delicious. "This is so good."
As the time passed, the chill in the air kept intensifying and soon, even with the fire burning, the group felt the cold seep into their bones. Even Randy, the cold-blooded Argonian – the race the humanoid lizard had called himself – was shivering with cold.
Everyone except Rudolph. The swordsman felt weirdly comfortable as the night progressed.
"This cold is strange. It's trying to invade my soul." Randy said.
"Really? I don't feel anything at all." Rudolph said, earning him strange glances from the group.
Ding! Dark Miasma has entered your soul. All stats increased by 5%.
'Dark Miasma?' Rudolph thought.
It seems like he wasn't the only one to receive the notification as everyone sat up, abruptly.
"Get ready, we've got company." It was the woman who spoke this time.
The shadows of the ruined city flickered, and from within rose ghastly silhouettes that shrieked and converged upon the group.
"Wraiths!" Tyril shouted, his face turning grim.
Rudolph wished he hadn't identified the enemies because his face lost all color when he did so. Not because of their rank, but because there were hundreds of them, all flying and shrieking as they blocked the sky with their presence.
Overall Combat Ability: 1230
Corrupt Dark Wraith (Basic IV)
Health Points: 100/100