When he opened his eyes Zach looked around him, he was in a dim cave but it was just lit enough to know where he put his feet and where he could go. He was on the shore of the river he fell in just a while ago, the sand he was on was of a wonderful white.
His legs were aching like he never felt in both of his lives, as for his arm it was still painful but he could use it a bit. He looked at his status to see the extent of his wounds.
[Host status:
Level : 1 (peak of the human stage)
EXP : 33/200
Title : none
HP : 11/150
Mana : 100/100
Strengh : 10
Speed : 10
Stamina : 10
Spirit : 10
Intelligence : 10
Charisma : 15
Skills : |Death from the shadows| level 1
System points : 6
Souls : 20]
'Fuck, That's some dangerous state I ended.' He crawled toward the brightest light in the cave, it was only about 20 meters from him but to him it felt like he had to cross dozens of kilometers.
After 10 minutes which felt like hours to him he finally reached it, he saw what made this light, it was a small pond of a crystal clear liquid.
'What is this liquid and why is it emitting so much light ? That's odd. I will drink a bit of it maybe it could help me, at worst I die but if I don't drink it I die. In any case I won't get any help so I have to bet everything on it.'
He cupped his right hand and retrieved a few drops of it, some fell and when he reached his mouth with his hand only a drop remained. He gulped it, instantly he felt his body getting back some energy.
'That's some heavenly luck I have' Zach was relieved, this odd liquid could very well save his life. He started to drink more and more of it, drop by drop at first and after he could move again his left arm he drank a mouthful which made him as good as new.
He got up, his legs were still numb and he stared at the pool of the liquid he just drank. There was some left, he did not wanted to leave it behind.
'Of course !' Zach got a bright idea, maybe he could put this liquid in his shadow and so keep it when he would need it. He put his hand in the small pool, he then thought about sucking up the liquid in his shadow.
Surprisingly for Zach the pool started to shrink and 3 seconds later all of it disappeared. Zach felt it, he knew that somewhere in his shadow the liquid was stocked, thanks to that he could feel how much of it he had gotten, he had about 30 drops of it.
'System what is the liquid which is in my shadow ?' Zach inquired in hope the Sytem would give him an answer, unexpected to Zach he heard in his head the system's voice.
[Responding to host, the liquid is nammed Starlight drop, it emanate from a purification of star light and it contains a great amount of energy which make it the ideal liquid to restore stamina.]
Zach was confused when he heard what the starlight drops did, 'How did I heal if the only thing it give is energy ?'
[It was not the drop that healed you, it just gave your body the energy needed to heal naturally, if host prefer it only acted as a catalyst.] Zach now understood why his legs still felt sore even if he could use them.
He now needed to find an exit to meet up with his two friends. At his back the shore with the river he could not hope to swin upstream, in front of him the cave of which he could not see everything.
Obviously he started to move forward exploring this dark cave, he stumbled regularly on stalagmites. After an hour of exploring he finally found something, a door, grey with some blue inscriptions, unbeknownst to him it looked exactly like the door that Jess and Arnold had found.
'How will I open this door ?' Zach knew this door may be able to help him getting out of this place, at worst he could find something which could have some value. He needed to unravel the mysteries of this door, it was his only hope to exit.
He touched the door, the inscriptions and what seemed to be a handle, in fact it was more a gap than a handle. 'System can you translate these inscriptions ?' Zach tried to get an answer from the system but the only thing he got in return was a silent. He supposed that the key to open it was those inscriptions, he looked at them from every angle possible but still nothing.
Zach noticed that in the gap was a concavity, he then got a crazy idea, he tried to pour a drop of starlight in this concavity. A drop of starlight fell directly form his finger, when it got in contact with the door the inscriptions shone brighter than it was.
He heard the door rumble, he saw the door opening slowly and Zach got dazzled at the light that emanated from beyond the door.
What he saw was an absolutely breathtaking room, the walls were grey, the pillars black and there was white engravings on those pillars. He walked in and in the middle of the room was a pedestal and on this pedestal he found more inscriptions, this time though he could understand them.
{Here is my Legacy, the First Void Conqueror legacy, I developped an apex physical cultivation method during my conquest of the void. However I divided the method in 3 parts, the mortal stage divided in 2 parts and the last stage in the higher plane. To inherit the first part you need to still be in the human realm and pass the test of the soul.}
At first Zach breathed a sigh of relief, he was happy that he did not invest his system points in his speed. When he saw the thing about a soul test he did not know how to take it, he was almost certain that he could pass this test without much difficulty. But to make the odds in his favor he decided to invest his points in his spirit.
[Does host want to put 6 system points in Spirit ? Y/N] the system suddenly resounded in his head. 'I didn't think it could somehow read my mind but with a system anything is possible. Yes'
[Host's Spirit + 6].
All of sudden Zach felt his head ache even more painful than his legs when he fell. He instinctively knew what happened, somewhere in his head a space opened, he tried to reach it with his will, and succeeded, he was in an area and before him was a white bead.
He retracted his consciousness and got back to the grey room, in front of the pedestal. 'I feel like my mind is clearer than ever, my senses are sharper, I was confident before but now I don't have any doubt, I will be able to pass this test.'
Zach tried to trigger the test by placing his hand on the pedestal. The instant he posed his hand, his consciousness got transported in a totally black space, in front of him a mysterious grey shape which seemed to be made of fire, in fact it reminded Zach of the soul's light but this one was not cyan.
The next instant everyhting changed he was now in a cave, in front of him Arnold and Jess with a relieved expression on their face. 'I went back in time ? Or was it a nightmare, the griffins chasing me' Zach wondered, he was heavily confused.
"You scared me Zach, I thought you would not make it to the cave before the griffins" He heard Jess' voice "Look ! Just behind there is doors, it is written that if we can open them we will become the greatest beings of the universe" Arnold then exclaimed.
'Too good to be true, nothing can be this easy.' It hit him, he remained rooted on the spot. 'What the fuck is happening ! Everything is too sweet, is this an illusion and nothing is real but how do I get out ?'
In fact in this world he felt like everything would go smoothly and he almost got engulfed by this feeling. Luckily he did not lose his mind and succeeded in seeing through this world.
Zach started to think about what he could do to escape from this illusion. Firstly he tried to use his soul power to overwhelm this illusion but it didn't worked. It was a test, he had already succeed in discovering what truly was the world he was in.
The next step for him was to find what needed to be done to escape this illusion. He had an absolutely crazy idea, he will try to commit suicide, he put his scythe against his throat.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ZACH ?!" The false Jess yelled, for a second Zach hesitated but the next moment he closed his eyes and tried to slice his own throat. When Zach opened his eyes again he saw the same grey shape, he could swear that it smiled at him but before he could ask anything his consciousness got back to his body.
He was in front of the pedestal and he had a splitting headache. Brand new information got implanted in his brain. It was the first part of the mortal section of the Void Body method which included the instructions until the peak rank 2. He also got the information on how to reach to the second trial for the second section of the method and a very interesting piece of information.
On their side, Arnold and Jess were also trying to open the door they had in front of them