It was a vial with a translucent gray liquid, this alone wouldn't make Zach in the current state he was. But when he read the inscription he knew, for him this vial was priceless {A mysterious liquid of nothingness, when used along the right cultivation method it will improve the bond towards the nothingness.}
When Zoe read this she couldn't help but exclaim "What a shitty item it is, I'm sorry that the last one is such an useless one, I will compensate you for the loss." She felt a bit of guilt towards Zach, she had gotten 2 very useful and powerful items and Zach had gotten a mysterious one which seemed to suit him but seemed to be weak and other one was a preposterous and useless item.
Zach scratched the back of his head and said in a low voice "Yeah, thank you." he then took the vial and put it in his shadow. He had accepted Zoe's offer just to not seem suspicious after all if Zach was right this vial was linked to the Void and he needed to make his affinity to the Void an absolute secret.
In his head Zach was very happy 'With this vial it should be easier to improve my physical cultivation and there is a chance that my void affinity will be improved which would be the best.' Zach looked at Zoe and said in a casual tone "Shall we finally get out of this place ?" Zoe smiled and nodded her head.
They walked towards the platform, on the its ground was blue drawings which were in a perfect state, the time had little to no effect on it.
They went on its center and it started to light up, Zach and Zoe felt a bizarre feeling, it was as if they were compressed, it made their head spin and they wanted to throw up but for now they resisted this feeling.
After half a minute their environment completely changed, the two of them were at the entrance of the ruined town, the sun was setting, Zach had stayed about a week in this dungeon and Zoe about 2 weeks.
They were relieved, they could finally breathe fresh air and see the sky, they started to miss them, some cultivator would seclude themselves and stop seeing the sky and breathing fresh air but in Zoe and Zach case, they were more or less trapped.
Zoe took a deep breath and she looked at Zach, she took out 3 healing pills out of her spatial ring and said. "These are the most valuables things I have on me right now, I can't fully compensate you but if fate make us meet again I will compensate you as you deserve. They are high rank 2 pills."
Zach scratched the back of his head in embarassment and replied "Thank you but can you tell me more about those ranks please." Zoe was a bit taken aback and it was only now that she remembered that Zach was young, she nodded her head.
"Each pill has a rank and a sub rank, the same as us cultivators. Rank 1 alchemist can concoct pills from low to peak grade, all of them are efficient on a rank 1 cultivator but to have 100 % efficiency you have to take one with the same sub rank as you or higher, the same goes for all the other ranks." She paused.
"For example a mid rank 2 regrowing limb pill would be able to regrow the limb of every physical cultivator at or weaker than mid rank 2 and if it was for a physical cultivator of the high rank 2 he would have to take more than one to regrow his limb." She explained all the basics to Zach.
Zach fully understood and was very happy, it meant that he could heal any wounds until his physique reached peak rank 2. "It"s time to part, it would be my pleasure to meet you again." Zoe stated, she had a lot of fun with Zach when they recovered before the figth and during the fight she found that he was a reliable ally even though he was rather weak for the moment.
"You are right, maybe we will see each other soon enough." Zach replied, he wanted to see her again soon after all she was the first pure soul he encountered and he wanted to see what it implied, little did he know that would be sooner than he expected.
Once he said that, Zoe turned and started to run in the direction of the sun. Zach stayed where he was, in front of the ruined town, he was contemplating about what he would do with his System points. After 5 minutes of deep thinking he decided to go along his idea to increase level of Hell fire and Death gaze and splitting the remaining ones in his intelligence and spirit stat.
[Ding ! Hell Fire is now level 3 !]
[Ding ! Death gaze is now level 3 !]
[Ding ! 9 stats points are added to Spirit !]
[Ding ! 9 stats points are added to Intelligence !]
The minimun mana for Death gaze became 40 and for the hell fire it became 3 with a maximum output of 75 per minute. After distributing his stats points he took a look at the quest from Pedro, there was still a month and half to get to Constantos and deliver the book to the royal family.
He spent 2 weeks since he accepted the quest and he wasn't far from the border, he would need to quicken his pace.
He had studied Delp's map, his next and last stop would be Yosa, a pretty big town where the main activity was commerce, there was three auction house and streets filled with merchants. He would be able to buy what he needed to improve his physical cultivation and he would improve it there.
'Considering my mission, when I reach Constantos the stronger I am the better. There could be some villainous noble that would kill me to obtain the merit of giving the priceless Book of Hidden Bloodlines' He would take advantage of the great variety of trade in Yosa to gather everything he needed to improve his physical cultivation.
Zach started to run towards his next stop Yosa, it was almost in the same direction as Zoe, North West, he knew that she should go towards Constantos but she would directly go there so he couldn't go with her.
The night was coming but Zach didn't plan to stop for this one, after the fight against the fox he fainted from exhaustion so his mind was fresher than ever as for his body it was in a pretty good state thanks to Zoe's pill.
He should reach Yosa in a week, he had lost enough time in the dungeon he would not bother with beasts if they didn't attack him. However that didn't mean that if he stumbled upon human realm beasts he would kill them for theirs souls, after he to gather quite a bit to buy a new skill.
He continued to run for 2 days straight and nighfall was once again coming, this time he decided that he would take a little break. He would take time to cook himself something and sleep a few hours before going back on the road.
He stopped in a spot which was quite strategic, he was on the top of a hill, he could see everything up to 300 meters around him, as long as it wasn't someone in the rank 4 he would have time to react before they could reach him.
His rest went smoothly with no disturbances and Zach woke up like he envisaged about 5 hours later. The darkness of the night was still there and Zack went back on the road towards Yosa, this time he wanted to reach it without stopping, it should take him 3 or 4 days. Zach was running rather fast, however he could keep up this speed for another week without much trouble.
His travel went without trouble, he reached Yosa 3 days later at sunrise, the gates were still closed, Zach had to wait a bit much to enter the town. After half an hour 3 guards opened the gates, they saw Zach who was waiting, the guards weren't surprised, almost every time there was people waiting in front of the gates, after all Yosa was a big merchant town.
Zach went towards the guards and after being questionned by the guards and a the use of a truth stone, he was let in, in fact there was hardly anyone whose entrance for Yosa was denied. If one wasn't a wanted criminal in the Kingdom entering Yosa wasn't too much of a trouble.
When Zach entered the town he realized how big it was, the main street went from the gate he entered to the opposite one and he couldn't see it. Despite the early hour the streets were already bustling with people, some street merchants were setting up their stands while others were already doinng buisness.
Zach wasn't sure where he could find a store in which he would find the materials needed to improve his physical cultivation.
He needed to get herbs and solutions in which he would add the void affinity plant and in addition he would drink the vial of nothingness. He didn't know how much it would cost him but he should have enough gold coins for them.
Zach was strolling in Yosa seeking for a shop that suited him, there was so many that he didn't know which one to choose.