Sumaya was about to ask for more details but he got pulled away by Miya. "Senior, it's better to train your senses with the Energy. Who knows, you might be able to save us later."
Sho sighed in gratitude. Unmindful of the dirt he sat cross legs and started meditation.
He first started gathering pure Qi, then using those Qi as energy in his veins. Upon reaching his brain's Qi Waypoints, he began concentrating more of his Qi energy there. More than five minutes have passed and he decided it was enough.
*Overview: Misdirection Maze secret and exit.*
Although vague and he has little hope with the details, he still tried. His goal aside from getting valuable information was to try if there was still backlash from using his skill.
Just like he expected he felt his consciousness enter the World of Information. Countless information assaulted his brain. Soon, he was in the world of knowledge. Books of information, movie screens and scenes could be seen far and wide.
Expecting and experiencing are two different things.
For the first time since Sho used the skill, he was amazed about this World of Information. Looking around, all the information here could be useful. Although most of it was unknown to him, when he saw information regarding Qi, he knew this place was more valuable than he first thought. Maybe, all the answers are here. But with his current level, he couldn't access everything. He couldn't freely control the space at all.
*I must get stronger.*
He immediately put that in the back of his mind. He can't do anything about being weak at the moment. And aside from that he didn't come here to wallow on his weakness.
He focused on the information regarding the Misdirection Maze. Soon, piles of information regarding the Misdirection Maze was in front of him. He was shocked to discover a lot of information regarding the place. It wasn't just one book, there was a series of books regarding the place.
It seems that nothing about the place was simple.
Seeing the books in front of him, Sho was happy. Although he could still feel some pain in his brain, it was bearable.
*What is the Misdirection Maze's secret? Why is this place weird?*
As if there was an invisible hand answering him, the books in front of him dispersed and words replaced them.
*Hmm… What is this?*
He was confused by words he read but couldn't remember. He thought it would be easier but there was too much information he couldn't absorb.
*This is messed up! Why is my skill making things hard for me?!*
As soon as he thought of that, the old words that were floating in his face suddenly overlapped with new words. Reading it his face got extremely ugly.
He wasn't given anymore time to retaliate as his skill ended and he got thrown back in reality.
What the heck?
He was confused, puzzled and amazed all at the same time.
*So, my skill got irritated on me by relying on it too much?*
But he immediately put that at the back of his mind as he pondered the words given to him. As he tried to think, he felt something foreboding even though he couldn't exactly think what the problem was.
*Spirit, misdirection, soul avatar, illusion, reality and Mythical Creature. Spirit and soul avatar seem similar? But why was misdirection in the middle of it? Illusion and reality could be something that can be misdirected… but what about the Mythical Creature? Mythical Creatures are like Fenrir. They are basically myths.*
*Ugh! Solving this mystery is giving me a headache.*
With that thought, he suddenly realized that the reason he was experiencing intense headaches whenever he used his skill was not just because of too much information. It was because his Intelligence and Wisdom can't catch up with the information he received, thus hurting his brain.
*So, there's another Mythical Creature here? Who is it?*
It was tough to think. Although he has a wide range of knowledge because of Sho's passion for gaming, watching and reading, that doesn't mean he knows everything. And he, as Caelus, didn't even have concrete memories at all. Thinking it was no use, he opened his eyes and looked for Miya.
Miya was attentively waiting for Sho to finish using his skill. Upon seeing him open his eyes, she looked at him with query eyes.
"Anyone knowledgeable with M\ythical Creatures related to mazes?"
"What?" Sumaya was the first to react, stunned by the sudden question. They were clearly in a pinch, they had no time for lessons.
But he became stupefied when Miya answered Sho honestly.
"According to what I remember, there was a Minotaur from Greek mythology. Asterion, the Minotaur of the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth was created by Daedalus and Icarus to trap the Minotaur. It was unclear of the real origin of Asterion.
"But there is a common point. Mino, the king of Crete made a promise to Poseidon to sacrifice the godly bull to the Sea of God. But the king got greedy and kept the bull to himself, thus making Poseidon angry.
"Poseidon then cursed his wife to bear a half-man, half-bull. They had to put the bull inside the Labyrinth as it's home. Every year, there was a sacrifice made to Asterion to be its food. No one dared to fight back, until the hero came, Theseus.
"He couldn't take the sacrifice anymore and asked to be the next sacrifice. But the daughter of Mino, the King of Crete, fell in love with him. Ariadne begged Daedalus to save Theseus. After a while, Daedalus gave the trick to Ariadne, she then proceeded and gave Theseus a ball of thread. He bravely entered the Labyrinth, at the center, he conquered Minotaur becoming the hero of Crete.
"So far, this is the only Mythology that I can recall regarding mazes." Miya concluded.
Hearing the story, Sho at first had a hard time concentrating. He had to use the original Sho's memory just to put the pieces together. He just had to admit the real him was not smart in places like stories, histories etc. However, his mind worked like a computer when he was fighting. It was a wonder in itself.
Upon finally absorbing the story, Sho's eyes lightened with enlightenment. He was given a last push to finally unveil everything the Overview skill clue gave him.
The place was like the Labyrinth. And at the center, they would find what they are looking for. But following trails of others, they were being misdirected. But that's not all, because of the tale, he suddenly felt that everything was between reality and tale. It was between reality and illusion. It made him think that they might be in "Soul Avatar" instead of their real body.
Thinking about that, he started looking deeply at himself. He was not looking randomly. He was eyeing the Energy around him. Because he had been intensive on his Qi studying, he suddenly connected with the weird thing he felt since earlier.
It is like this!
He finally came to realization.
"What is it?" Ross was the first one who observed that Sho discovered something.
"Hmm… I'm not sure how to explain it easily. But the thing is, we're ghost right now."
"What?" the group was stunned. That was beyond their imagination, afterall, although they experienced many weird things, it was just a few days. They were still not used to it.
"It seems that as soon as we entered the maze, we abandoned our bodies and form our Soul Avatar. I can say this for sure while looking at our Qi Energy. When we have a body, there's some transparent barrier protecting our Natural Energy. But now, the barrier is considerably thinner. This doesn't seem normal. And well, I can connect it now after using my skill. My skill is intelligence use. It gathers useful information to gain answers." Sho couldn't hide his skill's ability, so, to make matters easier, he explained it.
"This is the reason why we have different travel times. Because our Soul Avatar doesn't follow the law of our human body. And this, I can also say, is the reason why we are not getting closer to Alpha's group."
"Do we have a solution?"
"There's two solutions. To go deeper or go back. To be honest, I prefer to go deeper. We came here for the Seed of Life. and going back means giving it up. As we haven't seen Alpha's group, I can say that the maze has a way to misdirect spirit, losing our bearing here."
"How do you plan for us to go deeper?"
"It's simple, follow through one path while having our ball of thread. I'm just hoping we won't encounter a Minotaur in the center of this maze."
Although he said that, his mind was also thinking about something. Soul Avatar, Misdirection, Illusion, Reality and Mythical Creature were all answered. But Spirit seems like a different thing. What is the Spirit? He knew instinctively that his current state is Soul Avatar, it was different from Spirit.
Are Spirits the dead beings? Or are they like the Spirit in games and anime? Those who are residing in nature?
Sho could only put the thought aside for now. He knew he couldn't find the answer. But when he saw a Spirit, he was sure he would get his answer.