Caelus slumped himself on the soft sofa in the last house he had searched.
He was feeling lost and dejected.
There were no coins.
He had searched all the houses but still failed to find any coins.
Not even a single one.
And he realized the reason.
Being in a futuristic environment, everyone didn't need coins anymore! They just had to swipe everything!
Even though that was a dream land, it felt like a burden for him because his skill said he needed the coin so Charon would carry the souls towards the reincarnation river.
He was in a dilemma how he could continue…
*Ugh! Sho's memory didn't have any information regarding Charon, although he had read about Styx River on some lightnovels, it didn't explain enough!*
He sighed. He was actually benefiting a lot from Sho's memories, but he was complaining because he didn't have enough on one specific topic. How pathetic he was.
*Not a good mindset. If I don't have it, then I should try looking it up! I might not have any GP but I still have Overview skill!*
He felt determined.
*Overview: Charon the ferryman of the Styx River!*
As he casted his skill, the familiar sensation of entering the World of Information greeted him.
He ignored everything else and just focused on the book that answered his question.
The skill automatically canceled as it had given the answer to Caelus.
He pondered for a while.
"So the reason the coin was needed was for some sort of fare? Hmm… that seems reasonable but also unfair. What would happen if an innocent soul was left behind without any money? Would they just become Wandering Souls?"
He felt it should be deeper than that. If Innocent Souls became Wandering Souls just because they were poor, then wouldn't that mean they will not reincarnate at all? If that was true, there would be countless Wandering Souls all over the world.
He thought of Sho's world and there was no prior knowledge about Wandering Souls. Just some random ghost stories that could not really be proven true.
They could be either hoax for all he knew.
And then, he remembered the third-rate country he was born in. He refused to think those kids who were born in the wrong country didn't have a chance to reincarnate at all.
What he really could deduce as conclusive was that Wandering Souls was universal and it isn't specific for any species.
His reasons were simple.
Gabriel said he was facilitating a certain area, and that it's their task to guide Wandering Souls. He had to thank how the forgotten memories slowly surfaced when his task about ferrying Wandering Souls was given. Aside from that, there's also the images he saw when he used Qi Sights.
Every Wandering Souls had a different species.
*Ferrying a soul isn't as simple as just paying a coin to Charon. What does the coin symbolize?*
That question emerged in his mind and made him think.
Coin symbolizes the fare?
No. That doesn't seem right. Why would Charon need a coin when he was just going to guide the souls towards the reincarnation pool or river of reincarnation?
Sitting in crossed legs, Caelus cupped his face with his left palm.
Symbolization.
Meaning.
Coin…
Was there some sort of contract with Charon and the River of Reincarnation?
*Hm… it doesn't seem like that. But there should be a meaning why Charon would take the fare. Maybe energy?*
He blinked.
*Energy? Yes! From what I have seen so far, everything needs some sort of energy. Even shelter barriers needed Mana as their source of energy. The Safe Zones also have certain energy maintaining them. Even this Hidden Zone has energy! It might be Mana, Energy, Natural Essence or something entirely new for us!*
*But the river of reincarnation isn't simple. What is its law to operate?*
*Ugh. I'll not think about that law for now. However, I need to think about what I can replace the coin with energy. Is it possible that Charon couldn't bear the energy so he only accepted souls who have energy near them?*
*That is possible.*
*In the book I've read, there's an option to put the coin in the mouth or beside the body of the deceased.*
*If I use this theory, then would it be possible for innocent souls to have anything valuable in them and be taken as fare that would bear the energy cost needed to cross the river?*
*Looking at the Wandering Soul, they have strong energy but those energies have even stronger corruption. Is it possible that the coin would negate the corruption? Is it required to have stronger energy to ferry a Wandering Soul?*
*All I have right now are theories.*
*What I need now is to experiment with the hypothesis to arrive at the right conclusion and determine if there's any error in the theory.*
He nodded.
With this, I'll have to improvise!
***
Saying it and doing it was different things.
Though Caelus knew what he needed to do, making it into practice was different.
With just an hour of Qi Sight on him, it took him a while to experiment. His progress was slow.
But still, progress is progress.
"Hmm… another failure. But now I know how I can put something inside a Wandering Soul. It's now time to see which item would be useful for Charon to ferry the Wandering Souls."
He was exhausted, so he released his Qi Sight and Qi Aura Cloak. As soon as he did, all the Wandering Souls trapped inside his Qi Aura Cloak ran as far away as possible.
He couldn't help but chuckle seeing how scared the Wandering Souls were. He felt evil but knowing he was doing what he was doing for greater good, he could only laugh.
He thought it was funny how the corrupted Wandering Souls who wanted to do him harm suddenly found a greater enemy they couldn't harm. For them he was the villain. Maybe, they view him as a boss monster.
It was so ironic.
He coughed. Forcing himself to stop laughing and get serious.
The general reason why he was slow in progress was knowing how he could touch the wandering soul enough to put something in them.
At first, he could barely do anything concrete. The Wandering Souls were happily mocking him too. It seemed like the more depressed he got, the easier for them to get near him. Of course, he didn't let them near him. He didn't know what would happen if he let the Wandering Souls who had strong corruption in them get near him.
The next time he got rest, he tried to experiment on the mockering Wandering Soul, his progress was actually good since he was able to feel the smoky illusionary figure. And because he had his Qi Aura Cloak in him, the Wandering Souls started to feel their powerlessness.
They got angry. They tried their best to invade his Qi Aura Cloak.
After getting substantial rest, he continued his experiment.
The angry Wandering Soul he caught was surprised to see itself unable to move. It struggled but it was futile. It couldn't invade him or get out. The only time it was able to free itself was when he let it go. The other angry Wandering Soul condemn the caught now fearful Wandering Soul…
And so, after some time, the angry Wandering Souls only wanted to prove they are better than the fearful Wandering Souls. Thus, the angry Wandering Souls turned to fearful Wandering Souls… until no one wanted to get close to Sho anymore.
However, it was easy for Sho to erase his trace thanks to his Qi techniques. No Wandering Souls could hide and run from him whenever he activated the Qi Aura Cloak.
In the mind of the Wandering Souls, he was a devil trying to experiment on them.
What he found peculiar was that their corruption stopped spreading ever since he tried experimenting on them.
He didn't know anything about their corruption. Even when he tried using his Overview skill or ask System, no information was given to him.
Overall, he was just thankful that the corruption stopped spreading. He didn't know when the corruption would reach him. If he unknowingly got corrupted… even without information about it, his instinct told him it would do him no good if he got corrupted.
"Now… I need to look for things with strong energy…"
Once more, he took a walk towards the abandoned ruined village of magical technology.
He really wanted to take apart the technology in the Zone but he didn't know how. He tried but his instinct stopped him. Trusting his instinct he stopped on time. He discovered that the robots have self-destruct functions, but being too rusty, the self-destruct had delay on them.
He was able to get out unscattered. He also discovered another amazing magic technology. When the robot he tampered with self-destruct, a magical barrier got erected around the robot making sure that the one who tampered would get trapped before it bomb itself. It has the multi-purpose of wanting to kill whoever tampered with the technology and at the same time protect the surroundings.
It was really lucky that he moved away from the robot before it went off. If not, he felt even with his Qi Protection, he wouldn't be able to get out unscattered. Worse would be his death.
Because of that, he dropped any thoughts of wanting to study the robots. The only thing he could do was store robots of the same type in one Inventory slot. He could store them. The problem was there were too many different robot and magical items that they wouldn't fit his 10 Inventory slots.