After setting up a goal for himself, Lucas finally took the time to calmly observe his surroundings.
Although the place was quite dark, the eyes of a body refiner like him could see just clearly.
Dark green moss enraptured the land, and placed throughout it were lifeless flowers that held no vitality.
Chilling, cold wind calmly blew—as though the graze of death itself—fluttering the pale, colorless flowers in silence.
And though there was no sound nor the slightest movement, the disquieting silence reverberated through the land like a cacophony of melancholy.
Lingering around the whole place was an atmosphere of decay and abandonment, remnant grief and regrets.
One could imagine its former state—a sight of beautiful flowers, masterfully sculpted pillars and festive living inhabitants. However, like any other… the whole place was eventually destroyed from the corrosion of time.
From heaven to the underworld.
Before him was a world of silence emanating the chilling ambience of death.
Lucas observed indifferently, as though nothing about it was something to be concerned of.
"The layout of the place looks like a ruin of some kind."
Lucas commented. He wasn't exactly unfamiliar with ruins, he experienced going through it several times in his past life.
Ruins were often filled with traps, wild beasts and ancient relics.
They were tricky, but along with the difficulty was a bountiful reward. While underground ruins differ from one another, it was a constant that there were remnant items or techniques left out by the past founders.
Thinking about this, he turned on Voidshadow Iris and surveyed the place in case he missed something important.
If not for the strain the Voidshadow Iris caused to his eyes, he would have it always turned on.
In an unrelated note, he only had two paths to choose to explore, to go forward or to enter the narrow path he ran to earlier.
In hindsight, going forward was the better choice as there was a wider space to explore. Entering a narrow path might just spontaneously kill him with a trap of some sorts.
And if this place were to be a ruin, that possibility wasn't that unlikely.
For that reason, going forward and following the path beyond seemed to be his only choice.
Thankfully, the most logical one too.
To explore the land more efficiently, he decided to start walking around while keeping an eye over his surroundings.
***
While he was exploring, something he saw made him pause his steps in curiosity.
From a distance, a large, white mausoleum covered with moss and fallen debris was situated.
However the mausoleum wasn't the one that took his attention away—it was the faint, translucent aura that emitted around it.
Through Voidshadow Iris, he could see a pale formless energy swirling around the mausoleum quietly.
Lucas raised his brows, intrigued. However, something on the walls made him turn his expression into a sudden frown.
Brooding over to himself whether to still continue or not, he stood still for a moment in deep thought.
At the end, his curiosity won over him. Lucas sighed before chuckling quietly. He decided to at least prepare [Void Plunge] in his mind.
Shaping a sword with his aura, he cautiously approached the mausoleum.
As he got nearer and closer, the formless aura coming from the mausoleum seemed to shine more clearer and brighter than ever before.
Soon, he arrived in front of the mausoleum. Slightly raising his sword in caution, he pushed open the door.
Creak…
Ready to attack possibly anything that might assault him, Lucas stopped and echoed a relieved sigh.
Contrary to his expectations, there was no beast nor trap inside. The place was filled with accumulated dirt and moss, while in the middle, dozens of unidentifiable minerals lay.
Just as he was about to go inside it…
Woosh—!
A black shadow suddenly appeared behind him, with fangs as sharp as knives and fur darker than anything.
'You took your time.'
Lucas thought before he turned his back and swung his sword in a graceful arc.
Just in time, before the black shadow could touch him, his sword reflected them away.
"Cre..!"
The shadow growled in pain. A thud loudly resounded as its body fell and revealed its true form.
The dark red shadow was a four limbed beast with a lithe body—its piercing, sharp eyes glaring at Lucas in anger while its long tail spun behind it.
"Hm? A leopard this time?"
Lucas raised his brows, intrigued. It seemed that the Corrupted Rhino was just a variation among many. That made sense by how weak it was evaluated by the Oversoul System.
The Corrupted Leopard glared at him and warily retreated slightly.
"Are you surprised?"
Lucas suddenly asked. In truth, he had already expected something to be near the mausoleum.
How so?
Simple. Claw marks. On the walls of the mausoleum, although blurry and faint, marks of a sharp claw could be seen.
That was what made him stop and think for a moment.
The problem was that he didn't know the strength of the wild beast and where it was hiding, but then he realized—if the beast was truly strong, was there a need to hide and trap its prey?
Thus the only remaining problem was its hiding spot, that was why he lowered his guard and acted as an ignorant prey at the beginning
However there was still a measure of risk to it as, but he had Void Plunge to save him from such a scenario irregardless.
"I hope you show me more than the Rhinoceros from earlier."
Lucas narrowed his eyes. He was almost sure that the energy used in soul techniques and soul arts are also quite like the energy these corrupted beings use.
Observing how they attack and use that energy would help him use the otherworldly miracle energy called Soulforce.
It worked with Void Orb, there was no reason it shouldn't with others.
The Corrupted Leopard bared its fangs, as though accepting Lucas' provocation. Without a moment of pause, it leaped towards Lucas.
Woosh—!
At that moment, the Corrupted Leopard suddenly disappeared mid air—turning into a faint shadow as it reappeared behind Lucas.
'What? An ability like Void Plunge?'
Lucas, realizing his predicament, instantly swung his sword to his back—however the Corrupted Leopard dodged and merely flashed towards a different blind spot again.
Knowing his attempts of hitting the Corrupted Leopard would be futile, Lucas gathered aura around the edge of the aura-forged sword and strongly stabbed it to the ground.
Boom—!
An abrupt explosion erupted, blowing away the Corrupted Leopard to a distance. However, Lucas' state wasn't so good either.
His clothes were in a tattered mess while his shoulder had a small, surface wound from the Corrupted Leopard's claws.
Although he reacted just perfectly, the Corrupted Leopard was undoubtedly faster than him.
That was a feat in itself.
Lucas lightly stared at his wound on the shoulder. It was the first time he had been wounded since he came here.
It seemed he would have to sacrifice a bit for this battle.