Lukas took point as the group followed after the pixie, every now and then it turned its head to make sure it was going at an acceptable pace. That Human King had saved their people while using Dao control to keep his body from being completely split in half due to injuries. The pixies are a kind hearted and peace loving race, they had powerful Soul magic, ritualism, array formations, and alchemical skills. They were once hunted down to be turned into slaves, but the one thing that always kept them safe was their tightly held secret of their mastery over the Dao of Fate and Karma.
When that Human King ran into them, the current leader of the pixie's got several flashbacks through her Karma Dao. It showed a very bloody time, tens of years away in the future. When the rest of the Omniverse was unraveling itself to go on a manhunt for a single mortal, that mortal shared empathy and saved their race from total annihilation. Now that the same human mortal had rescued their people from captivity while slaying hundreds of enemies and thousands of mindless zombies, they would be ungrateful not to help him and his people in their time of need. Their Dao hearts alone would shatter and that would lead to a truly horrendous death sentence. Sentient and non sentient beings that went against their Dao heart always received the wrath of the Dao.
After another fifteen minutes the pixie returned to their previous area of enslavement. It brought back horrible memories and deeply saddening emotions as their people had been experimented on, and studied thoroughly by their captors in this Dungeon.
Lukas arrived with the rest of the group, they all let out a collective sigh of relief as they entered a medical lab, inside were rows of medical equipment that far outstripped Earth's current standards. There were medical pods with unknown liquids inside, after taking in their sights and calming their stressed nerves, a familiar voice brought them all back together.
"I'm glad you were all able to survive and make it here. For those that need to enter the medical pods to heal, that will be the first step. After everybody has healed and relieved their exhaustion, we will be having a Mana Pool surgery performed on all of us by the pixies. It will greatly benefit your Mana Cultivation, provide more attributes and greatly improve the rather unremarkable foundations we have as Humans."
Lukas' eyes widened in shock at the current state of Fenrich, it was a marvel that their leader was even still alive and breathing. There were several gaping holes and missing chunks of flesh from their leader's body. Lukas could see the Dao of Sharpness that Fenrich used as butterfly bandages to hold his upper body together. From the injury, black globs of murky blood were pooling out of him. From right shoulder all the way down to the left side of his hip, it looked like Fenrich had been split apart, his Dao keeping his body from falling apart into two separate halves.
"Yes. Human King right. All need to recover. Best mental and physical condition before surgery." The pixie spoke with her soft child-like voice.
Various pixies came out from hiding as they began opening 10 recovery pods one by one, and guiding each individual to their respective pod. Fenrich took the weight off from Lukas' shoulders and clapped the man on the shoulders. "You've done good Lukas, I don't know what it is that you all have suffered. I see the madness and Chaos deep within your eyes, the next time you meditate on the Dao you should do so on Order. Controlled Chaos is far more lethal than uncontrolled Chaos. Rest well, you have earned it."
Lukas stared Fenrich in the eyes, no words were exchanged before he nodded his head and went with his guide to his recovery pod.
"You bear heavy weight, King. We remember good and bad. Do good for your people as you did for ours. You also recover." The pixie leader sat herself on Fenrich's left shoulder, kicking her feet. "Strong is good. But you not strong to carry their burdens." The pixie spoke matter of factly, Fenrich sighed as he balled his hands into fists and struck the wall beside him.
"I will take responsibility for them, they suffered because I was fishing in bloodied waters. I want you to use these nine Dao fruits on my comrades with the higher tier of the Foundation Building Elixir."
The pixie gasped softly. "Expensive. They worth the cost?"
"They are my people, just as you are my people now, they will always be worth the cost." Fenrich turned to look the pixie queen in the eyes. "Thank you. I will go now, my Dao cannot hold me together anymore." The pixie queen got off from Fenrich's shoulders, applied a Divine Breath - tier 3 level 2 to Fenrich as he made his way into his recovery pod. The other pixies began connecting all the medical tubes and oxygen mask to his face. Beside the pixie queen was a bag that had nine baseball sized Dao fruits.
[Dao Seed Treasure - Tier F. Produces the required Dao energy and Enlightenment for the user to acquire an Early tier Dao Seed.]
Fenrich kept his eyes open as he watched the pixie queen turn all the Dao Seeds into a smoothie-like liquid with various other herbs, metals, natural treasures, and a single drop of blood.
[The Collector (Emperor) Abyssal Blood Drop x9. Purifies the foundation and successfully raises one's foundation an entire tier without any backlash or contaminants to the user. All basic attributes +50 upon consumption.]
[Foundation Building Elixir (Rare.) Cleanses the impurities of one's body, bringing them a step closer to a clean and untainted body. Successfully advances the unevolved into F Tier.]
Fenrich shut his eyes after he watched the pixie queen pouring the Dao smoothie and Foundation Building Elixir into the 9 other medical pods. The all-consuming blackness swallowed Fenrich, this time he had gained a lot, but it was at the cost of his own people and hundreds of innocent lives.
Progress had nothing to do about morals, it was a dog eat dog world in the Omniverse. Tragedy brought out the most potential, and he used The Collector and Void crossing experience to sharpen his group. But Ryan, and Lukas had too much pressure applied onto them. Although it was true that pressure created diamonds, it also shattered them.
Fenrich dreamt a dreamless dream, he was like a sailor in the middle of a crimson-black ocean during a savage storm on the high seas. This crimson-black sea was the weight of sin on his very Soul.
For with his hands, he had claimed the lives of quadrillions, an uncountable amount of lesser and true Deities fell to him. Now, in this crimson-black the screams and curses polluted his Soul. The waves rocked the single boat back and forth, from deep within the depths of the sea, two piercing gold-purple eyes stared into him. Piercing through the fog of war that clouded Fenrich's past Karma engraved on a small portion of his Soul.
Outside in the real world the pixie queen was fluttering her wings as she stared at Fenrich, her eyes clouded by indecision, in the middle of her tiny hands was an emerald green gem fluctuations condensed from Soul Qi with the Nature attunement and Cleansing aspect.
"You wish to help the Human, Lanshire?" Asked an elderly pixie. "You are the clan leader and the descendant that has awakened the God Queen Progenitors Bloodline and Divine Body. If you wish to sacrifice the Soul shard she left behind, I will support your decision. This Human has saved us twice now with a sincere heart and no ulterior motives."
The elder pixies eyes glowed a mystical white. "His Soul is tainted by the residual souls and hateful spirits that are nibbling away at his Soul piece by piece. In the coming future, a calamitous event will cause his Soul to completely dissipate. The God Relic hidden inside his Dao Heart will not be enough to reverse his preordained death."
Lanshire nodded her head. "It equivalent exchange. Protection for us. We provide means of empowerment. If make Human strong we live. If let Human weak we die."
The elder pixie visibly aged as his aura flickered violently "You are a smart one child. My time has come, let me warn you as the previous leader to the newest generation. Not all Humans are good, not all Humans have what it takes to be completely and overwhelmingly strong. But, Fenrich does. With us pixies specialties, and the Humans endless potential despite their more humbled origins, the future Empire of Humanity will be a glorious one indeed. Please, keep my corpse and bury me on fertile lands so I can keep giving to the future Human Empire in my death."
The elders Cultivation disintegrated, a lofty Demigod existence just outside the doors of true Godhood, split his Soul and Cultivation 9 ways. Imbuing himself into the spot where Laura and the rest of the groups Cultivation cores would later be.
This single act alone, would birth 9 future Gods that would later become the embodiment of their respective Dao peaks.
Lanshire got the last wisp from the Demigod existence, it contained the knowledge of all their created alchemy Skills, formation array Skills, knowledge and more. Most important of all, it contained the intelligence of the pixie elder himself. Lanshire went from the mental age of a 2 year old child, to that of someone who lived for thousands of years.
Lanshire ran through all the possibilities with the newfound intelligence she had gained. She nodded to herself before opening the hatch of Fenrich's medical pods, and crushed the gem from their ancestor into it.
The emerald green dust particles were absorbed into Fenrich's body, his tightly knit brows soon relaxed and an expression of peace was shown on his unconscious face.
"For two lifetimes you have supported us and bled for us pixies. I give you peace so that you may live without the demerits of your old tainted Karma. Sleep well, Human."
Meanwhile, inside Fenrich's soul world, the tiny boat that was himself was now being surrounded by the emerald green motes of light. They were rapidly refining the crimson-black into a refined energy.
At the most northernmost position of his soul world, there was a small obsidian gem with quintillion fine cracks spreading throughout it like a spiderweb.
That refined energy was recovering the obsidian gem, its bleak colour was quickly gaining a luster that was far more healthy in nature.
After three quarters of the energy had been used to repair his Soul core by one-tenth, the rest drilled into the brain of his physical body. The Dao of Nature flooded his brain turning into enlightenment, while his murky blood due to his unknown race evolution began becoming an emerald green colour itself.
His blood was still thick like jelly and far more condensed and still "tainted" by the Abyssal Symbiote. But in return, this Nature energy was also cleansing the impurities of the Abyssal Symbiote, causing Fenrich's blood to become healthier, and the Abyssal Symbiote to also have its blood evolve towards an unknown Abyssal Life attunement.
Deep inside his chest, a second heart was rapidly forming as an emerald green flame of Nature Dao burned off the black and purple sludge.
After a quarter had been used to clean the much smaller baby hand sized heart, the remaining Nature Dao flame began cleansing his much bigger and more polluted human heart.
The environment on Earth was ruined by factories, illegal sea dumping, smog, and various other man-made or caused issues to dirty Earth. These impurities were now being removed from Fenrich's human heart.
His fleshy heart in the meantime, was like a piece of metal being put under high pressure by the Nature Dao flame, pushing his heart into a crystallized state of evolution. His human heart turned mostly emerald green, while still keeping its red colour to a much smaller surface area.
Due to this process, Fenrich's skin visibly became more jade white as more time passed, his flesh becoming far more elastic, purer and strengthened. His hair, nails, teeth, eyes and all other features were improved on a fundamental level, causing his DNA to rapidly evolve to a higher form of Life.
Six hours rapidly passed, inside Fenrich's medical pods, a thick gaseous emerald green hid what was happening within. Due to Lanshires high affinity to Nature and Life, she could feel and see the evolution Fenrich was going through.
Even that far more "tainted" and disgusting part of him was becoming cleansed and more appealing to her Nature and Life Dao.
The rest of the humans were not getting such a significant evolution or change to them on a fundamental and genetic level like Fenrich, they were however, having their foundations rebuilt to the point their race of Human would change to Alabaster Human, skipping two entire steps of Awakened, and Ascended Human.
Alabaster Human was a step down from the High Human evolution state, where small to medium amounts of concentrated Dragon and Phoenix Blood would be surging through a High Human. For the truly blessed and lucky their blood would become a condensed mix of Dragon and Phoenix blood.
Lanshire watched with a smile on her face, it was always appealing to watch people go from their lesser forms to higher stages of life and evolution. And since her Dao of Life and Nature was about evolution, observing the process increased her comprehension and benefitted her.
Lanshire had never seen lowly life levels evolve to higher states before, each being more qualitative than the last. Especially that human, Laura, was she called? Her Dao of Rebirth was working in overdrive pushing her to the initial phase of a High Human, joining Fenrich although she herself did not know where his Life Rating would end up. Fenrich hadn't evolved yet, and with his circumstance with the Abyssal Symbiote, there would be no known record after his evolution ends.
Lanshire called for the remaining elders of the pixie clan through their magic that linked them all up like a hive-mind. "Can nine elders who are not in seclusion come to the experimental lab, please. The Humans are done with their Dao enlightenment allowing us to begin the Mana Core surgery. Please make haste as long as your tasks are not at a delicate stage. Contact Ol'Garand the chief blacksmith of the Ashen Dwarves, his Mana Body Forging techniques would also benefit the Mana Core surgery."
Without any need to wait long, less than 4 minutes in total. Ten pixie elders and 1 honorary guest elder appeared. The pixie elders were in a rush since they heard Lanshires perfect English and more mature voice; it was a sign their eldest guardian of the Demigod rank had passed on.
"We give condolences to the queen for your fathers passing, may he be at rest and return to Nature." The lead elder bowed as he spoke, followed by the nine others bowing quickly. The Ashen Dwarf bowed his body, and shocked the others by also bowing his head. He was only an honorary elder of the pixie clan for research and strengthening their race.
"My condolences. May Klainshire stir Nature as his Life bestows it with the bounty of his generosity, kindness and empathy." Ol'Garand said as he then raised his head and scanned a curious gaze over the ten medical pods and peered into the leylines of their Dao, Karma and Fate. As a God himself there was nothing that could be done to stop his gaze unless a higher ranked God masked them from scrying eyes.
"Endless potential, resolve, chaos, order, ambition and humility. These are some fine saplings, I understand my task now. I will deal with the physique and Mana Body foundations, the Mana Core and brain enhancement is up to her majesty and elders to perform." Ol'Garand summoned a 100 meter long, 30 meter thick hammer that was glowing in azure blue Mana so intensely it caused the Mana in the entire Mini Game Dungeon and Earth itself to visibly thicken 30 times.
"A fire burns in my heart. My hammer craves to forge excellence from the materials we have before us." In Ol'Garand's passion as a Blacksmith and Mana Body Blacksmith, Fenrich and the rest were no longer living beings, but material that his skills would pull the utmost out from the raw materials and push it beyond what could have been.
The medical pods opened, Laura had her right leg completely grown back, Isabella had her drained Soul replenished, Ryan's insanity was diminished, the chaos that drove Lukas insane from powerlessness was fused with his ambition for power with the Dao of Order to pull it into a state of controlled-chaos for expansion, consolidation, and reintegration.
Despite healing the most severe of the group's mental inflictions, it was not completely removed for a single reason, calluses built character.
"Godsmith Hephaestus Progenitor Forge."
"Godsmith Flame Of Eternal Blaze."
"Godsmith Hammer Of Nephaelic Hymns."
"Godsmith Inner World - Divine Bestowment."
The ten Humans were sucked into Ol'Garand's inner world, where he would forge the outlines, pathways and foundations for their Mana Body. In the future, they would have to attune the Mana to their desired element of choice. This would awaken the initial phase of the Mana Body, but the quality would be leagues ahead of those who spent decades or centuries building their Mana Body's foundation. Granting higher attributes, higher sensitivity to Mana and higher control over Mana as a whole.
Ol'Garand used his divine sense to scan the materials he had for him, each scan came back more impressive than the next. He had known that Fenrich had already built a Gold Mana Body, and in his eyes as a God and Mana Body Blacksmith it was absolutely perfect.
"I understand now why he didn't push for an Epic Mana Body, doing so would have caused his Soul to completely shatter. The kids Gold Mana Body has already surpassed the quality of an Epic Mana Body by 4 times. I guess that's the benefit of being a regressor and someone who lived life by the edge of the blade. Even if I had 1,000 years to replicate this in my youth, I wouldn't compare to the quality of this kid."
Ol'Garand eyes lit up with excitement and wonder. The hammer in his hands was already buzzing and vibrating intensely as it felt its master's anticipation. "The quality is beyond impeccable, but 100 years of knowledge is still too little for a Perfected Gold Mana Body, I will iron out the kinks the kid couldn't do. Then the rest will get a Perfected Silver Mana Body."
Ol'Garand decided as azure blue Mana surrounded Fenrich, and from inside of his body came out the pathways, and foundation of his Gold Mana Body. Ol'Garand enveloped it with his Flame Of Eternal Blaze and began hammering the Mana Body he had pulled out from Fenrich's body.
Ol'Garand began humming a tune as he began working on his craft.
"Dang dang dang"
"Both towers are now leaning.
"Cling cling cling"
"Fell in love with a girl in Thailand but she turned out to be Steven."
"Klang klang klang."
"Cops on my back yeah they stopped me from breathing."
"Cling dang klang!"
I don't get mad I get even violence is something I believe in."
"Klang klang klang!"