The bear’s corpse had been very carefully placed into a cocoon made out of mushroom fabric. It wasn’t particularly pretty looking, had the texture of rotten wood, and there was a slightly unpleasant odor, but he only needed it until he got back to Faust’s sect.
It was early morning when Sylver arrived at the edge of the city. He adjusted the wooden badge on his arm so it was visible, as he walked down the road, with several boxes floating above his head. Sylver was so deep in thought he completely forgot to bother with squinting his eyes, wrinkling his face, or walking with a limp.
Nonetheless, either the guards weren’t interested in him, or could tell it would be a bad idea to disturb him, and Sylver arrived at Faust’s sect without any issues.
He didn’t notice that all the weeds had been pulled, and were replaced by either flat stones, or bright green grass, he didn’t notice that there wasn’t a garbage pile on the left and that the space inside the wall on the right had been patched up.
He didn’t even notice the four people standing between him and the house, as they wordlessly moved out of the way. Spring appeared inside and picked up the floating boxes, and organized them in one of the corners. With a faint gesture of the hand, Sylver moved the bear’s corpse up towards the roof and asked for one of the shades to cover it with a tarp or something.
“Syl?” someone asked on Sylver’s right.
He moved his gaze towards the source of the sound and saw Faust sitting on the floor, writing something on a large yellowed piece of paper. Sylver moved his arm around and made the bear's corpse float down from the roof, and placed it onto the floor directly in front of Faust.
“Do you know what this is?” Sylver asked, as Faust quietly stood up, and walked over to the hairless bear to inspect it closer.
Faust just looked at it for a few seconds, and after he placed his hand on it for a moment, made a face Sylver hadn’t seen before.
“It’s a demonic monster,” Faust said calmly.
Sylver mutely gestured for him to continue his explanation.
“Not a demon, obviously, but it’s… It shouldn’t be this consistent. It’s a bear, through and through, only the eyes are affected,” Faust explained, as he pointed at the bear’s open eye.
“Ah, so this is the monster equivalent of a demonic cultivator,” Sylver said, and even though he refrained from gesturing at Faust’s tightly wrapped hands, he could still tell that that was what he had wanted to do.
“Not a natural one. Someone made this, normally there would be two or three creatures mixed into one. It’s not that difficult of a process, but it’s very time-consuming... 20 years, at least… You found this in the swamp?” Faust asked as Sylver nodded.
With a wave of his hand, Sylver covered himself and Faust in a thin barrier that would keep their conversation private. Even if Sylver could see that Faust wasn’t going to be happy about Sylver’s next question, presented with this corpse, he understood the importance of it anyway.
“Those men that attacked you earlier… You used demonic cultivation on them, right? What did you do to their souls exactly,” Sylver asked, in as polite and non threatening of a tone as he could possibly manage while standing near the corpse of an animal that could have destroyed his chances of rescuing Edmund.
“To put it in a way you would understand, I used those men’s souls the way someone might use a filter to clear their blood of toxins. When you cultivate your own Ki, it splits up into positive, and negative. What you’re supposed to do is let it settle, scoop the negative that sunk to the bottom and discard it, and keep the nice and pure positive Ki floating near the top,” Faust explained, with such a calm voice that Sylver didn’t even need to reach for his soul to tell he was doing something to keep himself relaxed.
“What about the whole Yin and Yang thing?” Sylver asked.
“That’s to do with meridian and vessel structure. It limits which kind of cultivation techniques you’re suited for, and some other stuff, but it has nothing to do with whether a certain cultivation method is demonic or not. From a practical standpoint, mine isn’t demonic,” Faust said.
Sylver just stood there quietly and looked at the man.
“It’s… I don’t actually cultivate negative Ki. I realize to you it may not seem important, but using another person’s positive Ki to clean your own, doesn’t necessarily count as using another person’s Ki. I didn’t… What do you want from me?” Faust asked as Sylver thought the question over.
What do I want from him? Now that I know to be on the lookout for creatures and people attacking the soul, I should be fine… Since this bear had some kind of soul manipulation, I might be able to form an armor out of it…
“I’ll be honest with you. Between the [Hero] having been here, a possible dragon, whoever made that Night Fever mimicking curse, and now monsters that can attack my soul, I want to wrap everything up and leave as quickly as possible. I’m going upstairs to figure out how this thing works, and then I’m selling all the shit I’ve gathered. I have items that 2 sects I need to visit want, so I’ll hopefully be allowed inside, and I’ll find Edmund trapped in a large cage in the middle of their garden or something,” Sylver explained.
He dismissed the silencing spell and had the bear’s corpse float up towards the roof, so no one could see what he was doing.
“Alright,” Faust said.
“Sometime in the near future, I’m going to ask you to do whatever it is you did to those men, so I can observe you, and their souls. It doesn’t have to be today, but the sooner, the better,” Sylver added, as he sent a tendril of fog out through the window up towards the roof.
He waited for Faust to nod before he materialized on the roof.
In his heart of hearts, he knew finding Edmund wasn’t going to be easy, simple, or quick, but who knows?
Maybe he really is just walking around waiting to hear Sylver’s name.
Thank you for the chapter
Thanks for chapter ~~
I mean considering how much trouble tends to find him I really get why he is sick of all the bull… But ignoring the reality around you is not a sustainable solution.
This is the risk Sylver took when he choose not to live in a cave for thousands of years building up his old powers, I am just surprised we have not met that many powerful (by his old tier 10 standard) threats up until now that hard counter him…
I am not saying that he should had gone into some kind of exile but he could had been more low key, except when he was in the thick of it of course
Have a good day ~~
Boredom is MC’s greatest enemy. He said so himself. So the famous Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times” is the MC chosen path.
I am very curious how the system would react if he did do that. Would he end up stronger than someone at level 1000 while being level 100 in his unique class? What happens when he just kills a few level 1000 beings at that point? Instant level 300?
Also, I doubt he'd be allowed to do it peacefully that's for sure.
@RandomReviewer Probably unlock a Soul related class that maybe has synergy with his necromancy. But he wouldn’t gain levels because The System has it’s own agenda. Those levels are rewarding a set of behaviors that don’t include sitting in a cave doing nothing.
@PerryFalcon His unique class is based around unlocking his old strength it seems. So he should gain levels in that even if he's just sitting around doing very little.
@RandomReviewer You don’t know that. This is a true comedy so parts of the world building are absurdist and/or bat sh*t crazy. A later chapter reveals the world is doughnut shaped, Zero foreshadowing. Not as crazy as Discworld by Terry Prachett but enough that I can’t base anything on assumptions.
@PerryFalcon I'm not going back a dozen chapters to just after he built his body for the quote, but I'm almost certain Sylver said something along the lines of his unique class seems only level up when he gets a step closer to his previous state of strength. Which is why he gained 3 levels when he sped up his body's transformation and why he gained 1 when creating a sentient shade.
Also thanks for the random spoiler man that sure was nice of you.
@RandomReviewer Dude, I was joking. How could a world be doughnut shaped? This isn’t Halo.
@RandomReviewer MC’s Racial Class is named for a Russian folk-hero. So when he stumbles into doing something the original hero does he gets a boost. I haven’t read up on the original hero’s abilities but google had some cool artwork for it… maybe. I didn’t want spoilers so I just skimmed the front page.
@PerryFalcon World or planet? I'm sure the system has enough power to make a planet donut shaped. As for the world idk depends on what a world truly is. I believe one theory is our current universe is donut shaped somehow but idk the details.
@PerryFalcon Interesting. If it's based on Sylver's previous life then he should pretty easily get to level 50 at least by just regaining his previous strength.