The insides of the castle were larger. There were many houses and abandoned stalls. Monsters were everywhere, but they all ignored Dyne and his group.

Dyne kept running and running and wondered why these monsters would ignore them. 

“They could see us. But why are they ignoring us? Just what happened?”

Several Gimards were also there, but just as with the other monsters, the Gimards ignored them.

Soon, Dyne decided to sense the Incense with his soul and realized something strange happening.

“Our aura changed! Oh right... did my smell change?” Dyne began to take a sniff at his own body but couldn’t accurately smell the scent.

Dyne decided to set this aside and continued to run towards the deeper parts of Drake Castle.

There were a lot of houses. Unlike the poor rendition of Drake Castle in the game, the world of Legaia that Dyne was in had a real kingdom. There were hundreds and possibly a thousand or more houses in this small kingdom. 

Dyne followed the main road as he guessed it would have to lead him towards Drake Castle's main entrance.

“I see... It’s changing our auras.” Dyne realized what it was.

The power of the Incense changed their scent and their soul. It made them look as if they were dead.

Dyne and his group ran forward and soon reached deep within the many abandoned homes. They saw Bertugo waving as they approached inside one of the houses, and Dyne led his group inside. Just as they were about to enter it, the last bits of the powder disappeared.

“What was going on? Why didn’t the monster attack us?” Dyne wondered. He then asked Bertugo and Brod and used their language.

Brod’s answer was simple but very precise.

“We smell like the dead?” Dyne was stunned.

“I see. This device makes it look like we are dead. This makes sense. The dead here won’t attack their own kind... Monsters ignore it, for they would gain nothing... And Serus seem to control the dead in the Mist!” Dyne solved the puzzle.

“Are dead monsters common?” Dyne asked the pair.

Bertugo quickly nodded as he could guess what Dyne was asking.

“What interesting turn of events!” Dyne was amazed.

“Alright. For now, we ambush and kill skeletons. We’ll get more of these Incense!” Dyne began his plot.

Only Bertugo and Brod accompanied Dyne while the Slimes stayed inside the house and waited.

The group searched for isolated Skeletons and attacked and killed them.

On the third Skeleton, Dyne acquired another Magic leaf. 

Dyne took half of the Magic leaf and divided the leaf further until only a quarter remained.

With that, he fed Bertugo and Brod, who had drained all their Mana.

“I should have asked for that item to increase item drops...” Dyne sighed. With that item, they would acquire more magical leaves and make the entire trip easier.

Strafe was secretly cursing as he heard Dyne sighed. He already had an Evil God Icon near him, and he desired such a thing? 

It was then that Dyne noticed a Gimard and a Drake Ghost that was somehow moving inside one of the houses.

Dyne took the opportunity and gave the group their respective instructions.

With the Golden Compass, the group charged.

But the Gimard immediately sensed the group and gave a strange rattling shriek to alert the Drake Ghost.

Brod used Steal and achieved a strange speed faster that allowed him to nab the item through the strange dimensional effect of the Evil God’s blessing and retreated. Bertugo rampaged and attacked with all of its might. Number 1 and Number 2 also followed to deliver the blows.

Dyne, on the other hand, faced the Gimard and punched it to draw its attention. The Gimard was enraged and began to channel a strange fire which Dyne was familiar with.

Dyne sent out a quick punch towards the neck of the Gimard.

He could see how the Soul energy of the Gimard was generating energy and gathering it on its beak.

Dyne punched at the body of the Gimard, which was practically its neck, and Dyne did something that was the opposite of what Biron Spirit Arts used.

Dyne released the soul out of his body and channeled it towards the neck.

BOOM!

The fire attack exploded within the body of the Gimard and instantly killed it.

Dyne was shocked at the scene.

Strafe was cursing at the scene.

“Woah! That was some hot stuff!” Dyne was startled.

The Gimard’s body started to dissipate. 

Dyne rushed forward and channeled the Soul energy within him. He used the same technique that Strafe had instilled in Dyne’s memories. But this time, Dyne added more flavors to it. His training around the Genesis Tree had allowed Dyne to be more sensitive to the life energies.

Dyne had long pondered about life energy, which Strafe mentioned when he was creating this world. He knew that life energy was the strongest source that surpassed the Mind or Soul. It dictated life itself and had the power even to turn back or speed up time.

So Dyne was exploring the mysteries beyond the soul. What Dyne was confident that this world was the greatest world to study life. Because every soul created here came from the loving and willing deaths of those who died in Alos Vasilous. There was bound to be some reaction.

He waited until the dissipating soul was less than a tenth of what the Gimard was and then started to do what he had been considering these past weeks.

“Madman!” Strafe realized what Dyne was trying.

The burning sensation appeared once more. But this time, Dyne had more control of his body. He had several occasions to absorb the soul of Ginger and few him more soul energy. But this was different. The soul of this Gimard, which was in the Mist, was far more terrifying.

Dyne felt the burning pain and moved towards Bertugo while summoning Number 1 with his soul.

“Bertugo!” He called out.

The group had just delivered blows after blows, and when the Drake Ghost tried to fight back, Bertugo took the initiative to receive the blow. After training with the hunters, Bertugo was more skilled with defending as he would focus on his defense when fighting the Hunters, who fought him like a pack of wolves.

After hearing Dyne’s call, he ran and went towards Dyne as he noticed Dyne grimacing.

Brod took over and attacked the weakened Drake Ghost and killed it.

Dyne plunged one of his hands in Number 1 and grasped Number 1’s slime core.

At the same time, he reached out and had Bertugo touch him.

Bertugo did reach back without hesitation, and the burning pain covered him.

“What the? He redirected the energy?!” Strafe was stunned at the scene.

Dyne combined Strafe’s life’s absorbing technique and combined it with the foundational Soul techniques he had, and instead of absorbing it, he passed it on towards the two.

Strafe knew this was a relatively easy technique as even his master did that to him when he was young. But to learn this on his own without any pointers was very, very difficult.

Bertugo felt the burning sensation and shivered. The Slime was also quivering in pain.

“Bear it, guys! This is practically soul tempering for you two!” Dyne shouted.

The process continued for several minutes. Dyne constantly quivered and shook but didn’t let go.

Soon, the process ended. Dyne immediately took the remaining jar full of Hunter’s Spring and drank it. He drank a third of it, poured one-third towards the Slime, and finally gave the rest to Bertugo.

“Sorry. That was... very, very... painful. But... you two must... go through it.” Dyne was gasping as he explained.

Bertugo was strangely observing his body. He then turned to Dyne and explained something in his native language.

Betugo said a lot of words that even stunned Brod.

What Dyne did was something only the Evil God Totem of every tribe could do!

Dyne listened at Bertugo’s explanation.

When a Gobu Gobu would be able to reach a high level, it comes to a point where the life effect barely has any effects. It was as if they reached a cap and could not level up. This was why they would sacrifice to the Evil God Totem. The Totem had the ability to grant a Gobu Gobu the opportunity to evolve. The Gobu Gobu’s north of the mountain had several Gomboos in each tribe. But the larger tribes would have a tribe that had a majority of Gomboos. Only the young would be the unevolved Gobu Gobu. 

When the Mist arrived, and the Serus betrayed the humans, the Serus would often rampage and kill monsters. But this opportunity drove the Gomboo leaders wild with greed. This was because a Seru could allow them to evolve even further if they offered enough Serus to the Evil God Totem.

Gomboos would eventually reach their level cap and would be incapable of leveling up unless they offered Serus to their Totems. But it wasn't easy to accomplish this. It was tough to kill a Seru as no Gimard would roam around freely north of Drake Castle, and the Serus in Mount Rikuroa could heal each other.

Bertugo explained that since his transformation as a Gomboo, he noticed that he was weaker than the average Gomboo. At first, he managed to gain experience and killed a lot. But then, he leveled up. And after that, he could no longer sense that his experience was being filled. But what Dyne did, although painful, allowed him to gain experience!

Brod immediately kneeled on the floor and gave a salute by placing his sword arm on his chest and began to speak so fast that Dyne couldn’t keep up in translating it.

But Dyne knew what he wanted to say.

“Tell me, Brod. Will this be enough to make some of your family betray your tribe?” Dyne wore an evil smile.