Now that the unstable and unsteady soulframe had been created, Zayn's strength increased a bit.
The increment in strength made it feel like Zayn possessed twice the amount of soul particles as before!
'If the frame of the first Soulring already has such an effect, how strong will I be once the Soulring has been completed?' Zayn wondered while he marveled at the soulframe.
He didn't have any loose soul particles left in his body because they had all been turned into the soulframe. Nonetheless, Zayn could make use of the energy within the soulframe. That way, he could exude more power which increased his combat prowess drastically.
The only downside, if one could label it such, was that his Spirits couldn't devour the energy within the soulframe. Zayn could instinctively tell that his soulframe would crumble the moment his Spirits were to attempt devouring some of the soul particles that had been used to construct the soulframe.
However, that was only obvious, since the soul particles were the foundation of the soulframe and they couldn't be taken away from Zayn anymore, not without subjecting him to dire consequences!
Zayn fell asleep with a satisfied expression and a better understanding of soul particles and he didn't wake up until the sun had long since risen above the horizon.
"Is it already lunchtime?" He mumbled to himself while yawning and stretching his body as he got up from the bed.
After taking a quick shower and changing his clothes, Zayn left the Inn wearing the cloak and mask. The two Sparrow Spirits shot into the air after emerging from below his cloak.
They shot in the air and zoomed into two different locations while Zayn chose to eat some of the jerkies he bought the day before.
He was not interested in attracting too much attention which was why he left the town without further delay. There was not much he could do in the town either way. It was better to search for a bunch of monsters even if there weren't too many of them in the central region, to begin with.
The only good thing for Zayn was that there weren't supposed to be any powerful monsters in the central regions. The strong monsters would be killed before they could reach the central region. At least that was what Zayn had learned so far and the experience he gained from hunting made it quite clear that it was probably the truth.
The only issues were the Undead Caves and the unknown dangers lurking inside it.
Zayn was pretty sure that the C-rank Adventurers would die, and he couldn't be more right. While Zayn spent all his time hunting for two days straight, earning him a small fortune and enough soul particles to reinforce his soulframe, the news of the C-rank Adventurers' demise reached the town!
"Only two members of the C-rank Adventurer team returned. The Guardian Knight Adventurer lost not only one of his arms but also his sanity…as for that female Assassin…I've never seen someone with an expression like her…I didn't even know that it was possible for humans to make such expressions…" The owner of the Adventurer's Inn, which was the unofficially name of the Inn next to the Adventurer Hall, informed Zayn who had ordered a bunch of dishes again.
He was still growing given his adolescence and the massive amount of soul particles he absorbed during the last two days provided him with an additional growth spurt. His muscles were slowly growing and Zayn was getting more confident in his capabilities.
He had yet to manifest a fourth Spirit but that could wait a little bit longer. Zayn was still not sure which path he would take with his Army of Spirits because the current situation might change at any time.
"Doesn't that mean there are Soul Monsters with at least two Soulrings in the Undead Caves?" Zayn responded to the Innkeeper with a question. After having one meal a day at the Innkeeper's counter, Zayn had gotten a little bit closer to the middle-aged man and could strike a conversation with him.
It was only the third day since he started to eat at the Adventurer Inn and so far none of Philip's men had gotten wind of him. His eye color was striking but the Innkeeper, who was also the only person that had seen Zayn without a mask, didn't bother interrogating Zayn about anything.
Rather, they had a few wholesome discussions about different things after they were hooked into a conversation.
"Each Undead Cave must have one monster with two Soulrings…at least two Soulrings and at least one Monster…" The Innkeeper acknowledged, while mumbling to himself, "How could these monsters remain hidden for such a long time?"
The answer could be both simple or complicated, but neither Zayn nor the Innkeeper knew the answer.
Zayn had a lot more to say and it looked like the Innkeeper felt the same. However, before he could say anything else, Zayn got up as he felt that his connection to both Sparrow Spirits was growing stronger. His eyes narrowed and he momentarily forgot that he had been in a conversation with the Innkeeper.
He had sent his Sparrow Spirits away to complete a task for him two days ago. Zayn didn't expect them to return so soon, at the same time at that!
That could only mean that his worst nightmare had actually turned true.
'Is that really happening right now?' Zayn thought and he was just about to start cursing out loud when he saw the expression on the Innkeeper's face.
The middle-aged man was confused about Zayn's sudden change in expression and the fact that he abruptly jumped up in the middle of their conversation.
Until now, the young man had been very polite and actually easy and pleasant to talk with to the Innkeeper. Zayn was different from most other kids because he acted very mature and composed.
And his startled jump confused the Innkeeper right now.
"I'm sorry but I have to leave. I might come back in the evening," Zayn said with a small smile on his face as he paid for his food. "Tell your wife that her cooking was exceptional as always!"
After he said that, Zayn put on his mask and left the Inn without any detour.
He didn't even wait for the Innkeeper to wish him a good day as he disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Looks like something happened…did he receive a System notification?" The Innkeeper muttered to himself, wondering what could have happened.
Less than ten minutes after Zayn's sudden departure, Phillip Cerk and his bodyguards entered the Inn. They were grinning from ear to ear and Phillip retrieved two gold coins from his pouch which he threw toward the counter without much care.
"Today is a wonderful day, It's my treat tonight!" Phillip announced boastfully.
"Eat and drink like the pigs you are!!"
**
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At first, Zayn thought that he was lucky to have survived in the Undead Cave but his misconception was quickly cleared.
It was obvious that he survived because only a few Undead had been sent over to tackle him.
Zayn thought about it very hard and he came to the conclusion that someone was controlling everything in the Undead Caves. It didn't make sense that a total of six grinding spots, specifically six Goblin Caves, had been infiltrated by Undeads who could turn the living into more Undeads.
That was why Zayn thought Undead Liches had somehow appeared in the Goblin Caves where they could hide rather easily and control the Undead Skeletons while lurking in the shadows. However, that didn't really make any sense either because the Liches had to emerge from somewhere and end up in the Goblin Caves without getting caught or noticed in the first place.
Zayn was very suspicious of the Undead Caves and he grew even more vigilant when he figured that the Normie King knew about the Caves yet he didn't act.
The Normie King was likely to be a Normie with three or more Soulrings revolving around his heart. Zayn couldn't figure out why the Normie King ended up in a small town that had yet to cross the population of 10,000 to earn the right of a name, in the first place.
It made things more complicated, and dangerous. Unsure of what the near future might hold for him, Zayn told his Sparrow Spirits to do two specific things.
He gave one of the Sparrow Spirits the task to observe the nearest Undead Cave and return only when something big happened. The Sparrow Spirit was instructed to return to him the moment an Undead left the cavern entrance, or a living being emerged from the cave, unscathed.
While the first Sparrow Spirit was given the observatory task, the other Sparrow Spirit was supposed to keep an eye on Phillip Cerk and his followers.
Zayn could sense his Spirits as long as they were within a certain radius around him. This radius expanded as he grew stronger but it was still not exactly strong.
He barely sensed the two Sparrow Spirits when they were only a hundred meters away from entering the town.
They returned together, turning his worst fears true that Zayn had jokingly thought of after he recalled the ominous hue that had radiated from Phillip's Stigma during their first encounter.
'...these bastards!' He nearly cursed out loud as he made his way back to the Inn.
The Sparrow Spirits returned to him to share their respective reports but Zayn didn't even wait for them to share the memories of what they had seen with him as he inserted some of his power into one of the Spirits. The two Sparrow Spirits should have seen the same, which meant that he didn't need both Spirits to share their memories with him.
"Keep following Phillip and wait for me there," Zayn merely ordered one of them while he looked at the other one for a moment.
"Show me what you saw."
He could already guess what the Sparrow Spirit must have seen but it was reaffirmed a moment later as the other Sparrow Spirit shared its memories with him. In it, he could see Phillip Cerk, his bodyguards, and an older man who looked similar to Phillip in many ways.
There were a few more Adventurers in their group that exceeded ten members but they all had two things in common; their smile which was as disgusting as their Stigma!
"Is that really a coincidence? Obviously not!" Zayn muttered when he returned to his room in the Inn on the outskirts of the town.
By now, he knew where Phillip was located because the first Sparrow Spirit kept hovering at the same spot for a few minutes. Phillip Cerk was at the Adventurer Inn while the gray Sparrow Spirit was on top of the building, observing the entrance.
"The same God blessed them, and they nourished the Undead…Phillip's ominous aura felt similar to the Undead Cave as well…all of that is connected…" Zayn mumbled, running a hand through his hair while simultaneously trying to understand what was going on.
In fact, he was pretty sure what was currently happening but he didn't really want to accept it. There was no reason for humans to sacrifice other humans and throw them at monsters…or was there?
Since Zayn found out more about the Gods who handed out their Blessings as if they were candies, he grew a little bit more vigilant of them. He knew that Rail Landal would often lie about the missions he received from his System and boast unnecessarily but Zayn could also tell that their last meeting on the day of their graduation was directly related to the System missions.
Rail Landal didn't look like he wanted to converse more than necessary with Zayn, the Normie, when they graduated. He would have broken Zayn's arm and left afterward simply because he actually received the system mission to break a Normie's arm.
Zayn didn't know much about the Systems the Blessed received, or how well they were connected but he heard about the term Group-Missions. Group Missions were missions that were given to a group of the Blessed with the same Stigma, usually…and that was likely to be happening right now.
Zayn guessed that the Blessed around Phillip Cerk and his father were all involved in a Group Mission that may or may not have been given by their God.
The thought of the Gods actively controlling the people around him made Zayn sick, and even more so the cruelty of the Blessed that were blindly willing to surrender to their greed by following the Gods who caused the death of many just to nourish the beings in the Undead Cave.
Of course, all of this was just Zayn's theory as he didn't have even a shred of evidence to prove his point.
But that didn't really matter anymore. Zayn retrieved a Soul Shard from his backpack and he absorbed the soul particles that were stored inside it without a second thought.
The Soul Shard was the second one he obtained. He had been extremely lucky to get his hand on two Soul Shards within three days but he couldn't even sell one of them for a small fortune.
It was more important to absorb the soul particles and strengthen the Sparrow Spirit as much as possible.
After all, trouble was about to ensue and the Sparrow Spirit on his shoulder was the key to his success!
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