Crawford shouted in glee. "You bastard! I finally got you! I win! Ha Ha! Did you think I was like your other souls? I am special! You should have never tried to resurrect me! No. I knew you would! I planned all of this from the very beginning."
Liam frowned. He was already used to this by this point. He knew that all souls go through something at the beginning before they eventually accept their new reality but this person was annoying and he was not particularly in a mood to listen to this guy droning on all day long.
"You made a terrible mistake by resummoning me. You should have let me stay dead. You cannot control me. Watch me while I wreck you from the inside out-"
"Stop." Liam tightened the control on Crawford's soul, instantly making the guy come to a screeching halt. Not that he did not think the man's monologue wasn't important. No. On the contrary, he was extremely interested in hearing what he had to say.
He of all the people knew many secrets that Liam desperately needed but not in this way. He needed to hear it straight from the horse's mouth in a more reliable way.
As soon as he gripped the man's soul, Crawford became rigid and silent like an obedient little puppet ought to be.
"Now. Let's start from the beginning. What is this you are talking about? Why do you win?"
The soul minion stared at Liam with no longer any defiance in its eyes. "I am a nascent tool spirit." Crawford spoke without any bluster. "My soul is special. It is impossible to control me because I am already bound to someone."
"Hmmm…" Liam's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the soul minion. So many things suddenly made sense. However…
"No. You are under my control."
Crawford was definitely telling the truth because he was forged by Liam. His soul was now bound to him and Liam was damn sure he was completely under his control. Then what was this about being bound to someone else? Perhaps a previous owner of the spatial artifact?
This too turned out to be false as Crawford gave a resounding no as a response.
"I am free and unfettered. I am not bound to anyone. I am only bound to my master who forged me."
"Forged you?" Liam's eyes further widened. Someone powerful enough to forge a spatial artifact such as the PVP tower was definitely not a simple person. He had to be some sort of bigshot or someone from a really powerful family. Knowing more about this owner might open a lot of doors for Liam.
"Tell me more about this person who forged you."
The moment Liam closed his mouth, immediately something unexpected happened. A white mist started coming out of Crawford and the soul minion started screaming as if he was in tremendous pain.
Liam also vaguely felt that something was off. His control over the soul was still absolute but the forged bead was showing signs of corruption. Parts of it were starting to corrode and fade into nothingness. This was not good.
"Stop. You don't have to tell me that." Liam quickly interjected.
And just like that Crawford's soul stopped twitching. It looked like the guy was not wrong after all. There seemed to be some sort of restriction on him, something that Liam was not able to undo just yet.
But details on the creator of this tool spirit could wait. There were other burning questions in his mind.
"Tell me more about the tutorial world. Who is the divine temple high priestess? Is she the one organizing the whole thing?"
Crawford nodded. "Yes, her excellence is the one in charge of the tutorial." "Tasks of overseeing insignificant worlds being integrated into the myriad realms are auctioned off periodically by the system and her excellence managed to grasp this chance for herself. Her aim was to create a treasure using the ritual of - ahhh… ahhhh…. AHHHHHHH!"
The soul minion started screaming once again in the middle of answering Liam's question. Not so surprisingly, wisps of soul energy were rapidly dissipating yet again from the forged soul bead.
"Alright. Stop. Stop."
Crawford immediately relaxed, the strain on his soul no longer present.
"This is bullshit." Liam's face twitched. This was the first minion he had come across with these many restrictions already placed on it. What was even the point of him being in control of it if everything that was of value was hidden behind a vault.
For the next few minutes, Liam busied himself as he tried to delve deeper into the soul to find out things without explicitly asking the soul minion and triggering some sort of soul trap.
However, everything was foolproof. He simply couldn't come near anything related to the divine temple high-priestess. All he could find out was that the tool spirit Crawford had entered into some sort of a system contract with the priestess which was something far more intricate than what Liam could handle at his current level. He even tried reforging the soul but to no use.
In the end, Liam was about to give up when he suddenly tried asking about the tutorial world itself, rather than anything about the high-priestess.
"Is there any way I can return to the tutorial world? Do you know if there is any portal or any secret compartment in the spatial artifact that I don't have access to but you might?
Crawford listlessly nodded. "Of course. I am the tool spirit. I have complete control of my artifact."
Liam's eyes instantly lit up. A lot of plans started forming in his head when the soul minion once again opened its mouth. "But there is no portal."
Liam froze. A bitter smile appeared on his face. "Of course. You are completely useless, aren't you?"
Not quite caring about his tone or his remark, the soul minion soullessly answered. "I am not useless. I am able to unlock all the sections of my artifact and I sense that I have in my possession some items from the tutorial world previously owned by you. If that interests you."