The wandering child was also a bronze-tier Transcendent.
Together with Bofis, a silver-tier being capable of flight, they entered the interior of the Curse Cellar with ease.
However, the structure inside the Curse Cellar surprised the child and made him feel somewhat cautious—
As a Jungle Walker, he was able to sense the earth, plants, and water sources around him. After all, if he couldn’t sense them, there would be no talking about controlling them.
Moreover, he had just paid some experience to learn the "Sky Strike Technique" taught by Bofis’s mother.
[Sky Strike Technique LV1: Swing your sword at the air to form a blade of wind.]
According to Bofis, mastering abilities related to the atmosphere seemed to be a prerequisite for the "Wind Dancer" advancement. As soon as he learned the Sky Strike Technique, he would soon advance to be a Wind Dancer.
And that was where the problem lay.
He could feel the air, he could feel the water...
But he couldn’t feel any trace of "rock" or "earth" within this massive building.
The walls didn’t feel like metal either. If he had to describe it, it was somewhat like the touch of an eggshell.
The water didn’t flow neatly through pipes as in a factory. Or rather, the pipes that carried the water weren’t very uniform in appearance.
Instead of saying these were water pipes.
It would be more accurate to say they were blood vessels.
...This place called the "Curse Cellar".
It seemed to be alive.
Along with a strange pumping sensation, the wandering child clearly felt that inside the building, a large amount of liquid was rhythmically surging. The pumping sound in his ears became clearer and clearer, and he even felt his own heart uncontrollably syncing with that thing’s pumping, as an odd metallic sound mingled clearly with his own heartbeat.
The heartbeat grew louder and louder, and the humming metallic sounds that came with it also grew louder, making Bofis’s voice sound fuzzy and distant...
But he still followed Bofis and kept moving forward.
Suddenly, the heartbeat stopped.
Or rather, all sounds in the world disappeared.
The child, having grown accustomed to the strange noise, even felt somewhat uncomfortable when the world returned to silence in an instant.
That made the child subconsciously stop in his tracks.
Realizing he had stopped following, Bofis looked back with some confusion and let go of his hand.
Her mouth moved as if she were saying something.
But the child heard nothing.
He also made an effort to speak, but he couldn’t make a sound either. This even caused him to panic, breaking out in a cold sweat and his scalp tingling.
The world before his eyes suddenly began to twist.
...As if the frame rate was too high and the image was tearing apart.
At times, areas would suddenly turn pitch black, then return to normal, but the timeline upon restoration didn’t seem to fully align with the present, resulting in strange discoloration in the surrounding areas.
For some reason, when seeing this scene reminiscent of a game crash, the inexplicable fear that had risen in the child’s heart... was greatly diminished...
A mass of text suddenly appeared before him:
[Detected "Apprentice" attempting to enter Specimen Storage Vault III-251-11 "Silverstone Curse Cellar"]
[Access permission not obtained]
[Detected new skill "Sky Strike Technique" has been mastered, learning goal achieved]
[Provisional access rights have been revoked]
The next moment, the child vaguely heard a faint "click" sound. It was like closing the lid of a wooden box.
Then the world before the child’s eyes went black; after losing sound, he also completely lost sight.
"...So this is the Curse Cellar?"
Xitan Pulan murmured.
Defu, Chocolate, and the four dark tiles, two men and a cat, had found her Spiritual Body through the live feed of Xitan Pulan’s broadcast.
But as the "Prophet" had guessed.
Because Defu and the four dark tiles were not of a high enough soul tier, they were invisible to both Xitan Pulan and Bofis.
Yet this miraculous technology of being able to follow closely without being seen or heard, and even having a conversation through space, deeply shocked Bofis.
—How did you do it.jpg
—This is called room checking.jpg
But even using this method of peeking into Xitan Pulan’s live stream room to communicate with her was somewhat strenuous.
So they stuffed Xitan Pulan’s Spiritual Body back into her.
Considering someone might follow them in later and out of safety concerns... the four dark tiles still carried Xitan Pulan’s body over their shoulder.
He originally wanted Chocolate to do it.
After all, there were social norms about men and women not touching, and he and Xitan Pulan met often. Their acquaintance was just at that awkward halfway point...
... And his older sister, who lived with Xitan Pulan, was still watching his livestream.
But just as Twisted attempted to place Xitan Pulan onto the cat Chocolate, Chocolate’s fur exploded with irritation.
Twisted hadn’t expected the cat’s temperament to be so much greater than Defu’s—when he tried to put Xitan Pulan on her, Chocolate turned around and pounced on Twisted, unleashing a flurry of feline punches at him.
Because Chocolate didn’t unsheathe her claws—or rather, she didn’t put force into her fingers—the tips fluttered rapidly, pitter-pattering against Twisted’s forearm.
Twisted himself didn’t really hurt, but Chocolate ended up making her own fingers sore from the slapping...
Frustrated, Chocolate bit down hard on Twisted’s hand.
Defu, standing by, was stunned, hastily controlled Chocolate with her hand, and pulled her away.
But she also embarrassingly threw another punch at Twisted—this one a real punch that landed on Twisted’s back, and Twisted could even faintly hear an echo...
In the end, with no other choice, he sought Xitan Pulan’s opinion before finally carrying Xitan Pulan’s soulless body on his back.
Without her soul, her body was abnormally heavy, like that of a drunk person. Twisted had to hoist her up periodically as he carried her.
But for Twisted, who had never been in close contact with the opposite sex, this was a bit too stimulating...
He walked on nervously without daring to say a word, his attention focused, his body stiff as he trudged forward. He struggled to deliver the body to Xitan Pulan and even apologized to her.
However, Xitan Pulan herself had no particular reaction to what seemed like an overly intimate act, "Why should you apologize to me for helping me bring my body over..."
In fact, she found Twisted’s nervousness rather cute.
Too bad he wasn’t her type.
Xitan Pulan’s attention, though, was drawn to another matter—
So when her own soul left her body, the passive vampirism didn’t trigger anymore?
The occupational trait of a Half-Lich was to continuously drain life from living beings upon contact. But only now did she confirm that this trait followed the soul, not both the body and soul...
Doesn’t that mean she could wear armor and stand on the front line as a living shield?
Her soul would drain life from enemies on contact, and upon returning to her body, she would use that power to heal herself. If she could move frequently enough between her enemies and her body, the shield would constantly regenerate...
... Could this be considered as a Prophet’s foresight?
That sounds a bit... thrilling.
Engrossed in her thoughts, Xitan Pulan led the way with the guidance of the specter girl at the front, holding a torch and walking at the forefront of the player group, moving towards the pit of the Curse Cellar.
"By the way, Twisted Bro, did you ever have a girlfriend in college?" she asked casually.
"Didn’t your sister introduce you to someone?"
"I didn’t have the time for that..."
Twisted complained bitterly, "I had to livestream before, now I have to play games, I really don’t have time to date."
Xitan Pulan clicked her tongue, "That’s true.
"But when there are more female players later, you might try internal digestion, after all, you’re basically dating here. But then you’d have to compete with others."
As one with seniority, she offered Twisted valuable dating advice, "If it’s fair competition, you have to consider the attractiveness, right? You’d have to find a way to raise your fashion value.
"With the same strength, definitely the one who’s more fashionable and handsome would turn more heads, right?"
Twisted repeated to himself.
Other unmarried male players watching the video also thoughtfully nodded their heads.
What’s terrifying is that Jiu’er also thoughtfully touched her axe and slowly nodded.
"Then I need to become more handsome..."
She murmured to herself.
Next time, she would try the new move she had been contemplating these last few days...
— Jiu’er’s Guillotine!
It was at this time that the wandering child slowly opened his eyes.
He found he was still here...
But the bustling city had vanished, and he was in the midst of a deserted ruin, surrounded by broken walls and rubble.
The wandering child was puzzled.
Just then, there was a disturbance beside him, and a strange cobalt blue light illuminated the area.
He nervously reached for the ring blade on his back—only to touch his rapier instead.
That’s when he saw a familiar figure.
"Annan... Your Highness?"
In his surprise, the child almost forgot to add the title.
Annan, who arrived in haste, merely sighed in relief and casually said, "In front of others, it’s best to call me Lord Tan Juan. When we’re alone, just calling me Annan is fine... After all, we’re [friends], right?"
He glanced at the child’s affinity meter, seemingly with implication.