Chapter 32: The Mishap of an Adventurer

Everyone in the group turned to the fifteen people who had run out of that entrance.

What had they seen?

Apart from the prime demons that is.

What had happened in that place.

There was no doubt that there was something over there.

Something that kept the prime demons from crossing over.

No one thought that this domain was so nice as to keep the two different races from one another.

Kotil walked up to the people who were still cowering.

Even now that the prime demons were no longer in sight.

They didn’t look like they would calm down anytime soon.

Their eyes darted to the tunnel walls, never leaving it for a moment.

It was as if they expected the prime demons to start crawling out of it.

Their actions had an effect on everyone’s mood.

All of them had become nervous.

Their eyes could no longer leave the tunnel walls.

They feared another entrance would open, if they kept their eyes off it.

The scare of that many prime demons was not so easy to shrug off.

"What happened in that entrance you just came out of?"

Kotil asked the man who looked to be the leader among these people.

The others were cowering behind his crouched form.

The man was still in shock. His eyes blank.

Whatever had powered him through their escape. It seemed to have disappeared along with whatever part of his senses remained.

He didn’t seem to register the question asked.

Kotil placed a hand on the man’s shoulder.

The man shuddered, and scurried back.

His body shook vigorously.

Everyone was surprised.

His shuddering seemed to set off the people who were cowering behind him.

All of them moved near each other, their shuddering bodies leaning against each other.

As if seeking comfort in their numbers.

Now, Neo was truly curious about what horrors they had seen.

This couldn’t just be from the fear caused by the prime demons, could it?

What could the prime demons have done to them, then?

While Kotil still stood stunned, his hand hanging in the air.

A soft melody permeated the air in the tunnel.

Neo’s curiosity had gotten the best of him.

He acted before he thought it through.

A soothing calm descended.

The people who had been shuddering went into a lull.

Even the members of the group felt more relaxed.

Neo wasn’t actually singing. It was the technique he used.

It soothed the soul, and relaxed the mind.

Everyone perceived it as a relaxing melody.

Kotil turned in his direction.

Not only him, everyone also did.

Neo was now the center of attention.

Techniques like this were almost never practiced by adventurers.

You either practiced techniques that could be used to taunt or terrify and awe your enemies.

Practicing ones that boosted your courage was also common.

But techniques like this? Was your plan to lull your enemies to sleep?

Techniques like this were best left to certain...

Before, he could become uncomfortable under their prolonged stares.

Sobbing sounds echoed in the tunnel.

Everyone turned in the direction of the new sound.

It wasn’t from some strange creature or something the domain had cooked up.

It was from the fifteen people who had ran into their tunnel.

What could make grown men cry this heavily?

That was the thought that came into everyone’s mind.

While they still wondered that question.

The sobbing became full blown bawling.

"Monsters."

"They killed them all."

These were words heard amidst the sobbing of these people.

Neo was surprised.

Whatever these people had seen. Neo knew they were scarred for life.

If a technique that was meant to calm the mind, had caused them to react like this.

He shook his head.

Neo knew helping them was beyond the current him.

Everyone watched these grown men cry like kids.

They seemed to release some of their pent up emotions with their bawling.

Some of them were already calming down.

The man whom Kotil had touched earlier, seemed to have regained his senses.

He picked himself up, along with whatever was left of his dignity.

He looked at the people who were in front of him.

His eyes settled on Kotil who was closest to him.

He bowed.

"Thank you."

His voice shook.

Kotil nodded.

"Tell me what happened."

He went straight to the point.

The man nodded, his head almost falling off.

He drew in a deep, shaky breath.

His hands couldn’t seem to stay steady as they shook.

"I will. I will."

He looked at everyone.

"When we entered this domain, our entrance had been a tunnel like this. A smaller one."

His eyes darted about the tunnel walls.

"We were more than this. There were a lot of us. We are all from different powers. We had entered together as a group to give ourselves some sense of safety."

He shook his head. Even now, his limbs were still shaking.

"If only we had known. We had been going forward, until our tunnel had branched into another one. We were divided on whether to enter. But the first people that entered had brought out treasures."

His hands reached into his robes.

He took out a pouch.

He turned it over.

The contents fell.

Shocked gasps resounded in the tunnel.

There was even whistling.

That was how shocking the content of that pouch was.

Essence crystals. Pure essence crystals.

The kind used in the Immortal World up there.

Neo knew how useful it was.

But that was not the most shocking of the pouch’s content.

There were bloodline crystals.

Something so rare, it was priceless.

It didn’t grant bloodlines.

No. Something that was capable of such a thing was rare even in the Immortal World up there.

What it could do, however, was help bloodline bearers refine their bloodline.

It might not allow their bloodline to go from Five-character to Four-character, but it would help them draw more power from their bloodline.

Something like overdrawing their bloodline, would allow more power to be used.

And take less time to recover from its effect.

Apart from these two, there were also other rare resources used to cultivate essence.

Each one better than the last.

"All of us had lost our senses after seeing the treasures in that other entrance. If only we had known. If only we had not gotten greedy."

His head turned upwards as if gazing at the sky.

But all that was there was the tunnel.

"Nothing ever comes easy. We were just picking up the resources were they lay. We should have gone back into our entrance. We should have. Before it disappeared, and condemned us."

He took another deep breath.

"When it disappeared, we no longer cared. We were too absorbed in the treasures. We picked them as we pleased. That place was like a garden of treasures."

Tears were rolling down his eyes again.

"We thought our luck had turned for the best. That was true, until they arrived. Their entrance connected with the place we were in."

He wiped his eyes.

"I do not know how many they were. More than a thousand, definitely. They tore through us like rag dolls. We were chased around. Hunted like game."

He clenched his fist.

"They treated the bodies of people I knew. People I dined with. They treated their bodies like garbage. With my own eyes, I saw them skewer my sworn brother with the thigh bones of his wife."

Curses resounded in the tunnel.

No one liked hearing that one of their own was treated this way.

"The few of us were able to escape when a new entrance joined with that place, and that way we reached here."

The man, whose rage had been building up, seemed to deflate.

He had lost all will.

Neo, like everyone else, observed these people.

They were truly miserable.

Their luck had turned either way, both good and bad.

All in a day.