The Astral soul system

Chapter 246: Wanna go first?

"Tadaa! Whaddya think?"

"..."

Zen looked forward at the dungeon. Unfortunately she’d already picked a specific one out in the quest she’d posted and although it was meant to be pretty low level,he didn’t feel comfortable with any arena that she’d picked beforehand

"We could have gotten here sooner if you just let me port us over"

He didn’t trust her ability either, though that went without saying

"Well look on the bright side"

Theia said, appearing on his shoulder

"We’ve been looking for a partner to go on a dungeon raid with. Maybe we’ll finally clear one this time"

"..."

The two stepped closer to the dungeon, going through the appropriate measures with the guards before stepping in.

A few minutes passed in silence as they walked without encountering any beasts

"So? "

"..."

"How’s it been? The academy I mean. We talked about coming here before"

"You talked about coming here before. You wanted me here, either to keep an eye on me or for some other reason"

"Jeez... harsh"

"..."

"You really find it so hard to believe that I just want to know how you’re fairing?"

"..."

"..."

"... Tedious "

He said before going quiet again

She sighed

"They’re like that sometimes. Life in this tomb of a world can get dull"

"..."

He suddenly stopped, eyes focusing ahead

She raised her brows and looked where he was facing. They hadn’t even reached a chamber yet but she smiled

"I feel it too?"

She said before looking at him

"So impatient they are. All the more fun?"

She looked at him just standing there in casual clothes, hands still in his pockets

"Not going to prepare?"

Zen looked at her quietly for a few seconds before taking Zaine’s sword out of the ring. It was clearly damaged and overused

"I guess it’s better than nothing "

She said, pulling her sleeves back and drawing attention to the golden bracelets she had over her wrist before pulling a silver polearm out of her storage ring

"I packed light too"

His eyes breifly glanced at those bracelets. He vaguely remembered them and what they could do

Packing light...huh

He couldn’t focus on that. This battle was going to be difficult since he couldn’t turn his back to his so called ally but still had to fight with her. Not to mention not looking weak. If she sensed an opening then...

He ran his thumb over the choker

They pressed onward and it only took a few seconds for footsteps to be heard.

Suddenly they stopped. The footsteps were gone and there was nothing here.

Zen suddenly looked down and noticed a strange protrusion coming out of the ground.

Before they could decide what to do a huge scaly beast rose up out of the rock like it was swimming in a swamp . A huge gaping maw with rows of teeth opened up, snapping towards them

Zen already had his hand raised but before he could make a move, he felt a hand on his shoulder, followed by a familiar but odd sensation of weightlessness spatial nescience and when he came to, they were now behind the beast.

Raising her polearm above her head, she swung down, cutting into one of it’s hind legs

The massive crocodile crashed into the ground, quickly getting up and growling at them as if annoyed by it’s failed strike.

Zen looked to his side to see Celia smiling smugly

"Never do that again"

He said blankly before charging towards the beast

"What? Not even a thank you?"

Zen ignored her and focused on the beast

’Crocodile, large, about twice my size standing up, estimated 2000 Ibs. Ambush predator,scales aren’t too hard, primarily uses teeth, but claws are probably deadly as well ’

The croc growled and charged at him as well but at the last moment he swerved to the side and with a well placed dash he completely avoided it.

Once he stopped, he looked at his sword

"A bit harder than expected"

He looked at the crocodile that now had a straight line cut down it’s side. It wasn’t deep enough to kill it but it was definitely damage

"It’s slow"

He muttered, looking at it’s bleeding back leg. Maybe Celia had the right idea

His throwing star appeared in his hand and he threw it as hard as he could towards it’s leg.

It struck through,, cutting into it forming a layer of ice on its front leg, even freezing the blood it drew before it could touch the ground, meaning two of four legs were out of play.

Celia suddenly appeared right on top of it, polearm aimed down at it’s skull and thrusting down as hard as she could.

The silver blade pierced through it’s skull and into the ground.

If only killing beasts was that easy. Unfortunately creatures like these were less reliant on organs than humans and normal animals. It started to rock and shake, trying to get her off and even started rolling on the ground, attempting to flatten her. Before it could succeed, she grabbed her spear and teleported away

"A little help?"

Zen shrugged

"I’m just here as a guide"

He didn’t really see any urgency in killing it. It would either tire itself out and die eventually or they could just do this all again.

He wanted to stay as far away from the beast as possible and wanted to make sure he wasn’t the one to land the final blow. That whole light show that happened was something he didn’t want to have to explain .

He’d already made it clear to Moirai not to come out under any circumstances but he had to be safe.

About ninety percent of his combat ability was unusable in his current situation,add that onto the threefold suppression and well...

Celia harrumphed but didn’t complain . Holding her polearm like a javelin, she threw it up into the air and as it curved downward towards it’s target it suddenly accelerated, dropping right into it’s back and nailing it to the ground.

The croc finally stopped. It growled and squirmed for a few minutes but eventually stopped, dying.

She teleported behind it, kicking it for good measure before climbing on top of it to pull out her weapon

"A little help here"

"..."

She finally managed to get it out after some effort. Immediately appearing next to him, she wiped the bloody blade on the ground

"See how much easier that was? We work well together"

"..."

"You want the crystal?"

"No"

His job was as an escort,he wasn’t interested in any of the spoils

"You can have it. You look like you need it"

She said waving him off as she walked past the corpse before turning around to look at him with a knowing smile

"You keep my secret,I keep yours"

She said mysteriously before walking off

"What was that supposed to mean?"

Theia said, scratching her head

He looked down at the corpse

’No need for it to waste. Black’

"On it"

The black viscous goo slid down his body before making it’s way to the corpse and burrowing into it while Zen kept walking

[Read]

[Name: Celia Ford]

[Species: Human]

[#$$#*$$###$]

Nothing’s changed

One of his first quests was for him to "discover the truth" about Gary and Celia, but once Gary lost his connection to her, the system outright ignored him, like the part of the quest he was relevant to was over. Meaning she was at the center of it all, something you could deduce from her stat screen.

"This girl gives me bad vibes, like creepy. Maybe even creepier than you"

That was surprising to hear. His "Creepy vibes" weren’t exactly natural. They were partially a side effect of his inhuman nature. It was odd that a human could replicate such a feeling.

Plus he personally didn’t feel anything off from her, which was weird

"You said she had two abilities? One that resembled soul bridge"

"..."

"A human with something like that is odd. She could be [Beep!]"

A system block

Theia sighed

"Don’t worry. What I was going to say was very unlikely anyway, almost impossible"

"Are you going to speed up, gumdrop?"

He didn’t reply but picked up the pace. They were reaching the first chamber.

Zen’s nose unconsciously twitched as a harsh smell assaulted his senses

’That explains the crocodile ’

He thought, looking into the swampy terrain that had appeared out of nowhere

The first floor

He usually avoided going into these and just picked off beasts that wandered into the passageways but right now he didn’t have that choice.

He looked back and noticed Black had caught up with the beast crystal

It crawled up his leg and dropped the crystal in his hand before seeping back into his body.

She couldn’t have picked a worse possible dungeon for beginners. Sure there were some solid spots in the ground and even branches and vines in the football stadium sized chamber ,but it was mostly just really thick mud crawling with more of those crocodiles and who knows what?

"Well? You wanna go first?"