"There is a catch in this 'Alternative option' that you are hiding, is there not?"
Azriel questioned as he narrowed his eyes in doubt.
"..."
Again, Vasuki stayed silent and looked down.
This action caused Azriel to doubt his words.
"What is it that you are hiding from me?" he questioned again.
"..." And again, Vasuki didn't answer.
Azriel then shook his head and turned around.
He was dumb for questioning a dragon, he needs to figure things out on his own.
"You won't be able to leave."
Just as Azriel was about to walk away, Tyria muttered.
Azriel turned around and frowned.
Tyria then glanced at Vasuki and then she sighed.
"If you choose the Second Option, you won't be able to leave this place. You will be trapped here, for eternity."
Tyria's face then turned solemn and she continued.
"Actually, being trapped here is not the worst part,
The worst part is the Eternal Life."
"Eternal life?"
Azriel frowned.
"Yes, Eternal Life.
The fundamentals of this place are completely different from Yrniel's.
The Concept of Life doesn't seem to be a thing here.
With my Cultivation, I should only live up to 3000 years, however, I have already been in this place for the last 4000 years, combined with the 1500 years I spend in Yrniel, I have already lived for more than twice the amount I should live for.
Not only that, even after living for 6000 years, there are no traces of wrinkles on my face, I am still the same as I was 4000 years ago."
Tyria muttered with a dull look on her face.
"Hmm? Eternal Life? Isn't that a good thing? All cultivators aim to live eternally, do they not?"
Azriel questioned.
Tyria, however, just shook her head and chuckled,
"You are only 20 years old, so I can understand why you think like that. However, things change when you live longer.
Take Vasuki for example, he has been in this place for 10,000 years now, which means that before I arrived, he was already living here for 6000 years, alone.
Can you imagine how lonely that life would be?
Living alone, for 6000 years, without anyone you can talk to.
It is simply a nightmare.
An Eternal Nightmare."
Azriel, however, still didn't understand,
"Why not just cultivate? I have heard many beings go into closed-door cultivation and cultivate for centuries. Why don't you do that as well?"
"We have done that when we used to live in Yrniel as well, however, this place doesn't allow you to use your power, which means, you cannot check if you improved or not.
You won't have the motivation to cultivate since you can't see any results."
Tyria muttered and now, Azriel finally started to understand things.
Let's not talk about others, he himself drinks Human blood when his cultivation doesn't improve within 1 few months. What if those few months become a few decades, a few centuries, or a few millennia?
What would happen to Azriel?
He would be horrified and devastated.
The same was happening to these 2.
They have already given up on cultivating, it just adds another heavy toll to their already imbalanced mental state.
"Also, it is not like cultivating and getting strong would do anything for us, we can't use our powers in this place, we can't leave this place,
Cultivating is simply a useless effort for us.
We have already achieved the 'ultimate goal' of cultivation,
We do not have any motivation to cultivate."
Tyria muttered with the same, dull look on her face.
"What if you keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger, then, you become strong enough to leave this place on your own?"
Azriel questioned.
"Hahaha~ As expected of a 19-year-old child, you still live in that delusional life, don't you?" Suddenly, Vasuki laughed out loud.
Actually, if it was him 10000 years before, he would have already snapped in annoyance.
Azriel was asking too many questions and was talking about illogical things, he would have already shut him up,
However, now, things are different,
He needed someone he can talk with.
No matter how stupid the person in front of him is, he can talk to him without getting annoyed.
Heck, he even tried talking to a stone, it was only after Tyria found him that he stopped talking, otherwise, he was having a pretty good time with that stone.
That stone was a cool guy.
"As I said, this place is a trap, do you really think a trap, that is strong enough to trap use and seal all our powers would be broken from the inside?
Also, the World Fairies I talked about before,
Although I don't know how strong they are, I am sure that they are stronger than us, at least in this place.
We won't be able to leave with them watching over us, no matter how strong we become.
This is another pointless struggle."
As she noticed that Vasuki was lost in his own thoughts, Tyria decided to answer Azriel's question.
Azriel then glanced at Vasuki and Tyria and realized.
These two have already given up.
Their will, their needs, their dreams, everything has been broken apart.
Although they are living for a long time, inwardly, these two are already dead.
"Why are you telling me all this?" Azriel then decided to change this topic and questioned.
"The reason is simple, we want you to choose the Second Option." Vasuki, who came out of his reverie answered with a serious look on his face.
"Why? I am sure it is not because you want me to stay alive, right? We are not that close."
"Of course not. We have our own selfish reasons." Vasuki answered.
"What reasons?"
"Well, we are bored," Vasuki replied directly.
"Huh?"
"As I said, we are bored," Vasuki repeated his words, however, Azriel's frown didn't change.
Tyria then shook her head and sighed,
"He is right, we are bored, we have been living together for 4000 years now, although the first 1000 years were fresh and manageable, there is a limit to how long we can live together, in the end, things got boring.
We could tell what the other person was thinking just by looking at their face.
We are like a single entity now.
Therefore, we need someone else to stay and talk with us." Tyria explained.
"Won't everything repeat itself after another 1000 years?" Azriel questioned.
"It will, but we will think about it 1000 years later," Vasuki answered.
"It is not like it is disadvantageous for you. If you choose the first option, you will just die needlessly.
However, if you choose the second option, then although you won't be able to leave this place, you will still be able to keep your life.
Not only that, you can even try and cultivate here for as long as you want, I am sure it is a lot better than dying."
Tyria talked about all the benefits Azriel would get.
If it was anyone else other than Azriel, he would have accepted everything within a jiffy.
Eternal Life is too enticing for anyone to not consider.
In the end, no matter how much Tyria and Vasuki curse Eternal Life, no one would understand the actual problem without facing it directly.
Azriel, however, was different.
Although he didn't understand the disadvantages of Eternal Life either, he had something else in his mind.
He had a goal in his mind.
The revival of the Vampires won't happen without him.
He needs to return and bring the Vampires back to their peak.
"I refuse."
Therefore, he refused their offer and then walked toward the Crystal Ball.
"Why?" Tyria questioned in a calm tone, she and Vasuki didn't try to stop him, they saw the look in Azriel's eyes when he rejected them.
They knew that they couldn't stop him, however, Tyria still wanted to know the reason why Azriel rejected their offer.
"I would rather die trying than to give up like you two have."
Azriel answered and then, he placed his hand on the Crystal Ball.
[Congratulations to Azriel Ruinous for completing the First Trial of the World's Core.]
As Azriel injected his Mana into the Crystal ball, a big message appeared in the sky.
Azriel noticed that this way of writing was quite similar to how everything is written on his System Screen.
He found it interesting and wanted to think more about this, however, a few more messages started appearing in the air.
[The Completion Rating: SSS Rank]
[The Real Trial will start in 5 days.]
[Wish you Good Luck.]
Then, the messages disappeared and everything returned back to normal.
Azriel then turned around and glanced at Tyria and Vasuki, who were looking at him with their eyes widened in surprise.
"SSS Rank! How the hell did you do it?"
Vasuki couldn't hold himself back and he questioned.
"Yeah! Tell us! How did you do it!?"
Even Tyria exclaimed in excitement.
She then turned towards Vasuki and questioned,
"The best rating I have seen is a D rank, what about you?"
"B rank."
Vasuki answered and Tyria's eyes widened in surprise.
"Azriel! Tell me! How did you d-"
She wanted to ask, however, suddenly, the ground they were standing on started trembling.
*Rumble* *Rumble* *Rumble*
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