Chapter 6: Searching for Answers

Nel started to move with haste and soon arrived where the pond was. He wasn’t sure whether his idea will even work or not but wanted to give it a try, and if didn’t pan out then he’ll think of something else.

He looked around and found some decently big leaf and fashioned it into a cup and scooped some water with it. With slight anticipation, he called for his inventory and it appeared right before him. He then moved the water-filled leaf inside his inventory and instead of leaving it inside he tried to tilt it and pour the water inside.

After a bit, he took his hand. But as soon as the leaf cup came out, and because it was slightly tilting the water started to pour down.

“Hmm. Seems like I can’t pour the water inside my inventory. Well, it was rather far-fetched anyway, but still, I succeeded in putting water inside my inventory in a way. But it’s not efficient. I’ll have to find a way to solve this issue or I’ll be tied to this place until someone finds me, and judging by the state of this place, that’s highly unlikely.” Nel let out a slight sigh.

But he soon started to rack his brain, while still gathering and making leaf cups, filling them with water, and putting them inside his inventory. At least with some water, he would be able to move around with a bit more ease, and maybe he’ll find something else to fix his water predicament for good.

There were now hundred water-filled leaf cups in his inventory.

He looked around, but he felt that something was not right. It had been a long time and the light was still like before. Even if the day and night duration of this world was longer than that of ‘Earth’, or ‘Zenia’ where he was born after he died on earth, or rather killed. But if this was not the case then why didn’t the light dim even a bit as it was still the same as when he first opened his eyes in this place?

He swiftly decided to put this thought at the back of his mind, because even if there was something wrong with this place, how was he going to find out the cause? There was no other living being other than him as far as he knew.

After making sure he had a decent amount of water and food, he picked a different route this time and started to explore it.

*****

After walking around for four hours in a straight line he finally reached the edge of the forest and it was the same as it has seen on the other side.

A barren wasteland with a few skeletons moving around, and this time he could see even further than before and spotted a very large skeleton, around the size of three elephants slowly lumbering in the distance, almost at the edge of his enhanced vision. He wasn’t able to identify what kind of skeleton it was but was sure that it was walking on four legs.

Nel went into deep thought.

Even after walking for such a long time, the light had not changed and other than these skeletons I haven’t seen any other being, living or dead. Just where am I? Nel’s questions were growing but he was unable to find any answers.

He then decided to walk along the forest’s edge. Maybe that way he might get lucky and find something.

He kept on walking along the forest’s edge and finally after another two hours, he saw something different at a faraway distance. He couldn’t make out what it was, as it was heavily covered with forest foliage.

He increases his speed but suddenly slowed down once again: There is no need to rush. It’s not like it will go away.

Nel was already starting to feel hungry so he took out the fruit he had put in his inventory. It was still as fresh as he put it in. “Nice! I’ll just find all the edible fruits and stuff them in inventory, then I won’t have to worry about being hungry ever,” he murmured with a slight grin.

After walking for more than fifty minutes he was finally close to the thing that he saw.

It was a giant rectangle-shaped stone slab around seven meters tall and three meters in width. The base and top part of the stone slab were covered with dense moss, while many vines were tightly wrapped around it. Nel could still make out some sort of densely packed characters that had faded over an unknown amount of time.

Nel grabbed one of the vines and pulled it. It was tightly wrapped around the stone slab but after some time it got loose and finally snapped off. He then brushed the part it was covering and tried to make sense of what it was. As he touched the faded characters his whole body jerked as if he was struck by a lightning bolt.

Before Nel could remove his hand from the stone slab it glowed with a bright blinding light. Even with his enhanced vision, Nel was momentarily blinded but soon recovered, and what he saw once again challenged his brain to make sense.

Nel was now once more standing in a similar space where he was before his ‘current reincarnation’. He was once more in a place where he could see multiple galaxies, but they looked different from the ones he saw at that time. Some were even bigger while some were smaller, while some seem to be just remnants.

Suddenly he heard an unfamiliar but calming voice: “Is this your first time seeing such a scene?”

Nel turned toward the voice and saw a somewhat elder man with short salt and pepper hair, light stubble, and a sharp nose, but the thing that shook him was the man’s both eyes were pitch black with piercing red pupils, similar… no, exactly like his right eye.

When the man saw Nel’s right he was a bit surprised: “Huh! Your ‘Void Bloodline’ seems to be of the lowest quality,” after saying that much he started to laugh uproariously.

“This is really amazing.” The man paused for a bit and then asked Nel while arching one of his eyebrows upwards: “Do you know what ‘Void Bloodline’ is?”

Nel just shook his head, because he truly didn't know what it meant. He just knew that he was a void human and that too because he saw it as his race in his status window.

“Hehe. Then let me tell you, boy. The ‘Void Bloodline’ is one of the ‘Three Great Primordial Bloodlines’ alongside the ’Spirit Bloodline’ & the ‘Chaos Bloodline’. But it is different from them and can even be considered the best primordial bloodline.” the man stopped after saying that and looked at Nel as if waiting for him to speak.

Nel hesitated for a bit but then spoke: “First of all I have questions that I would like you to answer. Who are you and what is this place?”

“Huh?” The man was slightly stunned, but soon he spoke again while slowing moving toward Nel: “Instead of asking about what these primordial bloodlines are, you want to know who I am and where is this place.” 

The man arrived before Nel, then poked his head and said in a questioning tone: “Did you hit your head or something? Do you want to know these trivial things instead of wanting to know more about the primordial bloodlines? If there was anyone else in your place, they would be dying to know more about these bloodlines.”

Nel had been trying to keep calm since he started his third life, and after finding someone who could answer his question, but was instead making fun of him for asking these ‘trivial’ questions. So he tried to smack away the man’s finger which was poking him.

But to Nel’s amazement, his hand passed right through it.

For a moment Nel was stunned and was even scared. What if the man before him was harboring malicious intentions toward him? He won’t even be able to fight back.

But he soon calmed down, because he realized that when the man poked him, he didn’t feel the sensation of touch. Which made it evident that the man before him was just a soul, as he was not too long ago.

“Fascinating! To think that you have such control over your emotions. I’m liking you even more boy.” The man’s red pupils were shining with a bright light. The man withdrew his hand and suddenly the aura around him changed as if everything, even time had become stagnant.

Nel had once before felt a similar feeling when he was facing the being which sent him here, but this time the sensation was much more strong. If he had to compare the two then the man before him could kill that being with just his aura alone.

Suddenly the man's calming voice turned domineering and majestic as if everything in the world was beneath it as he looked at Nel and spoke: “Do you want to become strong?”

Nel felt suffocated as if the voice was enough to send him to oblivion, but he still mustered his courage and said just a single word: “Yes!” After saying that he felt that all the energy in his body was gone.

“Very good!” As the make spoke everything returned back to as it was a while ago.

“First I’ll answer your questions. Let’s start with “who I am”. I was like you, someone with the void bloodline, but mine was almost perfect, nothing like yours. Right now only my soul remains in the world. Because I wanted to pass on my legacy, so with the help of a few of my friends I build this “Soul Seal Stone” and entered it. Here time does not move but I still can feel the outside time, and it had been over a billion years since then. In another fifty years, this seal will lose all its power and my soul would have despised along with it, but then you appeared, the first being to come here in this long span of time.”

Nel was dazed for a bit after hearing what the man said but then soon sneered in his heart. Over a billion years? What kind of bullshit is this soul spouting.

As if the man can read his mind he said: “Choosing to believe me or not will not change the truth.” he shook his head as if disappointed in Nel.

Then the man continued: “You asked who I was and where were you. I’ve answered your questions, now answer my question. How much do you know about the primordial bloodlines.”

Nel thought for a bit and then decided to tell him everything truthfully, in hopes of getting more information from the man before him.

“Interesting! No, this is bloody interesting! A ‘Void Bloodline’ holder who also happens to be the host of the 'Master System'. If this isn't the birth of the biggest monster in history, then I don't know what else to call it. Hahahahah!" The man continued to laugh uproariously.