"Vivi, deactivate Jambavan's blessing."

"Initialising Host's request..."

"Blessing of Jambavan is deactivated."

The fiery glow from my eyes and hair vanished, the temperature of my body returned to normal, and I immediately felt exhausted.

"Huff... huff... Vivi, how much Soulforce does Indra's Eye consume?"

"The new skill Indra's Eye consumed thirty percent of Host's Soulforce."

"Thirty!?" I gasped. "So in my current strength, I can only use this move three times before running out of Soulforce.

I need to increase my Soulforce depth, but before that, let me complete this damn quest."

I took one Soul Stone from the ground, jerked off the black poison from it, and moved toward the direction where the Bloodline Resonance was getting stronger.

After walking for almost five minutes, I reached a dead end with only a black wall ahead.

Thump...

Thump...

Thump...

"Aghh, there is nothing here, so why is my heart beating even louder?"

I extended my hand forward, and the moment I touched the wall—

Ding...

"Poisonous substance detected on the right hand.

The poison cannot affect the Host's body as Host has already developed resistance against this poison."

"Does that mean this whole cave is covered in Drathion's black poison?"

I placed my palm flat on the wall before me and murmured,

"Lightning Bolt."

The sticky wall broke apart, and from within, a bright light radiated out, lighting the whole cave.

It took almost ten seconds for my eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness.

Behind the wall, a vein of Soul Stone crystals in the shape of a huge lotus emerged.

At the centre of this human-sized lotus, a semi-translucent crystal shard floated in the air, radiating a bright light.

The moment my gaze fell on the unknown shard, I realised that this object was the reason for my increased heartbeat.

Raising my hand upward, I grabbed the piece to take a closer look.

The shard was irregular in shape and carried small vein-like patterns inside it.

Ding...

"You have found the Broken Shard—artifact of unknown class.

Description: [locked]

Class: Unknown."

Ding...

"Congratulations! You have completed Act II of the main quest: Secrets of the Abandoned Land.

Act II: Kill Drathion—the three-headed serpent—and find out what the serpent is guarding.

Status: Completed

[Claim the reward]"

"You're telling me I went through all that just for this broken shard?" I muttered, throwing the shard into the inventory. "Moreover, the reward for completing this quest is just another quest.

Tsk, Vivi, claim the reward."

"Initialising Host's request...

The hint to trigger the next Act of the main quest is revealed.

Hint: Learn about the organisation ruling over Abandoned Lands."

"Organisation ruling over Abandoned Land? Where did I read that?" I murmured, rubbing my chin. "Oh right! In the letter Nymeria left, she mentioned something about a criminal organisation named El Dorado.

Well, that will come later. First, let me see what else these gross walls are hiding."

I stretched my arms and began removing the layers of black poison from the walls, repeatedly hitting them with Lightning Bolt.

It took me almost half an hour to completely remove all the layers of poison from the whole cave.

"That snake was surely hiding a lot of treasure," I laughed as the whole cave lit up with veins of Soul Stone crystals as far as the eye could see.

The brightness these Soul Stones radiated far outclassed the ones I had seen in the mines.

"Vivi, what's the grade of this Soul Stone crystal?" I asked, touching the lotus-shaped vein where the broken shard was once placed.

"Analysing the crystal's grade..."

"Analysis completed!"

"The crystal is formed of Mid-tier Grade 1 Soul Stones."

"Mid-tier?" I gasped. "I thought there were no mid-tier Soul Stones here."

I immediately moved and checked the other crystal veins inside the cave and found that all of them were mid-tier, but unfortunately, none besides the lotus-shaped crystal were Grade 3.

"I have to create a mine here as well," I chuckled, put the lotus crystal into the inventory, and returned to the castle.

The first thing I did after returning to my room was take the lotus position, close my eyes, and begin the conversion of the cursed Soulforce.

"Conversion of Soulforce has started...

WARNING: Do not move during conversion or it may lead to internal injuries."

As the conversion began, the exhaustion from the battle faded away, and my Soulforce depth returned to the same level it was before splitting the core.

The moment I felt myself reaching the previous level, I ordered,

"Vivi, stop the conversion."

"The conversion of cursed Soulforce is halted.

Cursed Soulforce remaining: 319k/669k."

"Tsk, more than half of the cursed Soulforce is gone just to reach the previous level." I clicked my tongue, rising to a standing position. "I hope the second core is worth the price I paid."

---

"Bwahahaha!!! What the hell are you two doing?" I laughed, rolling on the ground before Jambavan and Vyaghra.

"Shut yer mouth, brat," Jambavan groaned, giving me death stares. "It's all because o' this bastard."

"Don't put the blame for your mistakes on me," Vyaghra replied firmly. "We were both equally at fault for spying on Her Majesty."

"But Ay wouldn't be here if ya didn't reveal us by fallin' with yer useless body—"

"Bwahahaha!" My laughter broke out again as I couldn't hold myself after seeing the two in such a ridiculous position.

The duo squatted on the ground in front of the castle, their faces lowered and their backs arched with their butts sticking up. Their arms were threaded awkwardly behind their knees, each hand gripping an ear in the humiliating rooster-like posture.

"Hahaha! So this was punishment F Ume gave you. How could you two make such a humiliating posture as gods?" I mocked, wiping the tears from my eye. "There's no way that little fox could threaten you to such an extent. Now I'm curious about punishments A to E as well."

"Do you wish to learn them?"

"Yeah, I would love to—" I stopped immediately, realizing the voice didn't come from either Jambavan or Vyaghra.

The voice belonged to Ume. It came from behind me and she did not appear pleased at all.

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