Zalanir woke up to a crackling bonfire and dancing embers. Not the one in the village center—this fire was half the size and gave off no imposing aura. It was calmer. Like a normal bonfire.

  Still, waking up to a source of light was reassuring. That meant someone was nearby, and probably meant safety as well.

  “You’re awake.” A recognizable voice disturbed the monopoly of wood popping at the bonfire’s base. Female and cold. Adrielle.

  He pressed his hands down to sit up; tiny stones rebelled by poking into his palms. Not just the stones, his chest protested too, flaring up stuffy and heavy pain. He coughed four times, each one gripped hard on his lungs and throat. Though it wasn’t as bad as he remembered. The pain now was tolerable.

  Adrielle stood tall a couple of steps from his spot, on the same side of the bonfire. The white toga hung loose around her knees, still pristine, as if the battle with Diomed didn’t happen. Her black horns reminded him of mountain goats, majestic and fitting for her role as the chief.

  “Thank you for fixing me up and the rescue. I would be gone already if you didn’t come down at the end.”

  “You still need to rest for a couple more days,” she said, red eyes studying him. “Thank you for coming here. Josef has had his revenge.”

  Right. He had to update the man. He had completed his task wonderfully, so now was time for the reward. “Haha, he has been cursing Diomed nonstop but is happy now that this is over. Though he did promise me something…”

  “Let me talk to him.” Adrielle said.

  Since when had he become their intermediary? He sighed internally. Fine. He had helped out a lot already, better see this till the end. In a sense, it was a way to keep the habit of doing good in this world full of killing.

  “Yeah, I promised him a prize in exchange for his help. I’m sorry for bothering you with this.” Zalanir perked up and relayed the message when the conversation had finally come to this topic. Listening to these two talk about Diomed and how to handle the aftermath was boring, though he still had no idea what this village was. Why didn’t they leave this place? They could cross the oasis with no issue considering how well they knew about those meahlis.

  “No need to. I’m planning to thank him anyway.” Adrielle paused for a full minute, then took out two silver monster cores, a red ring, and a misty orb. “I don’t know what you want, but here’s some. You can pick one.”

  Damn, not all three? He had gotten his hope up when she showed these items for nothing. Still, he used Identify on them, hoping to see diamond.

  [Partition Racer Core]

  [Blackvine Seal] — Uncommon: A novel creation of fire and wood. +16 Strength, +11 Endurance, +11 Intelligence.

  Requirements: Level 50+

  [Preserver Sphere] — Rare: With the will of a meahli dying of old age at its core, the orb empowers the user with the power of deception, increasing resistance against illusory magic. Weapon damage has minuscule scaling with Strength and tiny scaling with Intelligence. Grants the [Mist of Trickery] skill.

  [Mist of Trickery] — Rare: Fills an area with illusory mist for a duration (minor scaling with Level), causing various effects (minor scaling with Mystique) on whoever is inside.

  Essence: 0

  Mana cost: Medium

  The best one was no doubt the misty orb, though he didn’t feel like picking it. The meahli soul inside the lantern absolutely invalidated the need for this item. Not to mention he had the black smoke field from Cokhi that kinda provided the same hiding effect if needed.

  The two snake cores were cash, but the ring provided stats. Not the best item by any means, but he still had an accessory slot to fill. Seeing the slot remained empty just rubbed him the wrong way. He also needed a hat. Probably had to ask Ioviann for a loan… Anyway, that was for later.

  “I would take the ring.” He affirmed his choice with the chief.

  Her eyebrows twitched hearing his decision. A slight upturn at the corner of her right brow only, but he caught that. What? Was she expecting him to pick another option? The orb, perhaps?

  “Here it is,” she said, putting her hand forward with the red ring lying on her palm.

  The gemstone was dull red, supported by vines intertwining together instead of a metal band. He checked for leftover thorns, but found none, so he put it onto his middle finger on the right hand. He preferred it this way to mirror the other ring position instead of putting both on his left hand only. The vine band tightened up on its own, hugging his finger neatly.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  So this was it. A little detour here into the oasis. Now he rested and—

  “Can I ask you for a favor?” Josef asked, his voice lower than usual. “I’m sure you want to feed me to one of these souls, but can you let me go? I want to watch over my friends for a while before I’m gone.”

  Zalanir had initially wanted to feed the man to Cokhi, but that was when he knew nothing about this hidden community. Now that he had brought Josef here, perhaps it would be best to set the man free. He weighed his options. Turned out, it was easier than he thought. If the man was a peak C-grade soul, then it would be a tough decision, but with Josef’s state, not so much. With Cokhi taking priority for its upcoming devouring of the soul cat, he couldn’t spare the mana to restore the man to full power.

  “I was planning to,” he lied. “But I think you will need a container? Else you won’t last long outside of my lantern.” Even though he didn’t actively feed Josef, he was sure the lantern had stopped the depletion of soul altogether, or at least slowed the process down to a snail’s pace. Releasing Josef back to the physical world might give him a short time only. Probably weeks, not months.

  “Thank you. I think Adrielle might have a way.”

  Zalanir relayed Josef’s desire to the chief. She remained silent upon hearing it. He didn’t rush her, but instead took the time to address the flashing notification.

  You have slain [Human — Level 149]

  Level advances to 59

  …

  Level advances to 61

  Oh… didn’t think he would gain levels for Diomed’s death. Technically, he did participate in the fight with the chain of darkness, but this seemed generous from the System. The experience gained must be crazy if he was to defeat the man alone. How many would he gain for killing someone three times his level? Perhaps he would be looking at ten or twenty levels in that case instead of three, but no complaint. He expected no level gained at all, so to net three was already a gift.

  He put all 12 free points into Spirit without much thought. He needed as much mana and mana recovery as he could for all the soul feeding stuff.

  “Let’s go back down to the village.” Adrielle said, her timing was perfect, as he had just finished distributing the points. “You will heal faster there.”

  Pulling himself to his feet stirred up the pain in his chest, but walking intensified the ache like pouring hot water on an open wound. He stopped after three steps, inhaled and exhaled small patches of air in succession, then moved his feet again. Took him five tries until he got kinda used to the sensation and could maintain a steady pace.

  As he followed Adrielle, he realized they were on the rock hill to the left of the village. Why did she bring him here instead of letting him rest in the village in the first place? A bit weird, but he chose not to poke about this.

  Coming down from this angle, this community wasn’t as small as he had thought. Behind the village with its gray flat-roof shacks, on the edge of the backyard lake were huddles of floating houses connected by wooden bridges. Sellers shouted their wares there to both villagers on foot and those who stopped by on boats, though the latter seemed to be suppliers with crates of herbs and netted fish. Bargaining filled the air, supporting mostly by laughter and occasional grunts.

  Somehow, he had missed this when Adrielle flew him here earlier.

  Inside the village, the center bonfire was no longer burning, but the logs still shimmered with red dots. Four kids were playing a game of hide and seek nearby; elders watched them with smiles and interest. Right outside the village entrance, a woman was observing two men sparring, giving out advice on stances, positions, and striking opportunities. One of the men looked similar to Adrielle with a pair of black horns atop his scalp.

  All of them stopped and turned heads as Zalanir and Adrielle approached. They gave nods to their chief, but he could tell that their attention was on him—curious eyes from kids and caution from the three soldiers.

  “He’s our guest. Relax.” Adrielle said while gesturing him to keep moving.

  For some reason, the light, invisible push was here once again, keeping him from passing through the village entrance.

  “I can’t get in?” he said, looking at Adrielle, but she didn’t make any gesture expressing that she would help. He squinted his eyes, trying to figure out the cause. He replayed the scene when he’d gotten inside during the battle. Two things came up that weren’t present at the moment: Diomed’s kick, and Josef’s soul temporarily dwelling in his left hand.

  It wasn’t hard to find out which was the cause. His body would have bounced off after Diomed’s kick, unless that attack was so strong that it shattered whatever was preventing his entry. Which he doubted. There was no indication of anything being broken then except his own sternum.

  That meant it was Josef who was responsible. The man confirmed as such to his avatar, stating the village had registered each of the resident’s mana signature, and that it was a defensive formation that rejected Zalanir’s entrance.

  Zalanir turned his left hand to gray and found the pushing force vanishing immediately. He walked in and smiled at the ice woman who could’ve helped him but had simply stood there watching.

  “It is indeed Josef’s signature,” she muttered, returning his smile with a nod without giving any further clarification.

  A careful leader, huh? He dismissed his thoughts and continued following her lead as they trudged through the village.

  “Wait here,” Adrielle commanded after they came to the rear of the village. Then, she called over two elderly women and headed into a black house. It was the only one with proper walls made from stone instead of wood like all the shacks in the village. A meeting hall, perhaps?

  He sat down and leaned onto a small boulder on the roadside about twenty steps from the black house Adrielle had entered. This eased the throbbing pain in his chest a bit. Some villagers still threw him furtive, inspecting looks, but when he caught their eyes and waved, they turned away. After trying several times without getting any response, he stopped and decided to meditate. If they didn’t want to talk, he might as well spent time focusing on healing himself.

  About an hour later, Adrielle came out, her hands holding a blue vase full of textures and engravings.

  “You can let Josef out,” she said.

  Zalanir gave Josef a quick heads-up, then released the man out of the lantern into the vase. Right in that moment, the vase glowed up a blue aura, taking in Josef’s soul without damaging the man. Just like his lantern.

  And with this, he had fulfilled Josef’s asking, and was done with the dungeon.

  Now it was time to return to Yebin for some upgrade on the investigation into Putrieta’s actions.

  we all have 24 hours a day. Thank you for spending some of that with The Soul Collector!