The Young Master in the Shadows

Victor squinted his eyes and looked around carefully after entering the cold lake water. Although the darkness was surrounding everywhere around him, he could see dimly due to his powers as a player. This was not a good place to use a flashlight.

Looking up, he could see the water falling from above and hitting the lake, creating a strange mist that flowed with the wind...

He had to confess. This brothel had a very good location… He only entered it only once in his past life. To deliver some pizza… 

Now is not the time for memories, He dived underwater and began to head somewhere specific, toward the waterfall… behind it.

Any normal human would have been dead after withstanding the falling water’s pressure and debris, he would have been swept away and crashed on one of the rocks that rose from the lake's floor, like the teeth of some vicious monster… No real monster existed, he checked that thoroughly. It was just a natural phenomenon.

Swimming in a way that would render any Olympic swimmer speechless, Victor reached the bottom of the waterfall 15 minutes later. Looking up he could see a normal concave rockface…

He took a breath and began to climb upward using a climbing ax, his only light was a dim flashlight minted on his head… This place was too dark, even for him on this moonless night.

10 minutes later, he reached the place he was looking for, a small cave entrance. It was so small that no one could notice it from the ground… On top of that it was so small he would have to bend in an unnatural way to enter… He found it at last.

Taking a deep breath, and adjusting the dagger in his hand, then crawled inside. Hoping that it was not empty.

Victor didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, but his hunch was telling him this place had something.

Places with strange phenomena like this one always held an otherworldly secret… Like the Misty mountain in which he found the goblin dungeon.

In his past life, After becoming a full player, after the reckoning, he came here wanting to take revenge on his mother’s family… They were all dead. This place was ravaged after a dark dragon liked this place and decided to make it its nest.

The dragon was killed, but the land never recovered after that.

Back then, he was sitting atop the half-collapsed waterfall, when he noticed the strangeness in this place, having nothing better to do he decided to explore it, and that is when he found it. 

There was a cavern behind the waterfall… Behind it, was a cavern that had a unique shape, with a stone pedestal in the center… It was empty. As if someone, not only took the treasure but also crushed the room's walls and floor for some reason… Even the gateway was damaged. Victor only discovered it back then due to the destruction left by the dragon hunting team.

Crawling inside while trying hard not to break the gateway, he reached the chamber inside… It was different than he remembered, a lot different.

The floor was covered with dead animals' bones and some strange sparkly material…The walls had an amazing colorful sheen as if they were covered with glass, and in the center, a colorful pearl was placed… Victor knew exactly what it was. A treasure that Immortals would battle for. 

;

THE SOUL PEARL OF IO / SSS 

Soul Nourishing (PASSIVE) Soul Protection (PASSIVE) Soul storage (PASSIVE).   ;

A soul nurturing and protecting artifact! Victor stood there looking at the pearl with a drooling mouth when out of nowhere a monster bit toward him… it was a huge Viper with four eyes and sharp teeth glittering with a shiny green poison.

Victor didn’t flinch as the Viper bit the wall beside him and then lost its head by a swift cut from his trusty dagger. He quickly made sure to finish it off with another cut and then recheck the perimeter… Safe.

Was this thing a mutant python? The system gave him no EXP for killing it which meant it was not an otherworldly creature. It was domestic.

Was it protecting the Pearl? Probably he was using it to nurture his soul… But that does not explain the mutation… Using his identification Victor only saw one line.

; Crotalus atrox, Age 90 Years, [DEMONIZED 57%]  ;

Demonized? What could be the cause? That’s a stupid question. There was only one thing of value here.

He swiftly stored the python’s body in his ring as his eyes darted back toward the pearl.

Wiping the drool off his mouth with his sleeve, he began to inspect it…. It didn’t have any curses or demonification effects… “Interesting…” He said it has been a long time since he found anything this intriguing.

He was sure of one thing, this was a treasure from another world…. The glass-like material on the walls was a silicon-based mineral that can only form when a rapture in the world happens when another worldly object enters. And since this thing was not living, the world didn’t destroy it or create a dungeon around it… 

First things first, This pearl did not belong to him yet, and he had to make sure to fix that. 

He quickly used an ink brush to draw a series of strange symbols on the pearl with his blood, making sure not to touch it.

The pearl shone with dim light for a second. Then a soft breaking voice could be heard as the Pearls shone again with a stronger light that lasted for ten seconds.

Its ownership had changed. This thing was now his property, even if someone else equipped it, they can only use it with his permission.

Victor used the identification again. And as he expected more information appeared…

;

Status:

Souls contained inside : 1 + 35957(Hidden)

;

Sh*t... This thing was packed full of souls… What are they doing inside? Having an …,ahm… A Party? Victor shook his head, his father’s hobbies were giving him some really bad thoughts…

But still, nothing that might cause Demonification…. Did the Viper come from somewhere else? Victor scowled as he watched it, carefully recalling everything he knew about soul artifacts.

They were rare. Only those on the top of the food chains had one… maybe others like scions did, but they knew how to hide them well. They were Precious. The soul was the weakest point in a human. If someone faced an enemy specialized in soul attacks it was a one-hit K.O unless he had suitable defensive arts or equipment. Like what he did with Dick and that demon using the soul poison…  Souls storage artifacts without other specifications usually meant two directional transfer…. It meant whoever inside could occupy the body of the equipper if their soul was weak enough…

Victor squinted as he realized something… This thing was pure evil. It’s a trap to lure idiots… Was it natural or was it made by someone… Probably a bit of both, the pearl was probably a natural treasure that was built into this by a master artificer.

He could imagine some evil expert in another world using it to get a new body after his body was damaged or destroyed.

He will hide his soul inside and wait for some idiot with a weak soul to get hold of it… Who needs a soul-nurturing artifact if he didn’t have a weak soul? 

But souls are very hard to destroy when they are in their natural bodies…. When he got into a coma, That pussy demon tried to trick him into surrendering his body… But once he realized what it was, destroying it was very easy.

Now… that's when the demonification plays its part! Victor squinted his eyes as he began to see the big picture.

Demonification usually corrupts the soul.. making it weaker… easily destroyed, but on the other hand, the body would be corrupted too, making it invulnerable to other souls… unless the soul inside belongs to a Demon!

It all made sense… But how was the demonization being activated? A soul can’t demonize a creature, even if it took over its body… That can only be done by a real demon or a curse…. Like what happened with Iris and Lin….. Victor could see none here… And souls can’t use curses and skills. They do not have attributes or Authority, so the only interesting things in them was their energy and knowledge…

And that Viper didn’t equip it… Sentient creatures can’t equip artifacts. That thing must have just touched it…. Was that enough to make it a demon?

Victor found a nearby rock and sat on it thinking, wondering what to do about this…. He didn’t dare to pick up the pearl… he just stared at the emptiness of the cave…. Wait, there was an empty space at the end of the skills description…. 

”Oh… So that's how they did it '' He smiled as he knew how this thing was done… He heard about this trick in the past… By the time he returned this trick was so overused that only idiots would fall for it.

Now…He Would have to take a risk if he decided to make use of this thing… 

Is it worth it? Duh… Of course. A soul artifact would allow him to play many tricks and would provide a contingency in case he was killed. The possibility of that was minor, but not trivial… 

Whatever he wanted to do, He had only until morning… Looking at his watch, Victor Made up his mind. He would let poor Alex take her time and develop some new hobbies while he resolved the situation here.

After throwing around a bunch of talismans for hiding and safety, Victor took a bottle of soul wine, then added a drop of his blood to it after emptying it into a bucket that he also took from his ring… He didn’t expect this wine to be so useful so soon. He must prepare some batches of it himself.

Using the tip of his dagger he pushed the pearl inside the bucket, making sure not to touch it.

He didn’t want to alert whoever was inside of his existence.

Victor quickly set up the camping cooking set he kept in his ring for dungeon exploration. He lit some fire and put the bucket on it and let it simmer as he sat down.

It was time for him to prepare, he took a bunch of pills and then began to draw some weird symbols on his chest while waiting for the pearl to absorb all the wine… 

After a while, making sure that the wine was all absorbed by the pearl, he put out the fire, then after waiting for it to cool down, He took a deep breath, and began to do some wired movements with his body that ended with him hitting his chest, causing himself to spit a splash of purple blood on the pearl.

Seeing that the pearl had successfully absorbed the blood, he collapsed with a pale face and weak body… His breath was short, and he knew that he would take a while to heal.

...

The three-horned demon was in a deep sleep when he felt it… Someone came at last… A new soul. A weak soul

Opening its eyes it noticed the others around it felt it too… The old man in the corner opened his eyes too... Though he was frowning…

The demon wondered if the old man would kill this one to let its energy enrich the pearl, or would he leave it as a pet like the rest of them?

Soon, the soul, so weak that it was almost transparent, appeared inside the dark room... It was of an old man with white-purplish hair. It looked at itself and chuckled as it metamorphosed into a younger version of itself...Can it do that?

“Sometimes I forget how old my soul was… But this allows it to be big enough for splitting…” The young man said as his clothes changed from an old librarian robe to that of a suit… a napkin appeared in his hand. He wrapped it around its neck as if preparing for a meal…

“You have knowledge of soul arts?” The old man who was watching asked with a harsh voice, “You were the one who took my pearl?” He asked, no anger in his voice.

“Yours? It is now mine… Finder keepers!” The young man said.

“Oh… But it will return to being mine very soon…It always does… You should have just taken the pearl as a defense artifact… Perhaps you could have lived a few more years…” The old man said, with an amused voice, but no smiles could be seen on his haggard face.

“I just wanted to find who was hiding inside…” 

“Now you did… And you will stay here for eternity.” The old man said with a chuckle as if he was watching a good show to relieve his boredom. 

“What? This thing is mine… I can leave any moment if I want to.” The young man said.

“The moment you touched the pearl you were cursed. You were Demonized!” The old man said.

“What curse, I appraised this thoughtfully? It did not have a curse.” The soul said, making the old man surprised.

“You have a master appraisal skill… Not bad. But sadly for you, the curse is not on the pearl, but on one of its powers.” he said, enjoying outsmarting others.

“You can’t do that… Unless….” The soul looked at him with shocked eyes… “You are an artificer… You cursed a skill rune then transferred it to the pearl… Then you erased the skill with a low-leveled talisman that had no Authority to remove the curse … Leaving a demonification curse that both existed and did not! No appraisal can find this!” The young man with purple hair said, making the old man look at him differently … 

“You are smarter than you seem…” The old man said, truly astonished by the spot-on analysis. “Maybe I should keep you as a pet.” He added.

“So all I have to do is to use a talisman to dispel it…” The young man murmured, totally ignoring the old man.

“Are you still dreaming of leaving this place? Your body was demonized. If your soul was still in your body you could have delayed this for years, but now you would only find a demon waiting for you outside, and without demonic arts to adjust your soul, it would perish in seconds.” The old man patiently explained, making The young man’s soul nod… True, demons are very resistant to other souls invading their bodies for that very reason.

“Oh… So this was your trick… Disguise this as just a soul-nurturing artifact, wait for the soul to enter it for protection after getting attacked… Take over the body!” The soul said as it looked at the souls of the demons around. “But that doesn’t work on me.” The soul said, making the old man squint as he inspected his barely transparent body.

“You split your soul!” The old man said in surprise.

“Yes… Just a tiny sliver, I will just use this pearl to nurture it back to health.” The soul said.

“Smart… I confess… But you still have a problem… You see after we destroy you, we will get out of this and take over your body… Your soul is now injured because of the severing. It can’t resist us.” The old man said.

“I never touched the pearl.” The young man said, making the old man freeze...

“Never?”

“Yup… I always found it suspicious…” The young man said.

“Smart…. Too smart…. But also an idiot!.” The old man laughed.

“What?” 

“You can’t go back without touching the pearl!” The old man said, "So this part of your soul would stay here forever…." The old man said.

"I can just dispel the curse!.” The soul said

“I began to doubt your intelligence….” The old man said. “First, you can’t dispel the curse. Not without an authority higher than mine…. Second, even if you somehow managed to dispel the curse, by the time you do that this part of your soul would have already perished.”

“Nice analyst…..I just wanted to ask, were you the one who made this pearl?” The young man asked. Totally ignoring the old man’s conclusions.

“Of course. I am the master Artificer Troval!” the old man said as he laughed loudly, making the demons around shudder.

“Oh….” The soul said with a frown… “I was right then.” The soul said.

“About what?” The old man asked.

“About how the souls inside here are too valuable to kill… I always wanted to be an artificer… But no one agreed to teach me…” The soul said.

“And why would I teach you?” The old man asked while being amused.

“You will not… I will just eat all of you here and slowly digest your energy and knowledge.” The soul said, causing every demon around to laugh, even the demon slug who didn’t have a mouth was about to burst out laughing…. Does that idiot know how many demons are inside here?

The old man didn’t laugh.

“Soul devouring…. You know that lost art?” He asked.

“Yes…” The soul said, “I picked it up in a tattered book… Some idiot wanted me to sort the books in the basement as a punishment… And I found it there.” The soul said as if it was remembering an old event.

“How about giving it to me… I might spare you… I may even teach you…” The old man said as his eyes shone with greed.

“Why would I do that?” I can eat you and get all your knowledge.” The soul said arrogantly.

“You know that you are not the only one who can use soul arts… I can fight too, you know… You are just a sliver of a soul!” The old man said, looking down on his enemy.

“I have enough power to finish all of you… Now lay obediently on your stomachs and get ready to be eaten.” The young man said as a huge sword appeared in his hand… Why did it look like a meat-cutting knife?

The old man howled in anger. He will beat this sh*tty guy into pieces then torture his soul here to get the info he wants….

Arrogantly, he made a move with his hand reaching for the sky…. Nothing happened…. He tried again… Nothing happened … He tried a third time with his face turning red… A wisp of smoke appeared and then disappeared…

“What did you do…” The old man asked with horrific eyes that the demons had never seen before.

“I just simmered you a little bit… Making you all soft and tender….” The young man said, making the old man take a step back.

“Then I will blow my soul up with every one of my pets! You will get nothing!” The old man howled... Nothing happened….

“Itadakimasu!” the young man said then licked his tender lips.