Spirit Soul

Kyle was not sure how to feel right now because everything felt a little bit weird.

He was not sure if it was a coincidence that he had encountered the seedling of the ginormous tree only a short time after it gained sentience, but it was certainly a unique encounter.

If he had chosen to land somewhere else or left after their landing, the seedling would have withered owing to the vast amount of energy the ginormous tree required.

Meanwhile, the seedling could only procure little energy. It had to absorb the rest from the surrounding and other beasts that were deprived of their energy and life.

With uncertainty flashing through his mind, he leaned forward, picking up the seedling whose roots had been separated from the ginormous tree.

When his fingers touched the seedling, it instinctively absorbed a tiny bit of his soul force.

But only a moment later, it stopped immediately after it noticed what its instincts did.

Though a little late, the seedling's sentience noticed that it couldn't deprive its savior and the being it had to rely on, from his energy.

When Kyle noticed this, he flinched once because the sensation of being drained of his entire energy flashed through his mind.

Nevertheless, he continued holding the seedling with his Nurture ability fully utilized.

'Earlier, when I nurtured the other hues of the seedling, it released a different scent than it is currently doing…' He noticed.

And, despite not knowing why he thought that this was important, he couldn't help but believe that it was something essential.

Because of that, he decided that it might be a good idea to carry the seedling along with them as it might have more advantages than he knew of up to this moment.

There had to be a proper explanation on how the tree had been able to grow to reach the mammoth height of a thousand meters, without lacking the energy to continue growing, after all.

His curiosity about the tree seemed to be increasing and he felt that it was important to figure out what exactly the secrets of the ginormous tree were.

Or to be precise, he wanted to unravel the mystery of what exactly the sentient seedling even was, to begin with.

Thinking that Kyle couldn't help but smile while holding it.

"I hope we'll be able to cooperate with each other well!"

The seedling didn't answer him, but that was not necessary because it reached for his pockets with its tiny roots where it wanted to stay for the time being.

It might not be the best idea to have the seedling in his pocket, but it was hardly the size of Kyle's smallest finger's tip!

As such, it shouldn't be much of a problem to carry it around.

Nevertheless, Kyle was trying to think of a solution to move it to a safer position than his pockets which didn't feel that safe to him.

That being said, he tried to think of a position on his body where the seedling could stay easily and safely.

At that moment, he looked at Beatrice, who hadn't said something for a while.

She was just staring at him with a confused expression and when she saw him looking at her, Beatrice couldn't hold back anymore.

"Are you sure that you want to take the seedling with you? You'll have to provide it with the necessary nutrition on your journey. The seedling's demands will certainly grow with time too… And you don't really know if it will deprive us of our energy once again…"

There were more than enough reasons for Beatrice to be worried about.

It was, even more so because the seedling of the ginormous tree had almost killed them before.

Thus, she was a bit wary of the mysterious seedling.

Despite that, Kyle couldn't help but feel like teasing her, as a smile appeared on his face before he retorted,

"Are you afraid that you'll have to share your food bank?"

Laughing her concern off, Kyle didn't show that he was clearly aware about what Beatrice was worried about.

'If the seedling becomes too greedy, it will try to force me to use my ability to nurture it more and more.'

Despite the possibility of this happening, he thought that it was unlikely. Kyle aimed to exploit the seedling by supporting its growth and not the other way around!

However, by looking at Beatrice, he couldn't help but sense her worry.

For a minute, it made him feel a little bit odd too, which made him doubt the blood pact they had.

'Are our thoughts and emotions connected?' He wondered, feeling a slight connection that was slowly building up between them.

Yet, the possibility of the seedling betraying them couldn't be ignored.

As he thought of it, Kyle got an idea when he recalled all kinds of items that had been stored within Beatrice's spatial ring.

Approaching her, he asked her permission before grasping Beatrice's hand without a second of hesitation.

Accessing her spatial ring, Kyle took out a hollow, translucent crystal that had a tiny opening.

"Do you need that crystal, or the thread?" He asked while taking out a brown thread that looked like it was made of leather.

It was just more flexible and didn't tear easily, which was the reason for Kyle to take it out of Beatrice's spatial ring.

Seeing her shake her head in confusion, Kyle manifested a tiny wind needle with the use of his soul force.

Focussing with one eye closed, he directed the needle as it pierced a small hole into the crystal.

This took much longer than expected as he had underestimated the durability of the materials.

As such, Kyle used the needle like a cheap replacement of a tiny drill.

Using it, he created a small hole through and wove the thread through it.

Afterward, he asked the tiny seedling to enter the crystal.

Reluctantly the seedling followed his order, and once everything was done, he wore the necklace around his neck.

He hid the necklace behind his clothes, acting as a cover for the seedling.

Now, he didn't have to worry about it accidentally falling off his pockets and moving around easily.

In fact, Kyle could use the Nurture ability directly on the seedling, without the need to touch it with his fingers anymore.

That was quite advantageous as his bare chest was in touch with it, if he were to ignore the outer layer of the crystal.

Beatrice was uncomfortable with the way Kyle solved the issues and placed it close to his body.

But, instead of commenting on it, she kept quiet.

Nevertheless, she secretly thought of a way to dispose of the seedling if the worst scenario that Kyle seemed to be ignoring were to occur!

Calming herself down, she looked at her hand for a moment.

Sighing deeply, Beatrice lifted her head to look at the smiling face of Kyle.

She couldn't help but wonder how so many things could have happened in the last few days and months.

'Will you be my savior, or my doom?'

She asked to herself only to recall that even if Kyle were to be her doom and everything was currently unfamiliar and uncomfortable, she had begun to trust him.

The short time she had spent with him was already several times better than the last 50,000 years she had been living inside the Razkadan castle.

With that in mind, she decided to live a life without regrets.

And, Kyle was currently the most important person in her life and she wouldn't hesitate to fight anyone who would dare to take Kyle away from her.

This was something she felt from the pits of her stomach.

Her mind was a mess, but her goal was crystal clear.

Thus, she smiled brightly at Kyle, trying to hide her insecurities as she asked.

"Should we leave now? We have a long journey ahead of us!"

Returning her smile, Kyle nodded his head, oblivious to the torture every single decision taken by him caused Beatrice as she thought.

'If you trust everyone…I will keep doubting them until they've proven me wrong…and if I'm correct, I can still protect you!'

With that thought in mind, Beatrice felt that she would be able to accept everything about Kyle and everything that revolved around the naive young man much better than before.

Having found her resolve, she followed Kyle, who had already turned to face the only way that had led them to the hollow center of the ginormous tree.

It was already issuing all kinds of crumbling and breaking noises, indicating that it would collapse soon.

Because of that, they had to increase the pace at which they had to descend the tree.

This was annoying and put some pressure on them to evacuate the space quickly.

Kyle was still exhausted from being drained of his energy, only to be requested to nurture the seedling of the devouring tree, for several hours, at that!

Meanwhile, Beatrice was full of vigor owing to the time she had rested peacefully.

This allowed her to jump from one branch to another, looking for the fastest way to descend without unnecessarily straining their bodies.

She could also use her dagger and carve it into the bark of the tree, to move around. B

But that would demand lots of physical strength from her, even more so if she wanted to descend several hundred meters like that.

In the end, she had to take her time and find a way in a slow but well-thought manner which resulted in the most efficient way to get down.

Following that, more than an hour passed before they arrived on the ground and their timing was almost perfect.

No sooner had their feet touched solid ground, they ran away from the tree as fast as their feet could carry them.

And it was just a second later that the ear-piercing noises of the collapsing ginormous tree echoed through the surroundings.

Turning around, they witnessed how the ginormous tree crumbled before it collapsed completely, releasing the last remnants of its energy and life force at once, indicating that it was finally dead.

The loud thud had caused a loud commotion and soon the surrounding beasts sensed that the biggest threat, the Devouring tree, was finally not there anymore. This meant that its surrounding territory could once again been inhabited.

Because of that, many powerful beasts that wanted to expand their territory, or claim a new territory ventured in the direction of the tree.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Beatrice were oblivious to this, but that was the smaller issue.

Both of them had been blasted away by the shockwave of energy and life force that was directly aimed at them.

Thrown into the nearby bushes, Kyle noticed that he was scratched all over yet again when he had brushed past the bushes' twigs, while the multitude of wounds on his back were torn open once again.

Despite that, he felt extremely energetic, owing to the life force that had swept through his body.

Beside him, Beatrice, who he saw pushing herself from the ground, looked the same.

This caused him to smile faintly as he mumbled,

"That was a great energy booster, right?"

Getting up from the ground, he heard the seedling's complaints that were mostly directed at the ginormous tree. It was angry at the now-dead tree for doing something as stupid as invigorating them in such a dangerous way. But after ranting for a while, it fell silent again

From the looks of it the seedling had accepted that Kyle would travel through the surrounding area for a few years before he would even start considering settling somewhere.

In fact, the seedling was fine with everything as long as it was nurtured by Kyle's ability.

In fact, it was his ability that made it believe that traveling with Kyle was worth its time.

With that in mind, it accepted everything Kyle wanted to do.

And the first thing he planned was to leave the surrounding area as quickly as possible.

He could sense danger encroaching from all sides when he perceived the hues of several hundred powerful beasts.

All of them rushed towards the direction of the collapsed tree which was, sadly, their direction!