Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 346: Clouded Senses.

Ozul chose the most sturdy-looking house and decided to sleep until it was daytime again because it had gotten dark and there was no sign of any other life.

Most of the buildings were now nothing more than rubble, but the one he chose appeared to be in good condition. It wasn’t big, but it wasn’t in shambles either.

The house seemed to be abandoned for decades now but there was still a noticeable rug inside. Without caring about all the dust and mess, Ozul picked a corner and wrapped himself in the Ball of Purity before dropping on the ground.

“Convenient...” muttered Zier as he eyed Ozul with envy.

To Ozul it might be nothing, but they would have to clean up just to even sit on the ground or it was no better than resting atop a tree.

Seeing Ozul finally relaxing, Raven didn’t wait for a second and asked about the ring he had given her after coming out of that alley.

“It should have the basic information we need for now,” Ozul answered lazily, “Guide some of that Spiritual Essence in it. It’s a Spatial Ring.”

.....

Before Raven could ask further, Ozul remembered something and added, “Also, the other Spatial Rings should be useless now.”

“huh?” Raven halted and blinked her eyes before hastily checking her Spatial Rings.

However, no matter what she tried, she couldn’t muster up a speck of Mana to access the storage. Zier and Blaze tried the same, but no one had any success.

“I had so many things stored in there!” Zier sighed with indignation.

What worried Raven was that she had stored so many of Ozul’s spare clothes in her Spatial Rings and now all of them were out of her reach!

Given his strength, it wasn’t uncommon for him to have his clothes ripped apart after every fight.

She had made it a point to be prepared to give him a new set of a white shirt and black trouser-like pants whenever he needed them.

Despite the fact that his messy hair gave him a bad impression, one full look at him would dispel just about anyone’s doubts about him. He just had that kind of aura.

“I... Is there no way to fetch the items inside?” She asked with a shaky voice, looking expectantly towards Ozul.

Zier and Blaze thought she must have placed something of great importance in the Spatial Rings.

“I don’t know. Keep them, maybe there could be a way,” Ozul replied seriously. Even he was a little curious as to what could make Raven so shaken. If he knew it was about his clothes, he wouldn’t have even found any words to scold her.

After all, everyone knew that there were clothes reinforced with Mana back in their world, but Raven being Raven, never learned about something so trivial like that.

Finding the opportunity, Ozul remembered to let them know about what had happened in the alleyway back then. He didn’t go through every detail, only warned them about Old Gu since he was turning out more troublesome than he had previously imagined.

“That guy... his name was M... Miko? Yeah, something like that...Anyway, wake me up early.”

Successfully forgetting Minho’s name, Ozul yawned and curled in his blanket made with the Ball of Purity and went to sleep.

. . .

It was still in the middle of the night when Ozul opened his eyes, sensing something unusual in the surroundings.

With a sweep of his gaze, he noticed both Raven and Blaze were meditating while Zier was tinkering with some needles he had seen for the first time now.

Unlike him, they were completely unaware of what was happening.

He kept his eyes open but didn’t make any movements, letting the intruders do their job.

Both Raven and Blaze were meditating, but they didn’t dare absorb the Spiritual Essence in the air. As informed earlier, it wasn’t wise to do so without proper instructions.

While in meditation, they were vulnerable from all sides. The same was with Ozul who looked to be asleep. The only man ‘awake’ was Zier and the people lurking in the shadows waited for the perfect moment to strike.

Just when Zier was done tinkering with his needles, he seemingly moved to put them down and...

*Chinngg!*

“AKh!” “Uu-” “KhK-h!” ...

Multiple muffled voices were heard and,

*Thud!*

A couple of heavy objects fell down on the floor.

Raven and Blaze immediately opened their eyes and jumped up in alarm, looking at Zier with questioning gazes.

“That was quick,” a voice came from the corner. The three turned their heads to see Ozul squatting next to a dead man, his torso severed, “Though you missed a couple.”

He was obviously talking to Zier who was also looking at him, apparently baffled at his mistake.

“Wh-.. Where was he hiding?” Zier could have sworn that he had only sensed 4 people in the house beside them.

“Does it matter?” Ozul looked him straight in the eye.

Zier had quickly dealt with four people at the same time using his poisonous needles. Even if he missed, he only needed the needles to at least graze their skin.

His abilities were almost unaffected because he was more of a Fighter before absorbing his Mana Core like others. His senses had improved even beyond their previous limit by paying the price of only having his physical strength reduced as Mana, which continuously reinforced his body, had been completely drained out.

So when he was suddenly able to sense those people entering the house, he noticed Blaze and Raven were unaware. Feeling confident of himself, he took care of all four by himself.

“I am sorry...”

Zier muttered, not daring to look up at him and instead staring intently at the ground as if it were his favorite thing in the world right now.

Not getting any reply, he felt his heart tightening as if something ominous was clutching it tightly. This need of getting others’ approval and the fear of rejection; he had only felt it with his grandfather before.

Fortunately for him, Ozul shrugged this matter off, “Alright, but next time you do that, I won’t help you.”

Following that, Ozul shot a swift look at the duo standing at the side. The kid who wasn’t even a Mage previously was able to sense 4 people while they were unaware right until the moment the situation was resolved; it was truly a shameful thing for them to think.

Shamelessly avoiding his gaze, they scattered around the dead bodies to examine them.

“Did someone send them?” Blaze asked. After the incident of that Elder and the young man dying, it wasn’t entirely impossible that someone came after them too.

“They don’t look like it,” Raven commented. The appearances of these guys were too rough. It looked more like they were bandits.

“Mhm. They wanted to steal our ‘riches’,” Ozul spoke. He had listened to their whispers before they had even stepped one foot into the house.

After looking around a bit, Ozul went back to his corner of the room. He had already noticed that these bandits didn’t have any of that Spiritual Essence concentrated in their body unlike that now dead Elder and the young man.

Since they were some local thugs, he couldn’t gain anything from them. As for collecting anything off of them, Raven and Blaze knew what to do.

Him being able to relax after creating a mess... he was grateful to the day he had decided on this very important decision to let people work for him.

“A settlement should be near, right?”

“Since these people are here, the town should be near here too.”

“Hey... what if the town was actually on the other side of that place we were brought to?”

“...”

“...”

As the three discussed among them, Ozul drifted off to his thoughts.

Although he seemed calm and relaxed, it wasn’t exactly so.

Being brought to a completely new world was confusing, but he had already expected it. He was just as strong as before, so there was no problem in that regard either.

What worried him was the fact that he couldn’t read other people’s emotions anymore.

And that was only the most noticeable downgrade of his abilities.

The incident in the alley and now being ambushed by these thugs made him realize his other shortcomings as well.

It was as if suddenly fog had appeared all around him and although he could see things clearly, it wasn’t as clear as before.

‘It’s because of this Spiritual Essence,’ he could guess that much.

He suddenly turned to his side and patted the black cat on her head, making her look up at him with some annoyance.

‘Should I allow it to enter my body?’ he quietly asked in his heart while staring intently into her colorful eyes.

As he expected, there was no visible reaction from her, but she curled her head back into her paws and slept covering her eyes.

‘Alright then, if anything goes wrong, it will be on you...’

Again, there was no reaction.

Seeing no response from her didn’t discourage him. It was only a sign that he could do as he wanted which meant that it was most likely not harmful to him.

Any sane man would have called him crazy if they knew that he was going to absorb Spiritual Essence merely because a cat didn’t stop him, but Ozul knew better.

He didn’t know why, but Jinx had always been there whenever he was in danger and they had already established that she could understand him even only if he spoke in his mind.

Also, according to that Elder, Beastkin didn’t need a cultivation method to absorb this Spiritual Essence either. It was only the humans who needed so, but he wasn’t exactly human either. If he were, he wouldn’t have been here in the first place.

He took a deep breath and sat with his back straight. Even if there was any problem, he believed he could stop it in time.

“Huu...!”

.....