Chapter 33: Soul Zen
"What do we have here?" Geralt uttered, his eyes glued to the contents inside the box. Inside the box, a small glowing gem lay there and nothing more.
Geralt picked up the gem and glanced around the box to see if there was something more. But sadly, there wasn't.
"What the hell is this rubbish?" Geralt sounded, with a look of disappointment as he examined the small gem in his hand. The item didn't look any different from a normal piece of diamond.
"I can't believe I almost got killed just for this useless thing!" Geralt cursed. "Well, at least there are more boxes to open." Geralt passed the gem over to Kadori and began to head towards another box.
But before he could get close to it, the boxes closed suddenly and a loud banging sound reverberated throughout the area.
"What the hell?" Geralt grumbled, trying to open it but it was already locked just like before. "Why won't it open?!"
"I think we are only allowed to pick the reward from one box," Kadori guessed. "Maybe you should have just checked every box and picked the best gift before choosing this."
Geralt grabbed his snow-white long hair in regret for not thinking it through before he picked up the stupid crystal.
After saying those words, Kadori shifted his gaze to the gem that glowed with bright white light and began to examine it closely.
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Name: SOUL ZEN
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The notification came as a surprise to Kadori as he had not expected something random like this to be the Soul Zen he had been searching for.
But Kadori knew something was missing here...
'Where are the rewards for acquiring the Soul Zen?' Kadori pondered, with a confused expression etched on his face.
The system did inform him to kill the creature to acquire the Soul Zen and gain rewards. After Geralt killed the Knight beast, Kadori only got the Knight Zen instead of the Soul Zen, so he concluded that the Knight beast might not be what he needed to kill.
But now that he found the Soul Zen inside the box that opened right after the beast was slain, he had hopes that maybe truly this was the beast that carried the Soul Zen.
However, even after receiving the Zen, Kadori didn't receive any new notifications confirming his rewards. This got him thinking...
'Could there be a creature much stronger down here that has the Soul Zen inside of it?' Kadori pondered, with looks of anticipation, wondering what type of beast it was, or if truly it was a Harbinger of Souls.
"I think we should probably get out of here," Geralt approached Kadori after several minutes of lamenting. "There's nothing else here to explore. I can't believe I almost got killed just for a stupid crystal. You can have it if you want."
What Geralt didn't know was this wasn't just any crystal, but a Soul Zen. You can't blame him, though; most people have no idea how a Soul Zen looks like or if it even exists.
"We've not explored everywhere, man," Kadori said, pointing towards the huge black door that was located a few meters from where they stood. "We haven't seen what's in there."
Kadori wasn't ready to leave just yet until he found out if truly a Harbinger of Souls was down here with them.
"I don't think it's a good idea, Kadori," Geralt replied. "What if we encounter more beasts? I am still too weak to fight."
"Relax, there's no beast," Kadori assured, walking towards the door with a determined look. "We only encountered a beast earlier because I summoned it by chanting those words. There's no way a beast could be in there."
Geralt sighed and caught up with Kadori as they both approached the door.
Standing in front of the door, Kadori examined the strange words and markings that were written in a language they couldn't understand.
Kadori could tell that these markings were the same as the ones they saw downstairs.
"It opens easier than I thought it would," Kadori commented as he pushed the huge black door open and walked into the darkness with Geralt by his side.
Geralt opened his palms wide and a glowing ball formed right above it that illuminated the whole area slightly.
Geralt moved the glowing ball around to catch a glimpse of the area they were in. But all they saw was an empty room.
"Over here!" Kadori called out, pointing towards what looked like a coffin that was made out of rocks stationed at the center of the room.
The duo quickly rushed up to the coffin to take a closer look at it.
'It's the same markings,' Kadori pondered, examining the markings that were written here and there on the coffin.
While examining the coffin, a small scorpion-like creature crawled up to Kadori's right fist and scratched him with its tail, causing a single drop of blood to fall.
"Ah!" Kadori grunted, slapping the small insect off his hand and rubbing the swollen area.
"Hey, I think we have seen enough now. Let's go." Geralt was starting to feel uncomfortable about where they currently were.
It felt like a powerful force was right there with them, glaring at them with its bloodlust eyes.
"You are right. Besides, this coffin is impossible to open," Kadori responded after trying so hard to shift it open. But it refused to move an inch.
The duo turned around and exited the strange room and finally found themselves outside and back in the Terminator Base. The base was already quiet since it was past midnight and most students were already asleep.
They quickly made their way back to their dorm and found Yukiko already fast asleep. Geralt collapsed on his bed and fell asleep instantly since he was already exhausted from the fight.
Kadori lay down on his bed to check a few things in the system before calling it a night.
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BEAST EDITING CARD
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The first thing Kadori thought of checking was this strange item he received earlier after defeating the beast.
Kadori shifted his gaze towards the bottom left corner of the panel and saw a description tab.
Kadori quickly clicked on it.
[THE CARD CAN BE USED TO RESHAPE YOUR ALREADY STORED BEAST TO ANY SIZE AND APPEARANCE YOU WANT THEM TO BE. NOTE: THE CARD CAN'T INCREASE THE RANK OR STRENGTH OF THE BEAST, IT ONLY CHANGES THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE.]
Kadori glanced through the description with a satisfied expression. He could now reshape the huge beast he has into portable ones that could fit anywhere.
If he was to get into a fight inside a small narrow tunnel, his huge beast wouldn't be able to fight freely. So he needed something portable, yet strong.
'Now, let's see what exactly this Soul Zen is,' Kadori pondered.
***
Back in the dark empty room that contained the coffin, Kadori's single drop of blood flowed into a tiny hole on the coffin and dropped inside.
Moments after the blood dropped inside, a loud rumbling sound filled the place as the coffin began to shift open.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone