Chapter 749: Prey or be Preyed Upon
Elysia used her sacred vision to see what was hidden deep within this mini planet. She suddenly stopped in her steps with a somewhat confused expression.
It was a bit faint, but a room clad in deadly evil energy could be seen in her eyes. There were several altars, but a giant stone coffin was in the center of the room.
"Elysia, can you see what"s hidden in here? We"ve just arrived at the maze." Alisha raised her eyebrows and approached Elysia.
"Ai, this place seems to be an ancient burial ground of a powerful ent.i.ty far in the past. Do you still want to go deeper even though there is a threat of an incredibly deadly curse for anyone who enters the core room? The aura I felt there threatened me to get out of here as soon as possible. This planet"s master doesn"t want to be disturbed." Elysia stated that with a complicated expression, but it was covered in her hood"s shadow.
Alisha thought for a moment to consider the warning Elysia gave. She had been here hundreds of times, but she still couldn"t solve the mystery of this labyrinth. Moreover, she had a bad feeling when she went too deep into this place. Most likely, this place once belonged to a unique lifeform like her.
She just couldn"t take the risk because she hadn"t fully recovered yet. Therefore, she would simply change her plans. She got her lucky star and should put it to good use.
"Is it like that? In that case, it would be a waste to venture too deep. All right, I"ll change our plan here. Can you find any valuable materials or treasures here? We don"t need to enter the core room you mentioned." Alisha nodded in understanding, and Elysia agreed with that.
The exploration lasted only for a few hours. However, Alisha managed to take away many treasures and valuable materials, thanks to Elysia.
Elysia and Alisha ended their exploration and left as they didn"t want to explore deeper in their current situation. They returned to their previous plan, namely the outer region"s short tour, as Elysia requested.
"Ai, I"ve seen s.p.a.ce rock monsters, but what about mindless beasts and shadow creatures? Does Cherub fall into the category of mindless beasts?" Elysia asked the thing that was still bothering her. She felt a little suspicious about the shadow creature and had to confirm it.
"Yeah, Cherub used to be a mindless beast before I tamed him and gave him some grooming. He was just like a puppy after he managed to rebuild his mind. Do you want to see them? Fine, but after that, we"ll return to our hideout." Alisha decided casually. Her favorability to Elysia had increased drastically just because she had proven Elysia"s actual value.
She had just said that via telepathy, but she suddenly became confused because she had said something she didn"t know. "Wait, puppies?"
"This happened again? Hm, maybe I can really help you, Ai. This isn"t the first time I"ve recovered someone from a body curse or mind corrosion." Elysia could guess a few things from Alisha"s current situation and offered to help once again.
"With your golden light magic? How confident are you that you can achieve that at your current level of strength? Can a memory loss occur in the process?" Alisha was interested but still couldn"t let go of her suspicions even though her trust in Elysia had increased drastically.
"I don"t know how to recover completely lost memories, but my technique has no side effects since it"s just pure purification. To ensure my success rate, I need to recover and become stronger first. The current me is not capable of such a great achievement." Elysia shook her head.
The previous labyrinth"s exploration had given quite a toll on her body. Her magic was also drained. She needed to recover and improve her overall abilities with Alisha"s help to repay her services.
"I already guessed it. I shall grant your wish very well, and I will train you to become stronger. You are my slave. It will be troublesome if you remain weak." Alisha sighed and came to a decision. She dared to take the risk of claiming Elysia as her property and bring this girl in, so she would place some bets on this girl with extra caution.
"Thank you, Ai! I will strive to reach Saint-level here, if possible..." Elysia became excited and enthusiastic. She immediately hugged Alisha"s waist while chuckling.
At that moment, she could only a.s.sume that the time in the outside world was different from this realm. Something like one to three thousand six hundred. So, it would be fine if she spent some time here. Her trial was tricky, and she didn"t have much choice either.
"Tsk, don"t hug me so suddenly. Get away from me a little." Alisha pushed Elysia away a bit, but she didn"t really put in her strength for it.
"Eh, you want to use s.p.a.ce warp again, right? I want to see mindless beasts and shadow creatures. Your explanation still confuses me." Elysia asked in surprise and didn"t let go of Alisha"s waist.
"Fair enough..." Alisha took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her emotions somehow surfaced so much since Elysia"s presence. Usually, it was just her cold and angry att.i.tude.
*Zap*
Alisha used her s.p.a.ce warp, and they teleported to the other side of the boundary between the outer and mid regions.
Alisha asked her pet to stop and stay afloat in mid-air. She then pointed to a giant dead star in the distance. "It is a dead star where hundreds of mindless beasts of various variants nest and breed. There are some from the mid-region as well. Their threat level is quite low because they are not predators, but don"t try to approach or look at them with your intense gaze. They will notice you."
Elysia just nodded and scanned those mindless beasts to see their status screen. One thing she could understand was that they were just giant monsters who were powerful but still without intelligence, even though some were above Spirit-level.
It was like Gio when his mind was corrupted by a curse and sealed for a long time. But, the mindless beast was covered by a dark, mysterious energy.
"s.p.a.ce rock monsters and s.p.a.ce beasts, but what about shadow creatures?" Elysia can confirm that the mindless beast is not the Ruvoid Race, so only one remains.
"What? Do you think I am a shadow creature? I did say that this realm only has three types of monsters, but it was MONSTERS, do you remember?" Alisha misinterpreted Elysia"s gaze and immediately straightened things out.
"Fufu, I know. This realm also has a unique form like you and me, Ai. I"m sure you know some in the inner and core regions. You fought against one before and lost, right? That"s okay. I will help you to defeat that ent.i.ty in due course." Elysia chuckled and patted Alisha"s back.
"Who, who lost to that thing? It was just a wise retreat! Hey, why am I telling you this?" Alisha covered her mouth.
She spoke spontaneously because Elysia triggered her. This girl was pretty dangerous when talking.
"Tsk, are you satisfied with seeing mindless beasts? Here, put on this mask, and we"ll see the shadow creatures. For you to know, they have a high threat level even at the weakest level. It"s troublesome to deal with curses." Alisha gave her spare mask to Elysia.
"!!!" Elysia was surprised when the word "curse" was mentioned by Alisha. She accepted that black mask and immediately put it on her face.
*Zap*
Alisha once again used her s.p.a.ce warp to somewhere in the outer region. She would only show low-tier shadow creatures to Elysia because she hated dealing with curses.
"Hmm, I think it"s around here. Oh, that"s it." Alisha patted her pet to go in the direction she wanted. However, they remained within a safe distance.
It was just a pitch-black asteroid floating loose in the air. Elysia glanced at it; nothing strange about that humongous s.p.a.ce rock monster at first glance.
"Did you see that big s.p.a.ce rock monster? It"s at tier seven, similar to the one you blew up a while ago. However, let"s look at the gray rock next to it. Can you see dozens of shadow creatures in it?" Alisha pointed to a meteoroid next to the object that Elysia was observing.
That s.p.a.ce rock monster is moving slowly towards that gray meteoroid. Elysia noticed that and checked what might be hidden inside.
She could see dozens of creatures like giant caterpillars underground. They were clad in the purplish-black aura, and they resembled accursed creatures!
*Bam!* *Crunch!*
The colossal asteroid suddenly opened its mouth full of super sharp giant fangs. It crushed the meteoroid into small pieces and devoured it.
"That s.p.a.ce rock monster ate it!?" Elysia widened her eyes in shock.
"Well, s.p.a.ce rock monsters eat stuff like that sometimes. It doesn"t matter if it"s their own kind, mindless beast, or shadow creature. They will devour almost everything. The shadow creatures are a bit troublesome because of their curses, but they are still at the lowest caste in the chain of life. Some creatures in this Boundless Realm are immune to curses too." Alisha explained a little.
"Even a curse doesn"t have any effect?" Elysia asked as if she couldn"t believe what she had just heard.
"No, really. Some curses are really troublesome, but that"s no big deal. Some don"t care, but some choose to avoid it. Well, some unique lifeforms and ultra-strong mindless beasts even turn shadow creatures into food." Alisha shrugged and spread her arms like it was no big deal.
"What about the ultra-strong shadow creatures? Why do you name them as shadow creatures, Ai?" Elysia had just uncovered one mystery, but many other things came to her to find out.
"Hm, there is still the stronger beyond the strong, Elysia. Prey or be preyed upon. Even I am just mid-tier compared to those ent.i.ties in the core region. I call them shadow creatures because they will become shadows and vanish if killed. I think we have satisfied your curiosity, and I have also fulfilled my promise to you. We"re going back now." Alisha replied with a dismissive hand wave.