Chapter 367: Unique Soul

“What the hell?” Julius muttered to himself.

The boss room was completely isolated, which meant that he hadn’t been able to see what was beyond it despite using [Absolute Spatial Perception]. That was also the reason he was shocked to see the situation in front of his eyes.

He had walked in half expecting it to be crawling with more undead along with the big bad boss, but what he found instead was a large empty room with two figures. One of these figures was imprisoned in a semi-transparent cage while the other person was off in the corner fiddling with something.

On closer inspection, it almost looked like the figure in the mana cage was an undead. Was this the boss of the room? If so, what was it doing in a cage? And who was this other person?

It was a young man with dark brown hair who was covered in a beat-up and worn black cloak. Julius could also tell that this man noticed him when he entered the room. He said this confidently because the man’s mana filled the entire room and reacted to Julius’s presence the very second he opened the doors.

However, the unknown man only barely glanced in his direction. It appeared that he was too busy finishing up whatever he was examining in the corner. From what Julius could tell, the man was inspecting some of the enchantments placed around the room.

In the meantime, Julius walked over to the caged undead and knelt down to get closer to it. The mana cage prevented him from sensing any of its mana or aura, so he wasn’t sure if this thing was the boss. But just from looking at it, there was something different about this monster.

For one, it had glowing green eyes that pulsed lightly. It was also completely bare of rotten flesh. It was just a skeleton covered in elegant black robes. He had never seen one before, but he suspected that this creature was a lich.

Julius inspected the cage in front of him with curiosity. It was quite the intriguing work of mana. Julius was able to sense multiple different channels of mana flowing throughout the entire construct. Each one had its own function and empowered the others.

He didn’t think he could even make a dent in this cage, not without a lot of time and mana.

This construct was also the reason why he knew that this unknown man was skilled. The mana around the room was the first hint, but the mana was diffused throughout the entire room. It was more like it was meant specifically for perception. It had some similarities to a domain, but there wasn’t any real power behind this technique, which made it hard to estimate what tier the man was in.

However, that mana cage had Julius believing that this man was at the very least toward the top of Tier 4 or even Tier 5. He didn’t think this man was Tier 5 quite yet, but that was just because Julius believed the unknown man would have simply used a domain instead of throwing out his mana like a pseudo domain technique.

Julius was wary of the man, but his curiosity was quite piqued. That was the reason he found himself sitting across the mana cage as he calmly analyzed whatever skill the cloaked man used to create it. While he waited for the mysterious figure to finish whatever he was doing.

***

Kuro POV

Kuro had been coming back from a particularly intense mission deep in the Endless Forest. However, he came across a weird rift just as he was flying over the treetops. He dropped down to the forest floor to investigate and was intrigued when he spotted the entrance to an undead rift.

He commanded his familiar Syla to drop down and see what he had sensed. She made sure to find a suitable place to land, and once they did, he climbed down from her soft and feathered back.

Syla was a unique beast. She was a Cloudgale Eagle and he had been lucky enough to find a sole egg when he was young. He had painstakingly cared for her egg and it took almost an entire year for her to hatch. But once she did, they became inseparable and quickly became partners for life.

He had even been lucky enough to get a skill that improved this bond. She was able to be stored within his soul space whenever he wanted, and they also shared their talents with each other. She gained his talent for soul magic and mana manipulation, while he gained her potent affinity to wind magic as well as an increase to his physical abilities.

What had gotten him interested in this rift was that it was an undead rift. While undead rifts weren’t the rarest rift out there, most of the variations were heavily based around death. However, he sensed that this wasn’t the case with this rift.

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There were some heavy hints of powerful soul magic, and as someone who was always trying to learn more about soul magic. He realized this could be a good opportunity to learn some new things. That was why he had delayed his return to Peralt and took a look at the rift. He wasn’t worried, though. As a Tier 4, he was more than confident in solo delving a Tier 3 rift.

He didn’t even bother to fight the undead. He simply used his stealth skill to pass by them without issue and went immediately into the boss room, where the lich in charge of the undead welcomed him.

He had been disappointed, though. The lich wasn’t the expert in soul magic like he had been hoping for. The lich was more like a powerful mage than someone who specialized in the esoteric art of souls. Sure, the lich knew enough to control some undead, but that was about it.