Chapter 159: Escape
Hearing Freya’s question, Neil fell into deep thought, but before that he asked:
"Could it be someone’s attack of some sort?"
"No it is not, I feel it was somehow caused by yourself as you clearly aren’t affected by any outside factor." Freya said firmly.
"Hmm then what could it be?" He sat up and wondered, he began to go over his skills.
"It can’t be Aquamorph, could it be the skill I just obtained?" he asked.
"No that was not it, that skill was certainly absorbing too much essence but it didn’t take any of your life energy or I would’ve noticed." Freya answered.
"It can’t be Slimemorph or Sonic then the only thing left is... Analyzer!" His eyes widened as he remembered his overly powerful skill that was the biggest factor in him still being alive.
Without Analyzer he would have died a long time ago, right after entering that death zone, that skill was truly too awesome and without any cost?
So, it actually wasn’t free but instead of his essence it was feeding off his very life energy?
This revelation shocked him, so all those deaths were slowly pushing him closer to death? It was still far better than instant death but the horror part was that he had no idea about it.
Otherwise Neil would have been more careful with Analyzer, most of his remaining life force had already been consumed and now he was so close to death.
"Did you find out something?" Freya asked, her voice was also full of tension.
"Yeah, there is indeed a skill which might be the cause of it." Neil spoke, his mind full of questions.
He had died hundreds of times, it was like finding out about a disease at the very last stage, a feeling of despair and hopelessness filled his mind for a moment.
But he quickly came to his senses, giving in to despair is never the answer, not to mention he had always been fighting, no way he would give up so easily.
"Is there a way to get the life force back?" Neil asked, if there was then she would definitely know it.
"It’s not impossible but, increasing one’s life force is a very very difficult task and would need specific treasures. Only a handful of treasures can help you, but will you still be using that skill in the future?" she asked.
"...Yeah, whether I want to or not, I might have to use it though I can only be more careful." Neil said, thankfully her reply wasn’t a straight up no.
"Hmm then those treasures can only be a temporary cure, you are going to need something even more precious and things of myths." Freya spoke, her tone very mysterious.
"What is it?" Neil questioned as he rose to his feet, he still felt a bit dizzy but soon felt completely fine.
"It’s the fruit of eternity, I don’t even know if it’s real or not, I had heard about it a long time ago. It was used to tell the tale of greedy people who were destroyed while trying to achieve immortality. So there is a chance it just might be a myth." Freya replied, as long as Neil survived long enough she would be fine.
So even those temporary measures would work, but according to the contract she had to tell him all that she knew about it.
While talking to her, Neil started to walk forward. Why was his life so complicated, one thing ends only for a worse situation to appear.
"So you know nothing about the fruit?" he asked.
"Not much, just the stories and that it is located on the phantom planet. There are various stories like the greedy bug who found the door to this fruit under the foot of osmanthus. Or the greedy cat who almost found the fruit in the neck of the sleeping monkey..." Freya answered, she had listened to such stories when she was younger.
And she liked them quite a bit but now just saying them made her wonder why the stories were so strange, were they really meant for kids?
"Sigh so for now we can only find temporary measures. Anything else you know?" he asked and had already increased his speed to max.
The dizziness and weakness were completely gone, now he felt completely normal as if he wasn’t just gasping for his life just minutes ago.
"I just know the humans should have one such treasure, the Eye of Future though that’s all I know about it." Freya said.
"Okay, thanks I will search for it." Neil decided then spoke: "Nemo, see if you can find anything about it."
"Okay master." Nemo replied in a grim tone, she was also very worried about him.
Neil continued to run for a while and soon came close to the Diamond Class domain but the sight was something he had not expected.
’There is the Diamond Class domain.’ Neil thought, but there were several domains around it and quite a few fishmen.
This was like a small village, though even the strongest here was at the 3rd Origin, which was nothing for Neil to worry about.
His only worry was, if a fight broke out here it would attract too much attention and the government of the fishmen would be called here.
A settlement was too close to this village so he would have to do it secretly, and disappear quickly after taking the core.
’Well, it is time to test my new skill.’ Neil also had the essence regeneration potions, he held two potions and activated his Escape skill.
Neil’s body disappeared instantly, but the essence in his body was getting consumed at such a crazy rate.
In two minutes at max, he would lose all the essence though the potions could give him a few extra seconds.
Without wasting a moment, Neil sprinted forward rushing towards the Diamond Class domain.
No one was able to notice his presence, with his speed he had arrived near the targeted domain within moments, there were a few fishmen outside while some were inside.
There was also a guardian which was wriggling on the floor and resembled some long fish, but was moving around very quickly.
Jumping over it, Neil directly headed into the domain, there were only three rooms.
One was a bedroom, one room was for some other task, Neil quickly found the core room which was completely empty.
He paused before the door, after taking a quick glance around Neil extended his hand to push the door open but suddenly he stumbled forward.
Neil was extremely shocked to find that his hand had actually just passed through the door!!
So this skill doesn’t just make him invisible and erase his presence but it does way more than that.
He was actually able to just pass through it, though as he tried to move his entire body through the door Neil could feel a resistance.
He was moving through it slowly, still it was pretty great and as his level increases this skill will also get stronger.
Neil pushed through the door after a few seconds, he was on the other side, he removed his disappearing state and sensed that a little over half of his essence was already gone.
’No wonder this skill was consuming so much essence, this is great.’ he thought but then focused on the domain core that rested before him.
Walking closer, Neil quickly picked it up, he ignored the messages that popped before him, now it was time to make his escape.
TRRRRRRRRRRRRR...
Just then a very loud alarm began to ring, it was loud enough to be heard several kilometers away easily.
"Huh? Did I get caught? Or was there a trap here? Damnit" cursing, he quickly gulped down a few essence regeneration potions.
[Escape Activated!]
Then he entered the disappearing state, moving in a hurry he passed through the door and then moved out of the domain.
The crowd in the village were running around wildly, the alarm was constantly ringing and a bright red light covered the whole area.
’It doesn’t look like they have found me, did something else happen? Whatever, I have to leave.’ Neil thought as he ran towards the exit.
The person whose domain had just lost its core was just notified about the stolen core by his AI, he let out a painful shocked scream.
Somehow he had just lost the domain he had worked so hard to take, and there was no one around, did someone infiltrate their village?
"Activate the shields!!" The leader of the village announced quickly upon noticing that something had happened.
Originally the alarms were ringing because of a brutal crime scene not too far away, it was more of a warning and instruction to catch the thief.
But it seemed the murderer might already be here.
Unaware of this all, Neil quickly left the village, with his speed he was out of the village before they had the chance to activate the shields.
’Haa what is going on? Nemo, did something happen here?’ he asked, without coming out of his disappearing state he continued to run for a while.
Only after he was far enough and no one was around, did he finally stop and return to normal. Most of his essence had been drained.
"Yes master, it will be impossible to continue. Some big crimes have happened nearby. We will need to leave the fishmen territory quickly before strong lords start searching." Nemo said.
People going from one side to another is not prohibited but they can’t just steal each other’s cores like that or kill anyone, and based on the crime, Neil would still be interrogated.
So it was better to avoid it all.
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Thanks for reading... adios