The Legacy System

Before Eric could even react to the scene in front of him, and the fact that none of the puppets inside the tunnel followed him inside, something weird happened in front of him.

All of a sudden, a white shadow thing appeared from the puppet's head, taking the shape of a middle-aged man wearing white clothes, with a natural face and calm face.

The middle-aged man looked like some kind of projection or hologram, but it also gave an ethereal feeling to Eric, making him wonder what it exactly was.

This wasn't the first time he was witnessing something like this, but there was a big difference. As this one didn't feel real, and it felt more of a whisp than a full conscience.

As Eric was racking his brains about what could this thing be, and who this guy was, something even more startling happened in front of him, the white shadow started speaking.

"Welcome in Nightless Stone City, challenger!

This is your last test to show your strength, and your ability to inherit this place, and the last wishes of its residents.

At first, this place was nothing more than a cave that I found by chance while wandering the world, as a genius of my clan..

This place was well hidden and extremely protected, I thought that it was some kind of inheritance cave, but unfortunately, I found no inheritance.

As a genius of cultivation, I had to step on quite a few pebbles, and stones in order to reach higher and higher, increasing not only my standing and position but also my clan.

But the higher I stepped, the more ambition grew inside me, and the more arrogant I became, so willingly or unwillingly I stepped on a stone that I shouldn't and couldn't step.

That mistake turned out to be the greatest mistake of my life, as it not only shut every opportunity towards my future but also pulled my clan together with me.

There were people who abandoned me and negated me, but most of my clan people didn't forsake me, nor did they betray me, as they were willing to live and die by my side.

They enjoyed the peak by my side, so they were willing to enjoy even the trough with me. It was at that time that I was reminded of this place and brought them here to hide together.

At least until the storm passed, or until we had the strength to fight back for our rights and lives.

With our skills in puppetry, it was extremely easy for us to build this place, as it is today, and the first years of our life in here were extremely peaceful and happy.

But with the passage of time, we were able to understand how mistaken we were. This place was a safe retreat, but also a great cage.

Since there was no sun, no clouds, no rain, and no life in here besides us, it was impossible for us to grow food to feed ourselves and our children.

We thought of getting outside, as we even sent a few groups as scouts, in order to bring us food back. But each and every one of them was caught by our enemy and suffered a much worse fate.

Faced with this situation, and no escape route, me and all the remaining elders of the clan decided to end our lives, and our brethren lives by ourselves, rather than let our enemy profane our lives.

Which brought to the view, and situation in front of you, where we can only hope, pray, and entrust our last wishes and troubles to you in return for all of our remaining wealth."

During all the announcement the middle-aged man looked extremely solemn and collected, but when he remembered the death of his brethren a tear fell down his cheek.

Still, he managed to keep his calm until the end, and also control his emotions as best as he could. That was a clear proof of his character and mental state.

Not many experts were able to stay as composed and solemn as he did during the whole announcement, as a matter of fact, all this time he had the aura of a ruler.

Eric was extremely startled and surprised when he heard all about this and felt that these people had truly been unlucky and pitiful.

At the same time, there were a lot of questions, and ideas in his head. Just what kind of storm had these people thrown themselves into.

Who was the stone that this genius had stepped and shouldn't have stepped upon? Who had the strength to force them into their death inside this cage?

But at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a bit of appreciation and pity for their lives. If he had the strength in the future, he would most certainly help them fulfill their last wish.

After all, these guys were gifting him everything they had left, so he felt that it was more than natural to help them get their revenge.

As he had fallen deep in his thoughts, the middle-aged man started speaking once again,

"Since you were able to hear this insignificant one until the end, and even wait to listen more then I can rest assured that you aren't one of our enemies and are indeed an eligible challenger.

As long as you are able to defeat our strongest puppet, then you are the inheritor of this place and everything we have left behind.

As for the last wish of all of us, it is written in the 'Wall of Penance'! You will understand once you enter inside.

I wish you luck!"

The moment he said those four last words, the whole shadow image disappeared, and the only things left in the arena were Eric and that Realm 2 puppet.

From the moment that Eric had evolved into a Realm 1 being and had even progressed to level 157, he had a wish to fight with all he had got in order to learn his new strength and limits.

The puppets until now had certainly given him quite a challenge as he had to exhaust quite a bit of strength and energy to take care of them, but none of them had been the challenge he had wished until now.

He was still a bit disappointed until he appeared in the arena, and even though a bit frightened he had been excited all this time.

There would finally be a strong opponent that would help him test his limits. Even now looking at the Realm 2 puppet in front of him, he could feel his heart beating fast.

It was like he had suddenly received some steroids, as he saw that puppet jump towards him with astonishing speed, as its right hand turned into some kind of sharp blade.

Up to that point, he had been pondering where was the katana of this puppet, as all the puppets he had met until now all had one in their waist, but this one didn't.

It was only at this point that he finally understood that this puppet didn't need a katana, as its whole body was a weapon.

Not only that, but the velocity of this puppet and its fighting style was on a different level from all the puppets he had fought with until now.

Well, that was to be expected, if it weren't the case then he would be disappointed with this puppet, so he didn't panic, in fact, he became even calmer.

Even though his heart was beating fast, and his adrenaline levels were growing higher, he was weirdly getting calmer.

Seeing that puppet appear in front of him all of a sudden, he quickly bent his body back at the waist, and then made a flip using his right leg to kick at the katana, while his left went for the puppets chest area.

Even though he wasn't as fast as the puppet was by a small margin, his attack was still quite strategic, and efficient in his eyes.

Apparently, he had thought too highly of himself, as the two kicks landed on the puppet just as he wanted, and he created some distance once again, but the rest was completely out of his expectations.

Not only wasn't he able to cause injury to the puppet as he thought it would happen, but the puppet even forced itself to follow behind him again with its katana hand towards his throat.

He had been able to sense his leg entered the body of the puppet when he hit it, but unexpectedly there was no sign of it anymore.

The puppet was brand new, while it followed behind him with the intention to kill. He felt extremely weird, but now wasn't the time to think about it.

He had to act quickly and dodge once again, otherwise, he would truly die under the puppet's attack.

With those thoughts in his mind, he quickly made a small turn in mid-air, throwing himself to the left, then suddenly stopping in place, and using the moment to jump back at the puppet again.

His actions were extremely fast, that probably the puppet's processing speed wasn't able to keep up with him at the moment, so his goal was reached, and his hand landed on the puppet's head.

He felt truly disappointed, as he thought that at least this puppet would be stronger than the others and give him a challenge but unexpectedly it had gone done even quicker than the rest.

Truly disappointing!

But before he could continue down that line of thought, he felt his instincts flare up like some kind of fire alarm…