Spirit Soul

[A/N thanks for the Gifts. I really appreciate it. Big thanks to DemonicAngel for the Magic Castle!]

Initially, Kyle had been excited to enter the second trial.

Yet, his excitement evaporated after stepping into a wide, open area.

It was supposed to be flourishing with lush greenery but sadly it wasn't.

Looking around, Kyle wanted to step back.

To his slight disappointment, the gigantic stone door had already closed behind him.

Sighing deeply, he bit his lower lip.

Knowing that there was no turning back, he advanced ahead.

Meanwhile, his Spirit Soul yawned and snuggled up to him.

The entire open area looked like a vast devastated death zone.

There was not a single living being, plant, or whatsoever for as far as he could see.

This was unexpected because the second trial was supposed to be a flourishing farm with an abundance of flora and fauna.

In the end, the second trial should have been the invasion of undead beings on a highly populated farm.

But, that was not the case anymore.

Scratching the back of his head in confusion, Kyle walked through the barren land.

All he could see around was dry land with huge cracks running through its surface like cobwebs.

The former farm was gigantic and it took him several hours to walk through the second trial's area.

Kyle didn't know how that space fit into the castle.

It looked gigantic to him and he had not even entered the second floor.

This only meant that it would probably take him a long time before he is thrown out of the castle for good.

But, he was relatively unfazed despite that realization.

It was not something he should be bothered about.

Instead, what Kyle had to pay attention to was how he could pass the second trial.

Not knowing the task he was given felt weird.

After claiming the riches and treasures lying in the tiny village, the wide-open space was beginning to annoy him.

He spent the following day searching through the encircled space of the second trial, yet he found nothing.

Thus, he couldn't help but become frustrated.

'Do I really have to speak to her?' He wondered while mulling over the available options.

After a while, he realized that he had no other way.

Without being able to find a clue to the second trial's task, his only option was to walk towards the farm's center.

It was where a few powerful Undeads were located.

However, they didn't seem to move or react, even after seeing him.

As such, Kyle expected them to give him a task or something like that, just like NPCs in a game.

At least that was what he had expected and he approached them carefully.

Upon nearing them, he realized that one of the seemingly ordinary Ghosts was, in fact, a Banshee!

If his memory wasn't deceiving him, he had seen the Banshee earlier.

She was one of the few terrifying existences that had been staring at him from behind the cover before he finished the first trial.

She had concealed her cultivation base, but sometimes it was not easy to conceal one's strength.

The Banshee had no idea that Kyle could see the flaring hues that could be nurtured with his Nurture ability.

As such, he was extremely vigilant and treaded carefully.

His senses were on high alert as he approached the small cluster of farmhouses. He was prepared for anything, even death.

Oddly enough, nothing but death had been all around him ever since he had entered the Castle of the Undead.

It was not something that lay far ahead, but it was everywhere he went, following him like his shadow.

Because of that, his mind seemed to accept the possibility of dying at any moment.

Kyle didn't really want to die, but the way his mind seemed to have accepted the possibility was shocking.

In fact, it was far more unnerving than the fact that he had dared approach a being above the Krysal stage.

With slow steps, Kyle was now walking along the periphery of the structures.

Meanwhile, Arashi had merged with his body, in order to be more secure.

Initially, he had wanted to not just run into the Banshee.

But, just as he walked around the corner, she appeared in front of him, staring at Kyle with grey eyes.

'She is simply standing more than 30 meters away…' Kyle thought while taking in her ghastly appearance.

His eyes travelled to hers and it seemed like they had already entrapped him.

As his eyes travelled from her feet to her face, he noticed that she was wearing a white dress. Her neckline revealed her collarbones and neck.

Right below her neck, Kyle saw a dark green crystal sticking out of her skin. It looked out of place which forcefully made him observe it intently.

They looked like the eyes of blind people that were staring at him lifelessly.

But that was not what felt eerie to him. The majority of the banshee's mouth seemed to have been stitched together.

This prevented her from screaming out, yet, gave her enough room to barely speak.

At that moment, he realised that he was not scared about the outcome anymore.

And, his wildly beating heart had finally calmed down.

That was unexpected, but at the same time help as it allowed Kyle to perceive the situation much better.

In total, there were more than six Undead beings around the farmhouse.

Yet, only the Banshee in front of him was considered a danger because the others were much weaker.

Kyle was confident that he might be able to defeat them, even if the fight was likely to heavily injure him.

Shaking his head, he decided to forget the possibility of fighting the other six beings.

For now, he had to focus on the threat in front of him, rather than anything around him!

Hence, he stared into the Banshee's gray eyes.

She hadn't said a word yet, and Kyle couldn't help but feel odd while blankly looking at her, feeling lost at the appearance of her.

For almost an entire minute, he was standing around, waiting for her to guide him, somewhere.

But his patience was wearing thin, making him feel as if he was doing something wrong, or that he was at the wrong location, missing out on something important.

He felt oddly intimidated by the Banshee's eyes and the subtle movements of her half translucent body.

Unable to stay quiet after a short period that felt like an eternity, Kyle cleared his throat and asked in a loud and clear voice.

"What...am I supposed to do in this trial?"

Instead of beating around the bush, showing that he was uncertain, it was better to get straight to the point.

He was not in a mood to be drawn into something he didn't want to be a part of.

It might not be the best solution in face of a stronger being.

But Kyle thought that this was the best way to prevent annoying the Banshee unnecessarily.

Furthermore, he felt that the Banshee was trying to conceal her identity, making it seem as if she was a normal undead.

Because of that, she was astonished to see him try to communicate with her as if he knew that she was intelligent enough to speak.

Initially, she was not supposed to be here.

But that was not something the young man in front of her should be aware of.

As such, the Banshee simply stared at him, not saying anything while releasing some of her mana.

The mana currents she released, enveloped Kyle, forcing him to get down on his knees.

Once he was kneeling on the ground, she retracted them.

Afterward, seeing that Kyle was on the ground, the Banshee freely released the death aura that had accumulated within her.

Owing to this, Kyle's mind was befuddled as his eyebrows furrowed.

The Banshee noticed this with a faint smile on her lips as she awaited his reaction.

Despite not knowing what she had expected, hearing him sigh was definitely not amongst the possible scenarios she had imagined.

Instead, she thought that he would be frightened, and would cower under her gaze, begging her to free him of his misery and suffering.

Weirdly enough, Kyle could keep his cool.

But that was mostly because he had already adjusted to sensing death all around him.

Thus, it was only the profoundness of the Banshee's death aura that took a toll on him.

Meanwhile, her mana currents were simply ignored by Kyle because he couldn't sense any killing intent or bloodlust radiating from her.

It was as if she was just toying around with him, or testing something.

That was also why he subconsciously sighed.

Nothing seemed to happen afterward, and with the dry and lifeless ground that made him feel weird below him, Kyle decided to stand up, once he felt strength return to his legs.

Goosebumps sprang up all over his body, but the only thing he felt was respect for the entire castle, which was a weird thought.

It was weird, but at the same time, Kyle could tell that the Castle of the Undead had changed him a lot.

In the last few weeks, he had grown less afraid of death and a little confident.

Returning to the society of the living once again might feel odd to him. But for now, it was extremely beneficial.

In the end, it didn't take much longer before the Banshee seemed to have found the answer she was looking for.

Because of that, she finally had the answer to Kyle's question.

"Throw six Undead cores into the well. More Undead cores equal better rewards and a higher difficulty for the upcoming task!

"Thank you…" Kyle said instinctively before starting to search for the well.

He clearly understood that the Banshee wanted to make him believe that her secret identity had yet to be exposed.

Her voice had been more pleasing to his ears than expected.

He had expected her to screech or have a raspy voice, but that was only a small surprise and not something he should focus on.

Rather, Kyle realized that if he hadn't collected Undead cores on his path to the second trial, he would now be forced to fight the remaining, much stronger Undeads, that were around him.

Yet, hearing what he was supposed to do, Kyle couldn't help but grumble in a low voice.

"How the hell was I supposed to know that before?... Karnias heritage was really a scam… I should have chosen a different reward!"

Kyle was just ranting, but the Banshee couldn't help but stare at him, unsure of what to think about the young man.

She had heard him clearly, and couldn't help but agree with the young lady's opinion.

'Maybe we will have some fun...finally!'

Meanwhile, Kyle didn't notice that the Banshee was looking at him with a faint smile that appeared to be a little hideous owing to the stitches.

A moment later she vanished, releasing a tremendous amount of mana, which pushed Kyle to the ground.

'Now, even the mana currents are rude to me?' He thought with a frown.

But then he simply shook his head, calling himself an idiot for thinking something like that.

The strong could do whatever they wanted, and everything they did could be interpreted as a given, perfectly normal, or outright rude.

Yet, after Kyle's first thought, he got his act together.

Feeling the strength return to his legs, he stood up and approached the well that was completely dry.

'What exactly will happen if I throw more than six Undead cores into the well?' Kyle suddenly pondered while visualizing all kinds of scenarios.

More rewards sounded intriguing, but Kyle knew that he had already obtained quite a few things from the village.

Those items were probably worth more than the vast majority of rewards he could obtain in the trials for beings at the Fortification stage.

However, oddly enough, Kyle felt the most intrigued about the increased difficulty.

Just surviving was not enough for him anymore, and he wanted the tasks to be more grueling.

Thus, he felt that the first trial was relatively bland and boring.

So far, only the fight against the Undead Giant had been interesting.

With that in mind, Kyle acted instinctively.

He accessed his larger spatial ring, only to throw out a few dozen Undead cores.

Yet, that didn't seem to be enough.

Somehow, he felt as if it was more suitable to throw a few more Undead cores into the well that seemed to be a bottomless pit.

Not bothering to count the Undead cores anymore, Kyle noticed a bit late that he had thrown in too many.

It was then that he realized that he had emptied all of the Undead cores into the well.

*[On top of the Castle of the Undead]*

Inside a table made of nothing but water, one could clearly see Kyle, and him throwing all of his Undead cores into the well.

Just at that moment, the Banshee, Kyle had just seen a few moments earlier, turned around to look at the other beings around her.

She was not sure if her clue had been the death sentence of the young man.

"Did he just...throw more than 1000 Undead cores into the well?! He activated the Abyssal level…"

Despite her confusing shriek of a question, nobody gave her a reassuring answer.

The silver-haired woman with paper-white skin, who was standing next to her just sighed, visibly annoyed by the Banshee's behavior.

"Calm down, Banshy. He was only at the Initial Fortification stage when he entered the Castle. He won't die that easily. If that was the case, he wouldn't be focusing on increasing the difficulty of every single trial he encounters.

Besides, he defeated the Undead Giant in the training phase!"

Yet, Banshy, the Banshee, didn't seem to be reassured and remarked,

"But...Lahan wanted to test his strength...and went out…"

Hearing her grumble visibly annoyed the crimson-eyed woman.

In a matter of seconds, bloodlust manifested around her as she hissed at the Banshee.

She felt that the promising young man might be the answer for something she had been waiting for more than 10,000 years.

As such, she was just about to intervene when a deep voice  made her halt in her tracks.

"Wait...I want to see him!"