...

Shin looks at black things embedded on the wall of the place before activating his 'True Sight' ocular skill.

And sure enough, those are one of the things that he is looking for.

-----------------

Item Name: Earthen Charcoal

Item Type: Etc.

Item Rank: Black Mithril

Details: A magical mineral coal that was formed through the accumulation of a lot of Earth and Fire Elemental Mana.

It can be used on a long blacksmithing process as it can endure a very temperature that is comparable to the heat produced by the Undying Flame of an Immortal Phoenix.

-----------------

"Earthen Charcoals!" shout by Shin when he read the details of the embedded black rocks an on the wall.

Shin is looking for ten Earthen Charcoals for the upgrade of the [Yamato] on one of his quests. And now, he can see at least a hundred pieces of this material embedded on the wall. All he needs to do now is to mine them from the wall.

Hanzo saw Shin's actions and said. "You want to take those minerals? Then we need to deal with the other problem first.

"Then the Void Spirit points at the other end of the cave where he can feel a very powerful aura.

Shin hesitated for a moment before replying. "Can I mine these minerals first? Because I had a bad feeling that I can't take them anymore if I don't do it now."

Grimrace smirks at Shin and said. "Heh! Then go! Take them all! Take for as many as you want so that we can enrage that Spirit inside."

Shin stared at the Earthen Charcoals embedded on the walls of the cave before reluctantly walking towards the other end.

And when they walked out of the cave, Shin saw a huge spherical mass of Elemental Energy with an alternating metallic-gray and earthen-yellow color.

Shin uses his 'True Sight' skill to look at the details of the 'thing', but what he saw is a bunch of question marks.

---------------------

Special Being

Name: ???

Race: ???

Life Rating: ???

Level: ???

Stats: ???

Details: ???

---------------------

"I can't see any information about this guy. Maybe it is because it hasn't done with the fusion process of the two life cores." said Shin while looking at the ball of Elemental Energy.

Hanzo nodded his head and said. "The Energy of the life cores are still trying to devour each other, and that is why its Mana is too unstable."

"So what's next? It is obvious that we can't take this thing out of here and take it on somewhere else, right?" asked Shin impatiently.

Vladimir ignores Shin and lies on the air once again while silently floating on the air with his eyes close. Grimrace, on the other hand, is currently looking at the huge spherical mass of light with greedy eyes.

Meanwhile, Hanzo fell on deep thought. And after a few moments of thinking, he suggested to Shin. "Kid, walk towards it, and try to initiate a contract."

Shin almost jump because of what he had heard. "Do you want me to die? That guy is going to attack me for sure if I get near on it. And how can initiate a contract if that guy is not on its right mind."

Hanzo chuckles a little before explaining to Shin. "Don't worry, Kid. That guy doesn't have much difference with a blind monster cub on its semiconscious state."

"It is just going to respond to any hostile beings that are trying to get near it. That is the reason why it continuously attack Grimrace before."

"This Clown is keep showing his desire to devour it when getting near, earlier. So as long as you don't show any hostility towards it when getting near, then that guy is not going to attack you."

Shin looks at Hanzo and said. "Then how about you do it instead? Just check the waters."

"Am I the one that can host an Elemental Spirit? Just go on there already so that we can get out of this place." sneered Hanzo at Shin.

"Tsk! I hope that you are right." Shin clicked his tongue and reluctantly walked towards the ball of Elemental Energy.

Shin got tense when getting near it, especially when he felt some fluctuations of Mana through his 'Sensing Circle'. Fortunately, it didn't attack him at all even until he reaches 5 meters away from it, and that made him release a sigh of relief.

And without further ado, he immediately summons the system contract.

"Initiate Contact."

*Ding!*

System: What contract did you want to initiate?

...

'Eh!? It can work?' thought Shin when he saw the system notification. Then he replied at the system.

"Taking an Elemental Companion!"

*Ding!*

System: Generating a contract. Searching for target Elemental Spirit. Target Detected!

*Ding!*

System: The Target is in a semiconscious state to initiate a Contract.

System: Target subconsciously agreed with the contract.

*Ding!*

System: Are you sure that you want to take this Spirit as your Fourth Elemental Companion? YES or NO?

...

"Huh!? It really works?" Shin stared blankly at the system notifications for a moment before hitting the 'Yes' button.

*Ding!*

System: You have taken a weakened and dying Elemental Spirit as your fourth Elemental Companion.

If you failed to find a place for the Spirit to be nurture within a specific amount of time(Until its light died out), then it is going to die. At the same time, you will also permanently lose some of your stats for failing this task.

Meanwhile, you will lose your right to take another Elemental Companion for the next 30 days(In-game's Time).

.....

"Of course! There are always been a consequence. If you take something, then you need to sacrifice something in return. There is no such thing such a free lunch in this world after all." muttered Shin when reading the system notification.

At the same time, the spherical mass of Elemental Energy shrunken down and transformed into a speck of lights that circles around Shin with an alternating metallic-gray and earthen-yellow color.

Hanzo nodded his head with a satisfied expression on his face, while Vladimir continues his leisure sleep.

Grimrace, on the other hand, clicked his tongue as he can't eat the life core of that Elemental Spirit anymore.

Then–....

Rumble!

The entire place suddenly started trembling violently. It's like there is an earthquake shaking the entire mountain.

And when Shin felt that, his face suddenly turned stiff and rush towards the cave where the Earthen Charcoals are located. "I knew it! Something like this is always happening whenever I got lucky!"

"Now that it lost the support of the Elemental Spirit residing in this place. The remaining Berserk Earth Elemental Mana suddenly has gone out of control and resulting for the mountain to collapse." explained Hanzo while running after Shin.

"Did I asked for your explanation?" said Shin as he takes out a pickaxe from his inventory bag. Then he immediately started mining the Earthen Charcoals embedded on the walls.

"Do we need to help him?" asked Grimrace to Hanzo while watching Shin with a weird look on his face.

Hanzo smirks at the question and said. "Isn't that obvious? Of course–.... not! Our job is to protect him from harm and follow his orders during battle. And that exclude us from being his slaves to do that kind of thing."

Vladimir nodded his head as he continues to floats in the air with crossed arms in front of his chest and eyes close "That is right Old Man. Why would an awesome and amazing Spirit like me needs to—.... Uwak!"

But before he manages to finish what he wants to say, a piece of rock that have a size of basketball suddenly falls from the ceiling of the cave and lands on his own face. And because of that, he loses his focus and failed to maintain his floating state as he falls on the ground with his head being first.

Pak!

Thud!

Then Hanzo and Grimrace suddenly laugh out loud after seeing that.

******

Holy City Teleportation Hall.

Shin was teleported to this place after mining some Earthen Charcoals from the Black Rock Mountain.

And even if he failed to take all the Earthen Charcoals from that cave, Shin still manages to get 30 pieces of it before he was forced to teleport away from that place, because the mountain completely collapsed.

And when Shin was teleported to the Teleportation Hall, he immediately notices the traffic of players that are coming in and out of the hall.

It's not like there few players using the Teleportation Hall at the usual time or day. But this time, the number of players walking in and out of the Hall is unusually high. There are even some players that are coming in a large group.

Shin knitted his brows as he walked out of the Teleportation Hall. And when arrived outside the hall, he saw even larger traffic of players.

The Holy City is a free City since there is no major powerhouse that can control it currently. And with that, a lot of independent players and some Adventurer Teams staying in the City.

At the same time, there are also a lot of players having a stall outside the Teleportation Hall. But what Shin is currently seeing is an unusually high player population. And that makes the City Plaza become similar to a very bustling festival bazaar or a busy wet market in the Real World.

"What happened? Why is the player population of the City suddenly gone up like this?" muttered Shin to himself before walking on a secluded corner and contacting Lawless.

But the call can't seem to connect so he just send a message.

Sickarius: Hey! Did something big happen in the City? Why is the player population of the City suddenly shot up?

It took some time for the other side to replied to Shin's message.

Lawless: What!? You don't even know what's happening in the City? I thought your Race is pretty much related to the Church of the Sun and the Moon?

'About the Church?' Shin knitted his brows for a moment to think. Then he suddenly remembered something. 'Eh!? Could it be?'

Sickness: What happened?

Lawless: The Church of the Sun and the Moon in Holy City are giving out a bunch of quests related to Corrupted Monsters and Cults. There are even some high-ranking quests.

Lawless: So some players that have Priest and Paladin-related Classes, and registered on that Church are taking those quest. Then they are inviting some of their friends to clear it.

Lawless: There are even some Priests and Paladins of the other Churches that are jumping ship just to take these quests. They gave a lot of good rewards after all.

Lawless: In fact, we also joined the fun. We are currently doing one of the High-Ranking Quest.

Lawless: At the same time, the Major Powerhouses also got a wind of this news so they are also making their moves to take a slice of this pie.

And with that string of messages from Lawless, Shin finally confirmed his suspicion. "So Archbishop Ronald pushed the work of the Church to the players?"

"That may be a good move to prevent some losses of the Church, but since it is a public notice, the King is going to get more cautious with his moves."

"Ahh!!!... Did that Old Archbishop suddenly go senile? What happened to the plan to secretly hindering the King's progress? With all of this, those guys hiding in the dark are going to act lie low for a moment to wait for the things to die down."

Shin got frustrated at how things are going. "Tsk! Looks like I need to make a trip to the church to see how did things end up like this."

And after sending his thanks to Lawless, Shin immediately walks towards the Church. And when he arrived at that place, he was greeted by a very huge crowd of players.

Even if the crowd is not hoarding towards the Church entrance, they are still camping out in its vicinity. They are either waiting for their Priest or Paladin friends or waiting for someone else.

There are even some players that are forming groups for the quest. It looks like the Church suddenly become an entrance of an Instance Dungeon.

"Tsk! There are really a lot of players here. And it even attracts some big fishes from the powerhouse guilds." Shin clicked his tongue when he saw the crowd.

And after some thought, Shin walked along with the players that are entering the Church. And since his currently wearing a 'slightly' unusual cloak, some players with keen eyesight and senses immediately notice him. Especially the members of the powerhouse guilds.

It's not like there are no other players that have a unique cloak. In fact, there are also some players that are wearing an even more eye-catching cloak.

But what caught their eyes is Shin's aura. No, it is more precise to say that they didn't notice him until their sights landed at him. And what shocked them more is that they can't properly feel his presence–!

It is as if they are looking on air when they look at him. What's more the longer they look at Shin, the fainter they can feel his presence. And they can also feel the impending threat of death looming around them when they tried to send some hostile gazes at him.

These guys that are looking at Shin had taken note of him. Given the current situation in the Holy City, it is not surprising to see some experts looming here and there. What's important is you should know who are the persons that you can afford to provoke and who are not.

As usual, Shin ignored the gazes directed at him as if he already used to it. He continues walking towards the Church entrance without giving a sh*t on them.

There are even some players complaining in the queue when they saw him suddenly cutting in. But he just ignored all of them and walk straight to the entrance.

And when he arrived at the gate, Shin just walked through it just like a boss. And what more intriguing on it are the Paladin Guards just let him passed through like that.

The eyes of the players that are waiting to see how Shin will suffer suddenly turned saucers while their jaws almost dropped on the ground after witnessing what had happened.

Then they suddenly started murmuring with each other as they try to guess Shin's identity. There even some bold players that tried to mimic him, but they were immediately captured by the Paladin Guards and got jailed in the Church prison for causing a disturbance in front of the holy ground.

...