Chapter 73: Inner-World

At that moment, the dancing red-skinned chaos beings also stopped their movements and soon let outraging roars like he had ruined their important meal.

Then, they turned their gazes towards the Aces team members and soon locked their eyes on Charles.

Meanwhile, the winged man's statue's head also burst open and soon crumbled into multiple pieces.

Then, a shadow of a red-skinned winged human with pointy ears appeared at the center of the ritual circle and then turned its gaze towards Charles.

'It's just a memory fragment of the Winged Devil.' The Holem's Crown said coldly in his mind.

But the mere gaze made Charles's heart thump fiercely!

It was the gaze filled with a mixture of terror, pain, fear, and madness!

"I don't know who you are, Irregular. But I will make you pay for your mistakes." That wicked being said in an eerie, cold tone.

Upon hearing those words, Charles turned his face serious and said with a nod.

"I'll be waiting."

Saying so, Charles stealthily moved his fingers like he was playing a musical instrument and then stared at the foggy humanoid figure with a calm look on his face.

Simultaneously, the azure gem began to roll from the ritual circle and started moving on its own towards Charles!

He then glanced at the gem and cast the [Inspect] skill on it.

…

[Item name: Divinity Extractor

Rank: ???

Effect: This stone has the 'Will' of a Devil and has the power to steal Divinity under certain circumstances.]

Although some pure evil power tried to control his mind when he stared at the azure gem, he simply used his wisdom power and completely blocked it from entering the dark world.

Charles then directly pulled the gem towards him through the [Magician's Hand] skill and soon caught it in his hand. After that, he sneakily moved it near his space ring and stored it inside.

Unaware of his sneaky actions, the shadowy devil-like figure turned into a cloud of dark smoke and soon appeared beside Daniel's headless corpse.

Then, the dark smoke entered into the corpse and disappeared!

At that moment, the surrounding 25 red-skinned Chaos beings returned to their position and continued their chanting!

'Oh? Not giving up?' Charles raised his thin eyebrows and saw a notification appeared in the corner of his eyes.

'Hmm? Quest is completed? Then, why is he trying to possess the headless body?' He was confused for a moment.

'The devil is planning something else-.' The Holem's Crown responded but soon went silent.

'What happened?' He asked, and that the same time, he turned his attention to the Quest notification.

As he was about to dismiss it, Charles suddenly noticed a change.

He saw that everything around him began to freeze!

'What is this? Is this the Present Time effect Runeth told me earlier?' A surprised expression appeared on his face.

A second later, Charles turned his attention towards the notification and became stunned.

…

[Main Quest: Save the Intellectual Artifact and gain its full ownership.

Quest Description: On October 2nd of the year 6396 of the Second Arcane Era, a big change will happen in the Unexplored Forest and would cause a massive change in the 'Fate' of the Arc Kingdom. Participate in this mission and save Runeth from being devoured by the Chaos Wanderer.

Quest Completed!

Quest Reward: 8,450 Experience Points.]

…

[System is analyzing the Intellectual Artifact called the 'Holem's Crown.']

[Intellectual Artifact's True Soul is heavily injured!]

[Repairing…]

[Error…. Abyssal Plane's marks are detected.]

[Borrowing the power of '******' Plane…]

[Removing the Marks...]

[Removal takes time, please stand-by…]

[Repairing the Intellectual Artifact's soul…]

[Insufficient Life Energy…]

…

[Hidden Chain-Quest Trigged!]

[Quest Description: The soul hidden in the Holem's Crown Intellectual Artifact is severely injured, and it needs the Host's help to solve it.]

[Rewards: Based on the progression.]

Current Progression: 0%]

…

Charles stared at the notifications for a while and soon saw that the strange 'Time Freeze' effect was still active. He tried to move his muscle and soon noticed that he couldn't!

Only his thoughts were flowing in this 'Time Freeze' effect!

Although Charles felt uncomfortable by this situation, he knew that it was a blessing in disguise.

'Wow, the Game-System can stop the 'Time' itself? No, that shouldn't be possible. I guess that the system must have used the power of 'Time' on me and made me think multiple or a hundred times faster than others. That way, it can speed up the process and completely remove the Abyssal marks. Although it was just an assumption, this one looks possible when comparing with the other one. Now, every second is precious for me.' Charles instantly stared at the battlefield and began to think of his following action.

'From the looks of it, the system needs some time to remove the 'Abyssal Marks' in the Holem's Crown's Inner-world. Before it ends, I should concentrate on other things. What I need right now is an offensive spell attack. But due to the less absorption rate, I can only cast these spells once every five minutes. That's not an option for me now... Wait! When I improved my 'Wisdom' attribute a few minutes ago, I felt a connection with the 'Mana' from the atmosphere itself. Although it was just a vague feeling, I might decrease the cooldown time if I increase my Wisdom attribute once again.' Such thoughts crossed through his mind.

He hesitated for a moment and then poured 2,536 Exp points into the main class.

...

[2,536 Exp deduced from the Host...]

[You have leveled up!]

[You became a Level-5 Fire Weaver!]

[2 free attributes points are rewarded!]

[1 Wisdom point rewarded!]

[10 Skill points rewarded!]

...

As the notifications appeared one by one, Charles felt a tearing sensation from the deepest part of his soul. In an instant, he perceived a strange world appeared in his mind.

He moved his consciousness to that place and soon found himself standing in a gloomy dark world filled with trees and shrubs. The forest was filled with hundreds of corpses, trails of blood, and weapons. He first lowered his gaze and soon noticed that his consciousness was just an illusionary form of himself.

'This… Is this my soul form?' He asked himself in shock. Although he did expect such a scene, he was still stunned by it.

He then glanced around his surroundings and soon saw trees, blood-stained grasses, and different kinds of insects appeared deep in the surrounding forests. Some looked illusionary, while others seemed to be original. If not for his earlier knowledge about the 'Inner-World,' he might have thought of it as an illusion!

'This place looks familiar...' He muttered inwardly and soon saw a 16-year-old teen among the corpses. He wore a dark leather suit and held two sharp daggers in his hand. His eyes were dark as abyss, and he stood on those corpses with a twisted smile on his face.

'This is a part of my childhood memory. After my two years of training, I was forced to kill a group of tribal people for training and became a full-fledged killer. That was the first time I tasted the joy of killing and became addicted to it sooner.' Realization appeared on Charles's face as he stopped there for a moment and soon moved further deep into the forest. Like before, he saw his previous life's dark memory scenes one by one and soon understood that this must be the 'Inner-World.'

'That strange devil's statue must be the cause of this mess.' He sighed heavily.

At that moment, Charles suddenly felt that the surrounding turned somewhat brighter and soon halted his footsteps.

BANG!

An earthshaking explosion came from the sky!

Widening his illusionary jade eyes, Charles looked up and soon got perplexed as he saw seven red-colored stars were hovering above in the sky!

Each of them looked similar yet different at the same time.

'Spell models?' A look of astonishment appeared on his face as he stared at the stars for a second and soon squinted his eyes.

Within seconds, Charles saw that fire-sparks fell from those seven stars like small asteroids and soon fell onto his Inner-World!

No, fire sparks came from six stars, not the seventh star!

Before he could understand, the crashed fire sparks ignited the gloomy dry trees, and the fire started to spread in every direction!

The fires slithered towards the dry plants and trees and tangled with one another like snakes before devoured everything on its way.

Within seconds, the gloomy dark world itself shone brightly in yellowish red color!

At the same time, Charles sensed a strange sensation from the seventh spell model. He zeroed his eyes on the peculiar seventh star and noticed that it connected his consciousness to the outside world!

'This is the [Flame Body] spell model!' He instantly identified it. Earlier, Charles felt that constructing this spell model was a wrong choice. But now, he understood something.

'This spell model not only helps me deepen the connection between my consciousness and the 'Inner-world,' but it also helps me borrow power from this strange imaginary 'Inner-world' directly!'

Charles also felt that he could manipulate the fire elements from the outside world, pull them into this strange 'Inner world,' and even weave them into different shapes!

At that moment, he suddenly thought of something and soon glanced around the dark world.

'What if the Game-System is hiding in my 'Inner-world'? A question appeared in his mind.

'It is possible. Although I somehow entered the Inner-world, I can vaguely tell that entering one's Inner-world' at my current rank is almost impossible. Then, what caused this? Is it because of the system? Or is it because I raised my Wisdom above 30? Or, is it because of the devil's statue that induced my previous dark emotions and memories?' More questions whirled in his mind.

'Tsk, raising questions is easy. But finding the right answer is always a hard task.' He heaved a heavy sigh and then thought of his current problem.

'Outside world has less fire-elemental energy so I need to find a way to get the co-ordination of Fire Elemental plane and created my elemental heart first.' He instantly understood the seriousness.

'If I created the elemental heart, I might have cast the 'Incinerate' spells simultaneously and completely wiped the enemies out in seconds. At least, I can absorb the 'Fire elements' quicker from now on. Although I can't absorb the 'Fire Element' due to the 'Time Freeze' effect now, I can make a rough estimation about the absorption rate. Hmm, it should be around 10 to 30 seconds. Although it is still long like chanting an incantation, it's much better than before.' He nodded his head.

He then closed his eyes for a moment and soon left the Inner-world with the help of the [Flame Body] spell model.

An instant later, he stared at the battlefield and then started to plan his following action.

After another 5 minutes of long waiting, another notification appeared in front of his eyes.

…

[Removal process completed!]

…

A moment later, the 'Time-Freeze' effect also resumed!

Nothing changed except for the calm look on Charles's face.

Before Daniel's headless body could regenerate a new head, he took a step forward and dashed towards the ritual circle.

At the exact moment, he added one skill point to 'Strength' and another skill point to the 'Constitution' attribute.

A second later, Charles felt that he had unknowingly broken through an important shackle and entered into a new phase.

In a blink, he realized that it had something to do with him raising 'Strength,' 'Constitution,' and 'Dexterity' above 15!

At that moment, something extraordinary happened!

His running speed doubled all of a sudden, causing others to widen their eyes in shock!

'You entered the realm of Experts?' The Holem's Crown asked in a flabbergasted tone.

'Realm of Experts?' Charles got stunned by the new term and asked in surprise.

'When you enter this phase, your strength will be on par with Rank-3 Mystics. Only a few enters this phase in an earlier stage, so it is a great achievement.' The Holem's Crown responded calmly and then started feeling something was off about its inner-world.

Meanwhile, Charles nodded his head, held one dagger in his hand, and moved around the ritual circle with a bloody smile on his face.

Although he was eager to walk into the ritual circle and completely rip the headless Daniel's body, he controlled his emotions and acted cautiously. He had a vague feeling that it was a trap to lure him into this strange bloody ritual circle!

'Even if this headless Daniel reborn into a new kind of demon, I have Holem's Crown to back me up now.' Nodding his head, he crouched down a little and aimed his dagger at a Chaos Being's neck area. Due to that being concentrated its attention on some weird ritual chanting, Charles sneakily appeared behind it, cut its throat, and sliced its head away from the body!

Without minding the rotten blood that splashed on his face, Charles played with the dagger and moved towards his next target.

Whenever he went near a red-skinned chaos being, he would swiftly slash his dagger and decapitated their heads. If it were before, he would have faced some difficulty. But after his body entered the phase of Experts' stage, he turned into a beast!

[Target Eliminated! 100 Exp Obtained!]

[Target Eliminated! 140 Exp Obtained!]

…

Like a reaper, he held his dagger, tore through those Chaos Beings' fleshes one by one, and made their heads dance in the air.

His ruthless action surprised everyone!