Unsealing Emptiness

As it was absorbed into his body, he felt a warm current flowing, inspecting every nook and cranny of his insides. His own being wanted to interact with this new ‘entity’, but Ozul was hesitant.

The moment he had arrived in this world, he could feel the presence of the Spiritual Essence because of how desperately it wanted to seep into his body. He, however, had been cautious since he didn’t know anything about it.

Realizing that he would have to let his body absorb the Spiritual Essence, Ozul knew that he would have to be more prepared.

There have been more than a few instances in which his body became the main reason for a big commotion.

Opening his eyes, he first confirmed that there wasn’t anything important nearby. Just as he was about to create a small ‘room’ around him using the Ball of Purity, someone interrupted him.

“What do you call it?” Zier asked, looking curiously at the black substance which moved around Ozul at his will as if it was alive, “It doesn’t seem to be a spell. Is it an artifact? Oh! oh! Is it some kind of strange creature!?”

.....

He had been meaning to ask this for a long time now but hadn’t found the time amidst all that chaos.

“It’s Ball of Pur-”

Before Ozul could finish his answer, Zier asked again, “Ball? That didn’t seem like a ball at all...”

At the same time, the scenes such as a storm of black needles, blades shooting through tens of meters in a blink, and him going toe to toe with Vesta, the Sovereign, with this black substance flashed past his eyes. That wasn’t just a ball...

Ozul was left staring blankly at him. The time he had named it Ball of Purity was when it was really just a small ball. It had grown a lot after that.

Not wanting to continue engaging Zier when he had to experiment with the Spiritual Essence, he sat back on the ground, and before closing his eyes, he told him, “It’s called Purity now.”

When the ‘Purity’ formed a solid barrier around Ozul, Zier was denied the opportunity to ask another question.

Even sound didn’t enter this space Ozul had created, so even if his body caused a commotion, he could hopefully contain it.

And with that, he stopped resisting, allowing his body to devour the Spiritual Essence however it wanted.

*Boom!!*

The deafening blow emanating from his own body confirmed his suspicion that whatever his body did would not be as subtle as he wanted.

Now he could only hope that the barrier generated with the Purity was somehow able to contain the noise.

‘Ha... I will worry about that later,’ he decided before moving to ‘look’ inside his body. He was able to inspect it as if it were nothing. It would seem strange to most people, but he had been able to do it for as long as he could remember.

Inspecting his body, he realized that... nothing had changed.

“...”

While there were no improvements, there wasn’t anything harmful either. It almost felt like he had been holding his instincts back for naught, but Ozul knew that something must have changed.

That familiar booming had been caused because something similar to Spiritual Essence burst out of his body.

It was like the Spiritual Essence but seemingly drained out of life.

‘Oh...’

Ozul then noticed that his body was constantly absorbing the Spiritual Essence and discreetly emitting the ‘used one’ this time around.

Since it was happening on its own without his involvement, Ozul understood that unlike the Mana in his previous Realm, this Spiritual Essence must have at least some worth.

‘It feels like absorbing Mana Cores of high-rank Beasts.’

He compared the feeling to the time when he used to absorb the concentrated Mana in the Beasts’ Mana Cores to improve his strength, but that had stopped working for him for years now.

Just like the Mana Cores, Ozul could feel that even though the Spiritual Essence was drained out of something before leaving his body, he didn’t feel any improvements anymore.

It either meant that his strength was improved, but in such a fractional amount that he couldn’t feel any improvements, or the energy was used in something else.

Being honest to himself, Ozul didn’t want it to be the latter.

He didn’t like the feeling of his own body doing something behind his back without letting him in on the plan.

Sigh...

With a tired sigh yet again, he stood up with frustration.

The more complicated things got, the more he hated existing. Why couldn’t things just be simpler?

All his life, he had only wanted this one thing, but only the opposite had come to him.

By now, he had forgotten how many times he had wanted to quit trying and live his life simply lazing around in some corner of the world.

‘Ha... No matter. I’m already one step closer to everything...’ he consoled himself and hid his disappointment before removing the black barrier.

What greeted him were the concerned and curious gazes of the three people beside him.

He motioned towards Raven; she understood the most with the least efforts from him, so it was easy to ask her about anything.

Realizing almost instantly, Raven informed, “There was some disturbance from the barrier. The Spiritual Essence had also spiked for a few minutes before returning to normal.”

“Huh? Few minutes?” Ozul realized something was not right.

Noticing the piercing beams of light dropping on the floor through the damaged walls, he wondered, “How much time has passed?”

“Almost 12 hours, I think...” Raven replied.

They had been waiting for him for hours after the star had risen. She remembered him asking to wake him up early, but considering the circumstances, she didn’t disturb him.

Hearing her, Ozul didn’t know what to make out of this situation. He had only felt a few minutes go by, and it had already been 12 hours!

‘Did I lose consciousness the moment my body absorbed the Spiritual Essence?’ Ozul could only come to that conclusion. That was the most logical explanation.

As he breathed in the fresh air, he felt more ‘accepted’ than he was before.

Maybe it was because the Spiritual Essence was continuously being absorbed and being emitted by him, but something certainly had changed, he just couldn’t put a finger on it.

He was about to move out after realizing that those three were waiting for him when he suddenly stopped again,

‘They seem concerned... and excited... and-‘

It was at that point he realized that he could feel the emotions again!

Not only that, but his senses, which had felt clogged since his arrival in this Realm, seemed to be freed as well. The sensation of acceptance was simply the sensation of regaining control.

Knowing everything about his surroundings gave Ozul control, which was one of the most important things to him at any given time.

He felt a little more at ease now that he had reclaimed what he considered his most important tool.

He had previously planned to learn more about this ability and make it work again in some way.

Now he realized that his abilities were being hampered by this Spiritual Essence as well.

‘It shouldn’t be a problem now,’ Ozul thought back to all the times he couldn’t sense the presence of Old Gu and others either, ‘If my guess is right, that must have been because of the Spiritual Essence as well.’

Noticing that he had drifted off to dreams again, Raven coughed a little harshly. Although she didn’t want to disturb him, it was already midday. Ozul previously wanted to hurry up as well.

“Ah, Let’s go..” He took the lead as the other three followed behind. Raven and Blaze didn’t have much of a reaction, but Zier was kind of new to this.

While Ozul is lost in his thoughts, he forgets to reply in the real world, making others doubt his sanity as he would suddenly pause, only to start staring at empty air.

Behind him, Raven and Blaze eyed each other and understood that both of their thoughts were on the same track.

Just from Ozul’s casual and light stepping, they could tell that something good had happened. Although he hid his emotions well, those who lived with him for years can still get a hint or two about his mood.

“What was inside the Spatial Ring?” Ozul asked Raven.

She had all night to go through the Spatial Ring that Old Gu’s man had given them. He couldn’t take a look inside since he couldn’t control Spiritual Essence.

“There is too much inside... I don’t even understand some of the things. However, I did find a book inside. It has brief explanations about everything we will need for now...” Raven answered and then took out a worn-out book.

Its condition was minimal and the title was written with sloppy handwriting. The title was;

“Guide to a New Realm”

” by Everyone’s favorite, Grandpa Gu.”

Zier and Blaze felt blood reach their throats reading those shameless words. This man had started a carnage, and he had the audacity to claim to be everyone’s favorite!

If they didn’t need it, Raven would have already thrown this book away. Unfortunately, she had skimmed through and he had actually taken the time to explain the most basic things.

‘Is he really someone important?’ Ozul began to doubt himself. Where did he find the time to write a detailed, complete book?!

He once again mentally gave himself a note to thoroughly search about Old Gu’s identity. For all he knew, he could merely just be an old man too rich to care about anything except for his antics.