LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL

Chapter 229: Your Soul As Coin

Elias blinked, "Well, that seems to be an unfair place for your customers. You could sell me something useless..."

"Tsss...." the rat-faced merchant suddenly hissed like a snake, "None of my wares are useless, mortal hands do not make them, and I only collect the best, so are you willing to pay?"

Elias did not have his coin pouch with him, nor was he strictly sure that this strange being even accepted money.

"The price," he said.

The merchant’s eyes glittered. "Double."

Elias’s hand stopped. "Double what?"

"Double the price I would have asked the last time we met. You have grown stronger, friend, your pockets are deeper, and your hunger is greater. The price has grown with you."

"How much?"

"Your soul as coin. I can tell you how to forge it, and how much of it you can give me."

Elias scoffed, "My soul as coin? Even if that is possible, why would I want to do such a thing?"

"Because whatever I have is worth the price, and it is the only thing of equal worth."

"I cannot do such a thing," Elias said.

The merchant shrugged. "Then you are not ready. Come back when you are."

"I am not coming back."

The merchant’s grin did not waver. "Yes, you will. They always do." He began to pack his wares, folding the blanket, placing the objects in a bag that should not have been able to hold them. "The end is coming, friend. The walls are closing. The pit is hungry. And you..." He looked at Elias, and for a moment, his eyes were not the quick and hungry gaze of a merchant but a void filled with something that is hard to describe, "You are not going to stand around and die. Oh, here have this..."

He tossed a small parchment towards Elias, "Inside that is the method to turn soul to coin. When it starts, when the skies fall, and the ocean burns, then you will find my price very satisfactory.

He stood, slung the bag over his shoulder, and walked into the shadows. His voice drifted back like the wind.

"Come back when you are ready. I will be waiting, but know that every time you see me, the price doubles."

Elias watched this strange merchant vanish as the memory of the mirror burned in his mind.

He did not know what the merchant was, where he had come from, or why he had chosen to appear here, now. But he knew one thing.

The price of his goods would double again. He looked at the parchment in his hand and tucked it inside the guard of his shield.

He did not mention this merchant to his master. Elias was wondering if that was a mistake; nonetheless, deliberating on this matter was useless, for now, he had multiple targets in the pits ahead. If Elias had any goal at the moment, it was to bring the forging of his void legacy to one hundred percent.

The buildings changed around him, returning it to the familiar decrepit buildings of the lower districts. Elias was about to move forward when he noticed that the thousands of spots in the distance had changed their position and they were no longer clustered in the distance, but were much closer.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Elias began to run; either these creatures could teleport, or he had spent far more time talking to this merchant than he previously believed.

At the back of his head, he thought he heard the chuckle of that merchant that sounded like the hisses of a snake.

As he began to move, Elias started to feel a wave of power rippling in front of him; the battle had begun.

’My prey, none of you can have them.’

®

Tarian Arathor stood in the center of an intersection, his pale gold eyes scanning the empty streets. His Warg growled, low and constant, its hackles raised, and its nose twitching at something in the air that Tarian could not smell.

There was a technique for speaking the language of these creatures, and at the moment, Tarian could not be bothered to learn it; instead, he would prefer if the Warg spoke to him in a language he could understand.

Tarian knew these creatures were capable of it, but they only did it to the humans that they deeply respected and feared.

This was extremely rare for a Warg to speak to their owners, and Tarian saw it as one of the goals he had to conquer.

His birthright was to be the Emperor, and all men, nonhumans, and beasts would bow to him.

"Report," he said to one of his squad who had gone for reconnaissance missions, a girl with sharp features and sharper knives, who stepped forward and bowed to him. "We’ve cleared one hundred blocks. No sign of movement, or bodies, several inconsistencies have been recorded, and they are all here."

She gave him the report filled with everything they had collected. "Are you sure you saw nothing?"

"Nothing. If they had all been killed, then the entirety of their bodies were consumed or taken away to the pit; we think the latter is more likely."

Tarian’s jaw tightened. He had expected a fight, but he knew that it would come; the strange events recorded on this report were evidence that something else was happening here, and Tarian could not be more excited.

There were names for situations like this, which involved powers of divinity; only powers like this could warp the environment to this extent.

This was an opportunity, one he was sure that his father did not fully recognize.

"Keep moving," he said. "We head for the pit."

Ⓔ

Elara Vane moved through the streets like a ghost, her grey eyes scanning every shadow.

Most of the Guild squads could not keep up with her speed, but her own squad followed behind her closely, their weapons drawn.

Unlike most of the candidates here, they had not wanted to come this deep only to stay near the gate, to wait for the others to clear the way.

They knew that the majority of the benefit would be gained by the higher-ups when this small expedition was over, and this was mostly a training exercise for them, but Elara had not come here to wait.

Unlike what most people believed, not all Siphons wanted to plunge into battle when there were easier ways to gain benefits.

Looks of anger and irritation passed across their features as they looked at Elara, and finally, one of them could no longer hold it in any longer and spoke aloud,

"Your mother is dead," he paused as if expecting a retort. When Elara did not answer him, he sneered, "You need to accept that."

Elara remained silent as she kept checking the buildings. She was not focused on what her squad member was saying, as a feeling of loss and shame filled her heart because she no longer remembered or recognized the street she had lived on, and was just checking every building for the general location of her house.

She had grown up here, and there was a time when Elara knew every alley, door, and window that could be used to escape.

Surely she could not just forget her home? Something was wrong with this place, and she was sure she was getting nearer to her home.

"Elara," one of her squad said, his voice tight. "Something’s wrong."

Elara stopped. She had felt it for a while now that the ground beneath her feet was not right, but now that feeling was getting worse.

It was as if the ground was becoming soft, as if something was beneath the stone, and was pressing up against it.

She knelt, and her hand touched the ground. The stone was warm.