Spirit Soul

Kyle knew that the 'Sprite' was not a normal one. In fact, Sprite was probably not even the correct name for the beast that had been born out of a fraction of the Mana stone deposit's Essence.

He had actually no idea how it was possible for a lifeform to be created out of the purest form of the Mana Stone deposit.

However, that was not actually important right now.

The important facts were that the Sprite had become one with the rest of the Essence it had been separated from due to unknown reasons, that the Essence had disappeared, and that the Sprite had entered an evolution-like state.

The cocoon that shrouded the Sprite indicated that it was 'evolving', or in this case, undergoing changes by becoming a complete existence.

It put the Sprite to sleep, which gave Kyle and the others the opportunity to start mining with far more strength than before.

"We won't know how long it will take before the Sprite wakes up. I think it would be best if we mine the entire deposit before leaving." Kyle simply said, trying to sound confident as he sighed deeply in his mind.

However, the two girls looked at him with a trace of disappointment, until they saw that Kyle was also frowning.

"You don't really want to leave the Sprite alone, all by itself, or do you?" Selene suddenly asked, her eyes fixated on the cocoon, where the Sprite was inside.

Yasmine nodded her head and added. "Somehow, we took away her mother…I know that it was not actually our fault or that the Essence of the Mana stone deposit cannot really be considered the Sprite's mother because they're the same existence, but still…she seemed really hurt, and if we disappear, she will be alone…all by herself."

Kyle sighed listening to the girl's comments. 'It's not like I don't understand the same as you guys. It might just be worse if we stay by her side, cause she might feel like everything is our fault,' he wanted to say, only to remain quiet.

From the emotional point of view, he could understand Selene and Yasmine, but it was still dangerous to wait for the Sprite to wake up, let alone to potentially ask if she wanted to go to the surface with them.

"I guess we can wait for her. She is not a proper Sprite, to begin with, but something else. No idea what her race is, or if she is even considered a beast. And we carry around some weird and dangerous things with us on a daily basis, so we might as well ask an abnormal Sprite to follow us as well."

While Kyle said this, he took a look at the necklace he was wearing. The seedling of the devouring tree was still inside.

It had been nurtured a bit by Kyle but it was not as if the tree seedling would suddenly enlarge. For that to happen, it would require to be placed in soil, in the first place.

With its sentience, the seedling of the devouring tree could control its body as well. That was why there were no problems until now.

However, that was mostly based on the fact that the tree seedling wanted to be planted where Kyle would choose to stay and build up his empire if he were to build one.

Kyle's nurture ability was simply too valuable to the sentient tree seedling, which was why it always helped him without complaining the slightest.

Kyle was someone, who repaid everything he owed manyfold. That was something one could tell from the way he acted. He was generous and was usually not too selfish.

That was also why Selene and Yasmine had been a little bit confused when Kyle didn't want to help the Sprite before.

Now that he started to think about taking the Sprite in their group, Yasmine and Selene were overjoyed.

Yasmine had even forgotten about the fear she had felt when she first heard about the Sprite's existence.

Right now, that was not important anymore because the emotions the Sprite had revealed before had hit her deeply.

"Either way, we can way for her to wake up, and decide what to do by then. But for now, we should focus on mining. As long as we can exchange some Mana stones with Pryr and Spirit stones, the four, or maybe five of us won't have any problems to keep cultivating.

Our future plans have changed after all." Kyle ended his words in a mysterious manner that neither Yasmine nor Selene could understand.

They looked at Kyle a little bit dumbfounded, wondering what exactly he was talking about when saying that their future plans have changed.

However, even when they asked him, Kyle didn't answer. He was fully focused on mining the Mana stones.

That was the most important for now.

With the plan that formed in his mind, everything he had prepared beforehand would be for naught.

However, it was not as if his plans had ever worked, to begin with. From the beginning, he tried to plan everything and hoped to make one step at a time with a big goal in mind.

But that was not as easy as he had expected.

The moment he had reincarnated, Kyle realized that there were many things he could have done better.

His planning worth thousands of years had been scrapped, and turned useless in seconds after he reincarnated.

This was ridiculous and something Kyle was deeply ashamed of. But that was also why it was better that no one would ever find out about the stupidity with which he had crafted his plans before.

Now he was much more flexible, with specific goals in mind, and certain ideas he wanted to test a few things about.

All of them required numerous cultivation resources, and they would become stronger, as quickly as possible at that.

Thus, Kyle just mined the Mana stone deposit without saying much more. His silence was more than enough reason for Yasmine and Selene to start working as well.

There was not much else they could do, either way. Cultivating was not possible because the entire mana in their surrounding area was pulled toward the Sprite.

"I wonder if she will gain some combat prowess, or if her appearance will change." Yasmine merely wondered, without thinking about the possibility of being hated by the Sprite for opening the path for her 'mother's death'.

Because Kyle was not worried the others were not worried either. This was the effect Kyle had on the two women, who started to work hard.

Using their affinities in addition to their physical strength, the two girls were nearly as fast as Kyle while mining.

Two weeks passed quickly, and nearly the entire Mana stone deposit had been mined by the three Cultivators.

They were quite amazed at the size of the Mana stone deposit because it had been much bigger than they had estimated.

Even Kyle felt that they made a much bigger fortune than he could have expected.

'Maybe we could leave by now. Once we return to the Ancient treasury's city, we can take a look if the remaining treasures are still there, and return afterward.'

Kyle didn't feel like staying too much longer inside the Ancient treasury. He was eager to travel to the marked area of the black-golden scale's map.

He might not want to acknowledge it, but the first time he had heard the voice of the mysterious woman, he knew that the black scales with their golden vein-like engravings were something important.

The scales belonged to another Soul of the old Universe, and Kyle somehow hoped to encounter her at the marked section.

'Even if it's dangerous to meet her, she cannot be worse than the Guild Master, I guess.' Kyle thought smirking as he heard a noise from behind him.

The cocoon burst open, releasing the excessive mana all of a sudden, flooding the room once again.

Kyle's eyes flicked to the Sprite the moment the cocoon had burst open. Her appearance hadn't changed much.

It was just that her skin had become more human-like, rosy in color. The Sprite's skin was flawless and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with her.

The only thing that bothered Kyle a little bit was her expression. She lifted her upper body and sat on the ground.

Her eyes were calm and so was her facial expression. But that was exactly what was weird.

'What happened to her?' Yasmine nearly burst out, barely covering her mouth with her hands.

Selene was similarly confused. She had felt bad for the Sprite because she just lost her 'mother', in such a weird way at that.

Thus, she wanted to help the Sprite somehow, simply because it felt like it had been their fault that caused the Sprite's loss.

However, the Sprite was eerily calm and Kyle approached her with an unchanged expression.

The Sprite looked straight into Kyle's emerald eyes, not changing her expression the slightest.

"Did you know that she was not actually my mother?" She asked monotonously in her low voice.

"I could see that, yes. Did you comprehend something while merging with the remaining Essence? Or most importantly, are you fine?"

Kyle was not the best person to feel empathy for others. Thus, he was trying very hard right now.

Looking around, the Sprite noticed that the entire Mana Stone deposit had disappeared.

"Fine? Who knows…I have nowhere to go, so I will have to leave, I guess? But what then? The Essence returned to me, and I returned to the Essence. My mother will always be with me and I will always be with her. We are one, we have always been one and will ever be.

But what is this emptiness I am feeling…as if I'm missing something…what is my reason to be alive, to stay alive? Nobody needs me and I have no goal in life… Is my existence even needed?"

Kyle felt bad the longer the Sprite spoke. He could tell that the Sprite was on the verge of getting depressive if that was not already the case.

Her potential might have improved a lot, and many things had changed according to what he could see within her.

But even then, if there was no reason for her to live, no goal for her to move toward, her entire talent was useless, which was a shame.

Yet, Kyle was more worried about her nonchalant behavior. Her entire behavior had changed, and Kyle flet as if he had to do something.

Thus, he went with the simplest solution he could think of.

"Your existence is needed. Wanna join us?"

**

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