The cobbled streets of the village were narrow and winding. It was obvious that they had been constructed in a hurried manner and that they were rarely cleaned as dirt-stained and moth-eaten spots could be seen everywhere. Weed and grass grew out of the narrow gaps between the stones of the cobbled streets that Zayn used to walk through the village.
There was a small central square that was often used by wandering merchants to sell their goods. The villagers gathered in the central square to trade goods and socialize as well. Zayn walked past a few small churches and chapels, ignoring them mostly as he was not interested in the religions the villagers followed.
Every village had a few chapels and churches but that was to be expected when it came to the loyal Blessed who was trying their utmost to expand their Gods' territory of influence and gather more followers.
Of course, that was not important for Zayn as he was a Normie, and someone who didn't possess even an ounce of interest in the religions practiced in mankind's territory.
He was more interested in the people, and the simple yet rustic village, dotted with a few somewhat modern structures amidst the old and traditional ones.
If a town was considered an inferior version of a city, then the rustic village could only be considered as something that was way behind in time.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHowever, Zayn actually liked the atmosphere in the village. It was quite enjoyable because it was different from the town he had been in the last few years, let alone the orphanage.
His time in the orphanage was still quite enjoyable because society didn't want to lose any potential Apostles of their Gods. There were often times when the potential of Orphans was detected by Gods, who granted them strong Blessings. To search for young children who were highly compatible with their Blessings and Powers, the Gods chose to make sure that orphanages were well-maintained and that no child has to suffer.
Of course, this was only important until the children would turn ten years old. Once children reached the age of ten, they were eligible to receive the Blessings of Gods. Normies, humans who haven't been blessed by any God, would be discovered and they would be sent to just any school.
It was possible that multiple Gods were trying to Bless someone, which would result in a fight between the Gods. That fight would drag on until one of them won, granting their Blessing to the human who was previously presumed to be a Normie. Due to the possibility of a late Blessing, Normies were still treated decently until they turned 11.
However, if one was not blessed until the age of 11, most people would consider one an utter failure, a Normie.
That was also why the last three years in Zayn's life had been the most annoying. He had to endure the bullying of the idiots who thought highly of themselves. Zayn endured their bullying while focusing on gathering more soul particles in order to materialize the Grimoire of the Ancient.
The rest of it was history.
Almost a month had passed since he killed Jarick, and it was about time for Zayn to leave the village for good. He was a little bit sad about leaving but there was no point loitering around.
He created his first Soulring and used the remaining soul particles to create a very unstable second soulframe. The outlines of the second soulring were quite bigger to rotate around the first soulring. It required much more soul particles to create the second Soulring, meaning that every process required a tremendous amount of soul particles.
The difference in soul particles required to create the first and second Soulring was also why the gap in strength between someone with one Soulring and someone with two Soulrings was so big.
Zayn knew that it wouldn't be easy to complete the second Soulring anytime soon but he was not in a rush, either way. It hadn't been that long since he had materialized the Grimoire of the Ancient, and he had many tasks to complete, either way.
There were too many things that bothered him, including his lack of knowledge and techniques that could be used when fighting. His memories of the past, before he came to this world, were fragmented and scattered. Zayn had yet to recollect some martial arts, or some combat techniques that could be utilized to increase his combat prowess when fighting powerful opponents.
With his first Soulring completed, Zayn was given the opportunity to do many things, but he didn't have many means at his disposal to use his soul particles other than creating the Soulblade or circulating his soul particles through his body.
Procuring knowledge and getting hold of a means to increase his combat prowess drastically was not easy. What made things even more difficult was that rumors about the existence of Spirits in the plains region had begun to spread a few weeks ago.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmZayn was not sure if the rumors were about his Spirits and if someone had seen them, but it was a clear sign that he was supposed to move away from the central region. Even if he was already a little stronger than before, it wouldn't be good if he were to do something stupid such as exposing himself to mankind.
He was destined to die the moment he exposed himself.
Unfortunately, he couldn't leave the human territory because it was said that the wilderness outside the human territory was incomparably more dangerous than anything that could be found inside the human territory.
While Zayn was not certain how true that was, he could tell that someone with a single Soulring wouldn't be able to survive long in the wilderness outside the human territory.
This brought him back to the most important point- He was in need of both power and knowledge.
The power he had in mind was not only an expansion of his Spirit Army, or to blindly increase the number of his Soulrings. Zayn had to learn how to make use of the energy in his body, otherwise, he would never be able to become strong enough to fight against stronger opponents.
Until now, he had always been lucky when encountering stronger opponents but that fortune wouldn't always be by his side.
Zayn had to change things, the sooner the better!