Chapter 33: Into the yon

  Soul Stone: Kerrigen

  Quality: Gold

  Activation t: 5

  Bes Gained: Heart of the Swarm (Perma), Psionitrol (Perma)

  Upon iing this soul stone, Alex was surprised to find that, uhur, the Soul Stone of the Progenitor of the Swarm was actually more practical in use.

  The reason for this clusion lies iure of their soul stones. For Alex, Arthur's soul stone, embedded in the Map of Myriad Worlds, only provided a buff effective against undead creatures called "Undying King" unless he actively activated it.

  To harhe true power of Arthur, the soul stone must be fully activated.

  However, the Progenitor of the Swarm's soul stone was different. In fact, although it also had five activations like Arthur's, Alex discovered after probing it that the Progenitor of the Swarm's real power was the opposite of Arthur's.

  While Arthur's power required ing the soul stone's activations to be fully realized, the Progenitor of the Swarm's soul stone exhibited its greatest strength when not activated.

  The reason for this y in the "Heart of the Swarm (Perma)" buff.

  The description of this buff was simple: "Heart of the Swarm (Perma): Allows creation and trol of a swarm army."

  With just this one line, Alex immediately uood its meaning.

  Simply put, with the Progenitor of the Swarm's soul stone equipped, he could directly start a swarm base and py real-time strategy.

  After all, the swarm's greatest strength was their endless numbers; their true power y in their overwhelming masses.

  In trast, Kerrigen's personal bat ability was quite limited. In other words, if it were Arthur, even after the Sce was wiped out, he could still rely on his own power to turide.

  But for Kerrigen, ohe swarm army was defeated, she would have no choice but to flee.

  Therefore, for Alex, this soul stone was more suitable fur use. However... Kerrigen, why did it have to be Kerrigen?

  Arthur was already unlikable, and the swarm were even worse. Alex was certain that if this thing appeared on the surface, it would be seen as a vanguard of a demon invasion... Couldn't the system give him Jeremy Raynor or even Artemis instead? Why did it have to be Kerrigen?

  Alex felt a deep sense of malicious i from the system.

  After all, he was its creator. If this game were a child, he would be the father. Do children really cause this much trouble for their parents?

  Apparently, troublesome children do cause a lot of trouble for their parents.

  Despite his reluce, Alex had no choice but to put away the soul sto was certainly unusable in the main world, but it might be useful in a sub-world.

  Who knows what world he would be sent to when the mission portal opened again.

  With this in mind, Alex gnced once more at the Map of Myriad Worlds in front of him. The cooldown was already ting down.

  In 13 hours, the portal would open again.

  Night passed.

  At dawn the day, everyo out again. Uhe previous day, they did not enter a single undead creature along the way.

  This made Malt and the others extremely uneasy. After all, they were not fleeing Shadow yon but retrag their steps.

  Acc to logic, the closer they got to the tral area, the more ehey should enter.

  Previously, Alex and Knight had entered several waves of undead soldiers on their way to the Blood Beach.

  It made no sehat now, as they walked into the trap, the enemies were ign them.

  There could only be one reason: something more important had caught the lich's attention.

  That more important matter was the dark ritual Malt had mentioned.

  "It looks like the situation is dire."

  Standing on a cliff and looking down, Malt's face was as grim as ice. Below the cliff was peared to be an abandoned quarry.

  It seemed a, its ins unknown. However, Malt was clearly not here for archaeology.

  "That quarry is the lich's ir. We were ambushed here before, but now there's not a single undead creature in sight... Could the ritual have already started?"

  Upon hearing Malt's mutterings, Alex raised an eyebrow. Due to the special effect of Arthur's Soul Stone, his sensitivity to undead creatures was quite strong.

  Just as Malt said, he could not sense any undead presence around the quarry, but that did not mean they were ent.

  In fact, deep underground, Alex sensed some clues. A rge number of undead were gatherih the quarry, and it was clear they weren't there for a party.

  "What should we do ?"

  Alex did not tell Malt what he had sensed. He wasn't keen on risking his life for some obscure dark ritual, which might just be an attempt t back a loved one from the underworld.

  Holy, after spending time with these padins, Alex found that they lived up to the title: fair, kind, willing to sacrifice themselves for justice, and generally very amiable.

  Alex respected them, but he had no iion of following their path. It was like watg a Hollywood blockbuster: seeing soldiers sacrifice themselves to stop monsters was moving, but doing it himself was another matter. Why should he sacrifice his life for others?

  Moreover, Alex had only been in this world for less than a month a no attat to it. Strictly speaking, he only kone and Miss M.

  It was impossible for him to risk his life for this world. Therefore, Alex decided to follow Malt's lead and focus on pying a supp role, ready to retreat if things went south.

  After all, his portal cooldown was almost over. If things got too dangerous, he could use a Hearthstoo escape; it wouldn't be too difficult.

  "Let's go down and check it out."

  Finally, Malt made a decision.

  "Something must be wrong here. I don't believe they would be so careless. Even if they are perf a ritual, there should be scouts outside."

  Since Malt had given the order, Alex didn't pn to oppose it. He carefully desded the cliff with the others, keeping an eye on their surroundings as they approached the quarry.

  The huge quarry was empty, with only the whistling wind passing through the cracks. Alex gripped his sword tightly, cautiously sing the surroundings.

  The Lich King's sense only worked on the undead; it had no effe living creatures. Just because there were no undead here didn't mean he could charge in recklessly.

  "Hmm?"

  Soon, Alex noticed something odd. Among the ruihe quarry, he found scattered white bone fragments, which appeared to be the remnants of destroyed undead.

  Initially, Alex thought these were traalt and his group's previous battle. But theiced a set of footprints nearby.

  The prints were fresh, not from a long time ago, but seemingly ret... and made just before they arrived.

  "......"

  Alex frowned, gripping his sword as he slowly followed the footprints toward the ruins. The ruins appeared to be the remains of a supervisor's house, now mostly colpsed with only a few walls standing. Alex stared at the walls, thought for a moment, then raised his sword.

  "Swish!"

  Uedly, before Alex could swing his sword, a shadoed over the wall and lu him.

  Startled, Alex quickly swung his sword, colliding with the shadow. With a loud "thud," the shadow flipped backward and eadily on the ground. Only then did Alex see the shadow's true form.

  "What is this?"

  Alex was stuhe shadow wasn't an undead creature as he had imagined. Instead, it was a jet-bck panther.

  Unlike ordinary panthers, its body had a deep blue hue, resembling the os, and appeared semi-transparent.

  Additionally, silver-white lines ected its limbs and head, making it look more like a steltion in the night sky when it stood still.

  What oh is this?

  As Alex wondered and prepared to call for Malt and the others, aed voice rang out beside him.

  "Mr. Alex! I'm so gd you're okay!"

  Hearing the voice, Alex froze for a moment. Then, he saw a cloaked girl running out of the ruins behind the panther, waving happily at him.

  Although Alex wasn't very familiar with her, he did reize her.

  "...Miss M?"

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