Spirit Soul

Kyle had never imagined that he would be the one to explain the entire situation to the anxious parents.

It made him feel like he was one of the children who had misbehaved.

Shaking his head, he started explaining how both of them had stumbled upon the kids and the killer ants and what followed later.

With each spoken word, the parents began to grow more worried, but at the same time, relieved that their kids were far from harm.

Nevertheless, he tried to work in favor of the kids and watered down the story to exclude the dangerous bits.

Unfortunately, Selene didn't seem to understand this and added the information he had intentionally left out.

However, Kyle couldn't even reprimand her because Selene was looking at him with a proud expression.

It was almost as if she wanted to prove that her memory was far better than his.

Kyle understood her intentions and ignored her mistake so as to not get annoyed at her.

Meanwhile, her face bore the signs of being confused and a little dejected because he neither praised her nor even spoke to her.

Seeing the adults furrow their eyebrows at the disparity between their words as well as Selene's innocent face, Kyle couldn't help but sigh.

He then launched into an elaborate explanation, and it was only when everything had been neatly explained that the women calmed down.

Their initial worry was now replaced by anger and the desire to discipline their children thoroughly.

Kyle could only shake his head when he saw this.

According to him, the children were just eccentric and wanted to explore things on their own.

Thus, being confined to the town walls was not pleasant for energetic children.

But, he feared that the children would be grounded for weeks because of their little adventure today.

Thus, he came up with an idea.

"How about you punish the children by teaching them self-defense? With that, they might put their energy to good use. It would also prevent them from wanting to leave the town until they've become strong enough?"

He knew that he didn't have a say in how others raised their children, but violence was never the solution.

At least, that was what Kyle believed in as he recalled how his father had changed after his mother's death in his past life.

Nevertheless, it was not his business to meddle in family matters and he quickly dispelled his thoughts of intervening any further.

Without waiting for a response, he turned his attention to Milli, who Selene helped to get up from the ground.

"We're adventurers and are looking for a place to stay. Dirk Kyl said that there might be a few spare rooms left in your guest house that we could use."

After hearing Kyle, most parents decided to look for their children, while some had to return to their work.

Thus only Kyle and Selene were left behind along with Milli, who looked at them with gratitude. Her eyes had turned moist as she looked at the odd pair that looked no less than saviors to her.

She didn't seem to have any prejudice against Selene which was great to know.

Answering Kyle with a bright smile, she responded,

"Of course, I have some rooms left. Do you need a room with two beds or one large bed?"

After her worries had been dispersed, Milli seemed to have become a little cheeky.

This told Kyle that she trusted guard Dirk a lot, both with her daughter's well-being and the strangers in town.

He simply ignored Milli's comment, while Selene's cheeks turned red.

"One two bed room please."

The moment he stated his choice, he remembered that they didn't have many Pryr and Maest crystals left. This made him hastily ask the next question.

"How much does a one night stay cost?"

Even though Kyle had ignored her teasing, Milli was satisfied with the young Lohar's reaction.

As such, it took her a moment to revert her attention back to business.

"Normally, it would be three Maest crystals for one night in a twin-bed room including a simple dinner, but you rescued my little baby. So, I would change it to two Maest crystals a night for the entire duration of your stay inside the town! Consider it as a token of gratitude from me."

Kyle would have been fine even with the usual tariff, but he was glad that they had received a great discount.

Somehow, he felt that luck was on his side because he was receiving many discounts lately.

Comparing Milli's price with that of the tavern inside Alsa village was laughable, and Kyle was sure that Milli's service, let alone cooking skills were poles apart from that of the cook back at the lodge!

As such, he happily paid Milli one Pryr crystal for a one-night stay.

That left him with two Pryr crystals and three Maest crystals.

After that Milli explained to them a few things they had to know and pay attention to.

She gave them a quick rundown of things to do and keep away from while roaming through the town.

This included the location of almost every place Kyle might have to look for in the future.

Once that was done, Milli handed over a simple wooden key with a number engraved on it to him.

After pointing them towards the room, she rushed in the direction of the healer's hut.

Even Kyle decided to venture outside instead of taking a look at their room.

Thus, both he and Selene turned to the streets to start walking in the direction of the Guild.

According to Milli, it would cost one Pryr crystal for each of them to register at the Guild, which was why Kyle didn't lease a room for longer than one night.

When he and Selene were alone, and he was sure that they were well out of earshot, Kyle sighed deeply.

"What a hassle…"

Selene just nodded her head, but Kyle noticed her smiling, and he knew the reason behind that smile.

The young Lohar hadn't been treated like she was worthless by Milli and the kids!

On the contrary, Selene had been accepted and even welcomed by them, which was something new and unfamiliar to the bunny-eared girl.

Only Kyle had accepted her for who she was until now, so this was a refreshing change for her.

Ever since she had learned about the cruelty of the real world and what it took to survive, Selene had tightly sealed her heart.

She had been bullied and abused since she was a little girl so she had put up walls around her heart to not let anyone affect her.

However, Milli and the other parents seemed to have successfully made her open just a tiny fraction of her heart to the outside world.

In no time, the two arrived in front of the Guild and craned their necks to look at the tip of the building.

It was among the largest buildings in the entire town, and Kyle couldn't help but take a deep breath to calm himself down.

The large entrance doors were thrown wide open and he stepped through them without showing any signs of hesitation.

There was nothing to worry about because troublemakers would be swiftly taken off the property.

He knew of the Guild being strict and awarding punishments that ranged from mild to severe depending upon the level of infraction.

As such, Kyle could look around the large structure that was mostly built of stone and a special type of concrete he had never seen before.

Even Selene couldn't help but marvel at the architecture with wide eyes.

It was the most modern building he had seen on Shima until now, and even the wooden counter seemed to be exquisite. There were even runes engraved on it!

Meanwhile, there was a group of women seated behind the counter who probably were the reception staff.

While observing the massive hall, Kyle's eyes flicked to a Cultivator with dense mana fluctuations who had just walked in.

He paid no attention whatsoever to the pair and accessed his spatial ring. It glowed in a faint light before a creature manifested in front of him.

It was a three-meter-tall boar corpse, with a length of over 5 meters.

Cold blood was dripping from the deep cut the man had inflicted to kill it hours ago.

However, to Kyle's astonishment, the runes engraved on the counter started to glow faintly, when the boar's body fell on the wooden counter with a thud.

The runes began absorbing the blood, preventing it from dirtying the counter.

This piqued his interest, but instead of inquiring about the runes, he approached a receptionist who appeared to be less occupied.

Somehow, it looked like the other Cultivators were avoiding this counter as the Cultivators who had arrived after him queued up in front of the other receptionists!

The receptionist Kyle had chosen was a middle-aged woman, who was reading a tome.

She didn't even bother to lift her head when Kyle approached the counter and stood right in front of her.

"Do you want to request a mission, report a mission to be completed or sell goods?"

There were no emotions in her voice, and she spoke in a dry, monotonous tone.

This caused Selene to frown, but Kyle was unbothered by the receptionist's reaction.

In the end, he didn't care whether others would display basic courtesy to look into his eyes while having a conversation with him.

As long as they did their work, Kyle had nothing to complain about.

Thus, he got straight to the point and answered,

"We want to register with the Guild."

"That's a total of two Pryr crystals then." The middle-aged woman responded without looking up.

She simply stated the price and handed out two forms along with two pens.

"After you have filled out the form, return it to me, please. Once I complete the necessary formalities, you two will be considered Adventurers of the Guild.

This includes every Guild branch inside the kingdoms within the Shalivra valley!

As we ran into several problems earlier, there is something else I have to tell you. The Guild is an independent organization and is not bound by the rules of the government.

As such, it only accepts requests and no orders!"

Kyle had already handed the woman two Pryr crystals and was just filling out the form when he heard the receptionist.

'Kingdoms?' He hadn't known that there was a kingdom, let alone multiple of them inside the Shalivra valley.

This caused Kyle to halt in his tracks for a moment.

Before his reincarnation, he had received a map in order to decide where he wanted to reincarnate.

As such, he roughly knew what the Shalivra valley looked like in addition to the population of certain races.

At least he had assumed that to be the case, and Kyle could only wonder if his attempt to exploit the sentient planet core had gone wrong.

'Considering that there are multiple kingdoms, we might be inside one right now!'

The receptionist had already noticed that he was deep in thought because he had gone silent after her words.

There was not even the need for her to look at his face because Kyle's body language and his emotions were clearly disrupted. Sensing his doubt, she answered him before he could even ask it out loud.

"The Sadorla forest is a neutral territory. Hence, it is not reigned by any race, or ruled by a dictator...at least for now.."

Kyle just nodded his head as if he understood what the receptionist meant before he returned the forms he filled out.

He thought about her words and could only conclude that the Aldra race would probably start their expansion in the Sadorla forest soon.

The Aldra race's villages and towns seemed to be the most advanced and were able to make the most use of the mana that swept through the forest.

Other than that, the Lohar race seemed to have been subdued by the Aldras, while there was no need to even talk about the Nasga race that was treated far worse than slaves.

Once the formalities were completed, Kyle looked around before he spotted the mission board. He wanted to take a look at the mission board and see the type of missions available from which he could choose one.

There might be certain missions others would deem as worthless, but those could be useful for him and Selene.

Their situation was unique, to say the least and his entire body was still overflowing with soul particles!

His Spirit Soul had already entered a mature state, and didn't need to devour lots of soul particles to be nourished!

As such, Kyle wanted to use the Nurture ability to make a small fortune, before switching his priorities.

Kyle was aware that he was running out of both time and wealth. This is why they had only lodged a small room for a single night because they had only three Maest crystals left.

"How about we hunt beasts at the Fortification stage? That would be the most efficient, wouldn't it?"

Selene, who had been looking at the mission boards where she saw a few pictures of beasts, asked him doubtfully.

After Kyle had given Selene a thorough explanation of what the Emerald Fox was and what the Nurture ability could do, he had told her that nurturing his Spirit Soul was extremely important.

He had decided to trust Selene after she had protected and nurtured him while risking her own health in the process.

If he couldn't put his unwavering trust in Selene's loyalty after that, there was no way that he would ever trust anyone!

Furthermore, she had already roughly gauged what his ability and the Emerald Fox were.

The week in which he had been unconscious had seen her work with his Spirit Soul.

Additionally, Kyle had actively fixed her cultivation veins with his ability earlier!

These two incidents were enough to tell her that the Emerald Fox was special and important to Kyle.

Nevertheless, Selene had been shocked when she had figured out the entire truth.

Yet, instead of becoming wary of him, she had begun to trust him even more. Consequently, their relationship seemed to have grown stronger!

At least that was how she felt when she realized that Kyle trusted her completely!

While Selene was deep in thoughts, all of a sudden, she heard a voice.

It belonged to the female receptionist who had heard Selene's doubt and made a suggestion.

"We have an overpopulation of multiple beasts at the Initial Fortification stage, suitable for your cultivation base! Their price is increasing as well!"