Chapter 720: Totally Normal Staircase
Chapter 720: Totally Normal Staircase
“No. This place is too unstable. We just need to cross it,” Victoria replied.
She glanced around for a few moments, then pointed in a seemingly random direction.
Yet… it was clearly not random, since the moment Rael glanced in that direction, he felt an unbelievable amount of mana gathered there.
At first, he thought someone was there, but instead, it was like a pathway that leaked mana from the upper layers of the Spirit Realm.
In that sense, it likely leaked the mana of spirits on the same level as Burger, if not higher.
If there was a Spirit King… there must be a Spirit Emperor.
And if there’s a Spirit Emperor, there might be a Spirit God.
Either way, Rael shook his head at those thoughts and proceeded to walk toward that area.
Victoria followed after him.
The ground felt crunchy, and he didn’t have to take many guesses to realize he was currently walking on a bunch of brittle bones.
It was disgusting.
He also spotted some of the hollow spirits floating around, excavating the ground and burying themselves inside of it.
One of them didn’t manage to fully bury itself, so Rael caught a glimpse of how the color of the spirit died out completely, and then faded away into dust.
“…”
So this place was where the spirits could either ascend, or go through torture before eventually dying…
But what happens to the spirits after they die?
[You ask too many questions…] Burger sighed.
[Though if you wish to know, the moment someone becomes a spirit, their soul is fused with their body. Basically, once you die, your soul dies with you. There’s no more reincarnation, and no concept of life after death. It’s really the end at that point.]
That sounded rather sad.
But Rael also understood that everything had its own limits and requirements.
A price to pay as well.
Nodding in understanding, Rael and Victoria proceeded on ahead until finally, they reached the area where the mana was swirling around.
There was a crack in the space, and leading up to it was a massive staircase made of bones.
Rael stared at it for a few moments, then exchanged a glance with Victoria.
The two nodded in unison and took a step forward.
At first, the staircase seemed normal.
Obviously, it was eerie walking on bones… but it wasn’t anything special up until he reached the 40th step.
It felt like a huge weight had just descended on his shoulders.
Though it was still somewhat bearable.
With every step he took after that, the weight only increased further.
By the 80th step, Rael had to force himself to finish taking a step.
And by the 90th… he had to use his hands to crawl up.
It was a pathetic sight.
A sight that wasn’t shared by Victoria.
After all, throughout this whole staircase, she hadn’t even shown a single bit of struggle.
Yet when she realized what was happening beside her, she merely let out a sigh.
“You became this strong without ever refining your soul?”
As much as Rael wanted to reply to her, he felt like he might accidentally bite down on his tongue instead.
Still, she continued speaking.
“This gravity you’re feeling is less physical than mental. It weighs on your soul. Since you’ve held on so far, it looks like your soul has had a bit of time to refine itself, but I’m afraid any further and you might just turn out like the rest of the spirits.”
Hearing that, Rael scowled slightly.
But what she didn’t realize was that Rael could pretty much adapt to anything in existence.
And clearly, the Perfect Adaptability ability didn’t only apply to skills.
A few minutes passed, and finally, Rael rose back up to his feet and took another step forward.
Then, he once again fell.
A few minutes later… he got up and did the same before falling again.
Over and over again.
On the other hand, Victoria watched this scene with interest.
She had left him down there on the 90th step a few minutes ago, and she was now on the 140th step.
By now, even she began feeling a slight bit of pressure.
And to think that someone who could barely stand on the 90th step now made it all the way up to the 110th step… it was simply surreal.
Even so, she focused on herself, as there were only 10 steps remaining.
Taking the next five steps was difficult.
However, the 146th step made it feel like all those steps were trivial, as she suddenly fell to her knee.
Her eyes widened in shock as she began forcing herself up.
And so she made it up to the 146th step, then the 147th… 148th, and finally, the 149th step.
By now, she was just barely making it through, as it took her tens of minutes to cross just one step.
Yet as exhausted and strained as she was, she was happy that there was only one more step remaining.
And with how much mana she had left, she knew that in just a few minutes, she would be able to climb up to that step despite the difficulty.
So for a moment, she relaxed and glanced back, planning to tease Rael.
Yet her eyes immediately widened when she realized he had just climbed all the way up to the 147th step.
He was literally right behind her.
Someone like that…
“It’s no surprise the Soul Dragon contracted someone like you… Your potential is incredible.”
Hearing that, Rael glanced up and rolled his eyes.
He saw her glancing back from the top every now and again, and he knew for a fact she wanted to tease him.
Anyhow, since he was this close to the very top where the spatial crack was, he decided to push ahead.
He climbed onto the 148th step, limped onto the 149th step, and lastly, while smirking at Victoria, he crawled straight onto the 150th step and reached the spatial crack.
To his genuine surprise, when he reached the spatial crack, all the pressure he had been feeling suddenly vanished, and in turn, he felt several times more powerful.
Still… as much as he wanted to see just how powerful he had gotten, he kind of wanted some get-back.
So he glanced down at Victoria and smirked.
“What’s taking you so long?”