At the sight of the soul shard laying still in Roy's hands, the onlookers by the window had their jaws dropping and their eyes protruding to such a point that they threatened to pop out of their sockets.
"W-what?!"
"It evaded all of us like a plague and rushed into his grasp out of its own choice. Ridiculous!" he was unable to accept it.
"Why did it choose an unawakened over us?" he too found it hard to believe.
Their scorching gazes were directed at Roy.
At the moment, they looked no different than bandits.
If given a chance, they wouldn't hesitate to snatch it out of his hand.
Just as they were about to reach Roy through the window, a wizened but tight voice stopped them.
"Have you brats forgotten your manners? Use the front door to enter the workshop! I promise to break the legs of everyone that would dare to go into it through the window."
They looked behind and saw the annoyed face of the mage they feared and respected.
"E-Elder mage? What are you doing here?" said the mage that had enticed this chase for the soul shard as the desire in his eyes died down, and his body floated down to the ground.
Vizards found the Mage Captain pretty rude. "Since when has it become a rule for me to answer you?"
Even the Count has exempted him from taxes and all and never questioned him. So how dare he do that?
"Forgive me." Mage Captain said apologetically.
His threat was taken seriously.
An entire group could then be seen entering the worship like humans in order to reach Roy.
They saw him standing still like a statue with the shard in his hand.
A ringing voice was heard by him and only him.
"This is what I've rewarded you for the efforts you put into ruining their plan. You can also take it as me lowering my head and apologizing to you for all the wrongs I have done you, including but not limited to putting the lives of two of the citizens of your county at risk. I never wanted to see that happen. I wanted to materialize the gateway right before you. But because they injured me by cutting off my connection with the small world brutally, and I am yet to heal from them, I wasn't able to teleport it to the pinpoint location. This led to two innocent almost losing their life. Thankfully, you saved them.
"I also have to apologize to you for consuming the soul energy of the beast that you killed. But you must know since you used my gateway to enter that world, a part of what you harvested was bound to be transmitted to me. Not to mention, I urgently needed it to heal a part of my injuries. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to communicate with you."
Hearing its words, Roy realized that EXP was soul energy!!!
Her earlier suspicions were confirmed to be true.
He was shocked to the core.
"It's easy to get pissed when you're thrown into a god-forsaken land without any explanation. I am angry at you. But I'm also glad that you sent me there. It's because of you that I got to ruin their major plan. And my anger towards you has lessened since you rewarded me handsomely. However, please don't ever direct me into a pit without informing me of the danger inside." Roy mentally communicated with it by talking wordlessly.
No one was able to understand why he was so silent and so still.
Far West replied, "I won't. This is what I promise on my authority. But does that mean you're willing to help me if such a situation ever arises again?"
Roy tightened his hand into a fist, "Chaos is our common enemy. If it corrupts you, wouldn't all the living beings on your land be endangered? No matter what, I'll do my best to help you in the fight against Chaos. I want to shatter apart the mist of chaos that is slowly but surely enveloping the Far West. I don't want to lose this land, these people, this sky, and my life to it."
"I shall now enter a slumber. The next time I wake will be when the awakening ceremony is held. But… my incarnation awaits you at the forbidden capital. If you've time… find a way… to meet her. Discuss with her about the ways… to keep Chaos at bay."
Its voice died out in his ears.
"Such a rare shard should be given to the Count."
"We plead that it be handed over."
They weren't petitioning. They were pressuring Roy by using the Count's name as the pretext.
Roy narrowed his eyes at them: 'Do these guys think I am easy to bully?!'
It was at this moment that the workshop started trembling, and a powerful voice boomed into the ears of the Captain mage and the others around him.
"Do not… eye what is… his."
"W-who?" The Captain Mage looked left and right in confusion.
"It's Far West. It seems angry. What did you fool do to anger the very land you stand on?!" said Arlo; he was leaning on a wall close to the entrance to this room with his arms crossed over his chest.
The mages dropped to their knees. "Please appear your anger, Oh Great World. Even if we have a thousand more lives, we won't dare defy your orders."
"You better don't… if you value your life."
Just by uttering two sentences, Far West eradicated the idea of stealing it from their mind.
But one question was in everyone's mind.
Just what did Roy do to earn such a huge blessing from Far West itself?!
The system's notification rang in Roy's mind.
『Ding! Congratulation. You've obtained an Ex-rank soul shard. It can evolve to the divine level. Its current awakening stage is 1. It's detected that it's called Night's Mist. Its effect is unknown. Would you like to merge with it?』
It was a known fact that soul shards were divided into eight different ranks.
But Ex-rank ones were so rarely seen that they weren't given a categorization or definition.
Roy could bet a thousand gold bars that no one except for him, and maybe Arlo and Vizards, knew what it was.
Now, these ex-rank shards weren't all-powerful like divine rank or rank-1 and rank-2 shards as they started out from rank-5, but they could awaken(evolve) six times. It meant they could reach the divine rank, the best quality soul shards ever seen.
The condition of awakening a shard the first time was easy. You just need to merge with it, and you'll gain an ability. But awakening it to the second level was hard because you could only depend on yourself to find out the condition to level it up. And then those conditions needed to be fulfilled for it to evolve.
Still, it could potentially rival a divine shard.
"To have this as my soul shard… would be an honor." After speaking in a hushed voice, Roy pressed it with his finger. It was crushed into pieces. And these shards dissolved into a mist that swirled around him like a ghost haunting its prey.
