Liam couldn't shake the thought out of his mind as everything seemed to suddenly make sense. By the end of the tutorial, they were not supposed to be strong but weak.
Now he also understood why this mysterious beast horde event had popped up in this timeline when something like that was never there in the previous one.
And from what he had heard about the event, the death tally was quite significant in every other kingdom except for the Gresh Kingdom. Thanks to him, the casualties here weren't numerous.
However, that still left the other event, the nether realm event. Coincidentally, it had ended suspiciously soon this time around. At first, he didn't think too much about it but now, it made sense.
The demons this time had a huge upper hand over the humans and were most likely to win the war, once again thanks to him. But the divine temple did not let this happen.
He recalled Alex mentioning that the divine temple personally intervened and ended the war. Due to this, the casualties in the nether realm event this time weren't that much.
Putting everything together, it almost looked like the beast horde event was set up in order to offset this difference. Enough players hadn't died so they had to make sure that this was compensated somehow.
Why? What did this accomplish for them? How did it matter to them if they were weak or strong? How did it matter to them if they survived the incoming apocalypse?
Or did they simply not care about any of that? Perhaps all they needed were souls? What really happened when a player died inside the game? Was their soul being siphoned?
In the name of the tutorial, were these people siphoning the souls of an entire planet?
Liam felt as if he was suddenly able to see everything clearly for the first time. Every single move made in this tutorial was towards the downfall of humanity.
And these were strong enemies. People who could crush him with a snap of their fingers. How could he possibly stand up against them in this world that they created?
It was impossible. They would never let him grow.
Did that mean he had to keep his head down until the tutorial ended and silently grow as strong as he possibly could? Could he not go after Mia or Derek right now?
That means he couldn't tell Alex about Mia at the moment. Shen Yue also did not seem to remember anything so it was convenient.
It was not that he did not want to rescue her but going after her right now would simply be suicide. He first needed to become stronger, much stronger. He probably only had one shot at rescuing Mia and he had to make it count.
As the various thoughts swirled in his mind, Liam tried to recollect everything about the divine temple and suddenly remembered the divine temple's special potions.
"Alex, do you have those divine temple special potions with you?" He immediately turned towards her to ask.
"Huh? Oh, these." She took out a couple of potions and handed them to Liam. "Yes. I gathered a lot of these. They played a big role in our guild war and even in this beast horde. Got us top ranks." She grinned.
"Do you need some more?" She started taking out several potions, some even to distribute to others. Since the beast horde event might end any time now, she figured they might as well use these to get as many numbers as possible.
However, to her shock, Liam immediately hit her hand, causing the potion bottles to fall down on the hard rocky ground and get shattered. "No. Don't use them anymore."
"What… are you doing?" Alex blinked.
"Just don't use anything from the divine temple or the NPCs anymore." Liam quickly replied. Unfortunately, he did not have any explanation for her. This was purely his own hunch.
He then summoned Dimitri and asked if the poison master elf could analyze the potion but that was also a dead end. The elf shook his head and said that the potion was too complicated for him to analyze.
Liam became silent. This left him with only one option. He still had a way to figure things out but it was very risky. However, he had to do it.
Because if he could just confirm this, then it would mean that everything else was also true and he was not simply building up these things in his mind.
He let out a deep sigh and then turned to face the rest of the group. "Who used these divine temple potions? It doesn't matter where or when."
Immediately, a few people raised their hands.
Liam nodded and continued, "I am going to do something now. I need a volunteer for it, someone who hadn't died but had consumed a few of these divine potions. Also…"
"What I am about to do might hurt and there is a chance something terrible might happen. You could die. Permanently. Who is willing to take that risk?"
Everyone became silent. They did not understand what was happening or why Liam was asking for something like this.
"I will be honest here. I need your help. I am basically asking you to sacrifice yourself. If you die, then I will take care of your family in your absence to the best of my abilities." Liam repeated again.
He did not mention what he was going to do or why he was doing this, so everyone was a bit reluctant. Moreover, he mentioned real death so the group became nervous. They couldn't immediately agree to it.
But two hands instantly went up in the air. One was Alex and the other was Shen Yue. Both of them trusted Liam and hence did not hesitate one bit.
Surprisingly, there was also one other person. One of the mages also raised his hand. He was Neil, Ian's brother.
"I will volunteer. I have used 10 divine potions so far and I haven't died once. I fit your criteria." He gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "I will take the risk, but please, in return, may I ask that you help my brother recover his soul strength?"
Liam was about to pick Alex but she was far too valuable. Besides, he liked the conviction in this player's eyes. "Ok. I will help your brother, Neil. Come here and stand."
He then signalled the others to resume the slaughter of the beast horde. The entire group sort of formed a full circle leaving some space in the middle.
Liam, along with Neil, jumped from the overlooking rock platform to this circle. He was in the middle of death and destruction and surrounding him, there were souls constantly drifting away. It was the perfect spot.
"Are you ready?" He asked. Neil nodded and then it started.
Liam closed his eyes and used his soul sensing skill just like he did back at the fort. He tried to remember how he had grabbed onto the lizardman's living soul and did the same to Neil. He focussed his mind and grabbed onto Neil's soul.
