Chapter 193: Soul Corruption
Priam set the perimeter: a one-kilometer radius from where he stood. The search began.
The place was depressingly plain. An open field, with nothing unusual in the air or on the ground.
If the System hadn’t guaranteed it, he would’ve already left. But if it was nearby, he was going to find it. Even if he had to comb through the entire area.
...
On the first day, Priam was incredibly excited.
A week later, he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"No way..." he muttered, kicking the ground for the thousandth time. "I have to be looking the wrong way. That’s the only explanation."
He stopped to think. What if it was literally a tiny seed?
In the middle of that vast plain, without giving off any aura...
It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack than that seed.
He let out a frustrated snort. It definitely didn’t emit ordinary energy, or the Sages would’ve cleaned the place out centuries ago.
It couldn’t be visible to the naked eye either, for the same reason. So...
"Oh!"
Suddenly, Priam smacked his own forehead.
"Idiot! How did I forget something like that?!"
He had a Power Rune in his arsenal that was perfect for this. It was called: Flow Detector.
It was a basic rune that could be created by combining a simple energy with any other energy he wanted to search for.
The Power Rune could sense connections, no matter how faint. The seed might not have any energy now, but if it had ever contained any in the past, even the slightest trace would have remained within its cells. The rune would definitely detect that.
Priam looked south, toward the river. The owner of that territory was hiding at the bottom. A Primordial Chaos Beast.
Time to fish out the material for the rune.
...
The giant fish’s body lay lifeless on the ground, covered in toxic decay.
"There go a few more... I’ve only got nine poisoned arrows left," Priam sighed, looking at the carcass. "Well, I wasn’t planning on extending my vacation on this planet anyway."
He walked over to the Beast’s core and removed the small amount of concentrated Corruption inside.
[Synthesize?] [Yes / No]
Priam confirmed immediately. The Flow Detector Rune was created, specialized in finding anything that had ever been connected to Corruption.
The search area was small, and since he already knew the treasure was somewhere nearby, it would be easy to find.
Seconds later, a gleam appeared in Priam’s eyes.
"Found you!"
He ran toward a small rise in the middle of the plain.
At the top was a two-meter-wide patch covered with black stones, with a bit of low vegetation growing over them.
The rune kept pointing insistently toward one particular spot. Priam crouched down and picked up a small black stone, identical to all the others.
[Primordial Chaos Corrupted Seed found!]
[Absorb and assimilate?] [Yes / No]
Priam’s eyes widened. It was literally an ordinary stone. No glow, no aura, nothing that could reveal what it really was.
"There’s no way to know this was a treasure. Maybe the Sorcerers scattered these around at random so they wouldn’t be found after they were discovered and hunted down on this planet."
Priam muttered as he accepted the absorption.
*Crack!*
The stone split apart in his hand. A sphere of energy glowing with shades of gray emerged from inside.
The sphere pulsed, drifted forward, and disappeared into Priam’s body.
[System Assimilation: Level 3 (UP)]
[New Innate Ability acquired!]
[Corruption Converter and Locator]
[The Nexus Seed can absorb and convert all Corruption into pure Aether, and vice versa. In addition, you can expand your senses in exchange for Aether to locate Corruption within an area.]
Priam read the description and swallowed hard.
"Convert Aether into Corruption? If I ever dare use Corruption in battle, I’ll become public enemy number one, and every Mage in the universe will hunt me down until I’m dead."
That part was completely out of the question. But... the other way around...
An overwhelming excitement surged through his chest. There was no shortage of Sorcerers and corrupted things in the southern region of the Divine Plane.
"So... if I can keep absorbing Corruption in the middle of a battle without stopping... then, theoretically, I’ll have infinite Aether to use?"
After thinking it through, Priam broke into a wide, dangerous, deeply mocking grin.
The greatest nightmare the Sorcerers had ever faced in the history of the universe had just been born.
"Wait a second!"
He quickly turned his attention to the second part of the new ability: Corruption Locator.
[Activate?] [Yes / No]
Priam confirmed without hesitation.
He felt the Aether inside his body begin to burn at an incredible rate, but he didn’t hold back. This time, he went all out to cover the largest area possible.
Suddenly, Priam’s vision changed. The world took on new shades and layers.
When he looked to his left, he saw a grotesque pillar of multicolored light appear out of nowhere, rising all the way into the sky. Invisible to any ordinary Mage, but completely obvious to his new senses.
Without thinking twice, he dashed in that direction.
Since the Beast that ruled the area was already dead, there was no reason to be cautious.
As he approached the base of the pillar, all he found was a peaceful green plain covered in short grass. To the naked eye—or even through normal perception—there was absolutely nothing there.
"Underground, huh? Fine... time to start digging."
Priam channeled the wind element and began slicing through the earth, digging a passage with concentrated gusts.
...
Two hours later.
*CLANG!*
After drilling hundreds of meters down and creating a colossal crater in the middle of nowhere, Priam struck something that wasn’t dirt or ordinary rock.
He had found a structure made of black stone, incredibly hard, polished, and perfectly smooth. Something that was clearly artificial.
Priam’s eyes gleamed in the darkness of the pit.
A planet was unimaginably vast. Even if an army of Sages searched for centuries, they would never manage to inspect one hundred percent of its surface and underground. That was why this thing had remained hidden all this time.
He began clearing away the surrounding earth until he had excavated a small circular chamber about ten meters wide, completely sealed with black stone blocks.
On one of the walls, one of the stones had a slightly lighter shade. Priam walked over, gathered his strength, and threw a punch with everything he had.
*BANG!*
The stone gave way and shattered with ease.
Priam slipped through the opening and looked inside...
At the center of the hidden chamber, silently floating in the air, was a black object the size of a watermelon. Its colors constantly shifted between a sickly gray and a dark, diseased green.
"So I really found the Corrupted Heart..."
he muttered, caught between shock and fascination.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped closer and reached out, touching the object’s icy surface.
He tried to absorb it using the System’s new ability, but...
[Soul Corruption detected.]
[At your current Assimilation level, you cannot absorb something of this magnitude. Purify or dilute this power.]
Priam frowned as he read the message.
"Soul Corruption?"
Apparently, not all Corruption was the same. There were different types, levels, and variations that were far more dangerous.
His current knowledge came from the mid-level Energies and Magic he had bought from the sect. Once he had the chance to acquire high-level knowledge, he would probably understand the other types of Corruption.
"How the hell am I supposed to destroy this now? This energy is at least Sage-level. Even if I throw everything I’ve got at it, I don’t think I’d even leave a scratch on this damn thing..."
Priam sighed. The System wouldn’t give him an impossible special mission without leaving some kind of opening.
There had to be a way...
"Wait a second... Purify or dilute this power."
A light bulb went off in Priam’s head.
This Corrupted Heart was at an absurdly high level, far beyond what he could handle alone.
But he knew of something with overwhelming purifying power that he had stumbled across by pure chance in the desert!