I picked the compass off the ground and put it in my pouch. Who knows, maybe it would still serve some kind of purpose.

“It feels like we've been scammed,” Lily said while looking at the darkness in front of us. I didn’t give a response to him. Instead, I looked at the front. Even though my Night Vision wasn’t fully active due to not being able to summon my armor, combined with Enhanced Senses, I could see relatively well.

“Nocturna, can you create light?”

Despite that having a light source never hurt. Nocturna answered with a small nod.

“Luminous Orbs.”

Four orbs formed around us, one for each of us. Heh, she even thought of Gökbörü. The magic she used felt different than the one Blanche used.

“How long can you keep them going?”

“They will last for 3 to 4 hours. After that, I need to recast again.”

“Do they drain your mana?”

“Only when I cast it. Though they can break if you tou-Ah.”

Lily touched his orb and it shattered. I shook my head in disappointment.

“It is okay.”

Nocturna reassured me as she gave Lily another.

“Keep your hands to yourself this time.”

“Bark!”

Gökbörü helped me to scold Lily. He just shrugged. I inspected around us while sighing. This place looked like a normal cave. It had no unnatural rock formations, no runes on the walls, or human-made structures.

“Is this a naturally formed dungeon?”

Even though the dungeons I have been in before were all formed due to mana and the remains of the Wolf King, it was possible for dungeons to form naturally as mana kept piling up in a place.

“But that wouldn’t explain the feeling we are feeling.”

I kept thinking out loud. But why didn’t Nocturna feel anything? What was the difference between us? The fact that she was a beastkin?

No. While it could easily be the reason I had a better reason. The fact that both Lily and I were connected to Stars and she wasn’t. We were guided by this dungeon by them, so it was only natural that we would have a reaction to it.

“Let’s go. Standing around doing nothing will get us nowhere.”

We pressed deeper into the mysterious cave. The path seemed to wind endlessly or maybe it was just my tired mind playing tricks on me. Just as I started to get tired of walking the walls started to change. It wasn’t very drastic at the beginning. I thought it was just the red-orange iron dust on the walls. However, as we delved deeper it started to get more and more brighter and covered more and more of the walls. It made me think of veins with how they wrapped the walls of the caves.

It reminded me of two things: How its shine was similar to light given out by mana stones. That wasn’t really shocking. Blanche once told me that sometimes in the dungeons mana can solidify and form structures similar to mana stones.

What was really shocking was its color. It was the same color as Aliera’s hair. I would have chalked it up to coincidence but I knew that it wasn’t it. I felt the same feeling when I stood before her divine grace when I looked at it.

As we ventured deeper, the glow intensified, bathing us with its mesmerizing light. Without even saying a word out loud, we followed the vein-like structures. All four of us felt instinctively where we should go. We met with no resistance. While it made me nervous to not meet with any kind of enemy, the red light calmed me down.

It was weird. Even though I first thought of them as veins, which should have made me think of them as bloody and visceral, they awakened feelings of courage and passion.

Were they Aliera’s mana? Or maybe divine force? Is that why I felt stronger? Is that why they awakened feelings related to her divine role?

My thoughts were cut off when I saw the man sitting with his back on the wall. My hand went to my sword, but I quickly realized it wasn’t necessary.

He was dead. He had two holes in his torso, one where his heart was supposed to be and the other one on his liver level. Dried blood covered his mouth and nose. He seemed to be the source of the vein-like structures.

Despite that, he felt peaceful, as if he was sleeping while dreaming of a nice place. I almost felt jealous.

He was huge, enough to rival my super soldier body. I could tell how much training he did and how many battles he endured just by a single glance.

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“He is handsome,” Lily chimed from my back. Yeah, he was handsome. Even in death, he looked manly.

He wore what I thought to be the remains of armor. It was mostly destroyed. He also held a broken sword. His grip was tight despite his status.

He felt ancient. Despite that, his body had no signs of decomposition.

“What should we do? We have nowhere left to go,” Nocturna asked, her voice filled with worry. She was right. The cave had no splitting paths or anything like that.

“Guess we have to search him. Sorry about this, I will try to give you a proper burial after all this ends.”

I leaned towards him.

“You don’t need to worry about giving me a proper burial, young warrior. However, I don’t think you need to search my corpse.”

Startled, I jerked back, letting out a girly yelp. I immediately looked back at Lily, who was grinning. I turned back to the corpse, knowing that Lily would never let go of me letting out that voice. I watched an ethereal figure rise from the corpse with my healthy hand on my sword.

“I am sorry about that. I know seeing a ghost is a shocking thing.”

He slowly took shape. He looked like the corpse except he didn’t have wounds and wore a simple robe.

“♫If there's something strange. In your neighborhood. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters♫”

I took a step back and stomped Lily’s foot to make him stop singing.

“It is no big deal. My name is Poyraz. Those are my companions Lily, Gökbörü, and Nocturna. Can we learn your name?”

He didn’t look hostile even with Lily’s stupid song.

“My name is Rodrick of the Lion Guard. Champion of Aliera and Protector of the Innocent. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

He bowed his head.

“Pleasure is ours.”

I also bowed.

“I know it is sudden, but we are in a hurry. There are civilians we need to escort, but there is a man that can control monsters. He wants to corrupt them. We were guided here by the Stars in hopes that we can find something useful.”

Even though there were countless questions bouncing around my skull like “How are you still here if you died?” or “What exactly do you mean by Champion of Aliera?” I had to prioritize something that would help us defeat the masked man first.

“I see. It is nice to see followers of Aliera still trying to protect the weak even after my death.”

I raised my eyebrows. He knew that I have a connection to Aliera.

“But you should take care of yourself. You are on the brink of death. You don’t want

to end up like me.”

He looked sorrowful.

“What does that mean?”

Lily stepped forward furiously.

“There is no need to be agitated, follower of Zephyrian. I am not going to let my junior suffer.”

I raised my eyebrow at the word “junior”. He looked like he was in his 30s. I was probably twice his age. He looked at me.

“Your soul is anchored by only your Spark right now. You can’t recover any mana, do you?”

He knew about Sparks. How old he was?

“Yes. I had to use a lot of mana in one go. They told me I should be dead. Do you know about it?”

He nodded while listening to me. He looked like he was deep in thought before he talked again.

“Yes. Seems like the knowledge about Sparks must be lost after my death. It was unavoidable… Otherwise, we would have been overrun by demons.”

He knew about how Sparks caused demons to gain power?

“I should focus on your condition right now. You should already know that mana serves as an anchor to bind your soul to your mana. If you were to use all of your mana, your soul would leave your body and you die. However, you already awakened your Spark. This means that you already formed your own inner world. Even with an anchor, your soul won’t leave your body. Though your Spark is still not on a level to house your soul indefinitely. We should fix your mana circuits and reconnect them with your soul.”

“Huh?”

“That’s a lot of words…”

“This wasn’t in my teacher’s teachings…”

“Woof?”

Seeing our dumbfounded reactions, Rodrick furrowed. He let out a sigh, realizing he might have overwhelmed us with his explanation. He adjusted his stance, adopting a more patient tone.

“It seems the loss of knowledge is more severe than I initially thought. Your Spark, which is the manifestation of your soul, is currently keeping your soul anchored to your body. However, your mana circuits, which are responsible for channeling and replenishing mana, are in disarray. We need to repair and reconnect them to restore the flow of mana within you."

I tilted my head to the side, trying to grasp the concept.

“How can my Spark hold my soul if it is the manifestation of the soul that’s trying to leave my body?”

“By manifesting your soul outside, you learn to control it better even if you are not conscious of it. Think of it like learning wrestling. By knowing how to wrestle, you can control your body better.”

I stole a glance to Lily, and he looked as confused as me. I couldn’t ask Nocturna for help since from my knowledge beastkin didn’t have Sparks.

“I know it is a hard thing to grasp. Every person’s Spark is unique to themselves so too their manifestations, and I am not exactly a good teacher. But I can at least show you how to fix and connect your mana circuits. But it will take time. At least 7 to 8 weeks.”

“We don’t have that much time. Are there any faster ways?”

Rodrick's gaze turned thoughtful as he contemplated his response.

“There is one more way. It involves me directly forcing your mana circuits to fix and connected.”

“Good, let’s do it then.”

Rodrick made a pained expression.

“We can’t. Healing takes time. Think the long way like fixing your bones by moving them gradually over time. Think the short way like me moving each one of your bones as fast and roughly as possible while you are awake. You would die from the shock.”

I squared my shoulders.

“I can take that.”

He shook his head.

“I see your resolve but that’s more the reason for me to not go through with that. A brave man like you shouldn’t die a painful and meaningless death. Take it from someone who died.”

I took a step towards him.

“I understand your concern. However, you are not the only one who died before.”

His eyes widened with surprise.

“You are an Outworlder… “

Vein-like structures moved and shifted while shining brightly. They were converging under my feet.

(You unlocked one of your titles “Divine Touched”)

(Divine Touched: Your own being was touched by a divine being. With traces of their touch, your body, mind, and soul develop and transforms higher. Your skills, body, and mind won't be affected by the passing of the time. As long as you are alive with enough time you can heal from any injury.)

With the unlocking of another one of my titles, Rodrick’s eyes widened even further.

“You are an Outworlder brought by Aliera… I see. You want me to follow his will? I hear and obey.”

He said while looking at the veins.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Aliera’s will may be for me to follow your decision but it is risky.”

“Yes.”

“Poyraz…”

Nocturna opened her mouth but she was stopped by Lily.

“You can’t change his mind, Batty. Nobody can.”

He gave me a pained smile.

“Woof.”

I patted Gökbörü’s head as he let out a sad whimper.

“I will start.”

Rodrick put his hands on my chest. A red light and pain engulfed me.