Elder Fumito's POV:
My name is Fumito and I am truly thankful for this good fortune.
This old man is a somewhat renown expert currently residing in the northwest of the 2nd martial continent, though that has not always been the case. I am over 700 years old, and I spent a number of those centuries traveling the continent, acquiring valuable skills and experience along my journey. In my time, I have seen the rise and fall of whole empires, practiced the arts of many bygone sects, and conversed with all manners of experts.
Weary from my travels, I ultimately chose to settle down in the northwest, under the care of the city lord of Ka. As an indigo stage cultivator, my retirement was naturally welcomed by the city lord as the skills, strength and knowledge I have cultivated over my long life is invaluable. In exchange for a few favors, I'm provided with accommodation and resources free of charge, allowing me to focus more of my time on cultivating. However, one day …
"Kazuo has perished."
Shortly after coming out of seclusion, I received news that one of my disciples had been slain. I occasionally took in certain children from prominent families as disciples as one of those aforementioned favors, teaching them some things every now and then whenever I hit a bottleneck in my cultivation and had some time on my hands. I was not particularly attached to the boy, as I mostly only taught him as a favor to his family for some extra support, however, it would not do for a master to be so heartless as to feel nothing at the death of my disciple. Doing so would affect my reputation and strain my relationship with the boy's wealthy family. So, for appearances sake, I needed to at least act distraught in public.
"If only I hadn't been in seclusion! Disciple, please forgive your foolish master for not being able to save you! If I ever find the one who did this to you, I'll make them suffer on your behalf!"
"If that is how you truly feel, then…"
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I ended up going a bit overboard and was implicated in the search for my disciple's murderer. Honestly, I thought it was just a waste of time.
The laws of civilization end at the city limits. There are no guards, officials or authorities to enforce any rules of right or wrong out in the wilderness. The moment someone leaves a human settlement the only law that matters is the law of the jungle. I am no saint. I've gotten blood on my hands in the name of my own benefits, so I understand how meaningless this search is.
The events happened in the wild, inside a magical beast nesting ground. Such a place would normally make an investigation nearly impossible due to the frequent ongoings of the magical beasts that reside there. Even if the killer was inexperienced enough to leave behind any traces of himself, any clues to his whereabouts left behind would likely be gone by the time we got there. Or so I first thought.
According to the one who survived, they had been investigating a magical beast nesting ground showing a lack of activity, when a greedy bandit had ambushed them with the intent of looting their corpses for valuables. Of course, I've lived long enough to see the youngster was not being truthful with his recounting of the events not that I begrudge him that. However, that is now irrelevant, for while scouring the area, we stumbled upon an ancient inheritance site and by the size of it, it likely holds untold treasures within its depths.
Under different circumstances, an inheritance site of this size would be quickly reported back to the people in power, who'd try to monopolize its treasures by restricting its entry. However, thanks to the circumstances of this search, I had the perfect excuse for exploring this ancient underground ruin before any of that could happen, for there were clear signs of something entering this place.
Using our current manhunt as an excuse, I urged against immediately sending back word of this inheritance site for the sake of catching our target as quickly as possible. Depending on what's down here, this might be the opportunity that will let me leap into the immortal stage. I was not going to let a bunch of bureaucracy get in my way. Even for a nascent soul, I am getting on in years. If I miss an opportunity like this, there is no guarantee I'll live to see another.
If need be, I'm willing to abandon my stable living conditions and reputation for this. Of course, if I can eat my cake and have it too, then why shouldn't I. I am by far, the highest-ranking cultivator in this group, so I could just kill everyone, then there would be nothing stopping me from taking the inheritance for myself and blaming it all on whoever we're chasing. That said, there were a few too many for me to chase should they all scatter the moment I attack, so it would be best if I waited until we got close to the end. That way, I would have time to shave down the numbers to something more manageable, and I would also have some disposable pawns I could use to test for traps.
*Pop*
Like for example, the labyrinth on the first floor, where every now and then, someone would wonder into a one-way spatial distortion to who knows where. Though, some recovered thanks to there being a spatial cultivator amongst us who could reopen some of the traps if he acted fast enough.
*Splash**Gulp**Splash*
There was also the trial on the second floor. The catfish were never really much trouble for me, as even if one tried to swallow me, I could easily tear my way out from its stomach, but the same could not have been said for the others. If that one man had not discovered the fact the entrance to the next floor was already open, it might have been unnecessary for me to send that group on a supply run a few days in, as a reason to leave more people behind.
And then there was the fourth floor as it would seem that whoever entered before us already took care of everything on the third floor for us.
*Yawn**Thud*
The fourth floor, while not exactly deadly, is an incredibly dark labyrinth that can interfere with our 6th sense, which is a little bothersome, but not entirely unprecedented, as you sometimes see things like this within certain inheritance trials. Fortunately, someone happened to have some torches lying around in their spatial rings which we could use to light the way. However, the biggest issue was not the darkness.
*Snoring**Groaning*
There seems to be some kind of method employed here which induce a feeling of exhaustion to make you rest. Once asleep, you'll be trapped in a nightmare and won't be able to wake back up unless someone brings you back up to the 3rd floor. One can, however, resist falling asleep through one's strength of will, which is what we've been doing while exploring this floor. If anyone were to collapse, another will be tasked to carry them back up to the 3rd floor to wake them back up.
According to the map we found inscribed on the wall on the 1st floor, I could probably start silencing the others after this floor. The map of this structure depicted the different floors with a symbol, which were probably hints as to what was there. If I recall, the first floor was two arrows, one pointing up and the other down, the second was a fish, the third was the fangs of a beast, the fourth was a dark spiral, the fifth was a circle with a star inside it, the sixth was a treasure chest, and the seventh was to faded to make out due to the erosion of time.
Assuming the 6th floor is where all the treasures are, I would have preferred getting rid of my remaining escort here, if not for the threat of falling asleep myself. I am not weak of mind, but with our 6th sense gone and no map to guide us through, we have to explore every branching path by hand, all the while, every moment I spend down here, this place is chipping away at my will to resist. I've nearly dozed off a few times already. I would stand no chance of finding the other end to this dark corridor if I was by myself, which is why I need these people to expedite the process of mapping this floor and potentially carry me up to the 4th floor should I succumb to the urge to slumber.
Then, suddenly, as I could feel myself about to drift off, we heard a shout.
"THERE HE IS! I FOUND HIM!"
"AH! NO! LOOK AWAY!"
I honestly did not expect to find our target all the way down on the 5th floor. Based on the scene he left behind on the 3rd floor, I'd have assumed he'd succumbed to his exhaustion and fallen into an eternal sleep in some corner of the 4th floor.
"Well, no matter!" I muttered as I followed the others who were sluggishly making their way down some stairs.
I was walking in the far back of the group, making certain there were no stragglers. Since I was going to kill everyone who made it this far, it would be best if I was the last one to enter the next floor. That way, I could block the only way back up to prevent them from escaping. In fact, I was actually contemplating just doing it now. This steep set of stairs all had us moving in single file, so if I used enough force, I could get all of them in one swoop. However, before I could follow through on that thought, something very unlikely happened.
"…! Huh?! Whoa! LOOK OUT!"
*Thud**Crash**Clank**Splat*
The man in front of me seemed to have dozed off for a moment and slipped on one of the steps. He proceeded to fall down the stairs, crashing into the man in front of him, causing him to tumble down as well, who proceeded to push the man in front of him and so on. Apparently, one of them had been holding a spear which, during the tumultuous tumble of men, had managed to skewer each and every one of them by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"…?"
"…? Pft!"
I almost let out a chuckle at the sight, as I found the absurdity of this happening by chance rather humerus. If someone else told me this, I might believe it if it was just one or two, but this is ridiculous. There is barely enough room for all of them on that spear. I mean, what are the chances?
"…! So, uh, hey, it seems one of you died, my condolences by the way! But, uh, any chance I could maybe borrow your clothes?" The flustered naked man trying to hide his privates, asked the nascent soul emerging from the human meat skewer.
'You dare!'
"Well, it's not like you're going to use them now anyways, right?"
'…'
"So? You don't mind?"
'I am going to kill you now.' The nascent spirit spoke as it began preparing an attack.
"Huh? WAIT, WHY?!"
*Chuckle*
As I listened to the conversation between the dead man and the naked youngster, I couldn't help but laugh a little as I made my way down the stairs.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! I WAS JUST ASKING!"
*BOOM*
"HEY! WATCH THE CLOTH! IT'S THE ONLY THING I GOT DOWN THERE!"
As two began fighting, I took this chance to finish off the rest. Though they seem to be stuck on the spear, only one of the people who were impaled suffered a lethal injury. Hence, many of them still remained on the floor, groaning in pain.
*Groaning*
"Elde-!"
*Swish**Swish**Swish*
In an instant, I unleashed a net of wind blades, dicing them into tiny flesh-cubes, as it seemed faster to do it this way than stabbing at their dantians one by one to destroy their cores. After which, I turned my attention back to the naked man and the spirit.
*Boom*
"WHY DOES EVERYONE GOTTA BE SO BLOODTHIRSTY!"
The youngster is focusing on defense, dodging, redirecting, or blocking whatever he could, while the spirit is throwing a multitude of fireballs, trying to overwhelm him. Both of them seem to be partial to the same element of fire, however, there is a difference in their stages. The nascent spirit is a mid-stage green core, while the youngster seems to still be an initial stage orange core. Normally, this would mean the youngster would stand no chance, but without a living body, the nascent spirit is on a constant decline in power, meaning that the longer this goes on, the weaker he'll become, so stalling for time by focusing on defense would be a good strategy, however…
"Ouch! Oh crap!"
*Boom*
The youngster is not exactly in good condition either. His body is covered in injuries, and the pain from moving around is causing him to flinch from time to time, creating openings. Though, by the look of him, he must have an impressive pain tolerance considering he is even able to move at all in his condition.
"But the scales are still tipped in his favor!" I mumbled to myself.
Because they both share the same element, the youngster would naturally have a high resistance to fire attacks. Hence, so long as he keeps doing what he is doing, he will likely come out as the victor in the end. Not that it matters. Once this is over, I'll simply kill the victor and move on to claim whatever lies on the other side of that door in front of us.
*Sigh*
"Okay! That's enough!" I heard him mutter as he grabbed the sword on his back.
*Swoosh*
"Hm?"
*Swish**Sizzle*
To my surprise, the youngster suddenly went on the offensive. Some green markings emanating with the wind element lit up on his legs and in an instant, he closed the distance between him and his opponent, slashing him across the chest with his sword. Though he seems to have missed his target, the cultivation core.
Nascent spirits can only be slain by destroying the core inside their spirit body. Exactly where the core is, can vary, as unlike when they have a body, there is no longer any reason for it to stay fixed in one place. However, as it's the source of their power, you can usually figure it out by the density of the energy making up their spirit body, but even then, it's easy to miss because of how small it is.
*Crack**Poof*
"Huh?"
To my complete and utter surprise, rather than closing its wound and going on the attack, like I expected, the nascent spirit just crumbled into dust anyways. If my senses are not beginning to fail me, then this young man just slew a nascent soul without targeting his core. The only techniques I know that would make something like this possible would be demonic in nature, but something feels a little off. I did not sense him unleashing any technique after closing the distance.
"Hm? That is a rather odd-looking blade you have there, young man!" I said as I focused my gaze on that odd blade of his.
"Hm?"