<h4>Chapter 70: God''s Essence</h4>
"Hey, can''t you be just a little more polite? It''s not like I am begging for your help or anything; I just want to know whether you want to stay or not."
"You don''t need to ask me to prove how desperate you are..."
While both Freya and Ray were engaged in an argument, Ben''s gaze was fixed somewhere else. The whole time, his blood vision remained active, tracking every movement of the vigers. Without much effort, he identified the targets he wanted.
[So, they are the members of the Fane. They are quite a lot if you were to ask me.]
"Yes, they are. Not only are there 6 to 10 of them, but they are also stronger than normal vigers. Especially the one who is leading them," Ben muttered under his breath, loud enough for others to hear that he was speaking but not clear enough to discern what he was saying.
"Did you say something?" Ray asked, surprised by Ben talking seemingly to thin air.
"Don''t mind him; his inner voice is kinda loud..." Freya chuckled, finding it amusing that Ben asionally seemed to be engaged in conversations with himself. Sometimes he even got hyped up and started jumping around like a toad.
"My inner voice asked me to take a stroll, that''s all," Ben replied nonchntly. He didn''t bother exining much, offering a cryptic exnation before he stood up and walked towards the vige.
As Ben''s pace increased, he distanced himself from the bonfire until he finally started running. His eyes remained fixed on the church, and he scrolled through his inventory to summon his new Soul Equipment.
"Activate bunny boots," Benmanded, and soon the brown windwalk shoes on his legs disappeared into white light particles, reced by more stuffed-up pink shoes. It was clear that the shoes wererger than Ben''s legs, evident in the significant decrease in his running speed.
[Bunny Boots - Advanced Tier Equipment]
[Defence─?(0); Agility─?(-20%)]
[Special Ability─? High Jump]
[Description: By decreasing your agility, this boot allows you to store kic energy from your body and use it tounch a high jump.]
Ben acquired this equipment from his hunt today, merging over 45 basic-tier pieces to gain advanced-tier equipment.
As he kept running, with each step, the long white stuffed ears in the bunny boots started to glow with pink radiating light, filling it.
[Charged: 100%]
As if waiting for this notification, Ben stopped running and assumed a jumping stance to throw himself into the air. In the next instant, the pink energy from the shoe burst out like a bunch of sparkles, popping without sound. And the next second, Ben was thrown 30 meters up in the air.
"Holy fuck... It''s higher than I expected." Ben bit his lips to stifle a shout as he dropped to the top of the old church, barely avoiding making any loud noise, thanks to his vampire reflexes.
[Woo, you got some serious spinal damage; even your HP decreased by 3.]
"Shut up and heal me already..." Benmanded, hands over his mouth to suppress any screams.
--Inside the church:
"Boss, I felt like I heard a falling sound from the roof," a man in a dark cloak whispered, carefully examining the broken roof.
"If you nned to make me scared, then you sessfully failed. Now get your ass up here and help me with the ritual," another voice said in a low but angry tone, dressed in a ck cloak and an oni mask on his face.
The person tightly gripped arge wooden magic wand with a blue gemstone in one hand while holding a ck book with golden linings in the other. His overall appearance signified he was a wizard ss.
Without wasting any more time, the mysterious figure in ck started mumbling enchantments from the ck book, while the blue stone on the wooden wand glowed with faint blue light.
BEN''S P.O.V...
[3 Blood Essence consumed.]
[HP: 100/100]
Ben internally cursed upon seeing the notification. "I wasted so much freaking time on it. Not to mention the whole church is flowing with such high-intensity energy; I can''t even use the blood vision skill to see inside."
[It''s simr to how you don''t see mes clearly in the presence of sunlight. I guess the blood vision skill isn''t that high level yet.]
"Makes sense, but we can talk about thatter." Ben slowly walked towards a broken part of the roof, seemingly where there was a big hole, allowing him to peer inside the church without making any noise. He wanted to see what the mysterious figure was up to.
"Don''t tell me they are trying to summon a devil again... I don''t wanna get another annoying ve on my back, you know." Ben hesitated as he looked at the magic patterns and lightning symbols, which brought back unpleasant memories from the past.
Contrary to his expectations, the mysterious figure in the ck hood mmed the wand on the ground, and suddenly the whole room lit up like a winding circuitry.
In the next second, the metallic Royal emblem on the wall slid open, revealing a narrow path underground. The path was wide enough for one person to passfortably at a time.
[Looks like we found a secret way to a treasure vault.]
"I won''t be surprised if there''s an Egyptian mummy inside it." Ben looked at the long, descending staircase going underground. Even with his vampire senses, he couldn''t see the end of it.
[ Ya, now let''s avoid interfering more, and go back to Ray to report this to him. This information might be very helpful to the vigers.]
"Ya I shouldn''t get more involved than this, I clearly remember what happenedst─" Ben slowly crawled back away, but before he couldplete his sentence, a cracking sound in his ears gave him his whole life shbacks.
...
"You stay here to guard the door while we go inside." The mysterious figuremanded, pointing towards one of the men in a ck hood as it walked inside the gate. But before the figure could enter the gate, a crashing sound reverberated through the room followed by an innocent apology.
"Trust me, I was just passing by here..."