Chapter 944: A Taste of the Void
Chapter 944: A Taste of the Void
"The Void World...?" muttered Valyr to himself as he scratched the back of his head in confusion.
Committing Sellifer's words to memory, the young man proceeded to look around their surroundings, only to be left at a slight loss for words at the drastic change that occurred. Previously, what surrounded the three of them was a massive clearing that Sellifer created after releasing some of her Divine level power towards Noel.
If he were to push his perception to its limits, he would have found the iconic trees of the Shadow Plane lining the hastily-formed clearing they were in, possibly even some of the beasts of the plane roaming around.
Yet, within the Void World, everything around them had just melded together into a giant blob of black, making it difficult for one to see where one was if one did not have light with them.
Continuing to look at his surroundings for a bit more, a question soon popped up in the young man's head, prompting him to stand up and move away from the other two.
"What are you planning to do?" Taking notice of Valyr's actions, Sellifer immediately asked him a question out of concern.
"Just checking a few things out," said Valyr with a reassuring smile, slowly stepping away from the light generated by Sellifer's fixture. "I won't go too far."
Whoosh!
At the moment Valyr was done saying those words, the young man immediately felt the dark surroundings around them start to engulf him, instilling him with a whole host of feelings he had become familiar with through Shadow Energy.
Death, destruction, despair... all of those feelings were magnified by a few degrees through the Void World as they attempted to burrow themselves deep into him.
Yet, no matter how much these feelings tried, they still ended up failing at the very end.
Distancing himself from the light Sellifer made for a bit more, a new feeling soon emerged from the darkness, a feeling that made him realize why the Void World was given its name.
Emptiness.
Alongside the other feelings he'd become acquainted with before, all of them attempted to wreak havoc on his body, giving off the feeling that they wanted to assimilate him into the world itself and become a part of a greater whole.
'I now see why Noel told me it was dangerous for me to stay in the Shadow Plane after sunset.' Rejecting the sensations surrounding him as he slowly made his way back to where the two were, Valyr reminded himself of what Noel told him back when he headed to the Shadow Plane for the first time.
'The Shadow, the Void, and the Abyss.'
'The Shadow refers to Shadow Energy, the energy you and any other Shadow Serpentine Lancer would be able to wield inside and outside the Shadow Plane. It is also the type of energy generally found within the Shadow Plane during the day.'
'The Void. Void Energy. Only Void Serpentine Lancers have the ability to wield it, also giving them the ability to stay in the Shadow Plane after the sun begins to set.'
'It is also the same energy that invaded the bodies of those foolish Shadow Serpentine Lancers, their bodies forever trapped in darkness.'
'I guess I should thank the Serpent Maiden for giving me that title,' thought Valyr to himself as he recalled Noel's words.
At the same time, thinking about the title the Serpent Maiden gave him made him come up with other questions in his mind.
Specifically, questions that involved Sellifer.
'Now that I think about it, Sellifer hasn't cultivated Void Energy,' muttered the young man to himself inwardly. 'Yet, she's unscathed.'
'Is it because of her being in the Divine level?'
'Or is it because the quality of her Azure Energy is high enough to combat against the Void?'
Pondering over it for a bit more, the pensive expression that gradually appeared on the young man's face swiftly turned into a mocking smile.
'Or am I just overthinking it and the true reason behind it is purely because she's a native of the Shadow Plane?'
Briefly letting out a mocking chuckle directed towards himself, Valyr eventually returned to where the other two were, feeling all of the sensations that tried to burrow into him disappear the moment a bit of the light got to him.
Seeing the young man walk through the darkness of the Void World unimpeded and return unscathed, Sellifer inwardly let out a sigh of relief as she confirmed her previous hypothesis.
With that, she inwardly took in a deep breath before giving the young man a refreshing smile. "So, how was it walking in the Void World?"
"Feels like I'm walking headfirst into a mire," said Valyr in response, letting out a faint sigh of relief the moment he sat down. "Speaking of which, how are you not affected?" "Part of it is because I was born in the Shadow Plane," replied Sellifer, confirming Valyr's earlier thoughts that he was just overthinking it. "Almost every Shadow Serpent ends up embracing part of the Void and the Abyss one way or another, whether through bloodline or nature."
"But most of it has something to do with my current class rank and Azure Energy," she continued. "By the time you ascend to a Myth, the effects of the Void become more than
negligible."
"Reach the peak of the Myth level, and even the Abyss would seem like a playground to you."
"Got it." Valyr faintly nodded, committing the words to memory.
After all, with the amount of unused XP he had in his system, he had more than enough to level himself up to at least Rank 6 if he wanted to.
However, with things like the Records of Unfettering and Transcending Races being more useful at a lower rank, he would only ascend to a higher rank if deemed incredibly necessary.
'It's not like I'm in a mad rush to get stronger,' thought Valyr to himself.
'Plus, if I reach the Myth rank before players even enter the world of Greater Beyond, it would be hard for me to interact with them,' continued the young man, reminding himself of how difficult it was for a player to meet a Myth-level existence in the early game.
Continuing to chat with Sellifer a bit more about how his Azure Energy ended up, Valyr eventually looked at Noel, only to see that the old man was seemingly immersed deep within
his inner self.
Pointing at Noel as he looked at Sellifer with a curious expression, it did not take long for him to get an explanation from the latter.
"He's purifying his mana," said Sellifer. "He started around a day before you came back to
your senses."
"I'm surprised he's already making a bit of headway into the stage of 1st Cleansing," she continued. "Guess there's some sort of compensation effect going on, considering how his Abyssal Energy is at 2nd Metamorphosis."
"Does that mean you'll be staying here for the meantime, then?" asked Valyr with a raised eyebrow, only to receive a slight shrug from the woman in response.
"Depends on how long he takes to get the hang of things," said Sellifer, only to return a similar question back to the young man. "How about you? Don't you plan on heading back to
Veldanyr?"
"I could, but I'm not in a rush." Valyr shook his head, inwardly commanding the system to bring up his notifications.
Reading through some of his notifications, his eyes soon lit up, prompting him to look at Sellifer with a faint smile.
"Plus, it seems like the Void World might be able to offer me something I want."
Ding!