Chapter 118

Ibro recalled the short meeting with the other Ibro. That Ibro told him that he was trying to change the current situation. He didn't understand his deep meaning before now.

Yes, that move was an unpredictable one, so it succeeded. If Ibro managed to take the most unlikely course every time then he would avoid a lot of that enemy's schemes.

But such an approach would cause a lot of trouble as well. For example, the upcoming battle scenarios are a lot. If Ibro used the most unlikely one then he would suffer a lot of casualties.

The most unlikely course was to hit as many enemies as he could. That would increase his losses by a lot. Ibro thought about this battle.

If he was in his enemy shoes and he knew the decisions he would take beforehand, then it would be easy to set some traps to his troops. Ibro needed to conquer six strongholds and six underground forts to remove the lockdown curse.

If he lost even one of these targets, then all his attempts would be without any result. If he was that enemy, then he would choose to hinder his attacks on a surface stronghold.

That was because Ibro had already known that his enemy was controlling the underground monsters. It was a logical move to focus most of the armies on the underground battles.

That would make the surface battles the most vulnerable point. Ibro felt more at ease the more he thought about this hypothesis. He would take the hardest unpredictable route then.

He looked again at the market interface. Although he had a lot of troops right now, he knew that if he wanted to hit every target out there these troops wouldn't be sufficient.

He had 100 million soldiers. If he divided these over 100 army then each army would have 1 million soldiers. That would be a great force if his enemy was equal to him in level.

He knew that was unlikely to happen. His enemy would be at least at level 20. That meant these level0 soldiers would face a disaster if their enemy had one-tenth of their numbers.

100k monsters were an easy army to amass. He faced greater numbers than this in his last battle. He didn't believe his cautious enemy would neglect such a fact.

That caused him to have one of three options to do. The first was to retreat from this plan and chose the safest route by focusing his armies over 12 battles.

The second was to buy new soldiers from the market. He still had money and he could obtain a huge number of reinforcements. The third option was to use other unique methods other than the soldiers' tokens.

He looked at the interface and then he searched a lot in silence. He couldn't find any orthodox way to help him in his upcoming battle. He looked helplessly towards the market then he decided to choose the second solution.

He took some time till he felt satisfied. He spent nearly 4 hours here. There was not much time in his hand to waste. He looked at the two men who were looking at him in doubt and asked:

"Now I'm ready to test my affinity to the five supreme powers. Tell me how can I use this crystal soul ball then?"

Hoden explained:

"You hold it like you previously did. Then you try to feel the powers in it.

A resonance will happen between the energies inside you and the energies inside the ball. Each energy will shine with a different color. We will monitor the ball and count the colors and determine how many energies you have and how many you lack."

Ibro felt it was like the same old way he used before to test his affinity to energies. He looked in hesitation towards the ball. What if that hideous enemy had another backhand in this ball?

Should he try another ball? He was about to buy another ball to stop suddenly in his tracks. He felt a whispering sound. He concentrated for a while to be able to hear it again.

It was a very weak weeping sound, just like a small weak girl weeping in a remote corner away from him. Ibro listened carefully with full concentration for over ten minutes.

There was really a weeping sound emanating from this ball. He looked in doubt towards it.

"I have another question. Can items have their own souls?"

"Sure, if that item has exceeded the mythic grade it will have a soul. Such items are very rare and very hard to find. Why are you asking about this my lord?"

Ibro looked at Mamor then asked again:

"If I have an item like that but the soul is very weak. Is there a way to save this soul?"

"There is an ore called Fogalen stone. This stone has the ability to support any item soul and give enough nutrients to it."

Ibro moved at once towards the market interface again. he said:

"Display fogalen stone."

"List has been created. The player can view the list now."

In front of Ibro appeared a very short list of four fogalen stones offered to sell.

Each one had its own grade and price. The cheapest reached 500 million gold coins. It was such a highly expensive stone. Ibro chose the highest grade stone without hesitation.

He paid 1 billion gold coins to get it. He took it out of his Inventory. It was a small green cube with a smooth shiny surface and sharp edges.

The moment he took it out he felt a slight vibration in that crystal in the other hand of his. He looked towards it and said:

"Do you want it?"

Ibro felt another vibration from that crystal soul stone. He felt weird as he was trying to communicate with such a stone.

"If you want it you must know that I'm the one who bought it for you. That means I'm your master. Do you understand this?"

Another vibration occurred again. He neared that fogalen stone from the soul crystal soul stone under the watching gazes of Hoden and Mamor.

Once the two stones got in touch with each other, a sudden glow appeared that covered both of them. Immediately after the two stones were liberated from Ibro's grip and floated side by side in the air.

The fogalen stone size shrank gradually in a speed visible to the naked eye. In a few minutes, this stone vanished while the soul crystal stone remained airborne.

A soft weak sound suddenly erupted from this stone saying in a pleading tone:

"More… More…"

Ibro looked at that stone and felt its deepest desire for consuming more fogalen stones. He smiled and said:

"I can get you more. First, you need to swear an oath to me. I will be your master from this moment on."

The stone kept its silence as if it was hesitating. Ibro wasn't in a hurry and waited for a few minutes. When that stone didn't say anything he said in a threatening tone:

"If you don't swear allegiance to me then I will keep you forever in my Inventory. I will never get you out of it and you will be forever a prisoner there."

Ibro wasn't bluffing as he motioned to the two men beside him with his head. This motion was clear as both of them overcame their surprise and moved to surround this stone inside a triangle made from the three of them.

The stone felt the danger it was at so it said in the same sweet sound:

"If I swore allegiance to you, will you swear to help me get back my former strength?"

Ibro felt deeply ecstatic. This stone was no simple stone at all. He felt grateful for his enemy to give him such a gift. He smiled and said:

"I promise you that I will help you with all my power to get your strength back. But you need to swear your oath first."

"I swear on gozline honor that I gozline will take you as my master. I will never betray you or heaven will destroy me."

Ibro looked at both men. Their faces showed that they didn't know the name of this stone. Ibro felt that such a name and a way to swear an oath was very weird, but he also felt how unique that stone was. He asked the two saying:

"Is this oath alright?"

"This oath is the highest oath in our world. If this stone betrayed you, my lord, then it will get destroyed.

You need to bind it with you through a drop of your blood then this oath will be effective immediately."

Ibro didn't hesitate and took out his sword. He cut his hands and poured a drop of blood on the top of this stone. Once his blood touched it, it shone with blinding light immediately.

In seconds that light disappeared and that stone returned into its original state again.

"May I have one more stone? It really helped in treating my wounds."

"Hold on for a second."

Ibro then bought all the three remaining fogalen stones and then he threw them towards gozline.

In ten minutes, gozline managed to absorb these stones completely. It then flew in the air as if it was dancing then it stood above Ibro's head while saying in a stronger tone:

"Thank you, my lord, for your generosity. My wounds have healed by 5%. I'm in no danger right now."

Ibro looked to the stone above his head and then he asked:

"Can I know what exactly you are?"

"I'm a soul stone of a deceased civilization in the supreme world."

"What?!"