With greediness overflowing out of her eyes, Victoria reached out at the skeleton. The others were too late to react or stop Victoria, they could only watch her from behind. However just as her hand was a couple of inches away from the skeleton, an unearthly humming came from the skeleton and the next moment, a sudden force blasted Victoria back.
"One person, one bone" a loud yet calm voice echoed through the cave. Many became flabbergasted, looking around the cave to locate the voice but Michael could somehow sense the voice belonged to the Fusion stage cultivator.
After flying or rather stumbling back a few meters, Victoria quickly regained her composure but not before baring her teeth looking at the skeleton. She obviously avoided making eye contact with others, especially with Ghost who was ready to laugh at her misfortune.
"I think the cultivator only wants us to take only one bone each," Evan said, taking everyone's focus from Victoria. Michael inwardly rolled his eyes looking at the tension between Evan and Victoria. It was not a tension of hostility but rather the tension of affection.
"No shit Sherlock" thought Michael. He was happy that he didn't Lightning dash to the skeleton before anyone else or he would have been thrown away instead of Victoria.
He leaned on the wall and willed to activate the Energy devourer hoping to turn the pressure coming from the skeleton into Experience points while these people could come to a decision. Unlike everyone else in this world, he was unable to cultivate through the usual means, he had to rely on the system to cultivate, therefore, he did not have a choice other than using the system to earn experience points which was the only way for him to level up.
[System level is too low to break the barrier around the skeleton]
[Level 4 Energy devourer required to transform the Fusion stage Arch Energy]
His vision was blocked by these two notifications. Now that his plan to screw everyone before they dismantle the skeleton, he had to wait to either fight over the skeleton or someone to come up with a peaceful way to solve this problem. Although he was not on earth, the anatomy of these cultivators was the same as the earthlings, they had 206 bones in their bodies. Obviously, he knew they wouldn't resolve this peacefully because if they agree to take one bone as the skeleton said, people like Victoria would aim for the biggest bones in the body such as the skull or femur.
Most of the cultivators in this world tend to be greedy and vengeful, which led to unnecessary wars and fights. of course, Michael was not the one to talk about either of those because he stole all the scrolls on the top shelf just a moment ago without leaving a single scroll to the others.
"I'll take the skull"
"Fuck you! I fought the Ground Terror, so I'll take the skull"
"I'll be the big man and take the spinal cord, you can have the skull"
"Spinal Cord?! You dumb fucker, there are 42 individual bones in the spinal cord"
"Stupid fuckers, where did you two learn anatomy? in the toilet? It's not 42, it's 33"
"What did you call me?!"
…
As Michael expected, they began to bicker, ready to fight for a bone. Each of them looked like a rottweiler in his eyes for a moment before Noah opened his mouth, "Shut up!"
Since Noah was one of the strongest in the room, the crowd quickly stopped bickering, "Alicia, how many of us are here?"
"Forty-three"
"We'll choose by chance" After he said, Alicia waved her hand as a quill and a paper appeared in her hand.
"Is she writing the names of all the bones in the body?" still leaning on the cave wall, he sighed. He wanted to get this over with and get out of the cave before it could collapse on them.
After a few moments, with a flick of her wrist, she threw 206 small paper rolls on the ground in front of the skeleton.
"Each roll has a bone name written on it, each takes one and lets fate decide which bone one will get. Don't worry, we'll pick last" Alicia said before someone questioned her and Noah.
"But-"
"You have a better plan?" Even after Alicia explained, somebody raised a question but that somebody was instantly shut by Noah.
"Who would go first?" Evan asked as they all shared this same question.
"I'll go first" they all heard the voice turning their heads to see Michael finally decide to join them. He calmly walked towards the paper rolls, most of them saw him killing two Core Formation beasts had fear etched into their brain cells. Someone had to go first and they did not protest him being that someone because they admired him and most of all, they feared him.
"System, locate the femur"
[1000 badass points]
"Take it" he expected Victoria to be the bitch in the crowd but surprisingly, she kept her mouth shut while he noticed a glimmer around one particular paper roll.
He gently bent his back trying not to wake up the sleepy dragon in his pocket. All the eyes in the cave were glued to Michael, wondering whether he would be blasted away like Victoria while many craned their necks to see which bone he would get.
Alicia's enchantment kicked in when he picked the paper roll and projected the word 'Femur' in a large glistening word above him.
"Oh come on!"
"Lucky bastard"
"He got the baby dragon, now this, he's really lucky"
All of them bore a surprised look on their faces. Many couldn't help but feel frustrations grow inside seeing he got the largest bone. With a small smile on his face, he made his way towards the skeleton, "I'm gonna take only one" said as he put his hand on the skeleton's femur. Unlike before, there was no sudden blast of force. The femur came to his hand after making a crackling sound, his small smile grew into a medium grin sensing the pure Arch Energy that was radiated by the femur in his hand. Although he might not be able to use this femur to level up, his snake friend certainly could.
With his plans to grow the power of his base of operations as well as himself, he needed a loyal and powerful friend like Gaya. The stronger she grew, the more protection and help he would get. Now that he had gotten the femur, he swiftly stepped back from the skeleton not trying anything funny. As far as he was concerned, he earned not only enough Experience points to level up to Body Strengthening level 5, he also got the baby dragon, rare herbs, spell scrolls, contract of Aragoth, and the bone of a Fusion stage cultivator while making fewer enemies.
The Nether realm had been kind to him until now unlike it was to Noah, Maisy, or poor Abel. Most of them lost their friends, limbs, and lives after entering the Nether realm except Michael.
"Thank you" Putting the femur in his storage ring, he gave a short nod at the skeleton. He ignored every greedy pair of eyes on him except one pair of eyes, Noah's. His calm radiant black eyes stared at Michael with a ting of surprise hidden within.
Michael felt something he couldn't describe, it was a new feeling that appeared and disappeared in a flash. His neck hair tingled but he did not show his shock on his face as he walked away from the skeleton as well as the crowd towards the exit.
Some rogue cultivators wanted to simply kill him and take the femur from him without trying their luck but Michael's dealing with Aragoth made them standstill, they were not dumb enough to mess with an ally of Aragoth.
His relationship with Saide prevented Hannah Berry from giving him a seductive smile while he was walking past her. Coupled with Sadie, he now had two powerful allies, SilverMoon and Aragoth.
"I'll go next" Michael heard Evan's voice before he left through the crack. He was absolutely positive that they will soon fight again despite Noah's solution, at that time, he didn't want to be there.
After leaving the inner parts of the cave, he slowed down his pace scanning for any signs of the two remaining magical beasts. Luckily, his Environment scanning detected no threats in the surrounding which made him immediately use the Lightning dash to disappear before they came looking for trouble.
Shhhhhhhhhhh!
Eventually, when he was searching for another cave or treasure, he heard the howling sound of the wind on the horizon and looked up to see a bright beam of light emerge from the ground.
"Portal" he recognized the energy signature, it was the same energy signature as the portal everyone entered through into the Nether Realm.
He felt relieved and excited to leave this place, he wanted to level up, expand his herbal garden, and most of all, he wanted to show the baby dragon to Gaya, just to see the look on her face.
"She's going to freak the hell out, hehe" he chuckled under his breath. Despite being in the Guardian guild, Noah still made a lot of enemies ever since he came to Nether Realm and lost a dear friend but Michael, earned allies, a servant who could summon Netherels at his will.
They both were two sides of the coin, they both walked entirely different paths, one wanted to reach the top of the food chain to save people while the other wanted to rule them.
The Nether Realm was the starting place of the war between light and darkness. However, these two individuals were just two pawns in the game of superior beings and Michael had just seen the glimpse of them when he tried to recruit the Orc as his subordinate.
***********
END OF NETHER REALM ARC...EXPECT A HUGE JUMP IN MICHAEL'S POWER....