Chapter 2

*Holy Spirit Village*

Youth with silver hairs and green eyes could be seen walking towards the centre of the village.

This young boy was quite high reaching around 5 foot tall (!1,5m!) and as all children today he was walking towards the ancestral hall.

This youth was of course Adam, almost instantly after leaving all gathered herbs at home he went towards the ancestral hall. After reaching his target Adam found himself quiet location near a tree and just as he closed his eyes. But his peace didn't last long.

"Hi, Adam" said a calm voice.

Even without opening his eyes, Adam knew who was talking to him.

"Hello there, Tang San, how are you?"

At which Tang San chlucked.

"I see that you are polite, as always"

And even such remark managed to anger me to the point of being agitated. Through Tang San somehow managed to see it.

"Gosh, you are even easier to anger than during our spars." Sighed Tang San.

After taking a few seconds to calm down, Adam just smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah, today is especially bad but I don't know why"

"Maybe it's because you are excited? After all, it was you who couldn't wait for the awakening ceremony"

"Maybe"

'Is excitement the same as an annoyance? Tsk, annoying.'

Before they could continue village head called all children to gather. After everyone gathered Old Jack started to rumble about how it is one of the most important days during their life and they shouldn't be sad if they couldn't awake any spirit or awakened a trash one. Afterwards, he did a quick demonstration by summoning his own material spirit, carrot. During his rumbling an unassuming man wearing a black cloak. After he came close enough unknown man take off his hood and interrupted Jack's speech.

*Cough*

"I'm Su Yuntao from the Spirit Hall, are those kids who will undergo spirit awaking?"

Old Jack froze and before he could answer Spirit Hall's spirit master said once again.

"I don't have time, by the end of today I have 2 more ceremonies to perform, are they the ones?"

At which Old Jack finally reacted.

"Yes, they are. If you are in a hurry you can start now, the ancestral hall was already emptied."

Su Yuntao finally smiled.

"There is no time to waste."

At which Jack only pointed old wooden building.

Without waiting for anything more Su Yuntao opened doors and asked the children to come.

The ceremony was very simple, Su Yuntao took out 2 orbs and 6 black stones.

After setting down transparent orb and black stones in a formation he motioned at a random child to walk into it. Contrary to the expectations Su Yuntao didn't activate the formation. Instead, he gave the child a second orb which already turned blue.

"Try to focus on this orb the more the better."

It was very simple instruction but even after a few minutes orb didn't give any kind of response.

"Sigh, you don't have any spirit power so it is impossible for you to have a material spirit."

Finally, Adam couldn't hold down his questions.

"So not everyone has a material spirit?"

And contrary to the expectations Su Yuntao just smiled and answered.

"For anyone to have any material spirit they first need to have spirit power, even the tiniest amount of it would allow them to get one."

Just as Su Yuntao motioned next child to come next question was asked and this time the one who asked was Tang San.

"Teacher, is it possible to somehow gain spirit power?"

At which Su Yuntao laughed while still monitoring the blue orb.

"For anyone who was born with spirit power there are different meditation methods, natural treasures, pills and even spirit rings which help in gaining even more spirit power but for people who were born without any spirit power? Till this day there wasn't any case when someone born without spirit power somehow gained it."

Before any of them could continue blue orb finally changed and very pale blue light shone from it.

"Congratulation, young one, you have Rank 2 spirit power now we only need to check your material spirit."

After saying so Su Yuntao activated formation placed on the ground. The transparent orb shone white light on the black stones which acted like mirrors creating something similar to a hexagonal circle from white light on the ground.

After a few second of silence light blinked and in the boy's hand, a hoe appeared.

At which Su Yuntao sighed.

"Tool spirit, Hoe, Rank 2. I don't think that you can become a spirit master but at least you can help your village can't you?"

The boy was in tears but after hearing what Su Yuntao said he smiled brightly and walked back to the seats.

And so in this manner, the ceremony continued. During the ceremony, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary every child in the village got material spirits similar to their parents or didn't get anything at all. And then it was finally time for the last two, Tangs San and Adam.

Tang San was a huge surprise, he was born with Rank 10 spirit power, Su Yuntao called it Full Innate Spirit Power meaning that he skipped the rank of Spirit Scholar and could become Spirit Master as soon as he absorbed a Spirit Ring. Just as Su Yuntao excitedly started the formation everyone was stunned because almost instantly Tang San's spirit appeared and it was simple grass.

"Full Innate Spirit Power and Blue Silver Grass? Genius with a trash spirit it's really improbable" lamented Su Yuntao.

"Anyway, Tang San, we will talk after the ceremony" and after saying so his gaze finally settled at Adam.

"Come here, since you are the last one you should already know what to do."

At which I just nodded my head and come into formation. Su Yuntao without saying a word handed me a blue orb and after a minute or so, he finally said that it's enough.

"Spirit power of 8th rank, not bad at all. Do you remember what comes now?"

At which I just dumbly nodded while inwardly thinking:

'How come it's Rank 8? I'm sure that I hit a wall in meditation.'

Without giving me more time for thinking Su Yuntao activated formation and fierce pain assaulted my head. I gritted my teeth and waited for it to pass but Su Yuntao found that something is wrong when I kneeled on the ground.

"Are you okay?"

And once again I could only nod my head. Just when I started to feel something inside my right hand I blacked out.

<=3rd pov=>

Tang San seeing that Adam fainted instantly tried to catch him but before he even got the chance to even stand up he saw that Adam was already in Su Yuntao hands. Getting a new chance to look at Adam he checked his hands. In Adam's right hand he saw something that shocked him greatly.

'A black dagger? No, its edge is only on one side, wait, it has an opening and a handle with a trigger like a crossbow is it a hidden weapon? Does it shot needles or maybe small arrows?'

(Yes, it is a gun.)

After dismissing these thoughts he checked Adam's left hand and found something that definitely wasn't there before, on Adam's pinky finger there was a bronze signet endowed with a green crystal. Hesitating for a second Tang San used his Purple Demon Eyes to get better at his best friend. After checking Adam's vital signs and other body reactions he found out that aside from backing out Adam should be fine.

Tang San couldn't stop himself from looking at his best friend's hands once again. This time he managed to see details of Adam's material spirits. First looking at the weird dagger and crossbow mix in Adam's right hand he could see special patterns gathering together to form a black rose. Shaking his head he checked Adam's left hand and found out that the signet isn't made from bronze but some high-quality wood and inside of green crystal there was an image of a tree.

Before he could think about this Su Yantao called him out.

"Tang San, is it normal for him? I can't find anything wrong with his vitals but somehow he is still unconscious"

"I don't think it is normal, nothing like this ever happened to him but since everything is fine he should wake up soon shouldn't he? After all, he managed to awaken this black weapon."

'Right he managed to awaken this thing. It has a blade and a trigger so it should be a close-range to a mid-range weapon but it is my first time seeing something like this' thought Su Yantao.

<=Inside Adam's mind=>

'It stopped, the pain stopped.' after coming to terms with the lack of pain I opened my eyes to look around.

'This place is full of greenery' was the first thing that came to my dazed mind. After waking up from a daze I started to walk towards the only thing that was different from the grass around me, a huge tree in the middle of this clearing. After coming around 10 meters from the tree, hairs on my body bristled. I felt deep fear from the core of my being and couldn't take another step towards this great tree.

After taking another glance around me I found a half-opened book on the ground. Looking further away I found the third unique thing, it was a small black rose but when I put my eyes on it I once again felt the scary sensation that if I take another step only death awaits me.

Though, this time was different, as I was about to turn away and check the book out a weapon appeared in my hands and the feeling of imminent death vanished.

Shaking my head I decided to check out the book first, even with this weird weapon in hand I still think that checking out a book is way safer than going anywhere close to this black rose.

After picking up the book somehow unknown but familiar memories assaulted my mind.

<=Flashback=>

"Congratulations you won our bet." Said a voice coming from everywhere.

"I won?" I questioned. 'Is it me or not? I feel that It should be me'

"Yes, now you can begin your third life with memories of the second one inside one of the fantasy worlds known to you."

"What were terms of our bet?" I asked once again

"Before we get to that you should know that even before we set our bet you traded all memories and experiences of your first life for the next one. The only thing left from it was a slight echo in your soul and so I proposed a bet, you don't need to know the terms of this bet, knowing that you won and I'm about to give you your reward should be enough." answered the everpresent emotionless voice.

"So you won't tell me how I won this bet?"

"No"

"Can I still trade with you? Earlier you said that I traded my first life memories and experiences for another chance to live, can I trade memories of my second life too?"

"Yes, you can trade them even though they were pretty ordinary" 'I ripped you off for first life may as well make it up for you now.'

"You can take all of my memories from second life but leave my experiences and memories about this one fantasy world."

"What would you like to get for trading these memories with me?"

"I want you to set a timer so that only when I'm old enough by standards of that world I will get information about this world and my own experiences" I stated the first condition.

"That's fine normally you would get both memories and experiences from the start so setting up something like timmer isn't much at all but it is definitely not worth to pay almost all memories of your second life for it, do you want something more?" asked the omnipresent aged voice.

"I want to get something from my first life, something that was important to me. I don't care what you will get me, just make sure it will be a fair trade."

The omnipresent and confident-sounding voice was finally silenced. After what could be an hour or an eternity it finally answered.

"Very well, let me send you on your way"

But after I disappeared somehow memory didn't end there. In this white void, I finally heard something emotional, a sigh.

"Although you didn't pay for it you should know that in first life you died to protect an embodied of entire world's life, in the second one you still had forsaken your own life for your brother and in your third life I will let you reunite with your old weapon. Aside from this, I will warn you that you already carry a great thing from your first life, a blessing and thanks from the entity you protected. Although this couldn't help you in a world without any kind of special energy in your new life it will be of great assistance during your journey."

<=End of the flashback=>

*Outside world, Adam's bedroom*

It was a very simple bedroom with one window, one bed and a small table next to it. Everything aside from the window was made out of wood. The only thing which was out of the ordinary was a wooden case with a chessboard pattern made of light and deep green. This case held all of Adam's earnings from the last one and a half year of gathering herbs.

I looked emotionally at the gun in my hand and softly reading words written on both sides of this beauty.

"The flower of the other shore. The rose of the afterlife."

'I can't believe that my Netherworld's Black Rose is once again with me' I thought with tears in my eyes.

'Even more, I can't believe that great being left me a few memories and emotional attachment to this. I will have to thank him if I ever meet him again.'

It was still the same, its body was similar to Ebony from Devil May Cry but there were few major differences. The body of almost the entire gun was made of pure black metal, aside from this only the handle had some wooden aspects. The next eye-catching thing would be black metallic bones, eight of them in total. Four of them down were located at the very end of the handle and the next four at the barrel end. Lastly on both sides of the gun were patterns creating together two black roses.

After calming myself down I checked the signet on my left hand and was extremely shocked. The signet was radiating with pure life energy it was around a hundred times more than the most potent herb I have ever found. When shock washed off I used my spirit power to check this ring more carefully. It was almost painful to watch when I tried to use spirit power and access this ring, it took me more than 3 minutes to just get me close to touching the signet with my Spirit Power.

'Note to self, work on controlling Spirit Power both outside and inside of the body.'

When my Spirit Power finally came into the ring I was shocked to find a small 100 acres dimension with a World Tree sapling in the middle. And from where did I know that this is a World Tree? Well, aside from getting a view inside my head how this dimension looks like I got a small package of about what it is and how does it work.

(100 acres= 10,000 sq meters)