The Grey Ghost: Book Two of the Archaic Ring Series

by Reed R. Stevens

  As for the situation at hand, Nyla fared no better. More than a few times a day he’d find her staring off into space with vacant, watery eyes, and there were many hours where she seldom uttered a word. Quin’s fate weighed heavily on both of their minds, though Nolan didn’t have much trouble pushing such thoughts to the peripherals of his psyche.

  Both of them found a gracious escape from their emotional troubles in the form of constant cultivation. At this point Nolan had run through the one hundred and ninety-eight stances of the Ancestral Body Technique many hundreds of times, which allowed him to spoil his dantian with a strong supply of inner essence. His innate knowledge of the core cultivation method allowed him to seamlessly transition from one pose to the next, as his body greedily absorbed traces of the Origin Energy that permeated the region.

  Many times throughout his training he would stop and marvel at the mechanics of the technique. On their own, the poses didn’t pull in a significant amount of energy. The main aspects of the technique were the myriad of breathing patterns and inner essence circulation routes, and how they all built off of each other and amalgamated in the final stances. The different positions served as a sort of conduit enhancer in that, depending on the specific pose, they opened up and closed off certain routes in the slightest of ways. These slight alterations made it so that his body would take in more Origin Energy from his surroundings with each change in position, which helped to expand the circulation routes of inner essence within his body without overwhelming them all at once. By the time he reached the one hundred and ninety-eighth stance in a given sequence, he was able to pull in almost as much energy as all of the other stances combined.

  Thanks to his unyielding efforts, Nolan enjoyed a minor breakthrough and reached the middle phase of the fourth level of Body Nourishment. He hadn’t undergone some mind-blowing power up, but he wouldn’t have to struggle in a fight against someone at the second level of the Profound Entry stage like he had in the past.

  It was all thanks to the old man that had resided within the Inheritance Monument, and the innate knowledge that he’d given Nolan, which lingered in his mind like a pleasant aroma on a windless day.

  Unlike him, Nyla didn’t have a core cultivation method so she had to rely on her body’s natural ability to take in and assimilate the energies in the air. She wasn’t particularly gifted in this sense, but the Origin Energy within the glade was ten times that of what she was used to, so her cultivation speed saw an increase of a similar ratio. Since she didn’t need to strike any particular poses or follow any specific breathing patterns, she spent most of her time within the fountain, the waters nourishing her body for countless hours on end. After two weeks, she’d also achieved a minor breakthrough and reached the peak of the third level of Body Nourishment.

  Aside from when they relieved themselves, the two were rarely more than ten metres apart. Since he was still ignorant about the way that the archaic ring worked, he figured that there was a chance Nyla might end up left behind in this world in the event that they weren’t close enough when the ring chose to eject him. Since he couldn’t predict its behavior, they had no choice but to keep close to her.

  They shared three meals a day, mostly fox meat which they roasted over the fire that Nolan had started on the day that they arrived. To their bewilderment, the fire didn’t need to be maintained, for it kept burning on as if the logs that Nolan had gathered were an eternal source of fuel. He figured that this phenomenon was related to whatever properties of this world that kept the carcasses of the demonic beasts perfectly preserved.

  Unlike last time, Nolan had a good deal of food stowed away in his spatial bags, though he chose to cook the fox meat because of the positive effects that came with its consumption. When it wasn’t poisonous, meat from demonic beasts was very beneficial to one’s body.

  There was also the spatial bag he’d snatched from Dartan, as well as the one bag he’d obtained from the disciples he’d killed right before he was transported here.

  The bag that Nolan had obtained from those fleeing disciples must have belonged to their leader, since the evernight bow and the rest of Nyla’s possessions were among the impressive collection of medicinal pellets, spirit stones, and demonic cores that they found inside.

  Even though the leader of those disciples might have been a big shot back at their sect, he seemed like nothing more than a common beggar when his assets were compared with those of the late Dartan. The young lord had hoarded hundreds of spirit stones, countless bundles of herbs, a large chest that contained over two thousand golden cards, and at least a dozen swords of all sizes. On top of that, there was an ornate book hidden within the pile, with gilded pages of shimmering gold. The gleaming cover read Emerald Thorn Piercing Technique.

  After flipping through the twenty-two-page book, Nolan had felt ecstatic. It was an instruction manual on how to master a martial skill. It seemed that Dartan’s father had given him everything he’d needed to reach the middle levels of the Profound Entry stage, but that useless scoundrel had only reached the fourth level of Body Nourishment. It seemed that he’d taken his father’s benevolence for granted and spent all of his time chasing girls and hanging around his friends. Thanks to the ignorance of that spoiled brat, a lifetime’s worth of invaluable gifts from a high-ranking noble had fallen into Nolan’s hands.

  Even though he’d finally obtained an illustrious martial skill, Nolan had no choice but to set it aside until the day he reached the Integration stage, since this particular skill required the projection of inner essence from the body. Ironically, he’d made out of that mess like a bandit.

  In a sense, this newfound wealth was a saving grace. A lot had happened before they arrived here. If a place like Hell truly existed, had he doomed himself to eternal damnation because of all the terrible things he’d been forced to do? He had a hard time ignoring such thoughts, which were only overlooked during the long hours he spent lost in cultivation. Adding to the fact that he and Nyla were in an ideal training ground that even the most powerful people in the world would drool over, the sudden windfall was perhaps the only other thing that could distract them from their distresses.

  Sleeping when tired, eating when hungry, bathing when needed; two months passed in this fashion. Although they didn’t train as vigorously as Nolan had during his first visit, they still trained for at least half of each day. During the time they set aside for leisure, the two would talk for hours on end about anything that came to mind, sometimes during long walks around the glade, sometimes from within the fountain waters and others beside the ever-burning campfire. Nyla tended to share the more pleasant memories of her childhood in Black Raven City, while Nolan would share stories of his upbringing back in Collinsville.

  Eerie and creepy as the glade was, Nolan found that these days were the most peaceful he’d experienced since leaving Earth. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he was safe. All of his problems and enemies were back on Venara, so he didn’t have to worry about some overpowered simpleton trying to abduct Nyla just because she was sexy, and didn’t have to sleep with one eye open in case any murderous bandits or disciples came to slit his throat in the dead of night.

  Nyla was interested in all things related to his home world, especially in science and technology. After witnessing his actions back at the bandit camp, she had gained an immense amount of curiosity and respect toward the foreign concepts that he’d brought with him from Earth. On the other hand, he was eager to learn more about her upbringing in the Southern Plains region, as he’d always avoided the topic since she was sensitive about her past. She was, after all, a princess of sorts, or at least she had been. Now that she was more open about her life, how could he resist the opportunity to learn more about the lifestyle of a princess from another world?

  Roasting a large skewer of fox meat for dinner, Nolan reflected on the unsuspecting serenity of the past months. Nyla sat a few metres away from him, quietly gazing into the flickering flames with a fo
rlorn heaviness within those captivating, dark eyes. They’d just finished a long stint of training and her clothes were still wet from the many hours she’d spent meditating within the fountain.

  That look usually meant that she was thinking about Quin.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  It took her nearly a minute to respond. “Is it alright if we relax for the rest of the day?”

  “You can if you want, but I…” He suppressed a sudden frustration, glanced over with a soft smile. “Sure thing. You just broke through to the fourth level, so how about we celebrate?”

  Her smile was bittersweet. “I can hardly compare to you. You said it would take you many months to reach the fifth level, but look at you. If anyone deserves a celebration, it’s you.”

  “That’s because I’ve got an awesome core cultivation method. It just keeps getting easier to pull in energy, but that’s all thanks to the technique.”

  “It must be nice.”

  “You know what else is nice? Rich man’s wine!”

  While the meat finished roasting he produced a wide basket of exotic fruits, a round tin full of vanilla-flavoured biscuits and bitesize cakes, and an unnecessarily large bottle that had to have contained at least four litres of wine. He laid everything out on a thin white blanket, produced two golden chalices and a pair of matching plates, upon which he placed even portions of the succulent fox meat.

  Sure beats the pink olive soup from back in the village.

  Once they’d finished eating, Nyla dabbed at her mouth with a linen napkin that mimicked the blanket’s silver stitching, the light movements giving Nolan a glimpse of the girl she’d been before the genocide of her clan.

  Noticing his eyes on her, she laughed and then tossed the napkin onto her plate. “Can you tell me another one of those fairy tales, like the one with the princess and the dwarves?”

  “Always with the fairy tales,” he smiled, taking a sweet sip of wine. “Alright, let’s see. How about this one? There was once a small town in a faraway kingdom, where there lived a beautiful girl named…”

  Although he’d still been a kid himself, Nolan had read a lot of stories to his sister when she was a little girl. She’d loved them more than anyone else, to the point where she’d constantly throw temper tantrums if he didn’t read her favourite stories twice in a row. Thanks to Steph, he was basically a walking encyclopedia of children’s stories and well-known folktales.

  “That was a pleasant story,” Nyla said once he’d finished the narration. “I’m glad the prince had a turn of fortune. I thought he would remain a monster through to the end. I would have been so disappointed.”

  “That wasn’t really the point, but yeah, that’d have been a letdown.”

  Nostalgia resonated within Nolan’s heart as he recalled all of those times he’d put Steph to bed, a wistful smile touching upon his lips as he relived those warm, story-filled nights. How long had it been since he’s thought of his family? Don’t do this to yourself.

  He stood up and went over to the fire. How had the meat managed to cook while the raw version didn’t spoil? The fire never went out either, and none of the grass in the surrounding fields ever moved, not even the slightest twitch. What was up with that?

  Just as he reached for the last bit of meat, he stumbled backward and realized that the wine had given him a fairly strong buzz. Maaaan, how am I feeling it this much? I’ve only had two glasses.

  The feeling of inebriation had crept up on him in an instant. As he was now, even if he downed thirty shots of vodka in a row he’d only get a little bit tipsy. His body was much more resistant to poison than it’d originally been, and since alcohol was technically a poison, he’d doubted his ability to get drunk now that his body wasn’t normal. They hadn’t even been drinking for that long. How had such a small amount of wine staggered him so abruptly? Just now, it had genuinely tasted like grape juice, to the point where Nolan had felt that he’d made a mistake in thinking that it was alcohol. Damn, two glasses of this would’ve killed a regular person.

  “I’m heading to the fountain.” He turned to face Nyla. “Wanna join?”

  “Sure.”

  A quick dip in the water was the equivalent of taking a bath and doing laundry at the same time. Since they didn’t need to bother taking off their clothes, the two of them would occasionally hang out there as if it were a large kiddy pool on a very hot day.

  Swallowing down a few mouthfuls of water and lazing about for a minute completely stole away Nolan’s buzz.

  “I say this often, but this fountain is really amazing.” Nyla cupped a small pool of glistening water in her hand and slowly let it trickle back down to its shimmering surface. “It even remedies the mind.”

  “Such a shame…”

  The hairs on Nolan’s back stood on end.

  He immediately cast his spiritual sense about so that it encompassed the entire courtyard at the centre of the field. How can there be nothing?

  “Nolan?”

  He didn’t move, ignored Nyla for the time being. There was no mistaking it—although it had been extremely faint, he’d just heard a soft whisper from a far corner of the courtyard.

  Chapter Nineteen: Uncle Grey

  “Is something the matter?”

  “I was just daydreaming,” Nolan smiled. “Anyway, I’ve gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll be back.”

  Nyla nodded and then rested her head against the fountain’s ledge, closing her eyes with a relaxed expression.

  Hopping out of the fountain, Nolan passed the spot where the muffled voice had come from and then left the courtyard. He hurried across the field and over to the forest’s borders within a handful of seconds. Immediately after, he turned around and crossed his arms, staring toward the stony architecture at the centre of the glade with an expectant squint.

  “Whoever’s out there, I know you’re watching me! It’s about time you stop hiding.” Although Nolan used an impatient tone, he was nervous. Why couldn’t he sense anyone with his spiritual sense? He’d clearly heard someone back in the courtyard.

  Just as he was wondering in perplexity about his inability to sense the owner of the voice, an aged chuckle came to life within the noiseless realm. The peculiar silhouette of a person had materialized about three metres ahead of him, the dull-coloured form rapidly solidifying with increasing clarity. A robust, hooded old man had appeared in front of Nolan, his body intangible, grey, partially transparent like a thin cloud of smoke. Hovering a metre above the ground with a calculating glint in his hazy eyes, he looked exactly like a ghost.

  “What the…?” Nolan stepped back in surprise. “A ghost? Are you serious?”

  “I’m no ghost, lad.” Though the old man’s voice was light and a bit raspy, it contained an excitable energy. The wrinkles on his face and his beard of silver tangles didn’t override the vitality within his steely gaze.

  “Then what are you?” There really was someone watching us…but why is it a ghost?

  “Don’t you have eyes? I’m clearly a spirit.” The old man bit his lip and then lowered his hood. “Ahem, I mean to say, how could you mistake me for a ghost?”

  Nolan gave him an odd, somewhat guarded look. “Spirits, ghosts, it’s all the same.”

  “And here I was thinking you quite astute, having noticed me. Humph, it turns out that you don’t even know the difference between a spirit and a ghost.”

  “Of course I noticed you. There’s no sound in this glade, and you said something from like ten metres away.” Why did he look so offended?

  “Did I speak out loud?” The old man smiled modestly as a look of mild embarrassment crossed his face. He went on to mumble, “I could have sworn I’d been thinking to myself. Well, it’s hard to tell these days, truly, truly.” He scratched at his head, which was covered by a long mop of wild, disorderly hair that perfectly matched the dishevelment of his aged beard. Though the robes that he wore appeared simple and insignificant, the ghost appeared confidently disposed, his broad
chest puffed out and his bearded chin held high.

  As if he’d just remembered that Nolan was there, the old man looked him in the eye and said, “Ah, but why did you leave your woman alone if you suspected that someone else was in this field? What if I was some evil being? That’s quite the gamble for someone who had no way of knowing my intentions.”

  “I recognized your voice. You’re the one that stopped me from picking up that slave contract when my finger was bleeding.”

  The old man’s eyes lit up. “Indeed I was. So you deduced that I harboured no ill-intent after recalling that instance.”

  “Well, it just got me thinking. If you’re here now, then you were probably here the last time that I was in this place. If you didn’t do anything then, it’d hardly make sense for you to suddenly attack me, right?”

  “You’re not wrong.”

  So he was here back then? Nolan balked for a moment as his face began to heat. “No way, don’t tell me you were watching me all that time?”

  “Not all the time…” the old man shamelessly admitted.

  “If you watched me bathing or taking a shit, then you’re fucked.”

  “Why would I want to see any of that?” The old man grew flustered. “You…show some respect! Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”

  “Yeah, a goddamn perverted ghost!”

  “A spirit—I’m a spirit!”

  I probably couldn’t sense him because he’s a ghost. Nolan knew better than to lower his guard during unexpected situations, but he couldn’t help but feel that the old man was harmless.

  “Alright, alright, I get it. You’re a spirit.” Whatever the old man was, the fact remained that he’d saved Nolan from the terrible fate of becoming a slave. “So, what do you want? I doubt you saved me on a whim, not to mention that you’ve been spying on me all this time.”

  “I hardly had a choice in the matter. I’m a spirit! I clearly died in this glade, so I can’t wander far from it.”