(Two and Half Weeks Later)

"Stay away from me

Stay away from me

Stay away from me you monster!"

A middle aged man shrieked as he scrambled backwards with a fear stricken face.

Thud

Just as he was scrambling backwards, his hand hit something causing an extremely soft thud to resound.

The middle aged man looked back and when he did, another low shriek erupted from his lips.

Behind him was a bloodied female corpse with a hole in the left side of her chest.

"Vera."

The man spoke with a tone filled with immense grief and regret as he looked at his dead fiancée.

"You brought this upon yourself."

Just as he was looking at his dead fiancée, a familiar indifferent voice reached his ears causing him to turn towards the source who was wearing a plain dark blue t-shirt, black shorts and blue sneakers.

An expression of hatred and slight madness appeared in the eyes of the middle aged man when he saw the slightly short, slim and average looking teenage boy dressed in the previously described clothes walk towards him with an indifferent expression.

"Stop looking at me like that.

All you had to was not be greedy and mind your business.

You and your group are not part of the temple of flames so next time, just mind your business."

With an indifferent expression and tone, Corey spoke.The middle aged man tried to speak but just as his lips moved, Corey with an indifferent expression pierced the man's head with the ancient spear in his right hand.

Thud

The corpse of the middle aged man fell, producing a soft sound.

Corey looked at the middle aged man for a second before his eyes moved to his surroundings which was destroyed and had around 10 corpses littered all around.

"Rhea."

Looking at the corpses with an indifferent expression, Corey spoke and the moment he did, a black tattoo of a normal black looking bird on the left side of his chest shone and a crow-like bird, Rhea, appeared in front of Corey.

Without looking at Corey, Rhea released a caw, flapped her wings then opened her beak.

The moment her beak opened, white mists appeared from all the corpses in the surroundings and flowed into the beak of Rhea.

Corey seeing this remembered the time Rhea abruptly used it on the corpse of the tier 2 Smiley after he hatched her.

Back then, he did not understand what it was that Rhea did, but now, he understood and let's just say, her ability awed him.

The mist that appeared from the corpses were their remnant spirits which had not dissipated after their death.

Rhea was a being called the spirit devouring bird and from her name, it's not surprising she could devour spirits, though Corey had zero idea what a spirit actually was.

Rhea could devour the spirits of corpses which had not died for more than thirty minutes, and after devouring the spirits, her level and stats increase.

Rhea was at first a tier 0 when she was hatched, but after she absorbed the spirit of the tier 2 Smiley, her level reached the peak of tier 0.

Although her level was already maxed out, for some reason, Rhea continued to devour the spirits of whoever or whatever he killed, almost like she wasn't satisfied.

And Corey had no problem regarding that since it wasn't affecting him in any way.

Why?Because whenever Rhea absorbed the spirit of a corpse, shockingly, the soul stone of the corpse was not affected and Corey could still take the soul stone.

Corey was surprised when he realized that, since it meant that for him to increase Rhea's strength, he just needed to kill, which was something he planned on doing for quite some time.

Caw

A caw resounded from Rhea bringing Corey out of his thoughts.

Flap

Just as he glanced at Rhea, he heard the flapping of wings and a few seconds later, she appeared on his shoulders.

He looked at her but she didn't bother looking at him and just looked straight ahead.

Noticing nothing new, Corey walked towards his destination, the port of the black sea.

(A few hours later)

Woosh Woosh!

Bam Bam

The winds blew intensely and subsequent waves of water slammed unto the nearby rocks.

Only the sounds of the wind and water could be heard, which should have made this environment serene, beautiful and a place to calm one's mind, but as Corey looked at the sea in front of him which was extremely black, he did not feel a single ounce of peace from the extremely black sea in front of him.

It felt extremely ominous and dangerous.

"I just hope I'm not making a mistake."

Corey heaved a soft sigh then walked to the front where a speed boat was located.

He pushed the speed boat into the black sea and just as the speed boat entered the black sea, he jumped into the speed boat and started the ignition, causing the speed boat to roar to life.

So with Corey in a diver's suit with an oxygen tank on his back, swimming goggles on his head and Rhea on his left shoulder, Corey entered the black sea, a decision which time can only tell what effect this decision would have on Corey.

----

[A/N: I know it's short and I'm sorry for that. I could have explained what happened during Corey's journey to the place, who that man and his group were and so on, but it's just that it's not really important to the story so I just decided to skip it.

I want to get the main part of volume 2, besides, I might explain what happened during his journey later in the novel.

I'll try to upload another chapter today but honestly, I'm not sure if I'd be able to. I have lots of tests this week and my schedule is extremely packed.

So if I can't upload, I'm sorry but I'll try.]