Luke opened his eyes.He didn't know how much time had passed. He had been cultivating his spiritual energy without w about anything else, and now he had finally reached cultivation level 3.

  He tried to move his body and noticed that the pain that had been weighing him down previously had disappeared.The girl was still sleeping peacefully on his chest, she hadn't moved in the slightest during all the time that had passed.

  Luke sat up, and moved the girl to one side. She seemed to be in a a and showed no signs of waking up.

  Luke gently spped her face trying to get some response from her, but there was no ge in her ditioook a b out of his backpad covered her naked body. Then he crouched dowo her and pced his hand on the girl's forehead. A portion of his spiritual energy ehe forehead of the fainted girl and traveled through her body from head to toe.

  "There doesn't seem to be any physical damage, she probably used a lot of mental energy. Either that or there's something wrong with her soul."

  Basically, in this world a sick person could be affected in any of those three pnes: body, mind and soul. Those three pnes correspoo the different major branches of superpowers.

  "Syzy?" Luke excimed out loud, uainly.However, there was no response.

  "The system is still out of order. I should return to Lunaria for now. I have to see if the prisoners I teleported are okay."

  Luke took advantage of the fact that the spider queen had died, and began to explore every er of the cave. He found some natural treasures that he collected. But other than those few treasures there weren't too many valuable things in the pce.

  "Maybe the spider queen had some space-time ste. I refuse to believe that a sn could be so poor!" Luke thought with disdain.

  In any case, even if the spider queen had such spatial ste, it had surely beeroyed when that little boy destroyed her body with a siack.

  "That child… His appearance was a miniature version of the god of light Codernum."

  It was the first time in his three reinations that Luke came into tact with a figure of divine level. Gods in this world did not o in myths, but they had disappeared from the p many years ago. Occasionally, the oracle of a church could e into tact with a god, but usually it was a tact that was limited to receiving one-way messages from the deity. Now that Luke had seen a god for the first time, and even if it was not their true form, he felt once again how tiny his power was iion to those colossi.

  "And this girl…"She robably a goddess too. Luke did not finish the sente loud.

  Luke gathered his thoughts and sighed. It was time to get going.

  He took the girl in his arms and began to head at high speed towards the spiritual herb pntations where he had previously seen the children of the forest w. Now that the spider queen was dead, the Arbori had regaiheir freedom. If the system was w, it would have increased the progress of the mission that sisted of helping that people. All he could hope was that when the system resumed its funs, it would reize its progress and not bug out again.

  He arrived at the rge chamber that was full of herbs, but to his surprise he did not find a single person in the pce. Only the pnts around him remained unged.

  Luke looked around and found traces of the Arbori leaving the pce. The traces were still retively fresh, so they should not have gone very far.He hesitated for a moment but finally decided not to leave immediately.He checked the gardens full of spiritual herbs, and collected some that were useful for refining medie. If he had some spatial ste tool, he could collect all the medies that were there, but his poverty limited the loot he could get from this pce.

  "Right now there are no magical beasts that have e close to this pce, they are probably being cautious because of the suddeh of the spider queen. But it won't be long until one of those beasts makes the first move and es to cim this pce. When that happens, seizing these herbs will be difficult without a fight." Luke analyzed out loud.

  Luke paid no more attention to the spiritual herbs. He turned around and headed at full speed in the same dire as the Arbori, following their trail.

  It didn't take long for him to find them. The Arbori moved very slowly through the forest. Their movements were not very different from when they were being trolled by the spider queen. However, something caught his attentioe their low cultivation level and the fact that they were moving so slowly and were very vulnerable, none of the beasts in the viity tried to attack them. What's more, every time a magical beast spotted the Arbori, it was as if they had entered the scariest enemy, and they fled at full speed.

  This situation caught Luke's attention, but now the most important thing was to get closer to the Arbori to find out their situation.

  He used his movement teique, whiow that he was at a higher cultivation level did not require as much effort as before, and appeared in front of the group that was marg at a snail's pace.

  When he saw the appearance of the Arbori, Luke immediately uood that something was wrong. Their expressions remained bly the same as when the spider queen was exploiting them like puppets. But the spider queen was already dead and could not trol them!

  The group pletely ignored his presend tinued walking without stopping.Luke frowned, approached the person in front of the group and tried to knock him out with a punch. However, the Arbori did not flinch, and did not even try to dodge his attack, he simply took the blow falling to the ground from the impact, then got back up and tinued walking like a zombie.

  Iheir movements seemed like those of a zombie trolled by dark magic, but they were clearly alive. Perhaps it was some kind of mind trol.

  Luke explored the individual's body using his spiritual energy. However, there were no anomalies in their body or spiritual energy. Then he used a teique to project his sciousness into the Arbori's sciousness. However, he could not do it, he had finally found the problem.

  "It seems to be some kind of seal, it is simir in structure to the seal of e, but its effects are different," Luke muttered thoughtfully.

  He trated spiritual energy into the tips of his fingers, and then embedded his hand into the Arbori's chest. The fingers peed the flesh and numerous symbols began to appear on its skin. It was a seal that was inscribed in the soul of the individual, and was now made visible thanks to Luke's attack. In the seal that had been imposed on this puy, there was a trace of divine energy simir to that found oick he had obtained from the system. It was barely noticeable, but it made Luke frown even more. For a moment he wondered if he should undo the seal.

  Certainly, with Luke's current abilities, he could undo the seal without much trouble, but if that attracted the attention of someone who could use divine energy… Perhaps the gain would be less than the losses. After all, right now he didn't have the system to assist him in case of emergency.

  Before he could make a decision oter, the little girl who had been sleeping in his arms woke up.She opened her eyes curiously and looked at the Arbori in front of her. Looking at the symbols that were shining on the individual's skin and that tained a bit of divine energy, her eyes lit up.

  The little girl left her fortable shelter in Luke's arms and instantly appeared in front of the Arbori, opened her mouth and sucked in the air. Suddenly, the symbols on the man's body began to distort and pletely dissolved. A ball of energy emerged from the Arbori and was immediately sucked in by the little girl, who showed an expression of delight, as if she were eating the most delicious delicacy.

  Luke watched the situation in amazement, while the girl repeated the process with the other Arbori that made up the group. Ohere was no more energy left to absorb, the girl returo Luke's arms and once again sank into a deep sleep.

  The Arbori were released from the seal that restricted their spirits, but they did not return to normal immediately. Instead, they fainted one by one as the seals were removed. When it was all over, the only person who remained scious in the pce was Luke, who did not know how to feel about what had happened.

  Luke sensed a ge in the surroundings. The magical beasts that were previously dodging the Arbroup like the pgue were now cautiously approag. It was dangerous to remain in the middle of the magical beasts' territory for a long time.

  He used his spiritual energy to form ropes, it was a teique simir to the ohe spider queen used. Now that his cultivation level was higher he could use a greater variety of useful teiques.He ed the ropes around all the unscious people, and then began to move at high speed towards the city of the Lunari. In the air, all the Arbori were floating behind him, held by the ropes.

  ....................................................................................

  In the dark underground prison of Lunaria. Flynn looked with red eyes at the battered man who was lying on the floor of the cell in front of him.The cssic robe of the church of the dragon goddess was covered in blood and footprints. He himself had seen how a group of guards had kicked him until the young man was unscious.

  Fly guilty, if he had not said the man's name, he would not have been locked up with them in the prison, and he would not have to suffer a beating from the guards every day. The young novice had even been subjected to torture by the city guards.

  Flynn couldn't uand it. Why, even though they had mao escape death deep ierritory of the magical beasts, did they have to suffer so mu their own hometown? Didn't they have rights nity just because they weren't nobles?!

  Flynn looked around at everything. His brothers, who were spread out in several cells and haden in days. The other Lunari who had been rescued from the cave along with him, all of whom were downcast, plunged in despair. And above all, Flynn looked at Elian , who looked like he would die at any moment.

  For a moment, he wished that the human who had saved them in the cave would appear before him once more, and once agaihem from the suffering they were enduring.

  Flynn shook his head. No. He couldn't tio depend on other people forever. What would happen the ime something happened and no one was there to help him? Would he just have to accept his death? Would he have to watch his brothers die without being able to do anything?!

  He ched his fists so hard that his nails dug into his palm, and a little blood oozed out of the wounds.He felt no pain, right now he was overe by a feeling he had never had before. For many years he had suffered tless injustices. Whehere was not enough food because of the corruption of the orphanage managers, he simply smiled and tried hard to find a job and earn moo put food oable.Whenever someone looked down on him frowing up in the slums and not having parents, he timistid worked hard to let everyone know he was a responsible person and eager to get ahead.Always, always, always!He had always lived like an animal, bowing his head, trying to survive. He was tired, and he was furious!

  For the first time in his life he felt a rage he had never allowed himself to feel, and for the first time in his life he wished for power.

  "If I was strong I could help my brothers. If I had enough power, I wouldn't have to depend on anyone, or expin myself. If I was strong, I would be free!" Flynn thought inside his mind, he seemed to be reg a mantra, as if hypnotizing himself.

  In the dark cell of the underground prison, a faint light began to shitle Flynn, who was shaking with rage, was enveloped in a thin yer of light, almost imperceptible. For the first time, something inside him had awakened.His eyes, which were looking at the miseries of the world without blinking, seemed to take the shape ht stars.