Chapter 192: Living in the Present

The door of the vault was warm, as if alive.

Ash felt as if it was calling to him, silently asking whether he wished to enter. Without thinking more, he simply thought, Yes, and his hand slipped through the wooden surface without any resistance.

I thought it would open.....Uh....whatever...

Letting slide the fact that the door hadn’t opened in any normal sense but still let him through, Ash stepped inside his Soul Vault.

The scene inside was not what he had expected to see. The space wasn’t large, only just enough to accommodate all his belongings. No more, no less.

The ancient dragon bone gleamed with a golden sheen in one corner, while a neat pile of gold coins shimmered faintly in another.

Everything he owned was placed without chaos, arranged in a balanced, stable manner as if the vault itself refused disorder.

The ground beneath his feet was pitch black, just like onyx. The same went for the walls and ceiling. They weren’t blank, though.

Glowing runic symbols covered every surface, casting a faint light that kept the place gently illuminated, despite the darkness of the materials. It gave the whole space an ancient, arcane feel.

Even the pedestals where his important items rested were glowing, pulsing with faint energy. While the other non-important items were placed either on the ground or on the shelves that was erected from the walls and the ground.

Really.....all black? Can’t you be a little more creative....

His sarcastic thought was directed toward his trait. Still, he couldn’t lie to himself—he liked it. It felt old, ancient even.

Like something that belonged to a forgotten age. Mysterious... though he knew there wasn’t really any mystery behind it.

Although the space seemed fixed, Ash believed it to be an adaptable type of vault—one that adjusted itself to accommodate his belongings, changing just enough to hold everything without wasting space.

And now... he had the perfect skill to store all the artifacts from the Dragon....

...Treasury.

No, I should not do that...

He knew that, under the influence of foreign memories, he had taken actions that were clearly unethical. Shameless, villainous, and even... depraved.

Though what had happened couldn’t be undone, what happens next was still his to decide.

He could change.

No, he has to change.

His decisions had led to conflict among the dragons, sowing division where unity once stood. Even though they had acted according to their own logic, what he had done... it was nothing short of diabolical.

I can’t....No, I should not take anything now..

He made up his mind. He wouldn’t take anything from the dragons’ treasury again. No matter how tempting the artifacts were... no matter how much they could strengthen him, or even Elysia, his heart wasn’t so numb as to ignore his wrongdoings.

He felt if he did not do it, he will cross the line of no return and lose his humanity. Like he had it at...all. May be a.....little.

Though, if another situation arises just like what happened with the world tree, I might have to take things...

And that was fine....maybe.

Letting that thought rest, he turned his attention elsewhere. There was still one thing he could access.

The Draconic Library.

...Speaking of library.

Let’s create the skill, for which I had originally suffered failure 200 times...

Leaving the vault behind, Ash found himself once again standing in front of his Soul Tree, with his back facing the tree.

He muttered under his breath, "Skill creation."

And then, within a few moments of silent processing...

Ash’s eyes lit up, and he hurriedly summoned the description of the skill, eager to see the result—but before he could even read it, his entire Soul Space trembled.

He has became too shy...

Elysia thought with a mischievous smile on her face as she looked at Ash running away after hearing her words,

Of course she was just messing with him. They were still kids, no older than 15, even if their minds had long crossed into the twenties, shaped by battles, loss, and the burden of things far beyond their age.

Elysia stood up and stretched, letting her arms rise above her head as her spine popped slightly. She flexed her body a little, rotating her shoulders, loosening her stiff limbs.

Although my body is full of energy, I feel rigid and slow, I need to exercise again and get my self in better shape.

I need to grow stronger and faster....so, that I can stand next to him, and not being a baggage to him.

She did not want to experience what she had already due to her foolishness and weakness, though it was strange.

Even though she knew her mindset has changed all of a sudden, there was still a strange conflict between her decision making, if she were about to think, ’I will not care about others, they can die for all I care’, then due to the conflict her thinking will become like, ’I will only protect others if I have power, if not I will ignore them.’

Although there were similarities, there was a difference of heaven and earth between them.

Any way, whatever had happened to her, she will take some time to adjust to it, and Elysia to be honest was...

...Very glad for this change.

This change is good. At least I won’t be repeating the same mistakes again. This is not Earth, this is a fantasy world, and I don’t think kindness can be returned with kindness here...

Here, kindness was weakness unless backed by strength. Her compassion could easily become a curse if she wasn’t careful. It may very well become the bane of them both—for all we knew.

So yes... she welcomed this change.

Just when she was about to summon her status window again to check her stats and get a better idea of how to start her training...

A bright light spilled out from the cave room Ash had entered just a few minutes ago.

’Curious..’

She walked towards it with hurried steps, she wanted to see what her Ash was doing, but the scene inside the room was nothing but...

....breathtaking.

Ash was floating while being cross-legged. His hairs were flying widly in the wind even though there was no window or any wind. His body was glowing like a beacon.

Surrounded by torrents of mana and...

Symbols...?

What are those..?

Not knowing what the Runes are she was confused, but nonetheless was looking at Ash like a worshipper looking at the god, Not exactly that way....but in a good way. Yeah.

Why do I feel that he is becoming more cool and powerful non stop... I need to start working too....

Although she was mesmerized by Ash, which she always was—this time, something inside her lit up with more than Obsession.

This time, flames of determination... along with obsession... burned fiercely within her chest.

The trembling of the Soul Space did not cease, instead it continued to increase. Soon, Ash screamed.

It was an unwrenchful scream that tore throughout the lonely space, echoing endlessly through the silent void.

His memories, which had been frozen due to the passage of time, were now being plucked out—as if someone was yanking out threads tangled too long in the fabric of his soul.

The pain he felt was like removing a stone that had been embedded in his flesh for who knows how long... one that had fused with the muscle and bone, becoming a part of him. It was that tearing pain—but amplified, because it wasn’t from the body. It was from the soul.

And soul pain... didn’t just hurt. It shredded.

Although he had undergone various types of pain before, this one was entirely different.

It was on another level. Though he was somehow able to control his screaming after a while, the pain did not lessen. Instead, it increased.

The whole Soul Space trembled. Soon, the memories which were frozen began being pulled out and moved towards the roots of the Soul Tree.

Through the roots, they were slowly getting absorbed into his Soul Tree and vanishing. It was a slow process at first, but as time passed, the speed began to increase.

Like that, 10 days passed in the Soul Space... until finally, the last memory was absorbed into the Soul Tree.

Even though in the outside world, only 10 minutes had passed, for Ash it felt like a nightmare stretched beyond reason.

He had blacked out somewhere in the middle, when the pain became too much to bear. But he awoke when the memories had thinned, when the pressure around his heart began to ease...

Groaning, Ash stood up.

But then, the surroundings trembled again, nearly making him fall once more.

Curse it all, let me stand damn it...

But this time, it was not the vibration from the Soul Sea. Rather, it was coming from the Soul Tree.

The tree was shifting again, and another door formed toward the east side of the trunk, adjacent to the Vault door.

Ironically, words appeared above both doors, stating: {Vault} and {Library} respectively.

As soon as the door was formed, Ash suddenly felt something shift inside him.

Like a thousand invisible chains had just snapped loose from his shoulders.

He felt... liberated.

It was hard to describe, but in that moment, it was as if all the weight—the tension in his muscles, the storm of conflicting thoughts in his mind, the heaviness in his chest—vanished without warning.

His body didn’t feel light, no... it felt right.

His mind, which earlier had been slogging through the sludge of lingering trauma and overstimulation, now surged forward like a hyper-tuned engine.

Previously, it was like his brain had been cycling uphill with a flat tire... now it felt like he was driving a Bugatti Chiron.

The clarity he felt now... was the same kind that the Omni Thought had offered him.

And the main thing was, he felt calm. Too calm.

There was no background noise, no unnecessary distractions, no passing thoughts. Everything was quiet. Still. Focused.

Without a single stray thought, he found himself thinking only about the present... not the future, not the past.

He was living in the present.