Someplace, a person with red hair and no cultivation walked through a street with plenty of people. He was a young man and seemed occupied. Inside his thoughts, he was viciously grinning. He looked in every direction, then concluded the number of these people would suffice as a requirement of his plan.
And now he could finally get information about where his master was.
"Hehehehe."
The person made light through their palms. It was a ball of red light, and as obnoxiously bright it was, it took some people’s attention.
They all looked at him, staring at his strangely appealing outfit. And the light that was on his palm started growing violently.
They were all dazed, unpleasantly looking at him with a hint of disdain and unease. What could be this person doing in the middle of the road? Was he crazy? Standing at the center of a rowdy crowd is an obvious obstruction.
"What was he doing? Does he intend to play with a light treasure?"
Indeed, people misinterpret the light on the person’s palm as a treasure that brings light. As it was common to see a treasure and witness heavenly defying feats that even a mortal could do, a treasure is highly regarded and used to explain things that a mortal couldn’t do.
However, as oblivious as they are, the light continued growing, even overlapping the height of an average human.
It seemed creepy, and as it continued being like that, one stepped up to order him to stop playing with the light.
"Hey! Weirdo! Can you stop that light? Stop playing with it or else we’ll apprehend you despite being a mortal!"
Those who called him were cultivators who guarded the place. However, even though the way they talked was intimidating, when they approached him, it didn’t pass through him as if he didn’t hear them.
Because of this, they all became upset with the person and tried to aggressively settle the thing. Although there was a bright light making them have a hard time, they bravely approached the person since he was just a mortal.
"What do you mean? I am just looking for my master," the person finally spoke, but as his sounds were hoarse and tremulous, chills passed through the spines of the cultivators.
"You!"
They now performed more aggressive acts, but just before they could touch the skin of the person, they accidentally touch the light. They were suddenly sucked inside.
Witnessing this, people shouted in panic. They all started running away from him as well as the growing light. But the person just smiled despite the horror in their eyes.
"You are all useless. In this weird world, you don’t stand a chance to magic!"
And so, after screaming, the light grew stronger and even sucked in nearby people. The light became redder as it started to absorb more people.
The person could watch the scene and, as he seemed to be enjoying it, he started flying over the buildings, watching everything from above.
"Useless ants. They only had a little mana...? What’s with the weird energy from them? It’s making the philosopher stone impure." He hissed as he observed the light starting to have a solid appearance, but it still continued to absorb the people.
But since he couldn’t change the way it was right now, he focused his concentration on enjoying the scene in the meantime.
Minutes passed, and the street was finally empty, but he wasn’t content. He moved the light to the other sides of the street and the whole city, absorbing everyone.
After a few more minutes, the city was finally empty and a symbol started appearing inside the light, finally becoming solid.
The solid red object became an orb and then it became smaller.
The person descended to approach the red orb that became smaller and smaller until it became the size of a fist.
He grabbed it and a symbol flickered again. It was an alchemy circle.
As he took it, a grin appeared on his face.
"Nice. There is a little mana here. At least the equivalent of a young dragon gem."
He smiled again and then observed the orb once again, but as he started to feel strange energy coming from the orb, he pondered for a second.
"What is this energy?"
He tried to suck the energy, but as he sucked it, the energy just got rejected by his core.
"What the hell? What’s wrong with this energy? I can feel that it is powerful energy like mana, but why is it being rejected by my core?" He pondered again.
As he continued absorbing the energy, he grumbled after plenty of rejection. Until one last try, the energy was finally accepted when he absorbed it with the mana inside the orb.
"Ah... So that was it? Do I just have to absorb it with the mana? Good! I feel like my core has become larger than normal! This way, my master will praise me for being strong! However, it feels bad that these weird creatures somehow look like humans... Hm... But they were bad! They are bad! Their souls are bad! It’s okay!"
Then the person started losing his form. When he noticed it, he complained to nobody, but as he saw the moon appearing, he stopped.
"Eh... So the moon is up now? I think it’s time to rest. This good Soul Dragon will find its master!"
Then, he occupied a huge house in the city and slept.
As he slept, he remembered the thing that weird old men told him. If he could bring them orbs with energies, they’d tell his master’s location.
"It was just inevitable. Since I got curious about the energy, I absorbed it. Then, tomorrow, I will absorb another bad soul!"
The form of the person earlier had now become more visible. As the pale moonlight bathed his location, it exposed his appearance having a weird and strong-shaped body that had similarities to a salamander but had wings on his back. He was huge but just like a normal horse.
His scales were light blue as well as the two horns on his forehead.
While the night was getting late, he just slept in one position until the next morning.
He woke up, stood up diligently, and then flew. He was now back in his human form.
"I will look for another bad soul! I will not absorb them so that I can find my master. I can feel that he is here, but I don’t know which location in this strange world." Then a frown came after his words.
"Ah... Let’s start working!" He exclaimed with positivity, then started flying, looking for another city he could visit.