Jay and Rick introduced themselves one after the other and got comfortable with each other's name right away.

Jay could clearly see the sparkly eyes of Rick which had a lot of respect for Jay.

Jay was humbled just by seeing that. But right now it wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

He said, "We should leave this place as soon as possible..."

Rick understood what he meant but he was a bit hesitant.

"I don't think that I can come along...", he lowered his gazes and said that.

"And why is that?", Jay asked almost immediately.

"It's because I want to stay with Master and grow as a blacksmith...", Rick said.

"...", Jay was dumbfounded.

He couldn't say anything right now because he understood that Rick wasn't aware that his master had already passed away.

"Also, my arms...", Rick felt sad when he talked about his arms but when he turned his gazes towards the his hand, he couldn't help but he shocked by it.

"M-my Arms?", he most definitely felt a weird sensation running down his spines.

His arm was definitely cut but right now it was back again, he failed to understand the concept behind it.

'Was that a dream?', he asked himself, but then again when he turned his gazes towards his right, he found both of his arms lying there whole being covered with blood.

"No... it was definitely a reality... then how?", he kept wondering about it again and again but regardless of how many times he thought, he failed to realise what might have happened.

He turned his gazes towards Jay and asked, "Sir Jay, do you know how my limbs grew back again?"

"That...", Jay was about to tell him everything that had happened after he was unconscious, but just by remembering it, he was feeling unrest.

He lowered his gazes and stayed mum for a while after seeing which Rick started to feel weird.

'Something is definitely wrong... why did Sir Jay pause in between?', he asked himself.

"Please tell me Sir Jay, I want to know how it happened. Perhaps you used your powers to let my limbs grow back?", Rick asked.

"...", Jay was quiet.

He had never been so quiet before in his entire life. He had no other choice right now. No matter how many times he decided to tell him, the weird and sudden feeling form his heart would pause him from speaking anything.

This was his first time for him feeling something so ridiculous.

Though he had no words to explain the situation, he knew that he couldn't just keep Rick in dark forever.

Some or the other day he had to tell about how his limbs grew back and right now he would be telling him about the skeleton's death.

So he decided to spill the beans without any more of hesitation.

"Listen Rick, it might be too hard for you to hear about it but please bear with it.", Jay said.

"Y-yes?", Rick was confused when he heard Jay say that all of a sudden.

He indeed wanted to know about the limbs but he didn't know what Jay was going to tell now.

"Your master... he was the one who forged the arms for you.", Jay said.

"Eh? Master did?", Rick's eyes bulged as he heard that and his heart started to beat fast too.

He was indeed expecting something shocking, but what he heard eas totally out of his litylenexpectations.

"That's...", he was wondering about it.

He touched his hands again and again and could feel it working just like earlier.

But as he touched the arm, he felt that it was cold. It was somewhat unlike his previous pair of arms which were filled with warmth.

More over, he couldn't feel any pulses which meant that there was no blood circulation.

It was the same for the feel of touch which seemed k had been vansihed from the arms.

That was the reason why he couldn't feel his hands since earlier.

Jay expected Rick to be surprised and he knew that the arms couldn't be perfect replacements, but they were by far the best things that the blacksmith might have made.

Probably that was why he smiled a bit but right now he had the main part which he hadn't told Rick yet.

"Listen...", Jay broke the silence which was spread throughout the area.

Rick turned his gazes towards Jay after he heard that.

"Your master is no more.", Jay, without giving anytime for Rick to recover from the previous shock, blurted it out almost immediately.

"Huh...? Wha-what did you say?", Rick thought of it as a joke initially and asked with a weird expression on his face.

"Your master... the dark blacksmith... he is no more.", Jay repeated himself with a low tone.

"You... you are kidding right?", even after hearing it twice, Rick failed to believe it.

He thought that Jay was pulling his leg in order to see him all worried.

"Do you think I would be joking right now?", Jay said in a deep and low tone.

"..."

Rick didn't say anything and just lowered his gazes. He could hardly believe Jay's words.

"Master... passed away?", he could hardly even believe his own words.

Suddenly tears started to flow from his eyes and in a minute his entire face was drenched by it.

"Master... he died!!!?", it seemed as if it was quite hard for him to accept that.

But no matter what Rick would do or say, the truth won't change and what's happened once would possibly get changed again.

Jay walked close to him and just placed his right hand on his head.

"Wahhhhj... wahhhh...", Rick kept crying like that of a baby which understandable as it seemed like his master was the only one who was there in his life.

Jay patted him slowly which was the only thing that he could do right now in order to help him relieve his pain.

He kept crying for 10-20 minutes or so and the whole time Jay stood beside him.

Finally when his heart was empty, he bowed his head at the seat on which his master used to sleep or sit always.

He bowed in front of the furnace and the tools which his master once showed him how to use.

"I will never ever forget the favor that you bestowed upon me...", Rick said.

Jay smiled a bit after looking at what Rick did. He understood that Rick was quite different from most of the people.

It was probably because he was raised here all alone without the influence of other people. But then again, Jay had no idea about Rick's story and he had no intension of forcing him to say right now.

"Hmm... if you are done, we should leave...", Jay was in a bit of rush as he wanted to return without anyone noticing his absence.

"Where...?", Rick had no idea about where he would be going. He also didn't know as to why Ajay was ready to take him.

But then Jay explained Rick everything about what his master asked him to do and thus he had made Rick his younger brother from this very day.

He too smiled at that as he was now allowed to go somewhere finally after such a long time.

"Can you waig for a few moments Jay sir, I'll get my belongings.", Rick said.

Jay nodded his head immediately after which Rick vanished towards another chamber that was present.

"Sigh... lets just wait for a while..."

Jay just stood there and took a look at the area when all of a sudden his glance fell on Jeff's body that was still stuck to the wall.

"Huh? What's that?"

When Jay took a clear notice of his body, he could find a blue coloured arrow mark flying over Jeff's Head.

He tried to touch it.

'Ting'

==========

[ Soul can be extracted from this body ]

[ Would you like to extract? ]

- Y/N

==========

Jay's eyes immediately bugged when he read that message.

"Oh my God... I can extract souls even from humans?", he asked himself with surprise.

Jay without any hesitation immeditely decided to extract the soul.

"Yes!"

All of a sudden, the a small light orb started to appear out of Jeff's body which slowly grew in size and finally became stable after attaining the size of a fist.

'Ting'

==========

[ You have extracted the Dormant Soul Of The Sorcerer Of Time And Space ]

[ Rank: S ]

[ Time Limit: 00:00:50:00 ]

==========

"Dormant Soul Of the sorceror Of time and space? Shouldn't it be Jeff's Soul?", Jay has the doubt but right now he didn't want to get any more confused.

He was glad enough to get an S Rank Soul.

'Weird, if the sorceror was going to fight in real, then his rank would be easily SS or SSS... but his soul Rank is only S?', Jay thought.

"Does the rank of the soul get regressed?", he asked himself.

But then again he denied it because the rank of the souls of the Spions remained A.

"Or maybe... the rank decreases only if the soul isn't extracted immediately!?"

Now that could have been a possibility. He extracted the soul of Spions almost immediately whereas he extracted the sorcerers soul after 1-2 hours.

"Oh well I will think about that later but right now ... let me store the soul in this...", he said this while holding the locket which he received from the skeleton in his left hand.

He just flashed the locket to the soul and thought about absorbing it and immediately after that the soul entered the locket.

'Ting'

==========

[ Soul Cage ]

[ Rank: SSS+ ]

[ Capacity:

0/1

0/5

0/10

1/100

0/500

0/1000

0/5000

0/7000

0/9000

0/10000 ]

[ Time: Indefinite ]

[ Special Effect:

- Boosts Speed by 2%

- Stealth is applicable to the item.

- Teleportation is applicable to the item. ]

==========

A ridiculously long list about various Rank souls and the limit till which they could be accepted was given.

One extra good thing about the artifact was that the time limit was indefinite which meant that he could keep the souls for indefinite time period.

Also the special effects were not that bad either. Stealth could be generally used on all things, but there was an ambiguity if it could be used in such a high level item.

Since it was clearly stated by the system, his doubts subsided.

"Oh well, looks like I've acquired some pretty useful things...", Jay smiled as he looked at the artifact as well as the the ring which he got from the trade since earlier.

To be continued...