“No fighting? Can this be the best day of my life? My goodness, conquering an artifact has never been this busy, but I should not underestimate this bird, as it is corny and smart everywhere that spells evil,” Grover thought all these to himself.“You know I can hear your thoughts, right?” Raven asked as it looked at Grover with an evil smirk on its face.“How is that even possible?” Grover inquired in shock.Seeing the shock on Grover’s face, it laughed and said, “You have forgotten that I rule this place and my rules apply here. I told you to pay attention, Grover, the human. You humans are the same; why would you be stubborn in a life-and-death situation? Well, guess you have chosen the path of death then,” Raven added as it looked sternly at Grover.“For the record? My choices are mine to make, and like I said, you will be surprised at the things that I can do in a game,” Grover said.“Indeed, you are not the first until you know the game; I would not brag if I were you,” Raven st
Grover began to change his expression as he compared all four rules in his head. He suddenly burst out, saying the rules were unfair.“Why are the rules so unfair? This should not be this way,” Grover began to complain as he saw no way out of the mess Raven had just created. At first, he thought he could win the big black and corny bird, but that was no longer the feeling he had after summing up the four rules he needed to abide by in order to win and conquer the spirit of the Raven. Now he wished he had to fight the Raven instead of facing it on a board game with his opponent giving the rules.“You are in no position to tell me what to do or what not to do, human! Now we are going to start the game, and there is no turning back. Besides, there is nothing unfair as long as strength is involved; if only you were strong, these complaints of unfairness would not have even come up,” Raven said, as he was already becoming pissed.Grover knew and had to accept that this was a test of his p
Raven became depressed for a month and fifteen days. As the days went by, Raven stopped disturbing itself about what it could not change; it went on to decide that there was nothing on Earth for it anymore.It finally possessed the artifact it remained to date.When it was in the artifact, it felt like someone picked it up, and it contained a spell it knew was meant to absorb people into things, and it was surprised it knew it very well.The person appeared before him and, out of anger, asked what the person wanted to do with his master’s thing and why he was in his master’s house.The person, out of fear, was stammering.“You thief!” Raven thundered angrily as it possessed the thief and made him kill himself, and his soul was struggling to leave the artifact. Raven did what it did not believe it could do; it chanted another spell, and the soul of the intruder became bound to the artifact too and could not leave.Raven did that to a few others. The Council of Artifact Makers took the
Grover had to survey the idea that came to his mind slowly and carefully so he would not make any silly mistakes.The idea he had was that the main challenge was not to play the game but rather to outsmart Raven at its own game, which meant he just had to distract Raven from his initial plan of distracting him and get into his head.After he realized this, he began singing and did not think much about it again.“Are you ignoring me, little human? Why are you not playing?” Raven asked. “Do you want your three hours to run out and you die?” It added.“Relax; I have gotten used to the rules. Let us play now,” Grover said as he noticed that Raven was trying to hide something from him. His instincts to be right began tinkling, and he smiled as he made a silly-looking move that even a novice would not do.“You think you are going to win by making silly moves? Or you think I will pity you because you cannot play, which I know you can do quite well?” Raven said that it looked like Grover wa
With what Grover did, he already knew that he had won the Raven spirit; if he had not, the spirit would not be trying to find out what he did."Well, we both know that I have won this fight or game or whatever you call it, and there is nothing you can do about it, Mr. Raven,” Grover said, smiling at Raven, knowing fully well that he was taunting Raven.Seeing the look on Raven’s face, Grover laughed so hard that he held his stomach.Raven also laughed, trying to bring up a reversed psychological effect on Grover, but Grover was too clever for such a thing.“You think there is nothing I can do? We both know you cheated, and that alone should be a reason for me to take your soul without any further waste of time,” Raven said as it went further with the reverse psychology thing.“Hahaha, you know that is not true, and I did not cheat. Well, just so you know, the rules you gave did not address cheating. The rules themselves were clear that you were cheating, so why bring up cheating as a
Grover was pleasantly surprised at this and was very happy. “I thought you would want to do more for the fact that you are a cunning spirit, or your pride would not let you be straightforward,” Grover muttered to himself, even though Raven could hear him.There was no need for him to do anything. Even his first artifact spirit seemed to have accepted the Raven's Spirit.“That went quite smoothly; Vladimir's bond was not like this. He had to fight both spirits to get a settlement, but here I am with a very smooth bonding,” Grover muttered to himself as he saw a bright light rushing towards him, and the next moment he found himself back at the Crypt with everyone's eyes on him.“That was quick!” Vladimir exclaimed, getting up to his feet.“How did you do it, man?” Krystal asked, as he was also stunned at how fast he bonded with the beast artifact."Well, I spent close to two hours in there, though,” Grover said.“That might be true; the timing of the spirit realms is very different fro
Dust and blood swirled around Grover's boots as they emerged from the Crypt's gaping maw. Sunlight, harsh against his cave-accustomed eyes, revealed Shambala perched on a nearby rock, a mischievous glint in his golden eyes.“Let us find a place to clean up this blood and dust from ourselves,” Shambala said to the team as they began to search for a watering hole to do so.“There is one watering hole we could use,” Krystal pointed out as they made their way to it.“Justin and Riley just crossed my mind; I was wondering if they would be done with the training manual Sensei gave them,” Vladimir said.“Hahaha, they cannot exhaust the training in the manual. I used magical ink to write down the instructions, and every week it renews to a new set and routine to be carried out. They may or may not be missing out on anything right now. Nice right?” Shambala asked after explaining."Yes, Sensei, it is quite thrilling. I was not expecting that to be the case, though. You really thought it throug
Shambala laughed as he saw the look on his face.“I do not know what to do, Sensei. I am confused,” Grover said.“I can see that young lad. You just have to summon the Raven spirit to assist with the outsmarting aspect, and you are good to go. Since you are already its master and it resides in you, all you have to do now is call on it, and it will answer,” Shambala explained.“Is that all, Sensei? And I will be able to have the outsmarting ability.” Grover asked."Yes, lad,” Shambala retorted. Grover stared at the ground for quite some time, a mixture of confusion and frustration swirling within him. Shambala had just revealed its unique property: bonding with the user and allowing them to summon the Raven spirit. But for Grover, the spirit remained stubbornly silent."Don't fret, young Grover," Shambala chuckled, his voice a dry rasp. "The bond takes time to settle. Patience is key."Patience, however, was a scarce commodity for Grover at that moment. The weight of the unknown and t