Instead I move down the hallway checking each door, I ignore the ones that need me to build a body. I want to explore worlds that I can do so as a soul so I can work on my mental skills. I know I have found one when touching the door allows me into the world instantly.

I appear in my glowing white normal form and find myself in a mountain valley. I am glad to see Maximus beside me, that means there should be things to harvest here. There is plenty of plant life in the valley around me, but I also see cave entrances as well.

It looks like there is plenty for me to explore, now I just need to see how strong the beasts are. With that in mind, I head deeper into the valley to take a look around, but I keep a close eye on Maximus. If there are any valuable plants here, he will take off running as soon as he senses them.

Just as I am thinking that, Maximus turns to the right and takes off running into the undergrowth. I quickly follow after him, I don’t want him to get attacked by something. However, he is faster than he looks and he quickly leaves me behind, but he soon comes back.

He has a small flower in his mouth as he runs towards me and a number of things chasing him. They look like chickens, they just have scales instead of feathers and there are a lot of them. The group, or flock, is attacking Maximus, but they don’t seem to be able to hurt him.

He looks rather funny with a dozen of them clinging to him and trying to peck at him. However, with them all around him and on him, I can’t use the machine gun. I need an attack that will kill them without harming Maximus, which makes me think of my technique.

Not that I think the beasts would count as sinners, but I need something similarly selective. A flame that only burns my enemies is my first thought and since I am in soul form a thought is all it takes. I create a field of pale blue fire all around Maximus, but it doesn’t even singe his fur.

The little chicken things on the other hand get barbequed by the fire and not just the ones on him. There are dozens more chasing behind him and they all charge straight into the fire. They seem to have no care for their own lives and more just keep charging in to be cooked.

124 Snappers defeated! 1,240 Soul Exp gained!

Loot: 124 Soul Coins!

Once again, the exp and the loot are disappointing, but it isn’t like they were hard to kill. If anything, they seemed to want to die the way they kept charging into the fire. Either that, or they were too stupid to realize that the others dying meant they would die.

I take the flower from Maximus and put it into the palace for now, it isn’t one I have seen before. That isn’t too surprising, I haven’t really paid much attention to the plants he has gathered. I certainly hope the flower is worth more than killing the chickens was.

We continue forward until Maximus runs off again, he soon comes back with another flower. It looks like the same type, but the petals are a different color on this one. As I put it away I look around, but it seems he didn’t find any more chickens this time.

Over the next few minutes Maximus brings me several more flowers, all of the same type. They are all different colors, but all of the same type, which makes me curious what the colors mean. If I take them to that Dryad I met in Soul City, maybe she can tell me about them.

She is probably the one I will want to sell them to anyway and she is safer than the succubus. I will probably go visit Soul City soon, I have soul coins that I need to spend. Other than buying more reagents to expand my palace, I want to see about trading some armor pieces.

I would love to complete another set of armor, not that I have really needed my armor. Still, the extra protection will be nice if I run into something that can actually hit me. I think it would be best if I head there tomorrow, before I explore any other worlds, just in case.

For now, I am going to just keep wandering around in this world for the rest of the night. Hopefully, the flowers that Maximus keeps finding will end up being worth the time and effort. Besides, there might be something more interesting to hunt than the chickens.

A few minutes pass and then Maximus goes running off again, but when he returns I hear something odd. He has another flower, but there is a buzzing sound coming from the jungle behind him. It sounds kind of like the fly swarms, but the buzzing is deeper in pitch than that.

It is a swarm alright, but it is a swarm of much larger insects than the flies I killed before. As they get closer, I recognize it as a swarm of bees, but the type of insect doesn’t matter. I do the same thing I did for the other swarms, I create a lightning field in the air.

Then I just sit back and watch as the swarm of bees flies into it and gets zapped to death. No matter how many times I do this to a swarm, it is still extremely fun to watch. However, the fact that they are bees is making me very curious about them.

Do they have a hive? Does it contain honey? If so, what does it taste like? Questions I can’t wait to try and answer once the swarm is dead. However, they just keep coming, it is a huge swarm and they are determined to get to Maximus.

I’m not sure what he did when he took the flower, but whatever it was really pissed the bees off. I doubt the bees are worth much individually, but the swarm should be big enough to be a nice chunk of exp. The stream of bees finally slows down to a trickle and then after a few more it finally ends.

2,364 Eldritch Bees defeated! 23,640 Soul Exp gained!

Loot: 1,182 Soul Coins, 12 Soul Crystals, Helmet!

Luckily, I haven’t taken the flower from Maximus yet, so I am able to gather the crystals before he eats them. Considering how easy it was to kill the swarm, the loot and exp are pretty decent. Once the loot is collected, I take the flower from Maximus and then start towards where the swarm came from.

I have questions that I want answers to and for once I should be able to get them. Unfortunately, flying things don’t really leave tracks to follow, all I have is a general direction. Luck is with me and after walking for a bit I start to hear the buzzing of wings.

Following the sound leads me to a large tree with a massive hive built into its branches. Despite all the ones I already killed, there is another massive swarm guarding the hive. There are also a number of flowers beneath the hive, which I’m guessing is where Maximus got the flower.