"Mom, I'm home!" After parking his hoverbike in the hoverbay behind a groovy looking nine-story building, Bas King hopped on the express elevator up to the eighth floor.
He got to their condominium, apartment number 888, and unlocked the door with facial recognition technology. Keys to locked doors were a relic of the past, and any door that required a lock would need a much more sophisticated key than the traditional metal to open. Of course, Bas was used to the Eternal Realm's conventions, where all he needed was his own aura.
"Hello, my baby, I've missed you," Eureka King slowly walked out of her bedroom upon hearing her eldest son's voice. "Lord, what will we do about that hair, boy."
Eureka was around 155 cm tall and had an excessively normal appearance outside of her incredible and voluptuous body. Of course, Bas knew that this so-called "normal" appearance was actually just a bio-mask that his mother almost never took off. In reality, her beauty was quite startling. It was just that only Bas and his siblings had the pleasure of viewing her true countenance, and even they only saw it on holidays. There were many reasons for this, but among the reasons Bas King was currently aware of, not a single one of them would fail to irritate him.
"How was school? You aren't misbehaving, are you? With great intelligence comes great pride, I know, but these people are different from us by design. You must be a gentleman at all times, cough, cough, cough... You need to set an example for your little sister and brother, cough, cough," his mother fell into a coughing fit in the middle of talking.
"Yes mother, your child will be certain to listen. Please, don't overexert yourself on my behalf," Bas King hurried to his mother's side to support her after she started another coughing fit. 'Is her condition getting worse? Tch, but if I probe her with my spiritual sense she would surely notice. Besides, what can I do? I'm still so weak. Then again, it would be better to know.'
"Silly boy, your mother is fine, cough," his mother was clearly not as fine as she was currently trying to appear, but Bas thought that his mom was super cute when she acted tough. Even while wearing that super-regular face, her charm could not be avoided. After discussing his day with his mother for a while, Bas retired to his bedroom.
"Mom, I'll be meditating until tomorrow. No need to cook for me tonight," Bas King shout down the hallway, before walking through the doorway.
The door automatically slid shut behind him and sealed the room. Bas' room consisted of a queen-sized bed, various gadgets he spent the last two years collecting and researching, his own washroom, and a walk-in closet. In the middle of this room was an arcane circle full of shining golden runes. This was known as a hunting array powered by soul power, and Bas King used it to train his hunt qi. Or at least, this was what he tried to do. For some reason, his hunter cultivation had stopped advancing three years ago, before Bas came to inhabit this body.
"How can I, this great deity, possibly be in possession of such a waste body. Something is surely not right here," Bas King walked to the center of the hunting array and sat in the lotus position to start his night's training.
Runic light lit up on the hunting array as soul power was swiftly drawn toward the circle and poured directly into Bas King's body, where he refined it into hunt qi.
"Hunt Qi Cultivation can be separated into five classes and ten ranks, starting at the first rank, fifth class. The previous Sebastian King had just reached the third level of Hunt Foundation, Fifth Class when his talent vanished! By the time he turned ten years old, his fellow clansmen of the same generation had already thoroughly surpassed him, growing ever closer to the Fourth Class. Hunt Neophyte, Fifth Class was the very beginning stage of hunt qi. After leveling up to the Hunt Foundation rank, hunters could use the hunt qi within their bodies to reinforce their strength. At this point, in the cultivation of every fifth class hunter, learning a hunt arte was the only way to continue leveling up. For those who intend to enter the dru, fusing with soul record is essential at rank 10."
Bas meditated on the basics. Hunt arti constructed hunter arrays inside the body with inner qi, allowing the body to gather and refine more hunt qi, as well as improve its quality from the base. They allowed hunters who didn't possess a hunter soul to travel the path to power. Hunters who didn't possess a hunter soul and also couldn't practice any arti were doomed to be mediocre all of their lives.
The Sebastian King who was once famous as the young hunter with the most talent and potential in the entire Outeast City had become a waste who couldn't cultivate an arte. None of the arti in the family library were compatible with him. His father even bought him countless different types of arti, all in the hope he would find a suitable match. Unfortunately, no such match was found. Sebastian even vowed not to cut his hair until he found a suitable arte. There were many reasons why one would be incompatible to arti. The main reasons were lack of talent, or a peculiar hunter soul. Those who were incompatible to arti would almost always be lacking in talent.
At least, that was the case for Sebastian King. Bas didn't really share this concern. In the first place, he had never found an arti that he couldn't practice. Merely, he disdained to practice such low-level arti. He was chosen by the Skylord Everflame from birth, replacing his hunter soul with the all powerful natal flame. What arti could possibly reject his almighty constitution?
"The fact that there are hunters on this plane as well must mean that I am not too far removed from my own. However, the matter of how much time has passed since my death to my reincarnation is something I'll have trouble figuring out," Bas King murmured to himself. "Hunt Foundation at age six, this body's potential is truly not bad by any world's standards. Perhaps if it wasn't for the awakening of my dormant soul, Sebastian would have ascended to glory on his own. Alas...when his hunter soul awakened, his own soul could no longer exist, likely assimilated into the everflame. Since the everflame and I were originally one being, I have replaced the fallen King."
Bas realized by now that to awaken his dormant soul, Sebastian's soul power was constantly being absorbed. This was likely the source of his becoming a so-called "trash" hunter. Such was the nature of the everflame, it could consume all things to revitalize itself. The everflame was eternal and everlasting, it would never allow itself to die out.
"No matter. Since I have inherited this life that you left behind, I will take responsibility for both of our dreams. In my last life, I grew up as an orphan. My parents were killed when I was young. My pursuit of power and thirst for revenge kept me away from the pleasures of said life, to the point whereby I was fooled by a demoness disguised as a goddess due to my inexperience. Is this life, I wish to find out more about this emotion that is known as love, this passion for others that I have not explored. In the meantime, I'll complete that poor soul's dream of becoming a Qi Producer and First Class Hunter. After all, these are things I intended to do anyway. First I must decide on a suitable arte. The fool has been has already reached rank 13, yet he doesn't have a soul record. This is simply trash among trash! I've been scouring my memory for weeks now in preparation for tonight."
Bas had done all the research on this body that he possibly could.
"The arti of this plane's Hunter's Society are separated by class starting from wood, bronze, silver, gold, all the way to platinum class. As an aspiring Qi Producer, I should invest myself in not only Drug and Tool Production, but also Arte Production. In fact, since they have the so-called Mechas and Battle Kings in this era, perhaps I should forego drug production. I should choose a wood class arte with great potential, transforming it into a wood class soul record. Then I can cultivate a platinum class soul record over time, even producing various arti along the way. This is the true method of becoming a top-tier Record Producer."
Bas King had a large wealth of past experiences after recovering the fully intact memories of his previous incarnation. Originally, Sebastian King's talent should have been astronomical. However, because of the awkward way in which Bas King entered the Portal of Osiris in the afterlife, something strange had occurred and his soul flame was not wiped clean by the guardians of the gate. He still retained his prior knowledge! However, it was due to this that Sebastian was sacrificed as food for the flame that was Bas King's soul.
"Wait, flame? That's it! Hunter Soul! I am ultimately not Sebastian, so I will surely have my own hunter soul, bwahahaha," Bas King laughed like a maniac in his room, startling the Eureka King who was still cooking dinner in spite of her son's earlier opinion. "Since it's my own hunter soul, it should remain compatible with my everflame."
Hearing her eldest son's insane laughter, Eureka thought maybe she should cut his hair after all. 'Ever since that hair grew out he's been wilder.'
Meanwhile, Bas King was ecstatic. "I have always looked down on those silk-pants young masters born with hunter souls that were the fruit of their ancestor's labor. However, who could have imagined that I would become my own ancestor one day, my natal flame reincarnating with my soul! What arte do I need if I still have the Skylord Everflame as a hunter soul?"