*Roar*
In the forest of Nlethemar, an angry roar reverberated in the surroundings.
But in the next seconds, its blood was spilled as it was hacked into half by a bipedal red-colored mantis that was bigger than an average man.
The Gorilla fell on its back before it disappears and leaves behind a purple-colored soul orb.
The soul orb was floating in the air without any movement until a hand touched it and sucked its energy. More than 90% of its soul energy dissipated while the remaining was absorbed by Leo, who killed it in the first place.
"Only 853, huh!"
Azzy heard Leo mumbled with disappointment.
He killed a purple grade low-rank-4 beast that has over 20000 soul power and was only able to absorb 1700 soul power worth of energy.
But because his soul beast is of gold grade, the absorbed soul power of the purple grade gorilla that was refined into his became half of the original amount.
For a person with over 120 thousand of soul power, adding 853 isn't that much.
No wonder this senior is disappointed. That's what Azzy thought.
But, Ranier, a grade-9 student praised him instead. "The fifth Prince is really incredible. Even though he absorbed the beast orb that wasn't of his attribute, he still managed to absorb almost 10% of it."
'Is 10% that great?' Azzy thought to himself.
"An average person will absorb 10% of the beast's soul power that they killed." The Reaper's voice was heard in his head, trying to clear his doubt. "But this young man can absorb 20% of the soul energy from the beast orb. A decent potential."
"Then, how much I will absorb?" Azzy asked the Reaper. He wondered about his absorption rate so that he can calculate how long it will take to reach rank-7.
He was someone who lit up 103 out of 108 runes back during the awakening ceremony. Surely, his absorption shouldn't be bad, right?
The Reaper then answered, "You don't need to compare yourself with these mediocre. You can absorb everything, although refining will be harder for you unless you find platinum grade beasts."
"Yeah, I know that much." Azzy also knows that his soul power improvement will be slow compared to others unless he kills every gold grade beasts of a higher rank.
"Let's go…" After doing his part as a senior, Leo gestured to follow.
"Junior Gideon, what kind of Galarian beast you are going to challenge?" Leo suddenly asked him without looking back.
Gideon answered truthfully. "Hoping for a higher rank one in gold grade but rank-3 would be also alright."
"I see…" Leo nodded but then, went silent once again, not intending to continue the conversation too much.
*Hiss*
Right then, Azzy heard a hiss of a snake. He looked around but didn't find it.
"Don't use the material sense but spiritual senses, Azrael." The Reaper once again gave him a piece of advice. "Unlike humans, the beasts cannot completely mask their aura. Try to locate the leaking aura of a rank-4 beast."
As Azzy concentrated on his surroundings, he sensed a few rank-3 and rank-4 experts along with his three teammates.
"No, all of them are humans." The Reaper interrupted Azzy quickly before he mistakes the other ones are beasts. "As I have said, unless they reveal it by themselves, the aura of Arcana Masters will be masked. What you are trying to sense is the soul energy.
Try to connect your soul with nature like how you connect with your Arcanas.
For basics, start with the trees. All trees possess soul power no matter how minute it might be. So, try to sense them through your spirit. You can see a basic outline of their appearance instead."
Azzy closes his eyes and concentrates on his surroundings. Once again, he can see nothing but the positions of rank-3 and rank-4 masters.
"Concentrate your spirit first." The Reaper's voice disrupted his concentration and guided him in a different direction.
Just as he concentrated on his soul orb, he saw there was someone in the center with two types of energy constantly revolving around him.
While both of them are dark in appearance and can't be distinguished from each other, Azzy was able to find the Protos energy that's running wildly
He has an identical appearance to himself.
This tiny figure just sat in a lotus position and was meditating to control the energies and trying to mix them up.
Azzy knew this was the physical representation of his soul.
"Now, connect with your soul and feel the energy from its perspective." The Reaper continued to guide him.
As soon as Azzy followed his instructions, he felt like he was in some kind of space. He saw the massive Sun in the center, followed by the four planets in their own orbits.
However, it was different from the usual solar system.
Each planet is ten times bigger than its previous one.
The remaining five are yet to be seen. There are also no meteorites.
Azzy felt some kind of energy is keeping them in balance. He wondered whether it's his soul energy.
"The sun represents your Arcana and the four planets represent your rank. When the ninth planet is formed, you will complete the solar system.
That's when you were able to draw the energy from the stars and increase your soul power to create solar systems until you form a galaxy by killing a rank-10 beast and absorb its energy.
The higher the talent, the greater the number of solar systems they can create.
Once you reach the rank-10, you will continue to absorb the energy from the distant stars from the universe and continue to form galaxies within your own.
For each galaxy you can form, your life limit will increase by 100 thousand years.
And finally, after thinking that you reached the limit of galaxy creations, slaying a god or a similar level demon or creatures will help you breakthrough to rank-11 and create a universe, representing your immortality.
Okay, anyway, now that you understood the process, you can sense the energy that was flowing into this place, right?"
Azzy answered, "Yes."
"Now, try to trace the energy back to the source, outside of your universe."
Following his words, Azzy tried to sense the energy that was balancing the solar system that formed in his soul.
Quickly, he sensed them. He got a pleasant feeling even from the wild energy.
"Don't change your vision. Just try to increase your range further and further.
'This…' For a while, Azzy felt each and every cell of the body. Previously, when he inspects his body, it was like looking from the sky but now, his point of view changed as if he was standing in the center of the planet.
As he tried to increase his range further, Azzy then saw outside of Gideon first, followed by the other two teammates, then, the trees, beasts that are quietly observing them, the aura of other Arcana Masters, etc…
He was able to see one km of surroundings.
There was an aura of a giant mamba on top of trees, gazing at them. It was a peak rank-4 but its aura too thick.
Azzy was stunned not because of the enemy but for another thing.
"Uhh… Chronos, didn't you say the humans mask their auras? How come I'm sensing them?"