*Two months later*
East Coast City
Spirit Ascension platform. Spirit Pagoda
I was on a bus going to Spirit Pagoda. Let's start with a small rant. Today is another big day and I needed to be calm for what I am going to face today.
All the things that I have been had improved the state of my mind to being less fragile.
I am proud of myself!
The world is not fair. The students of class Zero were able to take Spirit Ascension platform more than 11 times in just three months, if I remembered correctly.
I had to wait for a whole two months to get an opportunity to enter it once. The world was really not fair.
Luckily I was able to have a chance to enter it. Even if it took more than two months. Repeating myself to assert self assurance.
It didn't seem to work.
In three months I reached level 13. My body was also stronger than most. The downside of it being my scars. Now I look traumatised with scars to complete my sad backstory.
I clearly needed a healing skill. Things would be so easier with it. The only thing that my current soul skill does is to increase my digestion. My healing speed and others were still the same. Weird.
The results were the emergence of various scars and wounds marks on my body that I gain due to my destructive training. At least my face was fine.
Since I had to train daily, my scars could not even heal properly as new scars came before their natural healing. I also can't go to the Soul hospital as healing soul skills cause more damage to my overcharged state. I still didn't know the cause of it.
I also had no actual way of explaining what I was doing to get so bloody without causing any commotion. It's not like I would say calm down and then no one would have any problem with this. Idiot.
Ignoring all that rubbish thoughts, my showed growth. I was barely 1.1 meters before. Now I was 1.2 metres. My body also gained lost muscles.
But most important of all...
I have already acquired all the information about this city. The Gang leaders here are powerful. This city is basically run by two big gangs and many small other gangs. Both of them are something I could not afford to offend at the moment. My poison will be useless to kill them as the healthcare facilities and services are available at ease here. At least the normal ones. So not now. I need to find information on other weaker cities first.
I need a weak prey to prey upon.
The Spirit Ascension platform came, signalling an end to my preparatory thoughts. I got off the bus. No matter how many times I look, my first impression always is, this building was huge. I went to the reception to ask which floor the Spirit Ascension platform was located.
I went to the lift to go to the Spirit Ascension platform floor.
I pressed the lift button, the lift came and I pressed my desired floor. In a few minutes the lift opened, I exited the lift. Completely unnecessary information but it works to keep my mind away from the weird thoughts and jokes that is currently going in my mind.
So many lefts, so many rights and there I was, finally at the entrance or whatever it was (a lift) to the Spirit Ascension Platform.
I showed my appointment card given to me by the receptionist. They granted me the permission to enter and I followed them... to another lift.
I totally acted like a country buffoon that has seen the bigger world for the first time by asking and commenting on each thing.
And truthfully, I don't think I was purely acting, considering I was quite pleasantly looking everywhere in calm surprise, at face showed no emotions but I thought of setting the place on fire multiple times.
Dunno why I thought that.
Even though I already read and saw video articles about everything I needed to do.
Inside I filled some forms regarding my mental health conditions and all, since this platform can mentally cripple some children. It HAD MENTALLY CRIPPLED SOME CHILDREN.
'Interesting.'
What a safe thing that is available for the use of children.
"The spirit ascension platform is the fruit of a millennium years of our Spirit Pagoda's efforts and knowledge. We had invested an enormous amount of resources and used our spatial technology to create a different world, therefore, the first thing you need to note is that the spirit ascension platform is a virtual world. To be precise, it is half virtual and half real. This is because a lot of the virtual data relies on your input. However, it can be considered purely virtual within the elementary spirit ascension platform, so there is no need to fear for your life."
"Pertain from any immoral behavior like nudity and such, and you can do anything you want in the spirit ascension platform, but your main objective will be to survive. Do your best to survive as long as you can. The longer you survive, the greater the benefits you will reap."
"Secondly, don't believe that it is completely safe in there. Although your life will not be in danger as only your brain waves are active in there, in some extreme circumstances, there is a possibility that your brain waves will be damaged and cause danger to your corporeal body. As such, the moment you face danger beyond your power to deal with, press the emergency exit button; and you will immediately exit the spirit ascension platform. Understood?"
"Yup. I mean, understood" I replied. Like hell I did. There was something missing that she wasn't telling me.
"As for the rest, you will learn them after experiencing it inside. Today is the first time you will be inside, so you probably won't survive too long, but it should leave a deep impression on you. Prepare yourselves mentally and remember this: don't panic if you run into a dangerous situation. Soul beasts aren't that scary if you know how to react properly."
The same words they told Wulin huh. Do they revise the lines in their free time or something. I was laid down on the capsule as per their wishes.
*Whoosh* [Sudden Dramatic perspective change]
He was in a lush forest surrounded by gigantic trees and large thickets of shrubbery. There wasn't a single path in sight. It felt like he had entered an ancient forest.
It was not familiar. Even though he was hoping for it to be false, it wasn't. The forest in his old world had a smaller variety in the number of fauna and they didn't exhibit this much vitality. The two were called forests but to him this was unfamiliar.
Surya Jayvardhan, realised at this point that he had already left his past life. There was no him here. He was not the Surya of the forest officers but Fan Lin , a level 13 Soul Master, in this world.
This was his new home now. He will protect it this time. Protect it from others. Protect it from himself.
All the emotions suddenly rushed to his mind, his guilt, his anger, his rage, his despair, his longings and his precious memories that he gained throughout his life, whatever remained of it.
He couldn't help it, couldn't stop it and was forcefully broken down to the lowest point of his already low mentally fragile mental condition.
A single memory came and his emotional turmoil began to recede. He made it recede. Being weak was his choice. Being strong was his end.
But he needed a bit of his strength, a bit of his courage and he shall have it, for at the end, he should decide what he wanted and bear with the aftermaths.
[...Right?]
He sat on the spot to cry. He cried a lot. He needed it. After fifteen minutes he was done. He wiped his tears and went in search for what he had come for, with a calmness that represented his loneliness.
....
The blue silver grass was a nice plant type Martial Soul. It can be used to detect, control, attack, defend and rescue. The only thing it lacked was the healing factor.
Fan Lin thought while observing the green bushes. He hadn't found any soul beast since he began his search.
"Did they send me to a bogus one? Why is there nothing here?"
After three minutes. He heard sounds of fighting a little distance away from him. He went there to take a look.
"What are they doing here?" He whispered, bewildered at the situation.
Such heavy vocabulary but the situation clearly demanded it.
He stared at Tang Wulin and his classmates fighting some Lion-tiger looking Soul beast for a few seconds. He went the other way.
The class Zero were taken to Spirit Ascension platform regularly by Wu Zhangkong. So there was a chance that he will meet them. To meet them on his first coming to the platform sounds like exaggerated bad luck. He really was not lucky to meet them so soon nor was he ready to; hence he took the another direction to roam.
'What can they do? Stop me?'
This time he found many Spirit beasts roaming the vicinity. He slowly and carefully treaded along his way.
(The number of soul beasts here are lower than the others maybe...)
Finally after an hour he found what he was looking for. A lonely human male.
[And not the reason you are thinking of]
A human male around the age of sixteen - seventeen was injured by some Soul beast. There were burnt marks on his clothes and his hair. He must have faced some fire element soul beast. He was in a half lying, half sitting position while his back was using the trees trunk for support.
Fan Lin was observing him in the dark. He circled around the male and kept getting closer and closer to him. Suddenly the male opened his eyes and fired something towards the bush. It was opposite Fan Lin but Fan Lin ran and stabbed his knife in the male's eye socket and ruthlessly twisted the knife while going behind the target. The male died immediately. Fan Lin waited patiently.
Fan Lin knew that the chances of what he was thinking were less than a hundred but he still wanted to try as there were proof of it being true.
He used his cultivation technique.The dim yellow light of spirit energy was slowly being absorbed by him.
He was right. Humans or to be precise Spirit Masters and soul beasts both possess spirit energy. According to this theory humans should also be able to drop spirit energy after their deaths in the spirit ascension platform since their bodies in the Spirit Ascension Platform were created using a part of their spiritual power and it was also this that linked them to the Spirit Ascension Platform, thus allowing them to absorb the spirit energy of the Spirit Ascension Platform for their usage.
It was one of the proven theories by the Spirit Pagoda scientists but since there were no actual records of anyone talking about it.
[It's actually cannon]
Fan Lin didn't know that this theory was already proven hundreds of years ago. The reason why other people don't kill humans was because they lacked spirit power compared to soul beasts. Even a 10 year of soul beast provided more spirit energy than a soul elder. It was just not efficient to hunt humans for their spirit energy.
And suddenly focusing on killing the humans when there were better options would definitely brand someone in the limelight and not the good kind.
Fan Lin didn't know that as it was an advanced class course common sense and he was still in the intermediate course.
Neither did he care about all that. Fan Lin was excited. Exhilarated. Intoxicated! Enough that he didn't heard the sound of the soul beast behind him, neither did he showed any kind of struggle to his assailant. He died in excitement before even knowing what had happened. Gobbled down in one single swoop.
[Perspective change]
I opened my eyes. There was pain in my whole body. I suddenly got up.
"What the."
I foolishly looked around my surroundings as my sight was quite hazy.
"Are you okay Sir?"
"...What happened?" I asked in confusion.
"You died Sir." The staff replied.
"Again...? I mean, how did I die?" I asked. I changed my words as I thought I had reincarnated again.
"An 800 year old soul beast sneaked up to you and bit your head." He staff replied professionally.
"Ah, yes."
There was an injured male, something had to cause that injury, that something should also be chasing him. Now enters an idiot who was blankly looking at the sky. What do you think happened?
'Interesting.'
Fan Lin looked at the staff, nodded his head, got out of the device and bid farewell to them, leaving them confused and surprised at what the heck was he in the Spirit Ascension Platform for?