The ground was still dyed with fresh blood when Rudolph gained consciousness; he had only fainted for a few minutes. He had expected to wake up feeling like shit, but there was no pain, he felt better than ever.
He stood up and stretched his body. Nothing has changed on the surface but his muscles felt more compact and flexible, and unfamiliar strength coursed through them. His vision was far sharper and clearer than before; he could perceive the veins of the leaves from tens of meters away. His ears constantly rang from the cacophony of the surrounding forest. It was difficult for him to control his now superior hearing.
Overall his whole being had gone through a transformation. He felt several, no, tens of times stronger than before. He looked at his body in astonishment and chuckled in delight. It wouldn't be incorrect to say that he was reborn.
'Dang! What the fuck? Did I take steroids or some shit?' he thought and started throwing punches in the air.
Bang! Bang!
The air hummed from his punches and the pressure from them made banging sounds.
"Nice!" he said. 'It might have something to do with the notification I received before fainting from aether depletion.'
He was sure that he had never heard of the word aether depletion before but now it felt like he knew everything like the back of his hand.
He opened the soul archives and was greeted with a multitude of notifications.
Ding! You have learned the skill [Thought Acceleration] (Rare) (Active)
Ding! You have learned the skill [Flash Step] (Iron) (Active)
Ding! You have learned the skill [Quick Strike] (Iron) (Active)
Ding! You have learned the skill [Quick Draw] (Iron) (Passive)
You have successfully learned the [Still Sword Art] (Spectral Swordsman's Legacy) (10%)
You have gained the (Spectral Swordsman) (Class) (Unique)
You have learned the skill [Spectral Shift] (Unique) (Active)
Soul Stability +700 >> 1380
Strength +10 >> 13
Defense +10 >> 11
Vitality +10 >> 13
Dexterity +10 >> 12
Perception +10 >> 11
Wisdom +7 >> 9
Focus +10 >> 14
Willpower +5 >> 13
Spirit +3 >> 3
Retention +10 >> 13
Assimilation +10 >> 12
Purity +1 >> 10
Restraint +10 >> 12
Ding! You have killed [Steel Hide Hyena] (Basic I).
You obtained 2 Origin Essence.
You obtained Experience Points.
His status screen had also gone through a massive change.
Rudolph Foster
Overall Combat Ability: 1410
Soul Stability: 1380
Human (Basic V)
Origin Essence: 2/5
Class: Spectral Swordsman (Level 1)
Profession: None
Health Points: 130/130
Stamina Points: 130/30
Aether: 130/130
♦ Mechanisms
♦ Equipment
♦ Miscellaneous
Rudolph was stunned upon seeing such changes in his soul archive, he had jumped ranks from Basic ll to Basic V after just a single battle. He checked his stats one more time in case he was seeing things.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Congratulations on obtaining the legacy."
He turned around and saw Aryn walking toward him with a wide smile on his face.
"L-Legacy? What legacy?" Rudolph tried to feign ignorance.
"Don't bother lying, it doesn't work that way. Though some legacy holders are bounded by their legacy creators to not share any knowledge regarding the legacy, it doesn't matter if others could infer it by themselves." Aryn said.
He glanced at the katana lying beside his feet before looking back at him, "I am 90% that the legacy came from that katana. Which legacy? I don't know but seeing the changes in your combat ability, it doesn't seem to be a common one."
What Aryn had said was true, he was indeed forbidden from sharing knowledge about his legacy. There was some kind of restriction in the legacy that prevented him from forming any thoughts when he had previously wanted to inform Aryn about it.
"How did you find out?" Rudolph said and found a nearby log to sit on.
"Experience," Rudolph said, leaning against a tree. "And that spike in combat ability of yours plus the way you acted when received it, all pointed to the obvious."
"You are also a legacy holder?" Rudolph asked.
"Was a legacy holder. It was stolen."
"Stolen? Legacies can be stolen?"
Aryn chuckled when he saw Rudolph's reaction, "Relax. Only if the creator of the legacy is dead. Yours is most probably alive so you don't worry about it."
Rudolph relaxed upon hearing Aryn's explanation. He had just received his legacy and didn't want to encounter incidents where he might lose his legacy. The thought of all that power being taken away wasn't pleasant at all.
"In this world, Rudy, the weak don't have the right to hold legacies. Only if you are strong will the others acknowledge you. That's why you should never reveal your legacy until you gain the ability to protect yourself. Even if others couldn't obtain your legacy, they won't mind eliminating a potential threat."
Rudolph nodded his head. He had never imagined that he would obtain such powers while he was on Earth. Now, since he had been given a chance to obtain them, he would tread with utmost care.
"What do you want to do with them?" Aryn said, pointing at the restrained Steel-hide Hyenas.
"Release them," Rudolph said. Though he wanted to know the extent of his prowess in a battle, he knew that these Hyenas weren't a cursor of his current strength. It would be a waste to kill them.
"That's not a good idea," Aryn said, shaking his head. "These Hyenas are vengeful creatures. Even if they aren't your match now, they can still cause you problems in many other ways. The wise choice would be to kill them."
Rudolph shrugged his shoulder and said, "Do as you wish." He had seen how vicious they are; the corpse they were feeding on belonged to their own kind so he didn't feel remorse about ending their life.
With a wave of Aryn's hand, the roots surrounding the Hyenas sprouted long thorns that penetrated and pierced their bodies, ending their lives in an instant. Rudolph was surprised at how quickly Aryn had taken care of the four Hyenas. He wasn't sure he could do that even with his current ability.
'Seems like he's much stronger than me. I am only a step away from entering the iron rank but seems like the gap difference between grades of Iron rank is far wider than those of Basic Rank.' Aryn thought and gazed at the elf who had casually killed four basic rank beasts. 'How powerful would he be if he still had the legacy?'
The gap level between them didn't discourage him, it motivated him even more to raise his prowess. Compared to Aryn who had been in contact with the soul archives for who knows how long, he had just started a day ago.
Even if what he had achieved in these two days was in a way given to him, it didn't change that he had progressed quickly and that satisfied him. Luck was also a power.
Sensing his gaze, Aryn smiled and said, "Oh, don't worry about it. You will soon overtake me if you keep progressing like this. But don't just focus on ranking up and increasing your overall combat ability, try consolidating the power you have obtained. It's more beneficial to master your current set of skills than increasing your combat ability."
"How long have you been cultivating for?" Rudolph asked. He was curious how long Aryn had taken to reach the Iron ranks.
"Cultivating?" Aryn was puzzled when he heard the unfamiliar term. "If you want to ask if I can grow crops using my skills then yes, I can but-"
"No, no, wrong genre, sorry. I meant to ask how long did it take you to grow to this level?" he carefully selected his words.
'Dang! What's wrong with me? Cultivating really? Those novels did mess up my mind.' he thought, slapping his forehead.
"Oh, I get what you want to ask. It's not called cultivating, rather it's called evolving and for me, it took me around two years to reach this rank. Two years may seem like a brief time but I had countless resources at my disposal. Others may take five to ten years depending on their aptitude and hard work." Aryn said.
"Two years? Isn't that quite long?"
"Long?" Aryn chuckled and walked to the Hyena that Rudolph had slain. "You have no idea. Not everyone has a legacy to help them."
He got on one knee and thrust his hand inside the dead beast's stomach, and began pulling out the intestines until he found what he was looking for. The sight made Rudolph want to throw up. It was hard for him to believe that the clean freak elf had stained his hands with blood.
"Don't worry, soon, you will also be doing this quite often," Aryn said, seeing Rudolph's pale face.
"I sure as hell won't-" his words got stuck in his throat when Aryn pulled a round stone, the size of a marble from inside the beast's belly. Rudolph could feel some strange energy radiating from it.
"This is a beast core, usually you will find these within every beast in this world. Ability-wise, it isn't as useful as an essence crystal but the energy inside it can be used to power equipment and artifacts, arrays, and much more. That makes it a hot commodity among soul evolvers and commoners alike. You can also earn quite a bit of wealth if you sell them in large quantities."
Aryn then moved his gaze to the severed head and used his staff to smash open the skull, splashing grey matter and bits of pieces of brain all over the ground. From within, he picked up a shiny crystal, the size of a nail.
The crystal had tiny wisps of coppery aether circulating it, the same type of aether the Hyena had used to attack Rudolph.
"This is an essence crystal shard. Normally only beasts of iron rank and above have essence crystals inside them. But occasionally, there would also be small shards present inside the basic ranked beasts." Aryn explained and handed it to Rudolph.
As soon as he picked it up, a notification appeared in front of him.
Essence crystal shard (Metal)
Consumable item
Ding! Would you like to absorb the metallic essence shard?
"Absorb it., Aryn said.
He did and soon the crystal shard dissolved into liquid and entered his body. Nothing felt different to him except another notification appeared on his screen.
Ding! Your affinity to metallic aether increased by 0.001 percent!
"That's the real purpose of the essence crystals and the reason the hunt is organized. It is difficult to find essence crystals outside the Sanctuary because of their rarity. But this is a sanctuary of a God so essence crystals are abundant here."
"There is a God in this world?" Rudolph asked. He remembered that Aryn had said something similar when explaining about the soul archives but he hadn't been paying any attention to it.
"There are Gods here. I have seen one of them too and even talked to her."
"Seen her? Aren't they supposed to be omnipresent and omnipotent beings who never reveal themselves to the mortals?" he asked.
"Let me explain to you what a God is. A God is someone who stands at the apex of a specific path in the universe and had gained the admiration and following of mortals who walk upon that path. They take the power of faith from their followers and in turn give them blessings and power-ups. You may also call them as Supremes as that's also one of the ways people of here address them as."
"So these supreme can they be killed or defeated?" Rudolph asked. He was curious as to where he stood as compared to a Supreme.
"Just two days here and you are already talking about killing them." Aryn chuckled.
"Many Supremes had risen and many had fallen," Aryn said and walked towards the stream.