As grey accepted his fate with shakey legs thinking about food in his last moments a green blur appeared on the side of the fox where the sickle was deeply embedded in the eye socket.
A second later a hammer hit the handle of the sickle sending deep into the fox's head killing it on the spot but due to the momentum the lifeless body slid to where grey was surrounding him in sharp teeth and jaws.
Grey sat there waiting to die any second the moment the fox decided to bite down. After twelve seconds karma got as a blue glow surrounded his body " don't go dying on me now we still got work to do grey so suck it up or I'll leave you in the dust." Karma said in a smug tone which turned greys crippling fear in pure rage.
" Oh yeah what the hell where you doing ~Oh AlMiGhtY one~ while I was fighting and acting as Damm bait cause he was way stronger than us."
Not losing his smug face and in a cocky tone " Well if you must know when I went for joes hammer I remembered something from class and now I'm level two so suck on that loser."
"How in the six relms did you manage to level up already when we just awakened…Don't tell us the luck rune really that good?"
" You poor naive fool if only you paid more attention in lectures and class instead of sleeping and eating you wouldn't be so lost in life. But fear not I shall enlighten… for a small price. I want Half of your hidden snack collection."
Greys face was one of pure shock when he heard what was said "How DARE YOU even think about my snacks they handmade by me and dare seek the fruits of my labor."
" Well to be fair you did steal half of them and most of the ingredients."
" IRRELEVANT!!! I still got them my self." Grey was so fuming mad he was completely forgetting his near death experience and absolute fear he felt a few seconds ago.
Seeing how his friend was doing better than before karma gave off a warm smile. "But just think about it, a few snacks that you can restock later on for the knowledge to level up faster which would have been free had you paid attention to our classes."
After thinking it over grey looked like there was a major internal conflict but agreed under the condition that his pudding was OFF LIMITS.
Feeling victorious karma went of on explaining more about their soul runes. There at least seven core stages and how each stage had ten steps or levels from one to Seventy.
The first three were the low points or just starting; while four, five, six where the mid points. And seven, eight, nine where the high points. But Ten was the point where you reached the next step or was close to it but many just called it levels one through ten. The first core stage was called the soul seed stage because it is the starting point of growth.
The way to increase the stages is vast including but not limited to slowly absorbing soul energy or (SE for short) from the air to nourish the soul seed making it grow out like an astral plant, in turn making its host stronger. Or you can use rare minerals and plants to boost it. But the most widely used one is absorbing the SE of a fallen awakened using their purified energy upon their death that is released.
The closer the levels the better but for level gaps there will be differences.
Grey looked back to where karma was knocked back earlier and saw joes and someone else's body in the distance and finally put the pieces together.
Before a crazy realization came to while he stared at the now dead level ten fox. gulping loud grey asked "does this mean we can level up enough to at least help out the others?"
" Yes but unfortunately since we just awakened we won't be able to fully absorb this guys energy plus we only won this fight cause he had no attacks besides his body so was probably a weaker awakened. But anyways just do what I do." Grey nodded to karma's suggestion and followed his movements.
The both sat down near the corpse placing their paws on it. Grey was surprised at how much energy he felt, it was like a river of energy and he could only take a bit at a time so little by little they both drained all the energy.
When they were done both were now level five but grey could sense karma was stronger than him. Probably due to taking the deceased rabbits energy as well.
"Rember to pay attention at next lecture to gain more power easier and to pay me the snacks." After hear about his snack debt grey felt weak mentally but thanked his snacks sacrifice in his heart.
After looking through the reckage he found some bungee cords or small but long, stretchy green rope with hooks at the end seeing these grey put them in his back pouch while taking out the bundle of string. " These will be far more efficient than some thin flimsy string."
Instantaneously the ground all around them started shaking violently and a deep but lot explosion could then be heard seconds later.
After grey power of sound increased so did his hearing which unfortunately caused the sounds from the huge explosion to be even louder and more potent for him.
"Aaargh" grey was rolling around in pain covering his ears with his paws.
After seeing his friend it only took karma three seconds before he put two and two together running up to grey he almost wimperd "shut of your power flow you idiot." Unfortunately karma didn't know enough to force his friends power flow to slow or stop. He was the most knowledgeable between the two of them but still only had basic second hand info.
Grey could still hear karmas through his covered ears. However the pounding echo booming in his head causing a huge headache made it hard to control his soul energy which he barely knew anything about.
After a few minutes he could think clearly enough to slow his power flow. Lessening his headache by a huge amount. After a few more seconds he finally stood up albeit wobbly.
"Dam and here I thought elder oak was just being an petty old guy but he was right the sound rune really does act like a double edge sword at times, although he didn't say he did hint at it."
After karma made sure grey was alright and back to full strength they headed to the battlefield near the center of the city.
Back where they had left earlier a black mist appeared near the dead bodies and in a echoing husk voice said " Poor young seedling dying so young is just wasting all the youthful potential. NOW accept my power and reborn ye of great promise to the forbidden ones.
As it finished talking black goo and mist was enveloping joes dead body in a almost demonic manner but not quite.
Through the black goo and mist bright purple eyes finally opened that seemed to pierce the very soul.
" How unexpected! What will you become a dark hero or even a demon to all; let'ssss wait and see this will be interesting." As the voice of the mist seemed to disappear whilst laughing maniacally.