"They are the reason why I ended up like that." Said Renji indifferently, he wasn't afraid of the hounds but he had no idea if he would be able to escape them even if he tried once more. He was trying to think of a solution, he didn't want to confront the hounds upfront because he knew if he fought against all of them at once he wouldn't have a chance to survive.
[You are thinking too much, do you not feel anything different in your body?] asked the voice in a very mysterious tone as if Renji was forgetting something important.
"Now that you mention it, I feel as if my entire body has gotten lighter, it feels like I can move faster. Not only that even my body feels like it's exploding with power." Renji didn't think about it that much earlier but now that he focused on his body he felt, his entire body had changed internally.
[Well that tends to happen to people when they can manipulate mana.] said the voice while chuckling. Although she was laughing Renji was dumbstruck, he couldn't believe what he heard, all these years he wanted to awaken and now the voice was saying he awakened.
'Status' thought Renji just as he finished thinking of that word a blue holographic screen appeared in front of Renji who looked mesmerized by the sudden appearance of the screen. All this time he had just heard how people how people who had awakened had their status screen showing their attributes, he had always wished he could do the same and now here it was.
Renji was happy when he first saw the screen but as he started reading his face came back to the normal cold look, and after reading a few lines his face suddenly became confused.
.............................................….
Name: Renji Ishida
Age: 18
Level- 1 (EXP 0/10)
Bloodline: None
Class: Soul Eater [Rank F] Growth type
Strength: 30
Agility:15
Defense: 20
Endurance: 18
Mana: 15
[Locked]
[Locked]
[Active Skills]
· [Domain Skills]
(Time jurisdiction: Upon activation, time slows down for the user. Slows down time inside a radius of 1 meter around the user.
Effect: Everyone inside the domain gets 5% slower for 5 seconds. It will only affect the target inside the domain.
Mana cost: 10) [Rank: F] (Mastery 0/10000)
· [Locked]
· [Locked]
[Passive skills]
· [Locked]
.....................................................................….
"Why are there so many locked showing up here?" asked Renji as he analyzed his status screen. He was confused as many of his skills and attributes seemed locked, from what he had learned nothing like that should appear when viewing the status screen for the first time.
[That is because you are still not strong enough or you haven't accomplished the task that is required for you to unlock them. Before you ask me how to unlock them, I have no idea, I just gave you the domain skill rest of them came to you on your own for some reason.] Siad the woman nonchalantly, she didn't seem to care much about the locked attributes. But her voice made it seem like she was thinking of something.
[Even the class Soul eater I have never heard before. This is not something that I can help you with, but it doesn't seem like there was a problem when I merged with your soul. Well, whatever the case you have gotten an extremely rare growth-type class, if you work hard enough you might be able to break the restraint.] said the woman she seemed confused by the turn of events but still, she was rejoicing as if she had hit a jackpot.
"What restraint? And why are all of my statistics way above normal? The average for any newly awakened hunters is 10 on all the stats, but it seems like I already have the stats of someone at level 20. And even my strength is through the roof." asked Renji confused.
[There is no need to think about stuff you won't understand and as for the stats, when I merged with your soul, I used some of the power I had left to strengthen your body.] said the woman as if she had done nothing at all.
"I will never forget your help," said Renji solemnly, he was the type of person who, if anyone made him his enemy would get 10 times back, and if someone helped him he would give 100 times back to them. So, he was very thankful to the woman.
"By the way what is your name?" Asked Renji he didn't know what to call her exactly, so he felt he should at least ask her name.
[My name is ****] The woman spoke up but when she said her name something bizarre happened.
"AHHHHH Stoppppp" Renji screamed as he fell to the ground without understanding what had just happened. Renji felt as if his head was going to explode, the short moment when he heard the woman's voice felt like an eternity, to him it felt like he was having a headache for a long time. In just that short moment pain made Renji roll on the ground.
[So, that's it huh? You can just call me Lisa] said the voice as Renji slowly stood up, his ears were bleeding. Although in pain himself Renji felt the pain in the woman's voice when she spoke.
Renji didn't ask why that happened as he knew there was no point, if she wanted to, she could have explained it herself. Renji sat down cleaned his ears and after resting for a bit his condition came back to being somewhat normal.
[Where is this place? What were you doing here? This place seems so desolate, it just seems like a paradise for monsters] said Lisa as she was curious as to how a powerless boy like Renji had ventured into a forest so dangerous.
"It's a very long story." Said Renji as he fell silent, he didn't want to talk about the events that transpired today. Lisa also didn't question him further as she could feel the pain in his voice as he said those words.
"It's time to begin the hunt." Said Renji as he collected his mind once more, he didn't want to stay here for the rest of the night. He had to kill the hounds somehow, there was no other way for him to escape this place. There was only one way, he had no choice but to make a path of blood for him to walk on, he wanted to kill every one of the hounds that pursued him.
[What are you waiting for then? Go test your new-found powers, I want to see just how strong your class is. Make sure to use the Domain skill this skill will increase in levels as you keep using it, this is one of the top-ranked skills.] Said Lisa as she was excited to see Renji battle, she was also curious as to what benefits he would get along the line because of his class.
Without speaking any other word Renji picked a sword that looked very fragile, when he inspected the sword, he felt as if the sword could break any second but he had no choice but to take that. The sword seemed to be one of the belongings of the humans who died in this place.