In a pure white room,a person was looking at a glowing crystal orb with a smile on their face.
The orb was currently showing Zen when he was fighting the beasts before falling off the cliff.
"It appears i made a good choice, he's already better than the others. If he can fight like this before the first evolution,then there might be hope for him after all."
"Maybe i should visit my little system user?... well I did tell him to call if he needed anything, and he doesn't exactly seem shy,so maybe later"
**************
[Soul awakening ceremony complete]
[Gifts received]
[Awakening soul senses]
[Awakened: Eye of the destroyer]
[Awakened: Void touch]
[Obtained new title]
[Umbra: The king in darkness]
[Received Perks]
"Okay but what perks exactly?"
Theia laughed mischievously
"That's a surprise. You'll have to find out yourself"
Zen knew she wasn't going to answer so he asked something else.
"What are soul senses?"
"The usual. Eyes,ears,nose, mouth,touch.
"And what does it do?"
Theia let out another mischievous giggle,which told Zen he wouldn't be getting answers.
He moved on to the next notification.
[Evolution completed]
[You are now an Astral]
[Quest completed]
[Unlocking all system features]
[Skill: ??? Triggered]
[Unlocked system shop]
[Unlocked soul synthesis]
[Unlocked skill synthesis]
[Skills are no longer limited]
[New skill unlocked: Soul gun]
[Skill: Phantom form LV 7»»»Soul form LV 1]
[Skill: Soul link »»»Soul bridge LV 1]
[Stats]
[Name: Zen Hollow](LV 15)
[Species: (Rank 1 Astral) (bloodline - ?????)]
[Class: soul sage]
[Profession: Assassin(Arcane)]
[True name/soul name:???]
[HP 200/200]
[Astra: 0/200]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 15]
[Endurance: 10]
[Intelligence: 15]
[Charm: 50](bloodline effect)
[ Wisdom(class specific stat): 20]
[Stat points: 18]
[Skill points: 30]
"Okay, before you start asking questions, listen up"
Theia puffed up her empty chest and started explaining.
"First of all,the stats only show how much of your full potential you have realized,so every time you evolve, more will be unlocked, and your stats on the screen will get lower, but not actually change. Sometimes during evolution, specific stats will get more of an increase compared to others. Because of this, the increase in your stats will seem unnatural and completely arbitrary. Deal with it."
Zen nodded. That was why the huge addition to his speed stat didn't make sense.
"Next. Every ten levels is a bottleneck, and will require exponentially much more exp for a level up. For example,you had killed over a hundred monsters to just barely reach level ten, and had only required a couple dozen to get to level fifteen. The same thing will happen with with level twenty, thirty, and so on"
"Okay. What about my Astra? How do I get that?"
"Well you absorb it,silly"
"What?"
Theia laughed at his cluelessness for a few more seconds ago flew to sit on his head again.
"I guess you'll need your reward for this one, and before you ask,yes, you have one more unclaimed reward. Do you wish to claim it?"
Zen didn't know why she had to ask but felt it was probably some procedure that had to be done.
"Yes"
Theia snapped her fingers and Zen suddenly got a notification.
[Recieved reward]
[Obtained Mythical tier Astra cultivation technique(primordial): The seven deadly sins]
Zen's eyes glowed as he felt massive amounts of knowledge being inserted directly into his brain like transferring a file from a memory card or flash drive to a device.
"You okay big guy?" Theia flew closer to his face and put her little hand on him"
"I'm fine, but...."
"Don't worry,i got it."
"You have just been granted a Mythic tier Astra cultivation technique. Is it coincidence or just luck that it was a Mythic tier? Hehe"
Theia winked at him slyly
"As for why the seven deadly sins, that's your fault "
"What?"
Theia decided to explain.
"You see, this reward was tailored to you. Your actions before the evolution led the system to believe this one would be the best for you "
"Okay but why?"
Theia shrugged.
"This technique mostly has to do with indulgence and manipulation. Do you remember ever encouraging people to indulge in their base desires,or manipulating them to do things they otherwise wouldn't?"
Zen went silent and Freya suddenly burst out laughing.
"I'm guessing from miss giggles over there that you have "
Zen nodded.
"You don't have to use it if you don't need to, but it's very powerful, and has a big surprise hidden "
"Just tell me how to use this "
Theia smirked
"You already have the instructions so you just need help getting started . Close your eyes and enter a meditative state. To do this you need to empty your mind completely and relax. Once you've done that,you should see a white orb or bead. Enter it with your will and use the technique to stimulate your internal life force, and the external energy in the air. Extend your intent,or will as far as you can and use the bead to absorb as much energy as possible . At first you should only be able to do this in short bursts,but over time you'll be able to do it at a steady pace for a while "
Theia looked at Zen with an oddly serious look, showing this was no joking matter.
"You have to be very precise. Inside that bead is your soul realm. You're basically extending the control you have over it to the outside world, and if you absorb too much too fast,you could damage it, and I think you already know what happens if it gets damaged . On the other hand,if you're too slow, you'll tire out before you absorb a lot. Keep in mind that this is only the first stage, and you're not even utilizing the main technique "
Zen nodded in understanding.
"How large is the area of effect of my absorption?"
"The same size as your soul realm "
Zen paused for a second. His soul realm was the size of a large city before the awakening, and it had grown more than ten times over after the trial. How in the world was he supposed to control the absorption rate if it was that large.
Theia looked like she knew what he was thinking and eased his worries.
"Don't worry. The size of your soul realm will allow you to take more than the average person, but that doesn't mean you should. Although your soul is huge, your body is still weak, and you could explode. What you should do is to spread out your influence as much as possible, but not absorb any of the energy,or stimulate your life force. What you then do is slowly and carefully retrieve some of your influence into the soul realm, reducing your area of absorption until it's small enough to control. With the amount of experience you have, I'd suggest shrinking it till it's only a little bit larger than yourself."
Zen nodded, having all the knowledge he needed. He was about to close his eyes when
"Wait" Theia stopped him.
"Don't you think you're forgetting something?"
Zen thought for a while and shook his head.
Theia sighed and pointed to Neo.
"I don't think that's a good idea"
Neo had only been able to use his new ability once before he ran out of energy and was currently waiting for it to refill.
"His ability doesn't work with regular aether, and he's unlocked his soul realm" Theia pointed out.
Seeing he was still hesitating,Theia sighed.
"All you need to do is teach him the first step,you won't even be teaching him the technique, besides, doing this with a partner is much more beneficial than doing it alone"
Zen thought for a second before agreeing.
"Neo" He called.
Neo was suprised for a few seconds that Zen was calling him, but eventually, he got up to see what he wanted. He had actually also wanted to talk with him but didn't know how to start.
Neo sat down next to Zen and spoke up first.
"So did you also...?"
"Yep" Zen replied.
"Crazy,wasn't it?"
Zen shrugged
"..."
"..."
"So what was yours?" Neo broke the silence.
"Hmmm?"
"Your...place. Mine was a star system, with stars, planets and meteors"
For the first time, Zen was suprised. A star system?
"Mine was an ocean, with islands and a castle at the center of it all "
"Cool"
Zen sighed
"Alright, let's get to the point. I want to help you, but I need you to listen "
Zen spent the next few minutes teaching Neo what Theia had told him, including the risk of having a large soul realm, and how to fix the problem.
At the end of it all,Neo looked deep in thought.
"Shouldn't we tell the others?"
"There'd be no point. They haven't unlocked their soul realms "
Neo didn't ask where he got this knowledge from, assuming it was from the trial .
"This sounds like something out of a fantasy book. Damn Iris loves that kind of thing"
"So what do you think?"
"What do I think? I think this is fucking awesome. Let's get started already"
Zen raised a brow.
"You're not worried?"
Neo shook his head.
"If I'm simply extending the influence i have in the soul realm,then i think I'm gonna be okay. What about you?"
Zen shrugged. He had absolutely no idea. He wasn't exactly very fortunate, and with his luck,there was no telling what would happen.
They both nodded and closed their eyes.
Neo suddenly found himself in his soul realm, sitting on a star.
A dazzlingly bright star in the center surrounded by multiple planets all connected with golden stardust that filled the seemingly endless realm. His realm had grown bigger just as Zen did, and with a similar increase, but his was still a bit smaller.
He didn't need to open his eyes to know he was here. He was the realm, and the realm was him, thanks to Zen he understood that.
Neo saw the orb Zen had been talking about and slowly inserted his willpower into it.
Looking into the strange orb,Neo realized it was his soul realm that was inside, looking a bit deeper,he could even see himself.
How could he be inside it and still be looking at it? This question almost caused him to lose his concentration, but he luckily managed to hold on.
Neo calmed himself before doing as Zen said and extending his will out of the orb he could see and out of his body. He was almost instantly knocked out of his concentration as his mind was unable to take what he saw.
Neo opened his eyes and started breathing heavily before suddenly spitting out blood.
"That was intense"
He said, wiping his mouth
He looked towards Zen and noticed the was still in concentration.
Gritting his teeth,Neo prepared to re-enter.
'I finally have hope to get stronger, I'm not gonna fall behind'
Those were Neo's thoughts as he closed his eyes and entered his soul realm again.
Neo reappeared in the soul realm, immediately noticing a slight crack on one of his planets, but he ignored it for now, immediately preparing to extend his will.
Neo extended his will out of his body, this time more carefully as he took in all the different sensations, however he didn't slow down.
Once he reached his limit,Neo felt like his skull was about to burst. He could feel four concentrations of energy close to him, probably representing his friends,for some reason he couldn't feel Zen. Neo could also feel many others far away, probably being beasts.
Unable to take it anymore,Neo was once again flung out of his soul realm, spitting another pile of blood.
Neo felt lucky that his friends were all asleep, otherwise they probably would have tried to stop him.
He closed his eyes and reappeared in his soul realm, noticing that the crack was bigger, but immediately ignoring it. He had dozens more after all.
Neo immediately went through it all again, trying his best to stay in control as his mind was strained. Once at the limit,Neo didn't waste any time and pulled back, slowly pulling back his will from the physical world and back into his soul realm until it only covered him like a bubble.
He took a deep shaky breath, and went on with the next step.
The planets surrounded the star suddenly started to move, albeit slowly, and the stardust in the system started glowing brightly, and even the star had grown in intensity,all to signify that he had successfully stimulated his soul and begun the absorption process.
Neo had never felt anything like this before. He felt like even though his eyes were closed he could still vaguely sense the outside world . It wasn't exactly seeing. If Neo were to describe it, he'd say that it was like the night sky, everything was dark, but there were these tiny little stars literally everywhere that although didn't let you to see very well,still gave you a faint sense of vision, and around any living thing, this star was much bigger and brighter, allowing Neo to tell if something was living there.
What he was absorbing was those stars. It was an odd feeling, like he was literally just stretching his hands to grab them and bringing them to his soul realm, using his will to guide them into his star system to join the star dust in his realm.
Neo didn't forget what Zen told him,so he made sure to slow down as much as he felt was necessary.
After a while however, he started getting tired. This wasn't regular exhaustion , it felt like his mind was exhausted, like he had been doing advanced quantum mechanics for hours on end .
Neo reluctantly stopped and got out of his soul realm, completely covered in sweat.
Looking to his side,he saw Zen waking up just a second after he did in a similar condition.
"Looks like he did it all in one go"
For some reason,Neo felt disappointed. Was he really so bad that he had accomplished in three tries,what Zen had in one.
He suddenly noticed that Zen was a little pale, and before he could ask if he was okay, Zen suddenly spat a large amount of blood , coughing a little bit.
Neo quickly started patting Zen on the back so he wouldn't choke.
"Looks like you encountered a bit of trouble"
Zen coughed a few more times before answering.
"Yeah"
Although Neo knew it was wrong, his disappointment had lessened and he even felt a little happy about himself.
Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.