In the middle of the darkness inside the ritual room, a person with messy, black hair and torn clothes, was lying on the cold ground, lifeless and unmoving. He had several wounds on his body and a large chunk of flesh was missing from his right abdomen.
Lloyd's life had ended in the hands of the accursed wraith. Although he had won the battle and was able to kill the wraith, the wounds he had received was just too much for him to handle and he died after losing too much blood.
His body was situated inside the big, runic circle which was emitting a faint glow. After a few minutes, it suddenly flashed brightly, flooding the whole room with white light until there was nothing else left except for Lloyd's body.
Surprising events happened one after the other. Lloyd's body which has been damaged badly had started to repair, even removing the unsightly wound on his right abdomen. Soon after, his body was already as good as new. However, something had changed in his appearance.
He slowly opened his eyes and felt his surroundings unfamiliar. The last thing he remembered before his consciousness blacked out was that he was fighting the accursed wraith and then…
"Wh-what happened to me? I thought I had died." He nervously asked.
Everything came back to his mind like it was as clear as the day, providing that there was even a clear day here on the trials. He touched his body and found out that he was alright. His wounds were gone, not even leaving a single scar. He looked at his right abdomen and found that it was also healed completely.
"How—"
Before he could continue asking himself about what happened to him, the familiar monotonous voice once again spoke inside his head.
'You have offered yourself to the corrupted god through the sacrificial rite.'
'The corrupted god has long since lost its sanity but has accepted your offering.'
'You have received the corrupted soul tree system.'
'You have received a new innate ability.'
'Your body will be reconstructed.'
"What the..." Lloyd was beyond shocked and couldn't think properly. The load of information the monotonous void had dumped in his mind was way too much for him to process immediately. Before he could even try to gather his thoughts, an immense pain surged through his body which made him undergo a hellish torture. He felt like his body was being ripped apart and then refined into a newer vessel, just like what he usually did when he was crafting equipment.
"It... hurts! Make it stop!"
He could only scream miserably and pound on the floor so hard, but the pain was just getting stronger instead of going away. After what seemed to be an eternity for Lloyd, the pain finally went away and he collapsed on the ground once again, completely physically and mentally drained.
He panted heavily as he was drenched in cold sweat while lying down on the ground. The white light enveloping the whole area was now gone and he could finally see the familiar area of the ritual room.
"I'm back now?" He weakly mumbled.
He just couldn't understand what happened. How in the world did he return back from death? He didn't have any life-saving ability nor have a second life that could replace his old one as far as he could remember.
He tried to stand up and was surprised that he was able to. He also tried to test a series of walking and quick moves only to see that his body was really completely fine. Such a miracle had found its way to him at last!
"Ha! I am still alive. I lived!" He laughed so hard for a while, being relieved of all the danger he had encountered. He finally had peace for a moment.
He remembered the monotonous voice and thought that he should check his status. He had received many things the moment he woke up and that was also the time he found out all of his injuries had completely healed. A status screen showed up as he tried to focus his thoughts in producing it. A shocked expression appeared in his face upon seeing the changes made in his system. Below his soul tree which was radiating a glowing sign of having life, another soul tree could be seen which was dark and withered. There were also the same number of orbs in the tree. Among the eight orbs, there was a single orb lit, except that it wasn't glowing a brilliant light, but purplish darkness filled it instead. He read the status screen which was now different from the ones he used to have before.
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Name: Lloyd Claudel
Rank: II
Soul Core: Grunt
Title: Awakened Aspirant, Eternally Stagnate, Corrupted Soul
Innate Ability: Midas Hands, Chaotic Skill Devourer
Skills: Materia Generator, Materia Refinement, Evil Eye
Ascension Requirement: 86/2500 enemies killed
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The old system was still there. Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing his skills not being erased at his supposedly 'death'. Aside from the old ones being retained, new sets of lines appeared such as soul core that indicated the type of soul he had. Next to it, the word 'grunt' was written.
'Did I become a hellspawn?'
His eyes widened as he pondered upon his thoughts. He knew that only hellspawns have a specific rank of soul core instead of just being numbered from one to eight. This was the first time he had heard something about a human containing a grunt soul core or any higher ranked core like the hellspawns. And on top of it all, it was him who acquired it.
Lloyd tried to feel his mana and was shocked as he found out that its capacity was greatly increased. If he was able to craft at least four times before he acquired the second soul tree system, then he could now create at least twice the amount of what he could do before.
He continued to read the descriptions of his newly found stats.
'Corrupted Soul: You have offered yourself to the corrupted god. You are a creature of light whose soul is corrupted upon dying once. Your two souls are in sync with each other. You can gain the same strength as the corrupted ones through the corrupted soul tree system which stacks with your original soul tree system. However, as someone whose soul is corrupted, you'll initially be hated by everyone until you prove yourself to be trustworthy.'
'Chaotic Skill Devourer: There is a random chance that you will inherit the abilities of the enemies you have killed.'
'Evil Eye: It enables you to see of all the information your target contains through the eyes of profanity. As a side-effect, your eye color becomes as red as blood.'
Corrupted Soul was a title that describes him as a mix of two opposite entities. He never would have thought that he would be rewarded with a corrupted soul tree system after what he had been through.
It was a powerful upgrade to his whole being. He was now as strong as a rank three normal aspirant or an elite hellspawn since he had two glowing orbs from his original soul tree and an additional one more from the corrupted soul tree. He got excited and couldn't wait to test it out soon. But he still had to read the others first before going for an experiment.
Chaotic Skill Devourer was the new innate ability added to his list. This one was even better that it made his heart beat faster.
'There it is! I got a skill that could counter my Eternally Stagnate title!' A wide grin appeared on his face as he thought about how many skills he would amass in the future.
Although the Eternally Stagnate title didn't allow him to acquire any new abilities through ranking up, the Chaotic Skill Devourer might do the trick and let him gain new skills instead. It was the greatest gift he had received and he didn't mind even if he didn't receive the others. As long as he had this, he could continue to grow stronger physically just like how other aspirants would increase their power.
The last skill was not as amazing as the other two, but it was still leagues above any skills found in the soul tree system. Who doesn't want to have a passive ability that let them have a peek at the information of their enemies? And on top of it all, it didn't require any sacrifice or handicaps in his abilities like how Klaudia became blind whenever she used her Divine Eye. It's just that at the end of its description, there was a side-effect that made his eyes look red like most hellspawn eyes instead of his normal, dark eyes.
"With this, I can do better and have a good chance of surviving. I won't allow myself to die again!" He said with determination as he looked at the three scattered soul orbs from the accursed wraith on the ground.
A little while later, the door opened wide and with it came five people who tensed and eyed him dangerously upon seeing them. They looked like they were ready to tear him to shreds without waiting for him to explain.
He gulped as he raised up his hands and tried to call them in a friendly manner.
"Hey, guys! It's me, Lloyd."
However, they still looked at him with hostile gazes and without lowering their weapons that were aimed at him.
Then, the pale girl with blonde hair was able to see a familiar resemblance in the humanoid creature in front of them and associated it with the name 'Lloyd'.
"L-Lloyd? Is that really you?" She asked out in a worried manner.
"Yes, it's me. I am Lloyd Claudel. The one and only Lloyd in this world."