Completely exhausted from all that had happened today Nathan fell asleep soon enough at the top of the tree. He was unaware of the danger that lurked in the tutorial during the night. A treat big enough to even force the nocturnal predators to hunt at day. Not everyone was as lucky to choose a place close enough to one of the boss zones where they didn’t go often to hunt. These creatures’ bodies were attuned to the dark as they traversed the forest encountering another team in the tutorial completely wiping them out in seconds before they could even put up a fight. With the death of this team, there was only Naththan’s team and a team that held a naturally born unique power holder left.

Waking up from his deep sleep Nathan was instantly hit by his body screaming for food. It felt like he hadn’t had any food for days. He had yet to realize this but as his stats grew so did his need for resources to keep his body functioning. His vitality had even taxed him greatly in the process of healing his injuries, something that he will have to get used to in the future.

"Let's go get some food and water before wiping out the remaining spirits!"

Just as always Nicole was staying by his side making his emotions just as complicated as they were from yesterday. He felt great joy seeing her once again, but the state she was in worried him greatly. Yet he believed and hoped she would return to the person she was one day. That was his motivation to push forward and face this new dangerous world.

Finding the food he needed, proved to be much easier than he initially anticipated. There were quite a few fruit trees in the forest that sated his hunger. Water was a bit more challenging as even if the water in the river looked clean he wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t get sick from drinking it without first boiling it. Still, he took the risk of drinking it without boiling it. Trusting his now higher vitality should take care of any bacteria or viruses in the freshwater river. His lacking ability to start a fire made him recall Kyle. He would have been a great help in this situation he could have even had some cooked meat instead of just fruits.

After taking care of all he needed Nathan once again approached the temple seeing the changes he had brought after his yesterday raid. The spirits surrounding the temple seemed to have returned to the state they were before he attacked them as they were back to just wandering its grounds. Their numbers had dwindled greatly enabling Nathan to count how many of them were there. Exactly thirty-eight spirits were left. This was a number he could try to take head-on now that his confidence was at an all-time high with the level up of his soul slash.

| Soul slash | Level 2 |

| Send out a slash of spirit mana damaging the soul |

| Damage: 125% |

| Range 10 meters |

| Cost: 1 Mana |

Its range had doubled while its power had gone up! With this increase of power, the lower level spirits die from a single soul slash while even the highest levels need only two or three slashes to be finished off. As Nathan continued to run around the temple grounds the spirits became more and more clustered letting his soul slash hit multiple targets simultaneously decimating their numbers even quicker. Their attacks couldn’t even touch him with the tight defense Nicole had made for him together with his ability to dodge their attacks.

In a short span of time their numbers had dropped greatly as now there stood only five spirits and even those were already injured. But with only one point of mana remaining and his stamina getting low, there was no way he could use his soul slash to finish them off.

Three of them were well over two meters tall with odd body modification. Two of the spirits were bound by chains while the last one had spikes embedded in its body with a constant look of pleasure on its face. While the last two seemed to be quite different from those three. One looked like a mix between a human and a spider with its limbs morphed into disfigured angles as it walked on all four. The last one had a constant look of agony on its face as it constantly kept scratching its body with its elongated nails leaving marks on its body that soon enough reverted back to the state before it had scratched it only to be scratched again by it. The last one especially disturbed Nathan there was just something off about that spirit.

He didn’t want to just simply run away from the spirits and wait for his mana to regenerate now that there were only five of them left as he started his guerrilla warfare with them. Compared to the over thirty they were at the start Nicole had the opportunity to counter-attack their attacks as well leaving deep claw wounds on their bodies as they became more transparent with every swipe she did.

This continued for quite some time until the perfect opportunity came up for Nathan’s soul slash enabling him to hit all 5 of the spirits killing three of them in the process. While the two that remained were quickly finished off by Nicole.

The battle was over as Nathan fell down on the ground exhausted as he began to look through the system notifications.

| Level 1 wandering spirit has been slain x10 |

| +3 (-50%) Experience |

| Level 2 wandering spirit has been slain x6 |

| +10(-50%) Experience |

| Level 3 wandering spirit has been slain x8 |

| +30(-50%) Experience |

| Level 4 wandering spirit has been slain x10 |

| +40(-50%) Experience |

| Level 5 wandering spirit has been slain x4 |

| +50(-50%) Experience |

| Level up |

Finally, Nathan had leveled up and could unlock the Spirit familiar ability in the skill tree. Investing his newly gained skill point into it, he felt a strange energy connect him to Nicole. From now on he would always know her location. Opening her status screen his questions were finally answered.

| Name: Nicole Bandon |

| Class: Emotion spirit |

| Level: 5 |

| Status: Familiar |

| Corporal manifestation: 27(19)

| Soul power: 21(19) |

| Awareness: 11(6) |

| Attribute points: 0 |

| Skills: Soothing Level 5 | Emotion sense Level 1 | Claw manifestation Level 3 |

Skill tree

| Spirit reinforcement | 5/5 |

| The spirit gets reinforced and purified, increasing the abilities of the spirit. |

| +10 corporal manifestation and soul power |

| Class: Emotion spirit |

| A class designed around a spirit who is still lingering around the world due to their strong emotional bond to the living world. Unlocks the emotion spirit class tree. |

| Passive: +25% XP gain to any spirit related skills. |

Nathan reread all the information multiple times as he gained a better understanding of Nicole's situation together with the information he gained as she became his familiar. After taking it all in, a weird feeling welled up inside him.

"So you're an Emotion spirit." A spirit who only lingered into the world of the living with fragments of the emotions of their past lives. They had almost no memories of their past lives, just the emotions that bound them.

Could a spirit like that be even seen as the person they once were? A person was made by their memories and the encounters they have gone through. Nathan felt his whole world had just become a lot darker as this realization had hit him. He had started to question things he had tried to avoid all this time as the information he didn't have before had hit him straight in the face as he was facing a rude awakening.

That constant feeling of a chill with its warmness he had felt all this time had intensified in magnitude as Nicole had felt his emotional distress embracing him in an even tighter hug. Even if she had lost most if not all her memories she still cared for him just as before.

They had always been together since birth and she had been, no is the closest person he could always rely on. Their relationship wasn't one that others would see as healthy but they had never cared about the opinions of others. Nathan couldn’t help but start recalling the memories they once shared together.

"Remember when we were little and you got picked on by the other kids in the orphanage and I wasn't able to take it seeing you be picked on due to your shy nature and got into constant fights with the older kids in the orphanage. And then they said I picked a fight with them, making me get punished instead." Tears had started to well up in Nathan's eyes as he was the only one to ever remember the past they once shared from now on.

"Or when we had gotten too old to share a room together anymore in the orphanage as we threw a tantrum. We weren't able to have a decent night of sleep after that for such a long time." His tears flowed uncontrol as he held her in his arms.

"I missed you so much after you died!"

Both of them had been flawed humans that were overly emotionally dependent on each other. That fact never bothered them, they were just happy to have each other.

Letting out all his emotions had helped Nathan greatly as he began to calm down. He had accepted that the Nicole he once knew will never be back and things will never go back to the way they were. But her emotions and feelings were still here with him and he will ensure that the loss he once felt would never happen again. As he got up from the ground a sense of ruthlessness had manifested inside of him.

Nathan began to compose himself he started to meditate regaining his lost mana as he got ready to enter the temple. The particles of mana in the air suited his mana, increasing his mana regeneration as they entered his body refiling his mana. After investing his 2 attribute points into mana it had reached 7 as he began to climb the stairs of the temple.

Standing on top of the staircase Nathan could finally see what was inside the temple that the spirits had wandered around. Everything inside was made with the most beautiful marble he had ever seen with a row of pillars leading up to the throne where a giant human skeleton bound with chains to the throne sat. Two undead beasts resembling canines were chained to the throne as well as acting as loyal guardians for the giant skeleton.

"You dare enter my temple!" The skeletons booming voice ruptured Nathan's eardrums making him lose his hearing completely as all that remained was the constant ringing from the loss of his hearing as the blood started to flow down from his ears. The constant chill that came from Nicole held his emotions in check as he didn’t get flustered by the sudden loss in his ability to hear as he rushed towards the skeleton.

As soon as he got in range the transparent blade slash from his skill struck the chains on the skeleton leaving white marks on them. Before he could release more soul slashes the two guardian beasts had begun their rush towards him. The skeleton wasn’t idle either as his voice shook the whole temple as he struggled to free himself from the chains.

"Right one!" Without hearing his own voice Nathan directed Nicole to take on the right beast as he engaged with the beast of the left as he sent out a soul slash while dodging its attack. The white bone blade left deep marks in its rotting flesh and bones with every Nathans attack as they engaged in combat.

A sword strike together with a soul slash hit the beast straight into its skull as Nathan was sent flying from its paw. After taking Nathan's attack it was completely dazed as Nicole's claws took its life. She had already finished off the beast on the right all by herself but with every death of the guardians, the chains bounding the skeleton to its throne loosened up. Becoming transparent as they snapped bearly bounding the skeleton at all.

With a stomp of its feet, mana began to travel towards Nathan as spikes resembling bones sprouted where Nathan just stood. Yet had managed to sense the mana and dodge its attack just in the nick of time as he countered the skeleton forcing more of the chains to snap letting it free from its bounds.

A spear made of bones manifested in its hands as it flew at Nathan forcing him to use his blade as a shield. The force of the impact pushed him to the ground as the sword he held cracked. Nicole had begun to engage the skeleton in combat in the meanwhile as her claws made marks on its skeleton. The skeleton raised its hands up in the air as mana gathered into its hands with an ear-shattering clap of its arms a bone coffin manifested around Nicole as she was pierced by the bones inside it. Nathan couldn't see her anymore as the bone coffin had completely enclosed around her.

His eyes became bloodshot as he screamed rushing at the skeleton. Amused by Nathan's visible pain it laughed as its arm morphed into the blade. He met the cracked bone sword head-on as it shattered from its strike taking Nathans's arm with it. The pain of losing an arm didn't even register in his brain as he sent out a soul slash with his other hand at the skeleton. Only to be blocked by the skeletons blade arm as it used his other arm to strike at Nathan. The impact of the punch had broken something in his body but before he could be sent flying using his only arm he grabbed the forelimb of the skeleton holding on to its body as he used his leg to kick at it while sending out a soul slash with it.

The bones on the skeleton's arm morphed as they pierced Nathan's hand. The soul slashes did great damage to it even if he blocked it with his bones. Its mind had become hazy after taking the last slash without anything blocking it as its control of mana weakened greatly. This had given Nathan just enough of a chance to strike the skeleton's jaw with his foot as his fingers ripped off from bone binding him to the skeleton. The soul slash he released in the process had hit the skeleton's biggest vulnerability as its soul got cut in half. Its body crumbled to the ground as the magic it once controlled began to disappear