Gael kneeled on the ground, and used the glaive to support his body. He had almost fallen on the ground. He looked at the remains of the skeleton and sighed. The fight almost resulted in his death, if he hadn’t been using the armor he would surely be dead by now. Fortunately, the armor was in his calculations.

His body was currently empty of mana and had wounds on many places. He knew that he didn’t have much time to waste here. He opened the backpack he had thrown on the corner of the room and ate one of the herbs he kept inside of it.

“I need to find a more convenient way to transport things..” He thought while looking at the messy backpack. He felt his wounds closing and the blood he lost being restored.

He looked back at the skeleton, and saw a small pebble emitting a faint light amidst the torn pieces of the shattered skull. He slowly walked toward it, and a big smile flashed on his face. “Finally, the reward I was waiting for!” He thought while looking at the pebble.

The system that ruled the world was ruthless, in the tutorial, many of its main aspects were hidden. One of these things were the ‘drops’ that could be looted from monsters after they were killed. The monsters had a small chance of dropping a skill after being killed. This didn’t happen in the tutorial though. Many speculated on why this happened, but in the end, they were only speculations.

After grabbing the stone, a screen appeared before him.

Skill

Description

Rank

Soul eyes

Door of the soul

S+

He froze as he looked at the skill. A soul related skill! He had hit the jackpot! Although the description didn’t say much about the skill, it was a S+ ranked skill, the highest rank of skills there could exist. He knew that all the bad luck he had in his visions had turned into good luck now.

In the vision, he had four trash skills, three were F+ rank skills, and one was an E ranked one. But now, his first skill would be a S+ ranked one. He crushed the stone amidst his fingers without hesitation, instantly learning the skill.

Gael became dazed, a burning pain appeared in his eyes. It was almost as if someone was gouging his eyes out while burning them at the same time. He almost fainted from the pain, but resisted, after some seconds the pain stopped. He knew that there would be some discomfort, but nothing close to this.

He opened his eyes and looked around, not noticing any difference. After learning a new skill, the person would automatically learn how to use it. However, there were no new effects or nothing different about him now.

“Strange…” Gael said in a low voice. He even looked at his own status screen to make sure he had the skill.

Name:

Gael Sidus

Strength:

Low (peak)

Endurance:

Low (peak)

Agility:

Low (peak)

Stamina:

Low (peak)

Mana:

Low (peak)

Special ability:

Wind rose

Skills:

Soul eyes

Low (low)

Everything looked normal on his status, nothing was different. “Could the rumor be true?” He thought while looking at the skill. There was a rumor in the visions that the applications of a rank S+ skills were so huge that no guidance about its use came together with the skill. “Shit!” He said after looking at it.

It was clear now that he would have to discover how to use the skill. “It says soul eyes… Maybe if I look at my own body….” He looked around the giant hall, and soon found what he was looking for, a mirror. He looked at it and concentrated his gaze.

“WOW!”

What he saw truly surprised him! He could clearly see his own soul. It was centered on his head, like a flame, and the rest of the body was filled with the energy emitted by it like waves in the sea. The waves were contained by a framework around his body, stabilizing the soul and containing its energy.

“Amazing….” Gael said while looking at the mirror. He thought that it was like having a flame inside your own body.

Gael tried to manipulate the little mana that was restored inside his body, and lo and behold, he could see the soul moving the mana, almost as if it was guiding it. “With this vision practicing and learning techniques will become much easier.” He said while looking at his reflection.

He could clearly see how the mana moved inside of him by now, and how it was manipulated by the soul, making everything clearer for him. He made some experiments, and after a few minutes calmed down. “I need to restore my strength to leave this place first.” He thought while looking at the door. He did as he practiced earlier, and he could see the souls on the other side of the door.

The souls were different from his. There was a nucleus on the head, just like his own, But instead of a complex network all over the body, the energy emitted looked like a weak line, as if it could snap at any moment, and the core of the soul was flickering, like it could go out at any time.

“It won’t be so easy to get out of this place…” He ignored these thoughts and began to rest in order to go back to his peak state.

After resting for two hours, he finally felt refreshed. His mana reserves were full, and his vitality was finally at its apex. He stretched, making his body heat up. He grabbed the glaive and looked at the door. walking toward it, he slowly opened the door. After opening a small passage he stepped back. The small passage open on the giant door would allow him to control the flux of monsters entering the hall, making killing them easier.

The zombies began to swarm the hall, however, the quantity entering was pretty small because of the size of the passage. He waved his glaive around and began to kill the zombies.

It looked like the creatures would come in an unending tide, but he finally saw the quantity of souls behind the doors were diminishing at a fast speed, and no more souls were coming.

The hall was full of bodies, and no zombie was left standing. He had made some tests earlier, and realized that he couldn’t cut the fine lines that made up the soul structure. The soul couldn’t be hurt by normal means by the looks of it.

After taking down the last zombie, he looked around the palace for anything precious, but nothing was left behind. Even some magical artifacts he found had suffered the ravage of time and their runes were destroyed.

He sighed, thinking of the grandeur of the palace in the distant past. Even though time had corroded the place, it was still magnificent. He couldn’t even phantom how it looked in the distant past. Turning around, he left the place.

Leaving the ruins was even easier than entering it. With his new abilities, he could discover where the zombies were, avoiding all of them. Nothing stood on his path after leaving the ruins. After he left the city he journeyed through the forest, killing everything that stood on his path, he even experimented with his new ability. An interesting discovery he made was that he could see the soul dissipating after killing an animal.

The process was slow and steady, he could even affect the soul after killing the animal, but he didn’t have enough proficiency in the ability to do that just yet. He trained in moving the souls while going back to the camp.

Gael took his time on the journey back, and instead of taking two days, it took five. He killed every creature he encountered in order to earn points. Giant lizards and wolves swarmed the forest, he carefully avoided big packs while killing the rest.

The training on his way back bore fruits. He could finally move the soul after killing the creature. However, his ability was still pretty weak and there was nothing more he could do. He had some ideas, but couldn’t apply them for now. He needed a safe environment in order to test some things.

He could finally see the smoke rising from the bonfire in the distance, kicking the ground, he sped up toward the camp.

After arriving at the place, he saw that there were around a hundred survivors left. A few of them had died, most survived during the week he left the place. “It looks like my actions really affected the people in the camp.” He thought while looking around. He knew that a normal camp in the tutorial would never have around a hundred survivors left after three weeks. Most of them had around fifty people by now.

He took a deep breath and walked toward the biggest tent on the camp. It looked like something happened, as there were no more divisions around the place.