Authors' note: Sup guys, sorry for the lack of chapters this week I've been busy with university stuff, this chapter has a bit of a cliff hanger sorry about that. I want to get Thabo some friends soon so expect him to meet some of the nobles soon. Once again here's todays chapter:

Thabo finished dressing up and followed the butler to where the general was waiting. The so call ‘apartment’ they were in was huge. The entrance alone was 250*250 meters; and at the opposite end there was a Hall way entrance which was 5 meters high and 2 meters wide. The frame was quite simple and had an ovular shape; The room itself was maybe 7 meters high and had a curved roof with many metallic frames spreading out from the center. The walls seemed to be made of some type of polished rock that Thabo couldn’t identify. They were cream white and were shiny enough to reflect the light subtly. The ground was a much rougher type of rock but was still smoothed out. It was a mildly dark grey color and didn’t reflect any light at all. The roof was made of a light brown type of wood.

Along with most of appliances and furniture that were either made of glass or a beautifully textured metal; which seemed purer than stainless steel; the whole apartment had a strangely mysterious and luxurious look to it. Thabo had to slowly get used to it. Everything here was new to him and he felt he needed more time to adjust. He was walking through the corridor following the butler as he noticed all the doors around him. They had metal frames and a ceramic center; he noticed that none of them had any door knobs or obvious sensors. But once Thabo detected the circuits on the doors he realized those were probably used to allow entry and exit; they would probably differentiate between people as well.

Every few hundred meters there would be an intersection were 4 paths of the Hall way crossed. This only solidified the idea of how big this place was to Thabo. He began to question the Generals’ concept of normality if he called this place an ‘apartment’.

[Thabo POV]

I wonder where I’m being taken now; considering the size of this place it’s no wonder the general sent a butler to come fetch me, damn you would need GPS in here otherwise. I can only wonder what he wants to talk about that he had to bring me to his place. I find this place pretty strange, ignoring the size; the general said that this was his place, well one of them, so why aren’t there any security guards or soldiers stationed here. It’s not like I have a bad feeling or anything, I just think it’s weird. I saw animals and guns, but there are barely any employees around; even the life forces that I used to feel from those invisible assassins are gone. Is he not worried about people breaking in?

Well when you’re that powerful maybe it just doesn’t matter. We’ve been walking for a while now; this butler guy is pretty… well, butler-looking I must say. His wearing a full three-piece suit with a white shirt and white gloves; he’s a normal human. A white guy with black hair and brown eyes; I never paid any attention to his facial features so I don’t know what to say, he looks old?

Butler: “We have arrived sir.”

We arrive at a large entrance; similarly to the other doors it had a metallic frame and a ceramic center, but now there were engravings all around the frame in a language I don’t understand. The door seemed to have some magic flowing through it, but unlike the other doors the flow this time was stronger and more defined. The door was 5 meters tall and about 3 meters wide; as I approached the door it suddenly slid open reviling a large room with an equally large and extravagant table set in the middle.

All around the room almost everything was made of glass; the walls in all directions except for those along the entrance and even the roof was all glass. Metal frames were placed incrementally in between the glass in order to support the rooms weight and hold all the water back. Yes, water, that’s right I said water. Behind the frames of glass all around the room I could see vast amounts of water. It all gave me the impression that we were currently underwater in some massive fish tank- no, underwater top secret facility type of setting.

I could see multiple figures standing inside this room; the General was obviously seated at the opposite end of the table holding what I assume to be a glass of wine with a huge smirk on his face. He had probably changed clothes and was now wearing a suit that was completely black on the inside and went with a white blazer. Black pants, black shoes, a black shirt and a white blazer buttoned up and finished off with a red bow tie.

The rest of the people in the room were just regular workers either carrying drinks or pushing trays with dishes on them. Tonight’s meal will be shockingly (sarcasm here), seafood; I would rather not question where most of these dishes were caught from and I’m happy that most looked no different from earthen dishes; sea-food, Hake, oysters, clams, prawns etc.

General Mason: “Ah, Thabo, you’ve arrived, sit down please boy we have much to discuss.”

Thabo: “Thank you.”

I guess all of this was set up for just us two then? Maybe the general has a massive appetite or ego? Either way he’s fitting the powerful and rich Demon General vide quite nicely.

I sit down at the opposite end of the General. The glass table is quite long; it’s about 2 meters wide and 10 meters long. I don’t think this is good for communication but what can I do about his choice of furniture hey. Anyway his voice seems to be going through some sort of loud speaker so I’ll hear him fine from just here.

General Mason: “Now then Thabo, you need to learn about a lot and you need to be prepped before you begin working within Hell. The first order of business would be to explain the level system to you.”

Thabo: “Yes that would be helpful thank you.”

General Mason: “Well to start things off Hells’ main currency is souls. We trade in souls and soul shards.”

As he began talking a massive hologram appeared right above the middle of the table in plain view. I guess it’s just a teaching aid and I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. The General began talking whilst pointing at relevant facts now displayed on the holographic image.

The General went on to explain some minor details about the currency. He said that because we people with super natural powers can basically create anything we want there is a serious limit to the number of things we ourselves cannot simply acquire without need for any sort of societal structures, but souls are the only exceptions. Souls are the main source of our powers, our own souls fuel our own powers and with additional souls we can strengthen that power or do even more amazing things, so the general said.

Everyone in Hell works for more souls the reason for this is because you can gain levels with them. The Gates, as you know, use souls as a source of power and improvement; they grow more as souls are feed to them.

General Mason: “So we use souls to level up and rank up there are even more things when you become more powerful but that’s not important right now. The maximum mortal level is 100, after that is the realm of the immortals and Gods.”

So basically there are normally about 100 levels to gain, and after that you must pay a large sum of souls to break that ‘barrier’ and be allowed to further increase your level with a new limit. After this the max level a person can reach is assumed to be 999. Anything beyond that is above the Generals knowledge if it even exists.

General Mason: “Souls have many parts and are also sold separately, a soul shard is a primary part of the soul which has been isolated, like the mana core. That’s what a soul point is in reality.”

Humans have 13 primary pieces of their souls of which the consciousness can’t be harvested so only 12 soul points can be gained from humans. This is apparently the base amount to reach level 1. 13 soul points and is also the reason everyone starts at level 1 and not 0 because they have these 13 parts.

General Mason: “Now to explain all the currency types and conversions to you.”

According to the General:

13 soul points (S.P) [A] grade = 1 Human soul (H.S)

1 Max Human Soul (M.H.S) = 100 H.S

Soul points have 9 grades

[S.S.S] = 1

[S.S] = 100

[S] = 1000

[A] = 10 000

[B] = 100 000

[C] = 1 000 000

[D] = 10 000 000

[E] = 100 000 000

[F] = 1 000 000 000

General Mason: “So 1 soul point [A] is equal to 100 Soul points [C]. Now for how much it costs to level up.”

Each level costs its own number in M.H.S to reach. An example can be better understood, basically it would work like this:

1 to 2 = 2 M.H.S

10 to 11 = 11 M.H.S

And 46 to 47 = 47 M.H.S

Each level up will basically cost its own level numbers worth of Max Human Souls.

General Mason: “Now you can image how much the total cost is to reach a high power level; just to give you a nice example to reach level 100 from level 1 will cost you 5 150 M.H.S or 66 950 S.P [A]. It’s not cheap my boy and at each 100 levels you must pay an amount to progress to further levels.”

1-100 pay 1 000 S.P [A] to progress to the next levels

101-200 pay 2 000 S.P [A]

201-300 pay 3 000 S.P [A]

301-400 pay 4 000 S.P [A]

401-500 pay 5 000 S.P [A]

501-600 pay 6 000 S.P [A]

601-700 pay 7 000 S.P [A]

701-800 pay 8 000 S.P [A]

801-900 pay 9000 S.P [A]

901-999 unknown

General Mason: “All these amounts are simply ‘tolls’ your charged to progress; and not the amount you pay to level up, don’t under-estimate them though they all add up in the long run.”

Thabo: “Sir, what’s the difference between a Human soul (H.S) and a Max Human Soul (M.H.S).”

General Mason: “Nice question I’m glad you’re paying attention. A M.H.S is simply a H.S that has been trained to the greatest quality or strength. It is worth 100 times the average human soul; don’t question to much about it though that’s simply how it is ask a bunch of scientists if you want more details.”

So an Average Human soul = 13 S.P [C]; but a Max Human soul = 13 S.P [A]. Meaning that a human soul trained to its max is about 100 times the value of a normal one.

General Mason: “Oh and just to crush your dreams a little; to reach max level of 999 from level 1 where you are right now, combining the charges and tolls at every 100 levels, you would need to kill 500 499 max or master level humans or 50.5 million normal human beings.”

Shit, that’s a lot; max trained doesn’t even mean level it’s about strength and shit. Even after meditating for 8 years in that container I’m just not at master level yet, I’m maybe 30-40% so you’d almost never find a master class soul even at higher levels. Meaning you’d, without a doubt have to find and kill about 50 Million people to reach that level.

General Mason: “Now leveling up isn’t the only thing you use Soul Points to pay for, there are 2 other ways to use soul points; to gain a position, and to buy things from the ‘creator’, well that one is hard to explain so just think of it as a spiritual shop.”

First off is the positions; General Mason said that you can’t just up a pay the necessary amount to gain a position you must have the certain [titles] first. For example, you must have the [Hero] title and the [arch bishop] title in order to have the [Saint] position open to you. Don’t quote me on this as I’m not sure what other requirements you must meet (the general sounded shaky in some of his details). Anyway he didn’t want to tell me how much his own position cost or what titles you need for it. What he did say was that positions come with quite a bit of power; like a saint is allowed to summon Heavens’ angels’ for help or judge people for their crimes, if judgement goes badly you could be sent to Hell, that’s how powerful a position could become.

General Mason: “Titles are free you just need to do certain actions or meet certain criterial to get them, but what you must do changes depending on the person and the time period; in the past they were a simple matter but now they are much more difficult because titles are usually only awarded in the process of out-performing in a job you may hold. Like to receive the [Life savior] title you must either be in a [Doctor] job or a [Police] job and that’s because way too many people save lives these days so you literally need to save a life every day before your awarded. Competition is intense these days’ boy.”

That’s going to be a bit difficult; now I can tell these titles are crazy important for holding positions but need you to invest years in order to gain them. General Mason talked about [jobs] before but now I’m getting a clearer picture of them. You accept a [Job] from one of the major churches, Higher realms or high rankers and receive pay for it, by that I mean soul points. Monsters used to be the best way to gain soul points because they usually have more power than normal humans and the best part being animals they got no human rights, which led to a slaughter feast. Now you can’t find that many; seeing a dragon or mermaid would be a miracle unless your rich and smuggle the few that still exist.

Anyway jobs usually pay you in two ways; one would be soul points, the second would be experience. Whatever job you do will credit you with experience on your account/file in whatever field your working in; people use this experience to get better jobs, you can only become a brain surgeon with a high level of experience as a normal doctor.

Lastly in some cases you can be given abilities by your employer. I haven’t learnt about abilities/powers yet because I couldn’t get any with my gates sealed. Better ask the general about them now.

Thabo: “Sir, you said that you can get abilities or powers from your employer for a certain job. What are powers and abilities and why do you get them for jobs?”

General Mason: “Powers and abilities are the same thing just different words, anyway they have the same effect as skills being that they are meant to perform certain tasks. The only difference is powers or abilities don’t cost you any energy/mana/ki, nothing. They’re basically free attacks and that’s why everyone loves them.”

As the general said they’re just a skill that doesn’t cost you any energy at all. People sometimes just get them out of nowhere; like some group of kids who could one day heal people and teleport and stuff. They didn’t have any spiritual energy which confused most the angels who found them. Those angels just gave up investigating and called those powers blessings, to this day some people still call them that.

There are two ways they work; one is a soul shard is crafted and added to your soul, it circulates the outside of your soul like the gates. This piece itself is made solely for that specific power e.g. [Healing] and doesn’t use your own power. The second way is through the system, the system will sometimes allow people to break the laws of physics and magic so they can cause an effect with absolutely no cause. Meaning they don’t have to fuel or power or control anything, I don’t get how it works either but the General says those ones are kind of like applications the system will let you access.

General Mason: “Yeah so guys who get powers or abilities are usually like soldiers who get a [Block bullet] or something dumb like a [send help signal] power. I as a high level admin can assign powers to my employees. Though there are rules to it. Anyway this is one of the many ways to gain authority. Lend out power to people in exchange for their loyalty and sometimes even their souls. You’ll learn how to make [soul cartels] one day, they’re what’s commonly known as soul contracts. Both angels and demons make them but Angels usually ask for stuff like ‘save the world’ while we ask ‘give me your soul’, but they’re the same thing at heart just that some of us have profit margins and others run charities.” He said with a smirk.

Well that’s interesting; but it’s really hard to absorb all this information with all this good food in front of me. Like some of this shit I would have fed to the rats in an attempt to kill them because this shit looks horrid but it tastes amazing! Eat without your eyes Thabo, eat without your eyes! And the scenery here is sooooo spectacular. There’s some marine life in this water; I think we’re under an actual ocean right now like the animals here are huge, or are they monsters? Either way they’re the size of busses and trains and have diverse and vibrant colors. WOW that fish over there keeps flickering between purple and orange is it safe? Like can you eat that or do those colors mean Poison! Stop! Death! Type of vide. Hmm…

General Mason: “Oi boy listen to me, you heard me explain how churches work right?”

Thabo: “Huh? Yeah of course sir.”

General Mason: “Then why do we use churches to spread our power, names and influence?”

Thabo: “Faith.” Thabo says proudly.

General Mason: “…You little shit. You haven’t been listening at all have you.”

Thabo: “Ahh sorry maybe I misinterpreted your words.” - That always works – He thought

General Mason: “There’s nothing to fucken misinterpret! We use churches because immortals are banned from owning anything else! FUCK! I hate teaching!”

Wow that escalated fast; I think this guy has bipolar or something, either that or his got the shortest fuse in the world.

Thabo: “Sir I ap-“

General Mason: “You know what? Fuck it I’m tired of this anyway. Let’s just give you your training regimen and move on with our lives.”

Thabo: “…o, Ok.”

General Mason: “Good, listen right now you have two types of circuits; mana and ki. You only need one universal type, it’s way better that way don’t ask me why just make it happen. You have a good meditation technique right? Use that. Next you’ll get your new job as you receive your citizenship status as a royal soon, but you need this position for now. Accept the challenge I’m about to send you.”

Thabo: “Yes sir… but right here?”

Thrown in the deep end.Survive the Generals’ harsh challenge without killing any monsters in the pool.Do you accept?

It doesn’t explain much. How do I survive? And why shouldn’t I kill any monsters I can’t even reach them that’s so dumb… oh no, shit he fucken wouldn’t…

General Mason: “Yeah this is a way better way to teach people I like this, I get this. Ahh now I can finally stand up and stretch that feels good. Boy I’ll send you your complete training schedule later for now pass this test and get the new job it’ll be helpful; oh you can have multiple jobs at once so long as they don’t clash so don’t worry.”

The General Stood up and clapped his hands together; all the servants in the room moved in unison to take all the food from the table, then the table itself started slowly dropping down to the ground. Then it entered into a slot in the floor that just opened up, same with all the chairs so now I’m standing.

Now the General turned his back towards me and began releasing his energy. I can feel his power from this distance and it’s no joke. It’s demonic energy and feels chaotic and violent, unbelievably so. Honestly it feels and looks like a gentle cloud of smoke is surrounding his body. But that just changed, the energy just got denser and violet, it’s turning redder and redder and I can tell his using a spell. Before I could say anything or react beams shot out from him in all directions. Shattering the glass around us and bringing a tidal wave in without a single warning. Then he flew of somewhere; honestly fuck this guy...