"You?!" She called out in shock.
"Me?" Draven arched an eyebrow at her. "You know me?"
She chuckled and stood up. "Who doesn't know the nonchalant boy who rarely attends regular classes but always attends battle classes? The boy who was first to be called to the Beacon but actually failed to awaken?"
Draven observed her, trying to recall ever meeting her. From her words, she is his classmate. She had long crimson hair, a diamond-shaped face, and a unique pair of amethyst eyes that looked like glowing gems. Her frame was lithe, with her height stopping at his shoulder. But he realized that he couldn't even remember meeting her.
"Stop thinking." She cut off his thoughts. "You can't remember me because we never crossed paths. I remember you because many people talk about you. So, what's the deal?"
Draven dismissed his useless thoughts. "I have a way to lead us to other Earth crabs in this area. So, why don't we hunt before leaving here?"
She quieted for a bit before answering. "Sure. First prey?"
Draven nodded and put on his mask.
Then he pointed in the direction of his soul sense, where he had last seen one of the Earth crabs before they disappeared.
"Remember, quietly ambush them; we are not here for war."
"I'm not a fool," she retorted.
And both of them made their way toward the target. Draven scanned the surroundings with his mask.
He finally spotted the irregularities on the floor, seeing the outline of the buried crab. Feeling the weak caress in his chest, he concluded it was a First Order Transient Earth crab.
He pointed at the crab with his sword.
Both of them closed in. A few meters from it, the girl lunged at it with a blurry speed, too fast for Draven, and slashed it. The crab almost split in half from the attack and died instantly without a chance to scream.
'What power! Her Second Order strength is definitely stronger than my single-arm enhancement! Now I know why that lady said I should first ascend to the Second Order.'
She pried out the monster crystal and tossed it to him.
Draven absorbed the mana.
[+3 Mana Absorbed.]
'At my level, First Order Transient monster crystals give me between 2 and 3 mana value, eh?'
Just as he exhaled, he found her looking at him with a sharp gaze.
He pointed in the direction of the next target.
The two of them set out again. With Draven leading the way and the girl attacking—as Draven didn't want to waste his Soul Vitalis in the wild—they killed two more First Order Transient Earth crabs, bringing Draven's mana value to 9.
A few minutes later, they ambushed another, and Draven was ready to absorb it and ascend.
With the girl watching their surroundings, Draven stood beside her and absorbed it.
Immediately, he felt a surging current in his veins before his panel abruptly popped up.
––––
[+3 Mana Absorbed.]
[Saturated Mana Core.]
[Ascending From First Order to Second Order.]
[Soul Vitalis Ascending!]
––––
[Soul Covenant (25% Unsealed)]
––––
[Ascension Added Stat: +10 Physique; +5 Constitution; +3 Will.]
[...Error… Due to the lack of a physical body, Physique and Constitution cannot be added.]
[Converting all stats to mental stat: +18 Will.]
––––
'What do you mean I don't have a physical body?' Draven thought, his mind racing. 'What am I, then? A ghost? Technically, I might… be…'
Suddenly, he felt his thoughts sharpen as the last notification faded. He could clearly feel the wind. Yet he didn't feel his body getting any stronger.
He quickly summoned his panel:
––––
[Name]: Draven
[Class]: None
[Race]: Human
[Legacy]: Soul Mystic (Sealed)
[Rank]: Transient
[Order]: Second
[Soul Vitalis]: 47
[Mana]: 1/100
> Physique: 2
> Constitution: 1
> Will: 28
[Skills]: [Mental Serration], [Soul Sense], [Stasis], [Igni Vitalis], [Soul Covenant (25% Unsealed)]
[Gears]: [Oculus Visor], [Verdant Reaper], [Iron Plate]
–
[CURSE OF VOIDHELL]
––––
Draven opened his mouth to say something but was speechless.
'Screw hell! Only my Will increased. Physique and Constitution remained the same. They remained in the First Order! Is this the flaw the Soul Mystic was talking about?'
"Are you done?" The girl's voice jolted him.
He dismissed his panel, took a deep breath, and turned to her.
'Let's leave it until I return.'
"Yes. We can continue the hunt."
She stared at him. "Now that you've ascended, I've repaid you. So, we'll equally share the monster crystals between ourselves."
"Sure."
"I'm Vera Blane, by the way."
"Draven."
With that, they continued hunting and absorbing monster crystals. But Draven noticed something—now, he could feel the distinct caress of different beings, unlike before when it was chaotic and uncountable.
With no prey in the direction of the forest, they turned back and ventured deeper to continue hunting.
Suddenly, Draven froze as he felt multiple strong caresses in his chest. He couldn't even estimate the number, but he knew all were as strong as the caress of that Second Order Transient Earth crab. His heart lurched.
"Let's leave." Draven turned and bolted toward the forest, which was in the direction of the Haven.
With a short jog, Vera caught up even while he was seriously running and continued by his side.
"What's going on?" she questioned.
"Many monsters are in that direction," he stated calmly.
"Then we just have to avoid that place," she replied.
Draven furrowed his brow beneath his mask. He looked around, spotting many crabs converging in the distance.
'I extended our distance but can still sense them. I never sensed them from this distance.'
Then he turned to her without stopping. "The thing is, they are coming, and I can see other crabs trying to form a barricade in front. I think they want to stop us from escaping what's coming from behind."
Suddenly, they felt a light tremor.
'Screw hell!'
Without hesitation, he activated [Igni Vitalis] and pushed all his strength to his legs.
[–1 Soul Vitalis.]
His legs spasmed before he burst forth with an explosive speed that shocked him, leaving Vera behind.
'My enhancement increased? Damn! Nice!'
Not wanting to get blocked, as he could see the number of crabs increasing at an alarming rate, he didn't check the attribute panel but pushed his speed to the max, almost tripping from the foreign speed of his legs. He shot forward like a loose arrow.
Fast footsteps made him turn, only to see Vera catching up.
'Despite my enhancement, she could still catch up? Did my conversion superiority stop at First Order?'
Another stumble brought him back to reality, and he focused on escaping, pushing those thoughts aside.
Both of them sped past the gaps of the incomplete Earth crab barricades into the forest. They didn't stop but continued running, darting through the trees.
A clawing sensation suddenly gripped Draven's chest.
He skidded to a grinding halt while clutching Vera's arm, ignoring the pain of his non-enhanced arm almost pulling out.
She turned to him with questioning eyes.
"Third Order ahead," he whispered.
That was the only explanation for that painful sensation.
Vera instantly spun, tightly gripping her sword while warily scanning the surroundings.
Draven deactivated [Igni Vitalis] a few seconds later when nothing happened. He needed Soul Vitalis to survive if things took the worst turn, since he didn't get the ascended attributes.
Then he took a deep breath. The clawing sensation in his chest was becoming unbearable as time passed, but he didn't turn off Soul Sense.
Vera's eyes turned to him when she didn't see anything. "Where?" she whispered.
Draven placed his index finger on the lips spot of his mask.
She nodded.
Turning to a tall tree behind him, Draven thought, 'Looks like my climbing training comes in handy.'
Dismissing Verdant Reaper, he agilely scaled it with a bit of struggle until he got to the top.
Then he turned and gazed in the direction where his soul sense was pointing.
With the aid of the mask's skill, his vision pierced into the distance, but Draven saw nothing.
'Is soul sense wrong? Or is the distance farther than my eyes can see? Since I ascended, it looks like the range of Soul Sense has increased. But isn't it too far? The vision distance this mask grants me is already excessive…' His thoughts trailed off. 'What if it's hiding? Like the buried Earth crabs?'
He quickly scanned the ground but saw nothing. Then he meticulously checked from his position up to where he could see clearly, but found only bare ground carpeted with sparse dried leaves.
'Nothing? So, it's hiding farther? No! That's not the only place to hide!'
His gaze switched to the trees, scanning the crowns one by one. He paused on one tree's crown that had a bunch of green vines coiled harmlessly on its branches.
It would have been a regular vine except this vine wound around every branch of the tree, not even exposing a hint of its bark, transforming the branches into green. The leaves and the branches were the same color!
'Abnormal! The quantity of vine require to wrap—'
The green vines abruptly snapped, and a second later, they all uncoiled from the tree. In the next second, they launched themselves like a cannon toward another distant tree in Draven's direction.
'Screw hell!'