The next two days were a blur of calculated routine. Kaelen attended his classes at the academy, sitting in the back, silent and observant. He absorbed information on this world's history, its politics, the basics of magic. It was all filtered through his tactician's mind, stored away for future use. His instructors paid him no mind. He was just the orphan Kaelen, the talentless failure. That anonymity was a shield.
Every night, he returned to the training woods. His hunts became brutally efficient. With the Stealth skill, he no longer needed traps. He could get close, unnervingly close, before the Shadow Rats even sensed his presence. He learned to manage his minuscule mana pool, activating the skill for only a few seconds to close the distance before delivering a killing blow. The slaughter continued. He devoured hundreds of soul remnants. He didn't get another skill, but he felt the fractional stat gains. Tiny, almost imperceptible increases to his Strength and Agility.
The original Kaelen was the academy's weakest student. He was changing that, one rat at a time.
On the third day, his quiet life was interrupted. As he was walking back to his dorm after class, Joric and his two lackeys cornered him in an empty corridor. A smug, familiar sneer was on Joric's face.
"Well, if it isn't our little ghost," Joric said, cracking his knuckles. "We haven't seen much of you lately, Kaelen. Been avoiding us? You know that just makes the taxes go up."
Kaelen stopped, his face impassive. He had been expecting this. In his mind, a dozen variables clicked into place. The corridor was narrow. The stone floor was uneven in places. Glyn, to Joric's right, had a tendency to shift his weight to his back foot before he moved. Pike, on the left, would flinch if you moved too quickly.
"I have nothing to give you, Joric," Kaelen said, his voice flat.
Joric laughed. "That's what you think. Your suffering is always worth something." He took a lumbering step forward, his hand reaching out to grab Kaelen's shirt. "Time to pay up."
Kaelen moved.
He didn't activate Stealth. He didn't have the mana to waste, and he couldn't reveal his abilities. He used something more fundamental. His experience. As Joric reached for him, Kaelen took a tiny, deliberate step back. It looked like he was flinching in fear. But it was a calculated move, designed to make Joric overextend his reach. Joric's weight shifted forward, his balance momentarily compromised.
At that exact instant, Kaelen's foot shot out, not in a kick, but in a low, precise tap against Joric's ankle. It wasn't powerful. It didn't need to be. It just disrupted Joric's footing on the uneven stone floor.
Joric, expecting a cowering worm, was completely unprepared. His eyes widened as his own forward momentum became his enemy. He stumbled, his arms flailing. Kaelen was already moving again. He sidestepped, right into Pike's personal space. As he predicted, Pike flinched violently, jumping back to avoid contact.
The result was a beautiful, chaotic accident. The stumbling Joric crashed directly into the flinching Pike. Their bodies collided with a grunt. Glyn, the idiot, seeing his leader fall, rushed forward blindly. Kaelen simply stuck his leg out. Glyn tripped over it, his arms pinwheeling, and he landed in a heap on top of his two friends. It all happened in less than three seconds. A cascade of pathetic failure.
To any observer, it would look like three bullies had tripped over their own feet trying to shove a scrawny kid.
The three of them were a tangle of limbs on the floor, groaning in pain and confusion. Joric's nose was bleeding from where he had collided with Pike's head.
Kaelen looked down at them, his dark eyes devoid of any emotion. He had defeated them without throwing a single punch. His mind was his weapon. His body was just the tool that carried it out. A new prompt appeared in his vision, one he had not expected.
[Enemies Defeated.]
[Target Status: Humiliated, Morale Broken.]
[Devour soul remnant? Y/N]
His eyes widened slightly. He didn't have to kill them. He could devour the essence of their defeat itself. A crucial piece of information. Yes. He commanded the system.
He felt three wisps of energy, much fainter than those from the dead rats, flow from the groaning pile of bullies into him. They weren't black like the soul remnants. They were a murky, gray color. And then the system notification chimed.
[Ding!]
[You have devoured the essence of defeat and humiliation.]
[Soul Devour has gained experience.]
[Soul Devour has evolved to Rank F+]
[Soul Devour (Rank F+)]
Description: ...
Effects:
1. ...
2. There is a 2% chance to permanently absorb one of the target's skills.
3. There is a 10% chance to permanently absorb 0.2% of the target's core stats.
4. NEW: The host may now target abstract concepts such as morale, resolve, and fear from defeated but living targets.]
A slow, cold smile touched Kaelen's lips. His gamble had paid off more than he could have ever imagined. The skill, his very path to power, had grown. Joric finally untangled himself, clutching his bloody nose. His face was a mask of fury and utter confusion.
"You… How did you…"
"You should watch your step, Joric," Kaelen said, his voice level and cold. "You might fall and hurt yourself."
He calmly stepped around the pile of groaning students and continued down the corridor, not giving them a second glance. He left them there, stewing in their own pathetic failure. He had a lot of work to do. His horizons had just broadened considerably.