Marie nodded as she glanced around at the fallen Phantasm Beast. "Good job, guys! Now then, did you see your magic go down, Reinhard?"
Reinhard examined the back of his hand to see that the edge of one sword in his Beast Symbol was now shaded black, indicating that a portion of his magical reserves had been depleted. The visual representation made it easy to track his remaining capacity at a glance.
Marie moved closer to him. "Then let's continue to the next lesson. How to get stronger as an Inquisitor is pretty simple but bloody."
She grabbed his hand and led him to one of the fallen Werefangs, its crimson eyes now dull and lifeless. "Hold out your hand toward the beast."
Reinhard did as instructed, extending his palm toward the creature's still form. The Werefang's body began to glow with an ethereal light, and streams of luminous energy rose from its corpse toward his outstretched hand.
"What you are doing is devouring the soul of the Werefang." Joseph says but Reinhard was too busy staring at the light to respond.
The light moved over his body, sinking into his skin with a warm tingling sensation. A surge of strength flowed through him, but it was accompanied by something far more disturbing.
Hunger gnawed at his stomach, a sense of curiosity about unfamiliar scents and sounds filled his mind. He felt his body trembling before then came flashes of memories that he didn't recall he had before. It was him moving through dense forest undergrowth, the taste of warm blood in his mouth, and the thrill of the hunt.
Reinhard blinked hard and looked down at his hand, wondering what exactly he had just experienced. Those images and sensations had felt foreign yet disturbingly vivid.
"Now look at your Beast Symbol," Marie instructed. "You should see a small coloring on the left side."
Reinhard quickly examined the back of his hand and noticed a small blue light had appeared at the edge of Odin's symbol, separate from the main coloring that indicated his magical reserves.
"That's what we call a Beast Master Soul Gauge," Marie explained.
Reinhard furrowed his brows. "I need to fill this to advance to the next class?"
Joseph approached and nodded. "That's one requirement. The other is passing another trial given by your beast spirit."
Another trial? Reinhard thought with an internal shiver. I can already see why they said SSS class is beneficial in the beginning. Just thinking of doing another trial like Odin's makes me want to run in the opposite direction.
Marie continued her explanation. "The Soul Gauge isn't just for class advancement, it also determines how strong you are within your current class. For example, a person with a soul gauge of one hundred would be twice as strong as someone with fifty."
Reinhard's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief. "So every increase in the soul gauge, even by one point, makes you stronger?"
Joseph nodded seriously. "Even having one more soul devoured than someone else is beneficial. But as you can probably guess, to raise the soul gauge, you need to kill beings that possess souls."
Reinhard hummed as he asked. "Are you saying humans also count?"
Joseph's frown deepened. "Yeah. Any being with a soul will increase your gauge. But it's extremely dangerous to do that because of the effects of devouring a soul."
Reinhard looked down at his hands. "Do you mean those strange emotions, feelings and images I felt after absorbing the Werefang's soul?"
Marie nodded, her usual bright smile showing strain around the edges. "Every time you absorb a soul, you aren't just getting stronger. You're also taking in the information stored within that soul. That includes the creature's emotions and experiences, which you must integrate and digest into your own psyche. In a sense, you can say every soul you devour is being added to your own life to grow stronger."
Reinhard's eyes widened with growing alarm. "Is that why someone can't go on a killing spree and absorb multiple souls?"
Joseph nodded gravely. "If someone were to do that without fully processing each soul between absorptions, it's highly likely they would lose their original identity and go insane."
Reinhard grimaced at the implications while Marie sighed heavily. "The chances of recovering from that kind of psychological breakdown are extremely low. It's also why you need to be careful about which souls you absorb, even one soul can create serious problems if it's too alien to your nature."
She paused before continuing. "In general, only absorb souls from your class level and from creatures that aren't too different from yourself psychologically. Though that latter part is difficult when dealing with Phantasm Beasts, the best idea is to absorb only one soul of the new Phantasm just in case."
Reinhard nodded slowly. "The road to getting stronger really is dangerous."
Marie's laugh returned, though it carried less warmth than usual. "But it's still an adventure, and you do experience new things from the souls you absorb. Now then, moving on from the soul gauge, let's talk about Beast Sigils!"
Joseph stepped forward. "Beast Sigils are proof that you've dominated another beast to gain their abilities or support."
"By 'dominate,' do you mean forming a connection?" Reinhard asked.
Joseph nodded. "We do this by using the soul of a Phantasm Beast we've killed, then forming a connection to its spirit residing in the Throne of Myth."
Reinhard blinked in surprise. "So even Phantasm Beasts exist in the Throne of Myth?"
Marie giggled and nodded. "It's believed that even our Beast Spirits were once Phantasm Beasts that roamed the land before vanishing."
Reinhard looked at where Mimir had been perched on his shoulder. "Is this true, Mimir?"
The crow tilted its head thoughtfully. "Who knows? That isn't something within my knowledge."
Reinhard's lips twitched at the unhelpful response while Marie gently coaxed Mimir into her hands, stroking his feathers. "Say, Mimir, how did you know those beast classifications earlier?"
"I can identify the strength of any being with a glance by analyzing their magic and body," Mimir explained as it puffed out its chest.
All three students' eyes lit up with interest as that was an incredibly valuable ability for field operations. This meant they wouldn't need to fight Phantasm Beasts blindly and put themselves in even more danger.
"How does the specific skill get chosen once you make a connection to the Throne of Myth using the soul?" Reinhard asked.
Joseph answered, "The skill is determined by what you focus on and can recall the image of the Phantasm Beast using the ability."
"So if I connected to the Werefang and concentrated on imagining its claw attacks, would I gain that ability?"
When Joseph nodded, Reinhard followed up. "How many abilities can we have?"
Marie took over the explanation. "For third Class Beast Master it's one, but this increases the higher you climb up in the rank. While you can only connect between one and four beasts, depending on your Beast Spirit's class. E to D Class Beast Spirit can only have one Sigil, C to B can have two-"
Reinhard stroked his chin as he interjected. "So A to S can have three and SS to SSS can have four?"
Joseph nodded. "Which is why it's important that we carefully consider our choices. Though we can always form connections with other beasts later if we want since their souls reside in us."
"And you mention something about supporting Beast Sigil?" Reinhard asked.
Joseph nodded and said. "Depending on the skills you got, it could be offense, defense, and support. Offense is attack, defense is defending and supporting is a wide range of things like healing, amplifying, etc."
"Mimir's ability to analyze the enemy would be supported then." Reinhard muttered as he glanced at Mimir and Joseph nodded.
Marie clapped her hands together. "We should get back in the carriage and continue to Mensis Town."
Joseph and Reinhard agreed, and they followed Marie back to the vehicle. Reinhard saw the spiral orb which was grey at the moment and sighed. He found it astounding the Academy allowed all squads their own carriage considering how expensive it was without a navigator.
A carriage like these used magic orbs to move the carriage and locator inside for navigation.
As they settled into their seats, their weapons dispersed into motes of light and Mimir faded from view.
"Carriage, continue!" Marie called out cheerfully.
As the wheels resumed their steady rhythm against the cobblestone road.
Reinhard leaned back against the plush velvet seat, his mind working to absorb the influx of information he had learned. Inquisitors had to devour other beings to increase their strength while dealing with integrating foreign memories and emotions that could potentially overwhelm his sense of self.
Then there is the Beast Sigil system that offered incredible versatility, but also required careful thinking since you can't get rid of a Sigil once connected. At the very least the connection can always be formed later after devouring the soul so there was no rush.
Through the carriage window, the autumn landscape continued to roll past.