The Astral soul system

Chapter 252: lucky streak

[Quest completed!]

"Quest? What quest?"

They asked as the body slowly returned to human

"Oh,it showed up in the middle of the alligator fight, and I didn’t want to distract you since that usually gets us eaten so I hid it"

"That’s... actually quite thoughtful. Are you sure you’re our little sprite?"

Zephyr asked but she just groaned.

"At least I tried to help"

"What about stopping a crocodile from feasting on the boy’s bones, isn’t helping"

This was going to turn into another full blown argument so Zyro quickly spoke up

"Thank you both for your help. We appreciate it and hope you will continue to help us"

That seemed to satisfy them both as they settled down... for now

"Oi, I’m done. I’m not dealing with that bitch any longer. Take the damn body"

His eye turned red and Zen switched with him

"I’d have thought you’d want to stay in control "

"When you find another monster that’s about to kick your ass,let me know"

Zen didn’t argue. It was arrogant, but true. Zaine had gotten the most emotional complexity of them all and he also seemed to have the most natural talent,or perhaps he just knew how to use it better.

One thing he was good at was making things up on the fly

The chest attack they just did was something that hadn’t been planned or practiced, and Zen had attempted something similar for hours but failed.

Using the mutation to their benefit was also something he just came up with.

The pinball attack they used so often was something he’d picked up instantly as well.

It was strange to say since they were all aspects of the same person, but they did have some properties unique to themselves.

"What’s the quest reward?"

Theia suddenly popped up in a red dress and a drum set, playing

"ARE YOU READYYYYYY!!!"

"..."

"She is so extra"

Lilith murmured

"I know "

Freya replied

"Geez,tough crowd"

She snapped her fingers, poofing away all the fanfare

"We need to be done with this before Celia comes back. Syl and Moirai can’t keep here busy forever"

"Yeah, yeah alright"

She disappeared as the reward popped up

[Reward: Rank up any piece of equipment randomly (chance to awaken it’s soul)]

"This is... good"

"See? Now he’s excited"

Theia appeared again, slightly less dramatically this time

"And you don’t have to use it now. You can wait until you have a really powerful gear and -"

She was cut short as Zen silently pulled out the shuriken .

"Are you sure?"

Zen nodded

Theia was confused. It was his least used piece of equipment. Why not level up something that was already strong.

The other two didn’t voice any objections

A bright light suddenly appeared around the gear and it floated out of his hand into the air.

A few seconds passed before it came back down into his hands, glimmering like new, it’s smooth body having intricate markings and a chinese inscription on the center which he recognized meant fortune

[Successful]

He immediately checked its stats

[Xìngyùn xīng(lucky star)]

[A rather sentimental weapon. Crafted by a master blacksmith as a sign of good fortune. Affectionately nicknamed Lucky by its master as a child,it is a purely luck based weapon,each of its eight points possessing its own active skill. This weapon yearns to fulfill its master’s wishes, bending fate and fortune in his favour. It grew up with him and was the first weapon he ever used, whether as a toy or a good luck charm,as such it will only reach its full potential in his hands]

[Active skills]

Lucky star: Activate three abilities from the following upon contact

[Explode,Drill,Stun,bless,Freeze,Flare,curse,kill]

(Status effects stack)

Most were self explanatory but he decided to check bless and curse and just as he’d expected, the skills chose a random buff and debuff respectively. Luckily bless only targeted him, and curse, his enemies

Kill was another

[Kill: The grand prize with a 0.00000001 probability. A chance to target the opponent’s soul directly with a 99% insta-kill chance]

Zen wasn’t sure how to react. Sure the chances were obscenely low, but every time he threw this, there was a chance to instantly kill his target.

He kept looking down since there was more

JACKPOT!: Every time three skills are selected,there is a chance for the same skill to be selected three times, triggering a jackpot and activating the super skill

There was no more information on the super skill,so it seemed it was something he’d have to find out himself

Boomerang: Return to its master’s hand always

That was all the skill said so he didn’t know if anything had changed

[Passive skills]

Sure shot: This weapon bends chance and destiny along its blades, reducing the possibility of a miss,or a fail

Dealer’s choice: The master’s choice can very subtly influence the roulette, making a certain skill more or less likely to pop up

[Note: A gambler’s weapon, and a lucky charm all in one. Keep it close,it might just turn your luck around]

Once he was done reading the stats, he closed the screen, inspecting the weapon. Dealer’s choice was quite a fortunate addition. With how low the chance of kill appearing was, he could just say he didn’t want it to appear and drop it right to zero whenever he needed to for sparring or whatever else.

He couldn’t see the roulette or how much dealer’s choice affected it but he felt like he would once he increased Read’s level

"So did its soul awaken?"

Theia shrugged

"I don’t know, and even if I did I couldn’t tell you. It was part of the reward’s fineprint, sorry"

He didn’t mind. He didn’t know what awakening the soul meant in the first place so he hadn’t been expecting much.

He looked at the core on the ground from the snake and back at the star

Theia suddenly suggested something, something silly, but they didn’t refuse

"Lucky star,huh?"

Bending chance and destiny along its blade.

He shrugged, putting on a new pair of gloves, and holding Lucky in one hand, he began to spin it on his fingers like a fidget toy. Gently he picked up the core in his other hand.

Slowly opening his mouth he closed his eyes as a visible stream of liquid light flowed into his mouth and down his throat.

He unconsciously swallowed slowly as his body processed it, his eyes opening as he waited for the notification

[Consumed mid rank core]

[Gained 100 Astra]

He stood there for a few more seconds, waiting to see if there was anything else as the star kept spinning faster and faster

...

...

...

Sighing in disappointment, Theia broke the silence

"Alright then -"

[Ding!!!]

[Obtained soul: Ancient forest serpent]

*****************

The light particles from the armour’s corpse slowly flew deeper into the dungeon and so did the sword she’d taken from the beast

She sighed, disappointed as it faded into nothingness, though she felt like she couldn’t be two greedy.

Two cool swords is two cool swords, but one cool sword Is still one cool sword, right?

Besides,it could shapeshift and copy all the skills of the original weapon so it was just as good

"I guess it’s still just you and I. Thanks by the way. I couldn’t have done it without you"

’i probably shouldn’t be talking to my shapeshifting weapon...or weird comforting voices’

She looked down and suddenly noticed one piece of armour wasn’t disappearing. The breastplate, but why?

She slowly looked closer and noticed something burning itself into the armour like a brand.

"Is that my blood?"

She suddenly remembered how the knight had flinched when she spit on it.

"Wait,is that how it works?"

She clutched her head

"If I knew that i would have spit on the sword too... N-not that I’m not satisfied with you"

She said to the sword that was perfectly identical in every way to the one she was crying over with size changing and a mental link that was floating in front of her,

"I like this form better for you. Sure the staff is powerful but that’s the problem,it’s too powerful for me. It’s so heavy I can barely move it and the requirement for power is so much that I can only use it in here"

It was only after she switched to the sword did she realize how much the staff was weighing her down. Literally.

In colloquial terms,it weighed a fuck-tonne!

Both for her body and mind

She’d speed blitzed the knight so easily with the sword but couldn’t even guarantee a dodge with the staff. Plus her mental communication with it was so much smoother.

She sighed,her expression turning somber.

" I really had to downgrade to win. I wonder how Faye would fare with you."

The sword floated into her hands, having returned to normal

"Heh, it’s a good thing that moron didn’t know my transformation’s busted. I couldn’t go dragon even if I wanted to. Don’t go telling anyone though, okay?"

The smile on her face didn’t reach her eyes,her fingers twitching as she clutched the sword

She let out a breath, snapping out of her haze and letting the sword float next to her

"Something tells me I should find a way to get out of here fast. Zen’s really gotta do something about his place"

Crouching down she picked up the breastplate

"How am I supposed to wear this anyway-"

The brand made from her blood which she noticed looked like her necklace suddenly lit up, engulfing the armour and once it dimmed it had become much smaller. In fact it was perfectly her size. She could probably wear a big enough jacket over it

It was mostly white with spots of black and gold touching the edges , just like the sword

"It’s a good thing I’m flat as a board"

She chuckled, placing it into her ring

"You can’t actually hear me, can you?"

She asked the sword she’d been talking to all this time.

"That would be awkward "

She didn’t talk like this even if Zen was the only one around,so she really hoped the tricky monkey wasn’t somehow listening in with the hair

She turned towards the pond

"Sable! Jade!"

She quickly ran towards it before running into the barrier

"What?!"

She knocked on the invisible barrier and had to hold back from cursing

"Alright,deep breaths. Sable’s inside,so she could break it, meaning I have a chance"

She raised the sword, dropping the scraps of energy she still had into it.

The ability seemed to be an equal opportunity theif. It drained from any and everyone, even its user if it was allowed.

She brought it down on the barrier, creating a vertical tear.

She quickly walked through before heading straight for Sable

"Sable,are you oka- whoa"

She looked around her at pieces of the broken hands,all that were left were pieces broken everywhere. She’d caught a glimpse of what it originally was, and hoped Sable would be okay without her. Seeing it in this state was just...

"Wow!"

Hey,Sa-"

She froze

"Sable? Are you okay?"

She slowly stepped closer and saw Sable’s eyes,pitch black holes of darkness.

Looking up she saw the portal

"How did you get in here? Sable, can you hear me? Listen to me"

She urged, shaking her

She gripped the hilt of the sword

"Maybe I could manage one more-"

"Zaria?"

The blade slipped out of her hand and she turned back

"Yes! It’s me. Look at me "

Slowly Sable’s eyes cleared up. A strangely violent tremble came out of the portal before it closed in on itself, disappearing.

"Don’t tell me that stupid thing got me again"

She said, clutching her head

"Ok,I won’t tell you"

Shaking off the dizziness she finally got a good look at Zaria.

"Looks like you did okay"

"I managed. Seems you did too"

"Hey,I thought you said you didn’t bring a weapon"

Sable asked, looking at the floating sword

"And wasn’t it a stick before?"

"Um...long story. Let’s just get this over with before any other surprises appear"

They both turned to the pond

Jade.

Running towards the lake,they both knelt at the edge.

"What do we do? Do we just...pull her out? What if the water puts us to sleep?"

Zaria went quiet at that. It wasn’t her only concern. She was still wondering how Jade had been here the whole time when they’d checked three times and hadn’t found her.

"Aaah! I’m going for it!"

Sable yelled

"Wait, let me! If anything happens,you go get Zen"

Zaria stopped her

"Well why don’t we just go get him now!"

"We can’t wait that long. We have to do something!"

Zaria yelled back

"Do something about what?"

Zen asked

"Shut up and listen. I can’t hear myself think"

Sable tugged at her hair. This was almost as annoying as fighting those hands

"Zen,tell her to back down,I should do it!"

"No! Tell her to back dooooo-wait...."

Zaria and Sable both turned to look at Zen who was suddenly crouched down with them, watching blankly as they argued.

"Looks like all your arguing woke her up"

He said, pointing and they both turned to see Jade shifting and stirring in the water, clearly about to wake up.

"It was that easy!?"

Sable’s exclaimed, exasperated

Zaria turned to look at Zen again

"How did you..."

"Well..."