The Astral soul system

Chapter 257: So it’s a... tumor?

A week had passed since then and nothing else had happened, strangely enough.

He’d had Black hover around Jade for most of the day since then and nothing had happened. She hadn’t brought up what happened and her ability was back to normal.

It was like the whole thing never happened.

Maximilian’s investigation had slowed down but he was now working closely with Giovanni.

Meanwhile, Celia had settled in nicely in class. She spoke to him a few times but he didn’t really pay much attention to her.

Ava seemed busy with something and hadn’t bothered him,or maybe she was waiting for him to make the first move.

He’d heard nothing from Raven and Crowley and his mark had been dormant since.

He hadn’t gotten a quest or any messages from GK

Aurora still hadn’t brought up his secret so he was unsure what to do about that. He’d stopped his visits to her place though. Not because he was scared of her but to divert attention away from him.

Sable and Zaria were also busy doing their own stuff

It was almost odd how peaceful the last few days had been.

He was currently cross legged on the floor in his room with Moirai floating in front of his chest. Behind him, Syl was on his bed, looking half asleep.

Looking closely,a phantom image of a snake could be see coiled around inside Moirai, swirling and slithering around the codex as energy flowed into it through Moirai.

The aura of nature coming off from him revealed that he already had the soul equipped.

With a final breath, he opened his eyes, looking at the sun that matched his eyes outside through the window

"Time for class"

He immediately stopped his medication, getting up

[Good morning host]

He waited for a second but nothing else

Funny. When he first got the system, he got a stat increase every morning due to his bloodline effect. He wondered what happened to that.

He looked back at Syl

"Something wrong?"

"Oh,no. I love sitting here and watching you sit in one place for hours on end while I’m stuck here unable to do anything"

She’d stuck around for some reason this week. Usually she just came out every once in a while then went back into the codex. He wondered why that changed. He guessed she just got tired of using her wind and spirit forms and wanted to be physical for a bit.

Though he had to explain to his roommates why she was here and more importantly why she stayed in his bed, he had just said she was a friend.

As for her more inhuman features,it was easier to explain than you’d think. Aliens weren’t common, and people would stare for a few seconds when they saw one, but they weren’t exactly banned from earth or even the academy... though they had very good reason to stay away not just from earth but its entire solar system.

Plus she just stayed in his room,so it wasn’t a big issue.

"Bear with me for a bit longer. Why are you so antsy anyway?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed

"You’re genuinely pathetic, that’s what. You’ve spent all your time outside classes,holed up and training but you’re barely any different from last time you went into a dungeon."

He chuckled, rubbing his head

"Yeah,I guess I kinda suck"

"It’s not funny. You’re genuinely so slow. You’d think someone who literally doesn’t sleep would gain something in a week of training"

Zyro shrugged. It couldn’t be helped. His own biology was against him when it came to abilities, and as for normal fighting, he was already a master

The door opened as Xavier and Neo came in sweating, probably from the gym and training area, while Maximilian finally looked up from his book

"Looks like you had fun"

He remarked, noticing the bruises on their bodies.

"Just don’t hurt yourselves too much"

Zyro added

"Hey, this is all your fault buddy "

At the accusation, he could only laugh.

It was true. After three days of his non-stop training, the guys finally got tired of watching him and decided to get active as well, and unlike him who couldn’t sleep, they still had to so they just did so as little as possible.

Ironically, they’d probably improved more than him, even though he’d started it.

He gently rubbed the gem on his choker.

Zephyr still hadn’t been able to crack this thing.

Classes started in less than an hour so they had to get back to their usual routine.

He was about to get up when he suddenly got a notification

[Incursion detected]

[Zero sentries active]

[Quest triggered]

He noticed a blinking icon on the quest scree and when he tapped it,an arrow icon appeared in front of him, pointing in a direction.

"Huh"

[Objective: Investigate, and if necessary Contain and eliminate the insurgence]

"Something wrong?"

Maximilian asked when he just froze, staring at the air.

"Yeah,I just need to take care of something first"

"You need help?"

"I’ll call you if I do. Cover for me with Gemma please"

He said as he grabbed his jacket and jumped out the window

First time he got a quest like this ended up in a very uncomfortable situation with a bunch of tentacles.

"You know the quest never said you had to go alone, right?"

Theia appeared on his shoulder

"Well, yeah but -"

"Forget it. I can’t expect you to be entirely different from the others"

He looked up and as he expected, Syl was right above him, flying in time with his movements.

After a few minutes of running, he noticed his mark started reacting. Like a compass it would glow brighter and brighter as he got closer.

Luckily he was going deeper into the forest. There wouldn’t be anyone near here at this time, right?

Just in case, he put on a cheap mask to 📔 his face

He finally arrived. How did he know? The glowing portal with beasts coming out of it might have given him a hunch.

He squinted, looking towards the west and just like he expected, he could see the dungeon corpse from here.

Stragglers from last week maybe?

Or something entirely different

Either way

[Explode,Freeze,Flare]

Lucky spun in the air, lighting up for a breif moment before a massive boom rang out

He couldn’t have hoped for a better start.

After practicing for the past week, he’d learned that explode wasn’t just a regular skill,it also amplified the others by giving single target skills splash damage.

The whole lot of them were hit with the concussive force followed by searing flames and freezing cold.

Dashing forward, he equipped a soul and energy creeped up his arm like a snake, coiling around his fist.

The closest one to him was still stumbling. It was a feline beast with odd blue skin.

Charging up, he swung from as low as he could, rocks from the ground rising with his fist and through the beasts head and it fell over, motionless.

[Defeated beast: Gained exp]

[Incursion eliminated: Bonus exp]

"Sweet!"

Although he couldn’t move earth exactly just yet, he could influence it when it was coupled with his skills.

He took a breif glance at the soul’s stats

[Jörmungandr]

[Bond: LV 4]

[Skills: Earth cover,Rock spike, Fortify,earth sense,mold]

His headstart was over. The rest immediately pounced at him but at the same time lucky had returned to his grip

[Drill,Flare,explode]

It immediately flew out again, arcing in the air as if it determined a target all on its own, speeding up in mid-air as it dug into a target and started drilling into it. A large boom erupted from the beast as it blew up before scattering into bloody pieces.

His eyes lit up with excitement. Xìngyùn xīng had gotten so much stronger after being ranked up,it was killing these beasts so easily it looked like overkill.

Feeling something come behind him, he quickly turned around and crouched, pressing his palm flat against the ground.

A mid length stalagmite suddenly grew out of the ground like a spear in the beasts path, impaling it

That didn’t kill it so he shot it again until it was done.

He’d found his rhythm before long. Beat down beasts with his fists until his star returned, immediately send it out, and repeat.

Moirai also joined in, flying through the battlefield under his command and firing soul guns at the ones he’d left half dead.

In a few minutes he’d cleared out the whole pack, and just in time too.

[Astra: 0/166]

He automatically unequipped the soul and his energy went back to normal

Letting out a breath, he commanded Moirai to merge back into his body.

"Alright. What now?"

He said, confused, looking at the open tear in the sky in front of him.

Should he... go inside?

Wouldn’t that take him to the other world?

But if it closed he’d be stuck.

"Theia, what am I supposed to do"

"Nothing"

She said, popping out

"You just needed to contain this area. It’ll close itself after a while. There is a way for you to actively close it but you’re too weak"

Of course

He suddenly felt Moirai getting restless, darting around inside him.

Curious,he let it out and it immediately flew towards the open portal, barely touching it

"What are you -"

[Ding!]

[Mapping...]

[Mapping...]

[Mapping...]

[0....1%....2%]

"What the..."

He tilted his head but didn’t stop it, watching the meter slowly fill up

He took a step closer to see what was happening when he suddenly felt a chill.

Looking back he suddenly noticed a bird flying away.

"Is that...?"

It was too far for him to tell and he couldn’t send Black after it because it was still watching over Jade for him.

Still, he had a sneaking suspicion he’d seen it before.

He let out a breath, looking back at Moirai.

Nothing to do about it now

The meter had reached ten percent and was getting higher when he noticed the portal started closing up

"Okay that’s enough "

He said, pulling his codex back.

The orb seemed dissatisfied but acquiesced as the portal closed up.

[Quest complete]

[Granting reward]

All the corpses on the ground suddenly started turning into bits of light, swirling around each other until there was nothing left, not even blood.

They all cobdensed on a flash of light and what was left was a translucent hexagonal crystal.

It slowly lowered itself into his hands

[Read]

[Condensed mana crystal: a concentration of a magical beast’s energy that grows in its body throughout its life. The older a beast,the greater the chance it has a mana crystal and the higher its grade]

"So... it’s a magic tumor?"

He asked confused.

Apparently these were things called magic beasts and these crystals grew in their bodies the older they got.

"Can it grow anywhere or is it always in a particular spot? Can...can it grow in their brain...or neck...or even..."

Strangely he seemed less concerned with what it could do and more with how uncomfortable the beast probably felt with a crystal growing inside its body.

The system had apparently helped him collect all the crystals and condense them into a single one. It still didn’t change the fact that he didn’t know what to do with it.

"You can feed it to your souls. Or eat it yourself"

Theia suggested.

He could already feel Jörmungandr stir at that thought. He gently urged it to be patient.

"You can use it to make gear too, but the blacksmiths of this world probably won’t know how to use it"

"Oh yeah - wait!"

He suddenly realized something

"It said mana, right?"

He looked towards a tree where Syl had been sitting cross legged and watching the whole fight

"Syl, that’s what you use, isn’t it?"

"..."

"Is this maybe from your world?"