The Astral soul system

Chapter 258: What to do?

[Level up!]

Finally.

The bonus exp from those portal beasts was just what he needed

[Name: Zyro Heart](LV 25)]

[Species: (Rank2 Astral) (bloodline - ????)]

[Class: soul sage]

[Profession: Stygian stalwart (Arcane)]

[True name/soul name: Azrael??? Moirai]

[HP 150/150]]

[Astra: 170/170]

[Strength:8]

[Agility: 8]

[Endurance: 8]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Charm: 50]

[ Wisdom: 8]

[Stat points: 0]

[Skill points:0]

[Codex:Moirai]

[Status: Excited,Threefold suppression]

The system was definitely right about him being excited.

He was now halfway through to his next evolution and becoming rank three. Though his stats didn’t show it.

He was still about as weak as he was at rank one, hopefully evolution number three would change that .

He looked ahead at the class while fiddling with the mana crystal in his hand absentmindedly.

Of course he already knew what they were teaching but he already had Gemma yell at him when he came late,no reason to give her another.

"What am I gonna do with you"

He said, looking at the crystal. He considered just giving it to his serpent soul since it clearly seemed to want it but he was holding out for now, just in case there was something else he could use it for.

Looking across the room at Jade, he tried accessing her link but her mind had been closed off, he couldn’t get anything

Theia really wasn’t kidding about self-actualization. It was like her gravity power didn’t even exist,any of her other abilities were sealed as well. Even though she was technically stronger than him, she’d willed herself down, and according to Theia, something needed to shake her loose, something that would rattle her so badly, she’d be able to see past her own worldview.

Whether or not telling her was going to be enough, he wasn’t sure

He couldn’t help wondering if he’d be just like her if he’d gotten these powers and not the system

Classes ended with his head still in the clouds.

Jade looked back and waved at him.

He waved back and looked at Zaria who had been stuck to her all week. Unlike him,Jade didn’t have a shadow god to make a fix for that side effect.

Luckily no one had noticed that or her uncanny eyes.

"So, what was so important you had to bail?"

Neo asked

"Cats"

"Right..."

The rest of the school day passed relatively smoothly and when he returned to his dorm, he realized Syl wasn’t here.

He didn’t panic. She was probably off playing tricks on people in her spirit form.

The cavalier wind spirit had displayed an appetite for mischief on many occasions, luckily she spared him from her pranks.

Her spirit form was invisible to both humans and technology,so he wasn’t worried she’d be caught, and although he was technically her’s and the other soul’s "Master", he was pretty hands off,so they generally just did whatever they wanted

He briefly wondered where the rest of his roommates were, but if they were in trouble, they’d call so he just sat on the floor again, Moirai materializing in front of him as he started training.

He found himself in the castle,a huge snake coiled around him. It’s scales resembled rocks, with pieces of vines and mosd between them

It was nowhere near the massive size it had been while alive but it was still capable of coiling its body around him multiple times.

Luckily this time it wasn’t trying to kill him.

Instead of a hiss,a sound that resembled a growl came from its open maw, and thanks to his bond with it, he could understand its intention, apparently communication between them would become clearer the higher their bond was.

"No you can’t have the crystal just yet, but you’re first in line to get it, promise"

It didn’t start a fuss and lowered it’s head, showing it understood

"Good. Now are you ready?"

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

Maximilian discreetly entered the restaurant. The guards had grown accustomed to him so they didn’t react, letting him pass.

He went straight for Giovanni’s office,as the door opened he saw someone strapped into a chair, covered in bruises and bleeding from his lip.

Giovanni was standing over him , wiping his knuckles clean

Sighing, he closed the door behind him. He’d obviously heard this and even smelled the blood before he even entered the building.

"So?"

Gio barely reacted to the boy coming in

"I’m not good at this"

He replied .

Looking down at the prisoner’s hands, Maximilian raised a brow.

"You have power dampening cuffs?"

"What about it?"

"Nothing"

He stepped closer to the prisoner, stopping right in front of him

"Hey, I’m the guy you helped kidnap. Why?"

The prisoner looked at him and then Giovanni before bursting out laughing.

"Oh, you’ve screwed yourself you moron. Working with kids now huh? What are you, twelve?"

He suddenly gasped, looking down carefully at the knife pointed to his neck.

Slowly more and more pressure was applied and a thin trail of blood slid down his neck

"Seventeen actually, and as you know the government accepted age of maturity is sixteen, but that’s not important."

He made another small cut and watched the blood flow down his neck.

"I’m cutting very shallow so you can still speak,you can be grateful by telling me what Kane is planning, and his relationship with the arcade"

The sudden show of cruelty seemed to have reduced his bravado for a few seconds, though he just scoffed.

"You’re done, all of you, especially you, you fucking traitor "

"Tch "

Another carefully placed shallow cut appeared on his neck

"Why are you talking to him? I’m right here, talk to me"

"..."

"Hurry up, I’m running out of space, I’ll have to cut something important soon "

Inwardly Maximilian was a lot more conflicted than he looked. He’d never actually tortured someone before, and although coming from such a big family had caused him to see some ....things growing up, and even do somethings as well,this was still something he was new too.

That wouldn’t stop him though. Three attempts on his life had been made in the past two months, he would do whatever it took to get to the bottom of it.

And bedsides

A rich kid of a powerful family having such close relations with a gang and doing things like this wasn’t exactly an odd sight, even if his reasons weren’t the same as most.

"Soon enough that bullshit family of yours won’t matter anyway"

"Why is that"

"Once we’re done here, were coming for all of you next"

Maximilian sighed, putting down the knife and walking to Giovanni

"I’m guessing his tone wouldn’t change if ’He’ asked him"

Giovanni shook his head gravely

"The ungrateful arse would probably try to kill him"

"I thought as much. What about yesterday’s operation"

Gio sat down with a groan

"Warehouse was empty"

"So is Kane onto you?"

"Heh! The bastard never trusted me in the first place, but no"

"Good,if only we could find out who he’s working with"

Looking back at their prisoner, Maximilian picked up the knife again, sighing as he approached him.

"Alright, let’s start with something easy. The human body has 43 pairs of major nerves in total. Want to see how many you can do without?"

As he approached,a crazy glint appeared in the eyes of the prisoner. As soon as Maximilian was close enough, he suddenly tipped the chair over, just at him.

Max froze, looking at the limp body in his arms. He’d impaled himself on the knife in his hand.

He coughed up blood for a few seconds, suffocating as the blade in his neck stopped his breathing.

In a few seconds he was gone.

Quietly, Giovanni pushed the corpse off Max, taking the knife and wiping it off on its clothes.

"You seem fine. You have killed before?"

"..."

Maximilian just sighed, running a hand through his hair. What a mess.

Sitting down, he looked at Giovanni, exhausted. Every lead they pursued in this investigation led to a dead end.

"What could they be planning that they’d rather die than talk?"

"If it has anything to do with those crazies with tattoos, it’s no good"

Maximilian shook his head

"No, the players that took me were hired, though I have no idea how you hire one of those. Kane’s working with someone else. When you tracked them,you found that they’d been sneaking into dungeons right?"

"Yeah, but no funny business. They’re just clearing them like normal. Can’t exactly call that strange behavior. The only thing suspicious is that Kane oversees the operations himself."

Perhaps there really was nothing there.

The mysterious benefactor was another bust. Apparently they found Kane, not the other way around whenever they wanted to communicate, and a whole week of investigation and espionage had revealed nothing about how or when

Maximilian suddenly paused, repeating something Gio said earlier

"Crazies with tattoos,huh? I thought you were okay with players"

"What? Hell no! Other than the boss and like three others, I’d rather have nothing to do with them "

That was another thing that stumped Max

"How exactly did you meet them?"

"Oh,jail"

Max was a bit confused until he remembered Zen once mentioned that he’d been in prison. Though, he’d have had to be even younger than he was now

"That sounds like quite a story."

Giovanni smirked as he began to reminisce