Chapter 663 Long Overdue Fear
"Considering even my own parents don't know this, I guess it was a bit too much for me to expect you to know, regardless of how you attain your information.
You can't blame me for keeping my expectations high, though…you have exceeded them over and over again."
Agnes spoke as she slowly walked back to her seat, and in turn, closer to where Evan was standing.
"Due to repeated use of my ability even with my blindfold on, causing my Soul Power to have to penetrate the resistance on them each time I used it; it became kind of like a workout for my Soul Power.
Making it stronger, and stronger, and one day, I realised I could now 'Appraise' people's souls."
She casually revealed how she had gained enough soul power to be able to read Soul Metadata, allowing her to know one's existence level, down to the stage they were in as well as gain vague estimations of their stats just by looking at their Souls.
"Well, I could always tell people's existence levels from the get-go. I ended up revealing a few spies in my Tribe when I was younger because of this.
I could also tell when someone had a skill activated. The 'Shine' on a soul is different when a skill is active, after all.
Even if it's a concealment skill."
However, with the improvement to her ability, she was now able to see the number of Skill Runes on people's souls.
Reading Soul Metadata to 'Appraise' them, detecting Existence levels and stages, estimating stats and telling the number of skills—were all things no one knew she could do.
But Evan was different. He knew she could do some of these things since he had fought against her in the game when she became the new 'Tenth Finger'.
What Evan did not know, was the fact that she could do this even with her eyes closed.
She had never told anyone this, nor had she given any hint that she could do this. She also made no mention of the existence of her Soul Power.
This was why the simulation of the future that Evan had played in the form of 'Aidos Online', did not have these pieces of information.
Secondly, Evan greatly underestimated how much stronger than normal her soul was.
Evan himself had a powerful soul, something he could feel all too clearly since he had been conscious of his Soul right from the moment he was put into a different body.
With a powerful soul, came greater resistance to soul-based abilities.
He then had increased Spiritual Resistance due to Adaptive Evolution, and he also had a Soul Protection artifact on.
Yet, with all of this, Agnes could still read Evan's Soul Metadata…though she was off by 50 levels worth of stats.
"I think I'd be able to get a full 'Appraisal' If use my eyes fully, but I'd leave that for later. I want to talk to you, after all."
Agnes was calmly seated no less than two metres away from someone who came to kill her, and she even stated she wanted to talk to him—this made Evan wary, wondering if she was buying time for guards to get closer but she dismissed that concern.
"I ordered them not to get within a certain range of my room unless I said otherwise. And normally, nothing should have been able to pass, except for you who possesses a very strange concealment-type skill."
An evidence of her reduced efficiency due to her eyes being closed, was the fact that she mistook 'Lethe' and 'Concealment' to be the same skill due to their very similar natures.
"Ah, don't move too much, I'm trying to grasp your current appearance. Your soul is a lot different from the last time I saw it, after all."
Agnes could not see how Evan looked physically, but she could still tell how he looked.
One's default physical Appearance was based on their Soul's Metadata, just like their skills which were runes on their souls were reflected on their physical bodies.
Evan knew this as well since he was inhabiting a body that was originally someone else's.
His soul influenced the body and caused some of its physical features to change and match his original body's features.
His facial features had changed slightly, his hair colour had become a bit lighter, and his voice had also changed completely.
But since 'Evankhell' and 'Evansen' already looked similar, these changes were treated by people as him 'growing up'.
Especially with his voice; most just assumed puberty had hit.
Some things stayed the same as 'Evansen', like his grey eye colour. That couldn't be passed off as 'growth' after all.
Getting back to Agnes, her ability to read people's Soul Metadata, was what she used to tell how Evan looked.
This was part of why she knew the person in front of her was Evan.
She had seen Evan before, many times even; over the course of the past year.
"Year 1052 June 5th.
That was the first time I saw you…you didn't know I was nearby though."
The date she called was one Evan knew very well; it was the day of the Celebratory Ball after the 'Dullahan Attack'.
"I was with that 'Old Timer' when he got news of your location, but since he could not do anything because of the Old and Powerful Souls I saw under the Royal Palace, he stormed off angrily.
I just told him to drop me there so I could sneak in and see you in person."
Agnes revealed where she had first seen Evan, as well as some other piece of information that made the boy stop his attempt to close the distance and put his weapon back into his inventory.
He appraised the teenager in front of him and aside from discovering she and Eliza were both sixteen, he also noted she did not possess the designation of 'Enemy of Aidos'.
Meaning that even if she had been right next to him that day, his Hero title would not have made a peep.
'So, she's one of the 'Misguided Ones' that Aidos talked about…'
But more importantly, she also revealed she was with someone she called an 'Old Timer' and that person wanted to do 'something' after finding out his location.
'The 'Old Timer' is definitely the First Finger, and the reason why he could not do anything was because of the 'Old and Powerful Souls' she saw under the Royal Palace.
My guess is those are the Sovereign Level Existences of the GWE.'
However, Evan felt cold sweat dripping down his back upon hearing this.
'The First Finger is a very busy person, so I had put the probability of him coming after me in person to be very low.
But I seem to have neglected the part where he's also very decisive as well.'
It just so happened that the First Finger was less busy, and he knew where Evan was at the same time.
'That means that the First Finger was in Gerfast on that night…
if the GWE Sovereigns were not present….'
Though a whole year had passed since then, the long overdue feeling of fear was now just hitting Evan.
While Evan was drenched in cold sweat, Agnes continued speaking like she could not 'see' the slight fear that had manifested through his soul fluctuations.
"When I first saw your soul, I was…shocked. My shock then turned into intrigue.
Your soul was…Unique."
Agnes seemed to be lost for words to use and describe how Evan's soul had appeared to her.
"It was so Strong, and it carried so many skills with so much energy within it.
It caught my attention immediately, like a drop of black ink on a white canvas."
She thought she would have had to search quite a bit to find Evan, but the moment she entered the hall, she spotted him instantly.
"Your Soul's Uniqueness intrigued me…it's appearance stuck to my memory like glue.
The same way you remember physical appearances you see with your eyes; is the way I remember souls I see.
That's why I knew it was you from the very instant I saw you in the hallway."
Resting her chin in her palms she propped up her elbows up on her laps and leaned forward, as if she was trying to get a closer 'look' at Evan.
"It's much stronger now. It holds far more energy, and even different racial factors as well.
It also seems to have more wisps of World Law powers. Last time it was just destruction and one other strange greyish Law power, but now there are two more."
Evan blinked at Agnes in confusion, wondering if it was truly his soul she was looking at. He was genuinely confused as the only World Law that should be near his soul was that of Destruction.
'What are the other three she's talking about?'
The answers were very simple, and if Evan sat down for a moment to dwell on it, he would have arrived at the answers.
One was the Law of Knowledge—a Law heavily involved in the creation of the Reincarnated Hero System.
The other was the Law of Evolution, and the last was a little bit of Causality—due to his Irregular Status.
"I'm talking a lot, aren't I? But you can't blame me, I'm very excited to finally speak with you after watching you all this while."
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