Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

"Soul Arts, just like the name suggests, are powers born from the soul," Luna began. "They rely on a type of spiritual energy called Soulforce, and manifest that energy in the real world in the form of powerful arcane attacks that can do what physical attacks cannot."

"Oh? Soulforce?" Cyanide raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Take a look."

Luna pulled up a new hologram for Cyanide, illustrating what seemed to be a mysterious reverse teardrop-shaped stone on the screen. It was grey and bland, giving off a 'null' feeling to it.

"This is a visual representation of your Soul in its truest form, Cyanide. You are cold, merciless, and do not feel any passionate emotions such as joy, sadness, or anger but rather more objective feelings like curiosity and boredom instead. As such, the color of your Soul is a dull grey."

Cyanide tilted his head slightly, rubbing his chin in thought. Then, the color before him suddenly changed, darkening and darkening until the grey turned to black.

"But deep beneath the surface of that emotionless boy, lies darkness," Luna continued, gentle voice like an angel whispering to him. "That darkness has claimed many lives, killed countless hearts. But just as a soaring bird will always return to its nest, in the end, all life will eventually return to the grave. Some may delay it, but none can evade it. Such is the power of Death — the affinity of your Soul."

"The affinity of my soul… is death?" Cyanide raised an eyebrow. Anyone else would've been fascinated by the wonderful, meaningful speech they just heard, but not him. "Speak normally, Luna. I didn't program you to be a poet."

"A-Ahem, I apologize, I just got caught in the heat of the moment," Luna replied, clearing her throat in embarrassment. "You see, every Soul has an affinity, based on the individual's personality. There are 8 affinities in total — Fire, Ice, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Psychic, Life, and Death. Whichever one you have dictates what kind of Soul Arts you can use."

"Oho… that's interesting," Cyanide murmured.

"For example," Luna continued to help Cyanide get a better idea of what she meant. "Someone who is the exact opposite of you—energetic, kind, and caring—would have a Life affinity for their Soul, while someone who has a highly explosive personality would have a Lightning affinity. Does that make sense?"

"Hm… more or less. So, someone who has a cold and harsh personality would have an Ice affinity for their Soul?"

Luna's figure on-screen nodded, a smile on her face. "Yes. You get it. But to achieve the Death affinity… only someone with a one-of-a-kind personality like you could pull it off, Cyanide. To obtain this affinity, one must have taken many lives in the past without even batting an eye, but more importantly, they must see death as a natural event, the eternal end to which all things must return one day, unable to be avoided. Put simply, this affinity should be quite rare."

Cyanide sighed. "You're speaking like a philosopher again, but in any case… what kind of Soul Arts can I use with the Death affinity?"

"In this barren, abandoned world, death energy is everywhere. You can turn that energy into power for yourself, allowing you to cast stronger Soul Arts. That is what makes the Death affinity so strong given this environment, Cyanide, but you'll unlock that ability later on," Luna explained with a wry smile. "As for the specific Soul Arts you can use currently… it's better if you just see for yourself."

Saying this, she opened up the Skills panel for Cyanide, then set the filter to 'Soul Arts'. Immediately, the screen refreshed, and a new list of skills were displayed. Upon seeing them, however, Cyanide merely cocked an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Deathfire Purge…? Final Judgment…? Indignation… what the hell are these names?"

"Do you not like them, Cyanide?" Luna tilted her head. "I believe they are quite intimidating."

"Intimidating?" Cyanide scoffed. "Nah… just excessive. But it would seem I can't use them anyway, since they all require an INT stat of at least 150."

"Yes, because those are the more advanced Soul Arts," Luna explained. "If you scroll down on the list, the weaker, novice Soul Arts will be there."

Cyanide did as told, and indeed, she hadn't been lying. The skills listed down here had pretty low INT requirements, suitable for someone who just unlocked Soul Arts. Because he was curious, he tapped on the first one that caught his eye.

[Skill Information]

[Name: Death Infusion]

[Type: Soul Arts]

[Description: Inject Death energy into a given target. This will cause them to age exponentially, eventually crumbling to dust.]

[Soulforce Cost: 5 SF]

[Requirements: INT > 10]

[Price: 1 SP]

"… Hm, not bad," Cyanide muttered. "But… there's no cooldown?"

"Correct," Luna responded. "That is the beauty of Soul Arts — they have no cooldown. So as long as you have enough Soulforce, Cyanide, you can essentially continuously cast Soul Arts until you run out. But that being said… Soulforce runs out pretty quickly. It slowly replenishes itself over time, but given your current level, you'll be able to use one or two Soul Arts before running out."

Cyanide narrowed his eyes. "How do I increase my Soulforce capacity, or is there no way?"

"There is—your Soulforce scales directly with your INT stat," Luna explained. "In other words, if you have an INT stat of 5, your Soulforce capacity will be 5."

Cyanide glanced down at the screen in front of him, then manually switched to his character profile. He still had 10 CP and 2 SP left to spend, and also noticed there was a new stat underneath his HP—SF, which stood for Soulforce. Beside it was the value of 5/5.

Without any hesitation, he put all the CP into INT, bringing it up to 15, and he noticed that his SF value turned from 5/5 to 15/15. Then, he returned to the Skills screen and bought the [Death Infusion] skill along with another one that caught his eye, [Skulls of Hell]. Immediately, a notification popped up after the purchase:

[Achivement Complete: Soul Artist]

"Now then… I would like to test these Soul Arts' power on some mutants, but…" Cyanide ignored the message and glanced through the windows of the convenience store, but saw that the moon outside had returned to its usual, luminous white. "… I'll have to wait until tomorrow, it seems."

The Scarlet Hour was over, meaning the mutants had turned into lifeless, humanoid sacks that didn't give anything upon killing them.

"That's fine," Luna replied. "This gives me time to show you the Crafting system as well.. Crafting will soon become an essential part of your journey in this world, Cyanide, so the earlier I explain it, the better."