SPIRIT SOUL

Now that he had everything in place to enter a village, Kyle wanted to start searching for one.

However, before he did that, he first decided to eat something before resting for a few hours.

'Why do I have to eat raw meat again? I hope the village allows campfires!'

In the beginning, he found this idea to be ridiculous but after giving it another thought, he realized that his concern was not unfounded at all!

Kyle had been on the lookout for a village for quite some time now, and he had yet to come across the outlines of something that bore signs of having been artificially created by an ordinary race, if not an intelligent race!

Thinking about intelligent races, or villages to be precise, he figured out that they would be small, well-protected, or hidden from the sight of stronger beasts.

If his intel was not wrong, intelligent races and villages must be inhabiting the Sadorla forest, but he had no idea about the exact number of villages or their size.

Thus, he had to be patient and focus on survival as his highest priority followed by improving his strength!

The latter was fortunately not difficult because he had an excellent advantage!

While others were forced to meditate or focus on gathering the surrounding energy, Kyle had bound a beast-type Spirit Soul.

Due to this, the Emerald fox was gathering and converting energy to soul force actively without intercepting his tasks!

This was considered to be one of the major advantages of having a beast-type Spirit Soul!

Yet, on the other hand, even having a beast-type Spirit Soul had its fair share of disadvantages!

The Emerald fox had to be summoned outside the body in order to absorb energy which was not necessary with other Spirit Souls.

Furthermore, Spirit Souls had to be protected at all costs as even the slightest injury to the beast-type Spirit Soul could leave the cultivator unguarded in a life and death battle!

An injury to the Spirit Soul itself would not be devastating as it could slowly heal itself.

However, a beast-type Spirit Soul would be unable to convert energy into soul force during the recuperation process!

But none of this came close to the major downside of having a beast-type Spirit Soul which was their high probability of dying, as they would act similar to loyal companions while fighting next to their Spirit Soul cultivator!

Beasts, even if tamed, were quickly enraged.

Thus, when their wild instincts took over they would go on a rampage owing to their inherent bloodlust and the intent to kill, leading to a massacre and chaos.

This was not the case with inanimate Spirit Souls as they were not sentient or able to move around freely!

Other than that, inanimate Spirit Souls were said to have a cultivation potential such as energy absorption and conversion rate.

As such, having awoken the Emerald fox as his Spirit Soul had its advantages and disadvantages!

Despite the disadvantages, Kyle was glad that his Spirit Soul was animate and could gather and convert energy into Soul force.

This ability allowed him to use the time he would otherwise utilize on those two tasks for other things.

Not only could he focus on annexing the expelled soul force into his body, but searching for a village was also possible in the meantime!

He was not sure how much time had passed but after he had rested adequately, Kyle was full of energy and ready to complete his task.

Nevertheless, he forced himself to eat another piece of raw meat before starting his search, in high hopes of encountering a village soon.

Now that he was searching actively for a village instead of doing so passively, Kyle decided to think about the most ideal locations for a race to set up a village.

There were multiple deciding factors that came into the picture and the most important ones were the ample supply of water and food nearby.

Most villages shouldn't be in an open field or in a reclusive area that is well-hidden.

Other than that, a small village without many strong individuals had to have enough defensive measures to avoid an attack of beasts that might accidentally stray into a hidden village!

Had there been several strong individuals in a village or a large number of villagers with average strength, it wouldn't have to be necessarily well-hidden, even if that would still be better.

Unfortunately, Kyle didn't notice anything that hinted at the presence of intelligent races until now but he reassured himself thinking that it wasn't bad for someone to hide their home despite being strong!

The more defensive measures one had, the higher the probability of surviving longer was!

Keeping that in mind, several hours flew by and Kyle was taking every factor into consideration to find a small village and trying to keep his morale high.

He still couldn't spot signs of an intelligent race inhabiting nearby, but Kyle felt that he was nearing a village.

The surrounding area was filled with massive trees whose leaves were bathing in the sunlight, while ripe fruits were hanging down the thin, yet sturdy branches.

Faint energy currents were swirling around and Kyle felt invigorated as his Spirit Soul absorbed and converted the energy his body was naturally absorbing.

This was another feature he had found out.

The faint traces of energy instinctively absorbed by Kyle's body would be converted by his Spirit Soul which made the aforementioned disadvantage much smaller!

However, this didn't mean that he could actively absorb other energies because only his Spirit Soul could do so.

His cultivation veins had been expelled, or merged into soul veins rendering him incapable of absorbing other energies!

After what felt like an eternity, he heard the faint sound of water flow nearby and his ears immediately perked up.

Walking in the direction of the sound, he finally found a small stream of fresh water that was less than 20 centimeters deep.

His joy knew no bounds when he saw the crystal clear water.

It was the first time in several weeks, in fact, since his reincarnation that he had quenched his thirst by water.

Yet, to call washing his face in the cold water and drinking it refreshing was a serious understatement.

If not for his past life, Kyle would have never known that water could be so tasty. In the end, he only stopped drinking, when his stomach was filled to the brim and his thirst completely quenched.

Despite being glad that he had found a small stream, Kyle didn't see a single beast grazing the lush grass, plucking large and juicy-looking fruits or quenching their thirst in the small stream.

Something was definitely off, but Kyle was unable to perceive anything odd.

Not even the surroundings were tense nor did he pick up an eerie feeling around him.

Rather, everything felt peaceful and it was as if the place was untouched by the bloody world that was ruled by the strong and powerful!

However, Kyle knew that it was a far-fetched thought so he continued to walk along the small stream, hoping to find signs of an intelligent race.

The more time passed, the clearer Kyle's senses and his understanding of the surroundings became.

He didn't even realize that it had already grown dark as fireflies flew past him, releasing faint streams of lights that pursued them.

His surroundings were still bright and to him, it felt like the entire forest had just become alive!

Kyle spotted owls that had just awoken from their deep slumber, making hushed noises, deers grazing grass nearby the small stream, and foxes quenching their thirst less than 100 meters away from the deers.

The peaceful atmosphere he had sensed before was nothing compared to what lay in front of him and Kyle couldn't help but smile lightly.

However, the tranquil atmosphere was soon disrupted by the thunderous roar of a feline beast that resounded through the surrounding area, pulling him out of his daydream.

Kyle and the beasts around him stiffened, and it was only when his Spirit Soul sent him an unexpected transmission of thoughts that he was able to move his finger again before his body followed suit.

Without taking another glance at the other beasts that were still frozen in place, Kyle took a deep breath before exerting his entire strength to rush in the exact opposite direction to that of the thunderous hissing.

After what felt like hours to him, Kyle stopped running when his body couldn't keep up anymore.

His legs gave in and he began to pant heavily as he threw a backward glance to check if he had been pursued.

"N-No beast followed me….perfect!"

Kyle had the ominous feeling that something had followed him, but there was no beast behind him which made him feel relieved.

If his interpretation was correct, the hissing originated from a beast that was at least at the Vitae stage, and a strong one at that!

As such, it was great news to have escaped this threat!

He was not sure where exactly he had run to and Kyle, who had placed his hands on his knees and bent to catch his breath, could only look around warily.

However, what Kyle saw when he lifted his head astonished him greatly and his entire body seemed to freeze in place.

"Aren't you a Nasga??"

A being from the Nasga race was standing right in front of him. It was holding a basket full of dirty and soiled clothes and was about to approach the small stream to wash them.

Thus, he couldn't help but advise,

"I wouldn't go to the small stream if I were you. I came across a raging beast at the Vitae stage, nearby!"

The Nasga, that was in fact a hideous and skinny, 1.5 meter tall bipedal rat, looked at Kyle as if it didn't understand him clearly.

However, at that moment, he could see a glint of happiness within the Nasga's almost pitch-black eyes.

'Can't it understand me?...please!!!' His worry was noticeable and the Nasga smiled lightly, which made it look even more gruesome before it finally responded,

"Your dialect of the Shimata language is quite unique!"