SPIRIT SOUL

It took them two hours to reach the Sekra hill in the Sadorla forest.

On their way, Kyle had been thinking about the name proposed by Selene and was quite impressed with the suggestion.

Arashi was a great name for the little horned azure fox, and his Spirit Soul seemed to like it too, which was the most important.

As such, despite not knowing the meaning of the name Kyle wanted his Spirit Soul to be named after, he began to call the little fox Arashi.

This allowed Kyle to revert his focus back to the main attraction.

Once they reached the area of the Sekra hill, they immediately readied themselves.

The group of three held their respective bows, each with a nocked arrow.

It was uncommon to fight as a group full of archers because one attack of an agility strength-based beast could wreak havoc with them.

However, that was not the case with Gaby and their group.

She had never planned to let Kyle and Selene out of her sight.

At least not for too long because Kyle was still forced to devour the souls of the beasts he killed.

Even if he knew that it was unlikely to accumulate enough soul force to help Arashi progress in his potential path with a single hunting trip, Kyle was eager to evolve his Spirit Soul.

Arashi's current energy absorption and the conversion rate were already considered to be quite powerful and efficient, but the greed within Kyle was insatiable.

This worried him a lot, much more than Kyle had expected and he tried to suppress these emotions.

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done.

He needed to have a rational mind or just one reckless act would be enough to kill him in the near future.

As such, they began to hunt at a slow pace without rushing anything.

Kyle drew back the bowstring until it reached his chin while breathing out.

After that, he waited for the perfect opportunity to kill.

His eyes were trained on his target, a forest deer, that was oblivious to its fate. Kyle kept adjusting his angle slowly so as to aim and kill his prey in one shot.

Selene was doing the same, as she aimed at the other forest deer.

Yet her movement looked crude and less smooth than Kyle's.

However, that was what a beginner archer looked like.

In comparison, Kyle's stance caused Gaby to look at the young man in doubt.

'Did he lie about being a beginner?'

With that she witnessed, it was only obvious that Gaby was confused.

Nevertheless, she didn't say anything and merely observed the two young Adventurers' first hunt.

At the same time, she was using her perception and sight.

Ever since Kyle had begun healing her, both the said traits had gradually improved.

This only made her even more confident of protecting them from surrounding beasts.

Owing to her vigilance, Gaby could easily hunt the shadow panther that had been lurking in the surrounding bushes' shadow.

It was ready to tear apart Kyle and Selene by ambushing them.

Luckily, Gaby had spotted and killed it in time.

The two adventurers had just released their arrows and watched in anticipation.

Kyle's arrow flew in a beautiful arch before piercing right through the deer's long neck.

Meanwhile, Selene's arrow hit the ground right in front of the other forest deer.

This was however the fault of her extraordinary senses.

Selene's senses had allowed her to perceive the appearance of the shadow panther.

It was a beast at the Low Vitae stage who had distracted her.

Fortunately, this was not a further disadvantage, and Gaby had finished off the danger.

Unlike Kyle, who had fully trusted Gaby's capabilities, and focussed on his target, Selene hadn't.

Thus, she had been unable to kill the forest deer.

Kyle knew that he could trust Gaby.

If not for her there was no way that he would survive the attack of a beast at the Vitae stage, to begin with.

As such, every hunting trip with Gaby meant that he handed the former guard captain the safety of his precious life.

This was risky, but after the first time, he knew that it had paid off well.

Kyle had tested everything necessary in their first trip.

Hence, he was able to trust her with killing beasts at the low Vitae stage.

If he had trust issues, he would have just asked his teacher and Mell to hunt with them!

They might focus on their auxiliary occupations more, but both were still at the Vitae stage.

That alone would be more than enough to help him in certain aspects.

But that was not what he wanted. Kyle's plan was to learn from Gaby's combat prowess which was extremely high in his opinion.

She made up for the lack of her sight easily, and even more interesting was that Gaby had an affinity seed!

With an affinity seed, Gaby could indirectly teach Selene how to use an affinity.

Meanwhile, he should be able to learn a lot too.

Even though his possible affinities were restricted to what Arashi might awaken, Kyle wasn't worried.

He was quite confident in his Spirit Soul's capabilities as well as the Nurture ability's efficiency.

Watching the soul of the shadow panther detach from its body, Kyle quickly grabbed it before pressing his hand on his chest.

The disintegrated soul swept through his body and invigorated him.

But he used the majority of it to be directly transferred to the Nurture ability.

Due to this, Kyle's eyes were gleaming brightly.

They shone in an emerald color that had faint strands of azure.

After the soul was devoured, he stored away its body.

Then he turned his attention back to the dying forest deer and approached it.

In one swift motion, he tore the arrow out of the deer's neck.

Using the same arrow, he pierced it into the beast ending its pain.

Grasping the soul that detached from its body, Kyle sighed before he devoured its soul.

'How many souls will I have to devour to become stronger?' He wondered.

Kyle wasn't sure how many souls he had already disintegrated in order to feed Arashi as well as his Nurture ability.

However, before he could think further ahead, Kyle sensed several mana fluctuations near him.

They had appeared out of nowhere, but bloodlust reeking from them was crystal clear.

Suddenly, a bunch of icicles brushed past him, impaling the beasts Kyle had yet to see!

It all happened within a blink of an eye in which Kyle had been too stunned to even move.

Only a few seconds later, the painful squeals of dying beasts echoed through the surrounding area.

Pushing away the foliage of leaves that had covered his sight, Kyle found a small group of thick-skinned hyenas. They were beasts at the peak of the Fortification stage.

All of them had been pierced by Gaby's icicles.

Seeing Gaby's arrows hit every single beast caused Kyle to give the former guard captain a thumbs up.

A moment later, his gaze turned serious as he unsheathed the ranked steel machete.

He had yet to make use of his trusted weapon that had been sheathed in the scabbard.

It was attached to his belt, hanging there calmly while he practiced archery.

But now, it was time to use his dear weapon.

There was no need to show any mercy to beasts that had wanted to attack him only a moment ago.

Furthermore, Kyle wanted to test out whether the machete's blade was sharp enough.

He had yet to try it to pierce through the hide of a beast at the peak of the Pryr Fortification stage too.

As such, he used his entire force to slash out at the hyena that was the closest to him.

With the sound of metal cutting through flesh, Kyle tore the hyena's skin apart.

The beast could do nothing except howl in pain.

Blood splattered all over his face and clothes as it gushed out of the wound he had created.

Wiping his face with the back of his hand, he sighed.

"It's not enough without activating the runes.' Kyle mumbled to himself.

Then he tore out the ranked black steel machete that was stuck in the hyena's bones.

After he had retracted his weapon, Kyle released a small amount of his soul force.

It was merely a small fraction that was stored in his soul vessel.

As he inserted it into the black steel machete, the runes on it began to glow faintly.

This increased its sharpness and durability, allowing Kyle to mercilessly slash at the dying hyena.

The other hyenas were also on the verge of dying.

It made Kyle believe that Gaby didn't kill them intentionally.

She had just severely injured them to let him and Selene deliver the killing blow.

"Kill them!" Kyle suddenly exclaimed. Selene, who had observed what he had been doing, followed his command at will.

Releasing her primordial energy, she circulated it through her body.

Simultaneously, she inserted some of it into the black steel dagger she unsheathed.

While subconsciously putting the bow down, she grasped the dagger tightly before she began to move.

In no time Selene had freed the hyena of its misery.

Meanwhile, Kyle had finished off the other hyena, concluding his short test.

Only a few seconds later the souls detached from the corpses, and Kyle quickly devoured them.

His brightly glowing eyes were further invigorated by the freshly devoured soul particles.

These were then used to empower the Nurture ability.

Kyle didn't leave a lot of soul particles for Arashi to consume.

He had already accumulated more than enough to be fed for more than a month.

As such, he stored the thick-skinned hyenas' corpses and turned to Gaby.

The energy accumulated in the Nurture ability was enough to tend to Gaby's wound.

At the same time, he nurtured Arashi, which was something Gaby had already expected.

She was not sure what exactly Kyle used the remaining energy for.

But she preferred to stay silent because it was not her business.

Yet, she was intrigued by Kyle's mysterious ability.

Hours flew by as they kept hunting like before.

The trio only took a short break to replenish the energy they had used up.

While filling their stomachs with light food, Gaby told them what the Jars had been telling her.

It was nothing special, and just them telling Gaby that she should take care of their apprentices.

This wouldn't have any meaning under normal circumstances, had Mell and Gard not hated Gaby.

Owing to this, everything was more complex than one could imagine at first glance.

Despite having been able to comprehend her connection to the Jars both Kyle and Selene remained silent.

The Jars seemed to be important to Gaby and she wanted them to have a good opinion about her.

Kyle was also glad that Selene hadn't blurted out everything like usual.

Maybe she had seen him stay put and decided to follow suit.

Gaby was not someone to easily open up to others, and the two young adventurers had realized this.

Instead of interrupting her, Kyle smiled lightly, while nodding his head as well as answering her questions.

This was the only thing he could do for her right now. Kyle wasn't insensitive and would not spoil her mood right now.

After their short break was over and Gaby was done talking, they continued to hunt for a few hours.

Their hunting trip was even more fruitful than before. Selene was happy about the fortune they would earn.

Meanwhile, Kyle was happy about being able to nurture Arashi to a much higher degree than he had estimated.

If he were to make a rough estimation, his fox had probably halfway progressed through the potential path.

After all, he had inserted an equivalent of dozens of souls at the Vitae stage!

The number was shocking, but Kyle knew that this would only increase in the future.

He also knew that he had to do much worse in order to simply ensure his survival on Shima.

The infinitely large planet was reigned by the strong while the weak were despised and killed without a second thought.

Suddenly, Kyle was drawn out of his train of thoughts and imagination.

He sensed the distorted energy fluctuations of a being at the late Fortification stage.

However, instead of going into a defensive stance, he could only squint his eyes in confusion.

Kyle quickly figured that something was off.

Not a single trace of killing intent was directed towards him or Selene.

Rather, it was something completely different.

Suddenly, the arms of a human-like being appeared through the verdant bushes in front of him.

As he stepped back in surprise, the bloody head of a Lohar emerged through the bush.

"Please….help…"

The male Lohar was struggling to talk.

It was only when he stepped through the last bush that they got a good look. The appearance of the Lohar was horrifying, to put it mildly.

He was badly injured and had no trace of energy left within his body.

The Lohar had been driven by desperation to find some sort of help, only to collapse the moment after he saw Selene.