The Sixth Evolution (3)

Eating the Dullahan’s body took seconds. Now that it was no longer resisting my will to devour it, my black smoke made quick work of the boss’s body.

[Predation of the Dullahan 1/1]

[Strength increased by 2.]

[Magic increased by 3.]

[Intermediate Blackmine became Lv10 and has evolved into Advanced Blackmine. Blackmine’s duration has greatly improved, and now larger scale blackmines can be created.]

I would never have imagined reaching this level of skill before. It filled me with a sense of achievement at acquiring another advanced skill. I even had my Surprise skill reach the top level, yet now…

In terms of level, there were no doubt countless people who were stronger than me. But in terms of skill, I certainly had a bit of an advantage. I still haven’t become the strongest just because I had a few high-level and special skills, though. The fact that I was accumulating a lot of advanced skills was not enough to relieve me. Instead, it only sparked my desire to keep growing stronger.

Lee Chan-yu’s face came to mind, and I shook my head to clear these thoughts.

“No, I can’t be satisfied with what I have achieved so far… but I can’t deny my own growth.” I went ahead and tested the Blackmine skill, confirming it had indeed gotten stronger. The change in power I could feel every time my skills grew was amazing, especially when it came to my magic skills. Although, I wasn’t sure if this skill counted as magic. It didn’t feel quite the same.

It didn’t matter how high a level my Detection was; there was a limit to what it could analyze. I decided to go ahead and check out the loot I had acquired.

[Yultana’s Helmet (297/520] – Defense 320. Unique Rarity. Defense is increased by an additional 50% against magic attacks and undead.]

This was an excellent magic item with incredible defense. It didn’t look like the dull helmet the Dullahan wore, though. Instead, it was made of some sort of dark metal. It felt a bit weird wearing it, as the helmet covered my mouth. The problem presented itself immediately as I tried it on.

For Pelcadia’s Jewel, there were four colors of jewels. I thought about it for a bit but decided to move onto the next piece of loot. I didn’t have enough information to decide yet. The other thing I had acquired was the Fortune Egg, from killing the horse that the Dullahan had been riding. I opened up my inventory and examined the item; my questions immediately answered.

[Fortune Egg (300/300) – Unique Rarity. A crystal possessing some of the essences of the world. A small life beats within it, waiting to hatch.]

It looked like a polished obsidian crystal, not at all in the shape of an egg. A group of white lights emitted from the center of the crystal, pulsing periodically. I went ahead and put it back into my inventory, now looking forward to what might hatch from the egg.

I looked at the place where the Dullahan had dropped, a small wooden box in its place now. The box had an ancient-grade weapon composite scroll in it, but I couldn’t use it. I considered heading back to the store, but a quick look into my inventory informed me that I didn’t have enough money left to pursue that idea.

It was probably best that I don’t rely on the store too much. Reflecting on this, I stood up. Before that, it was time to take the final steps toward my next evolution.

“Fate, what do you think of the soul?” A asked, meeting my gaze. I felt a strange sense of deja vu. Wasn’t that something Rain had asked me before? I think I had concluded that it wasn’t possible to know the soul, and Rain had seemed satisfied with my answer. I thought of that answer after my training in the Garden of Nak, so I was confident in it.

“No answer?”

“I’m still thinking.” Now that I considered it again, things were a bit different. I thought of the monsters in the Rookie’s Battlefield, formed by the souls of Earthlings who lost their bodies in the Great Fusion. They successfully invaded the battlefield with only their will to survive and even acquired a physical form. They even learned to extinguish the flames of others’ souls. Fighting them completely changed my perspective. I had thought that the soul was still inviolable, and while I still agreed with that to a point, I didn’t think it was enough to describe it with only that one word. There were so many possibilities hidden within a soul; it wasn’t just software designed to move the hardware that was the body.

“…It’s too hard for me to say. There’s too many possibilities to describe it in one word.”

“Well, don’t worry too much about it.” My anguished thoughts were immediately dismissed by A’s laughter.

‘There’s nothing in this universe that could define a soul. If someone could, they would be a Creator.”

“You asked me a question with no answer?”

“I asked what you, Fate, think about the soul. For me, it is something that you cannot hold more than one of, no matter how much you covet it. But for you, it must be different.” A flash of lightning struck through me, the path ahead of me becoming crystal clear. I now knew what the task on the third floor of Jinma’s Tower was.

“Are you… are you telling me to devour your soul?”

“Yes.”I instinctively wanted to reject it, laughing it off. I had been killing and devouring others so I could survive up until now, unaware of the soul. But, as I considered it, was eating a soul really that different from eating just flesh? And, ultimately, if it meant surviving, wasn’t I prepared to do anything with these two hands of mine? No matter the cost, no matter how heinous it was…

“I don’t think it will be possible for you to devour a soul. I believe it is impossible for you now.”

“Then…?”

“Have you ever noticed the soul of the monsters you have devoured?”

“No.”

“That is because the soul disappears the moment its life is cut down. Whether it is extinguished, or perhaps reborn, or simply flows off to another realm, I do not know. But no one should interfere with the soul after death.”

“What about undead?” Did undead even have a soul? The zombies weren’t intelligent, they could only moan, but the ghouls had acted with some level of intelligence. Then there was also the Dullahan, who could talk and was fully sentient as far as I could tell.

“They are merely dead bodies, moved forward by the energy of death without a soul. Memories remain in the body, forming a type of consciousness, but it isn’t permanent. However, if the soul were undead, that would be a different story. Whether or not it possesses a body, those who have undead souls are terrible things. Vile creatures that have violated taboos and became undead of their own will.”

“Then, what I will have to face…”

“Are undead souls.” As he said it, the Colosseum soared around us. The walls were made of stacked translucent blocks, forming on all sides around us.

“A soul that remains on Earth without surrendering to death is longer a pure soul. It is mutated; degenerated. But it also becomes possible for us to recognize it. It is no longer an unknown object, so as long as you are able to handle your own power, you have no need to fear.” I wasn’t able to recognize the soul as I could see the energy of magic and stamina, or of life and death. The souls I had been able to see, the monsters on the Rookie’s Battlefield, were caused by a mutation. It didn’t sound like the undead A talked about was exactly the same as them, but they seemed similar.

Only

“Souls that have fallen and are now the same as flesh have the same ending as that of flesh. Now, do you know how you should recognize the soul?”

“Kind of, thanks for the complicated explanation.”

“Hm…!” His face was briefly distorted as a translucent wall separated us, and I wondered if L had met with A as well as Rain. I shook the thought out of my head and thanked A. Hazy spirits began to spring up across the Colosseum; I could already tell they were different than the monsters on the Rookie’s Battlefield. Those monsters had been formed by mutations caused by death, but these were souls that should have died, and mutated due to their refusal of death. Now, I needed to learn how to deal with them in the same way I had the others.

“Can you eat them?”

“Yes.” Thousands, tens of thousands, of souls began to flock toward me, attempting to overwhelm me. I instinctively reached out, pulling down the Demon’s Claw to both hands.

‘The third floor of Jinma’s Tower. Your adversaries are these corpses. The floor will be completed when all enemies have been Predated.”

“Fuck.”

I guess Jinma’s Tower wouldn’t be easy, after all.