Spirit Soul

It was already late at night by the time they all had agreed to some sort of plan.

Exhausted of all the discussion, everyone left the dining hall and returned to their own rooms.

Being alone in his room, Kyle had many things to think about, and even more, tasks he had to complete, so the sooner he got to work, the better.

Yet, he could only do one task after another, take one step at a time.

Sighing, he accessed his spatial ring and took out a book.

The book seemed to draw him in and after merely reading a few pages he was fully immersed in it.

His mind absorbed the important details mentioned in the book like a wet sponge by learning thoroughly and digesting quickly.

Fortunately, this was not that difficult owing to his refined mind, making it easier for him to comprehend even the slightly complex pieces of information.

Minutes morphed into several hours while he was engrossed in reading the book.

It was not long until the darkness of the night was dispelled by the first sun rays that shone through his now brightly lit up the room.

The sun rays filtered through the windowpanes, glinting on the pages that dragged him out of the fully focused state in which he had read the book he was holding in his hands.

Kyle's eyes were gleaming in excitement because of the information he had just procured.

This made it more difficult for him to lift his head, let alone close the book in order to do the other things he was supposed to finish during his stay in Lynar.

There were quite a few tasks he had at hand, but amongst the most important was to prepare himself for their journey that would soon continue.

Shopping proper clothes for all kinds of events, a strong leather armor, and visiting both a blacksmith and runemaster would take up the majority of his day, which was frustrating.

However, he knew that all of it was very important if he wanted to make a good first impression, which was why he forced himself to store away the book he had been reading.

Getting up from the ground, he freshened up before quickly leaving the mansion.

Kyle could perceive through his connection with Beatrice that she was still asleep, which was understandable.

Rather, it would be weird if she would not be tired after everything they had overcome during the last few weeks.

His condition was different because he was currently invigorated by the Nurture ability.

As such, he didn't need to sleep that much as long as he used his ability on himself.

Allowing Beatrice to continue sleeping, he left the huge building complex.

But before that he had spoken to the guards at the gates to figure out whether he required some sort of special means to enter the abode of the Phoenix once again.

However, that didn't seem to be the case because everyone had been told that the emerald-eyed human who was not an Aldra, was a special guest of Lyon and Yelene.

This made everything much easier, even if he could feel the hostile gazes of the other demi-humans lingering on him causing him to leave quickly.

'Would that fall under racism? It's not like I did anything to them, to begin with, and they know that I'm not an Aldra…so, they just dislike humans all together? Well…that's a nice way to be greeted in the morning!'

Walking through the streets, he was either ignored, cursed at, and some even tried to drag him into a dark alley to beat him up.

However, guards were always stationed around the bigger streets, which made it more difficult for the demi-humans to openly reveal their hostility.

Because of everyone's hatred against him, which was much more severe than he could have ever imagined, Kyle couldn't help but feel a little bit lost and overwhelmed.

Even if he had been treated badly in his past life, what he was currently feeling and seeing seemed to be much worse.

It was saddening, and Kyle couldn't help but summon Arashi to distract his mind from the negativity.

Caressing the fluffy fur of his Spirit Soul helped him calm himself.

This worked wonders and it calmed him down within seconds, which was mostly owing to Arashi's support.

His Spirit Soul had noticed how uncomfortable Kyle had been with the given situation. As such, he licked his face, coating it with his saliva.

This caused Kyle to laugh out because the rough tongue of Arashi tingled him and without further ado, he lifted Arashi higher in the air before smiling brightly.

"You really are a rascal!" He mumbled before placing Arashi on his head.

Only then did Kyle realize that his Spirit Soul had grown considerably, which was apparent based on his weight.

While assessing the increase in his weight, Kyle barely got a glimpse of how he looked with Arashi on his head while walking past a cleaned window.

The reflection made him stagger back and he peered at it intently as a deep frown appeared on his face.

"I look truly….like a garbage bin…"

His looks weren't the problem, rather, they were the only factor that made him look somewhat humane, and not like a literal garbage bin.

As such, he couldn't help but hasten up his steps and got to work.

He sold a few weapons and other goods from the Razkadan castle to one of the few merchants who was kind to him, and prioritized their business over personal feelings.

This was how it was supposed to be, but emotions were a dangerous tool that could be used to unleash chaos and destruction, overwhelming the majority of living beings before they even knew.

Using the fortune he had procured to purchase all kinds of clothes, and a Low Prismar grade leather armor, Kyle was fully prepared.

After all, the Low Prismar grade leather armor could protect him from attacks of beasts at the Mid Vitae stage!

However, even such great equipment was insignificant in comparison to the Silver serpent spear he owned.

Its current rank which was between the Low and Mid rank of the Primar grade in its weakened state made it a fearsome weapon.

In its prime, the Silver serpent spear must have been at the Peak rank of the Secur grade.

Based on this, it also meant that the weapon he wielded had once been strong enough to injure beings at the Ascerta stage!

With that in mind, Kyle wanted to mend the Silver serpent spear, and to do this, he entered the shop of a blacksmith.

Because he was in the central district of the city, every single weapon displayed in the shop was powerful, which was perfect as he was looking for the best blacksmith in the city.

The shop was not on one of the main streets but had been hidden in a small alley of the central district.

And, it was only owing to the Nurture ability, and the hues he could see that Kyle spotted quite a few interesting things.

Especially because what piqued his interest were some particular things he was already familiar with, Kyle had hoped to find the best of the best.

Too many questions were coursing through his mind to which the books he was reading gave no direct answer.

The biggest problem had been that the book he read until this morning was written in the ancient language, and his fluency with this language was far from great.

In fact, he had read the book [Fyire ayr Meot] which was the book on blacksmithing he had procured as his reward for the maze trial inside the Razkadan castle.

Unfortunately, this was not very helpful in finding out more about the awakening of object's and plant's sentience!

Ever since his first encounter with the sentient Scythe of Nitran, he had grown curious about finding ways to have such a weapon.

And, that was not the only sentient weapon he had found. There had been a second encounter with an item that had awoken sentience.

The second encounter was the seedling of the energy-devouring tree that was hanging around his neck inside the hollow crystal!

As such, he had more than enough reason to be interested in the sentience of beings, which was also one of the reasons he had read the book [Fyire ayr Meot].

He was also looking for means to restore the Silver serpent spear, and if possible merge it with the Soul storage medallion he had received earlier.

By merging the spear with the Soul storage, he wanted to create a weapon that could store the souls of the beings he had killed without the need to grasp them by himself, just like Nitran's scythe.

This would probably awaken the Spear's sentience, which was also why he had to be careful about whatever he was hoping to do.

Unfortunately, all of this was just his assumption and not something he was able to accomplish.

Kyle had barely become an apprentice of a Ranked blacksmith and had not even finished learning anything properly.

For that, the time had been too little.

As such, the hues he was able to see through the Nurture ability had led him to the small shop he was currently in.

There were not many hues he was able to perceive in the shop, he moved his eyes all over the interior trying to get a sense of everything.

Of all the other things, the hues enveloping the blacksmith working on a sky blue-colored ingot, and a few particular weapons were more than enough to attract his attention.

Not wanting to disturb the hard-working blacksmith, Kyle focused on the hues of the weapons he was able to see.

The hues represented the paths he was able to nurture, and weapons made of ores, woods, and other materials should be impossible to be nurtured and strengthened.

However, this was something Kyle could prove to be wrong because the Scythe of Nitran, the Reaper of Life, was a weapon that could be nurtured too.

As such, Kyle presumed that weapons with sentience were made of unique materials.

Maybe, they could even cultivate…just differently, but that was already far-fetched and not something Kyle could consider to be the truth.

When he brushed his fingers across the weapons that radiated hues, he quickly figured that they were more than a little bit different to ordinary weapons.

They were placed on the display panels just like the other weapons, but they were completely different which piqued his interest.

Yet, despite not being comparable to the rest, the ordinary weapons that had been forged by the blacksmith were extraordinary as well.

In fact, everything was unique, and Kyle would have loved to spent a few hours testing all the weapons, but he was so engrossed in observing the weapons that he didn't even realize that the loud noise of the forging hammer striking the sky blue ingot had subsided, replaced by silence.

Only a moment later, Kyle turned around where he saw that the blacksmith had stopped working, sensing the fluctuations of two existences that seemed like one.

"Welcome to the 'Silver Dawn', how may I help you?"  The charming voice of a young man resounded in the room. Saying so, the tall blacksmith turned around, looking directly into Kyle's eyes with a faint smile on his face.

Seeing the youthful face of the man he was looking at, Kyle felt as if he had been struck by a multitude of lightning bolts.

Shaking his head, he had to get rid of his assumptions of expecting to see an old man with a toned physique, a long beard, and a hoarse voice.

His own foolishness to expect seeing someone like this in the blacksmith shop caused Kyle to smile dryly.

He knew Cultivators wouldn't really age as long as they continued to make use of their cultivation and practiced it diligently.

Yet, he couldn't help but feel that the facial features of the man in front of him were simply too young, and childish.

Kyle's confusion did not go unnoticed but the blacksmith didn't stop smiling even after he had seen Kyle, and his similarity to the Aldra race.

He had also immediately seen the Horned Tempest fox on his head, sleeping soundly as if the beast was completely unbothered by anything they were doing.

This was extremely interesting, but also the biggest reason for the blacksmith to be so calm. He, and the majority of demihumans were able to sense the unbreakable bond between Arashi and Kyle and how close they were to each other.

As such, now even the citizens, merchants, and guards were looking at him with a much gentler gaze immediately after he had summoned Arashi.

The same applied to the blacksmith, who was able to calmly converse with Kyle without having a prejudice.

Neither his eyes nor his body language held any signs of having any contempt against him.

Noticing that the blacksmith was patiently waiting to receive an answer from him, Kyle shook his head once again, regaining his senses in order to complete the task he had come for.

Summoning the Silver serpent spear in his hand, he approached the blacksmith before holding it in front of him with both hands, horizontally in order to show that he didn't have any ill intentions.

"Is it possible to restore the spear? I found it in the ruins and noticed that the runes on it were damaged. It should be thousands of years old, so I don't know if the core of the used metal has been weakened."

Looking at Kyle with interest, the blacksmith couldn't help but feel that the young man in front of him was not ignorant to the art of blacksmithing.

Yet, the moment he looked at the weapon, his expression stiffened and he couldn't help but frown as he mumbled in a cold voice.

"This…where did you get it from?!?"