Spirit Soul

By harvesting the souls of the beasts they had just defeated, Kyle was testing how much Soul force it required to accelerate the Soul draining effect of Starbreaker.

In the end, he figured that he was unable to reach the limit of the acceleration process as of now.

Nonetheless, it was possible to give it a slight push with only traces of Soul force, which was already interesting enough.

His eyes flicked to Beatrice and Yasmine who were breathing heavily, which caused him to smile lightly.

Yet, he didn't even think of invigorating them.

That was because they wouldn't even consider holding back their strength anymore.

He didn't want the two women to start relying on his ability because he was trying to prevent doing the same with himself.

It was also the reason for him to be breathing hard with the sole difference that he didn't expect to be nurtured by the Nurture ability as it was the case for Yasmine and Beatrice.

Looking at him with puppy eyes, both the girls tried to appease him but he strongly denied their request.

Kyle's will was steeled as he shook his head even after they asked him repeatedly to invigorate them.

Kyle believed that the two girls had forgotten about the little incident from earlier, but that didn't make the situation easier.

From the looks of it they had become much more comfortable with him in the past few days, which caused them to cling onto him while they almost begged him.

With their chest pressing onto his arms, the two seemed to be trying everything to convince him to use his ability.

However, he still rejected them and loosened their grasp around his arm before gently pushing the two women away.

They were teasing him without even realizing it, and only when they looked at each other did they understand what they had done.

Blushing, Yasmine couldn't help but stammer while trying to cover up for her actions while Beatrice was just confused.

"I-I-I don't know what I've been doing, sorry!"

Beatrice had no idea what was going on with her, but the little incident from before seemed to have affected her mindset much more than she believed it to be the case.

However, hearing Yasmine's apologies was even weirder to her.

"What are you apologizing for?"

Tilting her head, Beatrice halted in her tracks, only for Yasmine to blurt out incredulously,

"Obviously for my behavior a moment ago. Aren't you and Kyle partners…lovers?"

The sudden question caused Beatrice to feel a wide range of conflicting emotions to erupt within her as she thought about the question herself, only to answer honestly.

"We are partners…but not lovers…I think…"

Seeing the complex expression of Beatrice, and the seriousness in her voice that was laced with worry, doubt, and sadness, Yasmine began to comprehend what was truly going on.

Thus, without further ado, she linked her arms with Beatrice before she almost shouted out,

"Alright, then let's go. Follow this weirdo that betrayed us. He doesn't even want to help us regain our vigor after we provided him with souls to devour!!"

She sputtered the majority of her words in an irritated voice, loud enough for Kyle to hear them, which was exactly what Yasmine had been planning.

It was not difficult to understand that she was teasing him, but Kyle couldn't help but smile bitterly.

'They are siding against me now, huh?' He couldn't help but think, continuing to force his smile as he shook his head.

In the end, he didn't hear what they had been talking about earlier, but it was not difficult for him to realize what was going on.

Everything about their group was slowly changing, and he had no idea about the exact cause for it.

He could only hope that it wouldn't affect them tremendously because that would be bad.

Kyle thought that the little incident was now a thing of the past and that the two women had gotten over it.

However, thinking about it for a second made him realize that he might still be affected by it too.

In the end, it might sound like an excuse, but Kyle had to acknowledge that it had been a long time since he had someone.

'It's truly great to be young…but it's quite a disadvantage that my body doesn't want to listen to my mind in situations where my hormones and external events affect me…'

Having sex was a pleasurable experience but being unable to protect the ones he ought to take responsibility for was not something he wanted.

Thus, becoming stronger was amongst the most important goals he planned to achieve.

With that in mind, he tried to avert his attention to finding more beasts that they could kill.

This didn't take long because their surroundings were overflowing with all kinds of beasts, and in only a few hours, they had hunted a bunch of larger and smaller beast groups.

Using the harvested soul energy to build up an emergency stockpile, Kyle used the remaining energy to nurture Arashi as much as possible.

Nurturing Beatrice or Yasmine was kind of useless owing to their already high innate talent that exceeded his own talent by several times.

Thus, he finally got the chance to focus on his own progress, which had been quite difficult for the last year.

Recalling everything that happened, Kyle could still not believe that he had overcome so many obstacles, encountered numerous races, and beings that he liked and disliked.

The scenery he had seen was already worth having reincarnated to and recalling gliding down the Flying island with Beatrice, Kyle couldn't help but smile.

Being able to see everything from a bird's eye view was simply too magnificent to express in simple words.

For as long as his eyes could see, there had been nothing but an abundance of greenery that looked serene and beautiful from the sky.

The hours of gliding down to the ground were something he would probably never forget.

In fact, for Kyle it was even a motivational factor to become much stronger and to witness many more beautiful sceneries, and events with the people around him.

Continuing to smile vividly, Kyle's mood was clearly perceptible by the two women who couldn't help but be confused about his sudden change of behavior.

"Was he able to make a breakthrough in his nurturing progress? That shouldn't be the case, right?" Yasmine asked in a low voice.

Yet, even Beatrice had no idea what was going on as she answered, in an equally low whisper.

"I have no idea, but he had earlier stated that the energy he requires to enhance Arashi properly would be enormous…so maybe he made a breakthrough somewhere else? It could be that he understands something much better now?"

Before, Kyle's mood hadn't been too great, and he was simply serious as it had been the case for the entire day.

There were only short instances when he was confused about what was going on, or where he was really affected by external factors, including the time when Beatrice's scent had bewitched him.

However, until now, he hadn't been flustered about something, or genuinely happy…or so was the case until now.

As he was not yet flustered about something right now, Kyle looked genuinely happy.

He had numerous tasks at hand, but all of this was perfectly fine.

Living in the moment, while not forgetting the lessons he had learned in the past, Kyle felt that everything was somehow going according to his plan.

That was, at least, the case for the plan with his highest priority, which had a single task in it.

[Survive by all means, and don't regret anything you will do!]

Having regretted a lot in his past life, preventing this was the most important, followed closely by ensuring continued survival.

In fact, not regretting anything, even if it might lead to his death was also a possibility, but that was not something he wanted to think about for even a single second.

Thus, he was happy when they encountered a new kind of beast.

There was a large group of at least 20 bears towering above the height of more than five meters.

Their muscles were barely hidden under their thick fur, and the moment they sensed Kyle and his small group, they roared out.

Having issued a thunderous roar that was supposed to intimidate their opponents, the bears with long limbs that were brown-furred and had silver claws didn't even allow the small group of three people to digest the roar's intimidating effect.

It had been quite some time since he had encountered a wild beast that had such a specific effect that allowed the beast to weaken the morale of their opponents before the fight had begun, in the first place.

Unfortunately, this only worked on weak-willed people, and neither is the group of three had a weak will.

They had a strong heart, body, and mind, which allowed them to be ready to face all kinds of obstacles, together!

Still, when Yasmine realized what kind of beast the bears were, she quickly warned everyone.

"Those are War Bears. Their defenses and attacks are extraordinarily strong, but that is not what you should be worried about.

The intimidation roar doesn't seem to affect us, which is great, but don't let them injure you by even a single scratch of their silver claws.

Wounds inflicted through them won't heal by normal means, and I'm not sure if the Nurture ability is capable of tending to such wounds either!!

Her teasing smile had disappeared, replaced by an overly serious expression and the two daggers had manifested in her hands.

She was ready to fight with her life on the line and the tension Yasmine released clearly showed that the group of beasts in front of them was not something they should take lightly.

However, in Kyle's opinion, this was a welcome change because the Kians Wolves and Clyronia Deers had been rather tame in comparison.

Thus, he grasped Starbreaker's hilt, without unsheathing it.

'I should give it a try, shouldn't I?' He thought while answering himself with a confident smile, a trace of excitement gleaming in his eyes.

It was obvious how dangerous the War Bears were, but that was something he could pay attention to later.

Right now, Kyle catapulted himself towards the closest War Bear that was at the Low Vitae stage and was advancing towards him with much lower speed.

Having utilized all means to enhance his own pace, he was faster than others at the same cultivation base.

His cultivation path only widened the gap, and so did his wind affinity.

Thus, Kyle emerged in front of the closest War Bear, and before it was even able to react, he released a compressed wind current.

At the exact same moment, he unsheathed the Starbreaker Katana, enhancing the velocity while unsheathing with the compressed wind current.

Through this Kyle felt the light breeze of wind brush past his face, before blood spurted through the air, followed by a head that slumped to the ground with a sickening thud.

Having unsheathed Starbreaker with a terrific velocity, Yasmine and Beatrice felt a splash of wind in their face.

However, right now, their mind was already fully occupied by the lethal threat posed by the War Bears that they didn't notice it.

Their mind was clear and filled with the sole thought of winning without sustaining a single scratch and pushing themselves to exceed their limitations.

Because of that, just as it was the case during their first fight in the wilderness, both Beatrice and Yasmine were able to unleash some of their hidden potential.

Yasmine's wings began to burn in a blazing red flame, while Beatrice's blood hue began to shape the gauntlets of the blood armor.

However, that was not all because both of them saw something that caused them to feel confident in winning the battle against the fierce beasts.

Kyle's eyes were gleaming brightly, and the presence he released became a mixture of battle intent and utter calmness.

With smooth movements, he wielded his katana, only to jump over the corpse of the War Bear he had just killed, ignoring its existence entirely.

His focus was solely on the living threats as his grip tightened over his weapon as his speed accelerated even further as he rushed ahead, catapulting himself right amidst the fray of ferocious beasts.

'He really is a fanatic?'