Spirit Soul

It was still early in the morning when Kyle and Selene left the town.

Dirk was apparently on leave today, but that worked in favor of Selene.

Selene was unsure how long she could keep a poker face in front of everyone else if she were to see guard Dirk once again.

Kyle was not as bothered as Selene was, but even he felt glad about Dirk's absence.

Once they were outside the town, they searched for small groups of beasts at the Initial Fortification stage.

They were the only type of beasts Kyle, Selene, and the Emerald fox could hunt on their own.

In the end, they had only walked for a few minutes before Selene spotted a large group of Killer ants.

She quickly pointed at them for Kyle to see.

They were still far away and seemed to be gathering around something large.

The Killer ants were possibly feasting over a corpse making loud clicking noises as they tore the flesh apart.

When they saw the large group, the three felt extremely fortunate.

The Emerald fox jumped down from Kyle's shoulder, while Selene unsheathed her ranked black steel dagger.

Kyle unsheathed the ranked black steel machete too.

Together, the trio stealthily approached the group of Killer ants, being as silent as possible.

The Emerald Fox once again used its small size to disappear in the woods.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Selene would try to lure the ants, turning themselves into the bait.

After half a minute, the distance between Kyle and the Killer ants had decreased to less than 100 meters.

This allowed him to gauge the rough number of Killer ants which they had to fight.

There were more than 30 Killer ants and each of them was at the Initial rank of the Pryr Fortification stage.

Taking a deep breath, Kyle hatched a plan.

He decided to send Selene towards the bushes on his right side.

This would allow her to ambush the Killer ants in a surprise attack.

Meanwhile, he alone took the burden of being the bait.

Not wanting to waste time, he rushed towards the Killer ants.

Their pincers were smeared with the blood of the beast corpse and their mouths smudged with bits of flesh.

The ants were tearing the corpse apart like paper, while intentionally making loud noises.

He sensed the rough distance and direction in which his Spirit Soul was.

Clenching his fists, he hoped that Selene would be ready.

Thus, he charged forward and entered the Killer ant's view.

The moment they noticed him, their black button-like eyes gleamed.

Clicking their pincers, they looked at him eagerly, wanting to tear apart another living being.

His eyes went wide at the horrifying sight of several Killer ants rushing towards him.

Despite their apparent desire to kill Kyle, his heart remained calm.

There were more Killer ants than he had estimated.

He nearly gagged at the sight of several more crawling out of the now-empty eye sockets and wide-open mouth, but that was not something Kyle was afraid of!

His speed was faster than theirs and he had an extremely strong weapon that allowed him to kill them in one strike.

At least under the condition that he didn't meaninglessly target the Killer ant's metal-like carapace.

It was sturdier than Kyle had expected when they had first encountered the beasts.

However, he wouldn't commit the same blunder again because Kyle learned from his mistakes!

Thus, he used his intelligence to distract the Killer ants.

Kyle led them right into the trap they didn't expect.

In the end, their intelligence was not high enough to realize what Kyle was doing, which turned into their doom.

When Kyle felt that it was the perfect timing, he and the Emerald fox initiated an attack.

Selene followed suit a fraction of a second later.

Drawing out soul force from the 'soul core', the name Spirit Soul cultivators gave to their vessel, Kyle circulated it through his body.

It was only then that he noticed that the amount of soul force circulated was negligible.

This caused a faint smirk to replace his serious expression.

He wondered how such a negligible amount could create the shocking enhancement his body was currently feeling.

It was almost laughable to think that he wanted to compare himself to a cultivator in his past life.

Nevertheless, his past life had already happened and it was over!

Now, he could live a new life, in which he wouldn't repeat past mistakes.

Instead, he would give his utmost effort to become stronger.

Not only himself but he wanted those around him to do what they really wanted.

Kyle wished Selene and his Spirit Soul to stand up for themselves and become a better version of themselves.

It didn't matter if his final goal was to adventure, create an empire, or do something else. Kyle just wanted to live a fulfilling life as a cultivator.

He just wanted to perceive and get to know what had been denied to him in his past!

The annexed soul force that was circulating through his body was completely different than using the soul force that was created by the Emerald fox.

It was his own power, imprinted with his identity and belonged to him and nobody else!

His entire body received a minute amplification and he was the first to reach the killer ants.

Both his companions, Selene and the Emerald fox were close on his heels.

Together they started massacring the back rows of the large Killer ant group.

Swinging the black steel machete by aiming at the Killer ants' vital spots, allowed Kyle to kill one with every stroke.

This worked as expected for a while before he realized that he had to change his tactic.

By the time he reached his fifth target, he was unable to hit the vital spots like his earlier prey.

Apparently, the killer ants were able to figure out what he was doing.

As such, they adjusted the angle at which they held their pincers.

Thus, the pincers collided with the black steel machete.

This almost broke the pincers upon their first contact but it was better than dying needlessly.

Furthermore, it bought the remaining Killer ants the necessary time to approach Kyle.

While he was astonished about the Killer ants' quick reaction, he retreated backward.

Figuring out that a change was required, he decided to tweak his combat style.

Even though he had never been a cultivator, Kyle had been fit in his past life.

This was mostly the case because he had a good friend who had been a martial art instructor.

Owing to this friend, Kyle learned many different types of foundational martial art techniques.

These could be used with or without any cultivation energy.

Thanks to his friend's teaching, Kyle was able to quickly adapt.

He adjusted himself to the changes in front of him without any issue.

Switching from attacking with precision, Kyle entered a defensive stance.

He held his hands and the machete in front of his body to block frontal attacks. At the same time, he waited for a good opportunity to appear in front of him.

While acting passively, he didn't forget to swing the black steel machete.

The blade inflicted severe injuries without giving the attacking Killer ants the opportunity to near him.

This was another advantage he had- a longer attack range owing to his weapon!

Despite being able to stall the fight and win, Kyle didn't want to waste too much time.

He had to devour the dead Killer ant's souls after all!

Owing to this, Kyle decided to use the opportunity that unfolded in front of him.

Keeping an eye on the group of ants, he began hastily grabbing the souls. Meanwhile, the horde of killer ants trying to attack him at once was increasing every minute.

Using every ounce of strength within him, he pulled back the black steel machete.

He then thrust it from below, right across the top left side.

However, instead of using the sharp blade, Kyle utilized the flat side of the machete.

Kyle wanted to make use of its velocity, his strength, and the light weight the head-sized killer ants had.

This allowed him to free his front view from Killer ants before he rushed through the opening.

Grasping the detached souls he could still reach, he ensured that he didn't miss even a single soul.

Thus, Kyle's body was quickly filled with soul particles.

His eyes flicked to his partners and saw that both the Emerald fox and Selene had already finished their killing streak.

As such, they gathered and faced the last two dozen Killer ants together, without holding back anything!

Only three minutes later, Kyle took a deep breath as his emerald-colored eyes shone in vibrant light.

Currently, his body had a limit on how many soul particles it could store.

Hence, Kyle had to empower his Nurture ability with it a few times.

However, this was not problematic at all.

Now that their opponents were dead, Kyle utilized his Nurture ability on his partners.

He used it to soothe Selene's pain and progress the Emerald Fox's mutation.

After that, they stored the Killer ant's corpses inside the four spatial pouches.

Yet, the space fell short so they had to carry several more that didn't quite fit in their arms.

As such with their first successful hunt of the day, they returned to Vila town.

While walking towards their room, Kyle noticed that the Emerald fox's fur was slowly changing to an azure tone.

Its horn was growing too, and Kyle was already anticipating the day when it would finally finish mutating.

He had high hopes that this would probably amplify the Emerald fox's energy absorption, conversion rate and processing speed!

As they reached the town's borders, the guards simply let them through.

Thus they arrived in front of the Guildhall not long after.

Upon entering the Guildhall, Kyle approached Gaby's counter once again.

He then placed the Killer ant corpses they had been carrying in their arms.

"Here I am, once again! How much can I get per Killer ant corpse?"

Gaby had already sensed his arrival before she heard his voice.

As such, she could only sigh as she answered,

"One killer ant is worth between 1 to 2 Maest crystals based on the condition of their carapaces. Less the damage more the pay."

Kyle noticed that she didn't say anything about his earlier offer.

Yet he didn't approach the topic and simply nodded his head.

Then he began placing one corpse after another on the desk.

At the same time, a faint smile emerged on his face as he said,

"I would like to rent two more spatial pouches too. If possible also in the bag shape. They're the most comfortable to wear!"

Gaby heard him, but she remained silent and simply counted the carcasses.

After she was done, Gaby put them away inside the assigned spatial ring for beast corpses at the Initial Fortification stage with high defensive capabilities.

Without a sorting system, the Guild wouldn't work properly after all!

Kyle understood this, and every spatial ring he saw right in front of him seemed to be smiling at him.

At least it felt like that and he could only sigh at the thought.

He barely noticed that Gaby put two more spatial pouches on the counter.

"There are a total of 40 Pryr crystals of poor quality inside the left spatial pouch. The rent for the two spatial pouches has already been deducted.

With that being said, Kyle picked up the left spatial pouch to attach it to his belt while handing the other one to Selene.

After that, he planned to leave, and return to the wilderness.

Hunting beasts was the best option to accelerate Selene's healing process and to nurture his Spirit Soul's mutation path!

Kyle didn't even plan to act pushy towards Gaby.

He wanted to give her some time to think about everything which was not necessary in his opinion.

After all, he was her first and probably last opportunity to regain her eyesight and both Kyle and Gaby knew this.

As such, the moment Kyle wanted to turn around and leave, Gaby responded.

She was afraid that he might change his mind about the offer he had given her.

"I'm off work in five days!"

Kyle's back was facing Gaby which obstructed her from seeing his slow smile.

Without turning around, he replied,

"Alright, see you in five days in front of the Guildhall at daybreak!"