Spirit Soul

Kyle assumed the 'inner demons' to be some sort of trauma she was talking about.

Though he wasn't sure what exactly she was referring to, he was clearly able to see the sadness in her eyes.

He could only try to roughly gauge what was going on based on the intel he had picked up throughout the last few hours.

Other than that, there was nothing Kyle could do.

Ever since meeting the Jars in the artisan district, he had a sinking feeling that the couple was only trying to appear cheerful.

His gut feeling told him to not probe further and let the two open up to him when they felt like it.

Thus, he decided to switch his attention back to their offer. Kyle had no idea how expensive it was to become a Blacksmith or Inscriber apprentice.

But, he knew that it cost more than a fortune and good luck to receive the opportunity.

The cost of the massive amount of ingredients and equipment alone made him gulp nervously.

Nevertheless, it was nothing compared to the time and energy invested by the teachers along with imparting knowledge to their students, which was priceless.

It was even less of a chance for adventurers they didn't really know to offer such an opportunity.

As such, after giving it some thought, Kyle threw a short glance towards Selene before he accepted Mell's condition.

He had an urge to ask about the 'demons' Mell was talking about.

Yet, Kyle was sure that he would be able to get more than enough information as long as he stayed with them.

After Kyle accepted Mell's condition, Selene followed suit with a faint smile on her face.

Once their decision was made, Kyle and Selene focused on their full plates once again as they were starving.

During the last few days they hadn't really eaten much, after all

Both of them had spent most of their time cultivating and hunting in order to solve the issues they had faced until now.

Fortunately, these issues had disappeared after hunting with Gaby as well as becoming the disciples of Rank-2 artisans!

With enough time, it was likely that he and Selene could work together in the future like Mell and Gard.

The two could combine their occupations to create their own spatial rings for a much cheaper price than the Guild quoted.

Gard was still confused but he slowly comprehended Mell's thoughts.

He simply smiled at her reassuringly and focused on dinner too.

Once dinner was over Kyle took the responsibility of washing the dishes.

Meanwhile, Mell showed Selene her room.

They didn't have any belongings at Milli's guest house, thus they didn't have to run back and forth.

Afterward, Mell showed Kyle his room that was adjacent to Selene's.

This was good because Kyle assumed that Selene would feel uncomfortable.

Ever since Zwark had offered her to Kyle, they had always shared a room.

So he guessed she wouldn't accept the sudden change of being too far from him.

At least that was what he could tell from her previous clingy behavior.

And exactly as though, she looked at him in reluctance.

However, before they decided to sleep or cultivate, the four of them returned to the dining table.

They created a small schedule to learn more about the basics of the auxiliary occupations.

It was only then that the Jars realized that their disciples' basic knowledge about the most common things was far below the average!

In fact, Kyle seemed to know a few things about specific topics, but that was already it.

Considering their circumstances, this was nothing uncommon, but somehow Mell and Gard had expected something else.

It was only a small problem, and they decided on a simple schedule before retiring to their respective rooms.

Kyle decided to cultivate with the soul force converted by the horned azure fox.

After that, he took out the basic cultivation manual for the path of Maest.

Meanwhile, he handed over two large spatial pouches, Pryr crystals of all qualities they had, and the basic Pryr cultivation manual to Selene.

He might not be able to cultivate in any of the three paths.

But using the explanations on how to increase his mana absorption rate would help him a lot in the future.

Maybe the other parts would help him create his own cultivation technique too.

It was definitely possible to improve his crude art to cultivate after all!

As such several hours passed in which he read through the manual attentively.

It was an interesting read that made him even more curious with every page.

He lost track of time as minutes morphed into hours while he was completely focused on the content.

He had yet to read through the martial art techniques but Kyle assumed that they would be even more intriguing.

Because of that, he decided to pull an all-nighter.

It was common for Cultivators who didn't have as many mortal needs as those who couldn't cultivate.

The next few hours passed, and Kyle had yet to finish reading the cultivation manual.

There were many things he didn't understand in the first reading.

Hence, he was forced to re-read several pages, but that made him only more eager to keep trying.

Owing to his fully focused state, he didn't even notice that the horned azure fox had emerged on his lap. Neither did he notice that Selene had entered his room late at night.

She had seen Kyle sitting on the bed reading the cultivation manual.

Not wanting to disturb him, she simply sat on the ground.

Leaning against the edge of the bed, she took out her own cultivation manual.

However, instead of reading all of it in one go, Selene adopted a different technique.

She switched between testing out the things she read occasionally.

For this, Selene made use of the lowest quality Pryr crystals placed around her.

A faint light radiated from a small glass marble hanging from the ceiling.

It had a particular rune inscribed on it, throwing a soft glow of light.

It provided just the necessary lighting in the otherwise dark room in which the two young adventurers were studying.

They did nothing except to read and cultivate, but both felt extremely comfortable.

They had overcome their initial discomfort of sleeping in the home of strangers who had become their teachers.

Selene was still not sure what she was expecting and what exactly her thoughts were, but according to Kyle, they had been extremely lucky.

As such, she was happy because Kyle seemed to be happy too.

She wanted to become stronger due to multiple reasons.

But the most important for her were to protect the one who had given her hope and freed her from enslavement.

Now she was not ill anymore and every new day filled her with hope and excitement.

Her days of slavery were nothing but painful memories that she wished to desperately forget.

With the newfound goals given by Mell, her determination to become stronger was unfathomable.

If an auxiliary occupation student was required to become stronger at a faster pace, she would gladly work on it!

To Kyle, everything was relatively a little bit easier.

The most important reason for him to accept Gard's offer was not only wealth.

He also aimed to make up for the lost time in which he was unable to cultivate.

According to his own estimations, the time taken by beasts to evolve was dependent on their cultivation base.

The higher their cultivation base was, the longer the time taken to evolve.

Furthermore, the evolution of mutated beasts was unique, and they would turn into entire new existences.

As such, Kyle, whose Spirit Soul had already mutated, knew that he would need something to keep himself occupied.

He did not want to waste his precious time once the horned azure fox was to evolve!

If Gard were to know this, he would probably throw Kyle out of the house without hesitation.

But fortunately, Kyle remained silent about his reasoning.

He was also interested in the art of blacksmithing.

Yet, that interest had only ignited when he had helped Gard to forge a crude-looking dagger-blade.

The night had passed, and it was nearing daybreak.

However, both Kyle and Selene didn't stop reading their manuals.

Instead, they were fully focused on the task at hand.

Reading through the technique had already proved to be quite fruitful.

Kyle had already been able to improve his mana absorption speed by a small margin.

This allowed his Spirit Soul to convert the mana he had absorbed into soul force without any delay.

Meanwhile, Selene's cultivation speed had also accelerated.

The resultant increments were not very high, but it was a noticeable difference.

Yet, the moment Mell found the two young adventurers in the same room, she could hardly control herself.

Initially, she had wanted to lecture them.

But, when she saw that they were simply reading their cultivation manuals, she grew hesitant.

'Are they just acting innocent because they noticed me, or are they truly like this?!'

Mell recalled how she was in her late teens.

Her behavior had been different to that of Kyle and Selene's.

However, their determination was rather advantageous.

Mell thought that she didn't have to worry about anything even if they were to stay in the same room.

Only a few seconds after Mell had opened the door, Kyle finished reading the manual.

It was only now that he saw Mell looking at them.

Seeing Mell made the horned azure fox quickly return to Kyle's body as if it was afraid of her.

This caused Mell's eyes to widen.

Wanting to explain everything, Kyle got out of the bed, only to step straight on a bunch of Pryr crystals.

The sharp edges of the crystals made him wince.

"Fuck!!" He shouted. Jumping on one leg, he looked down to notice that Selene had sneaked into his room.

"Why are you here? Don't you have your own room?" Kyle calmly asked Selene.

She had just finished reading her cultivation manual as well.

Quickly collecting the Pryr crystals she stored them away while stuttering to answer.

"W-w-Well...I feel...m-more c-comf-comfortable around you…"

It was not as if Kyle had something against Selene being inside his room.

But,  he was not sure how helpful it was for her to rely on him that much.

Nevertheless, she had to overcome her issues alone, and Kyle could only try to push her in the right direction.

Nodding his head, he decided to let it be for now as he turned towards Mell.

"Our schedule starts from tomorrow, right...teacher?"

Kyle felt uncomfortable calling someone else a teacher.

He had been a teacher in his past life after all.

Nevertheless, this was proper etiquette, and he didn't want to be too rude from the start either.

"Ah..yes. The schedule starts tomorrow. I just wanted to go shopping again. We need to purchase various things including highly nutritious food, and the necessary materials to start teaching you two.

You two must have registered with the Guild, right?  It means you'll have unlimited access to the town's library, which is a good thing.

I think Gard needs a few rare ores and other ingredients for something, but we were thrown out of the Guild.

Can you two purchase the goods we need from the Guild? I'll purchase the rest!"

Even though Kyle was not sure why Mell and Gard had been thrown out of the Guild, he didn't ask about that.

Mell and Gard's life seemed to have been quite eventful considering the things she was occasionally mentioning.

However, once again he decided to not probe her further.

He was rather astonished about the shocking difference in Mell's behavior in comparison to the day before.

She seemed to have fully accepted her role as a teacher.

Mell was no longer gloomy like the last night during dinner.

There was a definite difference in her gait and she appeared to be quite cheerful.

Thus, Kyle simply nodded his head in response.

She asked them to join her in the living room and left.

Selene returned to her room and the two took a quick bath and put on a clean set of clothes.

As asked, he and Selene found her waiting for them in the living room.

She handed them a spatial ring each in addition to a long list of items they required.

"The spatial ring has enough funds to purchase everything necessary. After you've bought everything, return the spatial ring to me. I won't give you a spatial ring just like that. You two will have to earn your first spatial ring!"

Kyle hadn't expected to receive the spatial ring as a gift, to begin with.

However, Mell's mischievous behavior made him raise an eyebrow, doubting what was going on.

'Is that how she acts normally?'  He wondered, before turning to Selene, who remarked,

"If we go to the Guildhall, we should meet Gaby again. Wouldn't it be best to decide on the next date for another hunting trip?"

At that moment, Mell's smile vanished from her face as she asked,

"You two... know Gaby?"