Spirit Soul

During the last two weeks, Kyle had learned many things.

However, while he felt happy spending hours improving his knowledge, Selene was extremely bored.

The little Lohar was slowly starting to reveal her true self, allowing her personality to be built up.

All these days, she had either been scared or indecisive.

Only now was she truly beginning to open up and show other aspects of her behavior, which was great to witness for everyone around.

Kyle was not even able to compare her to the timid and helpless slave she had been before.

Selene was now much more confident than before.

The only issue was that she still clung too much to him.

It was annoying but at the same time, Kyle felt good about not being alone in the house of his teachers.

At least he knew that it was not just him being tortured with weird tasks by Gard.

The one-armed blacksmith had used various materials in order to forge several items.

These were specific items that would assist him in work while not letting his disability hinder his work progress.

Forging with one arm was still extremely difficult.

But thanks to Kyle's helpful insights, it had become less burdensome.

Gard was still trying to adapt to working with his untrained arm.

Thus, he would spend hours doing simple tasks that he used to complete minutes earlier.

The fact annoyed him as his only arm was less proficient in accurately hitting the hot ingot with the right amount of force.

Despite the frustration he had to overcome every single time he tried to forge, Gard had found a way to distract himself from his stress and anger.

This task was to train Kyle, who seemed to be an eager and curious student.

Gard had no idea that it were Kyle's memories from his past life that had allowed him to learn everything at a much higher speed.

His learning skills were far from a true genius who would absorb every piece of information like a wet sponge.

In fact, Kyle was in the belief that he was relatively normal, and only special owing to his reincarnation.

But, that was not necessary as long as he could remember the majority of things he would learn in this lifetime.

Thus Kyle spent a lot of his time studying and learning everything his teacher asked him to.

He would lose track of time while familiarizing himself with various stances that were utilized to forge ingots.

Only now did Kyle realize that shaping them accurately, while releasing as much of the metal's potential as possible was harder than he had assumed.

Unfortunately, this didn't mean that he had started to forge yet.

So far, Kyle had only held a forging hammer and tongs to help Gard in forging an extremely crude prosthesis.

It appeared more like a clump of metal with various types of 'hands' that could be fitted to the tip.

It was attached to the stump of Gard's right arm which allowed him to tighten it to a certain extent.

Meanwhile, Mell had engraved several runes into the prosthesis.

These were specific runes that helped increase the prosthetic implant's flexibility and agility.

They would also decrease its overall weight, making it less burdensome for Gard to wear.

Kyle was not sure whether they were actually well-made or just crudely forged together, but somehow he could visualize that they could turn into real prosthesis.

'If better materials and profound runes were used in creating a prosthesis, it could act as a near-perfect replacement. The energy veins inside the metals could function as artificial muscles and veins, allowing Gard to move them properly...I think?'

His assumption was spot on, but they neither had the right materials nor knew about the required runes.

One more downside was that Gard's mana was weak as well!

As such, Gard could only do his best with whatever he had in hand.

Despite his limitations, he found joy in teaching Kyle.

It provided him both respite and distraction from his work that was lately giving him more pain than happiness.

The fact that the young man was working hard on improving as much as possible made Gard feel satisfied with his decision.

Time was flying by, and Kyle's knowledge had progressed tremendously.

After making Kyle focus on theory, Gard decided to give him some practical exposure.

According to Gard and most of the blacksmiths, forging was an art.

It required a patient mind and relentless efforts to hone one's skills.

Making Kyle read through the lengthy texts had been sort of a test.

Gard had wanted to see if Kyle would be patient and read or be annoyed to think that he was wasting his time on theorizing things.

And to Gard's surprise, Kyle had passed the test with flying colors.

Because of that, it was time for him to start forging simple bar-shaped ingots.

This was the task every apprentice had to learn first.

It may sound simple, but it was everything but that.

Yet, before Gard could tell Kyle about the plan he had in mind, his apprentice came up with a plan of his own.

They were having dinner when Kyle announced his plan for the next day.

"Selene and I want to go out to hunt tomorrow. We've been inside the town walls for two weeks and haven't been able to adjust to our increased cultivation base. Selene is already at the Pryr low Fortification stage and she has yet to go hunt since her advancement.

Furthermore, we want to test our martial art techniques in life-and-death battles!"

While Kyle shared his plan enthusiastically, Selene nodded her head.

She approved everything he said through her actions as she was a bit intimidated by her teacher's gaze.

But, thankfully Mell intervened.

"The Sadorla forest might not seem dangerous around Vila town, but don't be reckless.

Stay close to the town walls, and don't go too far away!"

Mell didn't even try to convince them to change their mind.

Instead, she just told them to be careful.

However, Selene, who was too excited, blurted out,

"Teacher, this won't be a problem. Gaby will be by our side, so we will be safe from danger.

We will only have to avoid beasts at the peak Vitae stage or Krysal stage!"

Had Kyle not freed Selene of enslavement himself, he wouldn't be sure if she had truly been a slave.

Sometimes, he couldn't believe how such a blabbermouth had survived so far in the cruel world.

As such, he just shook his head for now.

He made a mental note of educating Selene on how to read the room and keeping some things to herself.

'I can already imagine Selene fighting against someone while saying out loud <I will use my super secret, hidden dagger technique now>'

Sighing, Kyle didn't even have to look at the Jars to know their expressions.

The damage was done and if he were to say anything more, it would only increase the awkwardness.

Thus, instead of facing them head-on, he focused on finishing his plate.

Only after dinner was over did Kyle add

"We will leave early in the morning and return after dusk."

He didn't mention anything about the areas they planned to enter.

Neither did he tell them that they would hunt beasts at the Vitae stage.

Selene had already spilled beans and he didn't want to add more to their worries.

Kyle was looking forward to the hunting trip with Gaby.

He wanted to help progress the horned azure fox's potential path and increase their funds.

Additionally, both Kyle and Selene wanted to fight against beasts at the Low Fortification stage too.

It was good that they could rely on Gaby for certain things.

Yet, learning to fight on their own was almost equally important.

Furthermore, Kyle didn't want to permanently stay in Vila town.

And it was highly likely that Selene would follow him on his path.

The Sadorla forest was not grand enough to hold Kyle's interest for long.

He was more interested in the information he had obtained about the three adjacent kingdoms.

After hearing about the kingdoms, his desire to adventure had increased.

Nevertheless, before he could do something like that, he would have to increase his cultivation base.

The minimum requirement was at least an increase of one stage, preferably even higher!

Time was what Kyle had the most right now.

To his misfortune, he had none to waste.

So, using it efficiently was something his character demanded from him.

Thus, he had planned out the entire hunting trip with Gaby beforehand.

That had freed his mind to concentrate on cultivating.

Knowing that his trip would be fruitful, he cultivated for the entire night.

Yet, despite planning, he knew that most plans were supposed to be replaced with new, improved versions.

As such, he made a rough draft and a to-do list in his mind.

This allowed him to know what he had been able to accomplish successfully, in addition to tasks he had yet to complete.

Once he was done cultivating, Kyle stood up before taking a quick bath.

Meanwhile, the horned azure fox nudged its nose at Selene, waking her up from her cultivation.

After wearing leather armor over a clean set of clothes, Kyle walked outside the house.

He was followed by Selene only a few minutes later.

Both had a bow swung around their back, and a quiver full of arrows attached to their waist.

Except for training the martial art techniques Kyle and Selene had tested their compatibility with archery.

They were not prodigies, but better than complete rookies.

This allowed them to hit an unmoving target without too many tries.

Meanwhile, Kyle tested his hand at rapid shooting.

He wanted to check if his memory and instinctive movements were even remotely comparable to his past life.

It was far from perfect but Kyle was still glad about what he had and owned.

This was important and better than complaining about things he didn't have.

It didn't take long before they met Gaby, who was already waiting for them in front of the Guildhall.

"Morning! Where shall we go? Directly into the territory of the hibernating beast at the Krysal stage? Or have you done some research about the areas you want to venture in?"

Kyle squinted his eyes upon seeing Gaby's expression.

Her face was void of tension and she even sported a faint smile.

This confused him a lot.

But before he was able to ask something, Kyle heard Selene blabber yet again.

"Did you meet our teachers this morning? I heard them going out deep in the night!"

This confused Kyle because he hadn't heard anything as he had been too busy cultivating.

As such, Selene's hearing ability was either extremely great, or she hadn't been cultivating properly.

Seeing Kyle's expression, she froze for a second.

But, she quickly straightened her back as she defended herself,

"I was just changing my cultivation technique...I definitely didn't play around with the horned azure fox!... By the way, can't you give him a name..? It's weird to call him a horned azure fox all the time!"

Kyle didn't expect her to switch the topic so easily, but she had a point.

He knew that he should have named his Spirit Soul long ago.

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done.

Kyle had already thought of several names, only to scrap all of them.

He wanted to pick something that was suitable to his Spirit Soul's character, and his abilities.

The name should also convey what the little fox meant to Kyle.

His Spirit Soul was a blessing and the chance to become someone significant in his second life!

Nevertheless, every name he had thought of seemed unsuitable to him.

A few were so random that they had nothing to do with his fateful encounter.

Selene had successfully diverted his attention from the fact that she played with the fox when he wasn't looking.

The little Lohar was becoming bold and cheeky day by day.

She was slowly learning to use her innocent face to hide her mischiefs quite well.

"I don't have a name for him. But if you do, just tell me. If I think it's suitable, it will become the horned azure fox's new name."

The two had become so engrossed in their discussion that they had forgotten that Gaby was still around.

She threw them an amused look and cleared her throat.

Her action made the two of them forget their discussion as both of them looked at her.

With a raised eyebrow, she asked them again.

"Where are we going now??"

Blinking his eyes, Kyle answered her,

"We want to test out the combat techniques which we bought two weeks ago. As you can see we also have a bow and want to test hunting moving targets too.

To not waste any time, I think we should go to the Sekra hill. There, we can hunt beasts at the Low Fortification stage, while you can kill beasts at the Vitae stage.

You'll only have to inform me early enough so I can reach the beast corpses in time for my ability to activate.

With that, there shouldn't be an issue, right?"

Nodding her head, Gaby decided to agree to Kyle's plan that seemed to be feasible.

According to her knowledge, there shouldn't be any beasts at the late Vitae stage, let alone peak Vitae or Krysal stage on the Sekra hill.

However, Gaby was just a little bit disappointed that neither Kyle nor Selene seemed to have noticed her good mood.

Their reaction was exactly the same as Laila's; useless and dissatisfying to look at.

Sighing deeply, she could only complain about the people she was surrounded with.

'At least, I got to talk with Mell and Gard...even if it was because of the safety of these two freaks!'

Shaking her head, Gaby told herself to not complain.

Her mind was occupied with the Jars who seemed to be slowly overcoming the loss of their child.

This caused her to feel melancholic as she and the two adventurers left Vila town.

'Lars...if you would have still been here...how great would that have been…'

Yet, before she could turn depressed once again, Gaby was forced to regain her senses.

Her instincts kicked in when Selene shouted out, waking up the sleeping beasts in the surrounding areas.

"Arashi!!! Kyle, how about Arashi?!?"