"X-rank Soul-Hunter? What is that?" The 4th captain had no idea what it was despite being a captain of a Soul-Squad.
"You absolutely must bring that boy here head commander! I wanna run several tests on him! I wanna dissect him!" Yui couldn’t contain her excitent, there was so much to do in so little ti.
"Control your urges alchemist." She belonged to the Alchemist Soul-Core, so her curiosity and urge to experint was understandable. "You said you’ve co across this twice, what is an X-rank Soul-Hunter?"
"It’s simple, just as we have the weakest rankings of Soul-Hunters to be the F-rank and the highest rank to be S-rank. An X-rank Soul-Hunter is a rank given to a hunter whose Soul-Energy cannot be asured."
"W-what? Cannot be asured!? Are you trying to tell that boy rewakened a rank that surpasses even that of an S-rank!?"
"It is very much what you think, but also the exact opposite of what you think." The head commander finally spoke, he was calm, decided even after everything that happened. Still it didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t believe it, but he remained calm for one reason.
"What do you an head commander?"
"X-rank Soul-Hunters indeed are hunters whose Soul-Energy cannot be asured, but it’s not just because their Soul-Energy is limitless, it’s because it is unstable and unpredictable. Like Yui said, there’s been two cases of this abnormal awakening and the two ended up with different results after stabilizing their Soul-Energy." Arthur began.
"One was revealed later to be a B-rank Alchemist, the other a re E-rank Elentalist Soul-Hunter."
"So you’re saying X-rank Soul-Hunters are just hunters with unpredictable Soul-Energy?" Alaric finally cald down, his anxiety wasn’t because of learning there was another rank, it was because of his pride as a noble.
It wasn’t hard to tell Rai was a re commoner, there was nothing majestic and noble about his na. Nobles were known to have the highest Soul-Energy, which made them superior to the masses.
If Rai had an higher Soul-Energy than him, he’d feel completely insulted.
"It seems that’s the case, but one thing is for sure, if Rai Voltia really had a re-awakening, then we can only assu the preamble of his unstable energy was what killed that beast. In other words, till his Soul-Energy has stabilized, we need to keep an eye on him."
"Yes head commander."
..
______________Status_________________
[Na: Rai Voltia]
[Age: 18]
[Occupation: Soul-Hunter]
[Level: 5]
[Experience: 4]
[Dexterity: 4]
[Stamina: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Strength: 5]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Soul-Energy: 10/200]
[Soul-Core: Shadow Soul-Core]
[Rank: X- Rank]
[Abilities:
• Primordial Shadow Beast — Kuriyami]
- Skills: Raisen (Level 1)]
[Stats point: 2]
_____________________________________
"What is this..." It was real, and it was true. The blue panel not only reveal that he awakened as an X-rank Soul-Hunter, but he also activated a Soul-Core.
But he still couldn’t believe it.
"I activated a Soul-Core? How?" It was clear during the Awakening ceremony and everyone was a witness to it, his Soul-Energy wasn’t enough to activate a Soul-Core. But now, he activated a Soul-Core that wasn’t even part of the five fundantal cores.
Then he rembered. The system interface from before the dragon appeared.
"A re-awakening? I reawakened?" But that wasn’t all that happened. His eyes imdiately went back to his bio-data.
"Level 5!?" From his knowledge of systems, it was progressive level ups all the way from level 1 to it’s limit, but he was already at level 5?
"Did I level up this much from defeating that Soul-Beast? No." No matter the angle he observed it from, the beast that attacked them folded a C-rank Soul-Hunter with just one lightning bolt, it easily scaled up to at least A-rank level.
And at level 1, defeating it was impossible.
Then he rembered, the notifications from the mont before the last lightning bolt struck down.
"Due to System errors? That must be it.." It was the only plausible explanation, it was the goddess of fate.
He rembered it clearly, before he t the goddess, he awakened the Dragon Sage system. Just before it could transmigrate him, her spell ssed up it’s functions, and there wasn’t any effect till it attempted to activate a Soul-Core.
In two words, it crashed. Thanks to the goddess spell interfering with it’s functions, the system crashed, and now, it activated a Soul-Core not known to humankind.
After restoring it’s functions, it deleted his current awakening. But it seems so of it’s functions were not restored when rebooted and now, he started at level 5.
"Primordial Shadow Beast Kuriyami... That must be the dragon that appeared back then. Wait... I can summon a fucking dragon!?" He didn’t realize it till now, but the dragon’s appearance was because of the system.
"Now that I think about it, the dragon did say sothing about a shadow contract. Did I automatically seal the contract by activating the Shadow Core?"
[The ti limit to complete the daily quest has been exhausted.]
[You have failed to complete the daily quest.]
[Administering penalty quest...]
"The ti limit elapsed? Wait what!? How long was I out!?" The idea of a penalty quest was brutal to him, he has read about it multiple tis in different manhwas, and that was the last thing he wanted.
[Error...]
[Administration Of Penalty quest has failed.]
[Penalty Quests rewards has been added to your inventory.]
"Huh?" He stared at the panel so many tis, but he couldn’t understand it, an error?
"I thought the system rebooted itself? Damn, the goddess spell really did a number on the system. But thank God, I think I’m starting to like this broken syste-"
"Ah, so you’re finally awake?" The door creaked open, and two n stepped inside, dressed in white shirts beneath a black jacket with matching pants. The first man wore his hair in a bowl cut and stood around five foot eleven.
While the second stood at around five foot nine.
"Y-You’re..." Rai struggled to speak as the man that stood before him was one of the most famous Soul-Hunters in their current generation, and also one of his most loved characters.
A Soul-Hunter who rose from the ashes of failure to the fiery passion of strength.
He was far different from the rest of the captains, he wasn’t an S-rank Soul-Hunter, in fact, just like Rai, Hiro was one of the few people to have failed to activate a Soul-Core.
Despite the mockery he faced, the humiliation from his peers, he didn’t give up, and his youthful passion made him soar to the ranks of a captain even without a Soul-Core by achieving a level of strength that no one else could.
As a results of his achievents, he was nicknad the Souless Hunter of the 14 Soul-Squads. The Soul-Hunter who ascended to the ranks of a captain even without activating a Soul-Core.
"Hehehe, it seems you already know . That’s right." He clenched his fists and spun so fast the air swirled around him. Then he stopped and pointed his thumb at himself with a wide grin.
"I am the captain of the 11th Soul-Squad, Hiro Kai!"
Silence.
Rai stared at Hiro like he was a madman on the loose.
"What’s wrong? Did I ss my introduction up or sothing?"
"N-no that’s not it, you’re just more energetic than I rember." He rembered Hiro to be lively, energetic and always filled with positivity. The principles he lived by made him one of the best Soul captains. But now that he lived through it, he understood. There was a difference between reading it and living it.
"Oh that, HAHAHA!" Hiro laughed loudly, he understood his confusions, but he was nothing like the other captains. "I’m nothing like those up to society bastards, but proving that is not why I’m here."
"The man besides is the vice captain of the 11th Soul-Squad, Livinus Mada-"
"How was it!? The Soul-Beast!? I heard it was completely different from a regular Soul-Beast, but the conditions hasn’t been t yet, why did a Soul-Beast appear? And how did you beat it!?" Livinus wasted no ti in trying to extract intel from him.
"U—Uh." Rai didn’t know where to begin, he asked so many questions in less than thirty seconds.
"Ahem." Hiro cleared his throat, and Livinus maintained his composure imdiately.
"Forgive him for the questions, it’s been a while since the 11th had been on a mission, so he’s a bit over excited." They weren’t even supposed to be here at all. The head commander originally deployed Alaric for this task, but his pride wouldn’t let him speak on a one-on-one basis with a commoner.
Arthur figured it’d be the sa case with most of the other captains, so he sent the only captain who could handle the task.
"You were unconscious for nearly the whole day kid, right now it’s night ti, what happened to you out there?"
’Nearly the whole day!?’ He shouted within his thoughts, the whole day was a lot.
"Ren... Ren! What happened to Kirito!?" He rembered Ren, who took a bolt of lightning at point black.
"He’s alright, our best Healer Soul-Hunters attended to him days ago. Now tell , what happened out there?"
"I see, that’s a relief." He sighed.
Then he explained the events exactly as they happened, starting from the orange gate that appeared to the Soul-Beast that erged from it.
He didn’t tell him about the dragon because, who’d believe him? Dragons were nothing more than folklores, telling him that he summoned a dragon would prove that he had gone insane.
After all, dragons never existed in the story. And he never existed past this event. But now that he did, things were changing.
"I see, an orange gate really appeared huh? That’s troubleso. In any case, you were unconscious for nearly the whole day, the support Soul-Hunters tried their best but they didn’t know what was wrong, well it’s a relief that you’re awake. I’m sure you’ve sensed it by now haven’t you? That your Soul-Energy isn’t the sa as what it was when you tried to activate your core?"
"Yeah..." That much was obvious, but only one question remained.
"What will you do now? What do you plan to do moving forward?"
"What do I plan to do huh?" This was the first ti he actually had the opportunity to reflect on his life. And now that he thought about it, all his life he was a pawn, sothing to be casted asides when done with.
Both in his previous life and the current.
He was a pawn in Xander’s hand. He suffered, got beaten to a pulp, clinging to all hope that it will all work out well once he got the money for his mother’s treatnt. But the results? He died a grueso death, and left his mother alone in such a cruel world.
Then ca his new life. And he discovered he was another pawn in fate’s hands. One ant to die for the main character’s developnt.
But no more.
He refused to be anyone’s pawn anymore.
His eyes lit with a fiery determination as he stared back at Hiro, and what Hiro saw wasn’t just the fire in him. It was the lust and hunger for his goals. "I just want to survive, and to do that, I want to get stronger."
’This kid.’ A wide grin stretched across Hiro’s lips, what he saw wasn’t a re kid, what he saw was a warrior that swore to fulfill his duty to the very end.
A warrior that followed only one principle.
Fight.
Fight till the very end.
To Hiro, that wasn’t just determination, it wasn’t just courage and strength, it was the flas of Rai’s youth burning wild within him.
Or at least he thought so. He glanced over at his vice, and they both exchanged a smirk before he turned his attention back to the kid.
"Very well. Welco to the Second Selection, Rai Voltia."
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