Neo stepped into the ruined church and headed straight for the nearest Soul Core.

Rainwater dripped from broken stone and cracked beams overhead, hissing where it struck embers that had not fully died. The smell inside was ugly in a way that almost felt rich. Burned silk. Venom. Wet ash. Cooked flesh. Green blood smeared across the aisle beneath the wreck of the chandelier. Every part of the place looked ruined twice over, first by age, now by him.

He crouched, picked up the first Soul Core, and turned it once in his hand.

Yellowed crystal. Faint light trapped inside. Weak, trembling, hungry.

Neo grinned.

He did not consume it.

Doing them one by one would mean rejecting useless classes over and over, sitting through the same nonsense again and again. Better to gather them first, pile everything together, and rip through it in one go. More efficient. More satisfying too.

He picked the first orb and moved to the next.

Another lay half-hidden near a burst egg, slick with rain and soot. He picked that one up as well.

"Hehehe..."

The sound slipped out before he could stop it.

Then another Soul Core appeared near the remains of a scorched broodling, and Neo crouched again with the same growing pleasure crawling through him.

"Hehehehe..."

The church had gone quiet after the chaos, yet that faint, greedy laugh kept moving through it, bouncing softly off old stone while Neo harvested the dead.

He crossed the nave like some deeply suspicious little goblin the world should have put down years ago. Every few steps he bent, picked up another crystal orb, brushed ash from it with his thumb, and tucked it away with the rest.

"Heheh..."

One beneath a collapsed pew.

Another near the altar.

Three more clustered around a patch of burned silk.

He gathered them all.

By the time he reached the giant spider, the grin had become impossible to hide.

The thing looked far less terrifying now. Broken. Crushed. Pinned under the fallen chandelier with its legs bent wrong and its body split where the iron had driven through it. The transparent green abdomen had ruptured in several places, and thick fluid leaked across the floor in a sluggish stream.

Its Soul Core rested near the remains of its head, brighter than the others.

Neo crouched and picked it up with something close to reverence.

"Now we’re talking."

He stood, brushed rain from his hair with the back of his wrist, and invoked his Soul-Window.

[Soul-Window]

Name: Neo

Age: 16

Soul Core: Ember

[401/1000]

Primary Class: Soul Reaver

Rank: Divine

Description: Soul Reaver, a divine class belonging to [...]. The soul of [...] could store all classes, which was why it was feared even by its own kind. That is why it lies here, hidden and forgotten by the world, so that no one may ever find it. You can steal the classes of people, Soul Beasts, and even gods, and make them your own.

Secondary Classes:

Duskmane Beast - Ascendant

Mastery: Mid

Abilities:

Beast Regeneration - Unlocked

Beast Strength - Unlocked

Soul Reader - Legendary

Mastery: Low

Abilities:

Through physical contact, you can view the Soul Window of an individual. - Unlocked

You can view the Soul Window of an individual without physical contact. - More mastery required

You can read the thoughts and emotions of an individual. - More mastery required

Stoneweb Spider - Ember

Mastery: Low

Low Poison Resistance

Soul Relics:

Sword - Common

Neo stared at the number beneath Soul Core and felt that same crooked hunger stir again.

’401, huh.’

His smile deepened.

’Let’s see where this lands me. Heart Core means two stages above me. Third rank. Heheheh... I’d better get past 500 at least.’

He drew in a breath, focused on the pile of Soul Cores he had gathered, and reached inward to consume them.

Before he could start, a voice behind him cut through the church.

"Neo?"

He turned.

Alice stood near the entrance, one hand holding his inner shirt closed around herself, blonde hair damp from the rain, face pale from whatever poison or venom had put her under. Confusion sat all over her. So did embarrassment, though that sharpened the moment she took in the scene properly: Neo barefoot, soot-streaked, shirtless, in his underwear, standing in the middle of a burned spider nest with a pile of Soul Cores in front of him like some lunatic who had mistaken massacre for a holiday.

Her face reddened at once.

"What... happened?"

Neo lifted one finger.

"Give me a second. I’ll explain."

That was all he gave her before turning back to the Soul Cores.

He consumed the first.

The yellowed light ran out of it and into him in a cold, hungry rush.

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

Then another.

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

Then another.

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

The numbers began climbing.

Fast.

The church filled with window after window, light stacking across his vision while each Soul Core dulled in his hands and vanished into him.

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

[Has consumed a Heart Soul Core, +4]

Neo watched the total surge upward and the laugh escaped him again.

"Heheheheheh..."

Alice stood a few steps away with his shirt wrapped around her, staring at him like she had woken into the wrong story.

By the time the last Soul Core was gone, Neo’s Soul Window had changed.

Soul Core: Ember

[625/1000]

[Class available: Glassbrood Spider - Ascendant. Do you wish to learn?]

Abilities:

High Poison Resistance - low mastery required

Metal Threads - high mastery required

Neo went quiet.

That was good. Better than good.

Poison resistance at a much higher level than before, and something called Metal Threads waiting farther up the line. He did not know exactly how far that ability could go yet, but the name alone already carried possibilities sharp enough to hold his attention.

He accepted it.

At once the window shifted.

[Secondary Classes updated. Stoneweb Spider - Ember has evolved into Glassbrood Spider - Ascendant.]

[Current mastery: Low]

[High Poison Resistance learned.]

[Metal Threads cannot be used until mastery improves.]

Neo read it once more and let out a slow breath through his nose, the grin returning on its own.

He had gained more than two hundred Souls in a single stroke.

The price had been his clothes.

Worth it.

Completely.

He finally turned back to Alice.

"You alright?"

Alice gave a small nod, though she seemed to need a second before trusting her own voice.

"Yes..." she said softly. "Some of it came back to me. What happened before I woke up, I mean." Her fingers tightened slightly around the fabric at her chest. "Thank you."

Neo rolled one shoulder.

"Well... looks like there are finally two of us from the group."

Alice gave another quiet nod.

The church behind them smoked. Rain tapped against broken stone. Neo became aware of himself again at the worst possible moment and turned his head toward where he had left his outer clothes.

They were gone and burned.

He stared at the blackened remains, then at his bare feet, then down at his own lack of dignity.

Alice followed the direction of his glance and hesitated.

"I... have some clothes hidden nearby," she said. "In my backpack. We can check if it’s still there."

Neo looked back at her.

"That would be very good."

She led him away from the church, and the place she brought him to turned out to be embarrassingly close to where he had spent the night. Just a short distance through the roots and wet brush, tucked beneath another rise of stone and broad leaves, lay her hidden pack.

Alice had tried to sleep there.

She just had worse luck.

She dug into the backpack while keeping the shirt closed one-handed and pulled out fresh clothes for herself first. Neo did the decent thing and looked elsewhere while she changed behind the cover of roots and hanging leaves. A few minutes later she stepped out dressed again and held his inner shirt toward him.

He took it and pulled it back on.

"Thanks."

Alice gave him a folded pair of black trousers after that.

"These too. They’ll probably fit well enough."

Neo raised a brow, then accepted them anyway and got them on. They fit a little off through the waist, but he had worn worse. He still had no boots, but that problem could wait.

"Thanks," he said again.

That left them standing there with rain dripping from leaves and no obvious conversation willing to save them.

Neo had never been great with people he barely knew. Alice was not helping. She had always been quiet around the group, and alone with him she somehow became quieter still. The air between them stretched into something awkward enough that even Neo started feeling it.

He cleared his throat faintly and glanced toward the distant line where the tower waited beyond the trees.

"Well... should we go?" he asked. "We still need to reach the tower."

Alice nodded.

That was enough.

The two of them started walking through the jungle side by side, no longer alone, the broken church and the spider nest fading behind them while the tower remained somewhere ahead, distant and patient as ever.