The Astral soul system-Chapter 172 - 171

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Jade called as she chased after the figure dashing through the terrain.

"Tch! This bitch just doesn’t quit."

Zaine cursed under his breath, increasing his speed.

He did his best to ignore her as he moved. He’d gone a full half hour in control of the body without picking a fight with someone or something and he was getting itchy all over.

And the stupid plan to kill Keith wasn’t exactly helping considering the idiot had gotten one of his goons to trail him.

That’s right, they’d made their choice, and they had unanimously decided to deny his offer.

The rewards for the quest and the quest line itself might have been tempting, but above all else, the three followed their own wishes, and when they put it to a vote, Zen thought he and his plan was irrelevant and thus deceitful, Zaine believed his plan was inconsequential, and he would rather kill him and anyone else who stood in their way rather than picking a side out of necessity, and Zyro... just found him boring.

Zaine asked Black if he was still tailing the second year but strangely he didn’t get a reply.

"Stupid bird is probably off eating worms or something"

Zaine complained slightly but didn’t really care. The second year wouldn’t do anything for now so he just had to find something to keep him occupied, and he wasn’t interested in babysitting, regardless of what Zyro said.

"Boy,we need to talk"

The familiar voice of Zephyr suddenly appeared in his mind

"The fuck are you calling boy, ass-wipe"

"What?...oh, it’s you"

Zephyr immediately recognized that it was no longer Zyro.

"I’ll have to get used to you switching. Anyway -"

"Where’s Theia?"

Zaine interrupted.

"What are you talking about?"

"You both disappeared at the same time and she hasn’t shown up since"

"How am i supposed to know ?"

"You take me for a mo-"

"Hey"

Zaine suddenly slowed down before coming to a halt.

He looked at Theia sitting on his shoulder,one of her usual spots.

Something felt off. "Hey?" Was that all? She didn’t come in with some over the top declaration of her own brilliance or a jab at him?

"Where have you been?"

"Just busy,in the system"

She answered and even now, Zaine was put off by her lack of flair. He was uncaring, hedonistic and self centered but he wasn’t blind.

Even the over the top explorers outfit she’d eagerly shown off this morning had been replaced by her plain casual black dress.

"..."

Zaine stared at her but eventually let it go. He didn’t really care anyway, he just didn’t like the feeling of someone hiding something from him.

"Alright, fine. I need to find beasts to fight and so far my luck is shitty."

"You do realize they sell maps at the base. If you three were a bit more patient, you could’ve gotten one " Freya pointed out.

"And gotten scammed? No thanks"

Even if he would humor the probably greasy old salesman who would try to scam him,there was no way he was going back now.

"Can’t you use that Bestiary thing to look for beasts for me?"

Hearing that,Theia opened the system screen and the bestiary. The screen suddenly changed and a loading bar appeared.

In a few seconds it was full and something else appeared on the screen.

"what’s that?"

"A map"

Theia replied.

Zaine looked at it carefully but he had no idea what he was looking at.

Theia sighed and explained

"Different beasts reside in different habitats,same as regular animals. I compiled a list of the beasts present on this planet and scanned the nearby habitat to create a reference guide to which beasts may be around"

Zaine looked closer and he felt like with that explanation he could sort of see it,and beneath the map was a list of beast species. It numbered in the thousands, but it listed the total number of beast species present on the planet so it made sense.

"So how do i find stronger beasts?"

"you can’t. That’s not how it works. The map shows what habitats are most likely to hold a specie of beast considering their behavioral patterns and biological needs, strength has nothing to do with the list"

Zaine groaned

"Fine. What about beasts that live in groups or packs"

Hearing that, Theia snapped her fingers and the map started to change, filtering out beasts based on his request.

A few seconds passed and now the list had completely changed.

Zaine read the name of the one at the top

[Armored Goliath spider: A mutated species of jungle spider known for its massive size , territorial nature,the strength of its webs and a preference for avians,as well as a mildly paralytic poison]

"Wait a minute,spider? I took biology classes,i know that spiders are solitary "

"Just trust me. It’s the closest one to your current location since you’re already in the jungle, might as well check it out "

Zaine wasn’t exactly sure but he didn’t really have a choice so he just went with it.

The map itself was very crude. In fact it couldn’t even be called a map considering all that was there was his current location and the "Habitat" , and in a jungle, that couldn’t be trusted.

There were dozens but the closest one was somewhere to his left.

"He suddenly looked behind him to see Jade standing there in silence. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"..."

"..."

"Creep"

Zaine spat out and started going left.

Jade sighed. Her legs were starting to get tired. She rubbed her knees and was about to keep going after him when she suddenly looked behind her. She kept her gaze for a few seconds before muttering.

"Odd. I could’ve sworn that -"

She quickly snapped out of her thoughts. Distraction was equal to death in a place like this.

She took a deep breath and ran in the direction Zaine did, hoping she hadn’t lost him.

After about an hour of sprinting and searching, Zaine found what looked like a cave that led underground. It was about five meters large in both height and length with clear tracks leading into it.

"Giant spider indeed"

Zaine looked behind him and luckily the green haired pest was gone. Zyro’s condition was that he wouldn’t kill her,no matter what, and he was still on the fence about keeping that particular promise.

He was about to step in when he was stopped by two different voices.

"What are you doing?"

Sable,and Zephyr all asked.

"Hunting a beast?"

Theia facepalmed

"You’re about to just walk into a dark cave with a beast with no precautions ,not even a preemptive strike from you outside?"

Zephyr asked.

Zaine shrugged.

"I don’t have time for that. Besides, don’t your powers work better in darkness? If the stupid thing is in there, I’ll kill it, simple, and if i can’t,i run"

So it wasn’t a matter of ignorance, it was a matter of temperament. It wasn’t that he didn’t know the risk, he just didn’t care.

Zephyr went quiet,a mixture of acknowledgement and confusion. This temperament was entirely different and at the same time similar to the other two .

"It’s a cave so your greatsword won’t be as effective, you’ll need something different. Plus it’s an armored beast "

Zaine equipped his sword, glancing at it before shrugging.

"Stubborn and hard-headed as always "

Theia sighed

Just when she thought he was going in,he suddenly took something out. It was the beast crystal Jade had given him. He considered eating it, considering the possibility of getting the bear’s soul, but considering he’d been eating crystals for months now and had gotten nothing, he felt it would be better to keep this for later,at least until he’d ran out of wolf crystals, which he was pretty close to.

He glanced at his spatial ring and groaned at the miniscule amount of crystals This was one of the reasons he was itching for a fight. Crystals were his food and energy all in one, he’d gotten a pretty good stash thanks to the previous expedition but it was time to restock. He’d become a bottomless pit for energy, similar to Sable for blood, and they didn’t know it but they were both this close to starvation.

With a low hum, he slowly walked into the cave. Spiders be damned.

He stepped into the darkness of the cave, his eyes quickly adapting to the darkness.

He looked and listened but there was no movement in the cave.

"Sleeping? Or absent?"

Before Zaine could get disappointed, Theia spoke up.

"Best case scenario. Hurry up and go deeper"

Although not sure, he shrugged and listened, moving deeper and deeper into the cave that was surprisingly deep.

After about five minutes he suddenly noticed strange things along the walls, looking like spores or-

"Jackpot!"

Theia exclaimed.

"What?"

"Hurry, before the mother comes back "

Zyro looked at the hundreds of eggs that littered the walls and floors, realizing why Theia had suggested this place. He immediately blasted a large sack of eggs near the wall and they immediately burst open, dripping a green sticky fluid onto the ground.

"The fuck?"

Zaine exclaimed, covering his extremely sensitive nose. It smelled like absolutely awful

[Giant armored Goliath spider (fetus)(×5)]

[Calculating exp gain...]

Zaine was pleasantly surprised. He’d come here looking for a fight but had been led to an empty treasure trove.

Looking around at the hundred of sacs that littered the cave, he grinned, swinging his sword at another sac and his screen was once again flooded with exp messages.

The smell was still annoying but he couldn’t really be bothered to care. Exp is exp and all that.

The crystals in these spiders was undeveloped so he couldn’t harvest them, he wondered if he could get a soul from these but when he got reminded of the abysmally low chances, he forgot about that and focused on cutting down the nest.

A few minutes of relentless cutting passed and just when Zaine was considering finding a way to speed this up

[Level up!]

[Name: Zaine Animus](LV l8)

[Species: (Rank 1 Astral) (bloodline-????)]

[Class: soul sage]

[Profession: Berserker (Arcane)]

[True name/soul name:???]

[HP 200/200]

[Astra: 230/230]

[Strength:20]

[Agility: 15]

[Endurance: 14]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Charm: 50](bloodline effect)

[ Wisdom: 20]

[Stat points: 3]

Zaine looked at the screen and mumbled

"Fucking finally. It’s been months"

Before he could do anything else,a new notification popped up

[Achievement unlocked: Congratulations, you’re a baby murderer]

[Requirements: Kill a hundred infants]

Zaine’s eye twitched at the blinding "congratulations" on the screen.

"Baby murderer? Is this fucking system taunting me?"

Before he could even see what the reward was, he heard a loud screeching sound followed by the sound of the ground shaking.

"Uh-oh. Mama’s back"

Theia pointed out