The Astral soul system-Chapter 228: A new game

"it’s about time"

A voice rang out in a dark room.

In the center was an small tv, replaying the events of the attack on the school expedition, specifically the moment Zen stepped in and used his mark.

"I’d say I can’t believe they did this but... well"

*Sigh*

"What do you think they’re planning? And what’s with that ability of his? Wings? And how did they find out how to split again without the... You don’t think they..."

"I’ve come to learn we shouldn’t bother trying to think like them. It’s a headache. And no,I don’t think they did that. You know how they feel about anomalies"

"You mean how they used to. Appearantly we don’t know anything"

"... even if they would,there aren’t any left. He helped close that window himself, remember?"

They both suddenly went silent for a second,as if reminded of something

...

...

...

"Ah well. It doesn’t matter anyways. We’re finally going to be able to play with him again. A brand new game. We can find out from him ourselves"

"You sound excited. I’d have thought you of all people would try a more subtle approach"

"This is subtle. We’re just giving Azzy a little nudge. It’ll be his choice on what to do when he gets there . Besides, this is just what he needs, he’s been ignoring us all for way too long"

"... have you heard from Chelsea?"

"No, but that’s normal "

"Hmm,I should get going then. Wouldn’t want to be late"

"Give him a hi from me "

**********

[Charge]

[Soul gun]

A dark ball of energy fired out of his hands, striking the beast squarely in the side.

While it was stunned, he immediately kept unloading shots, releasing about a dozen more.

Before all the hits could land it suddenly lit up in flames, it’s feet burning brightly. He immediately focused on the change, waiting for the right moment, and the moment the light reached its maximum intensity, he dashed forward sword in hand.

He brandished the sword,a wide swing coming down in front of him. He felt a pressure against it for a second and intense heat but didn’t stop.

By the time he’d stopped moving, he looked back to see the beast on the ground,a bleeding gash in its side

Sighing, he stabbed the sword into the earth.

These things were completely unarmored, but the heat they emitted was enough for normal people to avoid getting too close. They were fast but once they activated their skill that was somewhat similar to his dash, they couldn’t stop until they’d covered exactly ten meters, leaving them open during that duration. Plus,all he had to do was look at their feet to see what direction they were going in

This of course had been figured out through numerous attempts.

He looked down at his chest and saw the uniform ripped with a claw mark across his chest large enough to warrant worry for most but it was already closing up.

"Now i understand why unlimited uniforms is part of the student perks"

It wasn’t a very deep cut though, and he was extremely resistant to high temperatures,all thanks to Riley.

"Riley..."

He muttered, briefly reminded of his figuratively and literally fire breathing foster mom

Shaking his head, he brought himself back to the current moment

"This sword won’t last much longer"

He said picking it back up. The extreme heat in this place combined by its repeated use was starting to show it’s effects.

He looked at the corpse that was already disappearing slowly and started to walk closer.

He barely took a step before suddenly falling to one knee.

"What?"

Zen muttered, breathing heavily

"What’s wrong with me?"

He hadn’t sustained many injuries and still had lots of energy but he felt slightly dizzy,a dull pain blooming in his chest

The status page opened and Zen saw an interesting tab right next to his stats

[Starving]

"You’re hungry,dumbass. You haven’t eaten anything since we got back from the expedition. What,did you think just cuz you heal,you don’t need sustenance?"

Right, the system said he was meant to eat souls, and beast cores held soul fragments in them. He’d just assumed it was for astra. He didn’t think astrals actually needed to eat souls to live.

"Older astrals can survive longer without it but you’re still a youngling, regardless of your strength, same with Sable and blood. If you don’t eat something soon,things could get bad"

Zen internally thought that this was the kind of situation where he’d have smiled wryly if he was capable. He literally only had about six crystals now and he had no idea how many it would take to sate his hunger.

Almost as if the system read his mind,a screen suddenly popped up

[Detected that host is starving]

[Three epic or higher ranked souls detected]

[Freya]-<Feed> Y/N

[Lilith]-<Feed> Y/N

[Sylphietta]-<Feed> Y/N

"I can...eat them?"

"Don’t you even dare think about it!"

Syl yelled, immediately popping out of the codex.

"Master?"

Freya didn’t say anything, though if Zen was going to eat one of them, it was less likely to be her

He stared at the screen for a few seconds, thoughts passing through his head for a few seconds before he closed the screen and shook his head

Syl visibly sighed, disappearing back into the codex

"I do wonder how an actual soul would taste if all crystals have is soul fragments"

He sighed and pulled out one he’d gotten from this dungeon, about to throw it into his mouth when he suddenly paused

"Wait, doesn’t that mean Jade also needs these? She’s younger than even me, right?"

"Uh...yeah"

And this was another problem. How in the world was he going to convince her to consume a beast core when they were lethal to humans

It’d been tested. Humans regardless of whether they had an ability or not would die if they consumed beast crystals,unless the ability specifically prevented that.

"How much longer until...bad things"

"She doesn’t use her energy as much as you so as long as she keeps taking it easy, we’ve got some time"

He sighed and threw the whole crystal into his mouth. Sure he could absorb the soul fragment but he didn’t feel like doing it right now

He chewed for a few second and felt it dissolve down his throat

"Crunchy"

He remarked

A few seconds passed before he felt a warmth blooming in his chest. It lasted for a few seconds before disappearing.

He waited a few seconds for it to kick in but he still felt hungry

"Looks like you need another"

He took another but it still didn’t stop. It was at the third crystal he could feel his strength mostly return, but something told him he just barely staved off his hunger.

"I wonder what a human soul would taste like"

He said, lightly licking his lips

"Don’t you still have that second year?"

Zen thought back to that.

"Oh yeah, he swore to be my servant. And even gave me his soul too"

"Gave?"

Theia said, remembering the image of the guy who’d literally pissed himself from fear as he accepted the handshake.

"I didn’t coerce him into making the contract in any way, and the fact that it succeeded meant he agreed fully"

He hadn’t really known what he was doing when he asked for that. He’d just thought it’d be interesting to find out what would happen if he "Owned" a person’s soul and hadn’t thought it through. In fact as soon as he succeeded, he’d just walked away and disappeared into the night.

"Maybe i should pay victor a visit?"

He thought

"Maybe he has beast crystals, and if he doesn’t i can just eat him. His soul might as well be useful to me"

He could locate him using the contract which was how he knew victor hadn’t run off, and he wasn’t worried about him telling since he himself had offered to keep his secret and be his servant, meaning the contract would obviously enforce that.

He shook off those thoughts and picked up the crystal from the corpse that had almost completely disappeared at this point.

"Onto the next one"

He muttered, walking deeper into the dungeon.

He suddenly received a call after a few minutes and accepting it, he saw Neo’s face pop up

"Zen...I...think, right?"

He nodded

"Good. Have you seen Max?"

He shook his head

"Damnit "

"Maximilian’s missing?"

"Nah, probably just busy. We were supposed to meet up but he hasn’t shown, and I can’t reach him on his watch either"

"Hmmm"

Maximilian did have a lot of things to take care of. He WAS likely just busy, though Zen had a bad feeling.

Oh well,it wasn’t his problem, except it was since the contract bound them all together

"Call me if you find him"

"Gotcha"

The holo-screen closed as the call came to an end

"..."

"Something wrong?"

"Just a bad feeling. Can you bring up the hunter quest?"

[The Hunter.... or the hunted?]

[Quest objective]

(1) Protect Maximilian Hunter

Reward???(Will be received when quest objective 2 is complete)

(2) Find out who wants Maximilian Hunter dead and put a stop to their actions.

Reward:???

"No more information,huh?"

"Well we already know it’s someone in his family "

’Meaning if we want to investigate,we need to leave this planet,or at least this city. The hunter family’s main stronghold on earth is sin city where the hunter academy is located’

"I’m still confused about why he came here when his family has its own academy...Maybe he already suspected someone would make an attempt on his life. It would definitely be easier there"

’Perhaps, but he said his father sent him here. Titus hunter’

"You know him?"

Theia asked

’He’s a priority target’

A few seconds passed before Theia realized what that meant, and she was instantly reminded that Zen was one of the bad guys.

’His eldest son Atticus is next after him. Though...why would Atticus want Maximilian dead. He’s already in line to inherit the title of family head. He’s already graduated and is a powerful figure in his family’s personal military force. If anything it’d make more sense for Maximilian to try killing Atticus ’

"Didn’t he say he also has a sister "

’Also older than him. Lyra Hunter. Similar circumstances. She’s the family’s rising star, highest ability level ever recorded for someone her age and even better in combat prowess compared to Atticus. She’s an accomplished adventurer and seeker, clearing multiple high class dungeons. Once again, nothing to gain from Maximilian’s death. Plus, the way he said it, they’re actually quite close’

"How do you know all this stuff?"

’Families like theirs don’t exactly hide their accomplishments. In fact it’s almost like a competition to see which family’s prospective heir is the most impressive, but Maximilian isn’t even on that list to begin with’

"Then maybe for something personal?"

’Maybe’

"And you said it yourself,families like these keep lots of secrets. Maybe there’s something Max hasn’t told us or doesn’t know himself"

"..."

"What about his mom?"

’Maxine Hunter. In charge of most of the family’s businesses. She married into the family but her maiden name is hidden to avoid problems. Most of the big families do this’

"He’s named after his mom? Maybe Max’s the favorite. Youngest sons are often Mamas boys"

’That isn’t a valid reason to kill him ’

"What other secrets do you know about the main families"

’No secrets. Just things most of the public know. Almost all the families have a certain amount of interaction with the public. Social media, public expeditions, competitions and the likes. A pathetic attempt to make themselves seem more human’

"Says the alien wearing human skin"

"...True"

Theia chuckled

"What did you mean by almost all? Which families keep to themselves?"

’The dragon families ’

"You mean Zaria?"

He nodded

’Draconis and Draconyx. Two extremely similar families. So similar in fact that it’s widely believed that one branched off from the other and just changed the name’s spelling.’

"Aren’t those two the ones that developed the same ability?"

’similar but not the same. There are minute differences in both but no one really cares. There’s been tension between them both but neither really cares to explain why to the public ’

"Hmm, similar abilities...you think it might have something to do with Zaria’s sickness and power loss?"

’i considered it’

"Damn,first year in school and we’re already dealing with multiple of the largest of humanities forces"

"..."

"Why are they so secretive though?"

’No one knows,there are rumors. Nothing concrete. Appearantly they were very different, but something happened a while ago, before I was even born’

"Gnarly. And can you talk normally? We’re alone in he--"

Zen suddenly stopped looked at his hand. He suddenly pulled his glove off and his mark was glowing brightly.

A message suddenly popped up on his watch from a contact that was supposed to be blocked

<Game on>