[1000 Arcanium have been transferred as per agreement.]
[The host completed the first-ever deal with the Arcane System. 10 Arcanium have been rewarded for this grandiose Achievement!]
[Balance: 1031 Arcanium]
Liam ignored the frustration he felt toward the Arcane System for acting like the worst loan sharks in existence as he pushed the notifications aside.
He looked at the holographic screen of the Arcane Shop and purchased the Soul Awakening by spending 1000 Arcanium.
[1000 Arcanium will be deducted to artificially awaken the Host's Soul. Please select how long the Soul Awakening should take!]
[Remark: The longer the artificial awakening of the Soul takes, the less pain the Host will feel. This is directly related to the coa–...]
The Arcane System was just about to launch into an elaborate explanation of why the artificial awakening of the Soul would be less painful the longer the process takes when Liam's voice thundered through the heavy downpour.
"Shut up, and finish my Soul Awakening right at this instance!"
While his voice reverberated through the surroundings, the Arcane System initiated Liam's Soul awakening.
It felt like time slowed down all of a sudden as the raindrops in front of him froze midair. They were slowly being pulled to the ground through the gravitational force, yet it looked like it would require several hours for a drop of water to splash on the wet stone cliff.
'Has my perception heightened to the extreme?' He could only think before searing pain spread out from his chest.
The phenomenon of a Soul Awakening was something miraculous…something that was supposed to make you feel good and oddly addictive. It was not supposed to be something that hurt but an event that allowed the awakened to get a rough understanding of the tremendous power the Soul harbors.
Under normal circumstances, the Soul Awakening would last between one to three days, in which the Soul would not only awaken but the changes caused by the awakened Soul would be fully integrated into the body.
However, Liam had sped up the process so it was only obvious that it would hurt. Liam didn't have any time to sit and wait, which is why he did the only thing he could think of standing a chance against the hordes of Shedims without running away like a frightened chick!
That was why he had to steel his mind and endure everything that was about to happen. It would only hurt for a short moment, either way. That moment may feel like an eternity but that was fine!
However, nothing his imagination could have prepared him for helped when the moment dawned upon him. It felt like his insides were exploding when his Soul was forcefully awoken from its slumber.
The shackles put on his Soul began to crack and they were slowly removed with every single explosion that rattled through his entire body. The core of his Soul was awakening and the outer layers were slowly freed from the restrictions that had been put on them. The explosions released a tremendous amount of energy that filled Liam's entire body. It was enough energy to shine through his pale white skin, making him look like his insides were on fire that burned despite the rain drenching him.
His entire body began to glow for a brief moment and he had the sinister feeling that something was crawling out of him, from the deepest parts of his consciousness.
It was as if he was dipping into a different world, a mysterious place where he had never been before. The awakening was completely different from the last time his Soul had awoken. The pain he had to endure was almost unbearable but he only focused on the end goal. Liam was not a fan of pain, but he could tell that the pain was worth the results he would obtain.
He knew that he had done the right thing and that he would be rewarded as long as he continued to endure the pain!
The sensation of something crawling out of his consciousness was eerie and it grew worse when he realized that the 'thing' was crawling up his spine, through his skull before it found its destination…his eyeballs.
A blinding light spread out from the center of his sight and it didn't take long until Liam saw only white. Unable to see due to his clouded vision, he could only focus on the searing pain that accumulated in his eyes.
The rest of his body was holding up much better than moments before. It was not as if he didn't feel any pain in his legs, arms, and everywhere else anymore, but nothing was comparable to the pain that reached his eyes. It was as if somebody was gouging his eyes with pincers.
The cells in his eyes were destroyed, altered, and repaired. These alterations were repeated hundreds of times in an instant causing tremendous pain that spread through his eyes that were slowly changing.
It looked like the purple color of his iris was intensifying and expanding. Faint, cobweb-like purple strands expanded all over his iris. The white of his eye was pushed back and overshadowed by the intense purple that stopped expanding when the pain in Liam's eyes began to recede.
Liam regained his eyesight slowly as the dazzling light was dispelled. The pain that spread through his entire body was still apparent but Liam could clearly see again.
He felt as if time was slowly unfreezing and the raindrops were falling much faster than before. His perception would return to the norm in some time.
And, as if the Arcane System wanted to give him a clear indicator, a notification popped up in front of him as his perception returned to the norm.
[Soul was awakened successfully! Soultrait『Devil's Eyes』has been attained!]
Liam squinted his eyes when he saw the name of the Soultrait he had awoken and he couldn't help but feel that something had gone wrong.
'That's my Soultrait? Sounds like bullshit…I'm already half-devil, you smartass…' Liam cursed the system before he noticed something that changed his point of view of the situation.
The raindrops all around him started to fall at a much slower speed than before his Soul Awakening!
'..well, whatever…I just take what I get!' He thought, closing his eyes while triggering the effect of his Soultrait.
Liam opened his eyes while his Soultrait's active effect was activated, and the corners of his lips curled upward unknowingly.
"Why are you fuckers so slow?"
"Why are you fuckers so slow?" Liam asked in a calm voice as he took a small step forward.
With the grace of a hunter, he thrust the steel pierce forward while narrowly avoiding the fireballs and blades that would have hit him otherwise.
With the least possible movement, Liam avoided all incoming attacks while piercing the head of the closest Sheim.
His eyes were glowing brightly, with much more intensity than before as Arcane Power was slowly consumed to maintain the active effect of the Devil's Eyes.
Liam's iris was still purple, but everything else had changed about his eyes. His irises were speckled with bright white dots that resembled stars, while the pupils, and the dark center of his eyes, looked like swirling vortexes of darkness, almost as if his eyes sealed away the abyss. The white of his eyes was shrouded with a hazy shade of purple and black, like the diffuse glow of a galaxy.
It was almost as if his eyes were the skies itself, housing several celestial objects, the vessels of galaxies…
And those celestial objects allowed him to see much better and devour the most important pieces of information to deduce the trajectory and movement sequences of the projectiles and beings within his range of view.
Liam felt as if his eyes took in all information before they filtered out the unnecessary data while only the most important and relevant details were sent to his brain.
This exceptional feature and the fact that his brain seemed to have finally recognized the limitations of Liam's current strength were more than what he needed to eliminate the foes that had amassed in front of him.
Thus, it was no surprise that the Shedim in front of him died in the blink of an eye.
[Ordinary Shedim has been slayed]
[+0.25 Arcanium]
Liam noted that he received only a quarter of the Arcanium he had obtained compared to earlier when defeating Ordinary Shedim before he obtained his Soultrait, but that was something he had already expected.
Arcanium could be used to buy almost anything. It could be procured by killing other beings just like Liam had already done before, by completing missions, or by selling goods to other people.
However, it was not easy to gather wealth by killing itself. The Arcane System's equation was pretty simple. The rank of the opponent multiplied by their actual combat prowess would be divided by Liam's rank which was also multiplied by his actual combat prowess.
By attaining his Soultrait, Liam's combat prowess increased drastically even if his stats were still far below the stats of the Shedim, resulting in the 0.25 Arcanium he obtained in the end.
He could use his remaining 31.25 Arcanium to increase his stats to stand on equal footing with the Shedim but Liam didn't even think of doing that.
Increasing his stats would decrease the amount of Arcanium he received from every Shedim he killed even further…and he no longer needed higher stats!
Liam moved to the side and evaded a handful of attacks before in a quick move he pierced the heart of the next Shedim. At the same time, he freed the Shedim's steel longsword from its grasp by twisting its claws before he spun around his own axis.
[+0.25 Arcanium]
The steel spear was smoothly retracted in his spin, and Liam had gotten his hand on a new weapon, a well-balanced longsword that seemed to be smiling at him.
It could be used for hacking and cutting which was not something he could do with the steel spear he held. The spear's blade was not made to crudely slash through his opponents but just stab and gut them.
The longsword's blade was sharpened to a fine edge, and it was perfectly balanced for his purpose, which turned it into a versatile and effective murder weapon!
Liam didn't spend precious time marveling at the craftsmanship of the longsword. Instead, he spun the steel spear in his left hand before he threw it in the most crowded place with terrific precision that caused goosebumps to appear all over his body when three notifications popped up in the corner of his eyes.
[+0.25 Arcanium]
[+0.25 Arcanium]
[+0.25 Arcanium]
The corners of Liam's mouth curled upward upon seeing the notification that showed the result of his spear throw. It had killed three Shedim at the same time, piercing through the most rotten areas of their hearts.
'Am I a walking cheat code now?' He wondered for a moment as he diverted the trajectory of a spear thrust just to take a step forward and behead the Shedim that had attacked him.
Afterward, he turned into a whirlwind, evading all incoming attacks with graceful but accurate movements that didn't drain his stamina as fast as before. He countered the attacks every now and then, killing more than ten Shedim in the following two minutes.
His Arcane Power should have been drained by now, but he had still more than half left to use. Others might be surprised by this but not Liam. It was not his 'fortune' that he had still a few more minutes left to use his Arcane Power before it would be fully drained.
Rather than luck, the reason why he had so much Arcane Power left and why it was drained so slowly was thanks to the energy that had entered his body to awaken his Soul artificially.
Its remnants were still in his body and it allowed him to maintain the Devil's Eyes trait's active effect.
Liam was a little bit confused why he awoke the Soultrait that was different from the Soultrait he had before. It was not as if his Soul had been exchanged all of a sudden!
The Name also suggested that the Soultrait was only related to his mother's side of the bloodline. He should have awoken a Soultrait of the mixed blood he was, or two different Soultraits… not only one that was related to his mother…logically speaking.
But no matter how much Liam wanted to think about it, the change in his primary Soultrait didn't affect the fact that it was most important to be able to make use of his Soultrait in the fight against the Shedim. It was fine to possess a different Soultrait even though he didn't expect the outcome when he betted his life on the Soul Awakening.
His eyes could see much more than ever before, after all!
With that conviction in mind, Liam continued to fight. He exploited his Soultrait to its limits.
The Halfling faced the small army of Shedim all by himself. He fought with all his might and turned it into a One-man-army!
You may also Like
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT