章 53: The Well of Souls

"Nice," He said with a grin as we sat by the shallow river. On the other side of it, the no magic zone began. Of course, Asher made sure we weren't near it as without his magic, he was so much weaker than me.

Now, we were looking at my status panel. It was… surprising, to say the least.

'Kai Friseal – Level 69 Soul Keeper | Exp: 6660/42000 - - Souls 100/100 + 340 - - Mana: 770

I stared at my status panel, speechless. I had shot up over twenty levels in the span of about one day.

"What?" He said with a grin. "I told you, with enough effort and some good thinking, there's nothing you can't do." He opened his own status panel, though only the part that showed his level. I couldn't see his skills or anything else.

'Asher Morgan – Level 300 Sorcerer | Level 21 Priest'

I gasped. "How…?"

"After you reach level 100, you have the option to pick another class. I only did that after I reached 300."

"No, that's not what I mean!" I shouted. "How did you get to a total level of 321 in just a few weeks?" I had worked hard to level up and had only gotten to 43 in all this time. I couldn't fathom how he'd do that, unless…

"What we did yesterday and today," He said as he closed his interface. "I did that, every waking moment. Every time I had enough mana to kill anything, I grinded." He shrugged. "You levelled up to this level in less than a total of eight hours of grinding. I had weeks."

I couldn't find anything to refute his words. He was right. I had levelled up incredibly fast. I could hardly believe it.

"Why aren't you placing any of your stat points?" He asked after a moment of silence.

I shrugged. "I don't know what to do with them. I mean, I don't know what the best choice is."

He chuckled. "Well, let's take a look. You're a hybrid. Your main way of fighting is your weapons -especially the scythe, I believe. But now that you're almost level 70, you should take a look at all the new skills you've unlocked. Your fighting style might change depending on what's new."

He scrolled through the list of skills. "Most of these are fairly useless," He mumbled in disappointment. "I wonder why…"

I shrugged. A few minutes passed in silence. He seemed more displeased as more time passed. "Seriously, what's this garbage? No way the Keeper of Souls has such weak skills." He seemed annoyed, somewhat angry even.

I was about to say something, but his sudden laughter stopped me. "I knew it!" He said as he pointed at the 'Development Path' panel. "Look at this. This is how you use the souls… uh…" He paused. "That 'have found respite'?" He hesitated. "Well, that's a description that takes itself way too seriously."

"Tell me about it." I said with a sigh. Those descriptions were almost cringy. "Anyways, what were you saying?"

"Right." He said with a chuckle. "Look, whenever you get a powerful soul – the phoenix, for example – you can start a new 'development path'. Actually, wait…" He said hesitantly.

"That can't be right." I mumbled. "The first one became available when I killed the Cursed Lion."

He nodded. "Your interface is very secretive. It's getting on my nerves." A few more minutes passed in silence, until he spoke again. "I think you choose a path whenever you have enough souls, but you need to find a powerful one that's compatible with whatever path you picked."

"So, I picked wings, and the phoenix was compatible?" I asked. "That also doesn't make any sense. We killed the eagle before that."

"What eagle?" Asher seemed somewhat confused.

"What was its name? The Terror of Stonepatch Village or something." As soon as that name left my mouth, Asher nodded. "Did you deliver the killing blow?" He asked after a moment's hesitation. I shook my head; it was Alex who'd finished the creature off.

"That's probably why it's listed as a sacrifice, but not a valid merging target." He sighed. "This is weird though. Merging souls is a dangerous concept from a game design perspective." He shook his head. "I'll have to check this again later." He slowly stood up and stared off into the distance. "It's almost time. Come on."

"Time for what?" I asked as I also rose to my feet. The setting sun dyed the sky purple as he answered.

"For the Well of Souls to open." A bitter smile flashed across his face. "It's the thing that creates that no magic zone."

I flinched. "How do you know that?" Did he already know that zone was there?

"Well, that is the reason I needed your abilities in the first place." He took a deep breath as the sword of light appeared in his hand. "During the day, the ruins are protected from magic, and without magic we can not enter them. During the night, however, the souls that supress magic in the area are released. They fly around the ruins, preventing anything from getting in."

We walked towards the ruins. As soon as we stepped close enough, he raised his sword. It illuminated our surroundings. "I doubt I have to tell you after you've seen my level but," His lips formed a wicked smile. "Don't try to escape, you can't." His shining green eyes met mine. It felt almost as if he was challenging me to try.

"No, I won't." I said with a faint smile. I looked towards the ruins. A whirlwind of souls had started to cover it. My chest grew colder as I stared at the shadowy figures floating aimlessly in the air. "If these souls are protecting that place, there has to be a reason for it. There's a good chance we'll uncover valuable information. I don't want to miss that chance."

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