章 13: Training

Time flew by and almost two weeks had passed before Kyle climbed down the treetop he had rested and cultivated on.

It was a great physical activity to climb up and down a huge tree, multiple times a day while balancing his weight to avoid falling down into the complex maze of tree branches.

In the last few days, Kyle was able to solve many of his doubts and had managed to complete tasks that had bothered him earlier.

First of all, he had been able to figure out more about his Spirit Soul and even more about the Nurture ability.

While the Nurture ability was unable to nurture anything about Kyle, except the Spirit Soul, the small bulge right in between the Emerald Fox's eyes was slowly forming into a black-colored horn.

The azure color had begun to slowly spread through the emerald fur too.

This was all due to Kyle nurturing the mutation path, the name he had given to the azure-colored path.

Other than that, he had experimented with the other hues around his Spirit Soul by utilizing his Nurture ability.

Amongst them was the white hue which he called 'Path of Potential' that increased the potential of his Spirit Soul.

In order to make himself understand better, he associated the colors of hues with their functions and named them accordingly.

Thus, he named the black hue, the 'maturity path', the light gray hue as the 'energy absorption', the dark gray hue as the 'energy conversion' path, and lastly a lush green hue that he named a 'Unique' path.

Fortunately, Kyle could 'turn off' the hues if he didn't want to see them while his Nurture ability was activated.

While the energy absorption and energy conversion path's function was obvious, the unique path was something Kyle had yet to fully figure out.

When he utilized the Unique path, something about the Horned Emerald fox cub seemed to change, but Kyle was unable to tell what exactly this was!

Even his Spirit Soul was not sure about this, and Kyle could only wait for the final result.

Nevertheless, his Spirit Soul had already become much stronger and more efficient in the conversion process of energy than it had been before.

The horned Emerald fox's height had increased by a small margin, but it would take a long time before it would be fully matured.

In the end, a uniform distribution of the Nurture ability's nourishments might be the most effective way in order to enhance the Spirit Soul in a balanced way.

Yet, on the downside, it would increase the time required to make a substantial change in his Spirit Soul's strength!

He had already thought about nurturing the Horned Emerald fox until it would reach its racial limit, which would, in turn, enhance his Spirit Soul's absorption and conversion rate, allowing him to cultivate faster.

During the last two weeks, Kyle had consistently absorbed the expelled soul force, and his physique had gradually reached the bare minimum standards of a Yadras!

It was far from an extraordinary achievement, but at least he was finally able to wield the boar tusk sword properly!

If he were to encounter injured beasts again, Kyle was confident of defeating, or at least inflicting more injuries on them!

Unfortunately, this was exactly what he would have to do in the next few days!

He had to devour the beast's souls because it seemed like feeding his Spirit Soul solely with his Nurture ability wouldn't provide the nourishment it required to flourish!

Apparently, the effect of his ability decreased with every usage of the maturing path, and Kyle hoped that feeding souls to the Emerald Fox would help replenish this process.

Thus, if he wanted his Spirit Soul to have consistent growth he would have to reap the souls of dead beasts almost on a daily basis.

Simply put, it was a major inconvenience for him!

Other than that, Kyle's stomach was revolting at the sight of fruits he had been eating for the last few weeks!

It had been frustrating to survive on nothing but fruits and Kyle knew that he was required to provide proper nutrition to himself too, not just the Emerald Fox.

At least, if he wanted to train his body and create a proper physical foundation, this was the bare minimum.

With that in mind, Kyle told himself that he had to hunt some beasts, though he didn't like the idea.

An ideal target would be a beast with a tough hide that had higher defense capabilities but that would make it more difficult to kill said beast!

Additionally, he required some clothes to look civilized for his upcoming task. As such, it was a great idea to hunt beasts!

While Kyle had focussed on resting and climbing trees, his mind had been far from staying idle during the last two weeks.

He had worked hard to create a strategy and find everything necessary for the next few steps in his plan!

Instead of being lazy, he had found out and secured multiple hideouts to save himself if a repeat of the Spirit Soul awakening incident were to happen again.

It was an unlikely scenario, but Kyle didn't want to test his fate. Furthermore, this also gave him a chance to explore and closely inspect his surroundings.

The Sadorla forest was just too large, and he was not sure how long it would take before he found what he was looking for!

If the intel on the map he had received to pick his reincarnation spot wasn't faulty, there were a few dozen villages scattered through the entire forest, even if he didn't know the exact location!

Though it was fortunate that he knew civilization was close by, he had yet to find a single one!!

There were a few things he wanted to acquire after visiting a village. The most important was information, a proper weapon, and an enlargement pouch, if possible.

Kyle was relatively sure that nobody within a small village that was located in a region populated by only lower races had the capabilities to create a spatial pouch, let alone a spatial ring!

He was already being too hopeful to assume that he might be able to find an enlargement pouch in an ordinary village.

If he were to be honest, a large backpack would do the job too, but it would be inconvenient for other purposes.

'There must be multiple intelligent races that inhabit the Sadorla forest and surrounding regions!

Among them, the Nasga, Lohar, and Aldra race are the most neutral to outsiders...They're weak, but at the same time, they shouldn't have too many prejudices...at least, if everything's still the same as it was in my past life!'

Kyle had sketched a rough plan before he had even considered reincarnating.

But, there were still many things he had been unable to figure out earlier, such as what kind of Spirit Soul he would awaken, how efficient his Nurture ability was, and what kind of fortunate opportunities and adverse events he would encounter!

Other than that, Kyle could only use his utmost efforts to survive and become stronger at a slow, yet steady pace.

Every single day that passed without him sustaining a serious injury or simply being alive was a successful day.

In the end, he had to carefully nurture his Spirit Soul before he would be able to cope with Shima's true dangers!

To put it simply, Kyle felt as if he was in an extremely difficult tutorial of a game, and he had yet to reach the beginner village!

Nevertheless, compared to a game where one could start afresh after getting 'killed', Kyle's one and only life was on the line, and the tutorial was already a deciding factor for his entire future!

Despite the difficulties, Kyle became excited as he thought of entering multiple villages to accomplish several tasks of his plan.

He had wanted to get to know the traditions, behavior, and habitats of other races in his past life!

This hadn't changed, and Kyle was glad to have been reincarnated because it gave him the opportunity to adventure through Shima and encounter millions of races.

However, was that really Kyle's dearest wish- adventuring through Shima?

Or was there something else he wanted even more than that?

Love?

Freedom?

Becoming an Immortal?

Reigning over an Empire built from scratch?

There were countless options Kyle could choose, but every single one required him to be strong which he could only acquire by cultivating!