Soul Knight - Chapter 30 (Patreon)

Nick’s arming sword flashed, his blade cutting through an annoying gremlin. The creatures infuriatingly backed off, keeping him encircled as they shot darts from their pipes, and he advanced after the next within range.

He was now in a tower…within a god-damned tower. And this tower was just as stingy as the other one. Nick did enjoy that the fighting grounds was just a simple arena that spawned enemies in waves until it was completed, but it still managed to annoy him.

This was now his second run-through because it had already been a week since his first entry. There were now four days left, and Nick’s duel with Lothar would be at dawn tomorrow.

There was so much that Nick needed to learn, and so little time. His body bobbed and weaved as darts flew at him, Nick using the mana and essence surrounding him to sense the attack’s trajectories from all sides.

He cleaved through another gremlin, and then continued his dash toward the next, zigging and zagging as he dodged.

Unable to wear his special armor for the training attempts, Nick couldn’t allow any of the gremlin’s annoying darts to strike him. Apparently, the orcs had all mastered the ability to just shunt away the darts with their thick body essence, but Nick had difficulty replicating the same feat.

It turned out that this was a significant difference between orcs and humans–orcs had thicker skin, requiring only a little extra essence to block attacks like these.

Nick had opted to only use the arming sword, to limit his weapons and increase his challenge. One of the things he had done to prepare himself for his upcoming duel was to learn a new spell: [Frost Shock].

As he ran toward one gremlin, Nick gathered his mana, twisting it and creating the spell construct with his will. Shoving it at his enemy, he punched out as he used Frost Shock. A gremlin in the distance was struck by a wave of frost, its upper body freezing somewhat, and dropping its blow pipe.

The first attempt through the orc’s ordeal was a giant cakewalk, and Nick hardly got all that much out of it–because he did not limit himself. The reward for his first run through was useless for him, and Nick was shocked at how little essence the run had netted him.

When he found out that the Havendale Ordeal must be special, that surprised him, but helped him understand just how they had moved up in level so quickly.

He earned much more from the beasts in the Trial and fighting the enemies that spawned in front of the orc’s Ordeal. But Lothar wanted Nick to climb this Ordeal for two reasons.

The first, was to earn a skill from the Ordeal reward. The Ordeal would often provide skills tailored for the users on exit if they performed well, which Nick desperately needed.

The orcs did have spare skill gems, and Nick used what Eirwen had gathered through the floors to trade for and purchase them. However, Nick had learned that nearly all the offensive skills were completely incompatible with his soul blade.

Only those that mostly enhanced one’s self worked at all, and then, based on Eirwen’s judgment, his Class rejected the others.

The second reason for this tower dive, was for practice and training. The warrior’s Ordeal of Nagduros was primarily to train warriors to become better, well-rounded warriors in melee combat. It was a special solo-Ordeal meant for this purpose, and warriors would Test themselves against a wide variety of threats.

Lothar agreed that Nick’s Frost Aura and Soul Servants were extremely powerful, and so was his soul blade. But relying on those would lead to shortcomings, and, the Ordeal would deem his efforts unworthy–because he wasn’t being Tested.

Thus, Nick was finally back on the fourth floor of Lothar’s Ordeal, restricting himself to Test himself–to overcome the challenges with his personal skill. Lothar made him promise to stop on the eighth floor previously if it allowed him to leave, and it did. It wasn’t because Lothar didn’t think Nick could beat it.

It was because the ninth floor contained enemies prone to maiming–some kind of enemies with powerful scything blades.

Getting maimed could leave him bedridden even if he used his spent essence to have it healed on exit, and would be counterproductive for their efforts. He had been training nonstop the last week, and the reward wasn’t worth the risk for their current goal, Lothar had said.

Nick leapt over another gremlin as he sliced through it, and the several gremlins at once shot at him while he was in the air. Groaning, he triggered his other new skill: [Double Jump], gathering essence and leaping a second time in the air, soaring over the attacks. Cutting through another gremlin when he landed, he dashed for the final gremlin.

In a video game, a double jump was so much fun, and really, it seemed so cool. Having that extra mobility beyond human capability was neat, and it opened up a wide array of possibilities for movement.

But when Nick began practicing the ability, all the orcs laughed at him. It was widely known as the dumbest skill, and even if Nick completely disagreed, he couldn’t help but think less of the ability thanks to their response.

Of course, on an orc warrior, the ability was stupid. They often wore heavy armor, and jumping straight up even once during a fight was foolish. For them, double jumping was double stupid.

And using the ability to do more than just jump straight up was extremely difficult. He could now manage it with a more forward jump now, at least like he just did, but it was still not a very useful ability. He’d love to be able to flip in the air twice, or use it to switch into a dash instead.

Nick was getting better with it, but it clearly had limitations. Any attempt to leap at an angle or dash instead of jump straight up, and Nick’s feet would slide off the essence platform and instead of jumping, he would just slip and fall pathetically.

All while the orcs laughed at him. Andross had said, “I thought the skill was called double jump. Why is it that you double fall?”

Andross meant it in good fun, but not all the orcs did. He was about to challenge some of them to duels for their disrespect when someone else did: Kaya.

What really surprised Nick was how Kaya went out of her way to duel those that laughed at him, that refused to apologize. After she beat the third one on his behalf as his honor guard, the orcs had all shut their mouths.

They stopped laughing, even as he fell repeatedly, and, it was likely pretty funny to those watching.

Of course, she teased him too–in private. But the orcs making fun of him was a stain on his honor, and she wouldn’t stand for it.

Nick knew that when he mastered the ability, it would actually be amazing. His race’s strange ability to jump powerfully was highly compatible with the ability, and likely why he could even learn it in the first place.

He was confused as to why he couldn’t learn [Leap] like Kaya, a skill that helped her use essence to leap an enhanced distance. It seemed excellent for dodging or attacks, and for now, Nick was quite envious of the ability.

Slaying the final gremlin, the encounter stirred.

[4th Wave Complete. Continue, or Accept Rewards and Exit?]

He selected to continue, and the fifth stage enemy spawned. One of the differences with this Ordeal was that it didn’t have a boss on the fifth floor, and it was a straight run from start to finish with no rest.

Nick was interested to see what kind of customization options he might have when the Havendale Ordeal became his.

It was a larger hobgoblin warrior, and it was reminiscent of Jerome. Nick wrapped his essence chains around his arms, his muscles bulking.

Triggering his new skill, [Power Strike], essence and mana infused nearly all the muscles in his body. His sword was drawn up above him as he raised his arms above his head, preparing for a diagonal overhead blow.

His hips twisted as his legs, back and shoulders provided power in concert, his legs shifting momentum as the transfer of energy to his blade flowed with near-perfection, and he lashed out at his target.

The hobgoblin guarded with its weapon, but his sword blew away the hobgoblin’s double-bladed axe with the immense power behind his blow. The monster’s arms and weapon were knocked back, allowing him to elbow the creature in its face, snapping its head back.

Nick’s next attack flowed easily as he quickly bested the hobgoblin’s attempt at a recovering its stance and guard, cleaving the head off its shoulders.

Receiving the prompt for the sixth wave, he chose to continue once more. This time, the awarded essence was enough for him to bother cultivating it.

When he reached the seventh level for his Soul Knight Class, he ran into a snag.

He received some kind of trait or ability, but it was locked. Lothar and Eirwen had different theories on why this could be.

Lothar felt like he lacked some fundamentals in his ability to use essence and soul magic. An epic class surely had high requirements, and his soul magic and his body essence control was starting to fall behind what a talented, highly trained specialist that was a soul knight would have.

Eirwen thought his monstrosity attribute was lacking, thanks to his desires in not wanting to increase it. Thus, he was working on both, and more.

Agatha had done an affinity check using an artifact on Nick, Kaya, and Eirwen, and learned that Nick had a talent for elemental magic–when it came to ice.

Of course, his talent in soul magic was immense. However, his capability was strangely incompatible with the offensive shamanic magics, let alone any of the enhancing ones. The skill stones just wouldn’t crumble and give him the skill, something within him fundamentally missing or different.

Eirwen was happy to learn she could learn shamanic magic related to the soul. She could not learn the elemental or body enhancement magic schools at all, but she had rapidly taken to the healing magic like a fish to water, her studious nature shining through.

She was still working up to casting, wanting to learn the spells the more challenging way–without a skill crystal. Eirwen already learned a minor healing cantrip, allowing her to trade her mana and a little bit of essence for more rapidly closing physical wounds.

Supposedly, this method resulted in a more powerful understanding, allowing or enabling them to tune the spells a lot more for different capabilities. Someone could shift the skill gem learned spell over time, but it was usually much harder, lacking the fundamental understanding of the ability–just like Nick was having difficulty with his Double Jump.

And Kaya could not learn magic at all. In truth, it was like her feral energy was a body enhancement magic all on its own, and it interfered with her ability to cast other spells, they were told. Most, if not all of the male orcs were unable to learn spells either.

The sixth level was a dozen armed goblins that Nick fought through with ease. He danced through the targets, slaying them, focusing on stirring his body essence and mana within his body at the same time.

The essence chains were a good first step, but they were not the whole picture. There was something he was still fundamentally missing that Lothar had done his best to instill within him.

Lothar had found Nick’s dilemma strange. Most warriors could reach expert with their essence control with a simple image, given enough of the Body base attribute and enough time. But for Nick, it was like the chain image combined with his conviction was the minimum requirement to get movement out of the energy at all.

But perhaps that was all Nick needed. Time. He had to build up on the fundamentals, by using the essence over and over, until he got better at it, using it like it was another limb. He learned that he had run before he could walk with his soul blade, and now he needed to take a step back.

In the past week, he had definitely moved far in his usage, being much more economical about it. He had also improved his ability to sense mana and essence, and even use his mana to sense the surrounding area.

Slaying the last goblin, the seventh stage began not long after. This stage was even easier for Nick than the goblins, a bunch of fast moving venomous snakes, along with a few larger pythons.

However, Nick was faster. He circled them as they approached him, the snakes twisting and flowing over one another as they zigzagged across the arena floor at him. Lashing out to cleave a head off the snake as they neared periodically, he kept moving around the dumb Ordeal creatures.

Nick could see how an orc warrior without armor would have to practice a lot to improve their footwork to where they could evade these creatures while slaying them, but Nick found it all too easy.

Stirring his essence, he sped up even further. He maintained his usage, making sure to restrict just how much essence he was using. Doing his best to instill his resolve, his conviction in helping the orc children, the essence flowed even better.

He knew if he didn’t make a breakthrough by tomorrow morning, he just might be unable to defeat Lothar.

Because Nick already had a practice match against Lothar a couple of days ago, and it wasn’t looking good. Facing each other with restrictions to not use skills, Lothar handily beat Nick with ease when he didn’t use his soul blade.

With his soul blade, the speed of Nick’s strikes and his movement really shined through. But what happened in their spars was Nick would run out of body essence before he could claim the victory, unable to force Lothar to surrender.

The biggest problem was that Lothar’s pool of essence was so much larger that he could protect his skin and block Nick’s blows, even against his sharp soul blade. There was a qualitative difference in their essence because Lothar was within the second stratum.

The duel was going to be to an honorable surrender, but death was not impossible. In the heat of battle with weapons, it was easy to accidentally cause a death blow–especially when one of the participants wielded a giant axe, and had the strength to cut down a tree in a single blow.

Lothar said this was the main reason why they picked tomorrow as the final day for their duel. If one of them maimed the other–such as causing a loss of limb, there would be enough time to heal before they ran out of time.

Their shamans would be capable of attaching the limb and healing it within that amount of time, preparing them for their tribulation or for their assault on Zura. Because the other reason was, that this was the day that no more creatures would spawn from the Ordeal–and this meant that the other Ordeal would likely be the same. If the humans were to act, that would be the time.

Nick finished the last snake, his breathing not even heavy. The first time through, he had already expended much of his body essence, being a lot more wasteful with his usage. Lothar had sent him quickly into the Ordeal, to get a benchmark for Nick’s capabilities.

He had gotten much better over the past week at managing his essence usage, wasting much less and gaining more.

Lifting his sword in front of his eyes, Nick frowned.

The reason he was using it was in an attempt to reach Expert in his Body Essence Enhancement. He had already reached expert in Archaen swordsmanship, but not with using a plain sword.

He needed to learn how to mold mana and body essence, and something fundamental was missing that enabled him to accomplish it. Nick needed to somehow merge body essence with mana, creating a proper blend that enhanced himself, and his weapon.

His soul blade really was a cheat. It was as if it did it for him within the blade, as long as he moved his body and soul essence into the crystal and used the essence and mana stored within the blade, forming the blade of white light.

Nick saw the value in mastering it the proper way. If he did that, he could use the white blade of light at any time, even without charging it from the essence of creatures he fought. Probably.

This would help him in his duel against Lothar–because then, he could actually cut into the orc’s reinforced skin and muscle, and weaken him. It would no longer be a battle of endurance. Nick had landed what should have been sure cuts on Lothar, but the orc’s essence had just overwhelmed his blade.

While charging the soul blade before the fight would be an easy solution to that, it was not something that would be accepted for an honorable duel. It would be akin to showing up to the duel with a bunch of buffs from someone else, or a magic item that could just blast Lothar to death.

Nick would have to bring only his own power to the fight, for the orcs to consider it an honorable duel.

The eighth wave spawned, and this would be his final wave. It was a strange bug warrior, a humanoid beetle person.

Its carapace was green and black, the humanoid just a little larger than Nick. Its face had compound insect eyes and gross mandibles for a mouth, with horns like a stag beetle on top of its head.

Nick knew that its skin was hard, and with it using essence, was very difficult to penetrate–much like the orc’s skin. Even targeting the joints, many warriors would have difficulty in cutting through. Many would ultimately end up bludgeoning it to death, Nick imagined.

Of course, Nick’s soul blade originally had made quick work of the creature–especially after having charged significantly from previous waves.

But not this time. Nick had an arming sword, almost a meter long from pommel to blade tip. The beetle man had a crude club that was big enough to be used with two hands. Its odd mandibles clicked as it shuffled its strange insectoid feet, moving toward Nick.

Taking a deep breath, Nick closed his eyes, trying to feel his cores, and differentiate the mana and essence within his body. He once again moved the mana around, forming the construct for Frost Shock.

Punching out, it was really like an icy punch struck the beetle’s chest. This spell was some combination of mana and soul essence, as if altering the overall blend of energies to create the elemental outcome.

Trying to internalize what was happening further, he cast the spell again. The beetle warrior continued its march, not even slowing down as it was struck the second time.

The truth was, Nick saw almost zero value in the spell he learned. He had grabbed it to help practice using mana, and little else. There were very few situations where the frost shock spell would do more work than a throwing knife, and he couldn’t even cast it all that many times. He had less overall mana from other casters for a simple reason.

His reserved soul power reduced his maximum mana, and his ability to regenerate it. Because of his blade and his servants, there was little much use for anything else.

When Nick was forming his essence chains within his body, he wasn’t really combining body and soul essence. He was simply covering his body with two sets of chains, and in truth, he was sometimes wasting his soul essence.

Soul essence did not influence the body overly much, only when considering mental attacks or perhaps some kind of soul attack, it might help in the defense. He just didn’t have many other ways to expend it.

Nick began his duel with the beetle warrior, the monster swinging its club at him. Dodging, Nick focused on trying to create a proper blending of body essence and mana near his core. He parried the monster’s club and kicked the insectoid’s leg, as he controlled his breathing and practiced on the image.

Once again, he had difficulty blending the energies, or moving them after they were blended. Adding his conviction and resolve helped somewhat, to making them move as before, like when he sent it all to his soul blade crystal, but the energies refused to blend or become better.

Whether it was forming essence chains, or whirlpools, or drumbeats like Kaya, and even the galaxy image Eirwen shared, nothing seemed to help. Lothar had simply said that orcs sort of compressed the energies and shoved them through their body and blades. That it just happened once their Body attribute was high enough, and they just got good enough at it.

Nick couldn’t help but feel that something else was missing, though.

He tried capturing a small amount of mana in his chains and attempting the compression, but the mana just refused to merge. Lothar had said that many orcs, including himself, didn’t typically master it until the second stratum because they don’t have enough Body rating to make it happen.

Their control over the essence increased as their rating rose, in addition to having more, and for it to be of higher quality. But Nick’s Body Rating was already well above ten, which is where most orcs would be.

Nick continued facing the beetle creature, slowly bludgeoning it to death, just like its stupid club. His frustration grew with each blow, the monster’s flesh bruising underneath its carapace with every blow. Nick was slowly beating the monster to death, his sword practically nothing more than a blunt instrument.

The monster’s movements began to slow, as Nick brutalized his foe. After a time of taking out his frustrations, he sighed and took a step back, still trying to merge the essence with the mana.

He had really wanted to master this today. Over the past week, him and Kaya had been spending even more time together. She had truly started to blossom into a fierce warrior, and a wonderful person to have at his side.

It wasn’t just the dueling of orcs in protecting his honor, but she had also taken to helping his wolflings become stronger when it came to their fighting. Her feral nature when fighting seemed to resonate with them, and he loved seeing her smiling and coming into herself as she trained them.

She had continued to tease him a bit about things, but there was a flirty playfulness that stirred his desire for her. He had been flirting with her back, and he could see she was opening up to him.

There was no longer a shadow of fear and guilt underpinning her feelings, and had become much more open in her having fun. Her getting so much closer to her goal and seeing Eirwen happy had finally seemed to break down her walls.

Before Nick had entered the Ordeal today, Kaya had stopped him in front of the portal while giving him a determined look, filled with a blush on her face. She told him, “If–If you reach expert today, I’ll finally go on that date you keep asking me for.”

Nick had smirked before replying, “Oh? And just what will happen if I don’t make it?”

“Hmph. If you don’t make it…” She had looked distressed–it appeared she hadn’t thought of that. “If you don’t make it, you’ll just have to wait until we get out of this Trial! Which might be never at all if you can’t, huh? Oh, I know. I’ll call you Prince Wollywompus, from now on!”

He couldn’t help but feel her distressed and flustered expression was cute. If he reached expert today, she would go on a dream date with him tonight–and not one where they attacked each other with weapons. Well, he hoped, anyway.

Desire within him increased, a possessive instinct for Kaya to be his coming from deep within him. His body core stirred, and the body essence shifted. Something changed, and the mana was compressed within his essence chains, the energy altering.

Nick stumbled in surprise, and the beetle man’s club swung for his chest. Instinctually, he shoved that resulting energy as he clinched his muscles in preparation for the oncoming blow.

The club struck Nick’s chest with a dull thud, his body being pushed back slightly by the power of the strong insectoid’s blow.

But Nick didn’t take more than a minor bruise, and suddenly, it was like he understood: the duality of the Archaen.

Nick reached deep down inside him, from the same location that stirred when he roared out his challenge against the alpha wolfling. Shouting out his battle cry, he stirred his body essence with a larger sum of mana, compressing it.

A new ball of the energy formed, and he created new chains from them and wrapped them around his body once more.

He rose his sword to the sky, sending the resulting energy into his blade as well. Having woven the energy together, it entered his sword and extended the blade, sharpening it.

The beetle moved to block with its club, sensing the dangerous attack coming. Nick swung his sword down, cleaving right through the beetle’s club and into its shoulder, and then kicked the larger humanoid away with his improved strength. Green blood spurted from its shoulder, the monster’s arm unable to move quite right.

The insectoid then roared in response and discarded what remained of its club, charging at Nick once more.

Nick continued compressing more mana using his new ball of essence, trying to maintain a steady stream. Focusing on the primal urge to possess, overpower, dominate, and overcome, Nick triggered Power Strike once more.

The essence filling his body and blade was entirely different from before. The mana which changed reality enhanced his body and sharpened his blade far beyond what his previous chains did, multiplying his power.

Roaring, Nick repeated his downward swing from above, as if chopping wood. The beetle punched out, but Nick’s blade cleaved the creature in half vertically with his swing. The monster disappeared into essence and filled Nick, as he stumbled to his knees on the ground.

Nick couldn’t help but look at his pale hands. The Archaens were part monsters, having a burgeoning desire to possess and dominate. Everything about them seemed to scream that they were a powerful race, one capable of slaying and overpowering any that stood in their way.

If they were evil, they would be a scourge that needed to be destroyed.

But the Archaen Race tempered this desire with righteousness and conviction, to become more than just killing machines. They bound themselves to others and their laws to become paragons of good, and to become the ultimate hunters of evil.

[Exit Accepted. Reward - Skill: Harden Skin]

The skill earned flooded Nick’s mind, him now earning his first true defensive skill. It would allow him to harden his skin, very much like the orcs were capable of, using his mana and body essence.

Looking at his character sheet, Nick noticed that the skill he had previously been unable to use had been unlocked, and it was a passive skill.

[Passive Skill: Monstrous Blow]
[Your attacks are now occasionally enhanced by the essence in the surrounding area.]

It was to his surprise that he had actually unlocked a new passive trait, one that had gone along with his race. He had wondered why Eirwen had ultimately ended up with more traits than him when she became a Beastfolk Archaen.

It turned out he had a hidden, or not yet unlocked, trait due to his lacking of monstrosity.

[Trait: Monstrous Body]
[Archaens have increased strength, reflexes and flexibility, their base attributes worth over thirty percent more than other races without similar advantages.]

This explained why Nick had such an easy time twisting and shifting his body, features he had noticed about his body from the very beginning. His ability to contort and twist his body while still providing ample power to his attacks at odd angles made him a fierce combatant.

Overall, Nick found all of this strange. Just how could he have learned, or be drawn to, fighting in the precise way that that was perfect for his current body in his past life? Why was it that it felt like he already knew soul magic, and it was just like he was remembering it?

He hoped that when he completed restoring his heritage, he could get some answers. For now, he was happy to be reborn as such a powerful race and class, one capable of accomplishing profound good, walking strongly on the Hero’s Path–and drawing in wonderful girls like Kaya and Eirwen.

As he waited to exit, Nick couldn’t help but wonder, an unease entering his heart.

Was there a version of his race or people that made a different, more sinister choice?