《Soul Master》 Chapter 1-Fallen Ardia ¡°My name is Mu, the General of Rea Defense. I am sending a message to every.. out there that survived.. attack. We w.. the Rea Defense headquarter at midnight to evacuate. Please ¡­¡± The radio got cut off It¡¯s 9:03PM and I am hiding under a collapsed supermarket. I must get to the headquarter by midnight in order to survive. 2 of the Patroller Reas are consuming human souls in front of me. Patroller Rea looks similar to a humanoid robot. However, It only has one red eye and sharp teeth which are used to attack and consume human. With my soul sword, I sliced their body in half not giving them time to react. My soul sword ate the 2 Reas and I quickly move away from the area. Reas are categorise into 4 rankings. Patroller has the lowest ranking with a soul power of around 10-50. Patrollers are very commonly seen and pose a low threat to qualified Rea Defenders but it can easily eliminate a small group of normal humans. Zeekers are less common. Zeeker can be distinguish from a Patroller by its larger size and a wing. If I remember correctly from my Reas Structure class, it has a soul power of around 200-500. The rest are called Zephon and Asasta. Very limited data are known on them, only sketches of them can be seen because of their high soul power that can manipulate light. Only Rea Defenders with a high level of eye adjustment techniques can see them. I reach the main road after running for a kilometer, slaying a couple more of Patrollers. On the middle of the street, I see a girl being surrounded by 5 Patrollers. ¡°Hey, duck under right now!¡± I shouted The girl follow my order as I sprint into the scene in a matter of seconds, activates my soul sword and slashes through 3 of the Patrollers along with a quarter of the girl¡¯s pink hair. The other 2 Patrollers manage to use their arm to block against my attack and shoots orange balls of soul energy from their mouth at me and at the girl. I try to use my soul sword again but my soul power is depleted so I jump in to block the attack. ¡°No!¡± the girl screamed The energy balls struck at my leg and body like an electric shock, immobilising me, I think that I''m done for as my eyes closes by itself. Suddenly, I heard a loud bang followed by the sound of bodies falling to the ground. ¡°Are you guys ok?¡± A middle aged men asked ¡°I depleted my soul power¡± I lightly replied "I am also running low so I cannot share. I think that 5 of these Patrollers will give you enough power to get to the headquarter. My team will guard you while you consume them.¡± The man said apologetically, commanding his team of 3 to move us and the 5 bodies into a building nearby I let my soul sword consume the Patrollers as I lie down, exhausted from previous fights. Although consuming Patroller will give me soul power, it does not provide as much as the amount that I spent on the fight. A speed boost consumes a very large amount of soul power, at my level I can only perform 3 speed boosts. The main point of consuming soul is to increase soul number not power. When consuming Reas that was damage or fought by someone else,the soul quality will significantly decrease. ¡°Thank you for saving me¡± The girl approaches me and lightly smiled as her sweet vanilla scent falls onto me ¡°No problem, it.tt..it is my job to safe people from Rea¡± I replied nervously ¡°You don¡¯t look like a qualified Rea Defender to me¡± The girl said cheekily ¡°I am Alice, a first year undergrads at the Rea Defender Academy of Ardia. What is your name?¡± Alice asked ¡°I am Ray, I am also a first year there! How come I have never seen you before?¡± I replied surprisingly as I recalled not having seen a girl this beautiful at the campus before. ¡°We¡¯ll talk later, we need to get going¡± Alice repliedStolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. As we are leaving the building, we spotted a group of Rea marching towards us. It consists of 50 Patrollers and 2 Zeekers. The Zeekers must have detected us. The man told us to escape using the fire exit while they fend off the Reas. We came out of the building unharmed followed by screams and shouts. ¡°I hope that they are fine¡± Alice said The time is 10:54PM and we are 50 kilometers away from the headquarter. If we run at a normal Soul User speed, we should get there by 11:50PM We can hear fights occurring everywhere in the city. Smokes are filling the up sky, blocking up the sun. The day turned into night and coldness spreads. Cars completely stopped due to the ReasEMP gun. ¡°The city is lost to them¡± I thought in my head Finally, we reached the headquarter. The Rea Defenders are managingthe people that are trying to rush into the planes. There are countless injuries which are to be treated by the Soul Healer. The situation looks chaos. While we are queueing to get into the ship, a large explosion occurs behind us. A group of around 10 Zeekers fly towards the plane and shoot energy balls at the ship. General Mu quickly knocks the attack off with his extended soul sword, returning them back to the Zeekers. The Zeekers avoid the energy ball but were annihilated by the wind power of the slash. The wind blows his long brown hair up, revealing a scar he had on his head. The determination in his eyes and strength give everybody hope. "He is soo strongg!¡± cheered Alice ¡°One day I will be just like him¡± I smiled The time is 12:00AM and the planes immediately took off. I gazed down on the flaming City of Ardia. I remembered the moment that I first stepped into this city and my time at the academy here. This beautiful and peaceful city is far from my hometown but I will never forget any moments that I spent in this place. All of the people and areas that I have been to, they went up in flames in front of my eyes. I can only hope that my friends and teachers also made it on the plane. ¡°Only if I was stronger, I could have protected all of those people¡± I involuntarily clenched my fist ¡°Ray, you tried your best..¡± Alice said trying to cheer me up After a 7 hours flight, the plane landed at a city called Veleria. Veleria is one of the largest city in the continent. It is very safe from Rea attacks and it also has one of the four largest Rea Defense headquarters. ¡°I will be contacting my family and the headquarter. Where are you going?¡± I asked Alice ¡°I have a friend here so I might go and visit her to ask for shelter. We will hopefully meet again in the academy here Ray¡± Alice quickly ran off She didn¡¯t give me a chance to say good bye. I didn¡¯t even get her number.. I opened my phone and saw messages from my friends and calls from my parents. I immediately called them. ¡°Ray!, You need to get out of Ardia right now¡± Dad shouted ¡°Is Ray safe?!?¡± Mum shouted from the background ¡°Yes dad and mum, I¡¯m safe. I¡¯m at Veleria now.¡± I answered We talked for around 30 minutes while I walked to the headquarter. My friends, Ike and Sam replied to my message and are also heading to the headquarter. However John is not answering any messages or calls. At the headquarter, Ike,Sam and I went to report on our situation and ask for a transfer to the academy here. ¡°The Rea Denfense Academy here are fill with many talented individuals. Entry requirements will be harder than other districts. You will need to pass an extra entry exam in order to enroll here. Once enrolled, you will be able to stay in the student accommodation. The exam will be in a week¡± said the administrator ¡°Fair enough¡± said Ike ¡°That is because you are the strongest in our class Ike¡± replied Sam All of us decided to split up in order to efficiently train and we will meet again next week. Depending on the soul weapon and soul nature, the training methods will be different. Unless it is soul synchronising or team formation training, training alone is ideal. I estimated that my soul number should be around 400 after the fights in Ardia. With max power, I should be able to defeat up to 8 top level Patrollers or 1 top level Zeeker in a face to face combat. At my current soul level, consuming a Patrollerwill increase mysoul number by an average of around 10% of it''s soul number and 5% for Zeeker''ssoul number. The higher the soul user¡¯s level, the lowerthe percentage will be. Each 100th souls you consume will result in a major increase in fighting ability and power but it will cost me over a year to reach 500 so I should focus on soul strengthening rather than that. I asked for permission to use the training room in the headquarter which is filled with soul force. To strengthen the soul, one must circulate the soul force and release it out from the body. This will stretch the soul force capacity inside the body and strengthen them physically. Training in an atmosphere with high soul force will make it harder to release the force which in turn drives higher amount of soul force out of the body each time. It will also produce higher toll on the body. I continuously circulated the soul force around and out of my body. I trained for 6 days straight and it felt easier and easier to push and absorb soul force until I don¡¯t feel any soul force around me at all. I took a break on the last day to be fully ready for the exam tomorrow. Chapter 2-Examination! It¡¯s the exam day today. Many talented young individuals are gathered here in front of the headquarter for the examination. A blonde hair girl floats up above the crowd to make an announcement. ¡°Good morning soul users! My name is Lily and I am your exam administrator for your first exam today. We only have 50 vacancies available so the 500 of you will need to compete against each other in order to enter our Defense Academy of Veleria. The first test is very simple. Around us, you will see multiple stone pillars. If you touch the pillar and it lights up, you pass. If it does not, then you fail. Remember that you only have one chance. Good Luck¡± Lily descended down into the crowd Everyone stood still. Of course, the test won¡¯t be as simple as that. Suddenly, a guy heads towards the pillar. His red, spiky hair and a tall, firm body makes him very noticeable. Following him were 2 people wearing a black cape. ¡°Any soul users should have noticed this. The exam administrator already made a move when we were listening to her speech. I saw that she broke some stone shards and spread it around this area¡± The red hair guy along with his followers tap the pillars with stone shard in their hands. The pillars light up and they got teleported away A commotion broke out as soon as they disappear. People start fighting for the shards and try to run to the pillar. Lights start flashing as people manage to make it to the pillars. ¡°Ike and Sam, we should go¡± I whispered I know that my friends aren¡¯t dumb enough to believe in those tricks. I detected Lily¡¯s enormous soul power since the moment that she suddenly appeared in the crowd before the exam briefing. I kept an eye on her and did not see any abnormal movements at all. We touched the stone pillar and got teleported to a new area. After 10 minutes of waiting, Lily reappeared. ¡°Well done the 200 of you! All of you should have known by now that the red hair guy is one of our instructor. The stone shards did not matter and were used to waste your time. If you didn¡¯t know this, then you must have been super strong. Our first test was the test of intelligence, braverly and strength. I am sure that all of you at least has one of these or a good friend ¡°Lily laughed ¡°I didn¡¯t know what you were gonna do but I trusted you¡± Ike smiled ¡°Ray, you saved us!¡± Sam cheered I think I should take back my word... I silently thought in my head ¡°Now onto the second exam, save yourself!¡± Lily shouted The floor disappeared and turned into a clear blue sky. Everyone was covered in a web-like sticky substance. If we fall to the ground at this speed, we will suffer a very heavy blow if not dead. We have around 1 minutes and 30 seconds to escape ¡°The web is absorbing my soul power!¡± shouted Sam ¡°We need to use physical force¡± Ike remained calm I directed my soul force to both sides of my arms to try and break free. However, the web is too strong.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. 1 minutes remaining ¡°Dammit! The web is too strong¡± I exclaimed ¡°Sam and Ike lend me your soul force¡± I yelled ¡°We¡¯ll leave it to you Ray¡± Sam replied 40 seconds remaining Sam and Ike released their soul force through the web to the atmosphere while I quickly absorb it into my body. I also need to withstand damages from their forces but this is nothing compared to my training. I tried directing all of the force into my arms. Now I can feel the pain starting to leak from my arms. My arms really felt like exploding. 20 seconds remaining I push my arms apart with all my might. 15 seconds ¡°Boom!¡± The web broke apart along with my bones 13 seconds ¡°Bones Recovery Activate!¡± 10 My soul force is depleted. I cannot move! 9 8 ¡°Soul Sword Activate!¡± I gathered my last breath 7 The sword appeared floating in front of me and I grabbedit using my mouth 6 I gathered my last soul power to perform a sword boost 5 I am heading straight to Sam and Ike 4 I pass them. Did I miss? My eyes are closing... 3 2 1 0 Thud! ¡°You gave me a heart attack¡± Sam shouted ¡°I nearly couldn¡¯t catch you in time Ray!¡± Ike exhaled I opened my eyes and we are now in a Soul Room where soul force and power replenish. ¡°Congrats for making it to the final round! The web was made so that it can never be broken by a single¡¯s person soul force. You need to know which fight you will win and which fight you will need help from teammates. Learn to put trust in your friends. No matter how strong you are, you will not survive in this world alone.¡± Lily explained ¡°Now onto the final round, you all would probably have guessed. It will be a coin toss battle! ¡± said Lily ¡°What!?¡± Everyone got confused ¡°Coin toss should be a test of luck. And who says that you can¡¯t use a little bit of help?¡± I smiled ¡°Since we have a hundred right now, this will be perfect!¡± Lily gave an evil smile Rounds after rounds, people started to understand the game. This is a battle of Soul Power and Force! A black hair, tall and skinny guy went on the stage against a guy twice his size. ¡°This fight is too obvious!¡± a shout from the crowd ¡°Hey black hair, you should just give up¡± another girl shouted ¡°I choose head¡± the skinny guy chose confidently ¡°Either way, you will lose¡± The large guy grinned As soon as the coin is flip, the skinny guy walks away. Everyone was left puzzled. The large guy concentrates his soul power and force to flip the coin to the tail side. The coin landed on a head... ¡°Luckyyyy¡± smiled the skinny guy Not many people noticed it. That guy¡¯s soul power is beyond ordinary. Where is he from? I got curious. ¡°Hey, wait!¡± I tried to approach him ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked ¡°It¡¯s none of your business¡± he replied This guy really knows how to make people hate him. I thought in my head. Now it¡¯s my turn to toss the coin. None of my business huh?! I try to calm down as I absorb soul force from the room into my body. Everyone is giving me a weird stare. ¡°I will choose tail¡± I said ¡°I give up..¡± my opponent replied ¡°Eh?¡± I¡¯m confused ¡°Stop draining my soul force!¡± he shouted Now that I think about it. I feel like I have a surging force inside me. I released all of force that I absorbed back out. Gushes of wind emit out from my body leaving the audience in awe. I quickly exit the stage. What have I done? I thought to myself. I didn¡¯t even realised that I¡¯m capable of doing such a thing! ¡°Was that Soul Drain!?¡± Lily became excited ¡°Seems like we have a couple of first seat candidates this year¡± The red spiky haired guy mentioned Ike and Sam also won their games. Only 50 participants are left at the headquater. ¡°From today, you guys are a student of our academy. Classes will start next Monday. For those that wants to live at the campus, you can claim your room keys this time tomorrow.¡± Lily explained The examination ended in a way that we hoped for. We decided to go out for a BBQ dinner together to celebrate. On our way there, something strange happened. ¡°We are being followed..¡± I whispered ¡°5 guys, I remember some of their faces. They took part in the exam but didn¡¯t make it in¡± Sam replied ¡°Capture them!¡± one of the guy shouted