《Soulforge》 Volume 1: Prologue ** = Events ¡° = dialogue ( ) = thoughts In the middle of a clearing, surrounded by vegetation and lurking predators with eyes are gleaming in the shadows stands a being. First glimpse of this being it looks extremely humanoid but with a closer look, its grin shows two pointy teeth similar to the fantasies of vampires. Eyes golden as the purest gold and pupils as slits. Hair more black than an abyss. The humanoids body is all hidden behind scales it has probably gathered from prey. But one thing which is noticeable is by its curves. It is a female. The predators finally take their slow steps out of the vegetation as the revelation of these creatures would greatly put any human to shock. There is no need asking about it, they are dinosaurs known as velociraptors. Now after observing the vegetation around the clearing again you would clearly describe it as a huge jungle with higher trees and larger plants. This scene would definitely make you think you were in the same age the dinosaurs lived. Indeed, this is just that. The female is unmoving and the raptors have made a circle around it. Without any warnings of the sort all raptors dashes with a frightening speed almost immediately closes the whole gap between them and their ¡°prey¡±. Before their jaws sinks in the flesh of the female it makes its move. With speed so fast it looks like teleportation the female now again stands on the same place unmoving surrounded by lying raptors with their hearts impaled by the female¡¯s blood dripping hand. With a grin now gone the female or she shows now a tired expression it walks towards one of the raptor corpses but instantly stops after two steps. With huge earthquakes she balances herself on all fours and looks up to the sky and is filled with despair. This day is come to known as the day when almost all life got obliterated by a meteor fall. While ignoring the corpses nearby she instantly reacts and dashes through the jungle keeping herself over the ground as much as possible to make sure the earthquake does not affect her as much as possible. With her rush she sprints down into a hole. As the tunnel underground gets broader it finally shows quite some space. Objects lying around which have probably been moved from place by the huge earthquake makes her only in a instant in a sour mood but after she moves to the corner to the room. There lies an open box similar to a coffin which by the look of it seems to have been created naturally. She jumps inside and put on cover and everything becomes dark. Sometime afterwards several ear exploding sounds occurs and shaking making the earlier earthquakes before a joke compared. After what seems a very long time and with drowsy movements she pushes her hands against the cover only finding it not opening! She panics a bit and starts to push with full force and the cover flies off colliding to the ceiling and ironically stays there. She immediately tries to stand up only falling down and hit her head on the hard ground. Holding her hands on her forehead and a little shaky she finally manages to stand up. She starts to feel extremely dry in her throat and walks off to the tunnel were she came in. After relentlessly digging through the collapsed tunnel she finally gets embraced by daylight and takes a deep breath with closed eyes. After some time passed she opens her eyes and gets a shock. Far away in the distance she can make out what she later comes to known as a civilization. Flabbergasted she starts to think, (last thing I remember I was taking shelter from what seemed to be my demise and afterwards¡­ everything I remembered has changed!) After finally collected her thoughts she became a bit curious and at the same time scared, she went back into her ¡°shelter¡± and started formulating plans. Planning ahead and be cautious have always proved to leave out better results for her. Thinking about that reminds her of her past when she strolled into a nest full of scary creatures, she ran that time for several hours. Chuckling at the thought that compared to now she really was a clumsy one back then. Thinking back to the present she picks up one object which is similarly formed as a sword from the ground and walk out towards the extremely numerous amounts of tall and less tall constructions called a city. After one hour of walking with caution on max and a sword in right hand she looks out from the edge of the forest and gets to see for the first time creatures similar to her in masses¡­ humans. A flood of unheard sounds attack her ears, by listening to the sounds and looking at the same time she realizes, they are communicating! They understand each other and their tongues and mouths are moving¡­ After looking and listening for a while she tries out herself. ¡°F-f-fooddd.. Food...!¡± Realization struck her. She can too, communicate but there is one slight problem, she doesn¡¯t understand what she just said. She doesn¡¯t understand but with this she has already set a new goal, communication! The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.*Several years later* ¡°Hi, goodbye, how are you? Night, day, laugh, cry¡­.¡± Talking to herself and finally understand what she says she is happy. After several years of observing from rooftops always hidden from the others she has come to understand a lot. New words and new things which didn¡¯t exist before, their system of determine time, how a human live and even months, weeks, day and years. Today is Thursday 2th of May. There are some more conclusions, humans wear clothes while she does not, and she is naked yes. They also need nutrition while she does not pretty much every day and the food they eat is super delicious! She stole from time to time. But eating ends up needing to the needs of the bathroom, privacy here. One thing she wants to do is going to this so called school. She has compared herself with others and has come to understand that her looks is similar to people at the age of sixteen to twenty. At that age there is this school called high school. She wants to go there and learn about everything so much that she almost got caught in sight. Depressed she went to the outskirts of Tokyo and walks aimlessly. ¡°Well hello there miss, do you mind some tea?¡± !! She immediately turns herself around and sees an old man with a cane as support 3 meters behind her. Greatly surprised that she didn¡¯t notice this old man she staggers backwards away from him. But! She wants to speak with someone, seeing people laughing and conversing with each other made her feel lonely. Taking a firm step forward she says her first word to someone else; ¡°I-I would gladly¡­ Sorry for intruding¡± After accepting she noticed that she had intruded into this man home, and by the looks of it, it seems to be a shrine. Following the old man who seems to be in a good mood they walk inside. After being offered a seat at one side of a low round table she gets her tea and the old man sits on the opposite side looking at her. ¡°It was quite some time ago I last saw a naked woman gihohohohoho!¡± said the old man. Anyone who saw this would immediately scream; Pervert! But this girl blankly stared back. ¡°Is that so¡­ I did try wearing clothes but it felt so stuffy and uncomfortable¡­¡± she answered shyly. Perplexed the old man stared at her for some seconds and said with a grin; ¡°I wish every woman thought like you hohoho¡­ but I can somewhat understand, you are not normal are you? Panicked she stood up and said; ¡°How did you now!?¡± Taking a sip from the tea the old man said; ¡°Oi oi, a beautiful naked woman walks around and feels better that way than being dressed nicely, what about that is normal? Oh yeah wait here I think I got something that you would like to wear.¡± Walking away into another room she stood still and confused. ( So it was not normal¡­) She thought¡­ Coming back with what seemed to be a kimono, white with snow stars on it the old man hold it up and said seriously; ¡°I think this would suit you nicely!¡± Without feeling the need to resist she let the old man put on the kimono, while of course licking her body with his eyes. Pervert! Stepping away he takes a good look and nods firmly. ¡°Nnn! This is it! Gihohohoho! ¡± He laughed. Feeling comfortable with the clothing surprisingly the old man brings a mirror to take a look at herself. Staring expressionless, she smiles after some seconds with a smile that could take any heart out there! Both feeling satisfied he puts away the mirror and they both sits down opposite of each other. ¡°Oh! My apologies I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Kirugane Yoshino, but you can call me gramps! What should I call you?¡± Gramps said with a bright smile. ¡°I¡­¡± A bit unsure how she should answer that gramps interrupts her. ¡°I take it that you have no home or relatives?¡± ¡°y..Yes...¡± She says looking down. (How can this man know that...) She thinks to herself depressed. ¡°Then you can live here. ¡° Gramps said making her look up at him immediately surprised by the sudden turn of events. ¡°It is fine you know? I am quite lonely here, of course you will have to do chores, can¡¯t have you freeloading here can we?¡± Gramps smiled. Sympathy of feeling lonely and Joy fills her heart and she smiles brightly but she mutters quietly; ¡°But I don¡¯t know anything; I got no education or general knowledge¡­ I don¡¯t even have a name...¡± A bit surprised gramps laughs shortly afterwards and says; ¡°Then I will teach you! And about a name, I got one I know would suit you.¡± With big eyes she looked at him, you could almost even see tears coming out of the corner of her eyes. Gramps after this took an incredibly liking to this girl, and surprising himself not in the perverted way. He said; ¡°What do you think of the name, Alice? ¡° Chapter 1 - Friends ** = Events or sounds ¡°= dialogue ( ) = thoughts (My name is Seichi, Yoshino Seichi. I am 17 years old and I am a second year High school student today. At the entrance ceremony certain rumors had spread to my ears. According to the rumors there is a transfer student who will be in my new class. Not only did this rumor spread like wildfire because a student transferring to this school is rare but also this student is said to be an extreme beauty. I personally am more curious about the transferring instead of her looks because the headmaster of this school does not normally permit transfers to this ¡°special¡± school.) Seichi wasn¡¯t too curious about this transfer student so he let it out of his mind for now. After the entrance ceremony Seichi and his new classmates followed after their new homerun sensei in a corridor into a classroom. ¡°You will have one hour free time until we start with our new school schedule so make sure to introduce yourselves and come to know your new classmates okay?¡± said sensei putting on his round glasses and walks out of the classroom closing the door behind him. ¡°Seichi!¡± said one voice out of the current conversions in the classroom but is still clearly heard. ¡°Ah, it seems we are finally in the same class, Aika.¡± Said Seichi while widening his smile and looking towards a person making her way towards him. Higashi Aika is 17 years old and 5.1 feet tall with a slender body with what most people would say have sexy legs and nice bum. Her chest area though hasn¡¯t taken in as much nutrition to its growth but, she is a lovely girl, and is my childhood friend. ¡°Seichi~¡­ A lot of people are making their introductions to each other over there, why not go over there and make some new friends?¡± with an innocent smile Aika asked. Coming back to reality Seichi opened his mouth to respond only getting interrupted by the door opening and sensei coming back in. With everyone quieting down by the sudden appearance it appears that one hour has already gone by and we are now watching teacher behind his desk looking over us. ¡°One hour has passed and I will now introduce myself even if you remember it from the ceremony. My name is Hasekura Tanosuke and I will be your homerun teacher this year, please call me Sensei or Tanosuke Sensei.¡± (Tanosuke Sensei huh... I¡¯ve heard about him before. He is an expert when it comes to mental control and offence. He is quite respected because of that. ¡°Cough cough¡­ Before picking your seats we will have a transfer student here any moment now.¡± Informed Tanosuke Sensei us and clearing his throat. *knock knock* The rumored transfer student stood outside the door right now!?Everyone seemed to have the same reaction. It couldn¡¯t be helped that everyone was nervous and excited about this, because this was that rumored beauty! ¡°Come in¡± Tanosuke sensei said. ¡°Then excuse me¡± said a very comforting female voice on the other side of the door at the same time as the door opened. As she took her steps towards Tanosuke Sensei everyone became slack jawed, her beauty was no joke! With a step her aura which seemed to be filled with a very kind and warm feeling but at the same time it seemed like she was out of your league¡­ Some even had thoughts of having her in a glass case and that was noticeable by their faces. When she is almost a meter from Tanosuke Sensei she turns her heel towards us no longer walking and reveal her front appearance. The curves she showed from the side and now from the front is on a whole other level! There is no more perfection than what triumphs over your own imagination! With very womanly long legs comes a bum putting Aikas bum to shame, her waist although hidden behind the school uniform is imagined to be top score as well. Her chest is big¡­ They give of a mature aura that captures the eyes of quite a number of guys in the room. Her long black hair is going all the way down to the height of her navel and her face is that of an angels. What takes most attention beyond all that is with no question needed her golden eyes. Never have anyone seen someone with golden irises before! It looks so beautiful with the round black pupils and black hair that it takes your breath away. Alice is also wearing the female school uniform, a skirt halfway down her thighs, black knee stockings and indoor shoes. A white shirt and a thin red short armed vest on her is the complete set of the school uniform for females in this school. ¡°Pleased to meet you all, my name is Alice, I do not have a family name and calling me Alice would make me glad so feel free to call me that. I will be your classmate from now on, please take care of me!¡± Alice said with a smile that already captivated some hearts. There were quite a ruckus in the classroom after her introduction but everyone calmed down after Tanosuke Sensei shouting at them to. ¡°Seichi! Alice looks like a goddess!¡± Aika blurted out infront of him. Seichi could only nod in response, indeed this girl, no, woman is beautiful but that wasn¡¯t what caught Seichi¡¯s attention. The aura kind of feels, divine around Alice which is not supposed to be possible! Only Divine beings or artifacts can make that kind of aura and yet, Alice divine aura was picked up by Seichi. After managing to organize his students Tanosuke Sensei made them stay in a line and pick a pice of paper in a box with a note on it. This is their seating numbers, most guys secretly makes wishes of having Alice as their neighbor. As Alice takes her seat in the corner furthest away from the blackboard looking out through the window making all the already seated males curse their luck and sparkles in them still in the line. Aika takes a look at her number and then back towards Alice and skips towards her. Aika takes her seat in front of Alice¡¯s desk and turns around. ¡°Hello! My name is Higashi Aika. Because you told us to call you by your first name I will call you Alice-san ok?¡± Aika said a bit nervous. Alice turning her head from the window towards Aika looks at her for a while and then replies. ¡°Hello, that is okay, then should I call you Higashi-chan?¡± Alice said with a serene calm and a small smile. ¡°Yes! I get this calming feeling around and I am super curious about you, when it is lunch would you like to eat together?¡± Aika said no longer as nervous as before. Alice observing this girl feels that this is a good person and agrees with a short ¡°sure¡± to Aika. Aika turning back and looking towards the front is having her hands on her cheeks feeling quite happy with the transfer student. Seichi still middle in what¡¯s left of the line lets out a sigh, his childhood friend curiosity is not something to play around with! Was what he thought. ¡°Y-YEEEESSS!!!¡± Was heard loudly from the very front of the line and everyone¡¯s attention excluding Alice turned towards that certain persons shout in joy and they turned sour when they saw who it was. Kudara Noboru is holding tightly onto his number and sometimes casts a glance towards the oblivious Alice. (Aha) Everyone one knew why he was so happy now. Kudara Noboru is known throughout the whole school. His family, the Kudara House is very wealthy and known because of their original meditation technique that Is said to be at least twice as good as the normal Heaven and earth mediation. Of course because of this he is also one of the strongest students in school but, he does not have a good reputation. Kudara Noboru is a very sheltered person that always gets what he wants and looks down on everyone else; in a year in this school already three people have quit school because they couldn¡¯t take the treatment they received after denying him. He is also lecherous. With a lick on his lips he walks towards the desk to the right of Alice. Rage builds up inside the minds of students watching this. (Anyone but him¡­) Is what all they think of it, they don¡¯t want Alice hurt by this bastard. At the same time as Kudara take his slow strides towards the desk beside Alice, Seichi is given his number and looks towards the seat that has become his. With a very displeased expression he walks toward his seat which is neighbor with Kudara! Before Kudara takes his seat he slightly bows towards Alice who still is oblivious and is looking through the window. With a twitch of his left brow he makes a quiet cough and Alice¡¯s head turns towards him looking straight at his eyes. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.Startled and mesmerized a bit Kudara instantly regains his proud stature. What Alice sees after hearing a cough close to her is a blond haired man with a fit body and what seems a charming aura but with a close look at his blue eyes, Alice sees the soul, the truth inside this man and looses interest. Without noticing Alice losing interest in him Kudara takes hold of Alice right hand on her desk and kisses it. ¡°Hello I am pleased to meet such a beauty, my name is Kudara Noboru from the Kudara House and I will be blessed to be sitting beside you. Kudara said. Alice didn¡¯t know if she would laugh or cry, this person was very unpleasant. With a forced smile she answers; ¡°Thanks? Then let us have a nice term together ehm, Kudara-kun?¡± After that exchange of words Kudara takes his seat and gives out a pleased smile. At that time Seichi takes his seat to the right of Kudara with a little distance between so you can walk between. The bell rang telling everyone that the class has ended and started to head towards the cafeteria. During the class, Tanosuke Sensei talked about the history about this school and talked about famous people passing the test to travel to another plane. School of elements, the top tier school of Japan, only those with a lot of potential and capabilities at least at second tier martial and second tier mental can attend this school. The Martial tier that was explained by Tanosuke Sensei is with easier words, the body, while the mental tier is the mind. Each tier has three stages, beginner, adept and master. After breaking through master, you will be at the level of beginner in a higher tier. There is not only Martial or mind; there are others which can include mind and body for example forging. Forging is very difficult and therefore very rare. Forging as it sounds is creation of your body and mind inside an object, of course if the object is destroyed you wouldn¡¯t be hurt but, this progress is very hard, forgers can create legendary weapons to convenient things. Forging is one of the many possible tiers out there. Going back to martial and mental tiers, a strong martial body will be able to crush boulders while weaker cant, stronger mental tier have stronger mentality and therefore can conjure spells more efficient than weaker mental tiers. Why should someone train to become stronger? That question is easy to answer, the stronger you get the more wealth you can get, and by reaching tier 4 in martial or mental you can take the test to get to another plane! In other planes your training will also progress faster and there is a desire I believe all of you here want to reach. The higher tiers! The higher tiers consist of 3 tiers with the same stages as the lower ones, beginner, adept and master. The difference is that in the higher tiers you naturally is together with heaven and earth, you can make use of the elements outside your body and not only inside. A first higher tier beginner can by ease defeat a tier 8 master. When using the elements outside your body it doesn¡¯t tire you out and by reaching the higher tiers in mentality you can even defy gravity and fly. Making a breakthrough to the higher tiers from the lower is extremely hard, it can take centuries. Of course a normal person cannot live several centuries but, the higher tier in martial tier you are the longer can your body can live, the same goes for mentality when it comes to the mind. Mediation heaven and earth technique is training in both martial and mental, if earth is the body then heaven is the mind, this technique is very well known and everyone can use it. (woah, finally I have noted down everything important Tanosuke Sensei mentioned in this class.) Alice closed her notebook and put it down inside her brown schoolbag that everyone had. This was her first lesson and she already learnt new things that gramps hasn¡¯t taught her. Over the years she has been taught how the world works, and made her do chores and teach her things such as morals. Gramps really had taken care of her well, Alice really felt that gramps was something she never had before, a family. Her telling gramps that honestly made him a bit tear eyed. After that Alice told gramps everything about herself and without making fun of her gramps took it all seriously. Unfortunately he didn¡¯t know where she could have come from or what she was, but he made it clear to her that it didn¡¯t matter and he would always be her family and support her. Years after that gramps through connections made Alice transfer here. (Okay let¡¯s go and eat with Higashi-chan!) With full of energy Alice wanted to make Higashi Aika her first friend! Alice stood up only to get interrupted by Kudara. ¡°Oh Alice, wouldn¡¯t you please eat together with me? I believe such a beauty as you is mostly suited to be with me.¡± Kudara said while grinning. Alice looking at him bluntly said; ¡°I refuse your invitation; I have been looking forward to eat together with Higashi-chan.¡± Alice said resulting with Higashi beaming in joy and Kudara with a look like he just ate the most disgusting dish ever. ¡°Hou, then Higashi Aika, cancel your plans together with Alice and realize your own standing commoner.¡± Kudara said as he turned slowly towards where Higashi stood. ¡°How rude of you, to simply let out your anger towards someone else when you can¡¯t see reality that is just in front of you, I, Alice, dislike you and therefore I do not want to accompany you on anything.¡± Higashi and Kudara were both stupefied. Not only did she refuse ¡°that¡± Kudara, she also remarked him on his manners. What is it that you can swallow but can also swallow you? It is pride, and pride is something Kudara Noboru is completely swallowed of, even amongst nobles he is a bit too prideful. Gritting his teeth he looks at Alice with burning anger shaking like a volcano about to erupt. But suddenly he gets a bit of a push on his left shoulder and then sees someone walks past him from behind towards Higashi, it is Yoshino Seichi. In Seichi¡¯s obliviousness he didn¡¯t notice the danger his childhood friend was in and just dropped the bomb, as he started to ask Higashi where they should go and eat he heard a low laughter from behind. ¡°houhouhou¡­ hahahaha! Yoshino Seichi! Tier four adept and only seventeen years old? You are quite good but do you realize just what you did and what your friend over there has done? Both of you made me look like a fool and humiliated me in front of Alice! I challenge you Yoshino Seichi to a duel! In three days in the schedule we have combat training, at that time our duel will take place. Don¡¯t think I will let you escape! And to let you know, I am a five tier adept! I am going to crush you!¡± Kudara declared, he immediately put all anger on Yoshino Seichi, probably trying to look good infront of Alice. While he walked away the remaining students in the class were wide eyed and the news spread throughout the whole school. Looking at the back of Kudara Alice frowned and understood exactly what this Kudera were thinking, is he stupid? Was what Alice thought. Looking back towards Higashi-chan and this guy called Yoshino Seichi she somewhat felt guilty. Higashi-chan had an ashen face and Yoshino Seichi sighed a big sigh and realized the coming problems for him in the future. Althrough Alice thought that Kudara looked very weak, if you were In the shoes of Yoshino Seichi she could somewhat understand. Alice could, feel how strong people were. She didn¡¯t know how but she could and she knew that Kudara was stronger than Yoshino Seichi. Alice could easily just slap him and he could die just by that but, she wasn¡¯t interested in abusing her power to needlessly killing or using her power that way. She couldn¡¯t really care that much about Kudara but, she didn¡¯t know why but she did want to help this duo. (Is this what you would do for a friend?) She thought, then came to a decision and smiled. ¡°Yoshino-kun¡± Alice said wanting their attention. Both Higashi-chan and Yoshino-kun looked towards Alice and both almost said at the same time ¡°yes?¡± with a quite miserable tone. ¡°The situation with Kudara Noboru and you, I feel that it is at least partly my fault you were challenged and I do want to be friends with both of you so, would you like me to help you beating him in the duel? Alice said grinning. ¡°Eh?¡± Both Higashi-chan and Yoshino-kun said with stupefied voices.