28 Walking Away

As Lucien was pondering on his next move, all of a sudden an uneasy feeling griped his heart. It was as if death was hanging right next to him.

'I have to leave, NOW!'

Lucien didn't hesitate to cover himself in Darkness and run in a direction out of the area.

'Is it that Rank 2?'

'Did he know his son died?'

'Am I just being paranoid?'

'It doesn't matter there are many Rank 1 areas. I don't mind walking away from this one and just going into another one.'

After a hundred kilometers of continuous changing of direction and covering his tracks with Darkness, Lucien stopped at the waist of a mountain, where series of natural caves stood

After looking around the area quickly, to be sure it's deserted, he entered one.

To make sure he is safe for the time being, Lucien even absorbed couple of tons of Rocks from the cave walls, and placed them at the entrance, thus sealing it.

'If he is also Wind Path practitioner, his minimum Agility is already 500.00, it's more than 10 times mine, I won't be even able to see him, and even if he didn't find a way to compensate about low Strength, he can split me in two, just by using the speed of his attack.'

Lucien started reviewing the fight and his current standing after the experience.

'I really need a method that is more sophisticated method in attacking Souls, the one I'm using is only for Souls weaker than mine, if I train into a proper one, it should allow me to cast an illusion on a stronger soul or do some damage.'

'I now see the benefits of balanced build, it's advantageous in fights against single path practitioners that are a bit further than me, it will be much more pronounced when I breakthrough to Rank 2.'

'I really need to speed up my progress, Rank 1s are cannon fodder, just looking at the amount of Rank 1 bandits areas on the map gives me an idea how low of a status does a Rank 1 practitioners possess.'

'From the traveling and absorption, I already have about 10 square meters of space in the Crimson World, or about 10 tons of high level soil, if I start buying animals to keep, I might have to convert it back into mid level, to have more space, but the value would still be around 9000 unconverted existence points.'

'You took existence points converting soil from mid level to high level, what about the other way.'

-The 10 existence points are returned back, as it is like a process of decompression, it releases the existence points needed for the compression-

'I see so it really converts everything in a balanced manner, and doesn't let me suffer losses on that front.'

'From the couple of days, focusing on Rank 0s and that Rank 1 bandit, I got around 6000 existence points.'

'I guess for now, I give myself an advantage.'

Thinking so far, Lucien converted 4000 existence points into his Soul, bringing it to 70.00, and what should count as mid-Rank 1.

'And I should complete the positive cycle of point gathering.'

'Give me the Soul Devour Path.'

-Integrating-

-Caution the process will be extremely painful-

The moment Lucien heard the notification that was never mentioned before, the world turned black and he fainted.

After unknown time, Lucien opened his eyes and saw the cave roof.

-Integration complete-

-Lucien BloodMoon-

-Age: 8 years-

-Race: Human-

-Paths:

Copper Ghoul(Rank 1)

Darkness(Rank 1)

Vampire Viscount(Rank 1)

1 Meter Soul (Soul Devour Rank 0)-

-Strength: 50.25-

-Agility: 40.75-

-Vitality: 50.00-

-Soul: 70.00-

-Control over internal body: 60%-

-Control over particles: 70%-

Trying to feel the changes, Lucien found that everything in the range of 1 meter around him was completely clear to him, even with his eyes closed.

'I though it would only allow me to devour souls, what is this?'

'All Existence give me the information on Soul Devour.'

-5 existence points taken as const-

-The Soul Devour is a special Path, it is separate from the Soul strength and at the same time connected to it-

-The Soul is transformed to in a way that it can sense a bigger area with each breakthrough, but the size is not influenced by the strength of the Soul before Rank 2, it's a fixed distance-

-And it's connected in a way that, any Soul in the area, on the moment of leaving the body, is absorbed-

-Thus strengthening the Soul of the Host or being converted by All Existence-

'This is amazing, if I get this to Rank 1, I think sneaking on me would be nearly impossible.'

'I was planning on getting a method for Soul Attacks, but I will prioritize this, 1 meter is not enough, my spear is longer, it would be a waste if I kill someone and can't absorb his soul.'

'Give me Rank 0 to Rank 1 on Soul Devour.'

Two months later, Lucien finally managed to breakthrough to Rank 1 Soul Devour at the expense of almost 2000 existence points converted from soil to soul energy.

'It was much harder breaking the boundary, I wonder if it's because it's focused on transforming the Soul.'

'But it's all worth it, I wish I could join a war at this point.'