35. Soul crystal

When Ast's soul weapon 'viper' was plunged into Ray's head,it quickly extracted Ray's life and elemental essence. Ast could feel something flowing into his body through viper but he couldn't quite figure out what it was or where it was being stored.

Ast tried to extract the same out of his body and stopped when he saw a small shiny white crystal in his hand. Ast could feel a familiar strength coming out of the crystal.

Ast asked the system about it.

[It is a soul crystal. Absorbing it can directly strengthen one's soul]

Ast was astonished, according to the data he has collected up until now, soul was the most mysterious of them all. It was not known how to strengthen one's soul except to use extremely rare treasures like the one that they found in the cave. But still those treasures still didn't directly target the soul and it was like a by product in which the soul was strengthened.

Ast asked the system to compare how much would his soul grow after consuming the whole essence he obtained from Ray(after converting to soul crystal). The answer shocked Ast, it was 20%. Although Ast right now was only level 1 but still his system had earlier reminded him that his soul was twice as strong, if compared to an average level 1 in the world.

If Ast could have a steady stream of these soul crystals then having multiple elements was just a step away. But Ast then thought about his soul weapon 'viper', how scary was this ability. The soul weapon itself grows with its user, the more strong the user's soul more powerful the weapon itself. And now the weapon itself had an ability to provide with soul crystals. Yes it would require Ast to kill and suck out the essence from others soul but still this ability was a cheat.

But with ecstasy came a frown. Ast was now contemplating how can such an overpowered weapon be found so easily by him. Ast was worried if anyone knew about the abilities of his soul weapon they must be looking for it, although there was little to no evidence linking him to the bandits but Ast was not sure.

Ast asked system if this soul weapon could be discovered by others.

[Soul weapon is a remnant of a soul itself which has been remodelled into a weapon. Its existence is mysterious and the current technology and knowledge contained in this world cannot create, investigate or detect a soul weapon. Moreover hosts soul weapon is in direct contact with his soul and resides in his sea of consciousness (SOC)]

Ast was surprised by this discovery he had so many new questions that bothered him but system once again started ignoring him.

'Does this mean the soul weapon is not from this world?'

'How can I have a Sea of Consciousness (SOC) ?.. Isn't that only formed after becoming an elite elementalist ( level 8 and 9)'

Ast was utterly confused. He tried to rationalise and came up with a few conjectures of his own. His SOC was certainly an anomaly, but other than that other things like soul weapons could still be explained.

But now one thing was abundantly clear to him. He had somehow got himself into some high level stuff and sooner or later someone will come asking questions and looking for the treasures that they (Ast and Anya) have consumed or claimed.