9 The Beginning Of A Journey

"You have two choices..."

Greg looked around, but couldn't see where the voice came from. After confirming no one was around him he looked at the stone before him.

"What? Did the stone just talk to me?", thought Greg strangely as he looked at the stone before him.

"Yes, it is me."

Hearing the answer, Greg was surprised and looked at the stone much more intensely.

"Who are you?", asked Greg after a few seconds of silence.

"You are not ready to know it yet, however, know that you are now at death's door, I had no choice, but to come out and help you out a little."

"How do you want to help me? I'm just a loser, who isn't good at anything. My body parts are broken all around and what is more, there is that monster, ready to kill me. I'm more than hopeless. "

Listening to Greg's depressed voice, the stone started to talk," It's not true. You are much more special than you think you are."

"Special? Special in what way?", asked Greg with a bitter smile.

"Your Soul. That's what makes you so special."

Hearing this answer, Greg looked confused.

"It doesn't matter if you understand it or not. You will if the time comes. However, now choose. My help to stay alive or the monster's to meet your end?"

Greg shouted without any hesitation, "Of course I need your help!"

"Really? And what if I say, you need to bear some consequences, which makes your already hard life much more miserable?"

Hearing this, Greg didn't answer. But after a few seconds of silence, he looked up at the stone with firm eyes.

"I still want your help!"

The stone hearing Greg's firm answer chuckled and said in a satisfied voice, "That's the talk. Now then, accept my Blessing.

As the stone said this, it floated closer and closer to Greg and continued, "I give you my power, however, you can just use it limitedly until you reach the third level."

"Third level? You mean the Soul Collector rank?", asked Greg perplexedly.

"Yes, that should be what you humans call it. But what will happen after that, you don't need to know yet. Just get stronger and nothing will get in your way. However, be aware. Everything comes with a price..."

With that said, the stone hit Greg's temple and disappeared with a light.

In an instant, Greg's whole body started to heal in an incredible pace. All his broken bones were healed and his vitality started to erupt like a volcano.

Time, which was frozen a moment ago started to flow again.

Seeing as the monster's hand was near to kill him, Greg spun to the side without hesitation.

*Bammm!*

With a huge explosion, a big crater appeared below its bony hand, but seeing as there was nobody, the skeleton looked up at Greg's direction.

Greg was kneeling on the ground a few meters away while looking at his hands. A while later, he clenched them and looked up at the monster with firm eyes.

"I feel... Amazing!"

He felt a strange power run through him, ready to erupt at any moment.

However, he couldn't relish this feeling more, because the monster appeared right before his face, almost as fast as lightning.

Greg dodged his enemy's attack instantly, which surprised him a lot.

"Woow! Not only do I feel power through my body, but my head also feels clearer and my reaction is also amazingly fast."

The skeleton attacked Greg from almost every possible angle, however, no matter what it tried, Greg was able to avoid every single attack.

"Let's see. The stone said I can use it's power limitedly. Let's find out what she meant."

As he thought about it, Greg felt a sensation inside his body. At the same time, he felt through his connection with Alice that she was getting excited.

After the skeleton missed another blow, Greg jumped up into the sky. He thought he would just jump around a meter or so, but strangely his body started to shine and he was above the ground more than 3 meters.

"Amazing!", thought Greg and as he was falling, he summoned his daggers and slashed toward the skeleton.

*Clang!*

The dagger and the armor met with each other and a sound like two metals colliding with each other sounded over the place.

Seeing as his attack didn't work, Greg started to jump here and there. Every time he jumped once, his speed accelerated and his body got shinier.

The monster couldn't keep up with his enemy's speed, so it just stood in one place and looked here and there from time to time.

Seeing this, Greg started to attack. Whenever he slashed, he did so from the skeleton's back, trying to damage it from behind.

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

*Crack*

However after the fifth hit on the the creature's armor, suddenly cracks started to appear on the daggers.

"Damn! It's no surprise, it's just an Awakened one after all.", thought Greg and put his daggers away.

"Let's change tactics then!"

In an instant as he said this, his body stopped moving and raised his leg into the air.

"Let's see what will happen, if I don't just put my leg down softly!", said Greg excitedly.

However as his leg touched the ground, nothing happened.

"Huh? Nothing?"

As he was thinking why didn't anything happen, the skeleton appeared right before him, ready to slash him into two.

Greg reacted in an instant and started to jump here and there, making his body accelerate and shine again with white light.

He tried, again and again, to stomp on the ground, but every time he did, nothing happened.

"Why does nothing happen? Did I miss something important?"

As he was running, he noticed something and looked happy.

"I feel that Alice is in her rabbit form. Maybe that's why I can just use the light element and not the others.", thought Greg, and concentrating on his Soul Stone he asked Alice to change into the green lizard.

Alice followed his request and change into her lizard form. In the same moment, as she did, Greg's speed slowed down and the light disappeared.

"I knew it!", thought Greg and stopped in one place.

He looked at the monster in front of him and raised his leg.

"See you in hell!", said Greg with an excited smile, and with a sudden move, he stomped on the ground.

*BOOOM!!!*