Enshrouded

Maybe this torturous expedition to the top of the Royal Peak wouldn't actually be so bad.

So far, he had gained three items, three levels and another skill selection. If things kept going like this then there was the possibility he reached level 100 before getting out of here.

Of course, he actually had to reach the apex of that unforgiving mountain to get out of here, so there was still that.

But Kai was still hopeful.

The group he was traveling with was so diverse, so goddamn mismatched that it just had to succeed.

Kai could only hope that all of them made it to the peak alive...

But enough of dark thoughts like that, it was time to have a look at the first skill he had been offered.

Soul Memorial (Legendary)

If Kai ended up selecting this skill then it would be his first Legendary rarity skill. He had Ignition, which was a Unique rarity, but the idea of a Legendary rarity skill still appealed to him very much.

But there was one question on Kai's mind about the skill...

Just what would a Legendary rarity skill look like?

In the end, death accepts everyone into their embrace. Allows the user to peer into the memories of beings they kill. The limit of this skill relies entirely on the strength of the user's own soul. When peering into a dead beings soul, there is a chance that the user may absorb some of their qualities, stats, skills or fighting styles.

Kai blinked.

Then grinned.

Then laughed.

Back in the Dome he had theorised with enough training and after watching someone's soul for long enough, they would be able to mimic them in some way.

The main example was Umbra.

Now that Kai could take the form of an actual wolf and not a Lycan, it could open up much more options for him in the art of fighting.

But the problem with that was Kai had no idea how to fight with a wolf form rather than a humanoid form, even his Lycan form was still a little dodgy after all.

But if he were to study Umbra for a long enough period of time then they would definitely be able to fight in ways that wouldn't usually be possible in a humanoid form.

After all, some people might train to only fight humans, or humanoid beings, so if they're fighting one how would they react if they suddenly turned into a wolf?

And this would only get better after Kai acquired his new upgrade for his fusion form as he was still 80% certain he knew how to obtain it, he just had to wait until the cooldown of Ignition went away and his stats were no longer halved.

Of course, Kai wasn't going to kill Umbra and try to do it that way, he had Soul Sense for that.

But if he ended up fighting something that had a really interesting fighting style then he could try and replicate it as much as possible before killing them. Then, once they were dead, Kai could look in their memories and look at it even more in depth while also getting the chance to obtain a skill or something else of equal value.

Ah... so this is what a Legendary skill is like.

The best part is, the limit of the skill was basically negligible for him. Before, his soul was about on par with the average B-Rank, even while it was C-Rank. But now, after the extra 10% boost to his Bloodline, new skills and all the training he had done, Kai had no doubt that his soul had reach the potential of early A-Rank, maybe even mid to late tier.

Of course, he still knew that it went all the way to SSS-Rank, but if he ended up in a fight with any of those at his current level...

There wouldn't even be a fight to begin with.

This was the second time that the first skill he had been offered had been incredible, and the only other time it happened the other two skills after it were equally as incredible.

He was obviously just going to overlook the slightly ominous beginning to the description, how 'death will welcome everyone into its embrace'. It seemed kind of strange for a beginning of a skill description, but when was the System ever not weird?

So now Kai was a little nervous, what if the next two skills offered were just as good as this one, what would he end up picking?

The only way to figure that out was by looking them.

Lustful Gaze (Epic)

Hell no.

Pariah of Soulcery (Legendary)

Kai blinked.

... Huh...

To be a pariah is to be an outcast. If the user accepts this skill, all relationships or contracts they have formed with anyone will be destroyed, the party on the other end being killed-

Nope. Accepting this skill meant that Umbra would die, so it was an instant write off. Kai didn't even care to look at what the skill actually did, there was just no way that he would pick it.

So, knowing what he was about to do, Kai selected the best skill of the lot.

You have obtained Soul Memorial (Legendary)

His first Legendary rarity skill. Kai was happy, so while he was happy he was obviously going to test out the skill.

So, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Kai attempted to peer into Ezekial's soul and-

User is unable to look into this soul.

Kai opened his eyes and blinked.

Well why the hell not?!

To his surprise, the System actually responded to him giving out in his head.

User is currently not in possession of the soul they attempted to look into.

Kai sighed.

So that's how it worked, they needed the actual soul to do so.

Did that mean they would have to ravage the body of everything they killed to get their soul, or was there another method?

If there was, Kai was sure to-

Suddenly, Kai's eyes widened as he glanced down at Esurient.

Technically, Ezekial's soul was counted as a stored soul...

Deciding to try it, Kai attempted to take Ezekial's soul out of Esurient and-

User is able to extract stored soul.

However, the user will not be able to return the soul.

Does the user still wish to continue?

Yes/No

Kai sighed. So he could take out Ezekial's soul and look into it, only it meant that he wouldn't be able to use its abilities again. There was the chance that Kai could obtain some of Ezekial's abilities after using Soul Memorial on his soul, but that's all it was, a chance.

So Kai decided not to continue, not yet at least anyway, maybe some time in the future.

Leaning back against the obsidian material of the titan's leg, Kai yawned and closed his eyes.

All they could do now was wait until they got even closer to the base of the Royal Peak. Then...

They would see how things went.

*****

Roughly four days later and they had nearly reached the base of the Royal Peak.

The ride here had been pretty uneventful other than the horde of Glacial Goblin's trying to climb the leg. Kai kept catching glimpses of various strange things, but they would always vanish the next moment, creeping him out.

The only time there was ever any stress was whenever the leg they were perched upon had its movements, but they got used to it after the first while.

By now, they had practically reached the base of the mountain, and the sight of it up close made it seem much more overbearing than all the way back at the city.

It was at this current distance that Kai understood why it could take a whole four months to climb it.

Still, he was sure that it would be fine, otherwise-

Suddenly, the titan jolted to a stop, nearly making the entire group fall off the leg.

Kai, gripping onto an outcrop of obsidian, was just about to speak when he noticed something.

Was the titan... turning?

Kai's eyes widened as he prepared to go.

"Right, time to depart, this is the end of our journey on the titan, it's about to start heading in another direction."

Cecilia, Umbra and Remy all started getting ready. They had to get off the leg before the titan moved it. Luckily, they would have a little more time as it was still turning and hadn't started moving its first leg yet.

Kai watched as Esurient dug themselves into the collar of the tunic Petunia was wearing, acting like a harness once more. Claws grew from Cecilia's gloves as she too started to climb down.

Sighing, Kai activated Mana Surge, empowering the same parts of his body as he did when he first climbed the titan's leg. Then, he started to descend.

The process of climbing down was much easier than the process of climbing up, mainly because Kai's body had healed a fair bit and wasn't as sore. It wouldn't be long until his stats returned to normal, and it was only about another day or two of work before his soul was fully healed, letting him use all of his skills properly.

It took a little less time to climb down than to climb up, but the group soon touched the ground for the first time in days.

Just as Kai got off the titan's leg, he turned around to see Petunia petting it softly.

"Bye bye titan."

Kai smiled softly. The titan had turned out to either be a friendly giant or just completely oblivious, which was a good thing as he would have much rather not ended up in its stomach.

Kai also gave the leg a small pat before starting to walk towards the base of the mountain.

The rest of the group followed closely behind him, Umbra emerging from his shadow for Petunia to ride.

They walked past all of the titan's other legs one by one, until they eventually reached its first leg.

Kai cast one last glance back at it, smiling softly to himself.

Then, he took one more step past the titan first leg and-

It felt like he had stepped through a veil, like something that had been weighing in him had been removed, like he would finally be able to see properly.

Then Kai-

"Oh for fuck sake!"

Could not resist the urge to curse, even with a child in the party.

For this was the first time he had actually seen the Royal Peak without it being cloaked by the blizzard.