Chapter 13 - Discovering the souls and finding out my Rank.

"Ember, your skill..." Lukas looked at her dagger again. He already knew what the skill did, but he didn't know all the details. Unfortunately, his [ Evaluation ] skill didn't show the description of other people's skills.

"What about it?"

"You can only create blades? Like dagger or swords." That's what the skill name said.

"Well, yes. I've tried creating other types of weapons, but it only works with blades. But why do you ask?"

"It's nothing. I was just curious. It's a cool skill." Lukas smiled. Ember turned her face a little embarrassed and walked to Noelle's side. Lukas then walked towards the body of one of the lizards.

On top of the body of each lizard in the room, there was a small blue flame floating.

"What are you doing? We need to go to the next room." Ember said. Lukas turned and looked at her. "You guys can go ahead. I'll meet you in a bit."

"Huh? What are you going to do? Do you happen to feel like taking a piss?"

"Oh, yeah, something like that." Lukas gave the girls a quiet smile. Then Ember took Noelle's hand and pulled her toward the nearest hallway. "Don't take too long, okay?"

"Okay, Okay." Lukas approached the lizard and then crouched down beside it. He watched the tiny blue flame floating for a while before extending his hand.

As soon as his hand approached the flame, he felt it become warm. Then the flame penetrated his skin, and Lukas could feel discomfort as the flame "rose" toward his shoulder.

Then he felt it "walk" to his chest. His heart palpitated.

[ You consumed the soul of a 'Poison Lizard' ]

[ You received 2 points of souls ]

"So that's a soul." Lukas opened his System and looked at the soul bar.

[ 2/1000 ]

"So my limit is 1000 soul points? How many soul points do I need to open the academy?"

[ 'Academy' has a cost of 100 soul points ]

"Thank you for answering, system." Smiling, he approached the next lizard.

It was not a very pleasant feeling to "swallow" the soul of each of those lizards, but it was necessary. When Lukas finished sucking up all the souls, his soul bar was 46 points.

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Lukas waited for Karen and Giovan to arrive. After the two came, the three of them moved on behind Ember and Noelle. Giovan carried a huge bag on his back and two pickaxes, one in each hand.

Passing through several different rooms and down some stairs, they walked for almost half an hour before reaching the end of the dungeon.

Lukas found some goblins and some slightly larger lizards on the floor in the last room. The blue flames on top of their bodies were bigger than the flames of the first lizards.

The bigger and stronger the enemy, the bigger and stronger the flame. Lukas realised this when he found some dead monsters in the rooms he passed along with Karen and Giovan.

He asked Karen to allow him to stay in the rooms for a while, but she did not allow it. He was pretty worried that the souls would be disappeared.

"Lukas!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"Help Giovan! Or do you want us girls to do it?" Karen threw the pickaxe toward Lukas.

"Fine." He didn't understand that since Karen had more strength than he did. But he didn't question her. He took the pickaxe and began to break the blue crystals all over the room wall.

Every few minutes, Lukas looked at the bodies. Just as he imagined, the souls began to disappear. He bitterly regretted not asking to 'piss' in every room he passed.

'At least now I know how souls work.'

Karen noticed that Lukas was despondent. She thought he was tired, but she was wrong.

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"Take that to our guild. I will take Lukas to the association so they can check his Rank. I'll arrive at the guild in the evening, probably."

"Is it going to take that long?" Noelle asked.

"No, but I want to have some fun before I go back. It's been a while since I've been to a bar." Karen was wearing a smile on her face. "Come on, kiddo. And don't think about doing anything stupid, got it?"

"I think it's easier for you to do something stupid."

"What?"

"It's nothing." Lukas pretended he hadn't said anything, and then the two said goodbye to the rest of the guild members. Giovan put the bag with crystal and the picks in the trunk, and then they left.

"Let's take the subway. The association is downtown. I guess you already know that, don't you?"

"Absolutely."

So, taking a subway along with Karen, the two arrived at the association building.

A building that exceeded 40 floors. Its entire facade was covered with dark glass, which gave the entire building a beautiful look. It has no identification, but everyone in the city knew that this was the association's building.

"Wait here." Lukas sat down in a chair at the reception desk, and Karen approached the receptionist. After talking for a few minutes and filling out a form, Karen received a small piece of paper with a number on it.

"86?"

"Yes, that's your number in the queue."

"Queue? Have that many people?" Lukas looked around and noticed that almost all the chairs were occupied.

"Yes. Every day new people with abilities show up, and some idiots retake the test to see if their ranks have increased. It's normal."

"I see. I'll probably be here all afternoon, won't I?"

"Yes. Good luck with that." Karen turned away from Lukas, and he called out to her.

"Don't worry. I'll be at the bar right over there. As soon as you have done, you can go over there."

"..." Lukas ran out of words. He just continued to sit quietly.

Like Lukas, several men and women were sitting in chairs waiting to be called. The room was huge, so more than 80 people were there.

And some of those people were scary. Some men were looking at Lukas as if he was prey, and some women were looking at him as if he was prey too ( But in another sense )

"NUMBER 32!" Then a man with white hair and glasses appeared. He was wearing a medical coat.

'Number 32? It's going to take longer than I thought.'

Lukas then took out his cell phone and sent a message to his mother, warning her that he would be home late. In his message, he had said that he was at a party with a friend from school, which was impossible.

Besides Philip, Lukas' friendships were minimal even though he was a handsome and easily socialised boy.

####

"NUMBER 86!" They had finally called Lukas as the day was ending. It was already dark outside, and his mother started to get worried.

"Yes, it's me." But he ignored his mother for the time being. He would be sure to come up with a fake reason why he had been gone so long.

Lukas followed the doctor down a long white corridor with several doors until they came to a room. The door opened, and he followed the doctor into the room.

It was a large room that looked like any other medical consultation room. The only difference was a strange circular-shaped machine that stood in the centre of the room.

"Put your hand inside that opening. You will feel some discomfort, but don't worry."

"Ok"

Lukas approached and stuck his hand into the only opening it had. All over the machine were strange lights that glowed in many different colours, like a rainbow. As soon as he stuck his hand in, he felt something pierce his palm. It was a little painful, but nothing Lukas couldn't handle.

After about 3 minutes, the machine made a strange sound, removing the "spines" from Lukas's palm.

"You may remove your hand." The doctor said with a smile. Then a piece of paper came out of a printer next to the computer connected to the machine. It contained all of Lukas' data, such as his muscle strength, skills, and some other data.

At the bottom of the sheet was his rank, which was D.