68. To the Future

Castus awoke in pain. His body screamed in pain from the overuse of his body. Slowly siting up Castus looked around. Fulsin was explaining something to Shi next to Choceny currently. Castus grunted as he stood up. The two of them looked over at Castus noticing he was awake. 

Fulsin rushed over to Castus, casting various spells on the way. The soreness in Castus's body relieved itself some, but the pain didn't lessen in the slightest. "Careful now Castus. You've taken some serious damage that even I can't heal immediately, but it looks like you won." Fulsin used an arm to help Castus to a seated position and offered some water. 

Castus took it and greedily sucked down some of the water, choking a little and coughing. Once he had gained his bearings a rage flared up in his chest as he looked to Fulsin. "What the hell was that? Why would you send us into this if something like that could show up? We are both just barely starting to get decent at fighting?" Castus was about to continue when Fulsin held his hands up in surrender. 

"Firstly, I would like to apologize for what you have been through and what the arena summoned. The arena brings creatures from a set location after evaluating them to create a challenging fight. Unfortunately, it appears that it was tampered with to forcibly choose that reaper. While you were asleep recovering I sent some scouts to check on the location. It is safe once again. I have also paid to have a mage come to add a new function to the arena to allow one to back out before the fight has finished. Truth to be told Castus, my family does not use this arena often. The last time it was activated was for me when I was much younger. I am taking measures to prevent something like that from ever happening again." Fulsin explained. 

Castus looked at him. Inwardly he was still royally pissed off, but he understood Fulsin's logic. It wasn't his fault that the arena summoned the reaper and he did survive and learn quite a bit from the fight. Castus sighed and looked to Shi. "Are you doing alright Shi?"

Shi nodded her head and smiled brightly. "I'm glad you're alright Castus." 

Castus slowly stood up from the ground. He still felt enormous pain throughout his body, but it was becoming bearable. He slowly made his way over to the seats near the arena. Sitting down he looked over at Fulsin. "I and I'm assuming Shi, will not step foot in the arena again until this has been resolved." Castus made his proclamation. Half was pride, the other half was a sincere worry for his second life. He had gained a newfound drive to succeed in this life, more so than ever before. 

The life and death battle he had just survived gave him a newfound respect for his will to live and he wanted to respect that. Fulsin opened his mouth to give a response, when a man entered from the back of the arena. He was utterly unassuming and wore a brown cloak over himself that hid his features. "Sir Fulsin, the new functionality has been added and the safety measures are in place." 

Fulsin looked over to the man with a smile. "Yes, thank you Nevar. Please see yourself out. Your payment is waiting with the butler at the door." Nevar nodded his head and left. 

Fulsin turned back to Castus. "Well, you two won't have to wait long then. It sounds like all the precautions are now in place." He clapped his hands together with a smile. "I do apologize for the near death Castus, but if you two are going to hold up your end of the bargain, you are both still need considerably more strength." 

Castus blinked unsteadily at the man leaving and back to Fulsin. He figured it would at least be a few more days of rest before they would be jumping back into it. Whatever this speech would be Fulsin was putting a lot of weight on it and truly wanted them trained up for it. 

Shi however was excited. She rushed into the ring, the familiar barrier going back up. She shouted as the beast was being summoned. "Castus, I know it's dangerous, but Fulsin is right. We need to get stronger, so I'm going to give it my all!" Shi then rushed at a monkey that had plants with mouths for arms.

Castus sat there trying to process everything as Fulsin left them in the arena once again. As Shi fought Castus opened his status window to inspect the changes that had happened while he was fighting the reaper, see his improvements, and distribute his stat points. 

Castus Gliston

Race: [Human]*

Level-15

**User's soul is currently damaged, please refrain from further damage or complete annihilation may occur***

[Attributes]

Strength-29.5

Vitality-30.5

Dexterity-29

Intelligence-131

Luck-35

Mana-630

Stamina-160

[Skills]

{Passive}

-Basic Ryden Language

-Basic Noble Manners

-Poison Resistance (minor)

-Marathon Runner

-Danger Sense

-Low Enchanting

-Low Forging

-Pain Resistance (minor): The skill owner better tolerates pain after extended exposure to severe pain

-Mana Recovery (minor): The skill owner recovers mana at a faster rate than normal due to the constant expenditure of mana and recovery. 

-Mana Overloaded: The skill owner is far more resistant to mana saturation and is able to withstand extreme quantities of mana for longer than normal. 

{Active}

-Rage: Pure unbridled rage consumes you. You lose your ability to reason during this state but gain increased body strength and faster reactions.

{Racial}

-Soul Sight (awakened): After having ones soul damaged the latent potential of you race has awakened slightly allowing one to somewhat perceive souls.

{Blessings}

-Blessing of Creation: One of the many possible Blessings that can be granted to transplants from the Soul Transplantation Corporation. Expand to see more detailed information.

Stat points: 0

Skill points: 14

****Rare Material Discovered****

Soul Essence: wisps of a soul. Useful in healing a soul, creating life, and more nefarious purposes. Consumption of soul essence can empower [Information Blocked]. 

Castus assigned his stat points as usual. The levels he had gained from the arena were bolstering him significantly, although he was still behind Shi for the time being. The higher he climbed the more he realized that the gap between the bottom and the top was nearly insurmountable. Every ten levels provided an increase in the speed at which one grew. He had started to spread he stats out more evenly to help his lagging physical stats. 

As much as he wanted to all in intellect and mana, it was difficult to fight without his body currently and the limitations of the magic he could learn made him worried about committing to a path too soon. He also noticed the three new skill he had gained from the dangerous encounter. Mana overloaded and Rage fell inline with his expectations of what had occurred during the fight. Castus distinctly remembered the pain of nearly losing his soul. 

What drew most of his attention though was the three remaining new pieces he could see. Firstly the soul damage was seriously concerning to Castus. He wasn't entirely certain what ramifications that could cause, but annihilation did not sound pleasant. The second was the soul essence he had analyzed. This was the first time the status screen had ever labeled a material as rare as well as the blocking of information made him uncomfortably shift in his seat. The last and most drawing was that soul sight was placed in the racial slot of the screen, further igniting his curiosity towards his race. 

'What am I?' Castus thought to himself. 

He summoned some of the soul essence he had used earlier against Valex. It wrapped around his arm. He reached out allowing the soul essence to flow into his palm. A warm, refreshing feeling wrapped around him. He instantly felt better. Reading the description of the material, he realized that soul essence was most likely his best bet to restoring his damaged soul. He summoned more and let it sink into himself. 

Once Castus ran dry of mana he leaned forward and recalled his fight with Valex. If that was a weak spawn of some greater creature, this world was far more dangerous than his original estimations. Castus looked over to the rather large ax he had made in the last fight. Chipping away at opponents had put Castus in dire straits. If he focused on going for decisive blows earlier in the fight he may not have had such a hard time fighting Valex. He reaffirmed his belief that he needed to end fights as fast as possible.

Castus caressed the ax in his hand, waiting on mana to regenerate as he slowly etched into the metal, planning to enchant the ax and shifting his plans for his battle style slowly in his head. His drive and motivation had shifted at last. Fully accepting the world around him and he planned to leverage every moment to making his second life better than the first. Far better infact. 

Back with the Trio.

Rys, Alyssa and Cerone had gained a decent bit of notoriety from the sewer expeditions. At first it was a few extra jobs here and there, but soon enough they were taking on a job once every other week as full fledged mercenaries. The money was coming in now at a much more acceptable rate, even with the higher risk, they determined it was worth it. They estimated their income and they projected they would be able to leave faster than they originally told the fungal brood mind, easing Rys anxiety slightly. 

Rys had taken the whole ordeal the worst, even with Cerone taking the brunt of the price. The guilt of lying to the manager and the idea that they would leave the city to burn ate at him. Often he laid awake at night worried. He rolled over in his bed, pushing the nightmares of death and destruction behind him though.