Midas's improvements

Before Midas could cast a spell, the jaguar appeared directly in front of him. With its claw coming towards his face, Midas dodged the strike albeit narrowly because there was a claw mark on his face and it was now bleeding slowly.

Midas's heart lunged as that attack happened and he was overcome with fear, he looked towards his master but Licht just stood there unbothered as if it was not his student that just almost got killed.

The Jaguar had already recovered and was currently prowling towards Midas, feeling it already had its meal for the day. Licht saw the fear in Midas's eyes and sighed.

"During the battle, try to be calm. Fear can be very distracting but it can also be a strength. The fear of death might prevent you from it, but never let your fear take over you" Licht said seriously

Midas looked at his master then at the jaguar stalking ever so closely. With conviction in his eyes, he took a deep breath. The Jaguar sensed a change in the environment and immediately dashed towards Midas. It was less than a meter away when it heard two words from Midas's mouth.

"Soul bind"

Then all of a sudden, it could no longer move again. It struggled but it could not break out of its binds.

If a person could see this afar, they would see green chains around the jaguar. It roared and wailed but it still could not get out of its bindings.

Midas walked up to the Jaguar and placed his right palm on its head. The jaguar tried to bite at him but he could not get Midas. The right hand was then engulfed in flame but it seemed it didn't hurt Midas however the Jaguar's wailing and roaring got more miserable. The Jaguar roars became louder and it seemed like it was in a lot of pain. After a couple of seconds, the jaguar dropped to the ground, unmoving. A green wisp could be seen leaving its body and going into Midas's body. Midas sat down immediately, cross-legged. He felt a breakthrough was coming and Licht nodded. Licht waited for over an hour before he saw a dull yellow halo around Midas, meaning Midas had successfully stepped into the ranks of Yellow ranked casters. A 16-year-old boy from the street could kill the mayor of flamehaven and even decimate his mount lion with the swing of a hand like his master.

Midas stood up after the brief killing and looked toward his master.

Licht looked towards Midas and nodded proudly.

"Try checking the soul you just got," Licht said.

Midas nodded and closed his eyes. Within him, there was a green orb the size of a sparrow's egg, if you looked closely, you would see the face of Midas on the orb, that was his soul, and rotating around his soul was another orb half the size of the Midas's soul. In the orb, there was a jaguar imprint on it.

Midas saw the orb and chanted "Soul summon".

A green mist rushed out of Midas, slowly forming till it formed the jaguar he had just killed. It was floating in front of Midas and then he petted its head. The strange thing is despite touching it, his hands did not phase through, meaning the soul was tangible.

Souls summoned by soulmancers can cause physical damage as well as spiritual damage.

Midas de-summoned the soul and went to his master and then they continued their journey.

Time slowly passed by. They have been in the forest of gloom for a week and Midas was different from the first time he was saved by Licht on the street. Midas was looking a bit muscular and no longer scrawny. He had been getting beasts' meat that was rich in nutrients and also working out under Licht's order. Licht didn't see a difference between an enforcer and a caster, he treated everyone the same and would give everyone the same treatment.

In that week, Midas had killed several creatures, ranging from 7th brown rank to 9th brown rank.

Within his soul space, several souls were rotating around his soul. Also, his soul had increased in size. It grew from the size of a sparrow egg to the size of a tennis ball. It was a tremendous amount of growth, even Licht was slightly baffled.

Midas also discovered something odd. The souls within his could consume other souls to improve. Hence, Midas fed all of the 7th and 8th rank beasts to the 9th rank beasts.

He only had seven 9th-brown rank beasts rotating after doing this. He had a wolf-like soul called the sword-tooth wolf. It normally moved around in a pack. Midas obliterated the entire pack and its alpha and fed all of their souls to the Alpha. It was on the verge of Evolving to being a yellow rank soul.

The other soul was a serpent that had 6 eyes in total and secreted frost venom. It was called the frost python. It was currently the second powerful soul that Midas had. He actually struggled against the python due to its mist poison attack.

There was also an earth bear that died relatively easily as its soul was frozen and could no longer move. It had the most embarrassing death so far.

Midas was currently flying in the air with green eagle wings. It was the wings of a Shadow hawk. It was hunting a huge rabbit when Midas mastered throwing and blasting the soul flame from his palm. He became a mini ballista and brought the bird down with a bit of effort. Licht found out from Midas that his abilities were different from the soulmancer he killed several hundred years ago. The soulmancer only had the attribute to summon the souls as warriors and nothing else, while Midas's summons differed. He could transform them into weapons like swords, axes, spears, and others in the shape of armor and wings depending on the characteristic of the beast or the personality of the fallen. Midas loved the feeling of flying so Licht allowed him to fly overhead while the second horse followed behind him.

The last two souls were the giant spider and two-tailed scorpion. They were also prey to Midas during his hunting.

As they stopped, Licht looked towards Midas who was currently eating one of their hunted prey. Midas currently released the aura of someone in the intermediate yellow rank. After only a week, he went from basic yellow rank to intermediate yellow rank. If people heard about this, they might kill themselves, feeling like they are trash.

Licht could not cultivate normally so he was still in Peak blue rank till he found more fragments of his power.

"Master, are we going to go deeper into the forest? I heard we would encounter yellow ranked beast. I am not worried though and I have full faith in you master." Ever since Midas had started cultivating, he noticed the distance between him and his master was still not closing despite his master never cultivating, so he figured his master was unfathomable.

Licht looked towards the dark forest and said "We would have turned around but I can feel another fragment in the center of the forest where the king beast resides. He must have found a way to use my fragment to improve its power"

Midas did not understand entirely what his master meant but he nodded nonetheless.

After eating, Midas now summoned the hawk, instead of the wings alone, and took off, while Licht created a wooden carriage with wood ether energy and connected it to the two horses and followed after Midas into the deep, darker part of the forest of gloom.