Using the Loot!

We weren't detained in the station for too long.

Ironically, the pressure of a greater case led to them reducing their focus on us.

They didn't have the time to pursue a minor squabble of delinquent kids acting up.

A murder suspected to have been orchestrated by the 'Servants of God' had just taken place.

Its aftermath was a big enough headache to deal with on its own.

.

.

.

I stepped out of the station and leisurely stretched my arms under the lukewarm morning sun.

A fresh new day, a fresh new start!

It was time to shift gears and fully prepare for the entrance exams.

The chapter of my first assassination could now be safely closed.

After all, I wasn't worried in the slightest about getting caught.

There was no evidence, no motive, a rock solid alibi and an untraceable scapegoat.

What else did you even need for a perfect murder?

Nothing.

Because it was already perfect.

In fact, the only personal connection that I had to the case was the 'S' I had spray painted for them.

Unfortunately, no one will be able to figure out that connection for a long, long time.

Right now, they were probably racking their heads trying to decipher the 'secret message' left behind by the 'Servants of God'.

Was this a cheeky announcement of their attack during the entrance competition?

Did the 'S' mean School? Survival? Safety?

Was this a declaration of war?

The possibilities were endless!

But this frustrating behavior fitted right in with the previous operations led by the organization.

By the time they managed to figure out that this was nothing but a copy-cat murder... I would be long gone from the picture.

.

.

.

I took out the pouch of high-grade pills after reaching home.

The weight of the pills inside send shivers of excitement down my spine.

Finally!

It was time to sprint straight to the energy realm.

I sat down cross-legged and threw a pill into my mouth.

The effects were immediate.

It was like my whole body was floating within a lake of ether.

Without wasting even a single drop, I directed the ether to flow into my soul, which was bound within the crown chakra.

The energy flowed in a thick river-like stream, flooding the entire chakra in the process.

*AHH~*

I moaned in satisfaction as I could feel my soul and chakra strengthening themselves at a rapid rate.

The feeling was like that of relaxing your sore muscles in a warm bath after a soul-crushing day at the gym.

Absolute Bliss.

Completely immersed within the heaven like feeling, I kept on gobbling the next pill the moment I felt the effects of the first subside.

.

.

.

I felt my soul hit its bottleneck when there were only 3 pills left inside the pouch,

Not missing a beat, I swallowed them all and attempted to break through to the next realm in one go.

*WHOOSH!*

As my soul broke through its limits and ascended to the energy manipulation realm, I could feel the difference instantly.

It was like… I was at a completely different realm of existence from before.

I was no longer just a mortal.

I was now someone who had truly awakened!

I no longer needed to enter a meditative state to feel the ether in the surrounding atmosphere.

If consuming the pill felt like being submerged in a hot bath, now it felt as if my soul was floating within an endless ocean of ether.

It felt amazing!

I instantly remembered the method of creating soul-chains that I had learned at school recently and decided to try it out.

After adjusting my mindset for a few minutes to reach an optimal state, I started the process.

First, I resonated the ether with my soul, and tried to pull out a few strands of my soul-essence.

Once I had achieved that, I braided the strands together and kept on washing my ether over them to solidify them into the form of a chain.

At first, the process was going smoothly.

However, the further I progressed, the harder it got.

According to the manuals, if I failed to succeed the first time, I would face a lot of difficulties during my subsequent attempts.

I smirked at the thought of failure with defiance and used all of my willpower to solidify the chain into existence.

30% completion …

I could already feel buckets of cold sweat running down my back.

60% completion …

Every single nerve in my body was screaming in pain as I could feel my soul straining under the pressure

90% completion …

I had to give it my all to not lose consciousness at this point.

My soul felt like it was going to getting ripped apart in two.

95% completion …

Must … not… stop … here.

99% completion …

Almost… there…

100% completion.

... Finally... done!

The pain clouding my consciousness gradually ebbed away.

My soul had stabilized once again, and dangling on its side was a soul chain that had reached 100% completion.

I sighed in relief.

The hard part was now over.

Many people would fail and get stuck here, just before the threshold of the energy realm.

These people would then have to live their lives worse than dogs.

In a world full of beast tamers, where even the least talented groups at least managed to reach the initiate level, they would be the outcasts that couldn't even sign a contract with a single beast.

Having successfully formed the soul chain, my next steps were to find an appropriate soul beat, form a contract with it, and train it for the combat sections.

Fortunately... my spoils from the assassination were just the thing I needed.

I first pulled up my status page from the system interface to see my new data.

....

[Name: Nagi (Nathair Venenon)

Hero Points: 200

Mission World: 1

Objectives Completed: Kill Hero Candidates * 1

Superpower systems: 1

Supernatural energy: Ether

Core: Soul

Core Sea (NEW!) / Activated Chakra: Crown Chakra

Energy Storage: 1000/1000

Major Realm: Energy Realm

Minor Realm: First Chain (1st Grade Ether Realm / Initiate Beast-Tamer)

Cultivation techniques: Seven Chakra Art – Crown Chakra (Harmony Art)]

.....

I smiled in satisfaction.

My Crown Chakra had indeed taken the place of my Core Sea.

What was a core sea?

It was basically an aura field of sorts that existed around the core.

Depending on what sort of core it was, it had different purposes.

In the ether system, the core sea was called the Soul Sea.

The denizens of this mission world, however, had a much simpler name for it.

Beast-Taming Space.

This was the alternate pocket dimension within which a beast tamer could store their contracted beasts.

In fact, this was the very reason why it was so rare to see soul beasts roaming around in the open.

Most people prefer to keep their beasts within their soul space when not in battle-mode.

It was also forbidden to let soul beasts roam freely in public spaces.

The Beast-Taming Space was thus an extremely important part of being a beast tamer.

The fact that my Beast-Taming space or Soul Sea for short had become my Crown Chakra meant a lot!

This meant that my soul sea would have an extremely strong foundation, possess an extremely huge storage size and contain an incomparable richness of ether.

All of which was essential if I wanted to rear the soul beast that I had in mind.

I took a glance at my inventory.

[Inventory]

[1. Mask of Enigma]

[2. Seven Chakra Art - Crown Chakra]

[3. Soul Beast Evolution Rune * 4]

[4. Customizable 5-Star Beast Egg * 2]

[5. Soul Beast Intelligence Awakening Serum * 2]

The gains that I had gotten from Gammon Sylvester were truly beyond my wildest imagination.

Not because I hadn't heard of them before.

I had, it all cost about 50 points in total on the hero store.

The reason I was so amazed was because they were some of the items that I had badly wanted but could not afford due to buying the chakra art.

Additionaly..

It was only after looking at these that I learnt why my target was so obsessed with researching every single type and variant of soul beasts to have ever existed within this mission world.

With a cheat item of the likes of a customizable beast egg, even I would do the same!

Especially since it was a 5-star beast egg!

The number of stars that a soul beast had indicated its overall quality, which included things like rarity, potential, combat strength and value of investment.

For example, the hellfire hound owned by the junior officer was a 2.5-star canine variant.

The beasts owned by Gammon's parents, however... were barely 1 star in quality.

With the customizable egg and my special soul sea, I had the chance of rearing an extremely special snake-type soul beast.

It was something that wouldn't have been possible if even one of the two factors weren't met.

While I was sure that the uniqueness of this beast would be limited once I got to the academy, but within this mission world? It would be one of its kind!

A notification popped from the system when I held one of the beast eggs in my hand.

[Which type of beast would you like to hatch from the egg?]

I mentally visualised the image of my chosen creature - green scales, yellow eyes, forked tongue, venomous fangs, and an extremely nimble figure.

"I want to hatch the 'Snake of Infinity'!"

A red light flashed over the surface of the egg as a drop of my blood was collected.

[Item Bound to Soul! The incubation process will be completed within a week!]

The egg then turned ethereal and flashed straight into my crown chakra.

It floated next to my soul within the soul sea.

My soul chain slowly made its way over to the egg before wrapping itself around it.

The contract would be automatically made once the creature successfully hatched.

The sheer excitement and satisfaction this brought me couldn't be described in words!

Why?

Because if I was able to rear this creature to its full potential, I would be able to steamroll through all my enemies within this mission world!

Just what type of creature is the 'Snake of Infinity' to make me hold it in such high regard?

On the surface, it is an extremely ordinary snake, with average length, appearance and movement speed.

One might even link its appearance to the most common type of forest viper.

While the potency of its venom was extremely high… as far as 5-star snake-type soul beasts went, it wasn't even worth mentioning.

The real terror of this soul-beast came right from its name.

The snake of infinity has the ability to infinitely clone itself as long as there was a sufficient supply of ether.

It could devour the ether from the creatures it consumed to multiply its number and keep increasing.

If left unchecked in the wild, one snake could bring forth an entire beast tide.

The species had already been vanquished to extinction by the upper echelons of humanity because of the threat it carried.

With this soul beast on my side, I would be a one-man army!

Of course… It was only with an abnormally large soul sea that I would be able to store a large number of its clones and use it to its full potential.

Just imagine... the power to destroy an entire city within the hands of an Initiate beat tamer!

No matter how strong my enemy was… with enough numbers… even giants would fall!

This should be enough to leave behind a huge impact on the mission world, right?

I sure hope that this will help me take care of a lot of hidden missions!