Awakening Abilities

"Are we sure this will work?" Leo pulled Morgana away before she could wake Ath3na up from her passed out state on the craggy ground. "We're talking about evolving a human soul here…"

Morgana frowned at him. "We've discussed this over and over, Leo."

"I know… but what if it rejects the essence she absorbs? What if her soul gets damaged? What kind of side effects can we expect?" he pressed.

Now that the moment had come, Leo's doubts had jumped to peak levels, and his mind tried to recall what might happen to Ath3na's soul.

A prime example of a success story in the soul system that Leo and Morgana adopted from the Abyss and into their game was a lesser denizen named Masamune, the smith Morgana had hired to work the forge of Adventour.

Masamune was a human who'd died hundreds of years ago. And he, like most lost souls, became stuck in the Abyss due to some unfinished business in the mortal plane. Over time, Masamune's soul had absorbed enough of a specific essence that he evolved into the red-eyed creature that Ath3na glimpsed back in town.

Leo believed Masamune's situation was a best-case-scenario. He knew it wouldn't always be the case. That's why creatures called abominations existed in the Abyss. It was a fate he didn't want to shove onto Ath3na's soul. Not just because he thought it would be a waste of a pretty face but because he didn't want to lose player one at the starting line.

"You've seen how strong her soul was when it faced off against the wraith," Morgana said, tapping Leo's arm with her hand, and although her touch was deathly cold to him, there was a kind of warmth there too. "The system we built supplements what came before. It won't fail."

The confidence in Morgana's voice encouraged Leo, and after one final brush with doubt, he nodded his head. "Alright… let me get into character before you wake her up."

Leo glanced down at the hand that held his Deathly Ring and formed a fist with it. He raised the fist high, and as he did, the shadows around him began to gather underneath his own shadow. They joined together and formed a shape that was different from Leo's. And when the process was finished, Leo Dante's own form had changed into that of Maestro, Trainer of Heroes.

"Sh*t, that's cold," Maestro breathed and saw his breath visibly escape his lips. "Every time I put this on, it feels like I'm jumping into a freezing lake…"

"You are strangely good at conjuring shadow illusions," Morgana noted with an eyebrow raised at Leo's disguise. "Good enough to even fool a reaper."

Morgana leaned down toward Ath3na's face and flicked her finger over the unconscious woman's forehead.

Ath3na woke with a start and a scream which Leo thought was understandable given what she'd just gone through. But, as he was currently playing the role of Maestro, he decided it was best if he didn't coddle the players.

"Get your ass up, substitute reaper," he ordered. "It's too early to be taking a nap."

Ath3na looked over her shoulder and saw the NPC who'd sent her on the quest. She pulled herself up to her feet, glared at him, and said, "Your stupid riddle nearly got me killed."

"And now you know," Maestro countered, a smile playing on his lips.

"Know what?" Ath3na asked while still a little irate.

"That a fight against the denizens of the Abyss isn't easy and never will be," Maestro explained.

Although he hadn't planned for it to be such a hard-won fight, Leo thought it was a good lesson to learn before Ath3na got cocky. At least now, she wouldn't jump into every battle without proper preparation first which might keep her alive longer.

Maestro slowly clapped his hands and said, "Congratulations on defeating your first opponent. Now, claim your rewards."

He opened his hands wide in a gesture of a big reveal but an entire three seconds had passed with him in that pose with nothing happening.

"Ahem," Maestro coughed loudly. "Time for your rewards…"

There was a sound of a finger-snapping, and in the next second, a window appeared before Ath3na.

[KEY ITEM: ABYSSALWEAVE BAG OF HOLDING RECEIVED]

[KEY ITEM: MAP OF THE ABYSSAL PLAINS RECEIVED]

"Thanks… but is that it?" Ath3na asked.

Players, Leo thought, always looking for more rewards and never considering the devs' feelings on the matter.

"Check out your player menu… new options should be available to you now," Maestro explained.

Ath3na did as he instructed and swiped at the air in front of her to pull up the menu. She discovered that the [INVENTORY] and [MAP] options had been unlocked.

"Interesting," Ath3na noted.

But as she was about to tap on [MAP], Maestro drew her attention to the object lying on the floor.

"Before anything else, you should pick up the soul stone the wraith dropped and absorb its essence first. That way, you can replenish your already depleted soul core," he suggested.

Ath3na reached out for the turquoise marble on the ground and felt strange warmth emanating out of it.

"This is… a soul stone… but what is it?" Ath3na asked.

"A soul stone is the crystalized form of soul energy," Maestro repeated Morgana's words. "It can be used for a variety of things such as replenishing and evolving a soul core."

Ath3na raised the pulsating stone to her eye level and inspected it more closely. Her brow furrowed. "So… do I eat it?"

Maestro laughed a genuine hearty laugh. "Remember how you coax your soul energy out?"

Ath3na must have remembered it clearly as she'd placed the soul stone an inch away from her lips and began to breathe. A sliver of blue fire floated up to Ath3na's waiting lips. She breathed in these flames like a junkie inhaling the smoke from her joint. With each breath, her body began to glow brighter and brighter.

It felt like only a few seconds had passed, but the pulsating blue light that had once belonged to the lifeless pieces of glass in Ath3na's palm had finally all been transferred to her.

"This feels… amazing," Ath3na whispered in a voice brimming with power.

"Huh, that's way more energy than I thought a lesser wraith would have," Maestro whispered.

It was a whisper he knew only Morgana would hear.

"Her soul core's so minuscule in comparison to the wraith's that its essence is having a significant effect on her," Morgana whispered into Maestro's ear.

"What can we expect?" Maestro asked his invisible partner.

"I don't know…" Morgana whispered back.

Maestro glanced toward where he thought Morgana was and raised an eyebrow at the empty space. "You don't know? I thought you knew everything?"

"I'm not omniscient, silly," Morgana chided. "But we'll find out soon enough… isn't this fun?"

"Sure... as long as this doesn't blow up in our faces," Maestro sighed.

A flash of light appeared at the corner of Leo's eye and he turned just in time to see a new window appear in front of Ath3na.

[CONGRATULATIONS, SUBSTITUTE REAPER, YOU HAVE ATTAINED ENOUGH ENERGY TO AWAKEN THE POWER HIDING WITHIN YOUR SOUL.]

This window vanished seconds later and was replaced by another smaller one.

[DO YOU WISH TO LEARN THE ABILITY: LIFE-DRAINING TOUCH?]

Then a smaller window appeared over this first one.

[YES/NO]

Ath3na tapped on the ability's name to pull up an explanation of its use.

[LIFE-DRAINING TOUCH: The touch of any part of your body can siphon off the life-force from others to heal your wounds and replenish your soul core.]

"Hey, the abilities prompt activated for Ath3na?" Maestro whispered. "I thought that wouldn't happen so soon?"

"Interesting," Morgana remarked. "Her soul core really was small enough that this much paltry essence was enough to trigger a soul awakening."

From Leo's recollection, soul awakening was the term Morgana used when she explained that souls could learn new abilities from the essence they absorbed. However, there were plenty of requirements needed for this to occur.

"Didn't you say compatibility was a big issue?" Maestro asked.

"She must be compatible with the wraith's abilities," Morgana guessed. "Perhaps something in her mortal life makes it so."

Leo thought about Morgana's words and searched his memory for information on Ath3na that they'd looked up after they watched her discover the secret zombie level inside MnMII and predicted she would be their first player.

He remembered that Ath3na was a popular Twitcher who made a living streaming her games online. She had quite a big following who'd given her the nickname, the goddess of gaming wisdom. But that was just her persona. The face she shared with the world. The real Ath3na, Zatanna Ziegler, was a young woman in her early twenties who was responsible for taking care of her father who was bedridden at a hospital.

Leo imagined that a situation like that definitely fit the bill for what Morgana thought of as a compatible life situation. After all, there wasn't a more life-sucking problem than having to pay recurring hospital bills.

Unintentionally, Maestro stepped forward and placed a hand on Ath3na's shoulder. He wasn't sure why but at that moment, Leo and not Maestro felt like wanting to encourage her. It was something he didn't do often — encourage others.

"Have you decided?" he asked.

Ath3na pointed to the window that had popped up after she tapped on [YES].

"It's asking me if I'm sure because awakening the ability will consume my stored soul energy, prolonging the time before I can trigger a soul evolution," Ath3na read the textbox floating before her. "What do you think?"

Before he responded to her question, Leo glanced over his shoulder to the spot he thought Morgana was in and rolled his eyes at her.

It was just like Morgana to prioritize a soul's evolution over acquiring new abilities, which at this low level, were abilities she probably owned already.

Just to spite her, Leo chose the opposite of Morgana's choice and encouraged Ath3na to take the skill.

"An ability may help you get stronger quicker," he said.

Ath3na nodded in apparent agreement. Then, with hesitation gone from her brow, she tapped on yes.

The light surrounding Ath3na's spiritual body disappeared suddenly like a light switch had been turned off inside her. However, in its place, a new window appeared.

[ABILITY: LIFE-DRAINING TOUCH ACQUIRED]

"Now we can get started," Maestro said.

"Get started with what?" Ath3na asked, still in a half daze from her newfound power.

"Evolving your soul core… that's the first step in making her, I mean, you, stronger," Maestro revealed. "Absorb enough essence to gain enough soul energy to evolve your soul core."

"But where can I find more soul stones?" Ath3na asked in a way that was so eager it was almost alarming to Leo as he thought she sounded like an addict desperately looking for her next fix.

"Look at the map you received," Maestro reminded her. "Just call out to it while swiping at the air… That's how gamers usually do it, right."

Ath3na sighed but did as instructed. "Whoa…"

The window floating before her was most definitely a map, the kind one saw in the old days of navigation and seafaring pirates. Most of the map was covered by dark gray clouds but the parts revealed to Ath3na were the yellowing page of old paper.

There were two points of interest on the map. The first, which was to the north of her, was a house symbol with the name 'Adventour, the town of beginnings' written underneath it. The second was closer and to the south of her. It was a large red x-symbol with the word 'Life-Draining Wraith's Nest' scrawled underneath it.

"More soul stones to evolve my soul core," Ath3na repeated.

She took in another deep breath to calm herself, but her eyes were as determined as they ever were.

"Alright," she whispered. "Ready player one…"

---

If only she hadn't gotten caught up in the newfound high soul energy had given her, and if only Leo had encouraged her to pace herself. Perhaps then it wouldn't have ended the way it did and Ath3na wouldn't be writhing on the ground of that dank cave screaming for the pain to go away.

As Leo Dante gazed down at her spiritual body and watched as the essence she'd absorbed from all the wraiths she'd slain earlier eat away at her soul core — bringing with it an unbearable pain that he couldn't even imagine — a feeling of guilt washed over him. This was his fault. She was going to die a horrible death or worse because he'd tricked her into thinking this was all a game.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, Morgana," he called. "But we have to save her."