36 Death and Evolution

[0/40 Hp]

[The user has died]

[Congratulations! 5th experience of the main quest completed]

[Main quest: Familiarisation with death]

[5/10 death experiences completed]

[New Unique experience: Suicide ]

[Calculating rewards…]

[Rewards:

+1 Intelligence

+1 Spirituality

+100 Exp]

[Congratulations! The user has levelled up]

[Name: Rhys Anson]

[Race: Enlightened Human]

[Level 5]

[Exp: 25/1000]

[HP: 0/50]

<Statistics>

[Intelligence: 14]

[Strength: 8]

[Agility: 10]

[Stamina: 6]

[Spirituality: 10]

<Skills>

[Spectral Form Lvl 5]

[Aura Detection Lvl 4]

[Energy Absorption Lvl 3]

[Aura Manipulation Lvl 1:

The user can manipulate his aura/energy to his will. Application of the skill is dependent on the user. The more control the user gains over his aura/energy the stronger the skill will get.]

[System shop Unlocked]

[Alert! Requirements for the first evolution have been met.]

[The user has traded in his life for death. The higher beings now recognise him as one of their own. As a welcoming gift, the higher beings grant him new life in death with the bestowal of a heart.]

The sky above Rhys's lifeless body distorted, the air itself seemed to twist and tear as if it was a piece of paper. Suddenly a brilliant bright white energy surged through the rift and struck Rhys's body where his heart used to be. The bright energy went unnoticed by the students walking around the campus because the energy existed in a realm that they did not belong to. Only the animals inhabiting the forest with their superior senses darted out of the way when the energy struck the ground.

Once Rhys's new heart was lowered into his body, the strange energy was sucked back up into the rift, returning the sky to normal.

The organ looked completely out of place for Rhys's body. It was discoloured as if it had been bleached, it was too small as if it was a child's organ, and it was all shrivelled up as if it had been dried out. On top of that, the rhythm of its beating was entirely too slow for a normal human heart.

Despite how wrong it looked, the organ began to twist and churn as its valves and aortas stretched out, connecting itself to Rhys's biology.

[The transplant of the ghost heart was successful]

[Alert!]

[The innate skill of the ghost heart is activating]

The heart inside of Rhys's body beat violently, working hard to restart the blood flow. At the same time, the heart began to glow an eerie white colour. The birds that had flown close to Rhys out of curiosity, and the little bugs and creatures that had encircled him hoping to snack on his corpse suddenly turned around and scuttled away for their lives. Sensing something terrible was coming, they gave up on their will to eat and hurried deeper into the forest.

A moment later, the heart beat so loudly that it managed to jolt the rest of Rhys's body and send a shockwave into the surrounding area. The area around his body suddenly exploded into a flurry of tiny glowing aura particles that were immediately sucked into the small shrivelled heart.

The worms wriggling around in the Earth, the little insects scuttling about the beneath rocks, the grass, the ferns, the tall trees, the birds that did not fly far enough away, the mice and squirrels that did not cover enough ground, every living thing within a five meter radius of Rhys's body exploded into aura particles and were sucked into the ghost heart.

As the energy flowed into it, the heart filled out growing bigger and plumper, no longer shrivelled and too small, it now looked like a proper organ and not something that belonged to a corpse.

Like the heart had a mind of its own, it funnelled its energy through the wounded area, repairing Rhys's damaged lungs and fixing his broken ribs.

[The ghost heart has successfully assimilated to the user's body. The evolution is now complete.]

[Alert! The first evolution is complete]

[Name: Rhys Anson]

[Title: Inheritor, Heart Evolver]

[Race: Ghost]

[Level 5]

[Exp: 25/1000]

[HP: 50/50]

"Gah!" Rhys choked as he suddenly woke up. He desperately breathed in air trying to fill his empty lungs.

"Argh." He winced placing his hand over his chest. "It feels weird." He croaked through a dry throat. It felt like a cold weight was pressing down on him.

['Welcome back. How was your dirt nap?']

"Quiet. Uneventful." Rhys slowly sat up not wanting to irritate the strange pressure pounding inside his chest. After he destroyed his heart with physical disruption, he felt nothing and remembered nothing, except the harsh pounding of something foreign inside his chest.

['You surprised me.'] He mutter incredulously. ['I did not think you would kill your self so willingly, I was certain that I would have to talk you into it, and by that I mean force you to do it.']

Rhys scoffed at the teacher's bluntness.

"After I absorbed the first chapter and learned about how the evolution happened, there wasn't any reason to hesitate." He paused, alarmed to see that he was surrounded by a circle of dry dirt. The ferns that he had chosen to rest in were gone, so was every other plant and bug. He was just sitting in a huge circle of dirt and rocks.

"What happened here?"

['You can go back and read all the notifications yourself, but I will tell you that the organ you were gifted has an innate ability quite similar to that of your energy absorption skill.'] While the teacher explained, Rhys could only frown as he started to read from the top of the list of notifications he got since he killed himself.

['If your health ever drops to zero, your heart will intervene and do this again.']

Rhys glanced around the circle of bare dirt wearily. It somehow felt more sever than what he left behind when he used his energy absorption skill. "It does more than just absorb energy from plants, doesn't it?"

['Yes, it will absorb anything with an aura in order to keep you alive. Plants, animals, and even your friends if they happen to be within range.']

"My new heart can absorb people?" Rhys felt the foreign body inside of him pick up speed the way his heart would when he got anxious. It was acting like a normal organ, but Rhys couldn't bring himself to think of it as such. Instead he felt like he was carrying a concealed weapon inside his chest.

['Yes. And it will not discriminate between your friends and foes when it gets hungry. It will just absorb anything it comes in contact with in order to maintain your life.']

The seriousness of what the teacher said sunk in. If he ever felt that he was close to death, he had to get himself as far away from his friends as possible, otherwise his heart would absorb them. The image of Connor and Aria chatting with him during breakfast suddenly popped into his mind.

['Of course, if you did not have friends you would not have to worry about such consequences.'] The teacher's snicker aggravated Rhys.

In a huff, he picked up his duffle bag from the ground and moved away from the barren patch of earth. He walked until the patch was out of sight and slumped back against a nice thick tree.

He sat there for a few minutes and read every word of the notifications, making sure that he understood everything.

"My titles," He murmured confused as he read over the new information. "I'm called a Heart evolver, because I was given a new heart?"

['Essentially.'] The teacher began, ['I told you before about the physical manifestations of the race of higher beings. The first and most obvious point is the soulless hair. The second manifestation is the evolution point or birthmark.']

Rhys instinctively placed his hand over his chest as he listened.

['Each higher being has what is referred to as a birth mark, the wound with which they offered their lives to become one of us. The spot on their bodies that marks the birth of their new life. Your wound is still fresh but soon the skin over your heart will be marked with a birthmark. It will be further proof of your race.']

Rhys was a little concerned by this. He was already worried about the day his white hair would become noticeable to others, the thought of him getting some elaborate birthmark on his chest was another blow to his anxiety.

['Fear not, idiot.] He grunted, angry that Rhys's mind was drifting away from his words of wisdom.

['Now that you have unlocked the shop, you will be able to purchase items that will help conceal your physical manifestations.']

"Thank goodness." Rhys relaxed into the tree. In the last hour alone he had killed himself, gotten a heart transplant, finally got to level 5 and became a member of the higher race.

"I'm not human anymore." It sounded like an impossible statement but according to the system it was true. After all, no human could live after their heart was destroyed.

"Death is the beginning." He repeated the knowledge that he had absorbed from the book. As if the statement held a power of its own, Rhys suddenly felt energised. He got back onto his feet determined to finish his quest and learn more about Aura manipulation.

"Okay." He grinned pumping his fist against his chest. "Let's do this."

***********************

A man with long white hair grinned wickedly and licked his lips as he zoomed in on the location. By a stroke of luck he managed to procure a portal to the planet Earth through the galaxy's illegal trade market.

Once he went through the portal, he found himself inside a human city referred to as District 20. Luckily the particular human city he was transported to did not have much surveillance, thus he was able to successfully settle into an uninhabited ruin near the outskirts of the city to set up his equipment. The equipment he was using to track the criminal being was a highly sophisticated tool that acted as radar for spiritual energy; a telltale sign of the race his organisation was committed to destroying.

Not even a few days had passed since he had been on Earth, when the alarm bells of his tracking system went off. The system had detected an enormous amount of spiritual energy at a location only a few hundred kilometres away. Although the surge of energy only lasted a few minutes, his equipment was able to pinpoint the location.

The man cracked his knuckles and then stamped out the small fire he was using to keep himself warm. If there were no unforeseen hindrances, he would arrive at the location in a few days. And when he came face to face with it, he would cut it down with all his power.