A few guilds showed interest in me and among them were some big names. Sleeping Lion, Eternal Sword, Red Owl, and Faithful Arrow. While smaller to medium-sized guilds offered me some normal contracts, the bigger guilds did no such thing.

“We wish to have a discussion and explore the nature of your gift so that we might come to an agreement suitable to both parties.”

That’s what the big guilds said in different ways. It was understandable as they probably wouldn’t want to throw too many resources at someone who might not turn out to be very great. Well, I didn’t plan on accepting any offer at the moment. I’d rather grow my gift a bit more so I could negotiate for better terms.

Then again, my financial situation was now in a precarious state. I started my day by purchasing the Synthesized Combat Suit. It chewed through my saving in an instant and I almost wanted to cry as I purchased it.

“Please protect my life from now on.” I held the firm suit in my arms like a gentle lover and rubbed my cheeks against it.

It wasn’t very comfortable, inside or out, but that was a small price to pay for protection. I folded the combat suit into a case before gathering a few bone shards together and storing them in a little pouch. I planned on earning those 800 souls before I entered the ruin with Jameson.

…

A little while later, I found myself in a Class-2 ruin. If I could complete it, I’d earn a nice sum of 100 souls. After that, I just had to complete two Class-1 ruins which usually earned me 75 souls.

I advanced through the linear ruin and discovered my enemies, a pack of dogs with a grotesque amount of muscle. Cave Mutts was what people usually referred to them as. They were far stronger than the average wolf, far stronger. In fact, they were more like lions in terms of strength. A few hundred pounds of muscle compressed into the shape a large canine.

They growled at me as I approached but I didn’t stop my sprint forward and rotated the war scythe as I moved closer. Once one of the dogs were in range, I swung my war scythe downward and split it in half, receiving a boost of power in return along with its soul.

I spun my body to avoid the lunge of two of the dogs and aimed at a third. I left a horizontal slice across its ribcage and blood began to gush out of it like a spout. It let out a yelp as it felt the pain, but its suffering ended quickly as I stabbed the sharp end of the war scythe into its head. I cut another dog in half as I received another increase in strength that paired well with the sharpness of the war scythe.

I had to face one more dog but I didn’t kill it immediately. I dashed toward one of the walls of the narrow tunnel and jumped. I pressed my feet against the wall and pushed off as hard as I could while I still had momentum, launching myself toward the momentarily confused dog.

I heard a high-pitched bark as I impaled it on the tip of my war scythe, but I also suffered as I couldn’t stick the landing. I tumbled forward and released the war scythe while feeling an aching pain in my hand.

I rolled a little and-

“My wrist!”

I was in disbelief as I looked at my dislocated wrist that hung limply before changing my subject of attention to the dog pinned to the ground by my war scythe. My bones were sturdy enough to withstand large impacts, but I guess I still ran the risk of dislocation. My wrist contorted strangely as it snapped back into place while transmitting the sensation of sharp pain through me. I knew that the sudden relocation of my wrist was due to my Bone Mending, which made me feel incredibly grateful. I could continue as if nothing happened, but I would still practice my wall jumping.

There was a whole array of acrobatics and parkour I wanted to practice but would need to visit a Gifted training facility to do so. Penelope’s Dance was amazing, but adding other methods of maneuvering to it wouldn’t hurt much.

After slaying a few more packs of Cave Mutts, I reached the end of the tunnel. There was a chance of the Cave Mutt Leader appearing, a monstrous dog that was close to the size of a car, but it didn’t. The bonus would’ve been nice, but I was satisfied with my current gain of 100 souls. Adding the 620 I already had in my possession, I was now at 720. My excitement grew as I was only 80 souls away.

It was just too bad they didn’t let the average Gifted apply for more than one ruin a day.

“Oh yeah, I needed to see if I could get reclassified as a class-three.”

I unsummoned my war scythe and headed to the exit of the ruin in a good mood. While most people probably found ruin clearing stressful, I had to confess that I quite enjoyed killing things. Well, that much was apparent.

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t been able to put my real gift to much use.”

Ruins that were Class-2 and below didn’t require me to read the memories of the things I killed. Even if I did, I’d learn little to nothing as Clay Soldiers and Cave Mutts didn’t offer much to search through. I’m sure Class-3 would be a different story. I climbed out of the ruin and paid for the material collection fee before changing out of my equipment.

I headed home with full pockets and a greater amount of souls.

…

Two days later, I was finishing my final class-1 ruin.

I pushed forward and easily cut down the slow-reacting Clay Soldiers. As my speed pushed human limits, I used a wall to perform a leap. I shot forward and cut a Clay Soldier in half before sliding, recovering my footing, and sprinting once more.

I wasn’t very proficient at my wall jump yet, but that didn’t stop me from trying. Unfortunately, the number of enemies were reduced to a single one so I could no longer practice the move. I impaled the lone Clay Soldier on the tip of my war scythe before flinging him into a wall. The vague human shape was distorted as it turned into a pile of mud that slid down the wall in a comical manner.

It almost made you feel bad for the monsters that populated Class-1 ruins as they were extremely weak.

I sat down and removed the ivory ring from my finger and watched as it turned into a book. It defied the laws of physics and began floating in front of my face while displaying my wealth.

Current value of souls: 870

Any sense of sympathy I had for the clay soldiers vanished in an instant. I opened my small storage pouch that was meant to hold vials of medicine and retrieved the figurine of a black crow.

I exhaled as I prepared to dump hundreds of souls inside of it.

I toyed with it for a little before closing my eyes and concentrating on the souls stored inside of me. In an instant, the feeling of souls that filled my chest to the brink had vanished.

In response, the crow figurine began to lightly tremble as the souls flooded in. Suddenly, the figurine came to life with a burst of black feathers appearing in my face. A tiny crow flew around me before it pierced my chest like a bullet and left a burning sensation.

“Ah! Why is everything so damn painful?!” I rolled around and resisted the urge to claw at my torso as the searing pain spread across my body.

It soon faded and I was left gasping for air while wiping sweat from my face. A surge of new knowledge filled my head, most likely imparted by the artifact. First, I formed the intention and-

A crow burst out from my chest along with the sensation of my senses being changed. One of my eyes remained the same, while the other showed an extremely wide-view, nearly 360 degrees of visible range. With another thought, both of my eyes showed whatever the crow could see. I had a hard time adjusting to the sudden shift and even felt a little motion sick so I recalled the crow.

“Amazing!” I exclaimed as the crow was absorbed into my chest.

Before getting too excited, I wanted to know what the other function of the artifact was, so I closed my eyes and-

I felt a sense of weightlessness as a burst of black feathers filled the air. My field of view had expanded as I peered through what felt like twenty plus pairs of eyes. My other senses were also thrown into disarray as my mind was filled with confusion. I peered through a dozen pairs of eyes and saw crows through each. Before I could do anything else, I crashed into a cave wall and all the crows suddenly merged together.

“Ouch.” I laughed as the familiar sensation of my body came back.

I laughed and then I began to puke as the effects of artifact enacted a heavy toll. Even as I spewed out my breakfast, there was a smile on my face.

Investing 800 souls into the artifact was really worth it. I’d even go so far as to say that it was a bargain. I now had a recon ability and a movement ability. Whatever magic was at work, it allowed me to shift into a flock of crows for what I assumed would be a short period of time. The best part was the fact whatever I had attached to me wasn’t lost in the process. I was glad as I didn’t know what I would do if I was forced to become naked every time I used the ability.

I wiped my mouth with the sleeve of the synthesized combat suit and headed out of the ruin triumphantly in spite of my mental fatigue.