“Steel soul! Steel Soul!” I said in an almost panicked frenzy, jabbing at the selection. Maria was giving me an odd look.

Steel Soul Selected! All Damage from Spiritual beings is reduced! Soul Points now act as a Spiritual Barrier!

I felt my spirit energy tightened as if grains of sand were being pulled together in a weaved pattern over my skin. It settled like a warm mesh over my body. Secure and firm, I felt more protected than I ever thought I could be.

“Your energy just... fucking knitted together like a sweater!” Maria said in a gasp. I gave her a frown.

“Don’t call my cool spirit armour a ‘sweater’,” I requested but she grinned.

“If this weirdo place didn’t fucking prove your weird powers... your spirit sweater just did. I can’t believe you level up and get new powers! That’s bullshit and I got powers too! I’m the heroine Priestess of the Dawn!” she was rambling now. Her face was excited and a little sweaty if she was having trouble accepting it all so quickly.

I bent down to pick up the Red Gem and handed it to her. She took it gently, admiring the tiny round gem that had a few jagged-edges sticking out like a snowflake.

"It's so beautiful," she said quietly and I looked at the gem. I hadn't given it an in-depth look before. The small crystal had layers of faceted ridges that twisted the light flowing through it.

In the centre was the tiniest core of the deepest crimson.

"Where do they come from? Are they monster parts?" Maria asked and I looked around at the fading gremlin corpses.

"I think they're really strong echoes left behind in an area by people and the circumstances that happen here. Sometimes they get changed by the monsters holding them but I don't know exactly," I admitted. Maria gave an inaudible prayer for a few seconds.

I barely caught the last part.

"-you for the gift. I'll use it to help people," she said and opened her eyes. She squeezed and the gem broke. She suddenly grasped her head in pain, moaning in surprise she closed her eyes before it seemed to abruptly stop.

"You didn't say it would hurt," she said with an exhale.

"Just wait until you try to upgrade them," I said calmly. Maria shot me a dirty look but she was reading something I couldn't see.

"The System said the skill is called 'Dark Ages'. It's a skill that does faith damage to machines and artificial monster creations," she said in puzzlement. I raised a brow at the name.

"It's range and energy cost is estimated at 'very low'," Maria concluded.

"The System said the abilities are based on our experiences and set path. You aren't great with tech or prefer not to use it," I hazarded a guess.

"You have acid and a cleaning ant... what kind of path must you have been on for that?!" Maria complained.

"I'm a Gamer. At level 1... I'm a freshly made Zanpakuto! Basic but unlimited," I grinned. Maria turned and splayed her hand. A haze of wavy light surged out and hit the wall with no visible effect.

"I just... cast magic!" she said slowly then she began to laugh.

"The Priestess of Dawn's conquest begins today!" she said loudly. I was smiling until I thought about what she said.

"Conquest?" I echoed. Maria hummed.

"I went Chaotic Evil. DnD is about playing something you aren't right? So I was going to topple the current religious Gods and state my kingdom of light," she explained with no shame.

"First off... that's Lawful Evil. Second, I think we should move on and see what else you get before you decide to make your palace?" I suggested. Maria pointed to the far door.

"I don't think your acid is gonna eat through that," she offered. I turned to see a series of interlock metal bars that looked reinforced by heavy-duty bolts.

"Let me figure that out once I sort through my notifications. I just wanted to see if the gems worked without a problem first," I explained. Maria walked off to talk to King who was now cleaning the metal walls and chirping to himself.

Chuckling, I looked to the next box.

Energy has reached 10! Please choose a path for your growth to focus on.

The Path of Endless: Increase Recharge rate of Energy and increases the ability to overcharge skills.

The Path of Unchainable: Makes your energy potent and hard to touch by magical curses, control, or sealing.

Hmm, situation but life saving or constant and helpful? One would help me shut down some abilities that may kill me but more energy would make me effective against almost all foes.

Both would be easy to recreate through skill gems and grinding skills but I did need to make a choice. I could have 100 ENE regen a minute if it was double or even 75 if it was just a 25% increase.

But that protection against abilities to go 'lol no' to my energy was appealing as well. It was like if a Quincy tried to take away a Bankai from me and I just laughed.

In the end, while regen was usually king. Bleach had too many bullshit people running around for me to easily ignore the protection.

I took the path of the unchainable.

I tensed as my Energy surged around me. It pulsed white and was briefly visible like a surging wave. It barely was content to be contained by my own body now but I controlled it.

I felt like if it could, my aura would roar. It died down a moment later and Maria was giving me a wide-eyed look.

"Didn't mean to scare you," I said easily and she swallowed before shrugging.

"Just startled me was all," she denied my words but avoided my eyes for a moment.

"Your energy... it looked like-" she hesitated then went laughed to herself.

"Like a fucking angry bear for a moment," she said, nervously joking. I thought back to the various energy auras in Bleach. They did tend to be a bit dramatic. Kenpachi being the obvious example.

"I'm a regular Pooh Bear," I grinned and Maria rolled her eyes.

"If you call me Piglet, I'll hit you," she warned. I turned back to my boxes but couldn't help myself.

"More like Rabbit with that temper," I muttered.

Well done! You have gained the shield skill!

Shield Skill. Passive. Lv 1: Increases knowledge and ease of handing all shields!

Well done! You have learned the skill: Shield Smash!

Shield Smash. Active. Physical. Lv 1: Slammed your shield into a foe and crush them into the ground. Requires a shield. Cost 2 Energy.

One-Handed Blunt skill has reached level 4! Increased skill of handling weapon.

Fire Affinity has reached level 4! Increased control over fire.

Well done! You have learned the skill: Leadership!

Leadership: Passive. Mental. Lv 1: Increase the effects of commands and orders given to those under your command. Allows you a better sense of your forces at higher levels. No effect on those considered equal or unrespecting of your command.

Boy, I did love me some skills.

The leadership skill most likely came from me commanding King in battle so that was a nice bonus. Shame that I kinda saw most people and such as equals. The annoyance of not having a massive ego... darn. I'm sure once it levelled, its paths would let me choose to affect friendlies for a reduced effect or something close to it.

I walked to the far door and saw the tracks the rail cart should have travelled if we had chosen to take it with us.

I didn't see a place to slot the crystal in or anything but as I neared, a thin beam of light shot out from the door that was about shoulder level. It wasn't hot but the light wasn't... quite normal. It was thicker than it should have been.

I got a real Ark of the Covenant feeling and I tried holding the gem in the light but while it glowed, my hand was too unsteady for it to focus.

"We might need that cart..." I mumbled but King walked over, gently took the gem and held it up. His body the perfection of stillness. The gem gathered light and began humming.

"I feel like having King is like cheating on so many levels," I mused. The crystal hit a pitch I couldn't hear and the door began to unlock due to the sound.

Ah... it was a sound lock? That was really cool and odd for a run-down place.

"It's like a password," Maria said as the door ground itself open. I gave her a look.

"Like in the story of Ali Baba? Open Sesame?" she prodded before she blushed.

"I mean in noise we couldn't say but its the same right?" she mumbled. I thought about it. Password...

If this was based on the train station that was abandoned... why would there be doors needing passwords? Most passwords were digital these days...

Or maybe it was digital? 1s and 0s turned to sound? I eyed the door again and just maybe the odd scratches and bolts looked uniform and gridlike... I was just guessing now but I had to remember that Malice Zones were based on ambient suffering. There was a root cause here... even I didn't understand it yet.

"And I bet if we tried to be quiet, that crystal humming would have brought the Gremlins to us trying to destroy the crystal or the cart," I pointed out.

The twin doors opened as the bell in the distance rang again. The island shuddered and we were treated to the view outside rotating to a new island.

Maria had her note pad out and held it out.

"I drew this while you were studying the cart," she said and showed me a rough diamond shape made up nine circles inside. Maria had marked circle at the bottom outside the diamond as 'way home' and another island to the far north with '???'.

"We're on the first island in the diamond. So it rotates between the next two and then we have choices of two more islands depending where we go but it all ends in the same place," she summed up.

"I have a feeling one or two would be traps or dead ends. This is some railroad maze," I replied, scratching at my chin. Maria looked pleased.

"According to the DM books I found. Good Dungeon makers make dead ends rewarding so we may want to seek these out!" she beamed. I raised a brow.

"And we have a good Dungeon Master?" I responded with humour.

Maria was answered for.

While the circumstance of the Malice is out of System control, the rewards are within control. The Negativity of destroying monsters is used to forge them. As well as random ones found. The Malice is basically a useful resource if refined and cleansed for the human palate.

"Oh good, we're shoving human suffering into our heads for magic missile," I replied dryly.

No pain, no gain.

---

The building ahead, a break room, held four more Gremlins. They were all of the small variety that had turned tables into walls and danging cables into vines. Two of them launched themselves at me which I just waited until they were in the air and turned on the fire.

I didn't think that much through when they hit my shield and chest, burning and smearing greasy flesh down my front.

I was already getting ready to summon endless amounts of Purity Stones once the last two were killed. Maria's rosary hit one as she cursed them to hell.

The Gremlins looked at her as if she were a madwoman before turning to me, deciding fire was better than being cursed at.

Maria's new skills were interesting but no amount of cursing would get me to tackle a man on fire. Must be one of those 'makes sense in your own head' when it affects you.

I tried shield bash and my boiler door glowed slightly, almost drawn to the ground at high speeds as the Gremlin below exploded into a green mist.

The last one died to Maria's chain, the end of the beads hurtling it into the wall.

"Those things do not weigh much," Maria said as she eyed her handy work. I was assuming she was just that strong but not I was thinking about it... It wasn't much effort to slammed them.

"Must be more a 'danger in a swarm' kind of foe. We should enjoy it because based on my last Malice Zone, we're about to see what feeds on these guys soon enough," I looked around as the notifications told us we had gained 12 EXP for the battle as well as progress towards the Gremlin Bestiary.

I now had 12/500. Maria was sporting a healthy 73% now. We looked around the room as King tidied up the gore. He seemed to enjoy being the cleanup guy more than a fighter. Most likely due to the nature of the evolution I chose.

The break room had mostly tables, a trashed salad bar and a vending machine. Maria was searching her pockets for change as she eyed the oddly powered machine.

Why hadn't the Gremlins dismantled it?

Observe said it was just a normal vending machine with out of date snacks but still.

I suggested breaking it to avoid issues but Maria gave me a sour look and muttered something about vandalism. She inserted the change and the machine rumbled. Something clunked into the dispensing slot and Maria bent down to look. She stood up with a Yellow gem.

A rank-3 yellow gem...

"Is this the part where you quote the good book about not breaking vending machines and thus get rewarded?" I asked blankly. Maria smirked.

"And thus Saint Venda Masheen did spread the message of peace and kindness," she said in her best priestly voice. The vending machine behind her went dark and silent. It's purpose now seemingly gone.

She handed me the gem.

"No loot mechanic crap. You get one, I get one. If its a colour you think you can live without or we can't use them because of goblins or some shit, we wait until we get the fuck out and divide up the remaining," she said and then bit her lip.

"I am a bit worried if we bring people in... if we do that they might get obsessed or we might start fighting over the gems. Is that a bad thought?" she asked quietly. I shook my head.

"That's why we make sure people are decent human beings before we trust them," I said, showing her I was agreeing with her.

"Good people start just fine but power can be corruptive. I've even been fucking worried that these thoughts are my greed showing like 'let's not invite people so there's more for me'," she eyed the yellow gem.

"Papa told me temptation wasn't the devil. It would be my own voice in my head," she closed my hand over the gem.

"Russel, if I start becoming addicted or too eager. Don't invite me back. These places are too dangerous to have someone that has anything but their friends well being on their mind," she said then looked shocked.

"N-not that we are fucking friends! I mean, I would love to be for Christ sake but not if you have objections which I can get! I mean I am just a mess and well my cursing and-" she clamped her mouth shut.

"Wanna go kill... some Gremlins or something stupid?" she asked in a quiet voice. I was staring at her with a slow smile spreading across my face.

"Only if I can invite my friend," I said seriously. Maria rolled her eyes but gave a small smile.

"You're a fucking nerd," she said, walking past me to look elsewhere.

I held my yellow gem.

"No you," I called and she looked back.

"Read the group name, I'm clearly the Nun in this duo unless King has been to Sunday school?" she teased. The ant looked up at his name but went back to flipping tables over and removing long-forgotten Malice gum from the undersides.

I focused on my shield and decided to test one of the functions of yellow gems.

"Upgrade!" I said and crushed the gem. My shield glowed before it morphed slowly. The edges became sharped and more uniformed. The bumpy front flattened but the material became firm. One corner looked torn off but as the glow died down and I held a much firm handle...

I now had a very beaten up, and damaged riot shield that actually covered my down to the knees.

"Oh yes..." I said in delight. The perk of yellow gems above all else so far? No head-splitting pain. Yellow gems were cool like that.

Worn Riot Shield. Shield. G-3: A riot shield made with common materials. It has been through more skirmishes than people. It carries its scars well.

I had never been a 'tank' person in my gaming career. I was always the assassin or the mage. But feeling my Energy boiling with the challenge, my Spiritual energy contained tightly to form a second unseen skin, having the secure weigh of a shield, and my vitality making me on a constant runner's high?

I do believe I have had what one would call...

A revelation.

Being a tank felt damn good.

I just had to remind myself that even the shy and weakness Reaper could end me and I wouldn't rank as a threat to anything but normal people and midget Gremlins.

Despite my enjoyment, I still really disliked muscle head players acting like hotshit because they can take a few hits.

I had to be better. I looked over at King and Maria.

I had to be a better Tank for them.