The ripple missed the soulless with his first attempt and sheared the roof off a parked car to the left of the large soulless. The noise alerted the large soulless causing it to stop then face in his direction. Even in the darkness, Noah could feel its pitch-black eyes lock onto him. The soulless' twisted features let out a low snarl as rancid drool flew from its mouth in a spray as it began to charge towards him.

He let out a curse as he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he resisted the urge to turn and flee. He could hear his heart pumping in his ear as the soulless started racing towards him. The monster was almost on top of him as Noah braced himself to hurriedly swing a second [Wind Blade] slashing towards the soulless, leaving him feeling exhausted. This time the cut across the creature's torso completely bisecting the soulless in half with a single slash.

Noah felt a stream of lifeforce similar in size to when he first absorbed the grade one black origin crystal flow into him from the now lifeless soulless corpse at his feet.

Noah collapsed where he was standing as the shock and fatigue from what had just happened kicked in, leaving him shaking from the adrenaline flooding his veins. Fortunately, there were no other soulless in view after the first one had made its way toward a commercial fishing boat drifting close to the dock.

The boat appeared to be lit by oil lanterns, revealing a large group of soulless crowded together. The soulless were attempting to swarm the boat, with a few being pushed into the harbour by their peers. Noah could see a man aiming a rifle while standing under the lantern light with two women holding fishing gaffs at his side.

The women were preventing the group of soulless from swarming over the railing as a strong looking man tried to use a plank of wood to push off from against the dock.

That [Wind Blade] ability drains a lot more of my stamina than my [Six Spirit Arm] ability does.

I'm almost exhausted after only using it twice. Is this the difference between a common and a rare ability? Or is it because it belongs to an augmented weapon's ability and not my own?

He unsteadily pushed himself back to his feet.

It is powerful though. It completely sliced that big soulless in half with energy to spare. It even easily cut through the roof of that car. I almost feel like I wasted it by attacking only one soulless considering how much stamina it cost.

I feel like a boat in the harbour should be safer to sleep in a city overrun with soulless. But I don't know if I can safely make it. The alien merchant also said that it would become more dangerous as soon as the Trial Phase ends.

He made his way over to the top half of the bisected soulless. He then crouched down to use his sword to retrieve the black origin crystal from the dead creature's skull. This black origin crystal had two flashing lights within it. He focused on the black origin crystal in his hand and felt the powerful lifeforce contained within.

Noah was more cautious this time as he allowed the lifeforce to flow into him after he finished examining the crystal properly. All he could sense inside with his mind was darkness, along with the two flickering lights that contained a large amount of lifeforce.

He began to tentatively absorb the lifeforce as he felt his stamina completely recover. Noah was also shocked to discover a vast increase in his lifeforce. The grade two black origin crystal contained remarkably more lifeforce than the grade one crystal. Resulting in an overwhelming increase in Noah's lifeforce.

So that was a grade two? It doesn't seem very scary when facing it using abilities. I wonder how much harder they are to fight without using abilities compared to a grade one.

It didn't take too long to finish absorbing the black origin crystal.

Noah started to stealthily approach the crowd of soulless as he tried to determine the best strategy to make his way onto the boat while trying to get an estimate of the soulless numbers, as well as their potential grades. While he observed from behind a broken-down car, the person holding the rifle fired another shot into the crowd of soulless.

He saw a ripple in the air emanating from the muzzle of the gun, he was actually able to see the bullet's trajectory. The bullet hit a lunging soulless squarely in the chest that had tried to leap onto the boat. Due to the change in the atmosphere after the alteration along with his own enhancements, the bullet appeared to be moving in slow motion.

While Noah reflected on this new discovery, one of the women used her fishing gaff to hook into the midsection of a soulless trying to board. The gaff became stuck as it was dragged out of the woman's hand as it collided with another soulless as they both splashed into the harbour.

He heard a scream of panic from someone below deck, as one of the soulless made it on board. Just as the cry rang out, the man with the pole managed to cast off from the dock, preventing any more soulless from making it on board. The people on board the fishing boat disappeared from sight as they dealt with the new threat. A short time later, Noah heard another couple of gunshots followed by a cheer from the group of survivors as they succeeded in killing the invading soulless.

I may be able to cut a path ahead of me because I feel like I could use the wind blade at least a few more times now than before when I was fighting that grade two soulless.

He started to think of how he could get past the crowd of soulless and onto that fishing boat with the rifleman on it with the least amount of risk to himself. Noah also considered hiding on a different boat but didn't think about it for long as he had no easy method of casting off.

After analyzing the mass of soulless on the docks, Noah began to feel a tingling sensation in the back of his mind. Opening the System Interface, he discovered a hazy symbol beginning to take form alongside his [Six Spirit Arms] ability. When he intently examined the symbol, he couldn't see what it was as it was continually changing.

I think that a hazy symbol must be a new ability that is about to take form. I have no idea how long that's going to take. I would generally be happy about a new ability. But not right now. Unstable lifeforce will turn me into a beacon for that growing hoard of soulless when right now, that's the last thing I want. It could get me killed.

[User is undergoing the Rite of Awakening.]

As if to answer his thoughts, Noah heard the voice of the System inform him that he is in the process of awakening a second ability. He decided that his best course of action was to hide for the moment until he completed his [Rite of Awakening] especially since he didn't want to face the soulless in the dark as they were terrifying enough in the daytime. The fishing boat had also drifted away from the dock for now. He went inside an abandoned warehouse nearby.

After a quick search confirmed no apparent signs of soulless residing in the building, he barricaded the doors. There was a glass-paned window belonging to an office on the second floor overlooking the warehouse floor with a wooden staircase leading up to it. Noah ascended the staircase and did a quick survey of the room and discovered that it even had a small bathroom ensuite attached. After a brief consideration, he went back to the staircase before deciding to risk using a wind blade to destroy the stairs while the approaching soulless were still far enough away to prevent them from surprising him in the night.

As Noah prepared to attack the stairs, his hair stood on end as his breathing became ragged when he became alert enough to notice any changes that the destruction may cause in the soulless outside. He closed his eyes as he silently prayed before swinging the sword.

"Here goes."

As the wind blade was released, he heard a loud echoing crash as the staircase was torn apart with splinters of wood raining down. Noah began to curse to himself as he quickly retreated into the office room. As he closed the door at the top of the stairs behind himself, he put his back against it then slowly slid down to sit on the floor. He felt his body go taut as his heartbeat could be heard inside his ears as he stretched his hearing to its limit.

After what felt like an eternity, Noah finally released his pent up tension as he breathed out a sigh of relief when no soulless appeared to investigate. He climbed to his feet as he realized he was starving because he hadn't eaten in what felt like days.

"Alright, how do I use this thing?" Noah asked himself as he began to play with the zero-space dimension ring on his finger.

He felt his consciousness drawn into the ring as his mind returned to the black empty space of the Store. This time it was only his mind and not his body. What floated in front of him was the three [Grade 1 Potion of Healing] along with the thirty [Grade 1 Rations] he had purchased.

I'll be able to hole up here for a while with this, hopefully at least until the [Rite of Awakening] finishes. Then the soulless will no longer be drawn to me.

The objects were grouped together and lined up in an organized order while lit by a mysterious light source. As Noah thought about the item he wanted, one of the rations flew towards him. He then felt his mind leave the zero-space.

He looked at the ring he had been playing with and was a bit taken aback to discover that he now had a ration resting squarely in the palm of his hand. It felt as if less than a moment had passed while he had been inside the zero-space.

"Well, that's… convenient," Noah then placed the ration into his mouth.

As it was inside his mouth, the ration dissolved into pure energy that flowed into Noah's body, washing away his fatigue and restoring his stamina while quenching his hunger and thirst completely, leaving not even an echo of his earlier discomfort.

Noah realized that the pain coming from his back had stopped entirely, so he pulled his shirt off and used the mirror in the bathroom. He was astonished to discover that his back now had a newly formed scar running from his right shoulder towards his hip.

"Wow, that potion of healing really lives up to its name!" Noah exclaimed.

Noah didn't intend to brave the horde until his [Rite of Awakening] ended, little did he know that he was in for a long wait.