‘It helps. It helps. It fucking helps if only it didn’t such so much.’

Present a deer with a hopeless situation and it await its death. Give it hope for a chance of escape and it will bolt faster than it could normally do.

Izo doesn’t have much experience in forest hunting as a modern city human so he doesn’t know if they will push through no matter the pain in the escape attempt.

‘It seems I would have to be merciless to my body if I want to escape from here.’

And merciless it was. Since discovering that staring at the unfathomable creature could increase his soul’s strength, Izo had continued at it within reason. The creature would get angry if it was looked at consecutively and just the luck that he needed to regather willpower every time he does so.

One may think that, once subjected to pain multiple times Izo would get used to it somehow. It simply wasn’t the case as he would last shorter and shorter if he did in a short time period.

‘I’m strong. Strong like titanium.’

Izo had to resort to self-brain washing of sorts, imagining himself as inanimate objects. Non-living things don’t feel pain so if he was rock or a block of wood, this would simply be nothing to him.

‘I am 2000-year-old wood. No feelings. When a lumberjack cuts me down, I acquiesce and fulfill my purpose. I am the mountain, Angron. Fuck no I can’t give myself a personality.’

Is he going slightly insane? Maybe. Maybe not slightly. This continuous torture was certain to warp his self in a not so healthy way in the future. Those worries were in the far horizon as Izo could only think about not leaving this place.

So, he continued staring at the being with little rest. A subtle increase in power here. Sometimes nothing perceptible would happen even after a long period of time.

Izo just kept playing the 1% game.

‘Even if its only 0.5% improvement, I will take it.’

At some point during his rest period, Izo observed how the others souls had begun copying him. To different effects.

The soul sizes could be divided into small, medium and large. The small ones like Izo experienced pronounced growth. Those that started early had now reached medium size. Those who were medium sized before only managed to reach halfway towards the large size who just don’t increase in strength at all.

What’s vexing however was Izo grew slower than other small souls. They increase by 2%-3% increments instead of his 1% cap.

He could only guess that it was because his soul was fragmented. Just like a glass where the upper lip part had holes, it would simply dribble on the table no matter how much water was poured.

It was at this point that one of the halfway to large souls pushed itself hard and with its newfound strength, managed to escape the mass’ pull.

The soul was smart too since it knew that the being attached itself to any soul that was far enough from the safe zone. The escape was timed when it was absent and it managed to reach very near the void.

A rift, way smaller than the colossal ones that large pillars of omnimatter escaped from, opened for the soul. Izo could see a would beyond with crying beings in front of a mound of dirt.

‘Was he/she buried? If the rift would send him back to his body, what would happen if it was cremated? What if my body has already died?’

The thought worried Izo. Would he become a free-floating soul?

‘Is this how ghost like the movies on Earth depicted come to be?’

Well, he wouldn’t be able to answer it for now just like the soul aiming for the rift. The indecipherable creature appeared from the darkness and like an angry squid it attached itself to the soul.

It “screamed” loud and more intense than the any of the souls the being had attached itself to before. The medium sized strength also made sure it lasted longer in its clutches thus the suffering took longer than it would surely have hoped for.

Once near disappearing was when the being stopped its attack and let the tired soul float away. Since it wasn’t struggling anymore it simply returned to the safe zone where thankfully it regained consciousness.

Only for a while however since it then decided for the currents to let it rest in the mass. The medium sized soul was converted to the ever shining matter of infinite color where it soon rested in the bed of quiet.

A somber atmosphere visited the safe zone. Izo couldn’t tell since he saw no face or would he even be able to since the other souls were of countless species but he felt the confusion then fear.

‘What was it subjected to that it simply wished to die afterwards?’

For a long while, less souls became brave enough to stare at the creature. Afraid that they would anger it and suffer just the newly discovered pain by their former brethren. When the self-mutilation continued, everyone was more cautious in their timing on when to stop.

*

‘Ah. I’ve reached the cap.’

After struggling amidst the instinct to rage at everything else and most of all himself for what seemed like weeks on end, Izo had reached the halfway to large soul size.

And it definitely was without any side effects at all that was fraying at his mind and making him lose his sense of self.

‘Bad thoughts bad. Not helpful.’

He gathered the floating black smoke that he saw as his black thoughts and stuffed in his favorite jar in the center. His anger disappeared. All those that make him sad went away.

‘The future. Think of it. No, I’m a rock how can I think? Ahhh.’

He grabbed his head, the impossibility of the action with his non-existent body eluded him. The effectiveness of it didn’t and it made the illusory feeling of touching his head actually effective like Izo was clamping his hands to tighten the jar of evil within him.

‘Future. Think of tomorrow.’

Izo continued to recite his new favorite words. He can’t live in the painful now so he must imagine the future. This finally managed to fully calm him down as he thought about the happiness that would come after this suffering. He only needs wait a little more.

‘It is near. Near.’

One other soul was impatient and tried to escape individually. Maybe it was because he was a large one but managed to enter the rift with a sudden explosion in speed. The beast didn’t manage to catch it so like simply forgetting about the offender, it changed target to a newer soul.

Of course, they cheered for the success. One was that cut too short because before the other large souls were about to follow, the soul was spit out of the rift. The being changed its target once more and savaged its strength to nil.

‘Wish I understood.’

Izo was confused on what basis it was sent out. If they didn’t know why it failed then it didn’t matter if they enter the rift.

So, he thought hard about it but couldn’t as lately he found his mind felt foggy. This was despite just sometime before he was getting more intelligent and felt fully rested. Then at some point, there was a nose dive.

He guessed that it was gazing at the being that eroded something within him. There were thoughts of stopping but Izo didn’t in the end. He felt that gaining more strength was more propelling power and insurance when the escape happened.

‘What was thinking bout?’

He knew it was important but he completely forgot.

‘Must not importance. Now wait.’

He stopped raising his strength and instead observed the other souls that were struggling to catch up to them.

One of the souls looked too long thus enraging the suffering beast. It focused its full will at it and overrode the healing of the safe zone. When the soul was destroyed, Izo thought he saw it turn into countless feet on a sphere that was about to grow. The energy of the mass however washed over it and destroyed it before it could turn into another beast.

‘Eh. What that?’

Izo saw what happened and felt it was beyond rare opportunity to learn something about the beast but he couldn’t even begin analyzing what happened. Soon, enough even the memory of it became hazy.

‘Forget. Now wait.’

*

“Are you ready?”

“Are YOU ready Dad?”

“I am.”

It was now the 3rd day of the fifth month since they arrived here. Sun Hee was readying her G.R.E.D. suit, the Sunflower Mark 1.

It was a product of the Dynasty and the number one consensus best G.R.E.D. suit when considering effectiveness, cost and logistics.

It could slowly feed from the spirituality of the user or use sunlight to power itself among other options. Since it was made of a special plant grown for specially as an armor and it housed a shamanic spirit inside, the Sunflower could defend against all manner of attacks especially Dream, Demonic or Psychic ones. It might be worse against physical and elemental attacks but those could be handles by other items.

It was yellow and looked halfway between metal and wood. Quiet, can camouflage, easy to remove and put on, could be equip with lots of add ons and hugs the body, her father also wore one.

There were no branches stick out or other crazy thing, it just looked like yellow wood was covering one’s body with a large backpack from neck to the tailbone.

It was 6 am. They were about to ship out and begin their World Dive level. They were only waiting for the other 13 candidates who would be their teammates.

The departure time was 7:30 am so Sun Hee and Sung Soo still had time to recheck if they missed anything. Except, they’ve been too meticulous and double checked everything.

“I guess I’ll visit Izo.”

“Hmm. You should. I’ve been telling you that he’s fine every time I’ve visited. Don’t be scared at say goodbye to Izo. He just might hear you.”

So, Sun Hee went to his hut. Nervously, she psyched herself to knock as courtesy but a sudden crashing sound was heard inside.