[Soul Absorbed: Acquired Sixteen Soul Points.]

Keith kneeled while using his dagger to dissect the giant black scorpion he’d just killed. Over the past few days, he had no longer attempted to avoid the creatures of the Kavala Wastelands. There was even a time that he encountered another pack of Sand Wolves on the turquoise-greenish sand. Although he suffered a bit from disorientation, he was easily able to dispatch them.

Raising his hand, Keith pointed his palm towards the important materials that he scavenged from the Scorpion. They were its stinger, claws, and core. The core was where they stored their mana. All life could use mana with enough training. Everything was capable of collecting and storing mana. Even humans of Earth were now able to use magic. It was independent of skills, just like martial arts. Of course, they could all be augmented by skills. The Hellflame family was notorious for this. With their skill, martial arts, and fire magic, they were equivalent to natural disasters on the battle field no matter their rank.

The moment he raised his palm, space distorted around it, the materials and core disappeared as if they were sucked into a black hole. This was one of the advantages of his Inherent Skill. It had four functions. In order, they were [Status], [Inventory], [Appraisal], and [Soul Shop]. It was all self-explanatory. The reason his System was unique was the fact that he had a fourth function, [Soul Shop]. The other members of the Silvermoon Family only had the other three.

Although he could inherit Anthrus’s abilities, it wasn’t for free. When he killed, he gained Soul Points. In the [Soul Shop] he would be able to spend these points to unlock one of Anthrus’s memories of his abilities. Then that ability would be shown on his status as Level One. He could train it on his own to level it up to level two and higher, or he could spend Soul Points to force it to the next level. But he didn’t feel the need to force the levels to increase. Not only was it expensive, what was the point of having such power if he could not control its output? He would waste mana and stamina. Also, Elena said that there was no use to forcing his abilities to level up. Apparently it had something to do with what she called Universal Laws. Even if his abilities were forcefully upgraded, without the power of Law, the increase in power would not be much. He would waste his Soul Points.

His Inherent Skill was truly one of a kind, but even The System was subject to Universal Laws and couldn’t just disregard them. Perhaps the Divine Monarchs were the only ones who could.

Anthrus wasn’t called the Grim Reaper for nothing. He was able to use souls to strengthen himself. Every time he took a life, he grew stronger. From what Elena had told him, Anthrus was the only person with enough mastery over the Universal Laws of Life and Death to do this.

Strangely enough, due to the mutation of his Inherent Skill or perhaps because the sliver of Anthrus Soul was now merged with his soul, Keith was passively able to do this. Inherent Skills were said to come from the soul, as if they were branded into them. Elena, who had a sliver of Anthrus’s soul merged with her had fused with The System, which was essentially a part of Keith’s soul. Perhaps it was for this reason and also the fact he was Anthrus’s direct descendant.

He couldn’t manipulate souls at all. He did not unlock this ability yet. However, it was thanks to Anthrus and the mutated system that he was able to absorb a small portion of the power of those he killed. Perhaps once he was at Anthrus’s level of power, he would be able to absorb their full strength.

For now he was content with the fact that the souls he absorbed nourished his body and soul. Not only did his body grow stronger physically, his soul did to. Although he could not feel it, he instinctively knew that his soul was growing in size and strength. This was showed in his status.

…

Name: Keith

Hp: 548 Mp: 216

Strength: 24 Vitality: 17 Agility: 29 Intellect: 32

Spirituality: 60 Resilience: 13

Skills:

[The System Lv. Max] [Soul Eater Lv. 1]

[Unholy Incarnation: Lv. 1] [Yin Eyes: Lv. 1]

[Reapers Touch: Lv.1]

...

The status was quite simple. Strength was naturally his ability to lift heavy things, and the amount of weight he could put behind an attack. Vitality was how robust his life force was and how quickly his body naturally healed, as well as it’s resistance to disease, poison, or other ailments. Agility was his speed, flexibility, accuracy and dexterity. Intellect didn’t measure his intelligence. Apparently someone could have abundant intellect but still be a hopeless idiot.

It was eccentric. Essentially intellect measured how quickly his body recovered its mana as well as his thought processing speed. It also represented how strong his body was as a vessel for mana. Physical strength and fitness had nothing to do with one’s ability to store mana in their body.

Spirituality, this one was what Keith deemed as the most important. It represented his senses. It was a representation of his five senses. It also represented his “sixth” sense, such as the ability to perceive bloodlust and killing intent. Perhaps this was the reason for his “Gut” feelings that forewarned of the Sand Wolf attacks. Essentially, it showed how perceptive he was of things both physical and spiritual.

Finally, there was Resilience. It was like strength and agility in that it represented his body. It showed how tough his body and soul is. Physical strength had nothing to do with how well he could take a hit. At the moment it was pitifully low. It actually made Keith feel annoyed. He always thought he was in good shape, but apparently his body soft as butter, it was easily injured.

As for his abilities, it was far too confusing trying to differentiate his Inherent Skill from the abilities he inherited from Anthrus, they couldn’t really be under the category of martial arts as they felt more like skills, especially [Yin Eyes]. The ability was more like a passive skill. It was always active and allowed him to “See” things that normally couldn’t be seen. As for what those things were, he didn’t know yet. This ability and the others he’d gained from the [Soul Shop] seemed more like something that was a mix of skills, martial arts, and magic. To be politically correct, they were created from the power of Law.

Since he didn’t even know one percent of the Life or Death Laws, the abilities were only empty shells. They had “Form” but no substance. From what he understood, they needed the power of Law to show their true power. Keith thought that he would only be able to level up the abilities on his own once he understood even a fraction of the Universal Laws of Life and Death. If he were to forcefully upgrade them to the next level, he was almost positive that they would still only have “Form”, except they would be slightly stronger. However, they would still be empty shells in the end. To show their true strength they needed the power of law.

The more he thought of this, the greater the headache that Keith had. He couldn’t even tell the difference between martial arts, magic, and skills. Weren’t they all the same except for the fact that skills were a bit more unique?

Surprisingly when he thought of this The System changed his status. It filtered everything into one category known as Skills. It made much more sense. When he thought deeply about it, there really wasn’t any difference between martial arts, magic, or skills. In the end, skills were just a means of augmenting ones strengths. They were tools to support him.

Although, Magic and Martial Arts were what he would truly use to fight, The System was like a form of auxiliary support. However, his methods of combat for now were limited to those of a mortal. They all became irrelevant if they didn’t have the power of Law. According to Elena, when one ascended they would be known as Divine Rulers. They had to have comprehended at least thirty percent of a law before they were able to undergo heavenly punishment. If they survived, they would ascend and become semi-immortal.

The higher their comprehension of a law before ascending, and the more laws they had comprehended which reached the requirements for ascension, the more violent the punishment.

While they were still mortal, these people would surely be famous. Without exception, such people who were approaching the limits of a mortal would be SSS-Rank. Anyone could attempt to comprehend a law, but more than seventy percent would fail.

Twenty percent would achieve minimal accomplishments, but would never have a chance to ascend. The final ten percent would be those who ascend. But whether they could go even further, such as reach the level of a Divine Monarch was all up to luck, fate, and countless other factors.

Most people only focused on one or two laws, or possibly three if they were extremely talented. In extremely rare cases which could be counted on two hands among the myriad realms, a person would ascend with the power of four Universal Laws. Countless people had tried, but only eight had survived. They were now all well-known and famous Divine Rulers.

Once someone ascended, there was no limit to how many laws they could learn. However, it was not easy. To comprehend even half of a law took some people hundreds of years, for others thousands. It did not get easier. In the realms where the Divines resided, they lived by the saying “Less is more” when in regards to Universal Law. Those who only focused on one or two laws tended to be stronger than those who tried to comprehend three or more. Of course, rare talented geniuses were exceptions to this rule.

The title of Divine Monarch was reserved for the Four Divine Pillars. Anthrus, Anastaya, Erados, and Syana were the only ones to comprehend not only the entirety of their Laws, but also comprehending more than one to completion, they had achieved the pinnacle of strength.

However, this was still far away. Keith knew even if he became someone considered SSS-Rank, he would still be an ant compared to a Divine Ruler. It was a wall that would take years to topple. But time was the one thing he had the most of. He didn’t have any responsibilities. The only thing he needed to focus on was to grow stronger to find out the mission that Anthrus had left him.

These past few days of learning from Elena had taught Keith one thing. He was only a small drop of water in the vast ocean. He was not truly strong, nor would be considered strong in the near future. It would take years of arduous training, even with his [Soul Eater] ability.