An idiotic smile appeared on Frei's face. There was something soothing about fiddling with interfaces and watching the numbers and options in them grow. He had probably fallen under the sociopathological effect of hoarding present when dealing with patients suffering from loneliness.

At least some smart guy on the internet argued it was related.

"Aaaaagh, the bliss." Frei naturally had changed his identity to be able to use the three crossed out options from before.

Frei Galgani - [Demonic Life Mage]

[Infernopedia]

[Teleportation] - no locations available

[Souls] - 137 affinity-arcane 329 affinity-lithoid 724 affinity-plant 378 affinity-none

[Re-roll Evolution]

[SoulForge] - Reforge abilities by burning souls into them.

[DemonForge] - Forge a new demon body using souls.

[HellForge] - Infuse souls into inanimate materials creating artifacts of unique properties.

In a rush of excitement, he had almost chosen the option of becoming [Arcanite Demon], but quickly realized that he had to stick to the direct derivatives of [Mage], or his body would probably revert back to his original form, ruining his disguise. As for the two options of [Demonic Earth Mage] and [Demonic Life Mage], he had simply chosen the option that seemed to have higher chance of survival.

"We will not be returning back to base, heading straight for our first target will save us time." The agent of The Sigil was mumbling something while he led them forward, but he could not care less about him right now, as he had not yet explored all the sexy tables of his interface.

"Hey, you have a lecherous look." Nitarja whispered into his ear and suddenly covered her mouth with her hand in surprise, her gaze following his oblivious stare that had been locked on their guide. "So that's it! You are a gay, that is why my charm had not worked yesterday!" Frei just ignored her and threw himself at the tables.

The First was the table under [Souls] that he was familiar with

Soul Power 378/329/724/137 [Supernatural Physique] - 10 [Demonic Transformation] - 10 [Stealth] - 10 [Soul Sight] - 15 [Mesmerize] - 10 [Black Bullet] - 15 [Demon Claws]* - 20 [Telekinesis] - 10 [Strength of Stone] - 10 [Hardened Skin] - 10 [Steel Skin] - 10 [Poison Resistance] - 10 [Corrosion Resistance] - 5 [Energy Resistance] - 5 [Elemental Perception] - 15 [Merge] - 10 [Rock Spike] - 15 [Growth] - 10 [Steel Bark] - 10 [Plant Form] - 10 [Undergrowth] - 10 [Sense Life] - 10 [Growth] - 15 [Venom] - 15 [Thorns] - 10 [Penetrating Vines] - 20

After he had reached the next rank, he had all the abilities of the previous rank, but he wondered where were the abilities for the arcane affinity. Not that it mattered as he had still plenty abilities to use, Frei would rather like to see the abilities of his new rank, because he had not received any. Well, he might find out more about the issue while exploring other tables.

Staring at the table for a second longer, he rested his eyes a bit longer on [Supernatural Physique],as it was probably his first ability.

"Ah, the nostalgia . ." after paying the single entry some special attention, his eyebrows shot higher. There was a change!

Soul Power 368/329/724/137 [Supernatural Physique] - 20 [Demonic Transformation] - 10 [Stealth] - 10 [Soul Sight] - 15 [Mesmerize] - 10 [Black Bullet] - 15 [Demon Claws]* - 20 [Telekinesis] - 10 [Strength of Stone] - 10 [Hardened Skin] - 10 [Steel Skin] - 10 [Poison Resistance] - 10 [Corrosion Resistance] - 5 [Energy Resistance] - 5 [Elemental Perception] - 15 [Merge] - 10 [Rock Spike] - 15 [Growth] - 10 [Steel Bark] - 10 [Plant Form] - 10 [Undergrowth] - 10 [Sense Life] - 10 [Growth] - 15 [Venom] - 15 [Thorns] - 10 [Penetrating Vines] - 20

"No way!" He tried to move his body a bit and he could feel a very small change. Thinking that he had found what new he could do at this rank, he proceeded with even more vigor.

Soul Power 368/329/724/137 [Supernatural Physique] - 20 [Demonic Transformation] - 10 [Stealth] - 10 [Soul Sight] - 15 [Mesmerize] - 10 [Black Bullet] - 15 [Demon Claws]* - 20 [Telekinesis] - 10 [Strength of Stone] - 10 [Hardened Skin] - 10 [Steel Skin] - 10 [Poison Resistance] - 10 [Corrosion Resistance] - 5 [Energy Resistance] - 5 [Elemental Perception] - 15 [Merge] - 10 [Rock Spike] - 15 [Growth] - 10 [Steel Bark] - 10 [Plant Form] - 10 [Undergrowth] - 10 [Sense Life] - 10 [Growth] - 15 [Venom] - 15 [Thorns] - 10 [Penetrating Vines] - 20 SoulForged Ability Mutations

Attention, the results of ability mutations have not been verified by divine authorities, the changes cannot be undone and can lead to just whatever.

Frei gulped when reading the red warning and his enthusiasm cooled down by a lot. It was clearly possible to completely fuck up his abilities with the SoulForge feature.

"Fine, let's not touch this one for now. Next." He tried out DemonForge and HellForge, but he had even more respect in front of the DemonForge feature when he imagine how bad he could mess up. In addition, every tweak of his body cost a chunk of souls, souls that he would need for the next rank, souls that he could use to empower his abilities. He decided to give HellForge a shot later, when he had more time and souls, as improving himself and his inherent properties was paramount compared to creating weapons and trinkets instead. The only way it would not hold true would be if the power of the items was scaling better, but he very much doubted that as the power still came from souls.

The three new features turned out not as great as he had expected, but it was quite logical. The top brass of Heaven and Hell surely had optimized the mainstream abilities for the best efficiency and power. The greatest advantage of SoulForge probably was that he could use any souls to fuel abilities' power. He was sure that [Supernatural Physique] with fifty souls from the Divine Universe was weaker than if he poured into it four hundred souls of plant affinity. It was more the matter of utility than anything else.

"But why would I do that?" Unless he found out some extremely good combination, he decided to stick with the standard approach.

He quickly noticed that when he improved [Supernatural Physique] - 10 to [Supernatural Physique] - 20, his total number of souls decreased by ten, but he probably needed ten more souls to fuel the abilities as the sum of needed souls for demonic abilities was now one hundred and ten instead of normal one hundred, meaning that if he used three hundred souls to improve the ability, he would not be even able to afford the ability.

After all the shenanigans with the new features, a simple question lay in front of him. Should he hoard souls for later rank up, or use them to increase his power?

"Well, I will better use them while my skin is still whole, collecting one thousand souls for another rank up will take a while anyway." He might be lucky, but the environment of battling secret organizations would not be forgiving.

After great deliberations, he poured his souls into abilities that he had evaluated as the most useful, while trying to keep some kind of balance.

Soul Power 248/219/414/137 [Supernatural Physique] - 50 [Demonic Transformation] - 40 [Stealth] - 30 [Soul Sight] - 30 [Mesmerize] - 10 [Black Bullet] - 30 [Demon Claws]* - 20 [Telekinesis] - 30 [Strength of Stone] - 50 [Hardened Skin] - 50 [Steel Skin] - 10 [Poison Resistance] - 20 [Corrosion Resistance] - 20 [Energy Resistance] - 10 [Elemental Perception] - 15 [Merge] - 10 [Rock Spike] - 15 [Growth] - 10 [Steel Bark] - 100 [Plant Form] - 100 [Undergrowth] - 10 [Sense Life] - 50 [Growth] - 50 [Venom] - 20 [Thorns] - 40 [Penetrating Vines] - 40

Now his abilities were being supported by total of eight hundred and sixty souls instead of just the basic three hundred after a fresh evolution of a second order mutated fiend. He had significantly boosted his melee combat ability, mainly because he could use a very good synergy for melee abilities and it helped to prevent his death at the same time.

"Well, I should try it out somewhere first." Frei thought and deliberately lagged behind.

"Hey man, I need to piss. I will catch up." He stated and stayed behind the group.

"I think that I will abstain today. I feel with the trees." Nitarja could not let him go without a snide remark and their de facto boss just looked at them like they were idiots.

"Do not get lost." He said and continued walking slowly.

Frei quickly jogged further back, but then he remembered that he had the great virtual testing tool and could test it whenever he wanted. Thus he ended up really doing what he had claimed he would do.

"I wonder what my range is with the new strength boost!"

* * * BLACK FOREST* * *

"Oh, one of them is falling behind, this is my chance." Faltus, nicknamed Scarecrow for his unnaturally sharp facial features still trembled after the two of his brothers in faith had been killed by an agent of The Sigil. They had been on a simple mission to snoop around a factory in the slums that was suspected to be delivering vital components for The Sigil of Meridor's vile work, when they noticed two suspicious people that went by, coming from the direction of The Sigil's local base. They had decided to track them, but had not noticed that another man was further behind. It was the damned person leading the current group of three. He had ambushed them and Faltus was the only one who survived.

"I can't kill the leader, but one bug down will be enough to offset our loses." He would be in trouble if he was to return with just bad news.

He slowly sneaked closer to the man that was about to relieve himself. He was a Mage, but he should not be too strong if he voluntarily did dirty work for The Sigil. Closing on the careless enemy's position, he heard that he started growling like an animal and in the next second . . . .

"Merciful God, he is a monster!" Faltus tripped over a stone on the ground when his eyes followed the golden stream that shot high above the enemy's head, the low growl slowly turned into a mad laughter of the perpetrator, its sound accompanying the unreal spectacle. Suddenly, all courage left him and he ran away with haste.

"Madmen, all the people with The Sigil of Meridor are madmen mutants!" He would rather be punished than facing the unreal monsters of the cult.

* * * * * * *

Suddenly, something ran out of the bushes nearby and dashed away, startling Frei. He noticed it too late, but judging by the skinny frame and brown color, it was probably a stag.

"Interesting power, but enough nonsense, I will better return to the two before Nitarja rapes the poor guy." Frei swiftly walked back to join his group.

He breathed in the fresh air of the Black Forest, finding the environment even somewhat pleasant. Frei expected to be undertaking quite a walk before catching up to the rest, but they were oddly close and it did not take long at all to rejoin them.

"Oh, I have thought that you would be much further down the road." Frei was surprised by their leisurely pace.

Their new boss looked at him, but said nothing.

"We would have gone further, but then we overheard a suspicious sound that might have belonged to a dangerous animal." Nitarja explained while fidgeting slightly.

"Indeed. Let's go." The boss just said and was on his way, probably regretting the moment he had opened that door for them.

"Ah, I understand." Frei was sure that his face was red, he had just been overexcited because of the evolution and had not paid attention to his surroundings much. " . . .and I guess you went to investigate."

He left the question hanging in the air.

"Yep, and we found . . ." Nitarja inched closer to him. " . .. a mighty dragon."

She stretched her quick hand towards him, but Frei dodged with ease and was on his way after their guide.

"Come on Frei, can we just fuck already?!" She shouted after him while following in his steps.

"You should drink more water, the drugs might still be in your system." He shouted in return.

"You are no fun." She mumbled and the three kept going through the Black Forest.

Frei wondered why Nitarja behaved in such an overly slutty way, he did not believe that it truly was who she was. Considering her extreme circumstances, it was probably a behaviour compensating for some kind of trauma. Although he had a mild interest in psychology and sociology, he was still no expert.

In time, he would surely find out if they kept their lives long enough.