Soul Power Tier

It was more than a week after the incident with the newest Soul Slave, the Earth Fiend. Hana had named her Semut, just because she awfully looked like one(1) albeit with some glaring differences. 

Semut's body was composed of a mixture of grayish hard stone with black metallic lining her exoskeleton, giving her a sleek but dangerous vibe. She basically looked like an organic motorcycle-sized mecha from Arash's favorite anime filled with flying robots in outer space. The metallic lining wasn't present at the beginning, making Semut appear feral yet nervous, giving an illusion of being harmless, just like a snappy toy poodle. 

It only appeared when Semut attacked Hana. That little poodle suddenly transformed into a fierce mutated pit bull seeking blood.

Since that day, Kuro had been adamant about making her rest although she felt that she had recovered at a hundred percent. She was only permitted to cultivate her Soul Chant, nothing else. She had been working on exploring the myriad of new 'borrowed' skills she suddenly had thanks to the effect of the Soul pact and was forced to stop by the previous mishap. What made things worse was the lack of proper reasons for it. 

What Kuro said made absolutely no sense! It only made her more confused.

What does it mean by Soul Power tier, Ku-chan? Hana asked a new question for the eighth time after they had gone through the unimportant ones. 

It meant what it is, Mommy. Kuro answered briefly as he showed an awed expression filled with reverence towards a certain bewildered aunty. 

Come on, Ku-chan. There must be more than just that. You keep on telling Mommy to stay in because my Soul Power Tier increased, but Mommy really doesn't understand why. Do remember, what is common sense to you is special knowledge to me. Help me out a little bit. Why do we have to keep on resting like this? Mommy is perfectly fine. Hana started to whine in exasperation. 

Realization dawned on the little black snake as he observed Mommy's frustrated look. He grinned sheepishly.

Aha, that is true, Mommy. Sorry, sorry. It's like this. It's like you're a baby snake who just shed her skin to grow into a kiddie snake! Tara! Now, you're a bit stronger than before, yay! When we Lightning Serpent shed our skin, we have to rest for a few months to a few years, depending on our tier. So, Mommy really needs to rest more to prevent further problems. Kuro gave himself an internal thumbs-up at the elaborate explanation while feeling triumphant. 

Hana slapped her own forehead helplessly. Obviously, her little Kuro was bad at explaining. She wanted to cuss, but she controlled herself as she didn't want to tarnish her own motherly image.

"If I may, interject, Mistress Hana." Gramps Alpy who happened to pass by came over with a slight smile. "Allow me to explain, Lord Brother Kuro."

"Sure, Gramps!" Kuro acquiesced easily as he chuckled. Mommy was like an open book. He knew she was getting annoyed by his explanation though he wasn't quite sure why. He was being extra informative today for her sake too.

Gramps Alpy had bonded well with the tyrannical Kuro until Kuro started calling him 'Gramps' as a sign of respect, much to the amazement of the others. His social skills were top-notch. Even better than Chomper, since he did not have to grovel over the twin Lords by the Mistress Goddess' side. Instead, he was kind, helpful, and always positioned himself as a wisened elderly who had bountiful knowledge in all fields! He always gave excellent advice that helped improve the Lair as a whole while lightening everyone's burden effectively. He was a God-sent all-knowing Grandpa that the Lair didn't know it desperately needed! 

Even Shiro respected Alpy and called him 'Gramps' too! 

Hana noticed Alpy's method of integrating himself into the folds of the Serpent's Lair and did not say anything. In fact, she was very impressed with Alpy's intelligence and prowess. At the moment, Gramps Alpy's social standing had risen so high, that he was just slightly below the twin Lords as he enjoyed the reverence of the brethren and workers of the Serpent's Lair. The old turtle was careful not to overstep the twin Lord's domain and genuinely revered the Mistress Goddess. This couldn't be faked since Hana could observe him directly through his soul. There will never be a single lie between a Host and its Soul Slaves.

"Mistress Hana, for all creatures of the forest, the heaven and earth energies have been our staple to increase our powers. However, there is a small group of creatures who can manipulate a few different kinds of energy, and Soul Energy is one of them.

To my limited knowledge, Soul Energy is a primary-classed, most fundamental type of energy every living being has. Without it, we couldn't power our souls to keep on living in this world. When a Soul dies, what is left is a husk, which will slowly wither away. Soul energy affects one's cognition and ability to digest information. A creature with high Soul energy almost always has extraordinary comprehension and powerful arcane arts. Hence, although their improvement is generally slow, they rarely have bottlenecks during breakthroughs into a higher realm.

For normal spiritual beasts, one's Soul Energy will remain the same in their entire life, unless they go through an evolution into a higher form. Only creatures with the ability to use Soul Energy will have progression in Soul Energy increment."

Gramps Alpy paused to check whether the Mistress still followed what he was explaining. Hana nodded, showing that she understood somewhat. It sounded so familiar! The aunty would need to reread these kinds of statements a few times when she came across them in books.

Gramps Alpy continued, "So, in Lord Brother Kuro's capacity, Mistress is a creature who manipulates Soul Energy to increase your strength, just like him. And, you had broken through a significant bottleneck, faster than you should be. Maybe not into a higher form yet, but it might involve the capacity expansion of your soul energy. Simply put, before, your power could only contain a small puddle of Soul Energy. Now, after the improvement, the puddle expands into a pond.

Is this correct, Lord Brother?" Gramps Alpy turned to Kuro and asked.

"Yes, yes, yes! Spot on, Gramps!''

Gramps Alpy nodded and continued, "For Serpents, as you know, they go through molting when they improve significantly. This is this humble one's deduction since I wasn't clear on how a Lightning Serpent goes through advancement. A Serpent-classed spiritual beast will have to go through hibernation to fill up the empty 'pond' to the brim before it can efficiently use their newfound powers since all the water inside the pond dries up totally to expand the little puddle into a pond. That is why Lord Brother Ku advised Mistress to continue cultivating. As this old one understands, serpent-type spiritual beasts needed months to years to stabilize their realm. Generally, it is dangerous for one to not stabilize their realm after an advancement. It could affect one's future progress since the foundation will be very brittle.''

"Yes, yes, absolutely correct, Gramps! As always, you're the best!" 

"...I see. Thank you for your elaborate explanation, Alpy. You may continue with your task." Hana had a thoughtful expression for a long time as she stayed silent. Seeing the Mistress deep in thought, Alpy the Mire Tortoise excused himself politely.

When the Mire Tortoise was out of sight, Kuro added excitedly, "Mommy, do you know, you have advanced your Soul Power to the Third Tier! In less than two months!"

Looking at the confused Hana, Kuro explained, "Spiritual Beasts are usually First Tiers, meaning, their souls are at best, at the most basic level. You are like that too, Mommy, when I meet you for the first time. And I was once at this level too when I just hatched." 

Hana nodded. This was still within her expectations.

Kuro continued, "The difference is, because I can use Soul Energy to improve my Soul Power, my Soul progressively grows through the Infant Stage or the First Tier, and then, now, into the late Adolescent stage, the Third Tier."

Hana nodded again, "Okay, that's quite clear. And?" 

"Do you know how long I took?"

Hana shook her head. Probably a couple of months, hence, Kuro was trying to tell her that she's a genius? Hana chuckled under her breath. Seeing how cute Kuro behaved, Hana had an inkling that Kuro was still in his teens. For snakes, it probably took less than a year to reach maturity, right?

"Fifty-nine years."

Hana, O_________________O

"And this is considered as phenomenal. I heard others achieve this level at their three-hundredth mark or so since it was so slow to advance. Additionally, my ancestor, the Lightning Emperor lived for a few thousand years before it went into hibernation for its latest breakthrough two thousand years or so ago. Nobody knows whether it succeeded or is still alive or not." Kuro shrugged.

"You see, Mommy? You're really suitable for this cultivation! You must have an ancestor who was a Lightning Serpent before! Or maybe, we have the same bloodline during the primordial ages. We could be related!" 

Hana became speechless. Absolutely impossible.

...

Three days later.

"Are you ready, Aira, Aina?"

Arash ruffled the sisters' little heads and purposely messed them up. Aira was particularly annoyed as she had put extra effort to pin her hair prettily. She was still grumpy with her papa's inability to plait her hair the way Mama always did it for her. 

"Papa! My hairrrrrr!"

Arash laughed warmheartedly. He loved teasing his two little girls and made them all riled up. 

"You're still super pretty, Ai. It actually brings out an untamed beauty look." As usual, Arash started to talk nonsense with a serious face.

"...Really?"

"Yeah, our number one beauty!" Arash showed a confident thumbs up to his eldest while suppressing a laugh at the now unkempt bedhead. The innocent Aina copied Arash's posture and did a thumbs up too as she cooed cutely. Arash patted Aina's head goodnaturedly and gave a peck to the cheek as she squealed with delight. 

Arash pulled the grumpy big sis to a small chair, unclipped all the hairpins, and started to brush her hair to make it right. Everything was done in five minutes.

"Although the wild untamed style is lovely, Papa preferred the princessy-neat type of beauty. Just like this." Arash spun the chair facing him and pinched Aira's nose. 

Aira finally smiled as she tiptoed and gave Papa a peck on the cheek as a thank you. "Where are we going again, Papa? Are you sure you don't need to go to work?"

"Vacation. You'll love the place, girls. We're going hiking into the forest, yay!"

"Yay!" All three of them happily jumped with both fists in the air.

"Oh, and, don't you guys worry. Your Papa still got his job. In fact, I might get a rise huhu. By the way, Uncle Alan is coming too." 

Aira's eyes lit up in delight! The subject for her photography practice session with a nature background will be there too yay!

mrs.mooncat:

To be clear, Alan is not really Aira's uncle by blood. Over here, whoever is older by a wee bit will always be called 'Bro' or 'Sis', while one who is as old as the person's parent will always be called 'Uncle' as a sign of respect. 

1) ..awfully looks like one = Semut means 'Ant' in BM, just a literal translation. Yep, our aunty has gotten lazy

...