City of Ravens (10)

It was now indistinguishable. After the monsters soul essence entered my soul it mixed with my own soul essence it became one, when I tried to move it, there was no awkwardness or resistance.

With the soul essence calm again, I started to think how I should proceed. To get the soul essence from inside of a monster soul, I need to open them, but if all of them explode, then I will be wasting most of it.

Taking another monster soul, I first surround it with a sheet of soul essence and tightened it as hard as possible. Repeating what I did previously and punctured the monster soul.

Like before the soul exploded but the soul essence prevented any of the residue from escaping. Unlike before there was a lot more soul essence left, and after separating the elemental essence, with no hesitation, I moved all the soul essence into my soul.

A storm in my soul brew again the two almost indistinguishable soul essence's mixed and slowly became one. While this was happening, my soul was already full of the soul essence, and the excess started to push on the bindery starching it and increasing its size. I watched as it was happening to make sure that nothing will go wrong, and when the soul essence calmed down, and the souls stopped stretching I was amazed at the result!

My soul grew! Not only that, it grew at a much faster rate! For this kind of increase, I would need to exhaust myself three times and replenish all the soul essence in the soul before it grew to this point. And now with what is essentially only one monster soul, it grew so much!

If this keeps going like this, then my strength that was already soaring will shot to space! I was already close to the limit, and in a few days, I would condense my soul again, as my control reached the limit.

I made sure my soul didn't have any damage from the sudden growth and repeated this with the other two monster souls!

After doing it, I hit the limit. Three souls from weak monsters were enough to grow my soul to this point! If I can continue this…

I spent two more days in the hunting grounds. Most of the time I spent making my way back while I killed some monsters, training my control over the black feather. In the two days, I learned how to use two feathers at the same time.

When I reached the town, my first stop was my apartment. Emily was working on something, entirely focused on her work, she didn't even shoot a glance at me. First thing I did was to call Master.

"Those feathers must be a self-defence mechanism. You know, this sounds more and more like a blessing. A blessing or an extremely vicious curse. You need to be careful with it. Is there anything else?"

"I wanted to ask, just theoretically, if I had elemental essence would I be able to use it?"

"No, well yes, but not for now. It's complicated. As a Soul Artist, like other artists, you can only use one type of essence. The reasons for it are complicated, but in simple terms, you have one container for one type of essence. Why are you asking?"

"… It's nothing. Just curiosity." I don't have to tell him about the souls. Is it not the same situation as with the heat that helps me to strengthen my body?

"OK then. I have to finish some things up. I finish up here in a month or so, then we can examine those symbols and the ruins."

"Yes, Master."

Now knowing why, I can't control elemental essence, and knowing that I will be able to use it later, made me excited for the future. But it was new news to me that you can only use one type of essence. I know that there are people that awaken with two different elemental essences.

If I have to explain it with the example that master gave me, then when someone awakens the elemental essence would form a core, and if there are two different elemental essences, two cores will form. Maybe when the elemental essence is removed from the soul, a part of the soul, is moved as well and it forms the core?

It didn't matter, from what Master said, 'not for now'. And now that I had some answers I left for the MCA. There I got my reward for killing Crocottas and went to meet with Evelin.

I waited for dozens of minutes before meeting with her. Like before her demeanor was cold and her surroundings ten degrees.

"Good afternoon. Sit down. As you were informed, you were issued a challenge."

"Yes, about that, who issued it?"

"Alexander Novakovic."

"I never heard this name before. I have no conflict with him, why did he issue a challenge?"

"Well, in the papers he said that you 'stole his girlfriend'. The reason doesn't really matter, and it is obvious that this was not a real reason. His request was approved, now it's up to you to accept it. If you reject the fight, you will be admitting you were in the wrong and will be obligated to pay a compensation of 10 thousand dollars."

This is honestly ridiculous. Stole his girlfriend?! I don't even know the guy! And the compensations… this system is genuinely so flawed. Somehow his challenge was approved, meaning that somehow, he has connections in the MCA.

This system, of challenging and compensations, was set up for the artists to settle their difference. They would fight it out, and if the loser continues with the dispute, the government will step in to stop him. In the case of individuals that have a power that can cause so much destruction, there is not much else they can do.

At the start, the system somehow worked. But now it is being overused, and some people are saying that it needs to be changed, but the MCA seems to be stalling. Either way, I had to accept the challenge.

"I accept the challenge, but could you investigate that request?"

"I'm already doing that. I will organise the fight in three days."

"… can you make it a week?"

"If you give me a reason."

"Broken ribs should be good enough. Right?"

"It is more than enough. And you can get papers from a doctor then it can be extended further. The fight will be held here, in the MCA building, you need to show up an hour before the fight. If there is nothing else, ask now."

"Alexander Novakovic, what can you tell me about him?"

"Unfortunately, nothing. We cannot disclose any information about people that are a part of the MCA. Even when they are the challengers. This means that he cannot get any information about you as well. Through official channels at least."

It was obvious what she meant, thus after leaving the MCA building, I went to the hospital. I waited a few hours, got an X-ray, waited another hour and saw a doctor.

"Mr. Blake, it appears that you indeed have a fractured rib. But it looks like it happened a month ago. In two weeks, you will be as good as new. I don't know why you waited for so long, but I will prescribe you painkillers and sign the papers you asked for."

I left the Hospital a little confused. I know that my ribs were broken a few days ago, and it was defiantly multiple of them! Now there is only one fracture and is almost healed. In the past few days, it did stop hurting as much, but I thought I just grew dull to it.

Things were becoming more confusing, and it all started after I got these symbols. Growing in physical strength, summoning black feathers, stealing the monster's souls, and now accelerated healing…

What else are these symbols hiding?