A long briefing

James was stunned when Master Lee came and greet him in the room with a big smile.

"James, my boy!"

James immediately went into defence mode when he saw Master Lee.

"Don't worry, I am not here to kill you. Hahaha!"

"Haha…" James forced his laugh.

"Congratulations, you are now one of us!"

"What?"

"You heard that right boy, now let's going and start your briefing."

Master Lee went and picked him up and put him on his broad shoulder.

"Wait, wait,wait…."

"Time is gold, boy. Let's get moving. Demons won't kill themselves you know."

Master Lee brought him to a training room filled with young men sparring with each other and lifting heavyweights. It practically a gym room.

"Assemble!" shouted Master Lee.

Everyone gathered and sat down in front of Master Lee. Master Lee put down James like a baby. Back then, this man was trying all his might to kill him but now he is treating him so nice. James was not comfortable with this.

"Listen here, young lads! This is our new member. Jamie!"

Everyone clapped.

"Hey, my name is not Jamie, my name is-" he was cut off.

"Alright, so from today now on, please take good care of Jamie. Make sure you nail some muscles into this boy."

"Yes, Master!"

"Alright dismissed! And here is your clothing. Wear it now and join them." The clothing is white and has a green "No Pain, No Gain" text printed on it.

Master Lee left the room and the group of young men swarm around him.

"Hey, how much you can bench?"

"Want to look at my muscles?"

"See these legs?"

After that, he was pulled to do a few sets of heavy lifting. He didn't even have a chance to explain himself. The atmosphere was too intense for him to speak up.

Benchpress, bicep curls, squats, deadlift…you named it, he did it all. And he did it impressively.

"Wow, you can bench heavy for a guy with your size!"

"God damn! You sure can lift heavy!"

A few of the boys commented.

The session lasted for 3 hours and James was exhausted.

"So how's Jamie boy doing?" Master Lee came into the room to observe.

Everyone pointed at the exhausted James who was panting.

"Jamie! Come follow me!"

"Sure."

James followed him to another room but this time it was just the two of them. Upon entering, he felt an abnormal pressure being exerted onto him.

"So how did it feel?"

"Mentally exhausted."

"Physically?"

"Strangely, I am impressed by my own strength."

"Haha. That's because you are using Soul, my boy. And you, my boy, has been assessed to have the Earth Nature type."

"Okay, can you please tell me the things I should know about this?"

"Explaining the Soul is pretty complex but if you want to break it down there are 4 basic elements you need to know. Fire, Water, Earth and Air. Those are the four basic elements that a Soul is made out of. I am the Earth Nature type so my Soul is more towards enhancing my defence and increasing my physical damage. Of course, if you are very good, you can even do this."

Master Lee showed his bare arms and it turned black.

"Touch it."

James touched the arm and it felt rock hard. The sensation of human flesh was no more to be felt.

Then, the arm turned back to its original colour again. Which is light brown.

"What I did just now is called Hardening. By focusing my Soul and utilize the nature of it, I can harden specific part if I focus on it. Hardening your entire body for a solid defence is workable as well but that will exhaust your energy pretty quickly if your Soul capacity is limited. Hence, it will be more effective to harden certain parts while keeping others just as it is."

He continued the explanation.

"You didn't feel fatigued even after lifting so many heavyweights is because your Soul has increased dramatically after having so many fighting session with me. Think of it this way, a skinny guy who can use Soul is capable of breaking ten bricks in front of him. There's a limit to how much your physical body can grow but there's no limit to how much your spiritual body can grow. You understand so far?"

"So far so good."

"Good. However, another thing I would like to tell you is that although my primary Soul attribute is Earth, I can still focus on the other elements of my Soul. For example, I can increase my speed thanks to the air aspect of my Soul. That explains why the size of my body can move that fast. However, there's a limit to how much I can grow in the air aspect because that is not my Soul's nature. Hence, it would be foolish of me to improve myself in the air aspect when I have already maxed it out. You understand boy?"

"Yup. So far so good."

"Since now you now that I can use both Wind and Earth. A combination of other aspects of Soul can give birth to interesting abilities. A great example will be the healer responsible for healing you. He has the combination of both Earth and Water and that gave him the ability to repair organic parts. Well, there's a legend saying that if he is truly talented, he can even create life but that's impossible unless you have an unlimited supply of Soul Energy. So here's another lesson, using too much Soul can kill you. Normally, your body will tap out when you used up all your Soul but in a certain situation, you can exchange your life force for a huge supply of Soul. And that will kill you."

"I will keep that in mind."

"Good. Another thing here is everyone has Soul but not everyone can use it like the way how you and I do. It needs two things to unlock the ability to use Soul."

"What are those two things?"

"A strong will or a traumatic event. However, normally those two can be linked together. When a traumatic event happens to a person, a strong resolve either in the form of hatred or anger can unlock a person's ability to assess to its Soul. But not everyone needs a traumatic event to trigger their ability to use Soul. If your will is strong enough, you can easily unlock your ability to use Soul."

"Hmm…."

"Anyway. If you want your Soul to be tough, you have to put yourself into a difficult situation. The more you overcome those difficult situations, the more powerful your Soul is. After all, the Soul feed on your resolve to do something. The stronger your resolve, the stronger your Soul will be."

"Ok, ok."

"Alright. I am not really good at explaining all this type of stuff but I am sure you will get used to it the more you are exposed to it. Moving on, you still remember how I blasted a hole in your stomach?"

"Yes, I did. But there was no actual hole though."

"Well, that's a form of Soul attack. It is an attack aimed directly at another person's Soul. It's pretty useful in dealing with demons who have hard skin body where a normal physical attack cannot hurt them. You experience it yourself so you ought to know how effective it is."

"Yea…" James touched his stomach. Although he has recovered, he still could feel that moment when Master Lee tears a hole in it.

"And, that form of attack is incredibly difficult to use. You have to sync your energy with your opponents to make those attacks. It's extremely dangerous to use it on a demon because of their corrupted Soul. Without a strong mental will, you can easily find yourself being tainted by their evil."

"Definitely will keep that in mind."

"However, to begin with, I think you are already a good Soul user."

"Huh?" James raised his eyebrows. "Why is that so?"

"You were able to beat a demon to death, isn't it? With your body size, it is impossible to generate the necessary strength to beat through a demon's tough skin. The only reason for it is that you subconsciously use Soul."

"Is that so?"

"I couldn't find any other reason to explain that phenomenon. Furthermore, you were able to recover from a Soul attack this fast is considered a miracle to many people. With this, I would like to inform you about another thing, Jamie."

James didn't bother anymore that Master Lee is calling him Jamie.

"Since you have the talent to use Soul, please be careful not to get overly conceited. Your talent might be the reason for your downfall. We used to have a member who was just like you but he has betrayed the organization. And I am telling you this because who knows, by chance, you might bump into him. So listen carefully, if you ever encounter anybody which called himself the 5th Demon Lord, Resghvar, please don't overestimate your ability and just run."

"Resghvar? Is that his real name or he just made it up himself to sound cool?"

Master Lee burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha, oh, Jamie boy. Well, that's not his actual name. He called himself that after he let himself be corrupted by the demons. His real name was Tim Ur. I used to call him Timmy and he hates it."

"Alright, will definitely remember that. About the running away of course. I don't think I could defeat a demon lord."

"Yes, you are right, Jamie. A Demon Lord is nothing to play around with. Even we, the Master Exorcist who has slain many high tier demons found ourselves struggling when dealing with them. They were a total 4 of them originally but now it is 5 because of good old Timmy decided to join them. And then, there was the possibility of the resurrection of their Creator, Lucifer which was according to the Scripture, possess power way more than the current 4 Demon Lords combine."

"Hmm, the demon side seems to have a lot of power. How about the powers on our side?"

"Well, sorry my boy, can't disclose to you too much information about that. Who knows that maybe you might end up like Timmy over there and becoming their 6th Demon Lord who happens to know all of our secrets. The world will surely be at the mercy of those savage demons."

"Hmm, true enough."

"Well, I guess that's should be enough of explaining. Do you have anything to ask me, Jamie boy?"

"There is 3 more Master Exorcist like you who specialized in each element of the Soul?"

"Yes, you're right. We have the hot-tempered Master Ryan. We have the light-headed Master Elion. And we have the chill and cool Master Ren. And lastly is me, the bulky and muscular Master Lee."

James cringed at the unnecessary self-introduction.

"There's also one more thing I heard about from Lily. She told me about a special kind of weapon that is used to slay demons. What is it?"

"Lily?"

"Lilian Srien.'

"Oh, that girl. About that weapon. Yes, every exorcist must carry it to kill a demon. You see, not every one of us can use Soul so effectively as the Master did. And even if we use Soul to inflict damage onto the demons, that doesn't mean that it is enough to kill them for good. But, with the weapon made out of Silver Steel and being washed and forged using the Holy Water blessed by God Himself, the weapon is capable of inflicting holy damage to demons and slay them for good. It's like carrying a part of God with you to accompany you in giving punishment to those demons. We call it the Holy Weapon. It's the demons' natural enemy."

"So what's your Holy weapon?"

"This fist of course. HAHAHA. I'm just joking. Besides, these iron fist, I carry the Holy Weapon as well and it is a long double-handed sword. You will be getting one for yourself of course, alongside with the medallion that we used to detect demons. By the way, you can't choose which form of the Holy Weapon you want to use. The blacksmith will choose it for you and it will stick with you for life. Like a soulmate."

"I see."

"Anymore question?"

"Yes, one more? Why do I feel so heavy?"

"Hahaha! I was starting to wonder why are you so calm and relaxed throughout the whole conversation. You see, the cloth I gave you is imbued with my Soul and I made it heavy so that you can train your body all the time. And one more thing is that I have made the air around here to be heavier than usual. It's part of my skill as an Earth Soul user."

"Can you revert it back to normal?"

"Sure, no problem, Jamie."

"Oof, thanks."

The overwhelming pressure James felt disappeared.

"Alright, that's all the briefing. You will be officially welcomed as a member of the Exorcist from tomorrow onwards. Make sure you are not late. The details are already inside your room."

His room, James thought. How long has it been since James had slept inside it?

After the long briefing, James went back to his room.

"Number 137," he murmured.

"That should be it," he thought.

After so many days of staying in the infirmary, James had forgotten the way back to his room. So he asked around.

"Hello, excuse me, may I ask how do I get to room 137?" he asked one of the staff. The staff looked at him weirdly.

"Room 137? Why are you going there?"

"Erm, my room is room 137."

"Huh?" the staff had this confused look on his face. "Well, just go up this staircase and reached all the way to the top."

"Thank you."

"I wonder why with the weird face."

James climbed up the stairs and it occurred to him that the environment looked unfamiliar to James.

"If I remembered correctly, I don't feel quite right that this is where my room is."

It was a mixture of his mind struggling to convince him that this is the right place and another part of his mind telling him this is not the right place.

But what did he know? He only got to sleep in his room for just one day and he was being put into that hellish training afterwards. So, he did not really know which side of his mind he should listen to.

"Well, my mind may be playing tricks on me."

One steps, two steps. He climbed the stairs steadily and reached in front of a wooden door with a metal number plate 137 hanging on it.

James turned the doorknob and pushed the door in.

He was immediately greeted with a gentle breeze. There were two things he saw when he opened the door.

One, the window is wide open and the curtains were flapping.

Two, a girl in bed were looking at him.

It was at that moment, James realized.

"Shit…this is really not my room."