Path to Soul Sense

A well-equipped party of four entered the busy Harshwood Citadel where thousands of players were gathering from all corners of the Kingdom and beyond, either participating in the soon-to-commence New Braves tournament or purely sticking around to witness it all.

Humans, elves, dwarves, and many other ancestries, with the exception of the undead, could be seen from every angle in the busy streets and corners of the Citadel, many of whom looked like rankers or higher-leveled players from the looks of the weapons and gear they were featuring.

Recordigoes, round metallic objects with wings, flew around the city, capturing the events that unfolded in the opening ceremony.

A largely built dwarf that attempted to grab one of the Recordigoes, perhaps trying to convince everyone that he wasn't much shorter than other ancestries, was rather unfortunate as a laser beam shot out from one of its multiple eyes or lenses, instantly disintegrating him.

—

[You have died!]

[Penalty: -2 levels]

—

The crowd quickly learned not to mess with another Recordigo as the dwarf streaked away.

Since the human population in the Edin Kingdom was the largest by far, their representation was also much greater in the crowds. But there was also a noticeably large community of elves wandering about in the several crowds, seen to join the ranks of humans and other ancestries, or sticking to themselves.

The main reason for many elves gathering in Harshwood wasn't only because elves were the seconds largest population in Soulbound Online. It was mainly because of the elven tribes and villages that were spread out throughout the Kingdom.

The elven population across Aerth might be vast, but not all elves sought to build their Kingdoms or Empires. Only elves that were inclined toward power or sought to rally their ancestry to fend off a common enemy would gather their tribes to concentrate their strength.

Thus, only a handful of elven Kingdoms ever appeared throughout Aerth in its history. And Sightseer just happened to originate from a smaller tribe in the Edin Kingdom.

Mille's livestream had grown exponentially in less than an hour and had reached more than 50.000 live viewers.

The chat comments kept flooding.

[SightseerNO1Fan: "Wow, that Midnight has some kind of special class. His boomerang is cool, but I like Sightseer more. Did you guys see that shot earlier? What precision!"]

[VRguru: "Did you just say Sightseer? Isn't that the player name of a former ranker in Infinity Online? Wait, I gotta research this!"]

[ILikeBIGweapons: "Nah, Facebasher is the best. He can pummel any opponent any day of the week! Hahaha"]

The fandom quickly diverged, and suddenly, everyone had their favorites. Mille was appreciated the most by the viewers, not only because it was her stream, but because her lively and carefree personality had started to become more and more intoxicating.

Many eyes turned toward Evan's party as they entered the inner section of the Citadel where they were supposed to register their tournament participation.

Most gazes from the arbitrarily gathered audience were those of envy or admiration due to their upgraded equipment. However, they also caught the feeling of ill-intent and ill-will radiating from some of the players in the cramped crowd.

Up until a few days ago, Evan's party still rocked their Unique pieces and beginner set armors. However, having spent over a week throughout the Kingdom, farming EXP, and doing Quests and Dungeons, the party had gained plenty of loot drops in their shared party Inventory that they'd been waiting to distribute among themselves.

After all, most of their beginner set items were Unique-ranked, and occasionally even higher rated, thus switching to new sets of equipment made no sense until they had every new set piece they needed, so that everyone got their right types of armors and weapons.

Attacking Ruslow's outpost just happened to stockpile all the missing pieces. And the extra pieces of Common gear were put to auction and the acquired coins were then shared between them.

[VRguru: "Alright, I've done some research. Sightseer was indeed the No. 1 player in Infinity Online a few years ago. However, that player had a male character. So it might not be the same person."]

[SightseerNO1Fan:] "It could be the same person though! I just checked the rankings for Edin Kingdom, the region they're currently in. She's the number one Scouter class in the entire Kingdom! This is crazy!"]

[Anonymous: "Wut? No way! She's that good? Could really it be him?]

[VRguru: "@SightseerNO1Fan: She might be the best Scouter in this region, but have you looked at the global ranking? She's not even in the top 200s."]

[Sellsword: "@VRguru: What do you mean not even in the top 200? Do you have any idea how many players there are in SBO? She being among the top 500, or even the top 1000 is already a huge achievement!"]

[SightseerNO1Fan: "@VRguru: Hmm, you have a point. I guess we'll find out sooner than later!"]

As it became Evan and his party's turn to register after a brief line-up in one of the many queues, they soon gained entry to the Harshwood Colosseum, where the final matches of the preliminaries would take place.

Both NPCs and players soon filled the seats in the Colosseum from the spectator stands as the foursome group and many other qualifiers entered the stadium.

At the podium was none other than the Edin King and the Royal Family themselves, including plenty of other VIPs such as nobility and high-ranking aristocrats.

Even Baron Brickwell was present! Though it did make sense. Why wouldn't he be here for such an event?

The King raised his hand and the Colosseum soon fell silent. Those that didn't offer their respects or quieted down were apprehended by the city guards, barring them from the tournament entirely.

The Recordigoes buzzed around, recording everything that went on inside the Colosseum. This abled everyone on Ferventia to choose the channel they wanted to see in the tournament preliminaries.

"Quick! It's already starting!" Ken gestured toward his family. They'd finally found the right channel.

It was evening and the Cleverly family quickly gathered around their sofa and Holovision, ready to cheer on their son or brother.

"Wow, he's really there." Lauren looked amazed as she witnessed the qualifiers through the Recordigoes. "That girl with red hair, she looks awfully familiar. Where have I seen her before?"

"Damn, lucky bastard. Two hot girls in his party." Ken complained.

Lisa chuckled. "I'll get to be a grandmother already? I can't wait to meet them!"

Thale almost choked on his mouthful of snacks, thinking of the wedding expenses that came along with a marriage.

A Mega Recordigo with four wings, much larger than the normal Recordigoes, but still the size of a balloon, focused on His Majesty Marvallo Edin.

"Welcome to the New Braves tournament!" His voice rang deep in the Harshwood Colosseum as if it had been magically enhanced. "Before we begin, let me ask you qualifiers, the Chosen of the great Guardians, the adventurers and heroes of this era. What does it mean to be Soulbound?"

The question took everyone in the audience by surprise. What was King Marvallo Edin spouting? Wasn't Soulbound just the name of the game?

Now that Evan finally thought deeper, he became uncertain. He'd never considered there to be a meaning behind Soulbound Online's origin or name choice.

The silence continued. No one dared to say anything, afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of a live audience where potentially millions of viewers could watch the ceremony from their homes.

"No one dares to answer?" The King impatiently gestured. "Let me give you a point in the right direction then. Amongst the 15.000 or so participants here or elsewhere in the eastern lands of Aerth, I believe that there are adventurers that might attain something rare– something only a select few have been able to attain since Mother Aerth gave birth to its ancestries. I ask you again, what does it mean to be Soulbound?"

'Something only a few have been able to attain?' Evan's head spun. 'Is he talking about Soul classes? No, it's not that rare. Hmm. Maybe it's got something to do with my class Quest!'

Evan hadn't forgotten about his class Quest: Path to Soul Sense, a Quest with an A-rank difficulty. He'd been unable to make any progress in it due to its quirky requirement. He hurriedly checked the Quest description.

—

[Quests:] [Path to Soul Sense (A-rank):]

[Stage 1: Harvest the soul of another possessor of a Soul class. Progress: 0/1]

[Stage 2: ?]

[Stage 3: ?]

[Stage 4: ?]

[Stage 5: ?]

[Final Stage: ?]

[Description: Reap or get reaped.]

—

Evan now felt that he'd found an answer, but was he willing the share it with the entire audience, revealing that he had a Soul class? Hell no.