Keith and his friends found another pack of wolves and dealt with them with slight difficulty. After that they ventured further into the forest and fought a few more packs of wolves and were able to advance to Level 3 Soul Soldier.
They decided to rest for a while and refill their soul core by absorbing the soul essence in the air. Keith sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes. He absorbed an abnormal amount of soul essence which entered his body through soul circuits. Soul circuits are connected to soul core which acts a storage of soul essence.
Soul circuits allows the entry of soul essence into the soul core and can also allow Soul essence to come out of the body in the form of talents. The Soul core is located in the soul of an awakener. The soul core houses two energies know as positive soul essence and negative soul essence.
In a soul rift the air is abundant in negative soul essence in which absorbing a large amount of negative soul essence would corrupt a person's soul. An Awakener is supposed to balance both negative soul essence and positive soul essence because if they have more than the other, they will experience soul corruption.
So, it isn't highly recommended to absorb Soul Essence in a soul rift but there is a technic that awakeners use which is called the Conversion technic. The conversion technic allows an awakener to convert negative Soul Essence to positive Soul Essence by multiplying negative soul essence against itself to create positive soul essence.
The soul essence entered his soul circuits and entered his soul core. He also multiplied half of the negative soul essence against itself to create positive soul essence. After absorbing enough soul essence, he decided to use some his soul essence to remove the impurities from his body. He spread his soul essence throughout his body and pushed out the impurities in his bodies. The process was painful but Keith was able to stop himself from screaming.
By removing these impurities, it would increase his soul essence absorption and will also allow him to expand his core without any trouble. A black sticky tar like substance exited his body through his pores and his whole body was covered in this substance.
The substance gave off a repulsive smell. Any other person would be disgusted by this foul odor to the point that they would vomit but Keith was unfazed by this scent and just simply removed it using his soul essence. After cleaning himself, a few system notifications popped up.
[+5 to all stats]
[Name: Keith Kurosaki]
[Race: Dragon Hybrid and Oni Hybrid]
[Title: Celestial of Vengeance]
[Class: Master of Mimicry]
[Rank: Soul Soldier]
[Level 3]
[Soul Crystals:0/800)]
[Talent shards: 20]
[Soul Essence:1100/1100]
[Unassigned Stat Points: 3]
[Physical stats: (Strength-18), (Agility-20), (Defense-16), (Health- ???)]
[Mental Stats: (Perception-16), (Intellegence-17), (Willpower-18)]
[Class Talents: (Permanent Talent Mimicry-S Rank), (Temporary Talent Mimicry-A Rank), (Martial Arts Mimicry-B Rank)]
[Innate Talents: (Great Merger)]
[Mimicked Talents: (Heart Grasp-D Rank), (Ice Wall-F Rank (Ice Spikes-F Rank), (Ice Slash-F Rank), (Ice bullet-F Rank), (Ice Lance-F Rank), (Ice claws-F Rank), (Ice Armor-F Rank)]
[Celestial Talents: (Celestial SecrecyLv1)]
Keith tested out his strength by punching in the air and the force of the punch sent shockwaves through air.
He looked up in the sky and muttered these words in soft tone: "When I am stronger, I'll come looking for you sister." He clenched his first before saying, "That's a promise."
He looked over to his friends who had also undergone the same process and said in a slightly playful tone, "I'll would like to wager a bet." His friends nodded indicating that he should tell the details of this bet.
"The person with the highest kill count gets 5% of the money from the one with lowest kill count."
"Make it 25%" Merlin said.
"10%" Keith said
"deal" Merlin agreed.
"Here are the rules: We aren't allowed to help each other and stealing somebody else's kill will result in disqualification and one more thing helping each other is not allowed," he said. The three separated from each other and went to three different directions.
Keith dashed deeper into the forest and found a pack of sleeping wolves. He picked up a stone from the ground and threw at the alpha's forehead. The alpha was jolted from its sleep and stared at the man who threw the stone at its forehead. The wolf howled and woke up the rest of its pack.
Two wolves lunged at him but as soon as they got to close, Keith decapitated both of them in a fast fluid motion. The rest of the pack stood there frozen for a second before all of them attacked him at once. They threw a barrage of ice attacks right at him but he dodged the attacks using another technic known as Flash step.
After using the technic, he launched himself towards one of the wolves and swung his sword aiming for its neck but the wolf dodged and used one of its front paws to slash him in the chest but soon it realized that it was just an afterimage. He appeared right above the wolf and slashed its head off.
He rushed towards the other five wolves and unleashed a flurry of attacks to their vital points. The wolves were barely able to dodge but they were able to get of that confrontation with a few scratches. The wolves unleashed a barrage ice attacks at him but luckily for Keith, he conjured up an ice wall blocking their attacks. He jumped over the ice wall and shot five ice spikes directly to their heads with skill and precision.
The alpha wolf charged at him in a fit of rage and let out a loud howl that sent him tumbling backwards. Before he could regain his footing, the wolf shot a giant ice spike aiming it at his chest. He used the technic Flash step to dodge the attack.
He rushed towards the wolf and they both exchanged attacks. Each blow he dealt to the wolf more devastating than the last. The wolf start noticing that with each strike Keith was able to penetrate its defenses and his sword strikes were becoming more power by the second.
With one last swing of his sword, he decapitated the head of the wolf.