As grey accepted his fate with Shakey legs thinking about food in his last moments a green blur appeared above the fox where the sickle was deeply embedded in the eye socket.
A second later a hammer hit the handle of the sickle sending deep into the fox's head killing it on the spot but due to the momentum the lifeless body slid across the ground dragging grey who was still surrounded by sharp teeth and bloody jaws.
Grey sat there waiting to die any second the fox decided to bite down. After twelve seconds passed karma got a blue glow to drain from the fox and envelope his body "don't go dying on me now! we still got work to do grey so suck it up or I'll leave you in the dust." Karma said in a smug tone which turned greys crippling fear in pure rage.
" Oh yeah what the hell were you doing ~Oh AlMiGhtY one~ while I was fighting and acting as Damm bait because he was way stronger than us." grey still coughed up blood but he didn't look away from karma.
grey knew deep down he was only mad at his own weakness and not at karmas heroic heart that always wanted to help others.
Not losing his smug face and in a cocky tone "Well if you must know when this almighty one went for joes hammer I remembered something from class and now I'm level eight so suck on that loser!"
"How in the six realms did you manage to level up already when we just awakened…Don't tell us the luck rune really that good?" grey said so amazed he didn't even register the pain hitting him when he spoke.
"You poor naive fool if only you paid more attention in lectures and class instead of sleeping and eating you wouldn't be so lost in life. But fear not I shall enlighten thee… for a small price. I want Half of your hidden snack collection."
Greys face was one of pure shock when he heard what was said "How DARE YOU even think about my snacks they are handmade by me, and you dare seek the fruits of my labor."
"Well to be fair you did steal half of them and most of the ingredients."
"IRRELEVANT!!! I still got them myself." He screamed Grey was so fuming mad he was completely forgetting his near-death experience and absolute fear he felt a few seconds ago.
Seeing how his friend was doing better than before karma gave off a warm smile. "But just think about it, a few snacks that you can restock later on for the knowledge to level up faster which would have been free had you paid attention to our classes."
After thinking it over grey looked like there was a major internal conflict but agreed under the condition that his pudding was OFF LIMITS.
Feeling victorious karma went on to explaining more about their soul runes. There at least seven core stages the rabbit clan know of but rumor in other tribes say there are nine or ten and how each stage had ten steps or levels from one to Seventy.
like how grey was a stage one step one making him just a level one while his own was step eight of stage one making him level eight.
The first three were the low points or just starting; while four, five, six where the mid points. And seven, eight, nine where the high points. But Ten was the point where you reached the next step or was close to it but many just called it levels one through ten. The first core stage was called the soul seed stage because it is the starting point of growth.
grey rolled his eyes at the explanation but listened anyways since he paid for this lesson.
The way to increase the stages is vast including but not limited to slowly absorbing soul energy or (SE for short) from the air to nourish the soul seed making it grow out like nurturing an astral plant, in turn making its host stronger. Or you can use rare minerals and plants to boost it. But the most widely used one is absorbing the SE of a fallen awakened using their purified energy upon their death that is released.
The closer the levels the better but for level gaps there will be differences since you can't fully absorb soul energy more pure than you're own but it refines your soul far better making your more pure than others at the same level.
Grey looked back to where karma was knocked back to earlier and saw joe and someone else's body in the distance and finally put the pieces together.
Before a crazy realization came to him while he stared at the now dead level ten fox. gulping loud grey asked, "does this mean we can level up enough to at least help out the others?"
"Yes, but unfortunately since we just awakened, we won't be able to fully absorb this guy's energy plus we only won this fight because he had no attacks besides his body so was probably a weaker awakened. But anyways just do what I do." Grey nodded to karma's suggestion and followed his movements.
The both sat down near the corpse placing their paws on it. Grey was surprised at how much energy he felt, it was like a river of energy and he could only take a bit at a time so little by little they both drained all the energy.
When they were done grey was now level five, but he could now feel his throat was mostly healed and only felt sore which was a huge improvement.
grey stared at the fox corpse wondering to himself 'i wonder since they get stronger by eating us and then taking our soul energy, what if i just eat them instead' grey unconsciously brought his face closer to the body when karmas voice snapped him out of his trance.
"Rember to pay attention at next lecture to gain more power easier and to pay me the snacks." After hearing about his snack debt grey felt weak mentally but thanked his snacks for their sacrifice in his heart.
After looking through the wreckage, he found some bungee cords or small but long, stretchy green rope with hooks at the ends. seeing these grey put them in his back pouch while taking out the bundle of string. " These will be far more efficient than some thin flimsy string."
Instantaneously the ground all around them started shaking violently and a deep but loud explosion could then be heard seconds later only for a few smaller explosions to ring out.
After grey got power over sound increased so did his hearing which unfortunately caused the sounds from the huge explosion to be even louder and more potent for him.
"Aaargh" grey was rolling around in pain covering his ears with his paws.
After seeing his friend it only took karma three seconds before he put two and two together running up to grey he almost wimperd "shut off your power flow you idiot." Unfortunately karma didn't know enough to force his friends power flow to slow or stop. He was the most knowledgeable between the two of them but still only had basic second hand info.
Grey could still hear karmas through his covered ears. However the pounding echo booming in his head causing a huge headache made it hard to control his soul energy which he barely knew anything about.
karma watched as greys ears bleed slightly.
After a few minutes he could think clearly enough to slow his power flow on pure instinct by breathing slower. this lessened his headache by a huge amount. After a few more seconds he finally stood up albeit wobbly.
"Dam and here I thought elder oak was just being a petty old guy but he was right the sound rune really does act like a double edge sword at times."
After karma made sure grey was alright and back to full strength they headed to the battlefield near the center of the city.
Back where they had left earlier a black mist appeared near the dead bodies and in a echoing husk voice said " Poor young seedling dying so young is just wasting all the youthful potential. NOW accept my power and reborn ye of great promise to the forbidden ones.
As it finished talking a black droplet with a very small eye approached the corpses from the dark mist slowly enveloping joes dead body in an almost demonic manner but not quite.
Through the black goo and mist bright purple eyes finally opened that seemed to pierce the very soul.
"How unexpected! What will you become a dark hero or even a demon to all; let'ssss wait and see this will be interesting." The voice of the mist seemed to disappear whilst laughing maniacally.