Twenty five cores, Hikaru couldn't believe it. He read the notifications twice, and then a third time. He had suspected that killing creatures of higher rank would come with better rewards but he hadn't expected the rewards to be this high, high enough to push him to the next soul rank so quickly.
He now had more than enough soul cores to become a menace, every other new ethereal was still at threat
There were two mechanisms by which ethereals grew stronger. The first one was rank and rank was earned by conquest, specifically by clearing the floors of the astral tower. There were six floors in total, so there were seven ranks. disciple was the first rank, then there was paragon, then monarch, then exalted, then sovereign, then eternal and finally ascendant. Ascendant was the highest rank an ethereal could ever reach however that was only in theory. In reality, no ethereal had ever climbed higher than Exalted. There were only a few exalted in the world and they were like gods, having absolute dominion and authority.
The second system was the soul rank. The soul rank measured how many souls the ethereal had, and therefore was a measure of how much essence they had. There were seven soul ranks as well, the first was threat, then menace, then calamity, then destroyer, then dominus, then oblivion and at the very top, cataclysm.
Most new ethereal spent a long time being threats and it took a long time to become menaces, however Hikaru had been an ethereal for less than a day and he was now going to be a menace.
He stared at the blue text at the edge of his vision asking if he wanted to level up now and thought about it for a while.
Then he selected no.
There were two reasons why he did this, the first was the simple fact that he didn't know what the process was like, forming a soul core wasn't something anyone had ever explained to him. There fore he didn't now if it was instantaneous or it took time, he didn't know if it was painful or not, he didn't know if it would leave him vulnerable or distracted or unable to move properly. They were still in the forest and it wasn't safe yet, there could be a need for hm to run or fight and if he was unable to do so…
The second reason was standing a few feet away, watching Nameless with an unreadable expression.
He didn't want the girl to know.
She was a stranger and the fragile and temporary alliance that had formed between them was built on proximity and shared danger, there was no trust. He didn't want her to know how quickly he was moving, that he had formed a second soul in less than a day, who knew what she was and what she was capable of?
The remaining wolf hadn't moved all these while, as It watched its fallen comrades, but now it was reward to move, hatred gleamed in its eyes as it stalked towards them.
Nameless didn't wait for it to close the distance, he moved first cutting across the space between them. His blade split through its chest in a single clean motion and the wolf was dead before it hit the ground.
Hikaru heard the voice of the system.
[Wolfhound killed]
[+1 soul core]
Nameless pulled his blade free and stepped back. He had the same controlled look as he wiped the sword on the fur of the wolf, Hikaru stared at him for a second.
He's so cool!
And then, immediately, involuntarily, Hikaru wondered if Mayu was thinking the same thing.
The thought bloomed in his mind before he cold stop it and it caused him to feel a pang of jealousy. Hikaru was mortified, the girl, why would he feel jealous over her feelings? She was a stranger, completely irrelevant to him
So why did he care what she was thinking?
Still, he glanced at her to see where she was looking, she was looking at him with that same flat unreadable expression.
"Your summon is quite strong," she said.
"Yes," Hikaru said. "It is."
He held her gaze for one second and then looked away. "anyway we're leaving now," he added, reaching out and placing a hand on Nameless's arm. "Bye."
He walked away without waiting for a response, pulling Nameless with him.