Chapter 150: Soul Abilities

“Alright, this time the lord requires someone to accompany him to the banquet. After careful consideration, I’ve decided it will be you.”
“Leave it to me, big brother.”
Hebrew had thought it was some troublesome matter, but it turned out to be such a pleasant task. Without hesitation, he agreed.
“From now on, don’t go to the knights’ barracks. I’m preparing to give you some special training.”
“Big brother, you can’t do this, I—”
A fiery red giant hand instantly pinned Hebrew to the ground, delicate tendrils emerging to cover his mouth.
Seeing his brother like this, Orlando smiled with satisfaction. “You can talk to me again once you can beat me. For now, just listen.”
“Wahhh…”
Looking at his brother’s inexplicable smile, Hebrew sensed that his days of leisure were over.

Meanwhile, after deliberation, the twelve members of Belder selected two silver knights—Mordius and Cassius—the two most skilled fighters among them, both mid-level silver knights.
In the days to come, the two would set aside their duties and dedicate themselves fully to honing their skills.
At the same time, Belder and the others would occasionally spar with them.
To increase the challenge, they adopted a multiple-against-one format, as one-on-one was no match for the pair.
Time passed swiftly, and before long, it was October first.
Vellin rubbed his hands together, hoping the guidance from fate would not bring disaster, for then he would have to constantly worry about solving problems.

“The ancient, eternal beings come quietly, and quietly depart; no living soul can perceive them. Offer them gifts, and they will return gifts.”
“This seems familiar; I think I’ve seen this story somewhere before.” Vellin murmured, gently tapping his temple.
Time flowed slowly as he pondered, and from his memory surfaced the tale from an ancient era.
It was said that forty thousand years ago, a legendary warrior named Kaigrach, as a child, offered his most treasured wooden sword as a gift and received a blessing from mysterious beings.
Their identity was unknown; no one knew where they came from or where they would go.
When Vellin first read this at age seven, he thought it was simply a later embellishment to glorify Kaigrach’s childhood, to explain how a humble serf’s son became a legendary warrior within two hundred years.
“If it’s true, though it does not explain why, or perhaps it’s just someone’s imagination that coincidentally aligns with this message.”
As his thoughts deepened, Vellin unknowingly grew drowsy, and without anyone noticing, he embraced his virtual reality headset and lay down to sleep.

...

Opening his eyes—or rather, lacking eyes but sensing the surroundings—Vellin saw the helmet floating before him. He reached out to touch it, but it was like a phantom: perceptible but intangible.

“Eiya (hello),” an ethereal voice echoed in his mind, naturally conveying its meaning.
“Unknown traveler, welcome to the Deep Illusion Realm.”
“May I ask who you are?”
Communication was not through physical senses; whatever he thought was immediately understood by the other.
“Dream Spirit.”
“Dream Spirit, why am I here?”
“No reason; you are here simply because you are here.”
“Then can I return?”
“Of course.”
This must be the realm where the ancient, eternal beings dwell—the Deep Illusion Realm.
He did not know if Dream Spirit was the name of the individual or the species.
Suddenly, the voice spoke again.
“May I ask, could you give the item in your hand to Dream Spirit?”
“Certainly.” Vellin answered without hesitation.
Suddenly, within his perception, the virtual helmet vanished and was replaced by three glowing spheres, colored red, yellow, and blue from left to right.
“Thank you for the gift. Among these three spheres, please choose one as Dream Spirit’s return gift.”
“May I ask what these spheres are?”
“Dream Spirit cannot tell you; this is a rule of the Deep Illusion Realm. Dream Spirit cannot reveal information to you.”
“Then is Dream Spirit your individual name or the name of your kind?”
“Traveler, Dream Spirit is both the name of the species and the individual.”
“Is that so?”
“Traveler, Dream Spirit must remind you, time is running short.”
Hearing this, Vellin ceased communication and began analyzing the three spheres before him with his own reasoning.
In the end, he chose the blue sphere.
In the next moment, the blue light flew toward Vellin and merged with him.

“Traveler, time is up. Dream Spirit hopes to meet you again.”
Suddenly, Vellin felt darkness engulfing him as he slowly lost consciousness.

...

The next morning, Vellin groggily rose from bed, feeling as if he had forgotten something.
Suddenly, as he touched a potted plant on the windowsill, he inexplicably cast a druid spell.
The plant in the pot rapidly accelerated its growth, then withered swiftly in a brief moment.
Vellin stared at his hands in disbelief as the information about the druid spell he had just cast surfaced automatically in his mind.
“This is a soul skill—Cycle of Life and Death.”
“When did I awaken this?”
“Today is October second. Last night I seemed to receive some message, but I can’t recall what it was.”
He picked up the game headset from the bed and tried to power it on, but pressing the start button failed to activate it as usual.
“It’s broken.”
Vellin felt a twinge of regret. Then he took out a backup headset, which worked normally, so he stopped worrying about how the other had broken.
As for the message he had received last night, Vellin chose not to dwell on it.
Everything told him that he had already obtained what he sought through the guidance of fate.

In the days that followed, Vellin eagerly experimented with his newly awakened soul skill—the Cycle of Life and Death.
Compared to the growth-accelerating spells recorded in the Druid’s Tome, the Cycle of Life and Death resembled more of an offensive spell.
The growth acceleration spell uses magical energy to fuel the rapid growth of plants.
The soul skill Cycle of Life and Death draws energy from the caster’s essence, allowing it to manifest its full power briefly, rapidly draining vitality from the opponent.
But this is only the most basic application. Vellin had yet to separate the life, death, and cycle components within the skill to apply them independently.
However, after half a month of testing, he had clarified the developmental direction of this unique skill.
The current focus was mastery: the first step was to separate the powers of life and death—applying life to one creature and death to another—to achieve rapid healing.