Spirit Soul

Panting heavily, Kyle could barely stand on his feet. His entire lower body felt like a mashed potato.

Sadly, the upper half of his body didn't feel much better.

However, at the same time, he couldn't help but smile brightly to see something that finally made him feel relieved.

It was a large, decayed soul that detached itself from the Undead Giant's body.

His grip around the longsword loosened, and he could barely take two steps forward.

The adrenaline that had been coursing through his body receded.

Once again, he felt as if exhaustion was crawling up his spine.

Somehow, he managed to rush forward and drag himself.

His fingers closed around the Undead Giant's soul before his legs gave in.

Pushing the soul into his sore chest, he took a deep breath, pushing his hair out of his face.

He could distinctly feel the soul disintegrate into countless particles that were released within him.

Activating the Nurture ability, Kyle instantly invigorated himself as he felt energy course through his veins again.

Only then could he see through his blurry eyes and see the body lying in front of him.

Taking in lungfuls of air, Kyle recuperated slowly as he ignored everything else around him.

He laid down on the ground, and felt Arashi's soft fur brush his face.

Like him, the Spirit Soul was utterly exhausted.

As such, Kyle used the remaining energy inside the Nurture ability to invigorate his little Spirit Soul.

After all, the fox had been the major contribution in his victory.

Caressing Arashi, he smiled at the little fox that let out a small cooing noise.

It was then that it lay down next to Kyle and both of them fell silent.

The only noise in the now silent hall was that of the little fox snoring lightly.

Both were overjoyed to have been able to defeat such a strong opponent as the Undead Giant.

But, the tiredness that had seeped into their bones made it impossible for them to keep their eyes open.

Instead of celebrating their victory, they chose to rest a little.

Nevertheless, Kyle was fully aware of the kind of achievement they had managed to attain.

'We just defeated a close combat-oriented Giant youngling that would have become an Elite if it had only lived longer!'

Under normal circumstances, they would have died.

But fortunately, the Giant hadn't been able to utilize all of its attacks owing to its Undead state.

If it had been truly alive, Kyle knew that both he and Arashi would have been dead long ago.

There were no doubts about the living, breathing Giant killing both him and Arashi in a matter of minutes after stepping out of the portal.

The strength possessed by the Undead Giant already was too much to handle.

Their achievement was tremendous, and if possible, Kyle would have loved to sleep right now.

Unfortunately, time was not something he could freely distribute right now.

As such, he forced himself to stand up, once his body had recuperated to some extent.

Every cell in his body felt sore, but Kyle tried to ignore it.

He simply asked Arashi to return inside his body, where he could sleep.

Afterward, he took a look at the Giant's Undead core and picked it up before storing it away.

Kyle also stored away the heavy longsword, in case he might require it in the future.

Once that was done, he turned towards the hourglass to check the rough time he was left with to choose his reward.

Because he fought against an opponent like the Undead Giant, the 10th Wave's reward had to be even better than the one from the round before.

As such, Kyle was eager to see what he could obtain.

The castle's creator had been generous about the reward of the 9th Wave.

He had already obtained something extremely precious, and Kyle found that it was extremely difficult to top that one.

When it was time to choose his first materialistic reward, Kyle wanted to make the right choice.

As such, he stared intently at every single item and weighed his options carefully.

He was in no hurry and took some time before trimming down the large set of choices he had.

In the end, Kyle was prone to using knowledge as a strategic means.

He may not be the best strategist, but he was aware that knowing something others might not know, could lead to his victory.

Owing to that, he had followed his gut feeling and accumulated knowledge as a scholar in his past life.

All the possible rewards Kyle was presented with made it difficult for him to make an informed and calculated decision.

He spent some minutes in confusion before arriving at a decision. Kyle's choice would have astonished many if they were aware of what kind of rewards he had missed out on.

There had even been cultivation manuals at a much higher grade than Selene was using which was a very tempting offer.

But, he ignored the temptation and chose something he didn't really need.

Though this decision would look stupid, Kyle's instincts were telling him to go ahead.

As such, he had chosen a large tome that should guide him for his future, or to be precise through the Castle!

[Karnias heritage]

Karnias heritage held every little detail of the Castle, including every single treasure that could be found within.

For a second, greed glimmered in his eyes to think of the treasures.

However, his rational brain told him to not give in to the temptation. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was just the scheming utilized by Karnias to fool weak-willed people.

These rewards might be found inside the castle.

But there was no way to figure out how they could be procured, or what kind of requirement one had to meet.

As such, Kyle decided to take the first few pages of the tome as a means to introduce himself to some valuable items.

However, what he found in the pages were the Castle's path, all kinds of beasts that could be found inside and much more useful information.

Unfortunately, Kyle had yet to find time to read everything. As such, the only thing he had done with the book was to look at the glossary and glance through the list of items that could be found in the castle.

Yet, now that he had procured the perfect book to further increase his chances of survival inside the castle, Kyle wanted to find another means to do the same.

Increasing his chances of survival was the most important, and there were quite a few things he was lacking.

Though his combat prowess had increased during the last few weeks, it was far from the best.

But, he could only take his time to slowly cope with the changes, increase his proficiency in both martial art techniques, and further comprehend the essence of the wind.

Despite that, time was not something he could be rewarded with anymore.

Thus, he had to take what he required almost as much, if not even more than time- Food and Water!

The reward of the 8th Wave was a buffet, but the food supplied to him would only be enough for him to last for a few days.

Because of that, Kyle wanted to figure out if there was a way he could choose a suitable reward for successfully completing the 10th Wave.

To his relief, the number of rewards available for him after passing the 10th Wave had increased drastically.

Thus, he had to make a choice from a wide variety of items.

It was difficult, but after a few hours had passed, Kyle's body and mind had fully recuperated.

He felt refreshed and felt that he had received the necessary energy to make his final choice.

[Castle: Unlimited Supply]

This was what he chose to be rewarded with in the last wave he completed.

Kyle knew that 'Unlimited Supply' didn't mean anything specific, but he could tell that it was the best for him.

He was running short of everything he would need right now so it only seemed fitting.

He had been thrown into a weird place, he knew nothing about, with nothing but the Jars' spatial ring, the clothes and equipment he was wearing, and a few miscellaneous items which Kyle had found inside the spatial ring.

Other than that, he was glad that his weapons were not lost.

Had it not been the case, he wouldn't have survived the Entrance hall's trial, or the Tutorial, Kyle called it lovingly.

After inserting some soul force into the wooden sign that had [Castle: Unlimited Supply] written on it, Kyle suddenly felt a slight prick on his hand.

He felt as if a hot needle had pierced through his skin. It was only then that his eyes fell on a weird rune that had been engraved on his hand.

This caused him to frown and he instinctively tried to rub it off, but nothing happened.

That was to be expected, and Kyle began to wonder if he would have to run around with a black rune on his palm.

However, just at that moment, he thought of inserting soul force into the rune.

A moment later, a piece of bread appeared on his palm which was exactly what he had hoped for.

This caused his eyes to widen, as he next imagined a flask filled with water.

Once again, only a moment passed in which his soul force was drained as a flask filled with fresh water emerged in his hand.

"That's amazing!" He exclaimed while watching the rune curiously.

If she were to be honest, the black rune in his hand looked somewhat hideous.

In the end, the Unlimited Supply was something that only worked inside the castle walls.

As such, it would stop working outside, giving Kyle the ability to get rid of the rune.

At least that was what Kyle was hoping for, otherwise, he would have some problems.

With a piece of bread in one hand and a flask in another, Kyle approached the Door of Fortification.

He didn't even think about trying to pass the 11th Wave.

He made no mistake in guessing that the following opponent would be stronger than the Undead Giant.

As such, Kyle only stored away from the Undead Giant's bones, thinking that it would be a shame to leave them behind.

Looking back at the gigantic entrance hall once, he left it before entering the first Trial of Karnias' Heritage!

**

He confidently stepped through the Door of Fortification that was still gleaming in the same faint hue as before.

This indicated that his strength was still at the peak of the Initial Fortification stage. But, Kyle couldn't help but halt in his tracks the moment he saw what the first trail was.

'Fuck…

I was never good at mazes…'

In the past, there had been a few times he encountered mazes when he had been young and playing with his friends. Unfortunately, most of the time he had been lost and needed help to be brought out of it.

'What was the rule...always take the left route and if I encounter a dead-end, I should mark the intersection…'

Kyle felt that his memories of the past were slowly fading off.

It was as if they were being replaced by the countless new ones that now occupied his mind as he was constantly gaining new experiences and memories.

As such, the old ones about his former life were slowly becoming less significant.

Amongst this was the feeling of being old.

Right now, his hormones and entire being were that of a young man in his prime. As such, his mind was slowly adapting to his age, making him act like he was much younger than his soul's age suggested.

Because of that, Kyle sometimes astonished himself because he didn't expect to act less mature than he truly was.

However, at the same time, this was something he liked about his new life.

After all, he was able to relive everything he had missed in the past, including living his life to the fullest!

This was something Kyle wanted to achieve in this life.

Fortunately, it had worked almost according to his plans.

Even if he had been separated from Selene, he had gained some rewards while improving his combat prowess.

And, his gut feeling told him he would reunite with her soon.