Debauchery of a Soul-Eating Wraith

With a Soul Point Balance of [15,587] following his recent considerably expensive purchase, Evian steeled himself for the inpour of information that flooded into his head, hurting him just as the Wraith counterpart of the same Manuscript had hurt back then.

Unlike spell purchases, there was always a denser quality to Weapon Modification Manuscripts that seemed to swell Evian's head with every imprint of every word and symbol stamped onto the immaterial scroll.

Once the Trial was at an end, Evian opened his eyes and they were bright with knowledge.

'You know I've been wondering, if Weapon Modification Manuscripts are this much of a Trial, how much more painful will Weapons manufacturing and Forging Manuscripts be?' Evian asked the assistant.

[…]

He took that silence to mean the worst and thus pushed that aside to focus on his Spear lying on his lap as he began to modify it by corrupting the seals and imprints that adorned it with Eldritch energy on such a fundamental level that he appeared to be changing the seals to suit his desires.

Evian liked the double-ended Spear. As an Heirloom he had seized from the Larnak Family, the spear was a powerful weapon but he believed it was still lacking. It was only at the Sixth Star and only had two more upgrades before Evian eventually outgrew it and in that case, he would need to upgrade it which would involve much more than the use of Eldritch corruption.

Evian wondered if he would still want to wield the Spear by then or if he would have gotten himself another powerful weapon but of course, in the meantime, that was not important.

He gripped the Spear and lifted it off his lap, smiling as he felt it quiet down and stop resisting his wield. He channeled Eldritch energy into it and the Weapon accepted it and even shook with an intent to discharge the energy it had been fed.

"All done!" Evian called out to the ladies while he sent the Spear into his Spatial ring.

"We're still retrieving resources," Lora said in a slightly subdued tone.

Another twenty minutes passed before they were done. Considering the number of Beasts they had to cut up and harvest, that was actually fast.

"Evian, Here's—" Lora said stretching out a Hunting Spatial Pouch specifically for keeping harvested Martial Beast resources but before she could complete her sentence, Evian waved her off,

"You all keep it," he said.

"We didn't do anything," Lora pointed out.

"Doesn't really matter, does it?" Evian said with a raised brow, "For now, we're a team and I have no use for any of that anyway."

"Why would anyone hunt without the desire to reap spoils?" Xania asked, sounding like the mere thought of it was at the very least strange.

"Could it be that— You don't know how to sell the loot?" Thana voiced out to bring up some alternate line of thinking.

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"You're thinking too much," Evian said with a chuckle, "I just don't want it."

He turned away from the group at that point and stared deeper into the Forest,

"This way," he called to them and led the way.

Evian was not journeying blindly. His senses had picked up a powerful aura in the direction he led the group toward and the closer they got to it, the more he was sure of it.

"You can feel it now can't you?" he asked Lora as she was the one whose senses closely matched his in sharpness but they were already so close to the source of the aura that everyone in the group could very clearly tell what they were detecting.

"A Fifth Rank Beast," Xania said with a frown as her body tensed with readiness.

Everyone in the party was keeping their faces serious but Evian was instead smiling at the chance of reaping 10,000 Soul Points in one fell swoop. He was not going at it alone so why should he fear?

"We're here!" Evian announced as his speed reduced to a stalking pace. The ladies followed his lead. The plan was to at least not get discovered until they could afford to i.e. When they had gotten into a formation.

Alas, they had underestimated the senses of a Fifth Rank Beast- Especially one of this nature who required a high level of sensitivity to command the skies.

This Beast continued the trend of Fifth Rank Beasts possessing massive sizes. It looked like an eagle with black and blood-red plumage but had a long neck that matched that of a vulture's in length and barely a second after Evian and his Party arrived, it raised its head and let out an ear-piercing shrill.

*KIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!*

"Ack!"

Everyone in the group put their hands over their ears to block out the unpleasant sound.

"What's it doing that for?" Dana asked, wincing.

"I don't—" Lora started to say but stopped with her mouth gapped while she looked up into the sky that had gotten even more covered than usual.

"Attack from above!"

The Party finally understood what the Fifth Rank Beast had done. The shrill cry was to call allies to fight on its behalf. The Beasts that came were not all the same species as it. In fact, none of the flying Beasts looked like the Shrill-caller which meant this was not some herd call but some sort of innate skill that allowed it to command all aerial-type Beasts to do its bidding.

At least that was what Evian guessed.

Anyway, it didn't matter what sort of skill the Fifth Rank Beast had. What mattered was that the assault from above was bound to make things troublesome.

"Cut down every one of those flying scum!" Lora Ordered.

"No," Evian countered, "Focus on starting the assault against the Fifth rank Beast. I'll cover you until I can join you."

"You can't—" Lora started to say but then stopped. She was about to suggest that Evian could not handle all those flying Beasts on his own and although she believed that to indeed be the case, she felt silly to say that out loud following his previous display.

She shook her head,

"Alright, we'll leave this to you then."

With a wide swing of her Broadsword, Lora cleared a path for her group to follow so they could get closer to the Fifth Rank Beast. Dana used two Explosives to cause a blast that pushed the attacking flock aside and of course, Xania and Thana made good use of their Longsword and Sabers respectively.

As for Evian, he stood his ground with a grin.

'I knew I was right to decide to go after Fifth Rank Beasts almost exclusively. They always provide wonderful add-on incentives,' he thought as he primed his Spear with Eldritch energy, 'Since this Beast has thought it right to bless me with these Soul Points, I should gobble up as much as I can.".

Evian swung his Spear and the Eldritch energy he had charged into it launched at the Beast above, striking a few of them down at once by virtue of such a powerful hit that froze them with the shivers of death.

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

In the time he had used to strike out with his Spear, multiple of the aerial Beasts had dived down to strike up close and personal only to let out surprise *Kieee* sounds when they passed cleanly through him and got swiftly cut down afterward.

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

Evian was making gains but despite Wraithic Phasing, he was still getting slowly pushed into a disadvantage by the sheer numbers. After all, if he wanted to strike the Beasts, he needed to deactivate his Phasing and that moment gave his birdy opponents a chance to scratch at him with their talons.

But of course, Evian still had a move up his sleeves. For the first time since he started hunting in the Forest, he truly let loose.

His body began to exude a chill that got deeper and stronger by the second until it formed a field that pushed the Aerial Beasts away from him while he charged multiple Eldritch discharges with his Spear and let them loose.

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]…

When that ended, he started sprinting between them, overpowering their winged advantage with the absolute maximum Speed he had access to, going on a rampage and killing even more.

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]

[You have acquired 1000 Soul Points]…

Evian felled so many of the Beasts that they started to stay away. While their intelligence was limited, they had enough sense to know that the single man, whom they had been unable to as much as scratch while he killed over half of their numbers, was certainly an existence to stay away from.

Meanwhile, Evian invested a portion of his recently-gained Soul Points on an important tool to bring down the Fifth Rank Beast.