The Astral soul system-Chapter 110: Rift

[These flames react in tandem with your wrath, boosting your stats for a short period of time while releasing an aura that cause targets in the vicinity to fall victim to their rage. The more people act out, the stronger the boost to your strength]

"Hmmm"

"What?" Theia asked.

"Nothing. Just a bit underwhelming"

"Underwhelming? What about this is not good enough"

"Nothing. I could probably mix it with Charge and take my stats to the extreme, but I just expected more"

Theia sighed.

"You’ll get more ways to use it with experience. Even with the system, some things can’t be rushed."

Zaine eventually dropped the issue, but now it was Theia’s turn to question something

"Zaine?"

"What?"

"What exactly are you? And Zen too?"

"What?"

Theia quickly rephrased her question.

"The heart flame of rage. For most it takes months, maybe even years to form completely. The system was meant to shorten this process, but not get rid of it completely. Even Zen couldn’t make any progress but you were able to form one instantly, even if it was only a temporary one without the complete concept, and it looked like you did it by accident too... How?"

Zen shrugged and answered.

"That’s the point of me "

Theia didn’t know what to say and Zaine looked like he was done talking. Luckily a new system notification arrived and broke the silence.

[G.K: Hello and welcome back,red. Sorry it took so long to pull out the welcome carpet]

Zaine raised a brow and instinctively asked.

"Who the heck is this?"

He wasn’t expecting an answer however he was suprised when he got one.

[G.K: I thought you’d have guessed , I’m your system’s creator. Just checking in]

"Aren’t you supposed to be some mysterious rich arsehole with some godly powers who’ll just ignore me and watch until I’m powerful"

A few seconds passed before he got a reply.

[G.K: well I don’t know how the system creators in whatever movies you’ve watched act, but I personally think it’s a requirement for a healthy work environment for a scientist to occasionally interact with their test subject]

"Test subject?"

[G.K: Yes, the system is a prototype, well I don’t think it can still be called a prototype, since it’s not the first, but it’s still in the test phase so it still counts]

"I’m not the first person with the Astral soul system?"

"No. You’re currently the only one, but there have been 9785 previous test subjects before you, including but not limited to humans"

"What happened to the others?"

[G.K: They died. Couldn’t finish the experiment]

"What?!"

[G.K: Relax. I take care of people who help me. I’m sure you’ve seen my retirement plan by now. You work for me and help me advance the system, and you get an entire lifetime of vacation if you ever chose to quit. In fact, many of your predecessors chose to just finish it quick and get on to their lifetime vacation and dream life]

Zaine didn’t know how to respond, but thinking deeply, it didn’t seem like a bad deal. Sure he had no idea how it worked, but it wasn’t impossible to believe.

[Besides, you’re one, or many of a kind my dear sweet NO:9786]

[G.K: All the systems i hand out is actually just the same single system, but I change the function randomly for every user. One host may get the dragon system, another, the lycan system, another the zombie system, another....you get the point. Every time a system host dies, the system grows and adapts from their experience with it and becomes more complex. You however are using a new system i created from scratch and made as similar to the first as I could]

"So I’m the first user of the Astral soul system?" Zaine asked, unsure whether or not it was a good thing that this person had a complete system made and decided to give him an untested prototype.

[G.K: No. You’re the second. A girl came before you. Ah,NO:1569. She was such a sweet girl,fiery too. She took it for a test first, and let me say, she went very far, much farther than most of my test subjects despite using a prototype system. She became very powerful]

Zaine rolled his eyes

"If you miss her so much,why give this thing to me. Why not just go get her and get her back in the game"

[G.K: Ha! 9786.... hmmm, that’s a mouthful. Why don’t I just call you Ruby, I’ll call the other guy Obsidian, since you two are my new little gems]

Zaine didn’t know why they didn’t just call him by his name, and what did they mean by mouthful, they were typing these.

"You have pet names for all your guinea pigs? Even her?"

[G.K: You’re not my guinea pigs. We’re partners, and what if I give you a pet name? Isn’t a little work place camaraderie acceptable?]

"Partners? I never consented to this "

[G.K: Yes you did. Or rather, the other one inside you did, Obsidian.]

"Zen accepted this?"

[G.K: Yep? We signed a contract. He was quite calm about the whole thing. Everything I’m doing now is completely legal and up to code with the government...or at least it would be if the government knew about this. I can even show you if you’d like]

"..."

[G.K: okay, where were we...oh, right. The current location of your predecessor. Dear Aria is currently on planet H4D3Z surfing the planets natural magma waves, climbing mountains of brimstone, fighting frequent fire tornadoes,exploring the demonic landscape despite the planet’s naturally toxic atmosphere and swimming through its acidic oceans]

"....Well her vacation sounds fucking metal"

Zaine said, sounding genuinely impressed for the first time. It seemed his predecessor had been an absolute unit.

[G.K: Agreed,i was honestly surprised when she asked for that after checking her nearly limitless options. Most of them usually pick a world comprised mostly of crystal clear oceans and sand,or a tropical planet, she had other ideas]

"Yeah yeah . What do you want already?"

[G.K: Hmph! Always so cold. Anyway,i suppose it is time i get to the point. I just told you of all the benefits of working for me but I’ve never told you what you’ll be doing]

"What? Don’t you just need a guinea pig to use the system and further your research?"

[G.K: PARTNER. But yes, but there are a few extracurricular activities I’d like you to take over, just a few part time quests, nothing big, and I’ll reward you,so don’t worry,ruby]

Zaine didn’t really understand what was going on, but if it was just a quick quest, he could handle it before going to deal with the tiger gang.

[Good to hear you’re on board, please follow the coordinates i just sent. Oh and by the way, I’m temporarily reducing the cost of soul equips for this specific quest,think of it as a gift]

[Buff recieved]

A map of the city suddenly appeared in front of Zaine’s face, with a red dot pointing somewhere.

Theia’s eyes suddenly widened as she saw the place.

"That...."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"I know that place. Zen and i went there yesterday. It’s a hidden cave behind the school. He usually goes there to relax]

[Quest accepted: Clean up]

"Fine. But what’s the reward?"

Zaine waited a few seconds for a reward but it looked like G.K had hung up on him.

"What’s up with your boss?" He asked Theia

"I don’t know. It seems i wasn’t programmed with any memory of her"

Zaine sighed and started following the map.

Theia followed behind him, hovering in the air and suddenly muttered.

"I wonder what Zephyr’s doing? That moron hasn’t shown up in a while"

"Who’s Zephyr?"

Theia considered telling him the full story, but she quickly remembered she wouldn’t be able to lie even if she wanted to,so she just answered.

"He’s the person you got your ability from. He’s stuck in your head too, I’m just surprised he hasn’t introduced himself,or maybe he can only talk to Zen?"

Zaine suddenly paused and looked at her.

"Do you always forget to report important information?"

Theia laughed nervously but didn’t answer. Even Zen had pointed out that she always forgot important things and often reported too late,so she knew it was true.

Zaine sighed and kept walking.

"How is it?" He asked

"How’s what?"

"Living forever, guiding all the users of the system. How were they?"

Theia shook her head.

"Once a system user passes,all memory of them is either sealed,or erased from my mind,so I don’t know"

"So you’re going to forget me too?"

Theia nodded

"Well i guess I should remember that when I’m about to die"

A mischievous smirk appeared on Theia’s face

"Oh,i wouldn’t worry about that. If things go well, we won’t have to deal with that for a long time "

"What does that mean?"

Theia shook her head.

"That’s a surprise. Boss’s orders "

***************

"This is the place" Theia said as they found themselves at the entrance to the cave.

Zaine pulled himself up, looking into the cave and mentally noting that this place really was oddly discreet. He almost didn’t notice it.

He climbed in through the entrance and got up to walk in.

’The air here is different ’ Zaine noted the cooler atmosphere in the cave

For some reason his body felt..."freer". Like a fish that had just been put into water after a long time on land. It was a refreshing feeling that made him feel like he was on clouds,at least compared to the outside.

It was already deep into the afternoon at this point so he wanted to deal with this quickly.

As he walked in deeper through the cave passage,a strange feeling kept appearing, like something was wrong, something wasn’t meant to be here, however he still felt something pulling him there.

"What’s going on?"

Theia examined him for a bit and answered

"Your instincts are acting up. Similar to how the instincts of a bird would urge it to migrate to somewhere warmer during winter, your instincts are telling you to go in there"

"And should I?"

"We have to if we want to complete the quest "

Zaine snarled. This feeling creeped him out majorly. It was like he was being told to go and stay back at the same time. It irritated him.

At this point he could see the glowing light coming from the central chamber.

"Is that the pond you were talking about?"

"Yeah, but it’s not meant to be this bright " Theia noted, remembering the light to be more gentle and calming.

Zaine walked closer before peeking into the chamber, and something had indeed changed since the last time Zen was here.

[Discovered dimensional rift]

Over the pond in the center of the cave was what looked like a tear in the air and a disturbing number of glowing blue tentacles were protruding out, seemingly trying to rip the tear open wider before being able to come out completely. There was also a few dozen balls of fire, they all had a different color at the tip but at the core they were all black.

"What the...? Read"

[???]

[???]

[???]

"That’s not a good sign"

Zaine didn’t panic and looked at one of the flames and tried again

[Astral sprite(fire)]

[Semi-sentient beings born from excess Astra in a certain area. These creatures are born from and this embody a certain concept of reality. This concept can be anything ranging from fire to space-time ]

"That’s.... impressive"

"Yes, but they’re extremely rare and can only be born in extremely rare occasions and under very special circumstances. Let’s try catching some, they’re very useful"

"What about the tentacle monster? "

[Quest directive: close the rift]

[Reward: As much as you can carry]

"Hmm? What’s with the reward "

Theia smiled and answered reassuringly.

"Just wait. Trust me, you’re gonna love this "

Zaine was a bit curious but he focused back on the task. Luckily he didn’t have to kill the thing, he just had to push it back in through the hole. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Zaine decided to try sniping it first. He prepared a regular soul gun in his hand before aiming at one of the tentacles.

Ignoring the slight recoil, he fired at one of the tentacles. The energy ball landed on the tentacle with a bang, before disappearing with no effect in sight.

"Well that didn’t work"

"Yeah and you didn’t even breach it’s shield" Theia pointed out

"Shield?"

"Look" Theia pointed to the translucent blue sheen covering the tentacles like a full body suit.

"Well that’s just great"

"Let me help you, master ~"

A slightly seductive voice echoed from the depths of his mind

"Lilith.... fine"

[Equip soul: Lilith?]

[Yes] [No]

"Yes"