CHAPTER 12

12 "You are on your way to the afterlife."

Neo grinned, as the cloud of darkness receded gradually, the faint light of dawn piercing his eyes.

He was in a cave; there were crystal cones protruding from the roof and the floor. Neo knew they were called stalactites and stalagmites, but he didn't know which was which, not that it mattered anyway.

His happiness had been quenched by the sight in front of him. One look was all it took for him to know that he was not in a human settlement; in fact, he was far from it.

The entrance to the cave was in sight, the visage of a glowing white sun towered above the world.

"Where is this place?" Neo mused, walking towards the entrance of the cave.

He felt something thin press against his pale skin. Neo looked down to check what it was, before he could recover from the shock that he was stark naked; an arrow pierced through the air with insane speed and lodged itself firmly into his shoulder. The force sent him reeling to the ground. Almost immediately, two more arrows flew from different directions, lodging themselves on the floor beside him. For the first time in many years, Neo appreciated his gaunt figure.

Throughout Neo's days, he had always been known to find himself in awkward situations, like one time in the junior academy when his old trousers split open during sports week, revealing his underwear, or when he fell gracelessly into a mud puddle, eating a sizable amount of it before someone helped him up, not to mention all his ridiculous days at the work stations. All these had Neo numb to many other awkward situations he found himself in, but Neo couldn't help but marvel at his current situation. It was a whole league ahead. Several leagues even.

He was lying on the floor, butt naked, with a wooden arrow protruding from his bloodied left shoulder, under a web of booby traps.

"Arghh!! That hurts."

Neo winced, trying to retract the arrow from his shoulder, all to no avail. It seemed the arrow had found its root in his bone, so Neo gave up and decided to study his surroundings instead.

From Neo's worm eye view, he could make out several nearly invisible strings sprawled across the cave, each attached to some sort of booby trap, making movement or escape almost impossible.

Neo sighed.

"I will figure out something later, but for now, I need to check out what is in my soul core," Neo thought, receding into his mind.

Although his teachers at the junior academy would never teach above their pay grade, they always found it fun to teach the students everything about the mysteries of the afterlife. It was as though they were learning themselves. So Neo knew bits and crumbs about the afterlife; the only thing that had been completely alien to him was the dreadful allegiance trial. Neo shuddered just thinking about his experiences there.

Finally, Neo found his soul core. It was like a part of his memory that has been locked up and hidden, only to be opened when he entered the afterlife. Neo had the feeling that it had always been there, hiding in plain sight.

The soul core has been said to be the part of a being where the body, soul, and spirit connects.

Neo connected to his soul core like he was trying to remember a memory, and then it shrouded his mind like a vivid imagination.

Everything inside his soul core looked blurry except for some shimmering golden lines of myriad shapes and sizes. Neo could have sworn that he saw it physically if he didn't know any better; it felt clearer than any of the imaginations he ever had.

Neo concentrated on the golden light for a moment, and he started to understand every line and shape for what it was. It was like the lines and shapes were whispering and speaking into his mind. It felt very… strange. It read:

REAPER'S GLYPHS [language of the divine]

Name— Reapling Neolin.

Progress:

Beast souls— 1

Monster souls— 1

…..

Innate ability— Crimson nebulae

Remarks: You wield a tremendous power; its prowess can only be limited by your mortal body.

Neo was momentarily shocked, but then he continued.

He had totally forgotten about his bleeding arm.

Reaper's gifts— soul stinger

Reaper's remark: Energy is the foundation of all things.

Perks: You gain great affinity to souls of the living. You can repair or destroy it.

Quirks: During each attack, your souls becomes exposed.

Progress— 0

Neo stared at the glyphs with disbelief. He had never heard of anyone with two abilities before, but there he was. He was quite sure it was the reward he received for passing the allegiance trial. Neo suddenly wasn't annoyed for going through that hell anymore. In fact, he felt that it was well worth it. He would definitely go in again for another ability.

On second thought, no, I won't, Neo thought, a nasty grin plastered to his face.

There were so many things unfamiliar to him, and so many questions rushing into his mind, but he shoved them aside and continued.

Specter— Ten lives per second (soul tied), bone of contention (soul tied)

Skin-

Phantom-

Neo concentrated on the "Ten lives per second," and some new sets of golden shapes and lines sprung forth.

Specter— [ten lives per second]

Rank—monster

Enchantment:

— ten strikes, ten lives: [perk] - This specter will continue to grow until the wielder can reap ten lives with ten distinct strikes, within the frame of a second.

[Quirk]- The growth is harrowingly slow.

Neo frowned in confusion. He knew quite a bit about specters since they were the coolest part of being a visitor to the afterlife. So there were quite a sizable amount of rumors about them, of which he had never heard of perks or quirks. Even the meaning of the "soul tied" in front of the specters was another source of headache for him. He just had too many questions and no one to answer them.

Neo ignored the questions gnawing at his mind and he continued checking out the glyphs.

Specter— bone of contention

Rank— unknown

Enchantment—

I regret it scholar— [perk] This bone will always be your sharpest weapon…..

[Quirk] ….but it will never take any life.

Neo sighed. That was by far the weirdest glyph he had read that day.

He understood that he got [ten lives per second] from the death of the mutant monster, but he didn't understand why the rank of bone of contention was unknown or why Reaper decided to give it to him as a specter in the first place. He had a few guesses though. It might probably be because his first kill was secured through the help of the bone or probably because of the deep feeling he felt when killing the man, which was evident in its enchantments. Either way, he had ended up with one of the weirdest specters in history.

Neo turned back to the glyphs and read again, hints of confusion written on his face.

"This bone will always be your sharpest weapon but it will never take any life."

"I wonder what that means."