CHAPTER 16

An interesting thing about increasings stats was that it had no effect on one's physical appearance whatsoever.

The only thing which changed was the mental health , ie, the cognition abilities increased as the intelligence stats increased .

Even though as the strength stat increased and one got the corresponding boost in strength, it didn't have an impact on one's physical appearance. For example their muscles don't get toned or get increased.

"Don't judge a book by it cover " Would hold true as even a fat person would hold the strength in possibly the 1000s.

As Karthikeyan dosed off the previous day , he got up quite early that morning.

After waking up , he did his daily routine and his daily warmup before tuning in for today's news.

The time was 12 pm .

It seemed that people started raiding dungeons non-stop. They wanted to up on top of everyone. This situation was a boon for those rogue people who didn't want to get confined to the rules of society.

Now , no one would question their ways and they were basically free to do anything as long as they have the prowess.

The Invasion was almost over. Karthikeyan had previously decided to dive in the dungeon almost immediately, But he chose to wait because he needed some information before he dived in.

It would not take a big toll on his levelling up as he was almost the top 4 percentage of the world and would only be pushed back to probably 7 percentage .

Suddenly as he was browsing through the news on his laptop , he felt his vision blackening and he passed out ----

There was darkness everywhere.

Karthikeyan felt throbbing pain at first but soon it started to fade alway slowly.

"What is this place?" He couldn't help but ask.

He knew that he passed out.

Suddenly a white orb appeared in front of him . If he had to explain how it differed from the white orb that appears when using the skill [ANCESTRAL SKILL] , he would describe this light as being more majestic.

Karthikeyan slowly reached out to the brilliant white orb . Suddenly a calm but divine voice sounded out. It seemed to be coming from all directions.

"HUMAN" it resounded.

The white orb as if matching to the voice pitched. It was like the white circle matching to the ncs songs.

"Who are you, What is this place?" Karthikeyan asked.

"This place is your soul ." The voice replied.

"My soul?, why am in my soul?"

"Because I intended you to be in your soul now , of course"

"What ? how can you do that?"

"Well I can do it because I have contracted your soul"

Realisation struck in like a lightening bolt. So this voice was the one who gave him these op skills and contracted him ? did he get accidently pulled into the contract of the devil. He needed more answers.

"Who are you? "

" As I said , Im your contrac...."

"Im asking seriously , who are you ?"

It was silent for a good 1 minute.

"Well , lets just consider that Im some higher being living in a different galaxy"

"Consider? this is my soul that you have contracted without my permission , I have all rights to demand information ."

"You need information huh ? then lets just say from now onwards you would have to listen to what I tell you to do and execute it properly. You would have to finish it in the time of your lifespan.Other than that you have full control of what you do."

The voice after some time resounded. It was chilling to Karthikeyan and he felt great fear.

"You thought you gained the powers for free?"

Of course Karthikeyan knew nothing in the world came for free.

"Well if it is that I need to carry out tasks for you , you might as well explain the basic premise of them."

"You sound cool"

"What? are you expecting me to sound like a fanatic person crying out loud to let me go?"

"Even if you did , you can't escape from my contract."

"Yeah I know , thats why I'm not trying. But I need a strong assurance if you would let me have freedom after I finish your tasks."

"Only time will tell you that , but what you will receive is greater than freedom itself."

"What could be greater than freedom ?" Karthikeyan couldn't help but wonder. Anyways the powers he received would be more than enough to get by in the world , so he couldn't complain. Even if this dude gave him evil tasks to carry out , he didn't mind anyway . As long as he and his loved ones are safe and happy, it was all he needed.

After the voice confirmed that Karthikeyan had digested the gist of the situation , it again began.

"So about the tasks..." it began " Your system from now onwards would unlock a new tab which you might be able to access right now ."

Was this even possible ? can someone with enough power just create a new tab in the system ? Wasn't it managed by the universe itself ?

"Don't think too much right now. Everything would fit in right place in course of time. " the voice said as though it has heard Karthikeyan's doubts.

Karthikeyan then opened the system and there it was a new tab titled "THE MISSIONS"

His first mission was right in front of his eyes.

FIRST MISSION :

[ACHIEVE LEVEL 100]

TIME LIMIT [INDEFINITE]

PENALTY [ ETERNAL HELL]

His first mission wasn't that tough . It was easy as long as he put his ass into it. But what ticked him was the time limit.

"What does the time limit mean?" he questioned the voice. 

"It means exactly what it says" the voice answered cooly.

Karthikeyan was annoyed . Instead of questioning the voice he just thought of what it could possibly mean by himself.

Indefinite meant the time limit was not specified which meant that he had basically unlimited time to finish it as long as he was alive of course. Somewhat Proving this the, voice had hinted that he had his entire lifespan to finish it. But one's lifespan couldn't be accurately determined , maybe thats why the time said indefinite.

Maybe he could try to become an immortal?

But the problem was that His soul quality which determined his lifespan was at its lowest. So he didn't have unlimited time and that penalty was very scary .

But another question raised in his mind. What if he improved his soul quality and eventually became immortal? . Currently there was no information if there were immortals or not. The manual simply stated that improving one's soul quality only improved their lifespan and some innate understanding of the universe.

But if he became immortal... then what?

Again he remembered a crucial information given in the condition of his curse. It stated that he couldn't increase his soul quality unless he completed 10 tasks given by the system.

Then that meant , even if he wanted to become an immortal by increasing his soul quality and avoid the tasks , he would have to first finish the tasks themselves. What irony.

 Then Karthikeyan asked the voice to confirm if he was all on his own.

" So I have to figure everything on my own ?"

"Pretty much yeah, I have to determine whether you are a worthy candidate of my powers or not."

"I guessed so "

Before parting the voice delivered its final statement at least for that moment

"Remember time is your best friend and also your worst enemy. It holds all the answers. It is indeed a marvellous creation "

With that everything again went black for a second and then Karthikeyan woke up to the real world.

"Iam screwed " he rebuked when he woke up.