Nauseous

It is common knowledge both people and wild beast use soul essence to perform supernatural abilities or phenomenon.

Soul cores are used to store the essence, the maximum number of soul cores any being can have is 12.

Normal humans are born with one soul core and get stronger by absorbing more soul essence, saturating their cores and forming new ones in the process.

Awakening is the process of forming a new core and the individual undergoing an awakening might get a specific ability during the awakening.

Having a higher amount of soul cores doesn't mean the individual is stronger than someone with lesser soul cores. It just means he can store and use larger amounts of soul essence, What determines someone's strength is the techniques he posseses and his ability to use them efficiently, That's why you should never pass up any opportunity for you to learn an important skill or technique.

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A thug on the shoulder snapped me out of my thoughts.

"It seems you aren't paying attention to the Captain"

A feminine voiced said in a whisper. I turned to face her, whoever it was. My mood immediately turned sour.

Jasmine the leader of shepherd flock was standing there.

"My my I never thought we would meet again finn."

she said teasingly.

I ignored her and turned my head to face Bjorn Paladin, the captain of the holy sky knights and the leader of this expedition.

He had blonde hair, his face looked aged around 40 or so, and he had a brittle goatee.

He was clad in bleak steel armor and chainmail underneath. A slender double edge longsword was fastened to his back and A white phoenix insignia could be seen on his breast plate.

When he spoke, he gave the impression of a reliable and hardened warrior and had a strong Northern accent.

'I heard he recently reached 3 cores and he's a king level swordsman with no knowledge in sorcery.'

He's in the middle of explaining the details of the mission and the number of enemies we'll encounter.

"There are around 150 orcs that invaded invaded the village and our forces are barely a 100, Though they have the advantage in numbers, it'll be a walk in the park for us. Orcs are primitive humanoid beasts with rudimental level of intelligence, not nearly enough to consider as a race. The apes don't even have a language to communicate with each other they just use gestures and sounds like grunts to pass basic information."

"Well it seems you've all got the gist of it let's head towards the teleport gate."

We arrived at one of the city gate checkpoints. The teleport gate is an elevated platform made from pristine marble with an arch that stood over the platform. Magic circles were engraved on the marble platform, the engravings were made from esternium, a rare mineral that conducts soul essence. Several machine contraptions were attached to the arch, giving the gate fantasy steampunk vibes.

"Alright we'll go in teams of 20"

Bjorn said.

After waiting for 2 sets to go through the gate, it was my set's turn.

Some of the mercenaries gave me skeptical looks, but didn't voice their opinions. Once all 20 of us were on the gateway, an attendant pulled some levers behind a switch board. I could hear the gears turning and exhaust coming out of the waste pipes. The circles under my feet shown with a brilliant blue radiance. The dust around us started to stir and I started to feel nauseated. The attendant pulled the last lever and I felt like I was pulled through the floor. It felt like I was falling, then the direction changed. I was flying through the air at an incredible speed, I reluctantly opened my eyes, but instead of the beautiful snowing forest underneath, I saw nothing at all. it was like I was zooming through a vacuum, a white vast and endless void, like a tiny gap through reality. Then it all came to a stop, I was standing on a gateway similar to the one I was on before. The bizarre thing about the experience was the total loss of the momentum. It was like I was never zooming through the void. Suddenly I felt the urge to throw up all the food in my stomach. It seems it's not only me because other mercenaries held their mouth and their stomachs, with some crouching on the floor and others sprawled on the edge of the platform and vomiting. The attendants quickly removed us from the platform, so the next set of 20 people could step through the gate on the other side.

A while later I was leaning on the wall, my breath was rough and coarse, I was still suffering from the nauseating effects of going through the gate.

'Damn I didn't think it would be this bad'

Someone walked up to me, I turned to see who it was. It was Jasmine, she offered me a water flask, I refused.

"Look kid use this to wash your face, I can't have you acting like a fish out of water. It could jeopardize the mission."

After some thoughts, I hesitantly took the flask and poured the contents over my heading, occasionally taking a few sips of the cool water.

"Thank you, but will you be okay? I took a lot of water from your flask. I purposefully didn't use my flask because I didn't want to run out of water"

"I think you should worry about yourself kid, besides I got more flask with our support in my cohort."

'I see.'

I returned the flask to her, when the last set passed through the gate. It was Bjorn and his team of knights, they were 15 in number. a

Apart from bjorn there was a girl that stood out from the rest, No it was like she stood out from the rest of the world, Like a veil separated her from reality.

Her navy blue hair were shoulder length and she had spicy voilet eyes. Her face was perfectly white and smooth almost like a porcelain doll.

She wore the bleak steel armor uniform of the holy sky knights, With a grey cape draped over her. A long double edge sword, with a phoenix insignia engraved on the guard, hung on her waist.

"Those bastards are really tough huh. none of them even showed the slightest discomfort when they walked through the gate." Jasmines said in a whisper

"uh huh" I absentmindedly mumbled.

Jasmine noticed my gaze, then said in a low whisper.

"That's Eros virgil, a descendant of the sky goddess, why would a noble prodigy be here in a Rank 3 mission to exterminate some orcs, maybe it's to get experience."

"Prodigy and a descendant of the sky goddess?" I asked

"Yeah she's a prodigy alright she's just 22 and recently reached 3 cores, on top of that she has mastered sky breaking swordsmanship up to saint level. Truly a beast if you ask me"

I was truly astonished, impressed and a little bit jealous.

'It took Bjorn around 40 years to get to 3 cores and that's astounding for humans and she did it at the age of 22! This isn't even on the level of a beast, she's an anomaly!'

"Alright once you're back on your feet we'll head towards the village."

Bjorn yelled before moving to check his gear.

"Well we better check our gear too, right?" Jasmine said.

"We?" I replied.

"Oh don't ruin the mood, you were finally opening up to me. Now come on let's check our gear."

She caught my arm and dragged me to the rest of her cohort.

"Besides you are just 'temporarily' joining us."

"Ughh." I sighed.

'This is going to be one long mission.'