13: A boy testing his powers and the convenient gift from an unknown god

Upon entering through the door, I could see Bibian next to three nightmare beasts trapped in thick metal cages.

Noticing my entrance, Bibian looked at me with a strange smile on her face, sending a chill down my spine.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Bibian, I see you brought... unexpected guests to our lesson."

"Good afternoon, Jony. Yes, I want you to control them. Since you haven't told me your abilities yet, I only brought three creatures to test the skill you mentioned in Ethan's office. I want to see the limits of your abilities to incorporate them into your study plan for these four weeks."

I didn't know how to respond and had no idea where she had gotten those beasts from, as there was no mention of a nightmare beast prison at the academy in the novel. But still, I didn't complain since I could finally test my ability on something.

"Alright, shall we start the lessons? Come here and control one of these. I'll time how long it takes you to capture one of them and from what distance you can do it."

I nodded and began to walk while trying to activate my ability. When I was only five meters away, I could finally see all the threads of their souls coming towards me. I extended part of my consciousness towards those threads, and they immediately began to turn a pale white.

What I noticed about these beasts and humans was that human souls were white and clean, while the souls of the creatures corrupted by the spell were all dark and dirty. When I started to control the threads, they were gradually turning white as the color spread to the threads within their souls.

After about 40 seconds of starting to control the threads of the third beast in the cages, it seemed to calm down or slow its frantic movements.

A minute after beginning to turn it into my puppet, I could feel something connecting to my soul.

I froze. Because while feeling that change in my soul, a thought came to me that made my blood run cold due to how strange the event was.

The spell never showed me my soul sea. Thinking back to my evaluation by the spell, it never showed me the soul sea that it normally shows people during their evaluations. Never in the novel was there any mention of this, apparently, it was something that happened only to me.

And when that realization hit, I realized I didn't know how to enter my soul sea.

"E-excuse me, Ms. Bibian, I am controlling this creature, but when I took control, I felt something in my soul change."

She looked at me and then said.

"And what was that change? Did you confirm it by entering your soul sea?"

...

"That's the problem, I don't know how to enter my soul sea. The spell never took me inside my soul after finishing my nightmare, so I don't have the understanding or knowledge of how to enter my soul."

Her expression showed surprise and confusion, and I understood because all sleepers knew how to enter their soul sea. The spell showed them at the end of their nightmare, and the fact that it didn't show me meant something very bad or an error in the spell, though the former is more believable since the spell has never been wrong or failed in anything.

"Ms. Bibian, could you teach me how to enter my soul sea before the lessons?"

She looked at me for a few seconds and then looked away before speaking.

"Actually, that would be difficult... I wouldn't know how to teach something that is instinctive like entering our own soul."

Eh, that's true. In the last chapters of the novel when I was in my world, it was mentioned that sleepers or latent ones, before the spell existed, had to be able to feel and control the essence of the soul. Then to become awakened, they had to create a core and discover how to enter their soul sea.

So, that means I have to learn to enter my soul on my own? That will be annoying.

Pushing that thought aside and seeing that Ms. Bibian was thinking about something, I became curious to see if anything changed in my runes after controlling my first puppet.

"Runes."

Name: Jonathan

True Name: Soul Appropriator

Aspect: Puppeteer

Aspect Rank: Divine

Innate Ability: Foresight

Aspect Ability: Soul Control

Ability Description: [You can control beings with a formed soul core from a certain range.]

Looking at my runes, I noticed some new runes below my aspect ability. Curious, I looked down and...

Puppets: [Deformed Spawn]

Rank: Latent

Class: Beast

Attributes: -

Wow, this is similar to the shadow bond of Sunny and Nephis where they can see each other's runes. Curious, I looked at the beast and tried to move its threads.

The beast stayed still and suddenly raised its deformed front legs, then walked a bit and did a few circles around the cage.

Noticing the beast's movement, Bibian looked at me and then at the beast.

"Are you controlling the beast?"

"Yes, but it's complicated to do. It feels like having a second body. It will take some time to get used to."

I wasn't lying, it really felt strange since I could see myself from two eyes, or rather, several pairs of eyes. They were the beast's eyes, and moving in it was very uncomfortable and clumsy.

It might be uncomfortable now, but once I get used to this, it will be very useful in many places and situations. It's also the most suitable for creating a scenario; I can control other people, and if the story deviates, send them to help the protagonists and then just make the puppet disappear so the main story continues.

"Alright, try to move away. I want to see the range of control you have over it and what happens when it is out of your control range."

I agreed and started to move away. After walking to the next building, I could still feel my other body. I could see Bibian watching me (the beast) and surrounding me while examining my movements.

After about 100 meters, I felt something go out. I couldn't say what if it weren't for losing my senses from the beast's body and not being able to control it. I took a few steps back and something turned on again. I could extend my senses back to the beast and see Bibian nearby. I moved (in the beast) and indicated with a limb that I was fine.

When I returned to building 3, where Bibian was waiting next to the cage, she saw me and noted something on her tablet.

"So, how many meters was it?"

"I think it is exactly 100 meters the limit of my control, and if I go beyond that limit, I lose control of the puppet. When I return within the limit, the puppet can be controlled again."

She noted something, I suppose the control range, on her tablet and looked at me.

"Alright, you say you can only control one beast, so now I want you to try to control this other one while maintaining control of that one."

Without asking questions, I began to extend part of myself to this beast as well.

59 seconds later, the beast stood still, and the next second, I lost control of the first beast while gaining control of this other one.

[You have killed a sleeping beast, deformed spawn]

[Your soul is enveloped in more threads]

¡¡...!!

Surprised by the voice of the spell that sounded in my head so suddenly, I looked at the dead beast and then thought about my runes.

Name: Jonathan

True Name: Soul Appropriator

Thread Fragments: [3/1000]

What? Why would a sleeping beast give me 3 soul fragments? Isn't that a lot?

Oh, maybe it's because it was my puppet, and by removing my control over it while our souls were connected or at least shared a connection, I could absorb more essence from its soul directly through this connection.

That would be amazing. I could greatly increase my growth rate. I wonder how many fragments a waking beast would give me.

"So, when you already have a puppet, and you try to control another one at the same time, the main one dies to make way for the new puppet."

She noted something else on her tablet and looked at me again.

"Now I want you to fight with your body against this other one here. I need to see how you move in combat and what you know to do in a real battle."

She paused and turned her gaze to the ugly beast.

"Don't worry, I'll kill it if you find yourself in mortal danger."

After saying that and without giving me time to accept or decline, she hit the bars containing the third beast, and it lunged at me.

Immediately I heard or felt that voice that warned me of the upcoming events in the fight against Ludwin.

I rolled to the side and dodged the beast, then summoned my memory [traitor tooth] and lunged at the beast.

It barely stopped a few meters from where it was, and all its disgusting eyes turned towards me as it charged at me, opening its filthy mouth full of teeth.

I slid underneath its... stomach? Or whatever it had down there, and stabbed my dagger into its skin, piercing its defense like butter.

I rolled to the side before it fell dead and bled out under its own weight, and I heard the spell speak in my ear.

[You have killed a sleeping beast, deformed spawn]

[Your soul is enveloped in more threads]

What? That shouldn't happen. Normally, one only receives soul fragments when absorbing the cores of beasts or with an ability like mine that allows me to absorb directly from their soul.

I opened my runes and took a few steps back at what I saw.

Name: Jonathan

True Name: Soul Appropriator

Rank: Sleeper

Core: Inactive

Thread Fragments: [6/1000]

Memories: [Fallen Legion Armor] [Traitor's Tooth]

Echoes: -

Attributes: [Lost Soul] [Liar] [Lost] [Protected Mind] [Voracious Soul] [Flame of Divinity] [???]

Aspect: [Puppeteer]

Aspect Rank: Divine

Innate Ability: [Foresight]

Awakened Ability: [Soul Control]

Defect: [Soul Bond]

..."because I never checked my attributes..."

No, that's not true, I did check them. When I entered my nightmare, I looked at them, and thanks to one of them, [Liar], I was able to manipulate the plays of the ascended and end the nightmare.

Then, why are those memories so blurry and elusive in my mind? In fact, now that I'm aware that something is wrong, I can remember that the spell said something else before quickly pulling me out and returning me to the alley where I woke up.

I can't remember what it said. It was something strange, the more I tried to remember what it said, the more muddled my memory became, so I just let it pass and decided to read all my attributes again.

Attributes: [Lost Soul] [Liar] [Lost] [Protected Mind] [Voracious Soul] [Flame of Divinity] [???]

Lost Soul: [You are a soul wandering through a foreign world, you cannot return to your own and the new one does not recognize you.]

Liar: [You can lie more easily to people you do not care about.]

Lost: [You have no past, no present, and you are forging a future. Destiny does not know where you come from and will try to entangle you in its weave.]

Protected Mind: [You are less affected by emotions, and your mind is almost immune to all mental attacks.]

All of them, I vaguely remembered, but the ones I most wanted to see were those of which I had no memory.

Voracious Soul: [Your soul is special and will devour the soul of those you kill.]

Flame of Divinity: [Your soul was touched by a divinity and left behind a divine flame that burns intensely deep within your soul.]

???: [The supreme deity -unknown- has endowed your soul with special qualities.]

'...'

So a deity that even the spell doesn't know or refuses to translate its name has endowed me with three new attributes. Well, I'm definitely not a protagonist.

Damn, I hope this doesn't become a big problem. Oh, but too bad the world is so unfair, it was clearly a god who altered my memories so I wouldn't remember those attributes, and damn, there are still gods somewhere watching over Earth. I thought they were all dead.

Waaa, this is unfair, I'm just a damn 17-year-old kid, so why do I have to go through all this?