The host has been granted the soul skill: Soul Reinforcement.

Lone saw this screen flash across his eyes before another one filled his vision.

Soul Skill: Soul Reinforcement

A skill unique to Soul Oracles. This skill allows the host to directly increase the rank of a soul, making it 5% more resistant to soul-based attacks and mind-based magic per rank increased.

Can also be used to directly heal or repair a damaged soul by 5% temporarily, allowing a lightly damaged soul to fix itself.

Cost: 100 MP (MP is multiplied by 10 times for each rank reinforced after H-rank). Mastery: Beginner Level 1

Lone looked at the small rabbit held in his arms that was peacefully laying there. It felt comfortable within Lone's grasp. At first, it had tried to madly flee away from Sophie once it saw her trying to capture it, but it let Lone do as he pleased as soon as it saw him.

"You succeeded?" A grass and leaf-covered Sophie asked once she noticed Lone's unfocused eyes.

She only looked the way she currently did because the rabbit had been far too quick, resulting in her toppling into several bushes. The small critter snarled at Sophie the second she spoke.

Lone laughed lightly as he stroked the creature's fur, calming it. "Yeah, I did. I'm gonna test it now. I have to make sure it doesn't put any strain on the soul if I reinforce the same one over and over again."

Sophie pouted and grew jealous of the tiny animal. 'I want Lone to pet me too...'

"Be careful," she said as she sat on the floor and eyed the rabbit dangerously. In response, it glared back at her and it almost seemed to be gloating that Lone was giving it attention, and not her, making Sophie's face flush over and she ended up biting her nails in frustration.

Lone nodded before he began reinforcing the rabbit's soul. The creature had an I-ranked soul originally from what Lone could tell before he had reinforced it to H-rank, and with his limited mana, Lone could only reinforce it until it was E-ranked, the average strength of an E-ranked mage's soul.

"Huh, I just realised, but I can tell the strength of a person's soul more accurately now with the help of this skill," Lone said as he ignored the pain in his head from rapidly draining almost all of his MP in one go.

Congratulations! The host's skill [Mental Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 10.

The rabbit in his arms looked no different than it had before, but something about its eyes gave off the feeling of intelligence. It was almost as if it could understand Lone's words.

"It's okay?" Sophie asked as she cocked her head to the side and peered at the small animal.

"It looks like it... Well, little guy, you're free to go. Thanks for the help," Lone said as he released the rabbit.

It seemed reluctant to leave, but after a few seconds, it bounced off into the bushes and disappeared.

"That was... weird," Sophie commented as she got up.

"Yeah... Anyway, at least we know this skill isn't harmful. I can use it on everyone that had a soul weaker than E-rank until I get more mana unless I wanna waste a bunch of mana orbs, which is good enough." Lone smiled as he took Sophie's hand and let her teleport him back to their bedroom.

It was still very early in the morning since they had left to experiment at five o'clock, so they weren't worried about being spotted as they left and returned.

"So you can tell how strong souls are now?" Sophie asked with curiosity in her voice.

"Yup," Lone replied. "I can kinda make out their colours too. There are colours for will and intent, then colours based on the person themselves."

"Hey! Hey! Tell me what mine is! And yours and Kyuubi's! I wanna know!" Sophie loudly requested as she hugged Lone by his waist. It was during moments like this that Lone couldn't help but grin at Sophie's innocent and childish nature.

"Sure, go get Kyuubi," Lone said as he took a seat on the bed.

"Mmm!" Sophie excitedly returned to the summoning room where Kyuubi was sleeping in a crib that Lone had built for her.

Sophie returned a few seconds later with the still slumbering baby in her arms.  "I bet Kyuubi has a really powerful soul!" she claimed with confidence.

"I'm sure you both do," Lone said with a happy expression on his face.

Lone then closed his eyes and cleared his mind before he concentrated on each of their own souls. A few moments passed before he was able to get a good grasp on their soul strengths and personal colours.

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"Mine and yours are a deep grey colour and they're both stronger than I can tell. I'm guessing the gods who summoned us meddled with our souls a bit, so that's why I can't see them clearly," Lone explained with a wry grin on his lips.

"Stupid gods," Sophie mumbled. "What about Kyuubi?"

"Hers is normal," Lone said, relieving Sophie of any worries she held. "It's only H-ranked, so I can reinforce it twice once my mana has returned. It's also a very bright golden colour, the same colour as a person with a lot of goodwill, but this is her personal soul colour. I wonder if that's because she's a Golden Foxkin?"

"You don't know what the colours mean?" Sophie asked as she tilted her head in confusion. Usually, Lone knew everything since he read so much and had a near-perfect memory.

"Nope. Not the personal colours, anyway." Lone shook his head. "Soul Oracles are secretive, just like the Witches, Space Mages, and all the other kinds of uniques existences are, so there's no public information on them or of their experiences."

"I guess that makes sense," Sophie replied as she occupied the space next to Lone and carefully passed Kyuubi to him.

"By the way," Lone said loudly as he looked at his shadow on the floor. "Your soul is pure white and it's C-ranked, so I can't enhance it yet since that would cost me one-hundred million mana. I'll do it as soon as the skill reaches a high enough rank that the price is reduced to be affordable."

The shadow flickered until a small Foxkin's silhouette had taken form. "Yes, Master." Breena bowed before she returned to the shadow as if nothing had happened.

"I wonder what colour everyone else's is..." Sophie muttered.

"Not concerned with their strength?" Lone asked.

Sophie laughed a little bit. "Nope. After all, with you here, there's no way that something could happen to them."

"I hope you're right, Soph. It'd be best if we could finish healing the tree and leave before that Dragon attacks it, to be honest. I like the King and a few of the other people here, but they've repelled Ythmagobla before, I'm sure they can do it again," Lone said.

"That would be nice..." Sophie's mind was filled with worry. "I still think we should have killed Scratchy."

"Maybe." Lone didn't deny it, but even if given the same choice again, he would have spared her.

Killing those with genuine heartfelt desires was one of the few things that Lone would never force himself to do. There was for a very selfish reason behind it, in actuality, and he didn't do it out of a twisted sense of justice.

What would happen if Lone was in their shoes? What if Sophie was the one refusing to give any information on Lone and The Wanderers? No matter how she was hurt or tortured, Lone would only hope that in the end, she would be spared because of her honest desire to protect him.

Some might claim such a hope and projection to be nothing but foolish, however, to Lone, it was one of the few reasons that he could stay sane after all of the happenings in Milindo between himself and King Ralph.

----------------------------------------

"Hi, Tal'hat'mata. Are you feeling better? I was a bit rough the other day," Eolande asked as she floated next to the High Elf.

Currently, the two of them were heading to the world tree's dungeon with Lone, Rachel and the Demon Princess in tow.

"Yes, Eolande, I'm fine now. The council treated me, so all of my injuries are healed," Tal'hat'mata replied as she led the group down the set of stairs that led to the tree's heart. "I actually still need to thank both you and Lone. If it weren't for you two, I might still have had that... thing in my head."

"Don't mention it." Lone waved his hand dismissively as if it was nothing to him.

"Ignore Mr Arrogant there. We're both happy you're safe," Eolande said after having heaved a sigh at Lone's attitude.

Lone blushed a little. ' I'm not being arrogant! Isn't it normal to help your friends?  What's the point in making such a big deal out of it?'

As this conversation was happening, the group had already made it to the open chamber that led to the world tree's core. Several of the returning and waiting teams saw them and had warm looks on their faces.

"You owe me a gold piece. I told you they didn't corrupt the tree."

"Damn it. Fine, here."

"I still can't believe that Elder Foru was a traitor. It was kinda expected with Elder Shan'len since he wasn't very subtle, but still..."

"I know what you mean. He tested me during my keeper exam. It gives me chills knowing that I thought highly of a Darkness Dragon's follower."

"Right. I really need to find some time to say sorry to The Nine-tails for being rude to him the other month. He's actually a pretty good guy, even if he's really antisocial."

"Well, to be fair, we did treat him poorly, so his unsociable attitude is understandable."

Lone was trying to hide his smirk as he listened to these comments with his Good Hearing skill.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Good Hearing] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 4.

'I've always been antisocial, but sure, if they wanna spin it in a good light, why not?' Lone was feeling pretty chuffed with this turn of events.

After properly receiving their blessings and having two Wood Elves, both nature mages, loaned out to them, Lone's team entered Elestia's Core once again.

The group of seven easily took down four Darkness Monsters and Lone used his new skill, Stamina Redirection along with his skill, Minor Healing, which he had acquired during his keeper tests.

Congratulations! The host's nature magic skill [Minor Healing] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

One of the healers, a short Elf who looked more like a young boy than the powerful nature mage that he was, looked at Lone's skills with wonder. "We're not even needed here, are we, Shal'tora?"

Silently nodding, his female counterpart kneeled down and began cleansing the dungeon of Elder Shan'len's mostly harmless infection.

"Th-that's not true," Rachel said. "You're both S-ranked healers and you have a lot more mana and varied spells that Lone does, so you're not useless!"

"Yeah," Lone agreed. "For one, I can't get rid of the weird stuff that Shit'len forced Tal'hat'mata to spread here."

"Hehe, I guess you're right," Cellor, the young-looking Wood Elf boy, grinned as he scratched the back of his head and went to help Shal'tora remove the black and sticky substance.

"Anyway, let's rest here for a bit before we mov-"

"Help... me..."

"What the...?" Lone muttered as he heard a quiet but oddly compelling voice ring through his head.

"Lone?" Eolande looked at him strangely.

"Did none of you just hear that?" Lone asked as he looked at his team members.

Everyone glanced back at him and looked puzzled. It would seem that Lone was the only one to hear the peculiar cry for aid.

"Please... help... me..."

"There it is again..." Lone could vaguely feel the direction that the voice was coming from and he'd be lying if he said that his curiosity hadn't been piqued.

The Demon Princess snorted. "Has The Darkness finally gotten to you, Nine-tails?"

"Who knows..." Lone confirmed that all of his injuries had been healed before he said, "I'm going to go investigate something. Everyone, stay here. I'll be back soon."

"Is something wrong?" Eolande questioned as she hovered next to Lone.

"I could have sworn I heard someone asking me to help them. I'm going to go check it out. If it's a trap or something, I'll come right back." With that said, Lone left the group and wandered further into the dungeon.

"He's so weird," The Demon Princess complained as she knelt on the ground and focused on recovering her stamina.

"He is." Eolande easily agreed with the Demon Princess' claim. "But, that's what makes him so charming, don't you think so?" she added with a cheeky wink.

"Whatever," The Demon princess scoffed.