Evelyn laid on her bed panting, completely exhausted, despite the sun having crested the horizon just a few hours before. It was not an exertion derived from exercise or deep and extensive thought, but of pain.
The pain of willfully splitting one’s own soul.
That was the requirement for her nigh impossible Ability or was it her body’s Special Constitution. The one that resulted in her coming to live with the Duke in the first place?
Evelyn did not know.
Special Constitutions had been known to influence or even unlock certain Classes and Abilities. It did not seem like much of a stretch that her Class would be one. Not that it mattered.
[Soul Seed] required implanting a part of the user’s soul into another person. The implantation process was surprisingly quite simple. Evelyn only had to touch them. But She first had to prepare for a portion of her soul to be removed from her own body.
In that sense, the Ability was actually a two-part process. First, she used it to break off another part of her soul. Then she used it to implant the soul. It was painless, and if the person was sleeping, which was the best opportunity, they typically continued to sleep.
Since Evelyn had decided to actually use the Seeds, it had been one month. In that singular month, Evelyn had used her Seed on three people. And later tonight, she would use the fourth. It took her almost an entire week to recover from splitting her soul, a remarkably quick time according to her teachings, but she also was not actually damaging her soul, just splitting it, using a Spell.
Each of the three had were under Level Ten, were sentenced to death, and their crimes had been out of desperation, not desire.
Liam was a strong boy who had been driven to beat up other Novices for protection money, but it was not for him. He was forced to do it by a local gang, upon threat of death. Unfortunately for Liam, he had been sent by the gang to beat up a boy who just so happened to be a Noble’s son. Regardless of the reason, attacking a Noble was an executable offense.
When Evelyn had offered him a second chance, he had jumped at the chance, and she was certain that even without the Seed, Liam would have devoted himself to her.
Liam was a Level Seven Brute. A Common Tiered Class, but one that specialized in Strength and Constitution. Liam outfitted himself with a round shield he could easily move, and a studded club. Despite the simplicity of his armaments, he was quite viscous with them, leaving his enemies bloody and battered.
Liam was the first of Evelyn’s Seeded and was also the oldest at sixteen. He was a large fit boy with a square jaw, bent nose, and muddy brown hair. He was usually quiet, but always the first and loudest to laugh.
Next to be seeded was a small girl, even two inches shorter than Evelyn. She was remarkably quiet but had quite a prankster streak. Her name was Emma and she was a Level Five Thief. As one might expect from her Class, she was sentenced to jail after having been caught over two dozen times stealing.
But she had not been stealing money or jewels. She had been stealing food and clothing. She had two younger siblings to take care of. Unfortunately, after Emma had been arrested and sentenced to death, they had gotten sick. Without anyone to care for them, they had died just two weeks after Emma was thrown in a cell.
She was a horrible thief, at least getting away. She could lift something from a person pretty easily, but she was still getting the hang of getting away. Luckily for Evelyn, Emma was quite proficient with throwing Knives and daggers. Which allowed her to hunt with the group.
She kept her long black hair in a low ponytail and typically wore loose dark clothes. The girl was easily looked over, and not just because of her height.
The last one to join the group was the youngest of all of them. He had actually been arrested and sentenced to hanging while he was still fourteen. He did not even have his Class yet.
The boy’s name was David. To put it simply, he was strange. For one, he was born blind, and yet he could still track everyone’s movements, and he didn’t have a Special Constitution. Secondly, his skin had a very slight gray tinge to it and was difficult for even Emma to cut, even a little.
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None of that had anything to do with his Class, Special Constitution, or Abilities.
His weirdness had only been compounded by his fifteenth birthday.
David’s Class was Devourer. It was a Class that came with no Abilities. Only a single descriptor. Devour to grow. David had still only been Level One when Evelyn offered him a second chance. Unlike the other two, who had jumped at the chance, David had thought for a moment before slowly nodding.
Since then, the only person who had heard him talk had been Evelyn, and only a few words.
As for his crime?
One might think it was just his appearance, but in truth, it had been because David had broken the neck of a Noble’s son after that son had kicked away David’s bowl of soup.
After recruiting David, Evelyn began to hunt with them and Lukas. It had been rough at first, as any Hunting Party was.
Lukas’ Class was Guardian Initiate. A special Class unique to the Lissurian Royal Family. Though Lukas would only be in line for the throne if the entire current Royal Family died, he still had their blood flowing through his veins.
Guardian Initiate was actually one of the weaker Classes the Royal Family had access to. It was a Class designed to take damage. The Ability it was known for was teleporting the user to an Ally about to take an attack. Its range was fairly short, only a few meters, and its cooldown was long.
However, once Lukas leveled up and became an Adept, he could become a Guardian Knight, capable of creating an aura that reflected any damage back to the attacker as well as improving the reflexes of those affected.
Guardian Initiate was not a flashy Class, which many Nobles would see as a negative, but Lukas was ecstatic. In just the few days they had all been Hunting together, Lukas had already used his Abilities to save many of their lives several times.
Liam was happy to just be given a second chance and made sure everyone knew it. Emma wanted a second go at life, and to find out if it was worth what she had lost. David simply wanted to eat. Lukas wanted to protect Evelyn and grow stronger to make his father proud. While Evelyn wanted to become stronger and see her family again.
Regardless, Evelyn sighed to herself and stood up, heading for her bathroom. She split her soul in the mornings, when she had the most energy, though it did leave her drained. After a few hours, she could cover it up with false enthusiasm. And before that she could simply lie and say that she had stayed up reading. Sometimes it wasn’t a lie.
After a long hot bath, Evelyn got dressed, had a short breakfast with the Duke’s family, minus the Duke, again, and met up with the rest of her hunting party.
They were in front of the stables, as was quickly becoming their habit meeting area. The reason? David was always the first one to be ready and liked horses. Though Evelyn was not sure if he liked them as animals, or as dinner. So long as he didn’t try to eat one of them, she did not care.
Liam was the first one to notice her and Lukas and he waved enthusiastically with both hands.
He cried out, slightly startling the horses, “Hey guys!”
Lukas facepalmed while Evelyn couldn’t help but give him a little smile. He was just so easy-going and cheerful, even if he had been asked several times not to spook the horses.
Emma was more reserved and waited until they were closer to give a small wave, “Good morning.”
Evelyn returned her greetings and greeted David, who only stared at her with his white eyes.
“So where are we going today?” Liam asked, holding up his battered shield and club, which still had a bit of dried blood on it.
“Evelyn and I were thinking of checking out a clearing about three miles from the west gate. There have been reports of small patrols of Kobolds and Goblins wandering about. Shouldn’t be an issue for us, but we can’t be careless.” Lukas informed them, adjusting his own sword at his hip and shield on his back.
Emma lightly tapped each of her knives on her bandolier and said quietly, “We know that.”
Evelyn chuckled, “You say that, but weren’t you the one that almost lost a foot yesterday?”
Emma’s face exploded in color as she desperately tried to hide it. She failed, and Liam made sure to point it out. Emma shoved Liam as hard as she could, but he was still only shuffled to the side half a step. Seeing that it had little effect, Emma instead jumped onto his back, attempting to throw him off balance.
Liam took several rapid steps around as his passenger moved her weight, but he refused to go down. Lukas walked after them, trying to get them to stop playing around. A few of the servants looked over at the scene as they went about their work in the Duke’s courtyard.
Evelyn chuckled to herself at their antics, glad to see that the Seed had not removed their free will. But there was still one that she was concerned about. David refused to wear any sort of armor and only begrudgingly accepted a single dagger after nearly two hours of negotiations.
Even then, he typically neglected the knife and instead either clawed at the enemy’s eyes or throat. Even Evelyn was beginning to ignore his savagery as it was effective.
David grew stronger the more he ate, and depending on what he eats, he gains Abilities from them. Already, just a week after, he could extend his fingertips into claws and teeth into fangs. He was wicked fast and agile, and seemed to always see everything around him, which allowed him to use the trees as objects to push off, coming at his opponents at an unexpected angle.
Those who saw him called him an animal with disdain. David acted as if he did not hear them, though he heard almost everything within fifty feet of him. Evelyn could not help but agree with them, but she did not see it as a bad thing.
In fact, she was excited to see just what kind of person David would become. What sort of Monsters would he devour? What kind of Monster would he become? And would he still be Human?