Ray was awakened by a bright light falling on his face. It was already the second half of the day and the sun was finally able to sink behind the crown of the tree, thus interrupting the guy's sleep. Opening his eyes, he immediately covered them with his hand, narrowing his eyes in displeasure.

“Damn it. Fell asleep…”

The momentary chagrin quickly gave way to an almost uncontrollable joy. The point was that by this point he, in theory, should already be dead.

"Don't be in a hurry." - slightly stunned, going over thought after thought the guy argued with himself, - "But what if I'm really lucky? After all, they can’t disconnect me from the game, besides, I was thrown who knows where. It would be foolish to attribute all this to illness. If it was her, they wouldn’t be able to connect me at all. ”

Rey didn't want to go anywhere else until he was sure he wouldn't die.

The guy moved a little so that he was in the shade of a tree and simply began to watch how the sun, like a dumb judge, slowly but surely sinks below the horizon. Thoughts raced through his head one by one. Ray tried to find at least one argument that would say that he would die soon, but that's all. testified to the contrary.

“It's definitely not because of the dive capsule. She does not inject the necessary drugs into the body, and with the additional load on the brain and nervous system from being in the game, I should have died in the morning. Which means…”

He thought about such things more than a dozen times, but only when the evening fell to the ground, he once again comprehended everything, looked at his hands and began to cry.

"Thanks…"

Without knowing whom he thanks, adult he roared like a child, but there was a sincere smile on his face. He did not yet fully understand his situation, but he was incredibly glad that he now had another chance at life. Those who have already come to terms with the inevitability of death got the opportunity to start all over again, moreover, in such incredible conditions.

Ray was happy for a long time, but eventually began to come to his senses. He still had a lot to think about and this required a calm state.

“This body is immortal, besides it does not age, this world is not known and is free from the usual laws. The game may not last forever, but what the hell difference does it make!?”

Smiling again, the guy wiped another tear and involuntarily caught himself thinking:

“Maybe what I went through was worth this moment. No, it was definitely worth it!

Ray's grandiose musings were interrupted by a growling stomach. For the whole day he did not eat anything, but because of the feelings that had piled on him, he did not even notice it. Laughing out loud, he began to make plans for the near future:

"The first thing to do is find another curing, I'm no hunter at all and the opportunity to eat leaves for the first time will be a real salvation. It is also worth paying attention to my own enhancement, I almost do not understand how my abilities work. Even at the cost of certain risks, it is worth dealing with this. - thought the guy with a much more serious attitude. Busily rubbing his chin, he still could not stop smiling blissfully and so peacefully.

The life of a man who had already died continued...

***

Two hours later, little one the brownish animal was already eating a leaf of a tree by both cheeks, which it held in its front paws. Finding a new couring soul was not difficult for the guy, these animals slept soundly at night in the conditional safety of the tree branches, but during the journey in the form of an animal, he was able to more or less understand how they chose their habitats.

Ray continued to chew on the leaf, thinking about the most important things:

“Animals should be killed only to absorb souls, which will help deal with abilities. I can’t cook meat properly, it’s better to eat the leaves, they at least taste good.”

Having eaten, the guy did not immediately continue the journey, at first he returned to the already familiar clearing, next to which for some reason there were no animals. He wanted to get a better understanding of how the traits of his race worked. He hadn't paid much attention to it before because he didn't think it was necessary, but now that he had a potentially endless life ahead of him, the sooner he got used to them, the better.

After spending the whole night experimenting and observing the souls within himself, he realized several things that he had not noticed before. The main thing was, probably, that the number of souls that he could now accommodate in himself was already the maximum. The point was that the human soul occupied the lion's share of space in its inner space. This was explained by the fact that it was an order of magnitude stronger than the two souls of small animals, although not as useful. Even her color was slightly different and slightly lighter, although it should also be considered gray.

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The souls themselves were comparable in size to their respective bodies, but they were surrounded by the same haze that Rei had seen when they died. The space inside the guy's soul was the size of a small room, in the center of which was the human soul. Before he did not pay attention, but these auras that surrounded the souls do not intersect with each other, from which followed the conclusion that there is simply no room for another soul. In fact, it seemed to him that even now the energy surrounding the human soul was shifted to one side so that the other two souls could fit. Rei did not know what to do with this, because he did not succeed in influencing the souls in any way. He could watch them and choose the right one, but he could not interact with them in any other way.

"There's still too much to deal with."

Even though the guy really had no idea how best to act in order to quickly understand the principles of the ability to work, but this only inflamed his research enthusiasm. Obviously, he had only one thing - to advance, he needed more souls, which were a little easier to get at night, because he could only effectively hunt couringas.

***

The first rays of the sun made their way through the dense foliage, illuminating a completely naked man, who, bending over the carcass of a dead animal, absorbed the soul that had just flown out of him. During this time, Rey realized something else, the absorbed animal souls strengthen the soul of the same type inside him. For example, after two Curing souls were absorbed, his own soul of this animal grew in size, as did the surrounding area with energy. In this form, he also grew a little, and his body became stronger. Ray had expected this after his experience with the tildas, but now he was convinced. He also learned that after a certain amount of absorbed souls, his curing soul stopped getting stronger. At first, he attributed this to a lack of space in the interior, but later changed his mind. The energy shell of the curing soul could follow the example of the human soul and simply change the form to a more compact one. And if we consider that the growth was not so big - about 30%, then the reason was different. Ray explained this to himself in a very simple and logical way - the little ferret simply could not become stronger. Most likely, this was due precisely to the limitation of his body, which could not develop further. This did not bother the guy, because it was quite correct, besides, the souls that did not go for reinforcement did not disappear either. After absorbing four more souls of the Curings, his thirst, accumulated over all the time in this world, practically disappeared. This observation has brought Ray some satisfaction, and not only because he found another way to survive, but mainly because now the killing of defenseless animals has gained a certain meaning. Even though he understood inside himself that they were not real, but if he recognized this, he could not consider himself real either, and killing animals was still rather unpleasant for him. He, who grew up in comfort and coziness, could not simply, mindlessly crush small curings. Trying to convince himself of the demand for this occupation, he nevertheless overpowered his convictions, but, one way or another, he could not completely reconcile himself.

“I can probably be called the evil character of the game, because I need to kill living beings in order to develop. Plus, they're so defenseless."

Catching himself on such a thought, Ray felt a little sad, but over time it seemed to him more like a joke. He was definitely not going to live in the body of curing and eat leaves all his life, which means he will have to continue to kill animals in order to become stronger. And about how to develop the human soul, The guy tried not to think...

Now he just finished absorbing the soul of the eighth curing night. When she was inside the body, the soul, as he expected, turned into streams of energy, which completely deprived him of the feeling of thirst and the remnants of fatigue accumulated over a sleepless night. But besides that, he felt some kind of change. What exactly it concerned, he did not immediately understand. The soul of curing inside him remained the same, like the other two. Having turned into curing, he also did not notice anything new. He only saw the difference when he checked the status, [Soul Master] had risen to the second level.

"And what has changed?" - the mental question of the guy did not receive an answer, and he, unfortunately, could not find the difference. Neither the size of the interior space, nor the appearance of the souls, nor the feel of them has changed. After watching them for a while, he was slightly disappointed. Deciding to put the matter aside for the time being, Ray turned into a tildas. Now he was full of energy and the bad experience of the last flight, albeit a little frightened him, but now the guy was sure that he would not make the same mistake, besides, he really liked flying and he was not going to refuse such an opportunity.

Rei was on the ground now, but he was sure he could take off anyway. The guy understood the reason for past failures while he was in the air.

As expected, albeit a little clumsily, he managed to take off. Gaining height, he headed all the same - to the west.

After an hour in the air, Rey plucked up a little courage and moved from flying in a straight line to some turns that were supposed to improve his coordination in the air. To his own surprise, he noticed that it was not so difficult, and his fears were groundless. Control over the wings became better and better, and the feeling of awkwardness and insecurity that had arisen before gradually disappeared. Half an hour later, he descended to the trees and, slightly reducing his speed, tried to fly between them.

When Ray was able to do this too, although not without difficulty, he became even more confident, but decided to end it there for the time being due to slight fatigue. He did all this so that in the future he would be able to escape if the need arose, yet the shape of a bird was best suited for this. Plus it was pretty fun.

Now he circled over a small clearing in the forest, trying to see if there were other animals around. Rey was in about the same place where he had previously met the gray predator, which reminded him of a lion, so he was careful. Making sure that there was no one around, he tried to hover in one place. The smooth flapping of the wings became slower and slower until about a meter remained to the ground. The guy did not wait for the landing and took the form of a man, deftly landing on the thick grass. Approaching a tall tree, he turned into a curinga and climbed on it, while not noticing at all how familiar the process of changing appearances had become. Rei decided to move forward only in bird form because that was the most efficient. He wanted to find the end of the forest, or at least other animals.

“I wonder if I was accidentally thrown here? If you think about it, there are almost no dangerous animals here, besides that clearing ... "

Ray had some suspicions, but he could not confirm them, so he did not worry about it for long. He decided to use this time of rest to find out what had changed with the level of [Soul Master].

All that the guy had was the name of the ability, and he quite logically assumed that it was she who allowed him to absorb souls. The only pattern he could figure out was that the level went up after the tenth soul he absorbed, though that could be a coincidence. As before, Rei didn't notice any visual difference, but as he tried to move the souls, he could feel the difference. Although he could not move them inside himself, something still happened to them.

Concentrating on the soul of curing, Ray tried to understand what was happening to her now, her whole soul was trembling, but did not move one iota. The guy was persistent and after a few seconds the soul with a slight brilliance of light disintegrated into familiar energy flows and disappeared into his body.

"Eh?"

At first, Rei was surprised, because such an improvement in ability was strange. It seemed to allow the destruction of existing souls. After thinking for a while, Rei admitted that the ability was very useful. It not only made it possible to receive the energy necessary for life, but the main thing is to replace one soul with another. Satisfied with the new acquisition, he waited a little more, turned into a tildas and continued on his way.

“I wonder how many souls it takes to raise this ability to the third level? And how to improve [Many Faces]? I understand that the size of the internal space depends on it?”

Unfortunately, he could find out the answers to these questions only in practice.

And now, the rising sun shone after the tildas flying over the same endless forest.