The second night in the New World was less stressful than the first one. The trio had found a shelter in the ancient tree. They had established a functional dynamic. They were striving towards a shared goal of capturing Ensouled and surviving.

Zachary still didn’t trust either of them. But after fighting and struggling together, he respected their competence. With their help, especially Jean-Pierre’s, he might be able to work around the problem of his soul.

However, the matter of the adept rank Ensouled was a far trickier problem. Aside from the risks involved, there was the question of who would get the powerful summon if they were ever able to capture one. Did he deserve it as the leader of their little group or did the person who contributed most to the capture deserve it?

In the republic, it was common courtesy to consider fairness and honor between summoners. But this was the New World, not the republic. There were no social repercussions, only death. The only thing that mattered was survival.

If Jean-Pierre was an evil person at heart, he could easily betray them with an adept summon in hand. If Katherine was an ungrateful woman, she might run away with the prize after all of their hard work. Even the times he had saved her life would be wasted.

Still, the biggest problem was still himself and his wounded soul. He was currently equivalent to a Seven Paths Novice Rank summoner. It meant that he couldn’t summon an adept rank Ensouled even if he wanted to, even if the team captured it and offered him the card.

He had to solve this problem…

Zachary sat down to meditate. Just like the night before, he looked inward at his soul. The swirling sea of Eternum appeared and so did his seven open paths.

He breathed in deeply, once more taking in the Eternum in the surrounding air. He let it course through his body and pour into the seven soul paths. Like small streams, energy flowed little by little into the reservoir of his soul, replenishing the small amount that had been lost summoning Boba during the day.

After that was finished, he looked towards his broken path. No Eternum flowed through it as expected. The shredded remnants still looked raw like a fresh wound, even though it had been half a year already. There was no improvement even after so many days of meditation on the prison ship.

This was his only adept rank soul path. Without it, he could only summon novice rank Ensouled. He had to do something about it if he wanted to improve his strength.

He only knew one basic soul refining technique, a method of meditation to control Eternum and draw it into his soul sea. It was taught to all youths of the republic. It had limited uses but he had no other choice.

He reached into his bag and retrieved a small pouch made from animal hide. Inside was a tiny animal crystal the size of a grain of rice. It had a light cyan color like the sky. He had chosen this one out of the crystals they had obtained today because it held an attribute that was important to him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He placed the anima crystal in the center of his right palm and covered it with his other palm. He then entered meditation again.

The method for extracting Eternum out of concentrated sources was simple enough. The basic soul refining technique outlined it clearly. All one had to do was open all soul paths and let the energy in like drinking from an open tap. However, what he wanted to do was a little more difficult.

Summoners had eight paths in their soul. Arranged in a circle, they aligned with the eight cardinal directions; east, south, west, north, southeast, southwest, northwest, and northeast. In addition, each path also aligned with the eight fundamental elemental attributes.

East was the attribute of the sky. South was the attribute of fire. West was the attribute of the earth. North was the attribute of water. Southeast was the attribute of the day. Southwest was the attribute of life. Northwest was the attribute of the night. And finally, northeast was the attribute of death.

When absorbing Eternum from the environment or from anima crystals, all soul paths could freely accept the normal attribute. For specific attributes, only one soul path that had the opposite attribute would be blocked off. The other seven soul paths could still accept that energy with varying degrees of efficiency.

However, it was slightly different for capturing and summoning Ensouled. With one path crippled, Zachary wasn’t exactly sure what he could or couldn’t do. Failure to capture the stag beetle had spooked him and that was why he had refused it when Jean-Pierre offered it to him. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to summon it or not with his broken sky path.

Therefore, he resolved to do something about it. He didn’t know if it would work but it was better than doing nothing and waiting for death.

The concept from the basic soul refining technique was straightforward. It relied on a large amount of Eternum to forcibly open or widen a soul path. This was how some poor summoners at the novice rank opened their soul paths one by one. It was also a method used by unfortunate summoners who were desperate to break through to the next rank.

Zachary finally activated his soul force, causing the anima crystal held between his palms to glow softly. Compelled by his will, it released the energy stored within, that which had been collected over the whole life of the Ensouled it originally belonged to. Streams of sky blue light entered his palms and through his body. It all collected towards his brow and approached his soul sea.

Like water, the wild energy sought out a path to flow into his soul sea. He felt stabs of pain as a few strands of energy prodded his wound. But with the sky path blocked, the external energy spread out in search of other paths.

He grimaced and activated his soul force to the peak, corralling the stray strands of energy to return to the front of his wounded path. Then, he gave a mighty push.

Pain erupted.

He almost cried out. He gnashed his teeth and held it in.

He pushed again.

His head throbbed.

He kept pushing.

Sky blue energy crashed against the shredded remnants of his soul path. His brain was being turned into mush as he tried to force it through. The pain was blinding. It was a simple but brutal method. All he had to do was keep pushing.

The anima crystal in his palm eventually lost its color and turned to dust. All of its Eternum had been absorbed into his body and all of it was concentrated in front of his east path, desperate to go somewhere, anywhere.

He gave it one last push, the culmination of his frustration and desperation.

His broken soul path stood firm.

“Puuu!” Zachary sprayed a mouthful of blood into the air.

All the extra energy he had gathered was released in an instant. It escaped out of the pores on his skin and returned to the world.

“Damn it…”

His head felt as if it had been split open by an axe. It would have probably been better if it was. He spat out some more blood and leaned against the tree trunk, gasping for air.

“What is wrong with you?” Jean-Pierre’s voice came from what seemed like far away.

Zachary wiped his mouth, “Toothache.”

“Fucking… maniac!”