Prometheus and his two friends woke up the next day, being ordered to move back into the large chamber where the training golem resided. The General and the two Majors accompanied them, followed by a new monster. It looked humanoid, with a deep green skin and sharp facial features. It resembled one of the hobgoblins Theo had trained some time ago, only more refined looking with its tailored suit and glasses.

"Soldiers, she's Instructor Maleva, she's going to teach you basic knowledge about battlefield strategy, world events, and more. Follow everything she says and don't complain, especially you Private Prometheus. Other than that, you can ask her whatever you want, she's knowledgeable about many subjects. Is that correct, Mali?" Asked the General with a mischievous tone.

Maleva sighed heavily and stepped up, ignoring the General's words altogether. The well-dressed Instructor moved to the blackboard and slid it to where Theo and his two companions were sitting, starting to write 42 different symbols.

"I'll leave you to them, then. Send a [Message] if you need anything, okay?" Said General Espanto while beginning to walk out of the chamber along with the two Majors right behind him. Instructor Maleva nodded in response and turned her focus back on the blackboard. After the three monsters introduced themselves to the old goblin, Theo raised his bear paw to ask a question, and when she prompted him to continue he said, "Are you a goblin?"

Her facial expression remained completely neutral, although Theo's enhanced vision noticed a vein bulge slightly on her bald forehead. I hope her blood pressure is alright!

"Technically, yes. I was a goblin once, but not anymore. My species never makes it to high tiers, so we don't have a name for them. Any other questions on my species, dear student?"

Theo shook his head, satisfied.

The Instructor began a lesson on the alphabet used by the monster army, creating the sound of each letter through the mental connection. His translation algorithms memorized it all in seconds, so he was certain that with a bit of practice, he could speak it fluently. "Although knowing the Monster language is important for written documents, almost everyone in the Army communicates through mental connections, so don't focus too much on it."

Then she went on an overview of what they would study from then on, mostly focusing on military knowledge, naturally. Maleva started with an outline of their surrounding geography, naming various forests, rivers, mountains, and whatnot. She took out a map from her pocket, which showed a continent, Theo assumed. It looks so smooth and circular. What are the chances for a large landmass to form like that?

"We are on the continent of Eutrania, exactly in the center of it," she tapped the center of the circular continent, "And to our east, is the Iulan kingdom. To the north is the Elven Dictatorship, to the west is the Zason Confederacy, and to the south is the Unsafe Wasteland."

"What about the Sapphire Republic?" Asked Theo, remembering about it.

"They are in the middle of a civil war with the Iulan Kingdom, so we won't discuss it for now."

The Instructor went on an endless explanation of the political landscape around the Monster Army, which he had just discovered was more of a paramilitary group than a country. Even then, he couldn't be bothered to listen to this lesson anymore. He threw a sneaky mental connection spell at Zilch, who was listening attentively to the Instructor.

"Zilch. Are you actually interested in that?" Asked Theo in surprise at seeing the worm's focus.

"It sounds interesting, to me at least. Why do you ask?"

"I'm bored. I don't know what to do, I don't want to spend all day here."

Instructor Maleva coughed into her fist to get Theo's attention and continued her explanation, while Prometheus stretched his bear arms and legs, looking around for anything more interesting. Sayuri was trying her best to follow the lesson, but she also dozed off occasionally, looking around the large but empty chamber.

"Sayuri."

"What?" Asked the bamboo samurai without turning to look at him.

"Are you bored?"

"No. Why?"

"I saw you looking around all tired. Come on, admit that you can't listen to this grandma anymore."

The instructor stopped talking at once, her eyes drilling into Theo's skull. Did she hear me?! Impossible, I didn't include her in the mental connection!

"Private Prometheus, do you believe mental connections to be infallible?" She asked with a strict voice.

"I mean...yes?" He replied with uncertainty.

"Come over to the blackboard since you're in such a chatty mood."

Theo sighed heavily and walked next to the Instructor, who was a bit shorter than he was.

"Give me a summary of what I've explained thus far." She said while crossing her arms, expecting him to fail. Unfortunately for her, Theo was always recording his surroundings even if he wasn't consciously listening, both visually and aurally. So, he went on a perfect recap of her previous explanations. She tightened her jaw but still nodded at him and told him to return to his spot.

"As I was saying, many theories have been discussed about the origin and nature of the Soul, but none of them provide complete explanations. That is accentuated by the fact that Souls have been malleable enough to use techniques only for around one thousand years, with records before that being incomplete."

Theo decided to ask a question, as the topic of souls interested him, "What happened one thousand years ago?"

"Simply put, a great purge happened. Everyone who couldn't tier up, monsters and civilized races both, got wiped out. Whether it was a natural phenomenon, such as a catastrophe that allowed only the strong to survive, or a directed slaughter, we cannot say."

So natural selection allowed everyone in this world to use their Souls? Is that why I couldn't absorb monster cores at first?

"If, hypothetically speaking, a creature couldn't use their Soul today, would there be a way to allow them to?"

Instructor Maleva nodded, explaining, "Yes, many methods have been developed over the years to allow the small minority of inactive souls to become active. The most common one is probing the affected Soul with a normal Soul, in an effort to allow the individual to localize their own inactive soul. After that, tiering up becomes instinctual to them."

"Now, I'll explain what exactly Soul techniques and abilities are. Many debates have been made about the difference between the two, but I believe it is this: Techniques have very few restrictions, none or one at most, and as such they aren't particularly powerful. Additionally, they can be disaligned with a Soul's affinity. Soul abilities, on the other hand, are the pure manifestation of a Soul's desire. They usually possess many restrictions and are aligned with the Soul's affinity, thus making it much more powerful. They are the main weapon of every individual. Is that clear?" She asked while looking at the three monsters in front of her.

Sayuri raised her hand and asked, "How do we learn a Soul ability?"

"Your personal tutors will explain to you in more detail, but Soul abilities always come from within, created by each of you. When you reach tier 3, you'll be able to learn the most important technique ever discovered, [Introspection]. That's what will allow you to interact with your Soul and create a Soul ability."

"Another thing I wanted to add about Souls before we move on, is that rituals can be used with them. Souls, especially high-tier ones, are extremely precious resources and can be used in a variety of ways. One of the most uncommon, but interesting ones, is 'Soul Integration', a ritual that allows an individual to absorb another Soul along with all its knowledge and past memories. Moving on..."

Theo narrowed his eyes, asking a question of his own, "Miss Maleva, can you go into more detail about Soul Integrations?"

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The instructor nodded, a small smile appearing on her otherwise monotone face, "Naturally. It is a procedure in which an individual absorbs another Soul, generally a weaker one, with the intent to absorb its knowledge. For example, if I wanted all the life experience of a veteran swordsman, I could absorb their Soul and learn everything that they knew about sword techniques. It does have some restrictions, unfortunately. First, is the fact that this ritual is incredibly expensive in terms of materials. Secondly, is the fact that the difference of power between the two souls must be enormous. Seven or eight tiers of difference might not be enough, so the conventional amount is ten tiers of difference."

Theo's mind began to speed up, anxiety flowing through him, something that he rarely felt.

"But that's not even everything. The absorbed Soul needs to be at peace and relaxed, along with a few other Souls used as fuel for the ritual. Related Souls, such as parents, siblings or offspring, have been discovered to provide better results."

Theo stood up abruptly, catching the surprised looks of his two friends and the Instructor, who asked, "Is everything alright, Private?"

"I need to speak to the General, urgently."

Despite Theo's mechanical and monotone voice, to which everyone had already gotten used to, the Instructor noticed the hint of urgency behind it and allowed him to exit the class. Theo immediately shifted into a large bird, depositing the nine hundred kilograms of excess biomass in his inventory, and flew up the chamber, entering the central room of the fortress.

Asking a random mushroom worker where the tree general had gone, he discovered that Espanto had moved to a nearby battle to assist in it. He doesn't know anything else... I shouldn't expect more, they're just the janitors of this place, He thought, referring to the mushroom monsters.

The only thing I can do is find him myself. I know that he's in a battle, which would probably contain many strong fighters. The Influence there would be blinding. I need to find it.

Prometheus flew outside the base, exiting the volcano's mouth at incredible speeds. All his bonuses from the system allowed him to fly at the speed of sound if he didn't worry about energy consumption. Theo flew in ever-increasing circles around the base, looking around for any trace of Influence. Other than large mountains, his surroundings were barren. Not a speck of vegetation was present outside the volcano, a land of gravel and dirt occupying his field of view entirely.

Theo decided to take a risk and flew in a random direction, hoping he would get lucky. He didn't, so he turned back and flew in the opposite direction. After five minutes of flight, he felt specks of Influence flying around, accompanied by sounds in the distance. There are so many mountains here... I can't see anything.

Following the sounds, he finally arrived at the sights of a battle, or at least the rear lines, where multiple monsters were using techniques to heal up injured soldiers to put them in a fighting condition once again. This particular Unit seemed to be made of the same type of monster, resembling a monkey with a scorpion's tail. A single tribulation could end it all...for both sides.

Flying ahead, Theo reached the front lines, where a decent-sized unit of human soldiers was fighting against the monsters. Many techniques flew around the battlefield, causing explosions left and right. A rainbow of color was created by the sheer diversity of techniques and abilities used, some flashier than others. Separated from the main battle, a dozen figures stood off against a taller one in the distance, looking familiar.

That's the General!

Theo flew much closer until he could see the tree monster crossing his arms, speaking through a mental connection 'bubble', which Theo had learned that it allowed anyone inside of it to speak to everyone else. As soon as he passed the threshold, he heard the General's voice in his mind,

"I thought you were the strongest of your Unit. The mightiest. And now, look at you, panting on the ground like the insects that you are. Truly worthless beings. Die."

The dozen humans were all heavily injured, but they still stood tall and proud, although breathing heavily. All of them wore full plate armor, but only half of them had melee weapons. The other half had massive bows taller than them, and weird wands with a wheel on their tip. Prometheus could feel the amount of Influence in each of them, and he estimated that they were about as strong as Major Fuoco, just going by their Soul intensity.

Holy shit. He's taking twelve of them at once without breaking a sweat!

The tree monster disappeared from his spot and reappeared on the flank of the humans, who moved immediately to intercept the General. The shield-wielding ones ran up to him at insane speeds, but Espanto swatted them aside like they were rabid dogs. Arrows flew from the large bows with a thundering shockwave, but the monster caught them in his hand and broke them in half. The wand-wielding humans made gestures in the air, and columns of fire flew from their wands in a parabola over the group and managed to hit the General, who simply crossed his arms, protected by a technique that Theo thought he had seen once.

I think... That weird demon guy used a barrier technique like that before that tribulation on one of the trials.

One of the melee soldiers, with a more decorated armor, shouted in the language used in the Iulan kingdom, "Everyone! We can still win this! Give it everything you've got! Don't disappoint the kingdom! Think about the family that you'll leave back home!"

That seemed to reinvigorate the warriors, who stood up once again, throwing techniques many times, like commanding their swords from a distance, constructs of electricity, and many more. The General conjured many roots in the ground to grasp every soldier present, who couldn't escape regardless of how much they squirmed.

"Playtime is over. I'll now bring you back to base and interrogate you for any scrap of information you have, before throwing you in a jail cell where we can squeeze every drop of usefulness from you."

Prometheus flew closer to the General, who finally noticed him, "I told you that I would fight them alone-Private Prometheus? Why are you here?" Asked the General in a confused tone.

"I need to speak to Mr. Fluffernutter as soon as possible. It's an emergency!" Theo tried his best to put a sense of urgency in his voice, but contrary to Maleva, the General didn't notice it.

"What is the emergency?"

"I just need to see him!" Said Theo as urgently as he could through the mental connection. He was still hardcoded to speak with a robotic and monotone voice, and that applied to his mental voice as well.

"How about this, Private. These insects here have bored me out of my mind, so engage in a duel with one. I'll make sure it is somewhat fair, and if you win, I'll request a meeting with the humans you like."

The shapeshifter protested for minutes, explaining how urgent it was. The general didn't care. Prometheus sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to change the monster's mind. The shapeshifter transformed into a new form he had seen from a monster in the wild while flying here: A scorpion-like monster with sharp edges at every piece of exoskeleton and dozens of sharp limbs protruding from every facet of the body. Theo discovered that he could close up his many legs around his 'body' and create an extremely strong armor. When he did that he also looked like a metallic ball, similar to his core. When opened, he looked like an alien made of knives and spikes.

This is amazing. I should explore the wilds more for inspiration for my forms.

Naturally, Theo added toxin glands at every spike and limb.

The General nodded at the shapeshifter and released one of the humans, before sitting down on his usual throne of roots. The man had a buzzcut and an opened cheek, through which Theo could see the man's teeth. He stumbled on the ground and kneeled down to catch his breath.

"Johnathan! Run away, we'll keep them occupied!" Shouted the leader, Theo assumed by the man's better armor. And the fact that he was the one to encourage the soldiers earlier.

The General moved his eye stalks around in confusion and settled on Theo, "Do you know what they're saying, Private?"

Theo nodded, "The leader told the guy you just released to escape, and that the others will distract you."

The General scoffed and nodded at the shapeshifter before turning his attention back to the humans, "You think you can escape so easily? Private, look at them. They're trying to create a collective [Teleportation] technique. Isn't that pathetic?"

"They're trying to save their lives, I think that's fair of them. I would do the same." Explained Prometheus neutrally, emotionless at the sight of the injured humans. He could feel Influence move from each of them, gathered around the freed man. Tears streamed down a couple of them as they heard the General's voice.

A tendril of Influence from the General flew and destroyed the structure that they were trying to create. That created more gasps of fear and horror, but another look replaced that one soon after. What's that? Are they smiling? I don't think I would smile in such a situation. Maybe they're just happy people overall?

Prometheus looked around, searching for something. Anything.

Something's wrong. My Danger sense and my Supernality sense are both going crazy.

The General looked at the smiling warriors, confusion clear in the tree monster's eyes. He turned to the shapeshifter and said, "Smiling in the face of death. Only the so-called 'civilized races' would act so arrogant in the face of absolute power. Anyway, Private, fight that one to the death. I'll make it fair to you now, so you don't complain that I treat you unfairly," said the General, before whipping a root from the ground at supersonic speeds at the man, cleaving cleanly through a leg and an arm. Theo noticed that the General was also looking around suspiciously, probably for the same reason.

The injured warrior fell down, before focusing on the blood loss. Theo studied the technique closely, saving it in his memory. Before the duel could start, a notification appeared in Theo's mind, and everyone else present, judging by their reactions,

The Gods watch the approaching battle with anticipation in their eyes.

What? Is this duel that important to them?

"Hey everyone, I'm sorry for being late," said a new voice that came from a young man, no older than seventeen or eighteen. The injured humans began to laugh jovially, some of them crying in happiness.

"You're so fucked," said one of the women towards the two monsters

Theo looked around, noticing a teenager standing at the General's side, who stood up in alarm and backed off immediately. The new arrival had long hair and a simple shirt with a band from Earth on it. Other than his jeans and white sneakers, only a sword at his hip revealed him to be a warrior. Prometheus had to double-check his Supernality sense, as it was blinded by the new arrival's Soul. Four new figures landed next to the boy, all of them similarly powerful. They were girls with highly revealing and unprotective armors.

Shit.

The General didn't waste a single moment and threw dozens of whiplashes with giant roots from the ground at the boy, who expertly dodged them all with a lazy smile on his face. Theo could barely comprehend what was happening, being able to keep up only thanks to the mental improvements.

"Private! Get back to base and notify the Majors, and don't think of using a Tribulation, it won't kill them! Tell them that the kingdom's Defenders are here!" shouted the General while throwing as many roots as possible toward the group of five. They yawned provocatively while dodging every strike by centimeters.

Theo turned around in an instant to sprint back to the base, hitting an invisible barrier that didn't budge even a bit.

"Sorry, but we can't let you go. I'm really sorry though." Said a girl's voice next to him, frowning deeply and exaggeratedly. She had long, purple hair, with two daggers at her hips.

"Treat our enemies with respect, Maya. Monsters, may your death cause prosperity to the civilized races," Added another girl behind him, this one with a large mace. She was taller than the others and had blonde hair. Before Prometheus had any time to react, he was already flying into the air, spinning wildly.

I didn't even see anything, and most of my cells have been reduced to nothing.

In the air, the girl with a mace hit him with a descending strike, causing a massive boom at Theo's impact with the ground. The shapeshifter sped up time as much as possible, analyzing the situation.

We're fucked. We can't escape. They're leagues above me. I will die here, most likely.

Theo's realization caused a wave of cold to go around his body.

I'll die here, unable to save my humans. I'll die here, while they get killed in a ritual, helpless.

Cold anger flowed through his body, which didn't do much more than cause instability in his decision-making.

I won't accept it. I WILL escape alive if it's the last thing I do!

A part of Theo's mind gave him an idea, the memory of the raid on the weird priests surfacing up. He remembered freeing that weird man with a nice suit and a cane. After doing so, he had given Theo a 'business card' that he could use to call upon the gentleman. Theo hesitated for a moment, remembering the sense of wrongness emanating from that person, or thing, given the lack of a Soul.

Fuck it.

Theo took out the small paper card, and he instinctively knew how to use it. The sense of wrongness emanating from it was staggering. Ripping it in half, the world around him slowed down to a crawl, and the two halves fell down, burning up into nothingness. A familiar voice greeted him.

"Greetings, Good sir. It seems that you found yourself in quite a pickle and require my assistance. How may I be of service?"

Prometheus smiled internally.