Chương 39: Chapter 38 - Boons

Ren staggered through the entrance of boisterous tavern. He was soaked to the bone with a mixture of rain and blood—both black and crimson. The entire right side of his body was covered in burns and his clothes were in ruins. Every part of him hurt, and his soul felt strained so that even breathing was an effort. The broken ribs probably didn't help with that either. It was a miracle he had made it back without collapsing at all.

The Bumbling Magician's common room was packed with rowdy patrons all settling in to waste the rest of the night away, but more than a few of them fell silent or turned to stare the moment Ren stepped inside. Whispers and murmurs rippled through the room as he silently trudged his way through the crowd, the patrons parting before him, none of them eager to find themselves anywhere near this bloodied mess of a boy.

"Is that guy alright?"

"What's that person's problem?"

"Did he kill someone?" Some of them sounded concerned while others were plainly and rightfully suspicious, but not a single one stepped forward to help him. Not that Ren much wanted them to. His good hand stayed clenched tight around the preacher's Ascended Soul Core as he reached the stairs and dragged himself up them, one agonising step at a time. By the time he finally made it to Mr. Jester's room, his vision had already begun to blur at the edges.

Ren fumbled with the doorknob for several long seconds before finally managing to push the far too heavy door open.' I made it,' he thought as exhaustion slammed into him. Whatever scraps of adrenaline had kept him going burned out long ago. He'd been running on nothing but sheer will and stubborn tenacity, and now that he'd finally reached his destination, his body finally gave in. His knees buckled and Ren fell forward, but before he could hit the floor, a pair of steady hands caught him.

"You did very well, little protégé," a voice said reassuringly. Ren barely registered that it was Mr. Jester's before unconsciousness took him. When he next opened his eyes, sunlight was streaming through the single window in the room. He was lying in his futon, tucked in beneath a blanket so tightly that he couldn't have moved even if he'd wanted to. So for a few seconds he simply stared upward in silence before squirming a little, to no avail.

Evidently, [Accelerated Regeneration] had been hard at work while he slept, as his injuries no longer hurt nearly as much as they had the night before. Ren gave up trying to escape and went back to lying there in silence. It wasn't exactly silent, though, not with the constant scratching of a quill against paper from beyond the canopy bed filling the room, letting him know Mr. Jester was still around at least. Just the one this time, too, seeing as he couldn't hear the several overlapping scratches like before.'

One out of four,' he eventually thought. The first, and arguably the easiest, of his targets—someone who wasn't even meant to be a combatant in the first place—and yet he had nearly died. Ren turned his head to look out at the blue sky through the window, his expression hardening with resolve.' I must…' He pushed against his blanket prison with all his might, finally working it loose enough to free his arms, at last able to rise to his feet.' … become better.'

Ren slowly stretched out his weary body, wincing in pain when his broken ribs cricked a little, before stepping into the bathroom to wash the last of the sleep from his eyes and inspect his wounds. Thanks to [Accelerated Regeneration], most of the burns had already begun to heal over. Large, sticky scabs now covered nearly his entire right side, and Ren guessed it would still be another few days, yet before the Soul Attribute healed him completely.

His shirt and cloak were missing entirely, whatever scraps of them that had remained now nowhere to be seen, leaving him with only his boots and trousers to cover himself. What did remain, thankfully, was the bracelet Yumè had made him, and Ren brought it up close to inspect it for any damage, letting out a small breath of relief when he found the little charm entirely unscathed. Even the pouch of coins Mr.

Jester had given him still hung from his belt, remarkably, having somehow survived the whole ordeal along with him. He finished washing his face and stepped out of the bathroom, rounding the corner of the canopy bed to find Mr. Jester seated at his desk, writing away as leisurely as ever. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. The man was still dressed in his red-and-white jester outfit, complete with the three-pronged hat with bells on the ends.

The moment he noticed Ren, he promptly put down his quill and leant back in his chair, turning to face him with a wide grin.

"Nicely done, little protégé!" he said brightly.

"So, how'd it go? Besides all the ouchies you got." Ren looked at him with a unimpressed stare.

"The preacher is dead," he responded flatly.

"I'll move onto Esteban next. Alice knows quite a bit about him, so it should be quick." Mr. Jester frowned.

"That's very good and all, little protégé, but cheer up some more! It's not every day a fresh Awakened kills a seasoned Ascended Blessed, you know." He smiled as he rose from his desk and closed the massive tome he'd been writing in, dusting it off lovingly before setting it down on the floor beside the desk.

"Take the week off or something and revel in your achievements a little," Mr. Jester said, pulling another equally large tome from behind his back.

"But no slacking on your training! You didn't do the Hero Training Program™ yesterday, so you have to do double today!" Ren sighed in resignation and turned on his heel, just as the brightly dressed man set down the fresh tome and began to write away in it.' A week's worth of training wouldn't be a bad investment,' Ren mused, walking back around to the two futons. He had barely won against the preacher, and as he was now, he was certainly going to struggle against Esteban, an actual mercenary captain.

On top of that, his injuries still needed time to heal properly. Amidst his thoughts, he stuck out his hand.

"Alice, come out." White motes swirled around him, condensing into Alice at his side. She stood there in perfect condition, the burns and wounds from the night before now completely gone, as though they had never been there at all.

"Seems like my essence healed you up nicely," Ren said with a faint smile. Alice only frowned at him.

"Ren took too long to take Alice out."

"Uh, yeah… sorry about that," he laughed sheepishly before gesturing at his own body, still covered in scabs.

"But it's not really my fault. I apparently needed to sleep for a while." Alice eyed him up and down, seemingly unconvinced by that reasoning. So, in an effort to distract her, Ren knelt down beside his futon and retrieved something.

"On the bright side," he said, holding out the preacher's Soul Core, "I still got this." Ren held the milky white stone out before him for a moment, watching as Alice's eyes flicked from it back up to him.

"Ren should take it," she said simply, crossing her arms.

"He needs it more than Alice does." It was true, so Ren didn't argue. He crushed the stone in his hand, the white essence trapped inside rushing up his arm and barrelling into his chest. A searing pain coursed through him, far worse than what the goblin cores had caused him. Ren clenched his jaw and breathed through it until, eventually, the sensation subsided enough for him to focus his thoughts again. And the first thing he did was summoned his status, the familiar white words unfurling before him.

[Aethersoul Ren] [Rank: Awakened] [Dominion: -] [Soul Power: Soul Shepherd] [Soul Saturation Level: 227/1000] [Soul Attributes: Accelerated Regeneration, Survival Instincts, Novice Shepherd] [Soul Attunements: -]"… What the...?" His eyes widened and locked onto the number. The last time he'd checked, his Soul Saturation had been sitting at three. Three. And now nearly a quarter of his soul had been saturated.

A single Soul Core had increased his Soul Saturation Level by two hundred and four, and from the little he knew and understood, that Ascended core should have given him maybe two points at most, just like the hobgoblin's had. Yet his status hovered there, utterly indifferent to his disbelief. Because his status didn't lie. It couldn't lie, being nothing more than a projection of his own soul. Ren exhaled and let out a short, breathless laugh.

"There's no way."

"What's wrong?" Alice asked, noticing his expression.

"Oh—it's nothing much," Ren responded, still staring at the number.

"It's just that my saturation level jumped by nearly a quarter after consuming that Soul Core. You don't happen to know why that is, do you?" He looked up hopefully, and Alice opened her mouth to answer, but it was Mr. Jester who beat her to it, speaking cheerfully as he rounded the corner of the bed.

"Ah! Little protégé, that's because when you consume a Blessed's Soul Core, you gain one-eighth of their total saturation level. It is, by far, the fastest way to grow stronger," he pulled his pair of oversized glassed from behind his back and put them on.

"Buuuut I wouldn't recommend doing it often. If you cram too much foreign essence into your soul over a short period of time, I guarantee you your mind and body will break down in a very scary way." Ren's excitement evaporated instantly, because that sounded... bad, to say the least. But Mr. Jester moved on before he could press any further into just what these 'scary' side effects might be.

"But I digress!" he said, giving Ren a big thumbs up.

"Little protégé, for your work I've decided to award you a prize! Is there anything you want?" Ren blinked, slightly caught off guard by the offer.

"Uhm…"

"Clothes, maybe?" he looked down at his bare chest.

"An armour-type Attunement?" Mr. Jester's grin widened even further and he clapped his hands together.

"Oh! I think I have just the thing for you! Hold tight and I'll pull a few strings—" His body burst into an explosion of multicoloured confetti, cutting him off mid-sentence, the pieces burning away to nothing before they touch the floor, leaving behind no trace that he'd ever even been. Ren stared at the empty space for a couple of seconds before the grumble of his stomach brought him back to reality. He slowly turned back to Alice.

"Should we go get someth—" A second burst of confetti erupted in the room.

"I'm back with your reward!" Mr. Jester announced loudly, causing Ren to jump, not having expected the brightly dressed man to return quite so soon, nor so suddenly. Mr. Jester beamed at him, amused at his shock, and thrust out an arm.

"Take my hand." Slightly confused by the request, Ren hesitated only a moment before reaching out and taking his hand, and the instant he did, he felt a distinct weight settle into his soul. It felt much like shepherding Alice had, only on a much lighter scale.

"Check your status!" Mr. Jester said eagerly, barely able to contain his own excitement. Ren hadn't dismissed it yet so he was able to watch as the white words shifted and something new appeared at the bottom. [Aethersoul Ren] [Rank: Awakened] [Dominion: -] [Soul Power: Soul Shepherd] [Soul Saturation Level: 227/1000] [Soul Attributes: Accelerated Regeneration, Survival Instincts, Novice Shepherd] [Soul Attunements: Whispered Half-Plate]