<h4>Chapter 9: Combat</h4>


    I opened my inventory to see a couple new items.


    ''Training Staff, Simple Clothes, Magical Ink''


    I hesitated, none of these were what I was hoping for. I touched the staff icon. It materialised in front of me and I quickly grabbed it. It felt good, the wood was sturdy and smooth. It looked almost identical to the nearly two-meter-long staff I used to train with.


    I looked up and came face to face with the first monster. With a quick strike, I blocked its ws and spun the staff around to hit it in the head. I heard a loud crack as the creature fell from the branches of the tree. With the few seconds I had, I nced around. I counted three more creaturesing from this side. I could hear the battle soundsing from behind me. The others were still busy with the previous group.


    A low snarl alerted me of the approaching monster. With its ws extended and those deadly teeth reflecting the light, the creature aiming for my neck was a terrifying sight. I couldn''t let those ws touch me if I wanted to survive this. I threw myself to the side to avoid the attack and quickly rose to my feet again. The creaturended a few steps away and seeing the opportunity I struck its head. It growled and faced me, only to take another hit from my staff.


    Possibly dead, it fell to the ground. But I didn''t have the time to feel relieved yet – two more creatures approached. I didn''t wait for them to attack and rushed at one of them instead. I couldn''t let them control my movements and surround me. With quick and precise strikes, I hit my target in the head several times.


    "Kai!" Samantha shouted as my opponent finally fell. I quickly turned to look at her, only to see two giant ws right by my face. I hadn''t realised thest creature had gotten this close. I didn''t have time to defend myself. I could do nothing.


    Suddenly the creature whimpered as something rammed into it. Vincent fell over as did the creature. Without skipping a beat, I bashed the creature''s throat.


    ''Quest Complete'' The notification lingered for a few seconds before it faded.


    "Wow!" Erik said with a relieved voice. "Kai, that was amazing!" He grabbed me by my shoulders and shouted. "Did you guys see that?" He was shaking me back and forth as he talked.


    I felt a little lightheaded suddenly and pushed him away. The corpses around us had a weird glow to them. As I watched, several dark shadows rose from the corpses. I stepped back, tightly grasping my staff. "What''s going on?"


    "What do you mean?" Samantha nced around. Her gaze didn''t even linger on the shadows. Could she not see them?


    "There''s-" Before I could finish my sentence, the shadows leapt at me. I raised my staff to defend myself from whatever this was. The shadows leapt through my staff as if it weren''t even there and hit me in the chest. Or that''s what I thought would happen. I felt a coldness in my chest as they dissolved into me.


    "Wait, what?" I asked as I felt the coldness spread. I shivered, what was going on? Was this what collecting souls meant? I quickly summoned my status window.


    ''Kai Friseal – Level 1 Soul Keeper | Exp: 100/100 - - Souls 10/100''


    Just below that, ''Level Up Avable'' was written in bold text.


    "Nice, good job team!" Erik said as everyone gathered around me. "Go on Kai."


    Hesitantly, I touched the level-up button. The panel expanded as I was presented with a whole bunch of text and numbers.


    "Let me exin." Erik said, seeing my confusion. "There are five stats you need to worry about: Strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom." He nced at the panel floating in front of me.


    "Think of them like this;" Samantha chimed in. "Strength is obvious, it''s your physical power. Dexterity means how well you use your body – your speed and ability to dodge and all that. Constitution is basically your hit points. How long you can survive, so to speak." She hesitated. "I''m not sure of thest two."


    "Intelligence is your ability to understand magic and the arcane. It also increases you magic reserves – mana." Vincent said with excitement. "Wisdom is like your sixth sense."


    We all stared at my stats. "You... Have a lot of intelligence and Wisdom."


    ''STR: 10 – CON: 10 – DEX: 15 – INT: 18 – WIS: 17''


    "Yeah." I mumbled. "I guess Soul Keepers are supposed to use magic." I nced at the number of souls I had and shivered. "Ok, what now?"


    "You can allocate one point to your stats and you also get to choose a spell. I think." Erik exined. I pondered for a moment before asking; "What should I pick, then?"


    "Whatever you think suits you best." He grinned. "I''m not going to tell you how to y. It''s got to be all you." He also opened his stats panel. My eyes widened as I saw his 20 Strength and 22 Constitution. He was really strong.


    I nced at everyone else. Samantha had 22 Dexterity and 18 Wisdom. I couldn''t see Alina as she was standing too far away. Vincent had a 12 for all stats, which surprised me. He seemed to have gotten the short end of the stick. Joshua grinned and hid his stats panel when I tried to look at it.


    I shivered again as I pondered. What would the best choice be? I was a martial artist but none of the stats I had were relevant, maybe other than dexterity. This body – avatar – of mine was more suited for a spellcaster. After a moment''s hesitation, I decided to just not allocate the point for now. Instead, I saved it and checked my spells. I had three options in front of me.


    ''Soul''s Respite'', ''Fallen Grace'' and ''Death''s Scythe''


    Their grim names sent a shiver down my spine. I read each spells description. Soul''s Respire was simple healing spell, while Death''s Scythe was something that enhanced my weapon. Fallen Grace seemed rather interesting. I carefully read the description.


    ''The Soul Keeper summons the power of the fallen, enhancing his body and mind. The effects of the spell changes as more souls find their respite within the Soul Keeper.''


    It didn''t list what the current effect would be. I had to admit, I was curious. Enhancing my weapon would only help me so much and healing wasn''t going to win us any fights. I touched ''Fallen Grace'' on the panel and confirmed my selection.


    A new panel appeared as soon as I dismissed the old one. ''Mana: 180/180'' Beneath that, I could see several dark areas. They seemed to be skills I hadn''t picked up yet. I looked at Fallen Grace, it had a mana cost of 20 and there was something written in a fine print.


    ''No extra effects.''


    "Are you done yet, Kai?" Joshua''s voice prompted me to close the interface. I nodded, even though there was more I wanted to check out.


    "Perfect!" Erik suddenly said. "I guess we''ll set up camp and check in with the crystal for more quests." He suddenly paused and nced around. "The corpses aren''t disappearing."