Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Whisper

Mila

Awakening your first racial ability as a Human Soulform.

Please choose from the following three selections.

1. Spring Step Agility (Rare): Increase the effectiveness of the Agility stat by 6.25%.
2. Prodigy of the Fist (Epic): Increase the power of martial category punching skills.
3. Omniglot Reader (Legendary): You can understand all non-magical and low-magical languages in both written and spoken form.

Mila looked at her choices and quickly settled on Omniglot Reader. All three abilities seemed at least somewhat in line with her actions when she was alive, but understanding languages had always proven more useful than combat skills, not to mention the ability was Legendary, which a quick check of definitions showed was a grade higher than Epic.

A tingly sensation, which kind of felt like a shiatsu massage, covered her entire body and then a second choice popped into her vision.

Awakening your second racial ability as a Human Soulform.

Please choose from the following three selections.

1. Master of Natural Disguise (Rare): Slightly increase the power of martial category disguise skills.
2. Hawk Eye Perception (Rare): Increase the effectiveness of the Perception stat by 6.25%.
3. Fairy Law (Legendary): Increase the power of all bonds and contracts you enter into or for which you provide the magic.

Mila wasn’t too sure about Fairy Law, but it was Legendary while the other two were only Rare, so she decided to choose it anyway. It at least seemed like something she could use to potentially make money in the future.

The shiatsu massage feeling then started again and this time it took even longer.

“Your soul’s integration with mana is now complete.” The wooden puppet moved its fake mouth into a smile, sort of defeating the purpose if it was trying to seem anything other than creepy, given it couldn’t move its eyes to match. “Would you like to share your uniqueness with the Yin Yang Sage for a minor boon to help in the tutorial’s first challenge?”

Mila considered why this question would be asked. From what the puppet had said before, Earth had apparently been the Yin Yang Sage’s testing ground before the start of the modern calendar, but she didn’t know what that meant. She also didn’t understand what Uniqueness’s really were, as she couldn’t see what hers did nor yet knew anyone else’s.

The question’s very existence, however, revealed at least one thing. The Yin Yang Sage most likely couldn’t see her Uniqueness—or likely anyone else’s for that matter.

It was entirely possible the question was some sort of con, causing humanity to underestimate the ancient spirit, but it was more likely the dead woman just wanted the information. It could be to test her experimental results after two millennia or maybe to help identify who the spirit could benefit by training, but it was unlikely to be anything too negative for anyone who revealed it.

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The entire tutorial system so far screamed soldier empowerment to Mila and there were usually more benefits to sticking out in training than not, but Mila felt confident in sticking out anyway, so she decided to keep what few cards she was left with close to the chest.

“Thank you, but no.”

The puppet’s expression stayed creepy. “Acknowledged. The Ying Yang Sage would like to offer you one of her limited minor boons not requiring either payment or accomplishment, a Boon of Whispers. Will you accept?”

Mila thought about it for three seconds, her mind going through all sorts of various possibilities, but she didn’t have enough information to go off so she just decided to accept as it wasn’t likely she would lose out if she did.

“One second.” The puppet’s expression went back to normal, but the voice of its next telepathy message was quite a bit different, no longer robotic and male but a silky and somewhat deep female voice. Also, unlike the puppet’s normal telepathy, which was in Chinese, the female voice spoke English instead. “Nightmares are scary, but how else do you meet lost loves.”

Mila had no idea what that meant, but then the puppet spoke in its normal voice again. “Starting the tutorial now. Prepare to choose the difficulty of your first challenge.”

The room faded until she was floating in an endless dark void, white text appearing in front of her eyes.

Please choose the level of difficulty for your first challenge in Earth’s Monster Tutorial.

Your options are as follows:

1. Easy: Odds of survival 92%.
2. Normal: Odds of survival 75%.
3. Hard: Odds of survival 50%.
4. Torment: Odds of survival 8%.
5. Nightmare: Odds of survival 0.7%.

With this new information, Mila knew exactly what the message from the Yin Yang Sage meant and she felt her heart start to beat faster, even though as a soulform such biological reactions shouldn’t exist. Without thinking anywhere near as much as she should have, she chose to enter into Nightmare difficulty as it seemed her ex was about to get himself killed, somehow having already died back on Earth after she’d run away.

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