V1 | Chapter Two - Ascending The Chasm

For the time being, I thought it was best to head upwards considering where I was, my surroundings had reminded me of an underground labyrinth in the many role-playing games that I have played over the years in my past life.

So going by those experiences I figured that if there was a way out it would be up or at least I hoped there was.

It still took some getting used to moving around in my new body and the whole idea of having just a spectral form as one was still very much awkward for me, for instance, when I first tried to move I didn't even realize that I was swaying side to side until I started rubbing against the rock on either side of the stairwell. There wasn't a time that I remembered where my body floated for such a prolonged period of time.

Just the thought of floating like this for the rest of my life made me feel somewhat uneasy. So I couldn't help but ask Asa a question that had been bugging me these last few minutes.

Hey Asa?

[Yes.]

Will I be like this for the rest of my life? I heard a pause for a moment.

[Hm. That truly depends on your motivation so to speak.]

My motivation?

[What I mean is, it's entirely dependant on whether you have the motivation to chase that sense of...accomplishment...is what I believe you humans refer to bettering yourselves as a person.]

So what you're saying is that practically everything in this new world that I've reincarnated in, is entirely dependant on how I level up?

[In the sense of the word, yes.]

I guess if I don't want to die in this world I will have to figure out a way to level up and fast, but how do I do that without knowing what skills I can use?

Thinking to myself I wondered what was the faster way to level up. The obvious answer was to fight monsters and defeat them, however, if all those isekai web novels taught me anything it's not that simple or at least there's some sort of catch to it.

Hey Asa, do I have any skills at my disposal?

[Unfortunately, you have zero offensive, defensive, utility and magic skills to speak of, however, you do have access to the species trait skill, Soul Devourer.]

Damn it! I have no useful skills?

Although Soul Devourer sounded like a cool skill Asa didn't even refer to it as one of the former types of skills. Which made me think that it had to be a skill that can only be triggered under a certain condition or requirement.

Which made things even more complicated. How was I going to kill anything without a skill, if I had been a monster in my previous life I'm sure I would have figured it out by now, but I had no idea whether a Wraith actually consumed food in the first place.

I floated in the air thinking to myself racking my brain for some type of answer, however, no matter how much I tried I just couldn't think of a reasonable course of action to take.

I didn't think it would get me anywhere asking Asa for advice seeing that she had already been pretty useless on those aspects so far. Regardless I didn't have anyone else to turn to except for the sassy sadist I swallowed my pride and prepared myself for the worst.

Asa, is there some way for me to consume food?

[I honestly didn't think you would ask such a simple-minded question.]

The more I think about my regret, the more I wanted to just get rid of her indefinitely and I was pretty sure she had already figured out that much by now. Knowing her she was most likely relishing in the thought of my suffering.

[The simple answer is yes, however, the more complicated answer to your question is that you have to consume the soul of an adequate Soul Level.]

What's Soul Level?

[Soul Level indicates a person's alignment to the Spiritual Realm where you reside currently.]

It doesn't look any different to what I've seen before.

[To Spiritual creatures the world around them will remain unchanged, however, for those on the other side living beings are mostly incapable of conversing with entities from the Spiritual Realm.]

Hearing Asa's explanation made sense, after all, back in my previous life many people talked about experiencing the supernatural around them like ghost sightings and poltergeist activities. More often than not, people brushed it off as superstition, but there was always those that believed in such things no matter how crazy they looked.

But in the here and now it made complete sense considering the fact that I'm pretty much a spirit monster in and of itself.

Is there anything in particular that I have to do to take one's soul?

[Simply possessing the target's body should be sufficient enough to devour one's soul.]

Okay sounds simple enough.

Can you locate the nearest monster with the appropriate Soul Level for me?

[Precisely.]

Great, then let's get started...

[No.]

Wait, what?

[I will not be lending my assistance this time around.]

Why?

[I am merely here to provide useful information on your journey, not to hold your hand.]

N-Now that's just harsh. But not entirely false considering my past life antics.

[If this brings you any consolation, I experience what you humans call pleasure when watching subjects squirm under intense pressure.]

What the hell you have got to be kidding me! When I find out what horny dog created this sadistic artificial intelligence I'm going to beat his ass into the next century. At that moment, I had a pretty good idea that this was something that I had to figure out myself. Even though I was still getting used to opening and closing the pop-up window in my vision, I was nowhere near to learning the other mechanics at my disposal. I had to learn at some point how to operate all these menus and user interface if I was going to survive in this new world that I'm in.

Although it triggered me that Asa was acting this way I could also see her reasoning behind it, after all, what good is a guy if he can't learn to fend for himself without the assistance of sassy sadistic A.I.

I had already spent the last few hours climbing this endless abyss of stone steps to be quite frank it felt like I was serving my own unique prison sentence.

Finding a way out of this place proved to be more challenging than I originally anticipated, no matter how many floors I went up in this dreary labyrinth there never seemed to be an end to them. Normally I would have explored down some of the corridors leading out from this central chasm.

However, Asa advised me not to saying it would 'lead to me having a relatively short life if I started blindly wandering down corridors'. Which was most certainly a reassuring comment of the highest calibre, obviously, I'm joking.

Although her presence at best was akin to an annoying wasp where their sting was the equivalent of a thousand painful jabs at my self-esteem. I couldn't rightly ignore her advice no matter how much I wanted to so far she's been the only one that has stopped from making stupid decisions here.

After our talk earlier about how my priority has to be set on finding a creature or something that could help me get stronger. The plan of me leaving this place would have to put on hold for the time being.

I figured even if I did find a way out shortly after reincarnating what good would it do me if I was going to die soon after due to bad preparation. Fortunately, I hadn't gotten anywhere for the most part in figuring a way out of this place not only that but if I even remotely got close to being hopeful Asa was sure to be there to ruin it for me. I would float into the remains of some monster that has been dead for some time only for Asa to destroy that sense of hope by telling me that they were inadequate.

Personally, I was starting to think that this Asa was lying to me just to experience her kink of being a sadist.

At this point, floating up the never-ending spiralling stairwell had started to get to me.

Goddammit!

[Is there something troubling you?]

Troubling me? Troubling me! All I've been doing is endlessly going up these damn stairs like it's some piece of a shit walking simulator. I'm about to lose my marbles if I see another stone step in front of me!

[Does that mean you're giving up?]

At this rate, I might as well it's not like I'm getting anywhere in the first place.

Asa didn't respond at first, in fact, it was silent for a dozen or so seconds before she finally responded to me. However, what happened next I did not expect in the slightest.

[Humans sure do have low self-esteem, then again considering your previous background that's a given.]

What's that supposed to mean?

[I am simply referring to the otaku tendencies that you gave into during your teenage years.]

Hearing that sent an uncomfortable sensation through my body it truly made me wonder just how much this Asa knew about me. After all, in my previous life I never really divulge what I did in my spare time to others as I felt too embarrassed to do so. Then again, it didn't help that a lot of my classmates were very judgemental about such things.

This started to make me wonder what else she knew about my previous life. Just the thought of her mentioning my awkward alone time made me die inside very slowly.

[Your taste in explicit content is rather interesting if I have to be honest...]

Alright! Shut up already! Just thinking about it I just want to curl up and die don't ever bring that up again.

I wasn't really paying attention at the time, but as I floated up to the next floor of this chasm I could sense something in the distance with my hearing the sound of a soft rustling noise. Although I could see in a sense just seeing the outline of something wasn't all that useful, to be honest. The only thing that this sonar vision really does for me was just reveal something with a blip marker in my peripheral vision.

Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn't really figure out what I was going up against especially whether it was dangerous or not. Regrettable this made me rather thankful for Asa's assistance in telling me if there were monsters nearby or not.

So is this thing fine to use my Soul Devourer Skill on?

[The answer to your question is...yes it is perfectly edible for your current level.]

Are you sure?

I didn't know why, but I felt rather unsure on whether I should trust Asa's judgement. In the end, she hasn't really given me a viable reason to outright trust her in the first place.

Give me a reason why should I trust you anyway?

[If I really wanted to kill you I would have so done by now.]

Hearing that response made me feel both relieved and paranoid wondering if she was planning some sort of grandeur demise for me in the future.

My vision continued to ping my surroundings giving me an idea of the area. Just with the feedback, I was getting I could tell that the area I was currently located in was extremely cramped, the thought of being in tight spaces was bad enough, but getting the jump on some monster scaled that fear factor up for me. For all, I knew this thing could have just turned around smack me once and I would have been down for the count.

Slowly but surely I floated towards the monster hoping that I wouldn't alert to my presence. To say that I was literally terrified would be an understatement at this point.

From what I could tell it hadn't noticed me sneaking up on it, and I was hoping that would remain the case. The fact that the monster wasn't moving either meant it was dead or seriously injured or docile after a few seconds of sneaking I was practically on top of the creature.

A part of me wondered whether I should go through with this not knowing where this path would lead me down in the future, but the fact that I came all this way in the first place meant that I couldn't simply turn my back on it now and give up.

So how do I use this Soul Devourer skill?

[Your skills are currently set to Automatic settings and will activate when meeting certain protocols.]

Before I could say anything I felt a weird sensation in my wisp-like body like some energy was being pulled into me. My sonar-like vision indicated that indeed I was pulling some sort of energy out of the monster lying before me. I could see the energy as a heat signature blip like leaving a trail of hot smoke being pulled into me.

I stayed floating in the air for a few moments mostly because I wasn't sure whether I should stop the process midway through or let it carry itself out until it had finished. It wasn't long before the sensation within my body subsided, without warning, a window popped up in my vision.

[Congratulations.]

[Soul Level: 1, achieved]

Species: Wraith

Level: 1(+1)

HP: 47(+5)

MP: 25(+3)

SP: 23(+3)

Wait, why didn't my main stats increase!

[Soul Level is a separate levelling system unique to spiritual beings, the stats I showed you earlier are only implemented to that of a physical form.]

Hang on, you're telling me that I'm capable of obtaining a physical form the further I go on in this world?

[It is quite possible to obtain a physical form once certain requirements are met.]

Just hearing about this gave me a ray of hope that I wouldn't remain like this for the rest of my life. Heck just hearing that I could eventually get a human form got me all psyched up mostly because this meant that there truly was an evolution system. When I saw that this Providence whatever thingy installed an evolution system from earlier I'm not going to lie I honestly thought it was all talk, but hearing this from Asa made me so much happier.

Before I got too excited I remembered that I was still in the presence of a monster so I couldn't let myself lose focus, no matter what, even if using this Soul Devourer skill put me in a vulnerable state I had to be alert in case I had to make a quick getaway.

After all, I had no idea what to expect from my enemies. If I learned one thing from the thousands of hours of playing MMORPG's it was to never underestimate your opponent no matter how frail they appeared to be.

Once I had finished what I came here to do I immediately vacated the area returning to my task of ascending what seemed to be an endless chasm.