The Astral soul system-Chapter 171 - 172(error)

(Note from the author: This is Chapter 172 not 171. I accidentally published this one first. I checked to see if I could do something about this mistake but i couldn’t. Please don’t haze me about this, it’ll never happen again,i swear🙏🙏🙏🙏]

Zaine smiled. Sure the free level up was good but he came here expecting a fight, and it seemed he wouldn’t be leaving disappointed .

The sound was getting closer and closer despite the fact that he couldn’t see it yet. He decided to prepare a welcome gift for the beast

[Charge!]

[Flames of rage]

[Soul gun]

An aura of red slowly seeped into the dark energy gathering in his right hand. His stats immediately boosted exponentially, including the attack power of his skills.

He held the attack for as long as he could, and when he felt like he might loose control, he immediately launched it towards the entrance. A few seconds passed and although the attack connected ,the sound he heard was one he didn’t expect. Was that... metal?".

He dispersed all his buffs and watched as the mother spider approached and as it did, his first thoughts were.

’That isn’t a spider, it’s a fucking crab"

It was unimaginably bully, with all its legs as thick as people and plated in grey steel.

"A metal attribute"

Zaine hissed. At least that explained the name "Armored Goliath". It was massive.

"Wait, did that last attack do no-"

The spider suddenly shot out a thick viscous white liquid towards Zaine.

He slashed at it with his sword, reacting in time but was shocked when he found out his sword was stuck in the thick web. He tried to pull it as hard as he could but the spider didn’t budge, pulling him with the strength of a tank.

"Damn it, definitely not third. Maybe fourth?"

Theia quickly interjected doing her job

"You’re right, but based on the coloration if the iron shell it’s close to an evolution. You got here just in time. If it had successfully evolved into a fifth grade beast,you would be in danger "

Zaine groaned, struggling to hold onto his sword but didn’t disagree. The increase of strength in beasts wasn’t simple. With every evolution a beast gained a strength at least ten times what it had previously. AT LEAST. This beast could already match his physical strength now,if it had successfully evolved, this situation would be very different.

"Fuck it!"

Zaine cursed, releasing the sword.

"You can have -"

He quickly raised his left hand, letting it get hit by another web. That was close. If he hadn’t moved in time it would’ve hit his abdomen, and that would be trouble.

"Freya!"

[Equipped soul:Freya]

His eye changed,a ring of lightning appearing in its emptiness.

A burst of lightning erupted from his hand, roasting the web to the point where he could forcefully rip his hand away from it.

He immediately unequipped Freya, cautious of the strain her ability put on the body and it’s mind . He dashed in a random direction, avoiding another rapid fire of webs.

"What the hell is wrong with this thing? Aren’t spiders usually more cautious?"

"You broke into it’s home and murdered at least half of its babies. It’s angry."

Theia said stating the obvious

"The only reason it hasn’t tried to stomp you into the ground is because it’s worried it might stomp the eggs behind you.

Zaine looked behind him, glancing at the eggs

"Is that so..."

He slowly backed up moving towards the eggs and as expected the spider immediately flared up, stomping the ground in agitation but it seemed to have become more cautious.

"Okay, now we just need to -"

Theia’s eyes widened,her words catching in her throat as she saw him blatantly step on another egg before pulling out the throwing star and throwing it towards another sac, watching as it destroyed an entire group of them.

The spider went absolutely feral, stomping and shaking the earth, it’s eyes locked on the intruder. It’s dripping maw suddenly opened up, letting out a horrid screech.

Zaine’s satisfied expression slowly dropped. Something about that scream didn’t feel right

*Crack*

He immediately found out what it was . Looking to his feet, he immediately noticed one of sacs tearing open with a cracking sound.

His eyes widened as he heard a chattering and chirping.

" Oh no! She’s forcing them to hatch early"

Zaine’s brows furrowed. The cave was still full of eggs,Soon enough he’d be surrounded from all sides.

"You’ve made her desperate. Now that the babies are hatching early they’re going to come out deformed and weak, some might even die after a few hours, but they’ll still have the strength of rank three beasts"

Hearing the word die, Zaine thought.

’My exp? Not a chance’

Without a second thought he blasted the closest sac to him multiple times,turning it into a burnt mess .

Now with nothing to lose, the spider shot another web at him but as soon as it hit one of his limbs,a burst of lightning erupted from it, frying it off and immediately dashing to the edge of the cave.

He fired a few shots at the beast but just like before, the sound of something striking metal rang out and the attack was dispersed, barely scratching it.

"Fuck. I don’t have anything that can break through that"

He’d also considered using souls but if he did so, the good outcome would be that he’d be out of energy in seconds and there was no guarantee he’d be done by then , and the bad outcome, Freya either fries him from the inside or Lilith consumes All his blood, neither of which were appealing.

"Zaine,if you need more firepower then you know what to do"

Zaine seemed to be considering for a second before he shook his head and muttered "equip"

Freya sighed but did as he asked.

The aura of lightning covered his body once more and Zaine quickly added his new stat points into astra.

[Name: Zaine Animus](LV l8)

[Species: (Rank 1 Astral) (bloodline-????)]

[Class: soul sage]

[Profession: Berserker (Arcane)]

[True name/soul name:???]

[HP 200/200]

[Astra: 260/260]

[Strength:20]

[Agility: 15]

[Endurance: 14]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Charm: 50](bloodline effect)

[ Wisdom: 20]

[Stat points: 0]

He quickly dashed, avoiding another web, lightning crackling around his body as he did. He suddenly placed a hand on one of the sacs currently opening before dashing away. A strange mark appeared on the sac and he dashed back and forth, repeating this a few times before Freya told him he’d hit his current limit.

"Five times, huh?"

He sighed

"No matter. Do it!"

[Chain lightning]

Zaine’s energy immediately bottomed out and a huge burst of lightning headed straight for the first sac he’d touched, destroying it and stopping there before continuing a line through the air and hitting the four others at once, creating a visible trail of lightning in the air before it slowly dissipated.

He immediately devoured five crystals, refilling over half his Astra and healing the damage he’d done to himself.

His actions only angered the spider more and this time it directly charged at him.

Not one to back down, Zaine met it’s challenge immediately jumping to where it’s head was, slamming his fist into it.

The sound of metal hitting metal rang out as Zaine’s fist landed. Barely stunned the beast shrugged him off. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Before he could reach the ground it suddenly lunged slamming one of its armored limbs into him and sending him flying through the back of the cave into the ground.

*******

"Fuck!"

Zaine cursed, surrounded by rocks. His broken bones were rapidly repairing themselves meaning he’d be good to get back in but for some reason he didn’t move.

"Hitting an armored tank in mid-air. Wow! Genius"

Theia said sarcastically as she appeared in front of him

"Why the hell are you so stubborn. If you’d listened to me or Freya, we wouldn’t be here right now "

Zaine groaned and still didn’t get up, he didn’t even bother looking at her

"By now the sacs will be done hatching and you’ll have to fight an army. Unless you can find a way through that armor, you’re fucked"

Zaine groaned again.

"Are you even listening to me? That thing won’t let you off,you only have a few seconds before -"

"I’ve got it"

Zaine muttered, finally moving out of his earthen casket, a strange glow in his eyes.

Outside, the spider slowly approached the massive hole, surrounded by miniature versions of itself,all of them chirping and chattering.

Before they could reach it,a shadow suddenly dashed out of the dust, headed towards the right edge of the cave. It immediately turned and fired a web,however this time it didn’t even hit, landing one the wall

"Hey, ugly! Over here"

A familiar voice from the left called out as a soul gun landed against it’s shell.

It released the web, turning to face the voice but a figure suddenly appeared in front of it,a golden shield in its hand slamming directly into its face, with considerably more strength than before stunning it a bit.

"Quite a fine mess you’ve made of things, Zaine. Though i guess it’s not exactly unexpected"

A similar voice said coldly as someone calmly walked out of the rubble the previous two had come from .

Zen walked out steadily, ignoring all the chaos around him he looked at his hand like he was contemplating

’Just like before ’

[Name: Zen Hollow](LV l8)

[Species: (Rank 1 Astral) (bloodline-????)]

[Class: soul sage]

[Profession: Assassin(Arcane)]

[True name/soul name:???]

[HP 200/200]

[Astra: 260/260]

[Strength:20]

[Agility: 15]

[Endurance: 14]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Charm: 50](bloodline effect)

[ Wisdom: 20]

[Stat points:0]

’Interesting. The skill doesn’t divide our stats or weaken us in anyway. We all share the same stats and skill levels. Whenever we kill something,we all receive the notification and level up as one. And the skill doesn’t seem to have a time limit,it doesn’t even seem like a skill, just something we can do for some reason ’

Reading his thoughts, Theia replied.

"Meaning it doesn’t matter who or what you’re fighting. You’ll always have the number advantage"

Hearing that, Zyro smiled.

"What’s the fun in fighting fair when we can just fight three on one "