Spirit Soul

Kyle had long since lost track of time, and his sole reference point was Arashi's growth.

Unfortunately, that was not exactly helpful. His Spirit Soul's growth and progress in cultivation was unstable and consisted of many unknown variables.

As such, Kyle thought about the time that had already passed and the remainder that was slowly disappearing.

Instead of worrying about time, he had decided to be fully focused on learning.

He still had to completely understand everything about his cultivation energy as well as the essence of the wind affinity.

This was not easy, which was not something Kyle had expected.

And, by absorbing everything Li told him like a wet sponge, he realized that the Lich had calmed down a lot.

Li seemed to have changed his behavior towards Kyle in the time he had taken to complete the parkour.

Because of that, he couldn't help but be curious about what exactly must have happened.

But, Li didn't give him a second to even consider asking a single question.

In the worst-case scenario, he would have to worry about an increase in his trial's difficulty.

There was no way that Kyle wanted to add more hurdles in his path which made him stay quiet.

The current difficulty was already enough and the information he had to digest overwhelmed Kyle.

Nevertheless, everything seemed to be progressing at a steady pace.

Even his own cultivation base was slowly increasing.

Without paying too much of his attention to it, he annexed faint traces of soul force expelled by Arashi.

Through this, he began to construct and fill his Soul core, the vessel of his soul force and Arashi's habitat.

Owing to that, Kyle had finally reached the Peak of the Fortification stage.

It took him much longer than he had initially expected.

But there had been many factors that had postponed and slowed down his cultivation progress.

As such, he was not worried about his cultivation pace.

Though it seemed to be very slow at first glance, he was in no rush to hasten its speed.

In the end, Kyle knew that he could be much faster.

He would receive a boost after Arashi's capabilities increased by several times owing to his advancement to the Vitae stage.

Thus, it would be possible for him to reach the Vitae stage in only a few days.

Though, that was not what Kyle wanted because it would make his trial much easier to progress through.

Even though he found the difficulty of the trial to be extremely high, he didn't want to take the easy way just because it existed.

As such, taking a long detour that was filled with challenges and obstacles was what he chose.

He wanted to continuously push himself and using this way to finish the Lich's trial was his goal.

It would make many things easier in the long run and Kyle always liked to think long term.

He placed his bets on compressing droplets of Soul force within his palm at the Fortification stage.

If he were to achieve this, he would be able to complete the subsequent trials much more easily.

Having made a decision, it was set in stone.

He was extremely stubborn and wouldn't change his mind unless he was in dire need of a change of plans.

Because of that, the Lich, and everyone else, were amazed at his tenacity.

They had assumed that he would try to reach the Vitae stage as quickly as possible in order to have it easier.

Yet, instead of trying to influence his decision, Li felt that he was not even required to do anything.

Kyle was making things difficult for himself as it is.

This clearly showed how determined Kyle was, and it made the Undeads' hope intensify. However, it was exactly this that made them equally nervous.

All of their hopes were on Kyle's shoulders and if he were to fail, their hope would completely shatter into tiny fragments.

Realizing that something one dearly wished for was impossible was one of the worst feelings. Meanwhile, Kyle was oblivious to the ravaging emotions he ignited within the Undeads. He had no idea how each of his seemingly unimportant decisions made a ginormous difference to the Undeads that watched every single of his movements like a hawk.

They were continuously analyzing his growth and evaluating him.

They judged him on various aspects such as, if he knew what kind of things he was lacking, what he wanted to improve if he was just rushing through the trials or making use of them.

But that was not all as they were also judging him on various other parameters that were related to his personality and overall attitude.

These included how he adjusted in face of dangers, if he was resilient to pain, or if he would be distracted by it, and much more.

Because of the large list of things they were testing him on, the Undeads had already written their opinion and observations on a blackboard.

This was something they rarely did, and useless under normal circumstances.

Yet, in order to figure out whether they could trust Kyle, and even more so his capabilities, they had to be fully prepared.

Every possible scenario had to be determined.

And, despite being desperate to find that one special person who could be the answer to all their worries, they had to be patient.

Blindly trusting anyone would only make them lose everything they held near and dear.

That would be even worse than shattering their hope as it would even obliterate their entire life as Undeads.

This possibility alone was enough to make the Undeads work together.

Thus, they began noting down every positive, negative, trainable, innate and more characteristic of Kyle.

Even though the Undeads had different end goals, one way to achieve these individual goals was through a special individual. And so far, Kyle seemed to be that person.

Slowly getting to know this was something that made the Undeads excited as well as nervous.

Now they could understand how Li must have felt upon realizing that Kyle was the one they had been searching for.

Unfortunately, there were many issues the Undeads had to solve, and also some other things they had to pay attention to.

At the moment, they were unsure if any single thing was as certain as they hoped it to be.

Because of that, their calculations had to be perfect.

Meanwhile, Kyle was only focused on himself.

Using his wind affinity, he shot out two dozen wind blades at different timings.

Yet, owing to the difference in distance they had to cross, they hit their target almost at the same time.

By repeating this several times in a row, Kyle's attacks were slowly approaching the timing he was looking for.

Simultaneously, his wind blades hit the bullseye almost every single time which was a great achievement.

Despite that, Kyle was still not satisfied because according to him, he was still slow.

It was great that he was about to finish one of the two tasks he had been given.

But manifesting and shooting out the wind blades took way too long.

His preparations were thorough and it was because of this that the attack speed was slower than what it would be under normal circumstances.

Nonetheless, Kyle was able to make use of his refined brain. He utilized it to the extent that his head began to ache heavily while enhancing every single step of his attack.

In order to prevent turning his mistakes into a habit, he had to fix everything.

And ensure that he used the correct and improved version several times, until his brain and body deleted the flawed process from its memory.

Old habits die hard and in the face of an attack, they might resurface and cost him his limb or life.

With that as the basic requirement Kyle had given himself, lots of time had passed.

But that wasn't a waste and he had slowly digested the information Li had provided.

It was followed by applying certain things one after another.

He was also testing around a lot. This helped him figure out why certain things happened, and what he had to pay attention to if he were to use Soul force in a complex manner.

One of such difficulties was to properly circulate Soul force through his body while using Soul force to exert the Swift Steps movement technique.

Simultaneously, he wanted to supply his wind affinity with Soul force.

If he were to crudely follow that concept, the efficiency would be less than half of what he could receive the moment he were to control everything neatly.

This was more tiresome for his mind. But at the same time, it was something he was supposed to pay attention to if he wanted to further increase his combat prowess.

After everything he had encountered inside the Razkadan Castle, Kyle understood that strength was not everything.

By making use of strength, his affinity and tact, it was possible to defeat stronger opponents even if his cultivation base would be much lower than them.

However, in order to achieve this, every single characteristic of his must excel that of his opponent's.

Because he had Soul force, Kyle had many advantages.

But at the same time, it was more difficult to control it as the uses were more versatile.

Every single movement with his soul force could create a different effect.

Knowing this, accurately using it had become a necessity.

As such, Kyle was slowly turning into someone who was both extremely good, but also bad in specific scenarios- he was about to become a Perfectionist!

The Undeads noticed this, and they were of the same opinion as Kyle.

Being a perfectionist was something they considered to be both good and bad.

It was extremely good because he wouldn't stop doing something until it was perfect.

And this habit would prove to be useful if one were to solely focus on one's affinity, martial art techniques, fighting style, movements, Soul force control, one's unique traits and abilities.

Unfortunately, most perfectionists were unstoppable.

They would attempt to be perfect in everything they would lay their hands on.

That was definitely something neither Kyle nor the Undeads wanted.

And, because of that Kyle paid attention to the few things that were worth his time and energy.

This included everything that had to do with his combat prowess, his body, his health, Arashi, and the protection of the people close to him, alongwith things that would help him achieve his goals.

It was already a lot, but not even close to everything one could try to be perfect in.

Yet, to the Undeads' misfortune, this was already too much for Kyle.

Only now did they notice what kind of existence they had turned Kyle into.

"Did we...show him the benefits of excelling at something?... Are we the reason why he is suddenly so overly ambitious?" Lahan mumbled to himself.

He was not sure if it was really his and Knirg's fault.

But hearing him, the Banshee murmured in response.

"I...increased the difficulty of the parkours too...so I'm probably also at fault?..."

The young Lady was already not sure what to think of Kyle. Seeing him give his best to attain the highest possible combat prowess without necessarily increasing his cultivation, made her have mixed emotions.

She felt proud about the choice she had made, followed by the worry about their uncertain future.

The young lady was not sure if everything would happen just as she was imagining it.

'Will I really be able to do it?' She wondered, only to shake her head, knowing that these thoughts were useless. At least for now.

Yet, just as the young Lady wanted to let go of this thought, something attracted her attention, which caused her to feel confused.

"Is...he holding back?!?"

Before, she thought that Kyle was already giving his all and struggling to fulfill his tasks.

This made her believe that he would slowly comprehend everything he had to know.

Consequently, it would take him a lot of time to pass the tasks the Lich had given to him.

According to their calculations, this would require at least a few more months, even with the comprehension speed Klye had showcased.

At least that was what the Undeads had thought before Kyle approached the white line once again.

"Okay...I've adapted to everything I wanted, and tested out everything...let's end this farce!"