Chapter 231: Soul

Alex did not look at the screen immediately. Instead, he slowly lowered the intensity of his Advanced Battle Instinct Spell, allowing the noises around him to return along with the colors of the world and the pain from his wounds. He winced slightly as he felt the pain. He looked to the side.

He had expected Petra to be crying while trying to heal him, but he was surprised by what he saw. The little girl had a determined expression as she continued healing him, and she did not complain about why he had not allowed her to heal him earlier or how he had somehow cut through her Faith.

Instead of focusing on the problems, she was simply working to solve them. Alex watched her for a moment before finally allowing her to heal him properly, although he still left some of his injuries untouched so that he could continue practicing his Minor Heal Spell.

While Petra healed him, the others began taking the ’stones’ from inside the hearts of the dead monsters. The Warrior Badger had a Soul Stone just like the other badgers, and Alex immediately became interested when he saw it.

’Soul Stone, huh. I did notice that the Origin Energy these monsters used wasn’t the similar to Mana like Kraken and Wild Orcs’ were.’

After asking Frank about it, Alex confirmed his suspicion. The Origin Energy used by the badgers was similar to Aura, which explained why the monsters had possessed Soul Stones.

Alex began putting the information together. The monsters that used Origin Energy similar to Mana had Elemental Stones, while those that used Origin Energy similar to Aura had Soul Stones. The monsters whose Origin Energy was similar to Faith had Crystal Stones, which Alex had already obtained from Wild Orc Shamans.

’Do the monsters that use Origin Energy like Mana only have Elemental Stones, or can they have other types as well?’

There was another question that bothered him. As far as Alex knew, Mages used Will, which came from the Soul, so he would have expected monsters that used Mana-like Origin Energy to possess Soul Stones instead.

’Maybe Aura is somehow related to the Soul. Actually, that would make sense.’

That could explain why Aura could be controlled without there being a stat for it like Mages had Mind. It was only a theory for now, but Alex felt that it was worth remembering.

By the time he finished organizing his thoughts, Petra had already healed most of his injuries. He would still need to use hardened mana to plug the wound in his abdomen, but he was no longer in a condition where he would die within the next few minutes.

Alex deliberately left part of the wound unhealed so that he could continue practicing his Minor Heal Spell. Petra still healed his broken bones, however, and she did not complain even once about why he had refused her healing earlier.

"Thank you," Alex said as he reached over and patted her head.

Petra gave a small hum and nodded before returning to check on the others. She soon focused on Frank, who had not leveled up and therefore still needed to be healed.

The last battle had been enough for everyone else to level up because they had already been close to their next level. Killing several Mid-rank Species had provided enough EXP to push them over the threshold, allowing their exhaustion to recover as well.

The group then began absorbing the Gene Potentials they had obtained from the badgers. Frank had stopped absorbing Gene Potentials after the Titan Reef Crab dungeon because of Emma’s insistence, since they had no longer been in immediate danger back then and she had convinced him not to waste his limit on Low-rank Gene Potentials.

That was why he could now absorb these Gene Potentials without any problems. The Warrior Badger’s Gene Potential naturally belonged to Alex, but instead of absorbing it, he handed it to Emma.

"This is for?" Emma asked as she looked at the Gene Potential.

"I promised you that I would give you a Gene Potential from a Mid-rank Species," Alex replied.

"You can give me a lower-level one later. This is too valuable, so you should absorb it yourself," Emma said, waving her hand.

Despite how casually she said it, Alex could clearly see that she wanted the Gene Potential. Her eyes kept drifting toward it, and she was obviously holding herself back from accepting it immediately.

"I won’t be absorbing this one. From what I’ve seen, the type of Gene Potentials we absorb seems to be closely related to the Species Evolution options we receive, so I’m going to focus on Gene Potentials from monsters that are good Mages from now on. The badgers were Warriors, so this one isn’t useful for me," Alex explained.

Emma thought about his words for a moment before smiling. "Since you’re insisting so much, I won’t be polite. Thank you!"

She quickly took the Gene Potential and absorbed it before pumping her fist into the air. "I’m Level 8 in Species Evolution now! Just a bit more and I can finally—"

She suddenly stopped and looked toward Alex. "Wait, did you say you’ve seen what kind of Species Evolution options you can get? Does that mean you’ve already reached Level 10 in Species Evolution?"

Everyone else immediately became more attentive. They tried to act as though they were still resting or checking their rewards, but Alex could easily notice that they were listening closely thanks to his Advanced Battle Instinct Spell.

Alex looked at them for a moment before answering Emma’s question. "Yes."

"But didn’t you say two minutes here is one minute on Earth? How are you leveling faster than us when we were here the entire time you were gone to Earth?" Emma asked, looking at him in undisguised shock.

Alex simply shrugged. Emma looked like she had many questions she wanted to ask, but she eventually decided against it because of their current location. While waiting for Petra to finish healing Frank, Alex shifted his attention toward the notification that had appeared earlier and checked his Mana Blade Spell evolution options.

[Mana Blade Spell can now be evolved. Choose an evolution: Advanced Mana Blade Spell, Throwing Mana Blade Spell, Mana Wave Blade Spell, Mana Shuriken Spell, Mana Disruption Blade Spell]

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