Sky Hunters were nasty for beacuse they don't die when killed. Instead, they crawl back out of their graves and resurrect.
The only way to prevent this nasty cycle was to destroy their soul—which unfortunately for their enemies was quite resilient and couldn't be shattered by ordinary means.
'I have a treasure to destroy her soul but I'll need to concentrate when I use it. If only this bastard didn't fucking freeze in the middle of a fucking damn fight!' Curses were flying through Maria's mind as she took in Varian's calm figure staring blankly into the sky.
Muttering something under her breath, she took out a red jar and pointed it toward the winged woman.
"Haaa!" The winged woman glared at Maria and was about to dive down when a spear severed her head from behind without warning.
Her body turned into blue light particles once again and slowly started gathering together.
"If you don't work, I'll bury you in the toilets!" Maria threatened the jar.
Perhaps the jar did fear her threat because the light particles were violently pulled apart and sucked into the jar.
"Phew," Maria exhaled in relief, causing her long green hair to sway with it the strong wind she created.
But it was a bit too early to relax as another winged woman flashed in the sky and dashed at her at a breakneck speed.
This one was actually a rank 4 with two wings.
Maria ambushed her with the spear and killed her quickly. Thankfully, the jar still worked and ended her life permanently, preventing any surprise rebirth of a rank 5.
"Am I just unlucky? It's hard to meet two sky hunters so soon." Maria would never know that just being with Varian created this situation.
"Nevermind," Maria's face twitched as she noticed the ten silhouettes racing towards her at a breakneck speed. My luck has gone to the dogs."
All ten rank 4s!
"For fuck's sake! I had always been lucky!"
The fight this time was hard. It took her quite a few treasures, injuries, and lots of effort to kill them all. But there was one problem after the tough battle.
The jar was already full while there were two more 'souls' gathering in the sky.
As a famine, she couldn't properly attack them. Even if she did try to end them, these light particles could dodge a lot of her physical attacks.
What awaited Maria was the rebirth of two rank 5 winged-woman.
"Fuck! Gotta run!" Maria decisively gave up and was ready to sprint when a blurred silhouette flashed in front of her and shot to the sky.
As a rank 3, she was able to quickly control her sight and saw the person facing the light particles.
"I thought he got his brain damaged…"
Ignoring Maria's offensive words, Varian activated the aether pendant hung around his neck.
Like a black hole, the pendant sucked away the light particles and crushed them for his usage.
'Soul…is different from lifeform. The soul isn't eternal or unchanging. But it's the deeper identity of a being.' Varian gained a new level of understanding from all the souls that Aether Pendant absorbed recently.
And with the help of the nourishment, the bottleneck holding him back broke down without even putting up a fight.
An invisible power rippled from Varian and struck the light particles that were still suppressed in the jar. They dimmed the next moment and slowly dissipated.
"W-What was that? A soul attack?" Maria's jaw dropped.
"A treasure." Varian pointed to the pendant while he looked at the status screen.
[Spirit (Rank 3): 100/500 [+100]
You are now inclined towards the path of Binder.]
Spirit (Rank 1-3) —> Binder (Rank 4-6) or Soulster (Rank 4-6)
Binder: Light up the fire of the soul and create a strong bond with the body, strengthening both the body and the soul, becoming a master of spirit power.
Soulster: Light up the body and create a powerful soul. Your birth body can no longer limit you. You can live in another's body as another, even using their powers to some extent.
The path was obvious for Varian.
But for others, it'd be a very difficult choice—Soulster did seem special—inhabiting other bodies and using their powers.
Even though they couldn't be as proficient as others, it'd still be wonderful to use a completely different power from yours.
What's more, Soulsters could still use their own powers, albeit suppressed when inhabiting a body with other powers. If they want to, they could abandon the body altogether and live in soul form.
But all these benefits were just rubbish for Varian. He had eight powers and he could use them all to the fullest.
"Find the exit. Let's hurry up," Varian said to Maria who looked at him with a confused gaze.
"You give a more dangerous feeling now than an hour ago. What the hell is happening?" The tree lady asked.
"Your danger sense is working well," Varian chuckled.
He could already kill peak rank 4s by now. If he used all the six artifacts, then there's a good chance he could kill a low rank 5 and even fight mid rank 5—but that'd be very dangerous.
"Hey, hey, why are you smirking? You're thinking of something crazy, aren't you?" Maria flew to a spot some distance from him and said with a look of disgust.
"What?" Varian tilted his head and a heavy pressure fell on Maria.
'Is his power really, I mean, really sealed and he just broke through?' Maria's inner activity was rich but she didn't show it on her face. Instead, she pointed her finger to the south and said. "The exit."
The two teleported to the spot in a few seconds with Varian deliberately showing the imperfections of his space treasure.
With Varian's increased strength, the next floor was a cakewalk. So was the one that came next. And the next, all the way until the twenty-seventh floor where.
Until now, they didn't mess with any rank 6s. The few times they encountered them, they fled using teleportation.
Because they're only rank 3s, the rank 6s didn't try to catch them as killing them would only grant these high rankers a mere 30 minutes of survival time.
Unknown to them, however, two men on the 50th floor were watching clips of Maria and Varian, but Maria in particular, as she climbed the floors.
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