Ash sat in his cave with a smile on his face.
Despite the fact that he died once again he was happy.
He succeeded in making some progress.
He was able to replicate Will's downward slash.
The one he had seen in his memory.
It was apparent that using Aura was still beyond him, but the slash Will did was something he could replicate.
And the proof of his success was right before him.
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [2%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
>Slash [G] Proficiency: [5%]
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He had gotten his first minor skill.
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>Slash [G]
>A simple downward slash, the basis of many weapon arts. Can be upgraded.
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Upon taking a closer look at it's description Ash was not disappointed. Of course it could have been better, but beggars can't be choosers.
He was most pleased about the fact that the skill could be upgraded. This meant that once the proficiency reached 100% it's state would change and upgrade to a better version of the skill, atleast that's how he understood it.
With how much time he had on his hand, he felt he could get it's proficiency up eventually, atleast before his core was able to rank up.
With his new skill Ash was able to proudly exit the cave and face his opponent once more.
There it stood the monster he had cut many a times, appearing before him once more.
Ash raised his sword ready for the monster to arrived. And arrive it did.
With the two only an arm lengths away from each other, Ash slashed down with tremendous force, inflicting serious damage to the monster.
In the end the two still collided and Ash was sent back once more, luckily for him his slash seemed to have slowed down the monster a bit, as he wasn't sent back too far, and was able to continue with no injuries.
The monster stood there, with a deep cut that seemed to render it almost dead.
Ash didn't hesitate he ran up and slashed down at the monster once more, this time cutting through it fully.
And there it was, a monster that had killed Ash many a times before, laying on the ground cut into two pieces.
Ash did an a amazing job, maybe a bit too good for his prior progress.
Even Ash realised it, the fight was way too easy.
Then he had an idea and swung down once more.
And there it was.
The Aura he had been searching for, it was there coating his sword.
The light was barely noticeable, but it was there.
He was finally using Aura.
Ash was delighted.
It seems during his slash in his last life he had used it unconsciously. That's why it was so effective.
Knowing that he still had some time before the other monsters showed up Ash began slashing and slashing desperately trying to figure out how he was doing it.
He swung and swung, till the other two monsters showed up.
Ash didn't hestitate and ran full force to fight the weaker of the two.
He swung and swung, still trying to grasp how Aura control worked.
Next he attacked the bigger one, still slashing with a determination to find the necessary spark.
And then as if fireworks had gone of Ash had finally understood it.
The feeling of what his Aura was, the feeling of how to control it.
In the midst of this he momentarily forgot he was still fighting and was crushed in a moments notice.
...
He awoke once more, smilling like he had been for a while now.
His Interface appeared once more, but the amount of changes surprised Ash.
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[Talent scanning is complete]
[Thank you for using Soul Chip Corporation for you procedure]
[Showing results...]
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [4%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
>Slash [G] Proficiency: [7%]
>Basic Aura Control [F] Proficiency: [1%]
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It was a shock as it seemed all of his skill had gonne up in their proficieny.
Next he opened up the Aura Control's desciption, but nothing there surprised him.
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>Basic Aura Control [F]
>The first step to gaining complete control over one's own Aura.
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It seems he had taken his first step. His first real step.
Before he was just surviving.
But now he felt he would be thriving.
The monsters were quite weak, evident by the fact that he was able to kill a large number of them even before unlocking these skills, that would by many standards still be considered weak.
But for Ash these small skills were all the difference.
Now he felt like he could tackle all the streets, other than the one with the cyclops. That one was still well beyond him.
His first target was the street with the weak enemies.
...
After his quick battles against the first three monsters Ash found himself once again in the street where the number of enemies seemingly went up by one with each encounter.
With his new found Aura Control skill he was able to conciously keep up his Aura never letting it wane.
The first few enemies he'd encountered were ones he was able to deal with easily.
Thanks to his new skill Aura was thicker than it was in the last two lives, and now he was able to slice through each of them with only one downward strike.
And now he was standing before five of them.
His weapon on the ready Ash swung at the first one, slicing it in half.
The other four were already charging at him by now.
Ash quickly looked for the one that was the furthest apart from the rest, and rushed at it slicing it in half.
With the small space he had gained Ash was able to avoid getting hit by the others.
This continued till there was only one left, and then.
*Slash*
*Splurt*
Blood was everywhere now Ash's full body covered in it, but he didn't care he only had one thought on his mind.
'Yes, this is it, this is what I like.'
The feeling he had was simple, it was.
Power!
Without any need to stop Ash continued down the street killing enemies in his wake.
...
An hour has passed by, Ash was standing surrounded by twelve monsters, of which ten were already cut down.
There were only two more remaining, but Ash new he couldn't kill them.
He was already breathing heavily, no more power left in him.
'This doesn't make sense! Just how many of these monsters are there?'
He was up against twelve enemies this time, but he knew there were even more down, the street.
There was also something else that wasn't adding up.
The street.
He had been walking down the same street for a while, but the end was nowhere in sight.
He knew this street, he walked down it many times during his deliveries. And as such he knew full well that the street shouldn't be this long.
Neither the street nor the monsters made sense.
'Did the town even have this many people in it?'
The town wasn't large in size, with probably a few thousand living in it.
With all the monsters in this street that were made out of three poeple each, and the monsters in the other ones. The math was just not adding up, and even if it was, he knew that wouldn't last.
'Is there really no way out?!'
In the end the last two monsters rushed at him and he was quickly killed.
...
Waking up, his smile was gone.
The street being endless meant only one thing.
He couldn't get to the orphanage through there, and he was sure the street with the larger monsters would have similiar results.
There was only one way to get to the orphanage.
It was by defeating the cyclops at the center of town.
A monster so large, that he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to properly defeat it.
'It's over before it even started. Just when I thought I'd gotten stronger.'
"Haha..."
He let out a mocking laugh, mocking himself for ever thinking it possible to reach Floch.
'I'll never get out I'll be stuck here repeating this day forever.'
All his hopefulness was gone just like that.
His fate seemingly sealed.
With a tired expression, Ash got up and grabbed his sword, then his Interface appeared.
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [5%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
>Slash [G] Proficiency: [9%]
>Basic Aura Control [F] Proficiency: [3%]
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His proficiency increased once again.
Seeing this Ash could feel a bit of hope rising inside him, but it quickly stopped as he remembered his situation.
The growth was there, but it was not enough. The monster at the town square seemed like something he'd only be able to defeat if his skills were all atleast D tier.
And Ash knew that the higher up he got, the longer it would take for progress to be made.
It seemed he was stuck here for the foreseeable future.