Neo stepped into the ruined church and headed straight for the nearest Soul Core.
Rainwater dripped from broken stone and cracked beams overhead, hissing where it struck embers that had not fully died. The smell inside was ugly in a way that almost felt rich. Burned silk. Venom. Wet ash. Cooked flesh. Green blood smeared across the aisle beneath the wreck of the chandelier. Every part of the place looked ruined twice over, first by age, now by him.
He crouched, picked up the first Soul Core, and turned it once in his hand.
Yellowed crystal. Faint light trapped inside. Weak, trembling, hungry.
Neo grinned.
He did not consume it.
Doing them one by one would mean rejecting useless classes over and over, sitting through the same nonsense again and again. Better to gather them first, pile everything together, and rip through it in one go. More efficient. More satisfying too.
He picked the first orb and moved to the next.
