Maxwell has seen many tragedies in his life. As a telepathy user, he felt many of those through projection when he wanted to learn more about some people’s situations.

  However, this still didn’t prepare him for the anger he felt when he was connected to Bob through Soul’s Voice. He has seen many people with crippling fear ,but he has never seen someone with such anger.

  As Bob watched his memories through his own body, Maxwell was tagging along all the time as a silent partner. It turned out that feeling a trauma firsthand could actually affect you pretty badly.

  This certainly didn’t help Maxwwell’s tired mind, but he was a bit better, as his helpful soul stat was already regenerating his resources.

  System surely doesn’t care about privacy… he thought as he checked the system tab for the trade.

  The answer is received in the form of soul intent.

  Deciphering…

  Evaluating the trade.

  The System Accepts.

  Maxwell checked on Bob after reading the notification. Soul intent? So that’s something like an amalgamation of memories? As always, his thoughts were interrupted by the new notifications.

  Hidden status removed from the trait [Primal Fear]

  Soul Amputation commencing.

  Resource successfully acquired.

  So it didn’t take the trait? Maxwell questioned mentally. It didn’t make sense to have the trait when Bob couldn’t feel fear. He turned on his prima sense to sense what was the change he caused to the boy.

  He could see that something was missing from the boy’s soul as he tried to perceive it as he did when he was using his trait. He wasn’t very successful, but he was startled by a sudden wave coming from the boy’s soul. It strangely gave a feeling of… safety?

  Trait “Primal Fear” is being used as a framework for the new Trait.

  Calculating.

  Trait modification in process.

  Trait Modification successful.

  Trait: Protector of the Dawn Created.

  At the same time with this notification Maxwell felt the feeling of safety he was feeling erupt like a torrent suddenly, before dissapearing completely. He quickly checked the trait’s details as he was really curious about what the system created.

  Protector of the Dawn:

  In the dawn of creation, fragile beings known as humans hid in caves, hiding from the beasts hunting them. They shivered in fear due to their lowly place in creation.

  All changed when some chose to discard their fear as they faced certain death for the protection of others. They fought as none expected. They fell but were replaced.

  Through the Merchant of Yliaster’s grace, you shall now taste their glory as you stand before all horrors without fear. May your body be the shield humanity needs.

  Cannot Feel Fear

  Immunity to Losing Consciousness

  Increase in physical stats when injured

  Increase in all parameters when protecting someone

  Death is delayed by 1 minute.

  “The fuck…” Maxwell couldn’t help but swear out loud. He expected something good to come out of this trait but didn’t expect to create a mythological creature. The system was cryptic with values as always, as it was just saying “increase” instead of giving any numbers, but Maxwell was quite sure that these “increases” were not small.

  He turned his eyes to his notifications. There were quite a lot of changes.

  Soul’s Voice Leveled Up Lvl-11→22

  Elementary Soul Energy Manipulation Leveled Up Lvl-1→10

  Meditation Leveled Up Lvl-20→25

  He guessed his soul manipulation leveled up because of the trait’s forced usage of his energy. He wouldn’t probably level that skill for some time without things like that as the usage of the skill was quite hard to grasp.

  Soul’s voice was expected as he used it in a pretty extreme way. He didn’t expect meditation to level up but it was a welcome surprise.

  He was suddenly knocked a couple steps back as he felt Bob’s weight crush into him unexpectedly. He gave Maxwell a bear hug as he was smiling like an idiot.

  “Thank you,” Bob said simply. There were no words for what Bob was feeling. He was finally free from his fear. He could feel the difference immediately. Any fear that this might have bad consequences was nonexistent, too, as he couldn’t feel it.

  The excited boy calmed down after a couple of seconds and sat down on the ground. “I will check the advancement options again, " he said.

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  “You haven’t yet?” Maxwell asked sarcastically. Bob sure didn’t waste time.

  “There IS a different option!” Bob screamed, and Maxwel could clearly imagine the system screen in front of Bob as his hand moved to press on the class without a second thought.

  Maybe he lost his consideration with fear? He thought in exasperation. Maxwell didn’t know how fucked up the other options were before, though, if he knew, he might have understood the boy’s agitation.

  “Here is the summary,” said Bob and started to read the summary of the class without any consideration.

  Protector of The Cave: You protect the weak as your predecessors did in ancient days. Be the shield they can count on against the world they cannot understand. Without armor, without a weapon, you shall prevail.

  Unarmed damage is significantly boosted.

  Unarmored defense is significantly boosted.

  You can’t be poisoned by eating your prey.

  Efficiency boosted for all physical skills and stats.

  Vitality +9, Strength +8, Agility +5, Dexterity +4, Mind +1, Spirituality +1 every level.

  Bob finished speaking breathlessly. It was pretty respectable for him to manage reading the whole thing before actually entering the advancement trance. Maxwell noted that stat points from the class were lower than his. This would probably significantly increase the power level between people in the future.

  The class was still awesome though, considering Maxwell was an anomaly among anomalies. He had a soul stat, so his stat points were broken beyond repair.

  “Seems really good” he commented.

  “Right? Hahahaha.” Bob shouted, laughing and Maxwell could see mana was gathering around the boy slowly as the boy slowly entered a trance.

  Maxwell watched as Bob’s body was invaded wth energy. It was not the environmental mana as it seemingly appeared from nowhere not dissimilar to their new mana when they were gained with stat points.

  He felt his mind strain as he tried to pry upon what the system was doing in advancements. He felt the strain increase as he focused on the boy’s body. He could sense that the warmth coming from Bob increase as advancement progressed.

  His looks haven’t changed much but he could also clearly see that some of the malnourishment vanish from the boy in real time. Now that he thought about it, the same thing was the case for him too.

  He gazed at the boy’s wounds and he felt a sudden increase in strain in his mind. System probably didn’t want them to know how it worked. He quickly turned his gaze to other parts. I might as well start slow… he thought, not realizing that things he were trying to do were taboos.

  As he watched the system move mana he could see it infused it to Bob’s body in more complex ways than he could hope to understand. It seemed to choose specific frequencies though. These frequencies were probably different affinities as the system used the word repeatedly when choosing his class.

  He looked at the particles and tried to isolate one of them with the highest concentration from the ambient mana. This was his first usage of mana guide after the advancement and he found the attempt much easier than before. He could feel the mana particle coming to his hand as he willed it to move.

  Well then, what are you? To his eyes the particle seemed red but that didn’t really give any information to him. He tried to use observation on the particle but all he got was question marks.

  Well, good old experimenting then. He though before isolating willing the other particles eith the same affinity to his palm.

  2 boys stayed unmoving one in bliss from the advancement and one in concentration as Gendor opened his eyes. He cracked his neck and gazed at the boys.

  His hand went to his sword as he seemed to consider something. After a couple of seconds of deliberation the man shook his head helplessly and let go of his sword. Soon his usual smile was in place once more.

  “So we are fine?” Maxwell asked as he turned to Gendor, holding a part of his concentration on keeping the concentrated mana in his palm.

  “You’re getting scarier and scarier, kid.” Gendor said. He was feeling a bit weird getting caught like a child. He gazed at the boy’s hand as he could feel something gathering inside but he couldn’t tell what. He was wary of the boy now that he reached second tier and he was ready to dodge if this was an attack.

  Maxwell stared at the guy for a couple of seconds weighing him up. He was distracted before because of the man’s questionable movements and he almost caused the ball in his hand to explode.

  He was trying to not show his panic as he almost exploded himself for the second time immediately after getting his new class. He gazed at the red ball of mana in his hand thoughtfully. It seemed like a waste to just let it disperse but even when concentrated it didn’t seem to be doing anything.

  He once more gazed at Bob and focused on the mana to track where it was going. He could feel the familiar strain once more as he tracked the mana. He could see that advancement was coming to an end as the flow of mana was slower.

  He was starting to get a migraine as he tracked it inside Bob’s body. For a second, he could feel it go in a complex pattern inside Bob’s vessels before he couldn’t look anymore because of the pain.

  Now, he had two options after learning this information. He could let the energy disperse, as he didn’t know what the system was doing with the energy. That would be the smart thing to do he guessed.

  The second option was to try to infuse the mana in his vessels like the system was doing on Bob. This was considerably more dangerous as he didn’t know what the energy was. Maxwell, of course, was a responsible person who organized a planet for many years.

  He was quick to choose the best path immediately. Mana moved as he pulled it inside his pinky, infiltrating the blood vessels with the energy.

  He couldn’t feel the energy with precision inside his pinky as the vessels were very small, but he felt the temperature of his finger increase as if it were infected. He hoped the system would end his suffering by creating a skill or something, and he was not disappointed when he heard a notification seconds later.

  Mana Infusion Subskill Created: Blood Infusion.

  Blood infusion: You infuse the blood inside an entity with blood affinity mana, temporarily increasing their vitality. Scales with the amount of mana you infuse.

  Why didn’t metal create a subskill? Maxwell wondered. He was not upset about it though since it seemed that subskills were there to clarify what you were doing. He couldn’t see a level indicator for the subskill.

  He quickly pulled the remaining mana inside his vessels to see how much this mana could change now that he new it was harmless.

  Vitality increased by 10 for 5 minutes.

  Welcome! My most underwhelming skill! Maxwell thought to himself sarcastically. He concentrated for minutes to gather that mana and it was a relatively small increase making it redundant in battle. Of course this didn’t mean this was a fruitless endeavor.

  Mana Infusion Leveled Up Lvl-11→15

  Guide Mana Leveled Up Lvl-32→34

  He was getting a bit spoiled, as the level increase looked small to his eyes, but he suspected that his leveling speed was quite high.

  He sat on the ground and turned his full attention back on Gendor. The guy was back to being his usual self, but he could see that it was a bit unnatural. He used Observation on the man. Even if Gendor felt the skill, he didn’t really care, as the guy gave him a pretty good reason.

  Gendor - Assassin - Lvl-15

  So the classes are still shown as their starting archetypes he thought. Maybe that wouldn’t be the case with higher observation, but skill didn’t have an easy way for him to level it up. Also, Gendor’s level seemed really high, considering that he advanced just now but he also said he was delaying his advancement for quite a while. Still, Maxwell was pretty sure that most of the guy’s experience came from the leader Scrax, whom he killed in the recent battle.

  He turned his gaze to Bob as he felt that the mana storm around the boy die down. The boy opened his eyes couple seconds later. He seemed a bit startled as he started checking out his body like it was something alien. He probably feels different after the evolution, Maxwell thought, watching him.

  “Hey Max, I feel amazing, man!” He shouted. He picked up a rock from the ground. “It’s like I could crack rocks with my hands!” He said in wonder as he squeezed his hand. Poor rock gave a sad crack before crumbling in his hand. “Wow,” Bob said in awe, looking at his hand dumbly.

  Maxwell laid his back on a tree as a smile slowly formed on his face. At least he had someone dumb enough never to betray him, it seemed.