Aenon stared down his opponent, who had frozen still when his Aura was unleashed. The elf's soul was very different to any he had felt so far. Earlier Aenon was confused about the weirdness, but now that he was so close he finally understood what was giving off those vibes. Unlike everyone's souls, which were like spherical balls that emitted emotions, this guy's soul was emitting a jumbled mess of conflicting feelings; all very weak and hard to separate out. If Thalindra's cloaking technique made it difficult for Aenon to sense her or her emotions by sealing everything in, the elf's technique was based on camouflage.

Upon closer inspection it was evident that his soul was covered in layers upon layers of foreign soul pieces. Earlier in Reality's Edge, Aenon had felt the soul fragments that had fallen off Ignar and his party. Those was more akin to a powder, while the pieces around the elf's soul were more like strips of cloth. And if Ignar had gained a few stat points from just the powder, it was hard to imagine how boosted the elf's stats were. Aenon could feel the power radiating from the elf but could not accurately predict how strong he was. His Identify also came up empty. The man's level was in double digits, but his stats were obviously higher than Aenon's since he could not see the level.

<Wood Elf | Rogue | Level ??>

But more concerning were the man's daggers. The attack had connected but there was no marker atop the rogue's head, which was a surprise for Aenon. Only those in authoritative positions, such as the Arbiter and city officials, would have been exempt from the rule. This meant the man held some official position, and knowing the sniveling Mayor of the city, it was not hard to see why. As Aenon was sizing up his opponent, the rogue finally managed to break out of his shock. Probably the layers of soul fragments were giving him some resistance to his Aura.

"My, oh my. That is some Aura you have there. This must be why you seem so confident. But you aren't the first Awakened I have defeated, runt," the elf said with a greasy smile.

Even though Aenon's Aura didn't have much of an effect, the bead of sweat rolling down the Wood Elf's forehead showed it did have some. Aenon touched the spot the dagger had cut him on the shoulder. He checked his status to see what was different. His health bar was still full, which confused him. But then he noticed that his STR stat had fallen by a single point which had reduced his overall health pool.

"So, you directly damage the opponent's soul, draining away their stats. It's more like pure damage, rather than physical or magical," Aenon asked while maintaining his calm demeanor. "Do all the Wood Elves specialize in soul magic to boost their power?"

"You do know what happens to curious nobodies who do not know their place?" the man asked with narrowed eyes. Aenon had intentionally let it slip that he understood Rowanth's power. He was testing something, and it had worked. He noticed whenever the elf was unsure or surprised, a faint trickle of his real emotions slipped out through the cracks around his soul. Even right now, when he assumed Aenon knew the elf's secret, a faint emotion had managed to escape. Fear.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?" Aenon mocked.

In response, the elf got into his earlier stance and charged. And like earlier he managed to nick a cut, draining a point in INT. But this time Aenon observed the process more closely. A tiny thread of his soul had broken off and attached to the elf's. A fight with this elf was a battle of attrition, where the man got stronger with every strike. Pure hit and run tactics, where he turned his enemy's power against them. A truly ridiculous, but effective, strategy. Aenon could see the allure behind such a method. The growth potential was nearly endless. Nearly being the key word.

"Well, this is a first. I have never seen someone take soul damage without breaking down and begging for mercy," the elf said as he landed a fifth cut.

Every hit reduced one of his stats, and Aenon was yet to pin down his opponent. The guy was just too fast. But Aenon kept trying to stab him with his ruined daggers, making the elf cackle in glee each time Aenon missed. The wolves in his shadow were growling, demanding to be let out. But Aenon ordered them not to. He had found the weakness, and he just needed them to play along. And so, the one-sided fight continued.

"Ahahahaha. I have drained a hundred stat points from you by now. Can you feel your body getting heavier, slower, and your mind getting fuzzier?" the elf reveled in his apparent success. He moved around Aenon with precision and grace.

"Not yet," Aenon mentally told the wolves who were getting angrier by the second. The elf's latest comment had confirmed Aenon's suspicion that he had no way of sensing souls. If he could, the elf would not have been so cocky at draining a measly 112 points from his huge stat pool. To keep up appearances, Aenon started moving slower whenever his STR or DEX were drained and looked a bit out of it when his INT and PER were targeted. Only when another 824 points were reduced did the elf stop his deadly dance.

"Ah, this exhilarating feeling of gaining stats is incomparable with any other pleasures. And now that you are drained of most of your stats, I am going to enjoy making you squeal. You may be resilient enough to have tiny threads of your soul ripped off. But once I start carving off strips of it…" the elf grinned as he approached Aenon who was down on one knee.

Aenon was supporting his body weight using his hands on the ground. Or so the elf thought. The overconfident fool strutted at a casual pace, as he retrieved some kind of metal collar. Aenon could feel strong magic from it. But just as he was about to put it on Aenon, his feet froze. Not figuratively, but literally.

A thick layer of ice erupted from Aenon's hands and wrapped around the bewildered man's feet. And before he could think of a way to break free, four earth spikes shot up and pierced him through his calf muscles and thighs.

"AAAAAAARGH," the elf yelled in pain. Aenon then stood up and started stretching his neck and arms, as though nothing of note had happened in the last 40 minutes. "You… you… you are a mage?"

"Never said I wasn't," Aenon replied with a malicious grin on full display on his mask.

"But… but you should have no mana pool left to cast such magic. I was sure to drain your INT stat most of all," he said amid grunts of pain. The guy wanted to break free, but the angle at which the spikes had pierced made it difficult.

"Oh, I noticed. A pretty good strategy you got there. Extreme speed to make you elusive and drain the core stats for magic casters. It was well planned and executed," Aenon said with a mock smile as he approached the writhing man. "And it would work on most people. Having 900+ stats drained is no joke after all."

"Then how?"

"I told you, didn't I?" Aenon said with extreme malice. "You are up against the Void Stalker."

He cast Kingdom of Darkness as all light was sapped away from the area. The wolves too erupted and surrounded their prey, their grey eyes dripping nothing but anger at the one who had dared hurt their alpha.

"Wha…what is this?" the elf shrieked.

In panic he ripped his own body as he tried to get free, collapsing to the ground in pain. He looked every which way and found nothing but cold grey eyes leering at him.

The elf withdrew something from his inventory, a token of sorts. But before he could do anything with it, Aenon said, "Now."

As one, his wolves dove forward and bit down on a limb each. The hand holding the token was completely severed, as the wolf savagely shook its jaws. The elf shrieked in agony, as his pack started playing tug of war with the elf's body. He was trying to gather some mana for an unknown Spell, but wolves devoured the mana the moment it gathered.

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Aenon gave a sharp whistle, making the wolves drop the elf and back off. But their growling didn't abate in the slightest; they were still furious. Aenon walked up and squatted next to the bloodied man, terror clear as day in his bloodshot eyes.

"Don't come closer. I am warning you. You have no idea who I am. My family will…" the elf started ranting as he desperately tried to crawl away. But his limbs were torn to shreds, making the action unlikely.

Aenon ignored the elf's words, just staring at the weeping man with cold grey eyes. His entire focus was on the elf's soul. He found a new layer of soul fragments, his fragments. Unlike the other layers, they were held in place with a very weak force. If Aenon was to guess, this was a two-part process. The first step was to get the pieces, and the next was to stitch them together. And that probably happened after the battle. He still wasn't sure why the elf had stopped draining his stats though.

Aenon could clearly see the older layers had almost fused together. But the newer layers, which included Ignar's, weren't entirely integrated yet. But there was another interesting thing he noticed. Now that he was observing this closely, the layers were radiating some residual feelings. They were so faint; it was like trying to listen to whispers from several feet away. But they were there, and it was a huge jumble of emotions. Fear, regret, pain; it was a whole plethora of negative emotions. But the primary one which dominated was anger.

"…you will have no spot in the Multiverse where you can hide."

Aenon was snapped out of his thoughts by the elf's obnoxious voice. He was still not done with his litany of curses and threats. Aenon sighed internally and deposited his broken daggers into his inventory. In their place he grabbed the daggers that were lying in a pool of blood to the side. The elf's eyes widened when he felt his precious weapons leaving his grip, he was clutching both with his remaining good hand.

Null Fang | Dagger (Main hand) | Ancient | An insidious blade with an insatiable lust for souls. Made using ancient forbidden arts, the dagger is harmless physically, piercing the fabric of its victim's souls instead. (Warning: This item is banned by the System as it can lead to Corruption.)

Aether Maw | Dagger (Off hand) | Ancient | The malevolent twin of Null Fang, this dagger works in sync with its sibling. While the main weapon tears off pieces, this dagger consumes them and attaches it to the wielder's soul. However, the ability has a steep cost. For every 1000 stats drained, it will shave off 10 from its user, inflicting exponentially more pain in the process. (Warning: This item is banned by the System as it can lead to Corruption.)

The rarity of the daggers was a grade higher than his own, and the effects were just monstrous. Aenon also figured out why the elf had stopped the fight. He had drained 900 something of his stats. Any higher and the man would have been paralyzed by the pain of having 10 stat points being forcibly drained by the second dagger. Aenon doubted the weakling had the same tolerance for soul pain as him. Curiously though, Aenon wasn't sure how the elf was using the dagger if it was outlawed by the System.

"YOU, GIVE THOSE BACK," he bellowed and wildly swung his hand into the void, only to lose it to another wolf. He cried out in pain and collapsed amid miserable sobs.

Aenon tuned out the pained shouts and used his Mana Sense to observe the daggers. He found a sophisticated Spell pattern on it that looked similar to the symbols Nocthrya had burned into his memory. But they looked… wrong. While the symbols looked familiar, they were not accurate. It was like a toddler's first attempt at writing letters. Even so, they did accomplish whatever task they were meant to.

CRASH

A loud breaking sound made Aenon look up from where he was kneeling next to the bloody mess. Thalindra had finally managed to break down the frozen door and was hurriedly marching towards them. Aenon dispelled the darkness before depositing the daggers in his inventory.

"What is going on here?" she demanded as she stood with her staff ready. She looked around in alarm at the severed limbs, one of which was being chewed on by a wolf. The other wolves gave her a side eye but mostly ignored her.

"You tell me. This is your house. I just got here," Aenon said in a casual tone.

"We'll get to that. First show me your weapons that you just deposited into your inventory," she asked with pursed lips. She had not lowered her guard and was instead aiming her staff at Aenon.

"You mean the weapons that I seized from him?" Aenon replied while pointing a thumb at the elf. He didn't like the implication in the woman's voice. This felt like déjà vu.

"Whatever the case, show them to me."

Aenon stared coldly for a moment, before retrieving the twin daggers. The woman's breath caught in her throat as she laid eyes on it, no doubt having used Identify to read the descriptions. Aenon noticed a wand in her hands and pulled up its description too.

Spirit Reaver | Wand (Main hand) | Rare | A malicious wand that chips away the souls of its victims, converting the pieces into an elixir that can be consumed. (Warning: This item is banned by the System as it can lead to Corruption.)

It looked like a set piece with the daggers and probably came from the Mayor, who Aenon sensed was lying unconscious in the room. The wand's rarity wasn't as high and the flavor text was minimal, but the effects weren't any less devastating. It too had the mysterious spell pattern, which Aenon assumed was some kind of cloaking spell. It also explained the source of the potions the nobles were consuming.

"Hand that over right now," Thalindra spoke in an authoritative tone, holding out her hand towards Aenon. But she had to take a step back when the wolves stood up and faced her with a growl.

"Down," Aenon commanded, making all the wolves to back off and sit on their haunches. Aenon then turned to her with a fierce gaze, "You speak as though I had anything to do with this mess. If anything, I am the one cleaning up after you. I don't want your gratitude, but the least you can do is get off your high horse."

The older woman was taken aback but quickly recovered. She gave a formal bow, "My apologies. I got carried away in the heat of the moment. I will…"

"Second time," Aenon interrupted her.

"I beg your pardon," she asked in confusion.

"That is the second time you have gotten carried away. The first time you tried to use soul manipulation to calm me. And this time, you acted as though I was the one who brought these daggers to your city. I am not even including the hostile behavior of your Guild Leader when we first met," Aenon glared at her in silence before driving in the point, "The only reason you are still standing is that you didn't do it out of spite or hate. But push me again, and I will make you regret it."

Aenon focused his Aura directly on her, instead of releasing it in all directions. It felt stronger than before and he had better control of it for some reason. He guessed it had something to do with the notifications he was ignoring. But he decided to focus on the present.

The effect of his upgraded Aura was quite apparent, as Thalindra started to sweat profusely and struggled to keep standing. Unlike before, she was unable to resist his Aura, leaning on her staff so as not to tip over. Aenon let her experience it for a full minute before pulling it back.

"I apologize once again. I will make sure it never happens again," she said politely as she sighed in relief. Her gaze lingered on the daggers, but she said nothing. Aenon tossed the daggers towards her without a second thought, which she barely managed to catch in surprise.

He then turned to the elf, who was still spread out on the ground with terror filled eyes. Aenon gathered some mana on his palm as he planned what he wanted to do next. He had studied the way the rogue fought, and how his weapons worked. He just needed to replicate it. He took a step forward, while coating his entire hand in mana.

"You have something that belongs to me," he said as he dashed forward suddenly and punched the prone man in the gut.

But this was no ordinary punch. He had infused mana into it, along with one other thing which he had not thought of earlier; his Aura. His Void Stalker class had said it could incorporate soul magic. So, that is exactly what he did.

The magic enhanced punch directly impacted the man's soul, loosening the pieces that he had stolen. Aenon pulled them out and drew it into himself. The elf thrashed on the floor as the pieces were ripped out and returned to their rightful owner. Once he had recovered all his stats, Aenon kept pulling and condensing the fragments from Ignar and his party's souls.

Thalindra must have assumed he was going to consume those too, but before she could protest, Aenon retrieved them from his shadow and placed a hand on their heads one by one. He fed the soul fragments back which quickly filled out the rips in their souls. Like pieces of a jigsaw, they fit in but would take time to heal. There were still a few gaps missing, which must be where the wand had pulled from. He would try to recover those later from whoever had consumed the elixirs.

When Aenon was done, he pulled back and looked at the unconscious form of the elf. The pain must have been too much for the jerk.

"You were about to interrupt me again. Assuming that I would feed on their soul fragments," Aenon said suddenly while facing Thalindra. She panicked and was about to explain but Aenon cut her off, "You spoke about building trust. But so far, I haven't seen you display anything to earn mine, while I have held my end of the deal."

Without waiting for a response, he started walking towards the earlier office. He could feel the doubt and fear from the woman, but he was not in a mood for empty promises. He had experienced enough of that. If she wanted his trust, she would have to earn it. A task that was difficult in the best of circumstances. But after this interaction…

He completely ignored the elderly man in the room—who had a perplexed expression—and just collapsed on the couch. He felt weak after the stat drain from his soul. But his head hurt for a different reason.

It was time to face the fallout due to his actions. And it involved the one thing he hated the most.

Interacting with people was bothersome.

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