"Aedric…"
Kael looked at the one who had kicked him... his friend, Aedric Nocthar.
"~Cough~ Ahh, it hurts…" Clutching his stomach, he struggled to stand up.
"I guess I used a bit too much strength," Aedric said with a deadpan expression.
"WAAAHAA! HELP! HELP! I DON'T WAN—" The man screamed as the small slime monster swallowed his right arm.
His eyes widened in horror as burning pain spread through him, his arm beginning to melt.
"Damn, we have to save him," Kael said, stepping forward—only to have his path blocked by Aedric.
"I didn't kick you so you could go and kill yourself." Aedric looked at him with a sharp, cold expression as he calmly continued.
"You can't save him. That monster is too strong… it should be above level 30."
Before Tier 1 climbers in the Tower of Worlds, there are beginner climbers, shown with levels before going through class awakening.
From Level 1 to Level 100, each level grants humans 1 point in every attribute, along with 4 additional attribute points.
By this system, a Level 30 monster would have more than 40 attribute points in all stats—four times the strength of a normal human. And even this estimate doesn't reflect reality.
After all, humans are among the weakest races. Other races gain more than 1 attribute point per level, and many possess racial traits that give them additional benefits.
"But sti—" Kael frowned, trying to speak in denial.
He was interrupted by Aedric's indifference. "He's just a stranger."
Aedric didn't care about the man. His thoughts were fixed on the soul reaper he had seen from the ground.
He didn't know if it was still here—he couldn't see it.
But he could feel the death that lingered in the air.
"Let's go while we still have the chance," he said, glancing toward the broken walls.
---
Few Minutes Before..
"I am the World Spirit," the mysterious white-haired child said.
"World Spirit?... Like the wh—" Alex's eyes widened as a thought struck him.
"NO! NO! I am just Aurze's World Spirit," the World Spirit quickly waved his hands and said.
"Ahh… So why is the World Spirit here?" Alex asked. Even though this was shocking information—that there was a World Spirit for this world—he took it calmly. After all, he would be a stain on the name of reincarnators otherwise. Which reborn MC isn't calm and cool even in death?
The World Spirit floated around Alex, hanging upside down in the air.
"Seriously? You're asking me that after almost giving me a heart attack," the spirit said in a deadpan tone.
"Huh?" Alex frowned.
Seeing this, the spirit spoke in a teasing tone. "What? You think I didn't notice you when you opened the time-space passage to this world's spatial dimension?"
Alex kept frowning and asked, "How can you be so sure it was me from this time?"
After all, before going anywhere, he had stopped the present.
"Mnn, you looked the same age, wore the same clothes, and not to mention—I was watching you during the awakening. Your position changed suddenly without any spatial distortion." The spirit floated to Alex's eye level and smiled.
"Not to mention, you just confirmed it yourself. Hehe… man, I was so scared, you know."
Hearing this, Alex calmly looked at the spirit, but his thoughts were anything but calm.
'Damn, fuck—amateur mistake. I should have covered my aura too.'
Sighing, he looked at the spirit with annoyance.
"What happened to him? Has his screw finally loosened?" Robert said as he saw Alex moving his mouth like he was talking to someone.
"Maybe it's just too much happiness for him that the school got destroyed, after all," Corin joked.
BAAAM!
Alina punched both of them on the head and snapped, "Stop saying bad things about Alex."
'Simp! '—that was the only thought in the minds of the two.
"So, doesn't that mean others also noticed?" Alex asked the World Spirit.
"Nooo, you should be grateful to me. I covered your aura and erased all traces of you, so until those nasty beings in the Tower thoroughly check, they won't notice anything," the spirit said proudly.
"Oh! Thanks, haha, you're not bad." Now that Alex realized his mistake had been covered by the World Spirit, he noticed something else—he didn't feel uncomfortable around him.
Normally, when he met someone new, he would get nervous and hardly speak. But it wasn't like that with the World Spirit.
'Maybe it's because he's the World Spirit of my world, the one I've lived in for almost 15 years.'
"So, aren't you going to save him? It seems the situation is getting worse," he said as he looked at the school building and then at the school gate.
Alex raised his eyebrow and curiously looked in the same direction.
He only saw a student—a boy their age—quietly entering, wearing the third-year uniform.
But his attention was quickly drawn to Aedric, who had just arrived. Alex was about to call out to him when he saw Aedric standing frozen, his face twisted with anger and horror.
"What happened to him?" Alex tilted his head in confusion as Aedric suddenly ran toward the school.
That was very unlike him.
"A soul reaper," the spirit spoke from the side.
"Huh? What?" Surprised, Alex checked Aedric's status, and his eyes widened in shock at the description of his title.
'Is Aedric like me? But… he doesn't have the Reincarnator title though?'
But it wasn't the time to think about that. Anger bubbled in his chest when he saw the reaper's weapon so close to Kael's neck.
"He has a death wish… fucker."
"Mnn, you shouldn't kill a soul reaper… killing them means going against Hell itself," the spirit advised, listening to his words.
"Going against Hell, huh? For just a soul reaper?" Alex smiled at the World Spirit's exaggerated warning.
The spirit blinked at Alex's words and frowned. "I don't know everything, but this much I do: since the day I was born, I've been told never to interfere with or alter someone's death."
"Since birth, huh? What's your name… Aurze?" Alex asked as a sharp aura rose from within the school, cutting it apart.
"Name?… No, Aurze is just the name your ancestors gave me before I was even born," the spirit said.
"Oh? Before you were born, huh… Shiro—that's your name from now on," Alex declared proudly.
The World Spirit was stunned, then rebuked, "That basically means white in ancient… What am I, your pet?"
Ignoring the spirit, Alex ran toward the school.
Seeing him run, Alina followed.
And because of her, Robert and Corin also followed.
Of course, the reason those three went was purely to stop Alex from entering the school.
And when Teacher Jon saw them all running, he nearly had a heart attack.