"Oh! My boy!"
That was the first thing Raiven heard as soon as he came down from the car.
His mother instantly reached him, hugging him tightly.
With a smile on his face, he hugged her back.
"I knew you would make us proud," Stella said, still hugging her son. "Your father will soon be back. I'm sure he must have heard by now."
"Thank you, mum," Raiven said, smiling brightly.
Verah came down from the car.
She smiled at Raiven once again before walking inside the mansion.
"Alright, mum. Can you let me go now? I have to freshen up," Raiven said playfully.
"Sure, sure, go on."
********
"Ah... What a day..."
Raiven collapsed on his bed.
He had finally accepted it.
He was no longer on earth.
He was now in a new world...
'This may be the world of Rise Of The Strongest Ability User, but this world is real. Everything, everyone, and every experience is real,' Raiven reminded himself.
He never wanted to make the mistake of thinking that this was just a novel.
It would cost him his life if he did that.
'Time to explore my Soul Ability...'
But just as Raiven was about to open the system screen...
Knock! Knock!
"Come in," he said, already knowing who it was.
The door opened with a slight creak, and Lily stepped inside the room.
Her black hair was tied neatly in a bun.
"Greetings, Master Raiven, and congratulations on awakening a Disaster Rank Ability."
Raiven smiled softly.
"Thank you, Lily."
Lily gulped.
'Something has changed... He's not shouting at me or even giving me orders. This is so unlike him.'
It wasn't like she wanted him to shout at her, but she just found it hard to believe that he was being kind and even talking softly.
The change was too much.
'Maybe he's just in a good mood. He'll probably shout at me soon,' Lily thought, though she knew that Raiven usually shouted at her even when he was in a good mood.
Lily lowered her head a bit and began walking towards the bathroom.
"I'll prepare the bath."
"That'll be nice."
A few minutes later, Raiven was standing inside the bathroom, ready to enter the bathtub.
He had to order Lily once again not to follow him into the bathroom.
She had become so used to following Raiven into the bathroom and doing whatever he told her to do that it was almost like a reflex at this point.
Now that he was left alone, he could finally explore the system.
He entered the bathtub, feeling the hot water soothe his muscles.
He relaxed and opened the system screen.
"Alright, here we go. Show me my profile."
[Name: Raiven Ashland.]
[Age: 17]
[Soul Ability: Necromancy]
[Path: Death Path]
[Rank: Disaster Rank]
[Current Tier: Tier 1]
[Soul Circuit: False Soul]
[Note: In the awakening ceremony, your Soul Ability was displayed and registered as Beast Summoning. Your path was displayed and registered as Beast Path. But this is your true Soul Ability and Path.]
"What the hell?" Raiven muttered, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"This is my true Soul Ability and Path? Then why was something else displayed in the awakening ceremony?"
His brows furrowed.
His expression instantly shifted, turning into that of thoughtfulness.
"Was the system trying to hide my actual Soul Ability and Path?"
This was the only theory he could come up with as to why Beast Summoning and Beast Path were displayed in the awakening ceremony.
Raiven's brows furrowed further.
"But if that's the case, then why? Does the system not want anyone to know about the Necromancer's Legacy?"
Raiven's thoughts spiraled, exploring different possibilities, but he couldn't think of anything else.
"Aghh! My head hurts from all this," he murmured, clicking his tongue.
He looked at his tier.
"Tier 1. That's normal."
Each rank has three tiers except Disaster Rank which has nine tiers, with tier 1 being the lowest and tier 9 the highest.
Another thing that was getting Raiven confused was his Path.
"Death Path? As far as I know, even in the novel, there are only six paths. Elemental Path for individuals who awakened Elemental Soul Abilities. Tech Path for individuals who awakened Technological Soul Abilities.
Beast Path for those who awakened beast-related Soul Abilities. Mind Path for those who awakened mental-based Soul Abilities. Warden Path for those who awakened support, healing, or buffing Soul Abilities.
And lastly, Mystic Path for those whose Soul Abilities are unknown or hard to classify."
Raiven had never heard of Death Path.
This was new to him.
He looked at his Soul Circuit; a unique passive ability everyone had in their soul that only awakened when an individual has awakened their Soul Ability.
Some Soul Circuits had limitations, some had cooldowns, while others had neither — it all depended on the type of Soul Circuit a person awakened. This balance ensured that no Soul Circuit was truly overpowered.
Immediately he awakened his Soul Ability, he just instinctively knew what his Soul Circuit was.
"False Soul... Not bad at all," Raiven muttered.
Raiven already knew about this particular Soul Circuit from the novel. Different people could awaken the same Soul Circuit, but its details were usually a secret. No one could know what your Soul Circuit was unless you revealed it yourself, demonstrated its abilities, or were scanned by someone with the Soul Scan Circuit.
Raiven looked at the details of the Soul Circuit and it was exactly as he knew it to be.
[False Soul: The False Soul is a Soul Circuit that hides your Soul Ability, Soul Path, Soul Circuit and your skills from those who have the Soul Scan Circuit]
The Soul Scan was a Soul Circuit that allowed its user to see another person's Soul Ability, Soul Path, Soul Circuit, and even their skills — but only if the target was of equal or lower strength.
"With this, no one with the Soul Scan Soul Circuit should be able to know what my real Soul Ability and Path is, except they're stronger than me."
Suddenly, the words on the system screen changed.
[You have a new quest.]
"Quest...?"
[You are the one who inherited the Necromancer's Legacy, so you must prove that you are indeed a Necromancer. Take the first step]
[Quest: Raise your first undead]
[Number of undead raised: 0/1]
It was at this moment, it dawned on Raiven.
His eyes were glued to the system screen as he realized it.
'I've been thinking that since my Beast Summoning Ability was related to the Necromancer's Legacy, I would be able to summon skeleton beasts,' Raiven thought.
But now that he had seen that his Soul Ability was actually Necromancy itself, it meant one thing.
"My Soul Ability isn't summoning skeleton beasts, but rather, it's raising the dead..."
"That's my real Soul Ability..."
********
The refreshing scent of flowers filled the room. The kind of scent that would make anyone who entered the room stop and take a deep breath.
But it was already normal for Ava who had been in this room more times than she could count.
Under the scrutinizing gaze of the strikingly beautiful lady seated opposite her, she took a sip of her herbal tea like she couldn't care less about the lady's gaze.
The lady had bright red hair just like Ava. A black hat was seated on her head, contributing to the mysterious aura around her.
She wore a long black coat over her white long-sleeved button-up shirt that was tucked into her black trousers, with black boots to pair.
Though, unlike Ava's blue eyes, her eyes were just as red as her hair.
The silence would certainly be deafening to anybody who walked into this room. But for both of them, it was more like a contest of who would speak first.
And in today's case, Ava won.
"Is it true? That the son of Allen Ashland awakened a Beast Summoning Ability?" the lady asked.
Her sharp eyes were still fixated on Ava.
"Yes."
Ava's reply was short.
"I believe you know what that means," the lady said.
Ava took another sip of her tea.
She raised her head, stared at the lady, and spoke:
"I do not know what Beast he can summon."
Silence followed immediately after that.
A few seconds later, the lady spoke.
"I will reach out to Klein."
She stared at Ava again and began walking out of the room.
"But..."
She muttered, stopping at the door.
And without turning back, she continued,
"If you can, do well to find out what Beast he can summon. It would mean a lot."
And then, she left, her footsteps echoing.
Ava took another sip of her tea.
And after two minutes, she muttered,
"Yes... Mother."
*
*
*
[A/N: Please, your comments will be much appreciated and very helpful. Tell me what you think! Also, support with power stones. It'll help with the visibility of the novel. Thank you!!]