Chương 187: Everything Comes Down to the Soul

What? Twenty-five million points?

"What do you mean when you say it's the price of 'my survival'?" This didn't make any sense, the only thing that currently was threatening me was the possibility of a fallout with Adrian. Honestly, this tutorial wasn't looking that scary anymore, not with the kind of improvements I had. I didn't know if it was because I was talented, lucky, or just because curses were broken. Actually, it was probably the latter… anyway, I wasn't fearing for my survival, not in the normal sense.

What I was working toward was removing my curse, and not getting fucking time reset.

"You know what I mean."

"I can guess, but that's not what I'm here for, why do you need all those points anyway?"

"I don't need them, you do." She was absolutely serious about it, so much that it contrasted with her personality quite uncannily.

"Ok, first, where should I even find so many points? It would take some really lucky finds to get materials or natural treasures from around here, and Adrian is not going to help me in that regard, he is actually my first competitor." She sighed. For an incorporeal being it was strange to see, usually she doesn't look like she breathes, but she actually sighed. There was something deeply wrong in that, there was something deeply wrong with all this situation.

"What I can tell you is pretty limited, but you should move quickly, removing your curse is the priority. I can't give you the location of the Tyrant of Aaranor, but it will be easier to find than you think, so start with that. Second, don't ever use anything except your curse magic in front of Adrian or others of his group, especially aura, he has only ever seen you use those skills, and he can counter them, so act accordingly. Third-""Wait, wait! You remember the past timelines?" The realization struck me then.

Did all of the personnel involved in the tutorial remember? No, not at all. If they did, at least the Kraghs would have changed the contract, or Vix wouldn't have any interest in "experiencing" my aura or whatever. Before she could answer, I asked more questions, I couldn't help it.

"How many more remember? How many times did this happen? How many times did I fail?" I was starting to become agitated, something that didn't happen often.

"I can't say much, but this, is the first time that this is happening, the first in the past eighty-seven iterations." Eighty-seven? Fuck, how is that guy not a monster already?

"How is he not more powerful yet? I didn't want to believe him when he said I died here and there a bunch of times, but that many? He must have an insane amount of experience with skills, monsters… fighting… System mechanics, achievements…"

"He does, but don't make mistakes, he's not all powerful, far from it. He wasted a great many chances during the past iterations, and while his advantages are enormous, yours are not that much less than his."

"What the hell do you mean? It's my whole life that I've been cursed and in this tutorial it means I had to play babysitter half the time! What kind of advantages are you talking about!?" Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I was shouting at this point, this was getting on my nerves. At the same time she was calm and collected, listening to my complaints without a crease in her expression, not that it was easy to see with her hazy form, but still…

"Elias, you don't understand how all this works, so you think that you are proceeding normally in the tutorial while Adrian doesn't, it is partially correct."

"Explain then."

"It all comes down to the soul." She said it as if it was the greatest revelation in the universe.

"I think I need a bit more than that."

"I know, what you must understand is that we, well, not me, but any fleshy being is but a physical vessel for the soul. The soul is impervious to all but the most potent magic, and not any kind of magic either, even aura can't directly affect the soul, because it's but a byproduct of it."

"What are you implying?" She gave me a big clue, but I needed to be sure.

"You're saying that the soul is not affected by the resets? Is that it?"

"Precisely."

"This still doesn't change anything if I can't remember what happened! I don't remember anything about the past eighty-seven times I've done this."

"You don't, but your soul does, and it's all there, guiding you even if subconsciously. Do you really think that you could have managed everything you did in less than a couple of weeks otherwise? That most of your teammates were geniuses and became fighters and mages with impressive capabilities overnight? Elias, think.

Despite the tutorial helping you, this is not something that would have been possible without something more, you all are getting guided by your past experiences, and it's making you grow at an alarming rate, so much that when you exit this place it would seem like your improvements slowed to a crawl." Ok, ok, that made sense… fuck! I knew it was too easy…

I had already thought multiple times in the past that our speed of growth was too much, but after they told me that we gained experience ten times faster in the tutorial, I chalked it up to that, but there was more apparently, much more.

"How is this going to help me anyway, except for the obvious?"

"You need to look at the broader picture, Elias, there is much untapped potential in every one of your guild members, and in you. Despite this being the first time you used aura in any past iteration, you have an incredible aptitude for it, not unlike your mastery of curses. You need to develop it to defeat your adversary." Could I defeat him? I actually didn't think so, if he knows me he can counter me, not to mention the fact that he actually has a ton of stats on me, and knows how to use them better.

"If this was all some kind of pep talk to inspire me, it didn't work, not that I needed it in the first place, I will do what I must. I still don't know why I need all those points though."

"You need those because defeating him directly, or even killing him, won't help you, he would just reset everything and at that point we would be starting all over again."

"We? Are you stuck here with us too? Is that why you are trying to help me?" I didn't know why I didn't see it coming sooner, of course she wasn't doing this just out of the goodness of her heart, or to repay me for whatever she did to me.

"Like I said, I can't say much, but I could simply wait it out if I needed to, not that I enjoy it, but it's a possibility." So there was more at play, more players than I knew, more people pulling the strings, and I was one of the marionettes. This was getting worse and worse by the minute, I would play along for now, but would have to re-evaluate my position on this chessboard.

"Ok, so… training aura, obtaining the Crown, then somehow accumulating twenty-five fucking million points. After that I should somehow defeat a regressor with a truckload of achievements and who knows what other advantages aside from eighty-seven past tutorial experiences and a super optimized build, with the addition of the capability of countering my curses. Did I get it all straight? Ah! And you can't tell me what it is that I need those points for."

"That's the gist of it, yes." Un-fucking-believable. I took a deep breath, now I really could use some of that tea she gave me yesterday.

"Ok, let's begin then." The door suddenly flew open, slamming against the wall with a bang. Quinn, yeah, I totally forgot about him. Ok, first things first, I need to do this, fuck my life.

"I got everything! Man, this is going to be awesome!" We would see about that…