Tharn gathered up the keys and started handing them out stowing the couple extra in his inventory. When he got to me, he handed me the one key out of the bunch fixed with an orange Gem instead of red.

  "I believe, today, you have earned this. May it give you what you need."

  I looked down at the key he'd placed in my hand, its orange gem catching the light. For a moment, I wondered if accepting it would change the way the others saw me.

  "Are you sure? What about the others? I mean, how do we decide who gets what?"

  "It's customary, in the wider multiverse, to celebrate achievements. Those who have a breakthrough or reach a new temper are generally rewarded by those close them. Either by having a celebration with food and dance, or when on a hunt, with more spoils.

  I had a conversation with a young lady in your village. Kayla, I believe her name was. She told me that it's common in your culture to celebrate someone getting a promotion. Through skill and devotion to a job you're elevated to a more esteemed position. She said it's common for family and friends to celebrate, sometimes giving gifts. This is similar to that."

  I suppose he had a point. I gave Tharn a thank you and took the key. After all, who was I to argue with a minotaur trying to give me goodies.

  He nodded before walking off to open his own chest. I looked around and saw all the guards either looking at their new items or still using their keys.

  Well then, I guess it's my turn. I raised the key with no little bit of anticipation. The key hole formed and I stuck the key in. Then I felt a strong urge to let go and take a step back, so I listened. The key flashed and as it narrowed it's light onto me, and I felt like it was searching me. Searching my needs and wants. Trying to devise a way to serve me as best it possibly could. Then just like that it was done. The key turned, a chest formed, and a thud sounded as it hit the ground.

  Stepping up to the chest, a giddy child like sense of wonder filled my heart. I was about to open my very first loot box. I felt like I was 8 years old on Christmas morning again.

  I kneeled down and opened the lid. Inside sitting on the bare wooden bottom of the chest, was a pair of aviator sunglasses.

  Looking at the item description, I couldn't help but think that these were a little too perfect. They did exactly what I needed them too and gave me a butt load of usefully stats to boot. But the more I thought about it, I remembered tharn saying that the system essentially curated it's items for the person who claimed the key. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and put them on.

  Immediately I felt the rush of system energy as my stats went up. Looking around I inspected my new vision. Honestly... It looked about the same. Although I felt like my eyes kept being drawn to little inconsistencies in the air around me. Almost like there was a stray piece of glitter on the wind here or there. It was almost imperceptible unless I looked for it.

  I felt a little cheated. Didn't these things say they would allow me to see mana and spiritual energies? What the hell. Did the system give me a faulty item?

  I looked back at the description and realized that it said it would "help train the wearer". Is that what was going on? It helped train me to see the mana not just show it to me.

  I mean I guess thats better in the long run. Then I won't need to replace these with better ones as I level. But I still felt like a fat kid who got a gym membership as a gift instead of the cool gaming system they asked for. Oh well, I'm sure it's for my own good or whatever.

  After everyone was done opening their chests we set out for the next den. As we walked off, I asked Tharn about the empty chests he told us to leave. Apparently within a day or so they would dissolve back into the ether so there was no use in keeping them.

  The guards all made small talk as we made our way through the forest. A couple made comments about my new shades making me look like I was trying to be a bad ass or something. I just laughed along with them. After all, I couldn't help it if the system wanted me to look like I was on Top Gun.

  Before we knew it we arrived at the next den. This one consisted of a couple dozen scorpions the size of large dogs. They proved to be a bit more difficult, their levels ranging from seven to nine. There were a couple close calls and one guard got a long gash along his arm, but his constitution had him healed up before long.

  I gained another level taking me up to fifteen, and again Tharn had us gather around trying to connect to our spirits. I, however, was told to focus on my surroundings. Apparently your senses open up to spiritual energy after discovering your soul space, but the amount of time it takes your senses to do so can vary greatly. Some taking minutes while others take months.

  My shades were a huge help. We meditated for about an hour before moving on, and by the end of it I was able to see large amounts of energy in the air around me. It started with just a stray mote of light here or there. But by the time we left, if I focused, it felt like I was in a fishbowl full of glitter. There was so much energy flowing all around me that it was overwhelming. To the point where I had to actively ignore most of it.

  Akira was able to find her soul space this time as well, and somehow Tharn knew the moment that it happened and went straight over to her. He bent low putting his face infront of hers a moment before she opened her eyes. When they opened he waited half a beat before saying "Congratulations!".

  Akira about jumped out of her skin falling backwards, and that's when I realized something. Tharn was an asshole. He thought it was funny to scare the crap out of us after we gained our senses back. But... I suppose I couldn't hold it against him. It was pretty funny, and it was a harmless prank.

  After our meditation Tharn went to form the keys again, but this time I was able to see what really happened. Tharn closed his eyes and shortly after something really strange happened.

  For lack of a better explanation, it looked like he started growing glowing blue hair all over his body. Except the hair kept getting longer and longer, reaching all around at the dead beasts. It took me a moment but I realized it wasn't hair at all. It was the same tendrils that must have came from tharn's soul. He was literally expanding his senses past his body and out into the world.

  Eventually, after some searching, his soul tendrils started gathering up one particular color that was prevalent among the endless motes of light nearby. These motes where an ethereal pale blue color, and had been mixed in with all the other motes of light.

  I focused intently on one close by, and felt an almost kinship like feeling come from deep within myself. It didn't last long though, before one of tharn's tendrils reached out and plucked it from the air. He gathered them all close together and like little magnets they all started pulling together and forming large groups of energy.

  Eventually once enough motes were pulled in, filling up a space about the size of a basket ball, the energies of their own accord squeezed together even tighter and started to form keys. The rest of the clusters of energy followed suit and soon Tharn held a stack of keys in his hands.

  I stood there gaping open mouthed before yelling at Tharn. "That was Awesome! I was able to see almost the whole thing!"

  He barked a laugh. "Good. Soon you'll be forming keys of your own."

  "Maybe... I said I saw what you did. Not that I had any clue of how to do it myself."

  "For most being able to clearly see the process is the final step before they can do it themselves. You are close Dean. Be patient and you will succeed."

  I nodded in determination. "I'll give it my best shot then."

  We took out two more beast dens before heading back that night, and spent about an hour after each one meditating. I kept trying to mimic what I saw Tharn doing but for some reason my souls tendrils were firmly rooted in my body. No matter what I tried I couldn't get even one tendril to extend out. Apparently, this was going to take me a while.

  By the time we were done, a couple others had found their soul space as well. Tharn said that the rest of the guards would likely do so soon. According to him, a true inability to do so was quite rare.

  As we were walking back to the village a question was nagging at me, so I went to walk next to Tharn.

  "Hey Tharn, why can't the guards just meditate and try to find their souls when we're back safe in the village? Why did you make us wait to start trying untill we were out on a hunt?"

  He nodded. "A good question. Tell me, when did I have you all meditate?"

  I thought for a second. "It was after we killed the beasts."

  "Exactly. And do you remember what forms the system chests?"

  "You said it was left over spiritual energy, right?"

  Tharn nodded. "Exactly. The residual energy that a spirit releases upon its passing is quite potent. When you meditate near that energy it strengthens your connection to your own spirit, making finding your soul space much more likely."

  "Oh ok, so it's still possible to accomplish without residual spirit energy, just more difficult?"

  "Many orders of magnitude so, yes."

  My eyes widened slightly. "It's that much harder?"

  "Yes. There's a reason that those without combat classes rarely obtain the ability."

  "But why, couldn't they just hire a group to take them out with them?"

  "Some do, yes. But the ability has limited use outside of post combat situations, and most aren't willing to give up a party slot for someone who can't carry their own weight."

  I turned towards Tharn, confused. "What do you mean by party slot?"

  Tharn barked a laugh and gestured around them. "Did you think you could just march around with a group this large indefinitely? I'm sorry to say thats not the case."

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "What do you mean?"

  "There's no limit in H grade. However, once you reach G grade, if you have more than five in a party the experience gains drop so low you might as well stay home."

  I stopped walking and l turned to look at Tharn. "We're supposed to face the dangers out here with only five of us?! We still struggle with some beasts with all of us."

  Tharn put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile. "Dean. You are still new to the multiverse. Trust me. G grade is the first step into real power. While it pales in comparison to later grades, when compared to H grade where most beings start. It is magnitudes stronger. You will understand when the time comes."

  Then he let go of my shoulder, turned away, and started walking again. "Now let's go to bubba's, I'm starved after a day of battle."

  At first I was still worried. But after thinking for a moment, if Tharn said it was that much of a difference, then I needed to to trust him. I let myself relax before my stomach rumbled loudly.

  "Yea, it's definitely dinner time."

  Over the next few days we made steady work of the beast dens. Several more guards found their soul space, and I felt like I was getting closer to understanding what tharn was doing to form the keys. Then finally on the fourth day something clicked.

  We had just finished clearing a den of aggressive turkey-like creatures and were sitting down to meditate. I closed my eyes and sank into my soul space.

  Looking around me at all the tendrils I was baffled. What the hell was I supposed to be doing? I floated over to a dozen different tendrils trying to understand everything about the connection to my senses. One connected to the base of my right index finger. I spent a long period of time just feeling absorbed in the feeling of the air blowing against that tiny section of my skin. Trying and failing to push the tendril past the skin to feel anything other than my own senses.

  Then I had a thought. Essentially being in my soul space I was putting my conscious point of view outside my soul. It was a way for me to look back at myself from the outside. It was useful for finding my soul in the first place, and discovering the nature of my being... But maybe not much more than that, at lease for now.

  I left my soul space coming back into my body, and without opening my eyes or falling back into my soul space I tried to sense my tendrils. Not just the sensations I was feeling from my body, but the tendrils themselves. The mechanisms through which my senses are felt. I found that with some effort I was able to sense them.

  If I focused I could actually conceptualize the bonds my soul had to my body. However this wasn't the deeply intimate single connection. This was a summation of the whole. I could tell it was firmly rooted there, which sounded fantastic to me. I would assume if that weren't the case I'd be dead.

  However after examining myself I found that I could ever so slightly stretch the tendrils past their anchored location. They still retained the connection to their anchored body part, however with effort I could stretch them out a bit. A little at first maybe an inch or two, but with practice I could reach several feet away.

  I let my tendrils wander around me until I was able to lock in on that feeling of kinship that I had experience before. I pressured my tendrils to seek that feeling out and gather it up. And before long I could sense that I had gathered a large amount of the energy.

  I let my eyes open and felt like a Chia pet. I had ethereal green tendrils coming out of every part of my body. It was rather disturbing and as soon as I felt uncomfortable the tendrils retracted almost immediately. However, I didn't really have time to decide how to feel about it, because a basketball size clump of spirit energy was condensing right in front of me. My eyes widened as a red gemmed key formed, dropping into my open hand.

  Holy shit. "Haha! I did it!"

  My shouts brought some back out of meditation, while others stayed unmoving. I immediately felt guilty for being so loud but the feeling was vastly overshadowed by my feeling of giddiness.

  I used the key almost immediately and received a belt. It was matte black, sleek, and unassuming at first glance. Looking closer though, thin veins of neon green ran across it, jagged and branching like lightning caught in a storm cloud. The lines shimmered faintly, as if mana flowed through them in slow, deliberate pulses.

  The stats were incredible, and I had to admit, the black leather with green lightning veining through it looked pretty damn cool. Subtle enough not to scream “wizard,” but arcane enough that you knew it wasn’t just a fashion statement.

  By the time the others finished opening their chests and we started moving toward the next den, congratulations were being thrown around left and right. I was on top of the world. It felt really good to finally figure it out.

  After clearing so many dens recently, we’d all accumulated quite a few items. Before heading to the final den for the day, I decided to pull up my status sheet and see just how far I’d come.

  My power had grown tremendously since we first touched down on this random patch of Earth. I could feel it in every step, every breath. I was stronger than I’d ever been. Faster. Sharper. More in control. For the first time since the integration, saving my wife and kids didn’t feel like some distant dream. It felt inevitable.

  My thoughts moved with effortless clarity. Not smarter, exactly. Just… refined. Focused. I could reach into my own mind and pull out whatever I needed without hesitation. Plans formed quicker. Decisions felt cleaner. There was no doubt, no second guessing.

  With the guards growing stronger by the day and my own power climbing steadily upward, it almost felt like we had finally turned the corner. Almost like nothing out there could truly threaten us anymore. For the first time since the world ended I wasn't afraid.

  Over the next few minutes we eagerly jogged to the next beast den. This one was a cluster of about four dozen red dots. They all stayed clumped pretty close together on the map, and were sitting still. We made excellent time on our way there. The slowest among us was jogging at about the speed an Olympian track star would've sprinted before the system.

  As we approached the dots we slowed, letting me cast my Cabin Pressurization on everyone before making our way closer. It wasn't long before we were directly on top of them, yet we found nothing. We were standing in empty forest.

  I frowned and glanced at the map in the corner of my vision. The red dots were still there, right on top of us.

  Mike looked around slowly, scanning the trees. “This the place?”

  “According to the pillar map… yeah.” I turned in a slow circle, looking for any sign of movement. “We should be standing right on top of them.”

  Akira crossed her arms and looked up into the canopy. “Maybe they’re flyers?”

  A few of the guards tilted their heads back, scanning the sky. Blue sky. White clouds. Not a single wing in sight.

  Greg crouched and pressed a hand to the ground. “Could be underground.”

  I nodded. “Alright. Spread out a bit. Don’t wander too far. If they’re burrowers or something like that we should find an entrance nearby.”

  The guards began fanning out through the trees, checking around roots, rocks, and small rises in the earth. I kept my eyes on the map while we searched.

  The red dots didn’t move. That alone was unsettling. Normally beasts shifted around at least a little... but these were perfectly still.

  “Dean!” Jeff’s voice called from somewhere to the left. “Over here!”

  A few of us jogged over to him. Jeff stood beside a dark opening in the earth, half-hidden behind a cluster of brush and fallen stone.

  “I think I found their front door.”

  I walked over and looked down at the opening. "I think you did too."

  The opening was a rocky cave entrance that sloped down into the ground at a steep angle. It was about as wide as a small car and smelled faintly of stagnant water.

  I inclined my head towards Mark. "You think you could send some of your undead down there to check it out?"

  He walked over to peer down the hole. "I could, but if the rest of the cave is as steep and jagged as that section is, then it might take all day. So far all the ones I've gotten have been pretty slow and uncoordinated. Thank God I got that Death Bolt spell at level ten or I'd still be struggling to do damage in a timely manner."

  “Well, looks like we’re going underground.” Mike muttered.

  I glanced around at the gathered guards before nodding. “Alright. Stay close. Keep an eye on the map.”

  Greg stepped forward and raised one hand. A crackling orb of lightning formed in his palm, casting a harsh blue glow down the tunnel.

  “Well,” he said, “at least we won’t be stumbling around blind.”

  One by one we started down the cave entrance. The slope was steep, slick in places from damp stone, but none of us had much trouble navigating it. Before the integration this kind of descent would have required ropes, harnesses, and someone who actually knew what they were doing. But now? It was barely an inconvenience.

  We climbed down, moving from rock to rock with the kind of balance that wouldn't have been possible for us just a week ago. The cave quickly swallowed the daylight behind us, and Greg’s lightning orb became our only source of illumination. My Cabin Pressurization spell apparently only reflected light instead of producing its own. The flickering glow of Greg's lightning sent long shadows crawling across the walls as we descended deeper underground.

  After about thirty meters the tunnel leveled out. Then a moment later the map in the corner of my vision shifted. Instead of the forest terrain above us, the pillar map reshaped itself to match the cave structure around us. The winding tunnel now appeared like a narrow corridor on the minimap, like something straight out of a video game.

  “Hey,” I said quietly. “The map updated.”

  Mike glanced over. “Good. That makes life easier.”

  We followed the tunnel for a while until it widened opening into a massive cavern. Faint daylight spilled down from an opening high above, where a waterfall poured through the ceiling and crashed against the rocks below before disappearing through a crack in the cavern floor.

  Mist hung in the air around the falling water, and scattered just enough beams of sunlight to reveal dozens of stalagmites jutting from the cavern floor like a forest of stone spears. With the light being enough to see, Greg let his lightning ball sizzle out.

  I glanced back at the map. "It looks like they're all on the far side of the cavern. Stay close. Let's see if we can get the drop on them."

  We started moving slowly across the cavern as a group, weaving between stalagmites that towered a whole meter above most of our heads. We were maybe halfway to the other side of the cavern when Mike suddenly spoke up.

  "Dean, look at the map!"

  The red dots had stopped sitting perfectly still. Now they were moving straight towards us.

  I raised my staff, preparing for battle. "Here they come. Be ready!"

  I waited, ready for whatever beast was about to attack, but I was met with nothing but the distant roar of the waterfall. I scanned back and forth, my heightened perception picking up even the smallest details, but still... I saw nothing. I glanced back at the map. The dots were forming a circle around us.

  "We're surrounded!" I yelled. "Call out if you see anything!"

  Everyone was frantically looking around for any sign of what we were facing, but it was a futile effort. A couple times I thought I saw a shadow move, but there was nothing there. Even so, we stayed ready.

  Then the sound of the waterfall seemed to fade, like something was pressing in on the cavern itself. A sharp pressure bloomed behind my eyes. I started to think it was just tension at first... Then someone screamed.

  Mark suddenly dropped to his knees. "My head!"

  Akira cried out as blood ran from her eyes and nose.

  Then the screaming began in earnest.

  The pain hit me like a hammer. My vision blurred and the cavern tilted sideways. I nearly dropped my staff as a piercing screech filled my skull. Pain like I'd never felt before invaded my mind and threatened to make me lose consciousness. I dropped to my knees as the screech continued to grow louder. It built a pressure like my head was going to explode at any second.

  Then, from somewhere within, I felt something push back.

  The screech stopped getting louder, then dulled slightly. The pressure that was unbearable a moment ago lessened. I realized it was my Willpower stat. I could feel it fighting off the assault on my mind. It was still a heavy burden, but manageable.

  Then one by one the screams around me stopped as each guard fell. Until Tharn, the last man standing, hit the ground... and the cave went silent.

  I forced myself to stand. All around me the guards lay sprawled across the stone floor, unmoving and bloodied. Then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The mist near the stalagmites began to shift, shadows moved in unnatural ways, and a sound like hushed whispers filled my ears.

  Then I saw them. Dozens of pairs of crimson eyes staring at me from all directions.

  I stood there in the cavern... Surrounded.

  Alone.