Soulless Soul

Chapter 9: Soulless Soul

Was this how death felt? Just an endless, freezing void of feeling absolutely nothing? A sensory black hole where a mind could float for an eternity, never truly knowing if it was alive or dead, until the concept of existence itself dissolved into the dark? Suddenly, a violent shock ripped through the vacuum.

[Blasphemy. Blasphemy.]

[You Have Committed A Sin Of The Highest Order.]

[You Have Devoured The Souls Of Humans And Creatures Alike.]

[You Have Consumed A Core Residue That Should Not Exist.]

[You Have Committed An Unpardonable Blasphemy.]

The furious words slammed into Sky’s mind in blinding, blood-red text. Each typography felt like a heavy iron hammer striking the interior of his skull. The system itself seemed outraged, vibrating his conscious thoughts with an almost sentient malice.

Then, after a long, tense pause, the text shifted into a quieter, text.

[E-Rank Blue Monster Defeated.]

[Fragmented Souls Consumed As Fuel.]

[High Priest Defeated.]

Sky opened his eyes with a sharp, ragged gasp.

He was lying flat on his back on the cold foundation stone. The vast amphitheater was dead silent now. There was no more ritual chanting from the priests. No more agonizing screaming from the terrified prisoners. There was just the slow, rhythmic drip of water from the ceiling, the sharp smell of ozone, and the overwhelming stench of burnt beast flesh.

The Abyssal Stalker was completely gone. Where the apex predator had leaped to crush him, only a jagged crater and smoking shards of cracked black armor remained. Against all mathematical probability, he had survived the encounter. He had done the complete impossible for an unawakened human. He had killed his very first dungeon monster.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows, his muscles groaning. His body felt fundamentally wrong. It felt lighter, yet heavier, both at the exact same time. When he looked down at his own hands, his breath hitched. They were glowing. Faintly, but noticeably. Fine, intricate lines of multi-colored light ran directly beneath his skin like an artificial network of veins made of compressed starlight. These were not human veins. This was not a human hand anymore.

Sky exhaled a slow, shaky breath, trying to steady his pounding heart. "Okay," he whispered to himself, his voice echoing off the ruins. "Okay. You’re alive. Just calm down. Breathe." It took what felt like an absolute eternity for the residual pain of the transformation to dull down to a manageable, low-simmering throb. But the System wasn’t done evaluating his performance. The red text vanished, replaced by an unstable blue aura.

[Unknown Soul! You Have Completed Your Run.]

Sky blinked at the floating terminal. Unknown Soul? Right. It made sense. Because he didn’t possess a standard human soul anymore. He had completely obliterated his original anchor during the ritual. He was a glitched variable in their calculations.

[You Have Received A Passive Attribute: Dragon’s Heart]

[You Have Received A Passive Attribute: Danger Sense]

"Yes!"

Sky nearly shot completely to his feet with excitement. He caught his balance at the last second, wincing at his bruised ribs, and did a shaky, ecstatic little fist pump instead. Two Passive Attributes. From a single, initial run. He felt an absurd urge to do a happy dance right there in the middle of the blood and debris. Getting a single Passive Attribute from a first Run was considered incredibly lucky. But getting two at the exact same time? That was a stroke of absolute luck he wouldn’t have dared to imagine in a hundred years of street survival.

He knew the foundational ranks of the world. Everyone who lived in the slums of New Seoul memorized them like a religion. There were seven distinct ranks to everything governed by the Array. In order of growing power, they were color-coded: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Red, and Magenta. Dungeon creatures followed a matching alphabetical scale: F, E, D, C, B, A, and the legendary S-Rank.

Having two permanent attributes this early in his progression would serve as a massive, unfair advantage as he kept entering the brutal Dungeon World.

The Array continued to scroll before his eyes, almost like a school headmaster reading an official disciplinary report card.

[Unknown Soul. You Have Completed Your Run.]

[A Wandering Soul Entered The Dungeon Array. Was Dropped Unexpectedly In The Sea Of Darkness. Was Kidnapped By The Crimson Cultists. And Lost His Soul.]

[An Unknown Soul Has Defied All Odds. Died Clinically And Came Back To Life. Truly, You Have Committed A Sin]

[Your Blasphemy Knows No Bounds.]

That last part regarding his sins was not entirely necessary as far as Sky was concerned. He didn’t care about the array’s morality; he was alive. Still, he felt a twisted sense of satisfaction with the summary. What did deeply unsettle him was the persistent label of Unknown Soul. It was living proof that he didn’t belong to the system’s database. Then, the typography shifted drastically. The blue and red hues vanished, replaced by a radiant, blinding gold that looked almost reverent.

[Unknown Soul. Receive Your Soul Blessing.]

[Soul Blessing Calculating...]

[Soulless Soul.]

...Huh? Sky tilted his head.

[Soul Blessing: Soulless Soul]

[Soul Rank: Magenta]

Soul Description: [ You Are A Miraculous Soul That Has Gone Astray Defiling All Odds You Return. However, Your Existence Is Empty And Lonesome; What Truly Are You]

Sky stared at the golden glowing words, his jaw dropping open. He completely ignored the depressing, lonesome description. His eyes were locked onto a single word: Magenta. The absolute highest rank achievable in the entire system architecture.

Is this thing playing a cruel prank on me? Sky pinched his arm hard enough to leave a mark. The stinging pain was real. The gold text remained. Overwhelmed by the sheer absurdity of his status, his knees buckled, and he fell back onto the dirt.

[Soulless Soul Attribute Name: Clones]

[Clones Description: You Can Manifest Copies Because You Have Consumed External Life Forms. These Clones Are A Different Part Of Your Hollow Self. They Are Forged From The Extra Extracted Souls. They Work In Mysterious, Unbounded Ways.]

Sky was happy. No, he was far more than happy. He was utterly giddy. He had done the impossible. He had received a god-tier Soul Blessing before even leaving his first dungeon zone. What an incredible time to be alive. Every ounce of terror, every drop of sweat, and every single moment of suffering he had endured in this catacomb was instantly worth it. He forced himself to compose his racing thoughts, took a deep, steadying breath, and let the sheer volume of information settle into his brain.

First and foremost—he had just rewritten the rules. A Magenta-rank soul wasn’t just rare; it was virtually nonexistent. Even humanity’s strongest Awakeners, the legendary champions who General Vance fought alongside on the front lines, didn’t possess one. Most elite Hunters peaked at Blue or Purple if they were blessed by fate, with only a mythical few ever touching Orange or Red.

And he, just a nameless orphan kid from the forgotten gutters of New Seoul who had waited an entire month to report his whispers, had just manifested a Magenta Soul. That made him a dangerous anomaly. If the Central Government or the legacy clans ever found out about this screen, they wouldn’t clap for him. They would drag him into a subterranean lab, strap him to a steel table, and cut him open to study the code inside his flesh.

Well. Let them try.

Sky looked down at his glowing, starlit hands again, then over to the smoking crater where the E-rank monster used to be. "Even if they try to turn me into an experiment..." he said aloud to the empty, echoing cavern. A small, dry laugh escaped his lips. "Can they die?"

He remembered the feeling vividly. The absolute cold. The terrifying nothingness of the void. "I already died once," he whispered, his eyes narrowing with a dangerous new confidence. "And it paid off. Can they survive that?" The Array didn’t provide an answer. Instead, his core runes updated entirely on their own, displaying his permanent survival sheet.

Name: Skies

Title: — ...

Rank: White

Class: Common

HP: 5 / 5

Armor: 5 / 5

Energy: 100 / 100

Passive Attributes: [Dragon’s Heart], [Danger Sense]

Active Attributes: [Clones]

Soul Blessing: Soulless Soul

Soul Rank: Mangneta

[Dragon’s Heart]. He could actively feel the passive trait working inside him now. There was a distinct, secondary heartbeat thumping rhythmically within his chest cavity. It was slower than his human pulse, heavier, and radiated a comforting, internal warmth that pushed away the damp cold of the catacombs. [Danger Sense]. A subtle, static prickle remained at the very base of his neck, keeping him hyper-aware of his surroundings even in the absolute quiet of the room. And then there was [Clones] which was made an active Attribute. As he progressed through more tiers and gathered massive amounts of energy, he would eventually be able to summon multiple soul-forged copies to fight by his side.

Sky stood up to his full height. His legs didn’t shake this time. The grand amphitheater around him was a complete ruin. The Crimson Cult was entirely wiped out. The horrific beast was dead.

He was entirely alone, hollowed out, and yet vastly stronger than he’d ever been in his entire life. He had come to this dungeon, he had conquered the trial, he had died, and he had returned. Suddenly, a brilliant circle of swirling blue light began to manifest on the far stone wall. It spun slowly, casting long shadows across the debris. An extraction portal.

Sky looked at the exit, then glanced back down at the blood on his clothes and the destruction he had caused just to survive.

"Soulless Soul," he muttered under his breath, testing the weight of the syllables. The title felt entirely right. It sounded hollow and heavy. He didn’t quite know what species of creature he was anymore. But as he stepped toward the blue light, he knew one thing for certain.

He wasn’t going to die. Not today.

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