The Author's Extra: My SSS Skill Turns Souls into Anything!

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SOUL LIBRARY

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Species: Dragon

Rank: A — Fragments: ×10

Blueprint Progress: 20%

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Known Concepts

✔ Breath

✔ Flight [Unlocked]

Unknown Concepts

??? [Requires 40%]

??? [Requires 60%]

??? [Requires 75%]

Supreme Concepts

??? [Requires 90%]

??? [Requires 100%]

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’FLIGHT?!’ Alden stared at the word.

’YOU’RE TELLING ME I CAN FLY NOW?!’ He didn’t think about it. Didn’t pause to consider implications or consequences or whether this was the right moment.

"Equip."

The Concept activated.

His entire body lurched.

"Wh—?!"

Something pushed from inside his back like a pressure that had been waiting to exist and had finally found permission. He twisted his neck trying to see behind himself.

Then his clothes moved.

WHOOSH.

Two wings unfolded from his back.

Dark as the sky before a storm, each one stretching wide with a slow, heavy sweep. The membranes spread between each joint, thin but solid, trailing faint wisps of smoke along the edges.

They were enormous.

Alden stood completely still.

Then slowly he moved one of them.

It responded immediately following his intent.

His eyes went wide.

’Wings. I have wings.’ The grin came out before he could do anything about it.

"I CAN FLY!" He spun toward the three beasts.

"Hey! Pyrion! Glacius! Flamestone! Look at me!" He waved both arms. "Look what I got!"

The three of them didn’t look up.

Alden’s arm lowered slowly.

"...Seriously?"

He squinted at them.

At some point while he’d been processing the Soul Library, the three of them had apparently found something considerably more interesting than their creator’s new body modification.

Flamestone had one leg extended, dragging a careful line through the dirt.

Glacius sat on one side watching. Pyrion on the other.

Then another.

Alden stared.

’...Are they playing tic-tac-toe?’

Flamestone added an X with obvious satisfaction.

Pyrion immediately scratched an O into the ground.

Alden’s eye twitched.

"Hey..."

"HEY."

Still, they didn’t moved their heads. Glacius was leaning forward to examine Pyrion’s move very seriously.

He spread his wings to their full span and gave one hard flap.

WHOOOOSH.

The gust exploded outward in all directions. Snow and dirt scattered everywhere. Pyrion tumbled backward with a yelp. Glacius threw its arms up. Flamestone’s eight legs scrambled for grip as it slid sideways.

"Awoo?!"

"Rrrraah?!"

"CHK?!"

They all looked up at the same time.

Alden hovered three feet off the ground with his wings spread, arms folded, looking down at them with the expression of someone who has been patient and is no longer.

"Finally." He pointed at the wings. "Look what I got."

Three sets of eyes moved to the wings.

Their expressions said the same thing clearly without any of them making a sound.

Can you actually fly with those?

Alden looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

Good question.

Having wings was one thing. Controlling them in open air was something he’d never done, and the gap between those two things could be quite large.

"One way to find out."

He spread them fully and began moving them in careful, measured beats.

His feet left the ground, eyes went wide.

"Okay, slowly — slowly..."

He rose another two feet and gradually increased. His body tried to tilt left and he corrected without thinking. The Concept had apparently brought the knowledge along with it.

He was soon ten feet off the ground.

He looked down at Glacius, Pyrion, and Flamestone looking up at him with their necks craned back.

The grin stretched across his entire face.

’This is real. I’m actually flying.’

He tilted his wings and moved forward, slow at first, picking up the rhythm. The ground below blurred as he started moving faster, the snow-covered forest stretching out in every direction.

He’d spent every day since arriving in this world moving on foot. Running, climbing, getting thrown through things.

Now the sky was where he was.

He banked wide over the treeline and came back around, picking up speed, and let himself grin at the absolute stupidity and perfection of the moment.

Pyrion launched into a full sprint below, chasing his shadow across the snow.

Glacius charged alongside it, frostfire trailing behind in cyan streaks.

Flamestone scuttled at a speed that had no right to exist on eight legs.

All three of them racing below him while he flew overhead.

’This... This is what three days of hunting through an A-Rank beast forest actually gets you.’

"Sir Alden!"

He turned.

The carriage servant was standing beside the carriage at the forest edge, staring up at him.

"You’ve been out here three days. The final examinations begin tomorrow." She paused. "Don’t you think you should return to the academy?"

"...Wait." Alden opened his mouth. "THE FINALS ARE TOMORROW?!"

The servant looked at him.

"...Yes, sir."

Her eyes moved from his face to the wings behind him and appeared to decide not to address them.

"Would you like to return?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

She let out a quiet breath of relief and turned toward the carriage.

A shadow fell across the ground between them.

The servant looked up.

Her face went pale.

"A— a Dragon—?!"

The Dragon descended from the sky with its wings spread wide, jaws already beginning to glow with gathered fire. It had come from above the treeline, probably drawn by the commotion, and it was aimed directly at the carriage.

Alden noticed the dragon.

Looked at his hand and pulled up the Thunder Ape’s Blueprint.

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Thunder Ape — 15%

Known Concepts: ✔ Electricity

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Lightning gathered around his hand. It coiled around his fingers and compressed, tightening into a shape, a narrow blade of crackling electricity that hummed steadily as it took form.

’I’m starting to get the hang of this.’

He looked at the Dragon. Its jaws opened wide, fire building to a full release.

Alden’s wings snapped back as he shot forward toward it.

The Dragon’s breath came out in a full torrent and he tilted sideways, the fire tearing past him so close he felt the heat across his back.

He didn’t stop. Two more wingbeats and the Dragon filled his entire vision.

He vanished from its line of sight.

A streak of lightning crossed the sky.

SLASH!

He came through the other side and spread his wings to stop, the electric blade still humming in his hand.

Behind him, the Dragon’s body separated.

The two halves fell as they hit the forest below with two separate sounds.

Alden descended and landed on the larger piece and crouched. Pressed his palm against the scales.

SWOOSH.

[DING!]

[Soul Successfully Extracted!]

[Beast: Dragon — Rank A]

[Dragon Soul Fragment ×1]

[Dragon Blueprint: +1%]

[+1,000 EXP]

He stood and stretched his shoulders. "Another one."

The servant hadn’t moved.

’Did he just killed it in one go?’

She was standing beside the carriage exactly where she’d been when the Dragon had appeared, in the exact posture she’d been in, and the expression on her face was doing something complicated.

She opened his status interface.

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OPPONENT STATUS

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Name: Alden

Level: 32

Rank: A

Class: Undefined

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She looked at the panel.

Then at the Dragon lying in two pieces at the edge of the forest.

Then at the wings folded against Alden’s back.

Then at the three Soul Beasts arriving behind him at full speed, Pyrion’s flames blazing, Glacius’s frostfire swirling, Flamestone’s eight legs carrying it with terrible efficiency.

...A-Rank? He was Level 14 when he arrived here. What in the world happened to this boy in three days?’

Alden turned to her with a perfectly reasonable expression.

"Ready to head back?"

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