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

Seris set a small money case on the table.

"Here are your fifty gold coins." She looked at him with the patience of someone who has been waiting to say something for several days. "I had them ready the very night you asked. But it seems you were rather... occupied."

Alden picked up the case. "I see. Thank you."

Seris stared at him.

He was already tucking the case under his arm.

’That’s it? He’s just going to leave without saying anything?’

She blinked once, slowly. "...You’re welcome, I suppose."

"Anyway." He stood. "I’ll see you at the finals tomorrow."

"Sure." She watched him walk to the door.

The door closed.

She sat in silence for a moment. ’After three days in the forest, the first thing he does when he sees me is pick up coins and say, ’I see.’’

She shook her head.

"Impossible person."

_________

The moment the door clicked shut, Alden’s entire expression changed.

"YES! FINALLY!"

He nearly left the ground.

He clutched the case against his chest with both arms and stood in the corridor grinning at nothing.

’Fifty gold coins.

FIFTY.’

After everything. After the academy treating him like a criminal. After sleeping on what could only be described as a flat rock someone had painted to look like a mattress.

’Tonight I sleep like a human being.’

He practically skipped through the academy hallways.

’Tonight I sleep like a KING.’

_________

The Dorm Master’s office at midnight looked exactly like the office of a man who had gone to bed two hours ago and did not want to be awake.

Alden pushed the door open.

"Hey, old man, where are yo—"

The Dorm Master raised his head from the desk. His eye twitched.

"You stupid brat! Do you have any idea what TIME it is?! And you come BARGING into my office in the MIDDLE of the—"

"Okay, okay." Alden raised one hand. "Enough."

The Dorm Master went red. "Don’t ’okay okay’ me—"

"I need something."

"At MIDNIGHT?!"

"I’m tired of my dorm."

The Dorm Master stared at him.

Alden met his eyes.

"I want a new one."

Silence.

"...A new dorm. A luxurious one."

The Dorm Master’s expression went through several phases before settling on deep, personal offense.

Then he started laughing, one hand slapping his desk.

"You?! A luxury dorm?! Do you have any idea what those rooms cost?! Those are reserved for royalty! High nobles! People who throw gold around like it’s nothing!"

"I know."

"Then why are you WASTING my—"

THUD.

The money case landed on the desk.

The Dorm Master stopped talking.

Alden flipped it open.

Fifty gold coins caught the candlelight and threw it back across the ceiling in warm scattered flickers.

The Dorm Master’s jaw descended slowly.

"..." His eyes had gone very large.

"You brat." He grabbed the case immediately. "Where did you get this much gold?!"

Alden’s expression darkened. "How rude. Why would you assume I stole it?"

"Because a student shows up at MIDNIGHT with a case full of gold coins!"

"Don’t worry about where it came from." Alden pointed at the case. "Take the forty you need. Give me a good room." He paused. "And I’ll add an extra coin if you make sure there’s a soft bed and pillow in it."

The Dorm Master’s eyebrow went up very slowly.

"A... bed?"

"A soft one."

"And a pillow?"

"A good pillow."

The Dorm Master stared at him.

"You’re negotiating with me over a pillow."

"Do you know what I’ve been sleeping on?"

"..."

"It’s not a bed. It’s a punishment. Someone just shaped a punishment like a bed and called it furniture."

The Dorm Master pressed two fingers to his forehead and breathed through his nose.

"You are the most troublesome brat I have dealt with in thirty years."

He counted out forty coins, pocketed the case, stood up, grabbed his keys, and jerked his head toward the door.

"Follow me."

The luxury dormitory wing looked the way words like ’luxury’ are supposed to look and usually don’t.

The Dorm Master opened the door to one of the rooms and stepped back.

Alden walked in.

His footsteps stopped.

The walls were finished properly. The furniture was actual furniture. A wardrobe with real doors. A desk that didn’t wobble. A window that overlooked the academy grounds and wasn’t broken.

And in the center of the far wall was the bed.

A real, wide, proper bed with an actual mattress.

Alden approached it the way you approach something you’ve been waiting a long time for. He put his palm flat against the surface.

It was soft, with just the right amount of give.

He sat down, sinking into the cushion, then lay back.

PLOOF.

He stared at the ceiling. "...Oh."

He bounced once just to confirm, then bounced again.

A grin spread across his face, starting small and continuing to grow.

"This." He sank deeper into the mattress. "This is what a bed is supposed to feel like."

The Dorm Master snorted from the doorway. "Satisfied, your highness?"

Alden didn’t answer. He was just enjoying how his back felt now that he wasn’t sleeping on a terrible academy bed.

"I’ll leave you to your palace." The Dorm Master turned to go.

"Wait."

He looked back. "What now."

Alden pointed at the general direction of his old dorm. "My things."

"What about them."

"Bring them here."

The Dorm Master’s face went completely blank for one second.

"...You want me to move your belongings?"

"You have people for that, don’t you?" Alden tilted his head. "And I am paying extra."

"YOU—!"

SLAM.

The door closed hard enough to rattle the frame.

Alden lay back against the pillow and smiled at the ceiling.

"He’s definitely moving them."

He stretched his arms out to both sides, then his legs. The mattress accommodated all of it without complaint.

’No more waking up with my back feeling smashed by rock.’ He looked up at the ceiling of his new room. ’Maybe I shouldn’t have written so much social inequality into this world when I was building it.’

He exhaled.

’It’s considerably less funny when you’re the one on the wrong side of it.’

But that was a problem for another day.

The finals were tomorrow.

He pulled the blanket over himself.

’I’ll deal with tomorrow when it’s tomorrow.’

Right now he had something that had been missing since the first evening he’d woken up in this world.

He closed his eyes.

"Best money I’ve ever spent."

He was asleep before he finished the thought.

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STATUS

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Name: Alden

Class: Undefined

Skill: Soul Rendering (SSS+ Rank)

Level: 32 — EXP: 48,930 / 53,000

Power Combat: 150

Rank: C+

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SOUL LIBRARY

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Wolf: 30 Fragments

Blueprint: 94%

Giant Spider: 5 Fragments

Blueprint: 74%

Owl: 100 Fragments

Blueprint: 100%

Firefly: 73 Fragments

Blueprint: 97%

Dragon: 10 Fragments

Blueprint:20%

Polar Bear: 1 Fragment

Blueprint: 39%

Thunder Ape: 8 Fragments

Blueprint:15%

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SOUL BEASTS

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Pyrion — Rank B

Glacius — Rank A

Flamestone — Rank A

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