Mira followed Alex into the living room, the awkwardness of the door encounter still lingering. Alex closed the door behind them, his mind racing with thoughts of how to explain his absence and the lecture without revealing too much.
He had spent the past few months guarding his secret, and he wasn't sure if he was ready to share it yet.
He offered her a seat on the couch, which she took, and then sat across from her in an armchair. Mira's eyes were curious, studying his face intently.
"I didn't see you this morning, did you go somewhere?" she asked again, her tone casual but tinged with genuine concern.
Alex hesitated, trying to formulate a response. But as he looked at Mira, he realised that evading her questions would only lead to more suspicion. He needed to make a decision, one that could potentially change the course of their relationship forever.
'Can I really trust her?' he wondered. He looked into her eyes, searching for any sign of deceit or doubt, but all he saw was genuine concern and curiosity.
"Mira," he began slowly, his voice serious. "I need to ask you something important. Can I trust you?"
Confusion flickered across her face, quickly replaced by a look of earnestness. "Of course, Alex. You can trust me with anything. You're like family to me now. I don't know what I'd do without you."
This reassurance from Mira hit Alex deeply, where it mattered. This was exactly what he wanted to hear.
He didn't want Mira to treat him any differently just because of the fact that he was different.
Alex took a deep breath, weighing her words carefully. He had to trust her, there was no other way forward. "I believe you," he said softly. "But what I'm about to tell you, it's... it's something I've kept secret for a long time. And I need to make sure no one else can hear us.
Not even the Principal."
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Mira's eyes widened in surprise. "Alex, what is it? And why so much secrecy?"
"Is there anywhere we can talk where not even the Principal can eavesdrop?" he asked, his voice urgent.
Mira looked puzzled, then shook her head slowly. "There probably isn't a single spot in the entire solar system away from the Principal's prying eyes. He's incredibly powerful."
Alex clicked his teeth in frustration. He knew how powerful the Principal was and how difficult it would be to find a truly private space. Suddenly, a thought struck him. He decided to ask the system for help, not expecting any response.
'System,' he called out in his mind. 'Is there any way I can share this information with Mira without anyone else being able to see it?'
To his surprise and delight, the system responded immediately, though its tone was as condescending as ever.
[You're an idiot, Alex. If you can show your information directly from your details via a soul contract, why wouldn't the system be able to do this for you?]
He realised his mistake of underestimating the system's capabilities. 'How can I obtain a soul contract?' he asked.
[Both parties must wish to sign a soul contract with each other. Then the contract will appear.]
Alex had one more important question. 'Since my Soulforge talent didn't show up in my details the last time I signed a soul contract, why would that change now?'
She read everything from his Age, all the way down to the last area concerning his Soul Classification.
However, the thing she immediately noticed was the fact that Alex had three talents, instead of the two she thought he had, and there was a very obvious discrepancy in the unknown third talent.
'Soulforge?'
Just as she focused on the peculiar name, she noticed the rank right beside it.
'Soul+!? What the hell kind of rank is that??'
This truly shocked her, as she had never, ever heard of any rank other than the traditional F-S rank system.
The fact that Alex's talent somehow broke this almost unbreakable convention, left Mira in awe.
She understood now why he wanted her to sign a soul contract for this, as this really was something that he couldn't just tell anyone.
She also realised how useful the white space they were in was, as she knew from her earlier encounter with the principal that he wasn't one to respect people's boundaries...
But just as she thought the shocks were over, the details of Soulforge showed up before her.
[Soulforge(Soul+): First layer - Condenses the energy of any slain beast into a more refined energy source called soul orbs — the most valuable energy resource in the universe, many would sacrifice millions just for the chance to get one.
Absorbing these soul orbs dramatically enhances your physical abilities beyond what others can do alone with Beast cores, while simultaneously condensing your own energy, enabling any attacks you deliver to be stronger than your peers.]
[Second layer - Soul orbs don't just contain energy, but they can also contain the remnant soul of the defeated foe inside. This is dependent on the strength of the beast's soul, so higher classed and higher ranked beasts will have a higher chance of harbouring these remnant souls.
Through absorbing soul orbs you will gain some remnant memories of the slain beast, chosen at random from the beast's entire lifetime — Find out the rest for yourself.]
'...'
'What?'
Mira didn't even react properly, as she physically didn't have enough shock factor left in her.
'Soul orbs? Is that the glowing orb I saw in Alex's hand earlier?'
Turning around, Mira looked at Alex, who was looking back at her with a concerning look on his face.
This was the first time he was revealing his talent to anybody, so he was still quite nervous.
"Is this the reason why you couldn't absorb those beast cores?" Mira asked.
She spotted the correlation instantly.
She knew about the effects of absorbing a beast core below her own classification, so she couldn't even imagine how much worse it was for Alex.