More than a year ago...

Muku was still on the blue planet with his girls enjoying life. One random day, he was messing around with his class and its abilities.

This included his only mental attack. It was a move he rarely used since his opponents would usually be too strong or too weak for it to be applied. For that reason, he mostly doesn't bother himself with it.

However, on that day he was quite bored and thought that he might as well give it a look. It was then that he was surprised by what it actually was.

Instead of being somehow derived from his Telekinesis like he thought. It was actually derived from his soul! It seems he was just too weak to notice it then. Unlike that day when he was a R3 Evolver.

Anyway, after the discovery, his interest was piqued. And so, from that day he would try to probe it any way he could as he wanted to make it stronger. At the very least, he felt that there was something to it that he was missing.

As someone who believed in his intuition, he kept at it for weeks. One day he finally made a breakthrough!

It was by mistake like many other great things. It was during battle when he sent a thought in the wrong direction. He wanted to create a sword with his metal but accidentally sent the order to the soul ability. Of course, if the order couldn't be carried out, nothing would happen.

However, something did happen. There was a steer in the ability. It wasn't too apparent but he felt it. He put it aside for the time being and dealt with his opponent.

Later on after the battle, he retreated to his room and began messing with the ability again.

This time he has a direction. So it didn't take long for him to figure out what was happening. It seemed he had been using the ability wrong all this time. At the very least, he had been using it inefficiently.

He was attacking with soul energy instead of attacks made out of soul energy. It was like attacking with metal-element mana instead of spells made out of it. As mentioned before, such a thing might work on those weaker than the attacker. But to those of equal strength and above, it was almost ignorable to the former and completely ignorable to the latter.

That might be part of the reason why he couldn't use the ability effectively in battle. Especially as he got stronger and his opponents got more experience and resistance under their belt.

Anyway, the way the ability was supposed to be used was to make a soul-targeting weapon with it.

Muku excitedly got to work after the discovery. But then he found out that the process was a lot slower than he expected.

And so, he, who had better things to do partially gave up on it. Though he would make more whenever he could. He also found out that he could keep the metal within his soul if he linked the two together. Which he did. That result led him to find out that whenever he was injured, the metal would become unstable. The heavier the injury, the worse the instability.

So, he put two and two together and realised that the metal was linked to his soul and life. It seemed quite useless although. So, he didn't do anything with the metal or tell the girls about it. Jade would probably make fun of him for bragging about a useless thing.

With that said, Muku made a significant amount of the metal. Which he then gifted to the girls right before their separation... That's right, it was the very metal used to make the necklaces the girls have...

It felt like a good way to assure them of his safety. And he was right, it was only due to the necklaces that most of them were still sane despite his long absence.

Anyway, after that Muku arrived in the beast world. A lot of things happened and his strength improved. He didn't stop creating soul metal throughout all these things. He felt that it had real potential.

Then he had a fateful encounter a few months after leaving the trial ground after the first round. At that time he was backed in a corner which forced him to use the soul metal dagger he had created and kept...

He would have liked to create something bigger and better but the process was super slow and exhausting. He also found out that it got slower and slower the more he comprehended it. Which was messed up since it should have become easier as he got more familiar right?

Well, whatever. There was no use complaining... Back to the encounter, he threw the blade at the enemy in hopes of a miracle... And a miracle did happen. The blade fazed through everything the energy threw at it and made its way into their body. Much like what happened with the ED.

Soul metal was quite unique in how it could change states between solid and ethereal. He could use it in its solid state ineffectively or effectively in its ethereal state.

This was because it was a soul attack so obviously it worked better when used on its intended target. And that was the soul.

The blade entered the body of the enemy and immediately aimed for the soul. Apparently, it would aim for the soul no matter where it entered from...

A roar much like the one the ED let out rang out. Which was understandable since the soul was very delicate and unguarded for those who weren't specialised in the soul field. This was a very small group of individuals since souls weren't easily accessible even to their owners. Muku had just been lucky.

All he could do was use that attack and perceive his soul. He couldn't affect it any other way apart from that.

Anyway, the beast soon turned silent after the attack... Or more of it had forgotten how to roar. Just as it has forgotten how to do anything. This was because Muku's attack had ruined its soul beyond repair.

It entered a state no different from brain death. It quickly fell to the ground and Muku finished it off and moved on in shock.

From that day the study of that attack became one of his main activities every day. This went on until eventually he made a breakthrough in it and the soul metal turned white. Which was a much more potent version of the metal he had been using before.

He was ecstatic and immediately went into overdrive in creating the metal. Unfortunately with everything else which had to be done, he could only create that two metre sword despite all the months which had passed.

However, it seemed to be very useful since the ED let out such an intense roar of pain.

Now all Muku had to do was wait and watch it fall to the ground like the one before it. After all, the attack was stronger than before and they were the same rank level while the beast from before was a level above him. He was LR3 and it was MR3.

With that logic, the Earth Dragon was done for right?...

....

Present day...

Muku looked on with wide eyes. The damn thing didn't fall and die(in the brain) like he thought it would.

It roared for a bit then shut up and glared at him with intense hatred in its eyes. Its aura was even rising and the flames around it were getting more intense and darker. Its eyes were also turning redder and redder with each moment that passed by.

And yet it didn't do anything. It just looked at Muku like that making him extremely nervous...

{Umm, son. I feel that I should tell you that bringing this thing back from the dead might have strengthened its strength by quite a bit. Not to mention that I had only reduced its rank strength not soul strength. So, its soul would have still been as strong as it was at its peak even without my involvement. But since I involved myself... It's probably as strong as a Pseudo R5 now. Sorry. However, it was a really good surprise attack. I did not see that coming! You're really good at surprising me, son. You should keep it up. Momma is proud of you!... Oh, and I almost forgot. You should probably attack it as soon as possible. While it wasn't too injured by your attack which would end any beast equal in strength to you in the soul department, it was still stunned by it and won't be able to move for a few seconds. It also can't make its mana leave its body during that time. That's why it's just staring at you when it wants to kill you more than any... It is a really good actor, huh? I'm impressed!} Mrs C's voice intruded in Muku's head again.

Hearing her words he first showed a look of enlightenment then understanding which later morphed into extreme anger after hearing the last part.

"Shouldn't you have begun with that part you unreliable old lady?! You wasted useful time!!!" Muku roared in anger while making his mood in the immobile beast.

The Mithril around his body separated from the DA for a bit and turned into a small energy-charged blade... The blade was only small in the ED. To Muku it was quite huge, being slightly bigger than him even.

The blade flew toward the beast's head as Muku intended to end it in one attack!

Whoosh!

BOOOOOOOOM!