Akari sat on the Ogre, practicing making more blood weapons.

  She noticed that when she wasn’t holding it, it was unstable. It was the same when she charged the weapon with too much mana.

  Instead of trying to figure out why, she instead decided to see how much mana she can put in before it becomes unstable. As she was practicing, she felt someone enter her range, which was around 31 meters now.

  She looked in its direction, waiting for it to be close enough to sense its color and what it looked like.

  Akari could sense at a wide range by now, but she could only sense the presence of things from the outer parts. Once they passed through the halfway mark, she could sense just about everything about them.

  ‘25…’

  Right now, she needs the thing or person to reach around the 15 meter range before she can tell if it’s a monster or not.

  ‘20…’

  It was moving a bit fast, as if it were in a rush, but not in a full sprint.

  ‘15… wait, 2!?’

  Akari closed her eyes, relying on her senses to track the thing. It suddenly went from 15 meters to 2.

  Her eyes opened immediately and Akari flinched at a man standing in front of the Ogre.

  “Ah, so you’re what died, nice.”

  A scythe materialized in his hand and he climbed the dead Ogre’s body.

  That scythe wasn’t made of magic, Akari could tell at a gnce. It felt like an extension of himself, as if he was that scythe.

  “...”

  Akari stayed quiet and observed him. He was a blond haired man, not too muscur either. He was wearing a bck jacket and bck sweatpants, making his hair stick out even more. He had cloudy red eyes.

  He lifted his scythe and sank the bde into the back of the Ogre, prompting Akari to say,

  “Hey… that’s my kill.”

  The man jumped and looked around, saying,

  “You’re talking to me?”

  She nodded as she said,

  “There isn’t anyone else here.”

  The man’s cloudy eyes cleared up a bit before returning to the dull red eyes from before.

  “Ah, so that’s who you are, I can tell we’ll meet a bunch!”

  “Huh?”

  The man lifted his scythe from the Ogre’s back, a transparent copy of it lifting with it.

  “Give me a second…”

  He swung his scythe, cutting through nothing, yet a terrible ripping sound flooded Akari’s ears.

  *Screeeeeeeeeeeech!*

  It was simir to nails scratching on a chalkboard.

  Akari covered her ears as she watched the man cut open a portal.

  “Which yer… which yer… Superior Ogre.. many deaths by its hands, horrid lifestyle even though you’re intelligent… hmm.. 5th yer it is!! Since your skin is red, let's put you into the cold half…”

  The portal he ripped open began changing colors, going from a pitch bck tear in space to an icy blue one. Akari felt an unbearably cold wind, which surprised her as she shouldn’t have been able to feel anything like temperature.

  “So you can even see this?”

  The man said as he threw the transparent copy into it. Right after this, he looks into the portal for a second, his cloudy eyes betraying no hint of emotion, yet his expression somber. There was some beauty to this look, not that Akari noticed. She had no interest in things like looks.

  He then sighed and closed the portal with his bare hands, his scythe disappearing as well.

  “What did you just do?”

  Akari asked, a slight sparkle in her eyes. She didn’t have any clue what he did, but it seemed like magic. Hence, it piqued her interest.

  “Reaped its soul, duh.”

  “No, I mean with the scythe… wait what?!”

  The man’s face became rigid as he said,

  “Nothing, I simply unsummoned my soul weapon.”

  Akari’s eyes lit up. This had been the third time she heard about soul weapons. By now, her curiosity had reached its peak.

  “How? What did you do to summon it? What is a soul weapon? Do I-”

  Before Akari could finish, he held up one finger, saying,

  “Look, I’m a busy guy. I’ll answer one question, that’s it.”

  “...”

  Akari stood there, staring at the man. She wanted more yet she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to convince him.

  “... Fine, what’s a soul weapon?”

  The man looked at Akari before he said,

  “It’s a weaponized version of your soul. It usually always has an ability tied to it, one that expins your true character.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The soul is the invisible container right inside of your visible container, which is your physical body. The body can usually only contain one soul, but there are some special cases, like you it seems.”

  “Ah, and how do we weaponize that… and what do you mean? Do I have two souls?”

  The man smirked as he said,

  “I said one question, didn't I? It’s not hidden knowledge, just ask around.”

  Akari scowled at the man as he walked away.

  “What’s your name?”

  Akari asked as he jumped off the Ogre.

  “Why would death need a name?”

  Instead of nding on the ground, his body permeated through the ground, with Akari immediately losing track of him. She couldn’t sense him anymore, which meant he wasn’t in her range anymore.

  “Why would death need a name…”

  Akari repeated his st words, wondering if he was seriously death or if he was just being edgy. The Ogre’s body, where Akari was currently standing, slowly began to crumble. Seeing this, Akari jumped off.

  In the Ogre’s pce was its eye and finger, which was as big as Akari’s entire arm.

  ‘I wonder if that happened because its soul got reaped…’

  As she thought this, she grabbed its eyeball and finger, beginning to head back to the city before any other monster found her…

  Though, she was confident in her victory no matter what.

  ***

  Akari returned to the Cyan Kingdom, with a Superior Ogre’s eye and finger in her arms. People who saw her pass were in amazement, a little girl fought and bested a Superior Ogre on her own, and she’s uninjured… It was unbelievable.

  Once she entered the Adventurer’s Guild, everyone went silent. Akari didn’t really know the reason why, but she had a basic understanding. Whatever she killed, it wasn’t a normal Ogre.

  How’d she know?

  It was simple deductive reasoning.

  A normal Ogre is supposed to have blue skin, be unintelligent, and be lean. Whatever she killed had red, unnaturally tough skin, it was intelligent, fighting simirly to a brutish human, and was bulky.

  If she hadn’t had the run in with Ataki, no, if that flower hadn’t been so bright, she would’ve met her end to that monster.

  But once she unlocked magic, it stood no chance against her. Even if she didn’t crush its head with the hammars, she would’ve had a multitude of ways to defeat it. Instead of a bow, she could’ve tried making a gun. The power wouldn’t have been much different, but she’d be able to shoot it much faster than the bow, along with a much shorter reload time.

  She reached the counter and pced the eyeball and finger on it, saying,

  “I’ve completed my quest.”

  The receptionist stared in disbelief before bursting into a hearty ughter.

  “Never in my life have I witnessed such an unbelievable sight. Girl, did you truly beat this on your own?”

  “Yup, it was all me.”

  In a sense, Akari wasn’t lying. The only assistance she received was being taught magic by Ataki. Other than that, Ataki didn’t help at all, purposefully missing his blood spear when he was teaching her.

  The receptionist picked up Akari as he yelled to the other adventurers,

  “Looks like we’ve got a top notch mage with us!”

  The Guild roared at this, excitement filling the room.

  Akari, wide eyed, simply stared at the room, not expecting this to happen at all.

  That night, Akari received the reward for killing a superior Ogre, around 400 zoul, which was 5 times the amount she would’ve received from a normal Ogre, ranked up to B rank, and had to reject dozens of party requests from other Adventurers.