Soulless Players

Wind tentacles surged forward with an alarming force, seemingly intent on strangling Philip.

Upon seeing them, Philip immediately sprang away and sought refuge behind a nearby tree. Luckily, he managed to dodge and quickly tried to talk things out with Emile,

"Wait! Why are you suddenly attacking me?" Philip screamed in frustration. A fight with Emile was the last thing he wanted to arise.

"Are you not afraid to incur the wrath of our clan?" Philip asked furiously, trying to bluff his way out again.

After he said that, wind tentacles wiggled like worms and shifted sideways to the direction where he had escaped into.

"Hah! Lying again?" Emile scoffed and tilted his head to look behind the tree, "I memorized all the warrior clans from the east and have not heard of Twin Sword Moon Clan!"

"And even if it does exist, do you expect you can do anything in the North, the home ground of mages and magicians?"

Emile stepped forward together with his wind tentacles. He clenched his fist so hard that his bones cracked out loud.

"Especially after you kick Loen, one of the magicians of the North?"

When he heard this, astonishment was quickly printed on Philip's face. 'How did they know? Is it because of magic?'

Emile finally stood a distance where he could see Philip hiding behind the tree. His unkempt hair swayed like the leaves and small branches in the wind.

Behind the tree, moonlight shone toward Philip's stunned expression. Seeing this, Emile chuckled, his eyes appearing red and teary.

"Why the surprised? You didn't think your shoe print would be left behind on Loen after you kicked him, did you?"

'Damn!' Philip cursed internally as Emile's assumption was accurate. He did in fact never expected his lie to be exposed due to such a simple reason.

'Yes, I remember that Loen was using magic related to Earth. It must be because I stepped on the soil debris…'

Suddenly, a wind tentacle appeared behind Philip. However, unlike the tentacles around Emile, it was thinner and invisible.

Fortunately, despite being invisible, it was still a wind. Philip felt the wind's force against his back and instinctively dropped to the ground and rolled.

Yet, Philip had no time to catch his breath as the tentacles encircling Emile swiftly lunged at him once more.

Gritting his teeth, Philip evaded the attack by leaping away from his previous position.

Afterward, he sprinted towards Evans' property, his eyes glowing with a golden hue as he dashed into the forested area of the estate.

"You can't escape!" Emile shouted.

Suddenly, Emile levitated in the air and zoomed forward at an incredible speed. It was so fast that he looked like he had teleported.

Philip was caught off guard and exclaimed, "What?!"

Emile materialized in front of Philip and gestured with his fingers as if he were manipulating puppets. In no time, a fresh set of wind tentacles sprouted and shot towards Philip's legs.

Philip reacted quickly and sidestepped, successfully dodging Emile's attack once again. However, his relief was short-lived as Emile instantly reappeared in front of him.

This time, Emile conjured a colossal cube-shaped cage that hovered above Philip, attempting to trap him as quickly as possible.

Philip was disheartened as he realized that Emile was too swift for him to handle. He couldn't help but feel dismayed that his strength was no match for Emile's agility.

Currently, his physique is at 45, with 30 from using Raven form and 15 from Stats allocation. This was his strongest card and the strength he had been relying on.

But when he realized his speed was nothing to the magician Emile, his face flashed a disappointed grin.

'I am just a small ant in this world,' Philip felt enlightened about his position. Even with his status as a player and the system supporting him, compared to the powerhouses of this world, he was still nothing.

'Maybe that's the purpose of Karma in the System. It is to remind me to know my place. That even with these unique powers I have, I still need to be careful and mindful of everything.'

Suddenly, Philip's eyes flashed slightly in acknowledgment.

'I don't have the right to be stingy with my Stat points,' he said, then whispered something under his breath.

Before the wind cage befell and trapped him, Philip opened his system and used all of his undistributed stat points.

Ting!

[Adding 46 to Physique.]

[Error! Added Physique cannot be more than 50.]

[Enforcing correction. Please wait.]

Physique: 30 (+50) [>]

Stat Points remaining: 11

[Adding 11 to Mental]

Mental: 13 (+28)

Stat Points remaining: 0

Philip initially wanted to go all in with Physique, but after seeing the sudden limitation, he could only back off and chose to upgrade his Mental.

Instantly after the distribution, Philip felt an insurmountable strength flowing through his veins. His heart pumped extremely fast and his sensory organs itched uncomfortably.

Philip suddenly realized that he could see much farther than usual, hear the sound of his blood flowing through his veins, detect danger in the air, taste the sweetness of his saliva, and feel the touch of dust on his skin.

It was all so new and exciting, as if he had been reborn as an evolved version of himself.

Philip then glanced above, and when he noticed the cube was so close to him, he blinked his eyes.

Suddenly, Philip's world halted. No noise was heard around him, even his breath was non-existent in his world.

Philip was familiar with this occurrence as he had experienced it earlier during the day when he was answering Miss Leffindor's questions.

He called it the 'Spatial Cognitive State'. A state where his mind moved extremely fast that it created an illusion that the world had stopped.

Additionally, Philip was in control of everything under this state. Meaning, he could observe the surroundings more clearly and remember a particular memory in the past.

Philip controlled his mind to change the orientation. Instead of seeing from the first point of view, he sees everything as if he is a God.

Everything was still golden, as he had yet to deactivate his second uniqueness. With this, the darkness was no issue to him.

But not all was clear in Philip's vision, after all, his sight was limited only to what he could perceive.

To create a clearer and less hazy perspective, he imagined numerous screens appearing in front of him. These screens then showed the past, particularly to the short glimpses he took while he was on the run.

Like a mosaic, everything became complete to Philip, and could now see Emile - from his accessories and clothes to his back. Even the smallest mark on his body was clear to him.

Afterward, he peeked at the cube at the top of his physical body. He projected the possible outcomes and the direction of the fall, his best escape route, and lastly the most ideal action to take.

Philip's world changed once again. Unlike earlier, numbers and lines were now present. They were designated everywhere like labels and blueprints.

'It's time to stop being passive,' he felt while looking at the world he created.

At first, Philip was terrified of Emile's power. But when everything was laid on his mind, he became less afraid upon noticing Emile's weakness. No. It was more like the weakness of magicians.

The screens in front of Philip showed Loen on the left, and Emile on the right. Both of them were wiggling their fingers.

'They are slow and systematic,' Philip concluded.

He suspected that for a magician to create magic, they needed time to cast through their fingers. And this casting needed to be perfect and with no errors.

'So what will happen if I interrupt them?' Philip mulled while staring at Emile's fingers.

Shortly, Philip returned to his body and time started to move again.

However, while the world returned to normal, numbers and lines still appeared in Philip's vision. Moreover, a red bold line was pointed from Philip's arm to Emile's.

Bang!

Then, a loud detonation reverberated around. Along with this was blood streaming from Emile's fingers, splashing through his face and to the ground.

Emile's bloodshot gaze quickly turned into horror. The cage-like cube floating above vanished as he looked at Philip's hand.

When he caught the sight of a gun in Philip's hands, he quickly escaped, more likely teleported away from Philip.

However, Philip did not give him the chance as he bolted fast, following another red bold line in his vision.

Clack!

Philip's feet managed to connect Emile's backbone. His vertebrates cracked loudly and painfully.

"Argh!" Emile screamed while dropping to the ground. His shock was clearly printed on his face as he looked at Philip standing behind him.

"H-ow…" Emile murmured helplessly. While he was slightly stunned by how Philip had predicted his movement, he was more curious about Philip's abnormal strength.

"You are really from the east?" he asked, his voice having a hint of pleading tone within. It was as if he was asking Philip to spare his life.

Philip looked down at Emile, loading another bullet onto the gun.

"Now you believe me?" Philip smirked evilly.

But while Philip might appear nonchalant on the surface, deep inside, he was also shocked by his strength.

'Damn, a Physique of 80 is this powerful?'