Because he had not slept for a total of almost 48 hours, Bai Zemin was especially tired. While the lack of sleep for almost two days had taken its toll on his body and psyche, Bai Zemin's true exhaustion came in essence from all the things that had happened in the span of 5 or 6 hours from the time he had decided to go hunting in the mutant forest near the North Camp base to train with his newest skill called Gravity Manipulation.
In the end, that night of training and light hunting ended up turning into a night in which his life was in danger more than once.
Not only did he have to suppress his power to the minimum possible to prevent the Second Order beasts from suddenly charging at him to kill them, but he also had to survive his own devastating attack.
Bai Zemin was sure before going to sleep that he was probably one of the few beings since the history of the creation of the universe who had managed to kill two Second Order existences with a single attack even while he was still in the First Order and seriously injuring another.
But this was he underestimating himself again.
If Bai Zemin were to ask Lilith, she would undoubtedly shout at him, "Idiot! You think everyone can do something as crazy as increasing the power of a devastating attack by basically 15 times?!"
In fact, he was the first one to manage to do something so crazy. It was precisely for this reason that, despite being aware of the fact that Bai Zemin had not done all the work by himself, the Soul Record granted him a unique characteristic title under the name of Irregular.
In the end, Bai Zemin ended up sleeping peacefully as noon passed and evening came.
When his dark eyes opened slowly, the first thing that came into his vision was the rays of sunlight struggling to penetrate the curtains of the large window.
Bai Zemin sat up on his bed still somewhat dazed and unconsciously glanced at the digital clock on the small bedside table.
"14:23..." He mumbled at the same time as he thought on his mother. "She would definitely scold me if she knew I was sleeping until this late."
A slightly grumpy voice sounded next to him, "I wonder what woman can make you reveal such a loving look like that? Are you not satisfied with me?"
The corner of Bai Zemin's mouth twitched several times at the sound of that seductive voice and he slowly glanced at the spot beside his side of the bed.
Not to his surprise, the gorgeous and seductive Lilith was lying on her back. She was wearing her classic dress and her covered assets were pointing towards the skies like two intercontinental missiles about to kill people.
As she looked at him with her two beautiful ruby eyes, she smiled sweetly and said in a shy voice, "Big brother Bai, you were so wild last night..."
".... Sorry?" Bai Zemin looked at her dumbfounded.
Lilith blinked and her long eyelashes were like two beautiful fans covering her eyes. Then, seemingly pained, she whispered, "Could it be.... Could it be that you don't remember...?"
Bai Zemin felt that it was better not to ask anything and that his best option at this moment was probably to leave from this place. However, as always, curiosity was the cat's undoing.
"What exactly should I presumably need to remember?" He asked as he leaned back and eyed her warily.
Lilith's eyes filled with tears, shocking Bai Zemin greatly. She sobbed and held a hand to her heart before saying with a pain-filled expression, "B-bad...So bad.... Big brother Bai, you are so bad.... Even though you jumped on me and tore my dress before-"
"Nonsense!" Bai Zemin roared.
He leaped out of the bed and pointed towards her as he said, "Your dress is intact, and even if I wanted to do something like that I definitely wouldn't have the strength! Who are you trying to fool?!"
Forget about Second Order, Bai Zemin was sure that even if he fought against the eight leaders of Higher Factions at the same time and ended up exhausted to death he would definitely not forget the moment when his not-so-precious but at the same time precious virginity was lost!
Lilith indirectly looked at her dress and was silent for a few seconds. Finally, after realizing her little slip, she clicked her tongue and the fake tears disappeared without a trace.
"Hey, stop clicking your tongue!"
...
After the above little event, Bai Zemin washed his face and brushed his teeth before returning to the bedroom.
At this moment, he and Lilith were sitting facing each other. They both looked to the other in silence for several seconds before he finally extended his right hand forward.
Lilith took his hand between hers. Right, she used both hands to wrap around his instead of using one as she had always used in the past.
Although Bai Zemin found it odd, he didn't think too much of the small gesture and simply closed his eyes as he began to scroll through his records.
Last night while taking a shower he tried to see his possible paths of future evolution but was surprised when he found nothing. At that moment he got terribly scared thinking that some kind of bug just like in video games was happening to him.
In the reality there were no GMs! Well, maybe the Soul Record was the GM; but the problem here was that there was no email address to file complaints!
Fortunately, Lilith calmed him down at that moment just before he had a heart attack. She said that the Soul Record was probably still searching for possible paths for Bai Zemin's evolution and the reason it was taking so long was because the records engraved into his soul were too amazing compared to his low-quality Soul Power.
Regardless of how powerful Bai Zemin was, he was still a mere First Order existence that had just reached the threshold of breaking through. Therefore, his Soul Power was naturally not of a particularly high quality even if it was exceptional among those of his power stage.
After a few moments, Bai Zemin let out a huge sigh of relief as he found some things that were previously not there in his soul. Then, he focused his attention on those particular messages and the information flowed through him, being then shown to Lilith by his will.
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[Your possible paths of evolution have been studied and confirmed.]
[With the achievements and the records you have earned until now, a path you can take is now seen. Please select a job. A befitting trial will be given to you: ]
[1) Strategist of Death]
[2) Tenacious Hammer]
[3) Shadow Dancer]
[4) Heavy Guardian]
[5) Blood Mystic]
--------------------
After so much effort, after working so hard and defeating countless monsters among which many of them were terribly powerful creatures, the results finally came out and were scrolled before his eyes in the form of a status window just like in the video games of the past.
"Even though I acquired my first job around 1 month ago at most, somehow I feel like it's been a long time." Bai Zemin sighed and opened his eyes.
"Well... A lot of things happened since then." Lilith involuntarily let out a sigh as well.
Even for someone like her, who had already seen most of the things that the cosmos could present, she felt that her life became much more lively since she arrived on this planet and began her long journey along with Bai Zemin.
"Things will only get more and more interesting from this point on." She chuckled and said words that somehow Bai Zemin felt were an evil omen just like in the movies.
"Don't sing bad omens." He growled under his breath, "I would prefer that everything be calmer and that the seas stop raising waves in my direction."
"If that happens then I'm afraid that to achieve your goals your life could fall short." She pointed out with a smile.
Bai Zemin found himself unable to reply to her statement so he could only snort like a small child who was beaten at his favorite game.
"Even so. I must say I'm surprised that even on your second breakthrough mission you still have so many options to choose from." Lilith said in wonder as her eyes flicked back and forth, seemingly rereading the viable options on Bai Zemin's shoulders again.
"Is that so surprising?" He asked without much emotion in his voice. To him, this thing that was happening to him was just normal since he had no one to compare it with.
Lilith looked at him and said a little speechless, "Little brother Zemin, every time you advance one Order and break through to the next stage, the Soul Record calculates each and every record you have experienced throughout your entire existence. Those records are studied by the Soul Record, and then you are given a path to continue walking.... Do you understand any of what I am saying?"
Bai Zemin nodded, "Basically, the barrier that separates each Order and prevents us from continuing to level up is the end of a path. The Soul Record would be the creator of a new path and for that, it shows us new possibilities to us, soul evolvers. After proving ourselves worthy to continue, that possibility will open a path by which we can go beyond that barrier that blocks us."
"As expected of someone capable of receiving the option to be a Strategist of Death!" She snapped her fingers and joked. Then, with a serious expression, she continued, "So, it's strange that there are so many junctions since basically your future should have been decided when you set foot on your first path, which in this case your first path would be your first class 'Blood Berserker'."
Bai Zemin felt that he understood everything but at the same time, he felt that he needed a bit of time to understand the depths implied by her words. If it were before, he might have thought it was all easy to understand. But the more he knew about the Soul Record, the more he realized that thinking that way would only bring more harm than good in the future.
"So, which one do you think I should choose?"
As always, he asked Lilith's opinion even though in his heart the answer was already clear.
"Strategist of Death is probably a job that was born from the wide variety of existences you have killed in such a short time and from your intelligence to devise and mix skills to launch attacks of extremely high magnitudes. This job is also possibly the easiest to get out of the five options presented to you on this occasion." She carefully analyzed and calmly explained.
"I see... Okay, pass." He nodded and looked at her hoping to be enlightened. He didn't even take into account this job to begin with as it somehow made him feel like a subordinate of Death.... If Death really existed in the first place.
"Tenacious Hammer seems to be somehow or other related to blacksmithing. It's probably because in your first forging try since the appearance of the Soul Record on Earth you forced yourself to work practically without rest for 7 days straight and even after many failures you persevered regardless of your low-quality tools. I think you could definitely get something good out of it if you choose this job."
"Hmmmmmmmmm... Passed but failed. Okay, let's move to the next one."
Bai Zemin rejected even the second option despite having to consider it more than a few times. Regarding the matter of blacksmithing, he was naturally interested since if he ever managed to become a godly blacksmith of some kind, his strength would definitely be terrifying thanks to the quality of equipment he would be able to forge. However, that would be a long-term investment.
Right now, choosing the second option would cause Bai Zemin to lose his momentum as far as battle was concerned. Furthermore, the smithy was not at all suited to the path of absolute domination and suppression to which he aspired and which he had already begun to walk step by step.
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Thank you very much to everyone who voted for Blood Warlock with their Golden Tickets! <3