NOVEL WEB 8 – Fear
Hisashi turned around looking at Reina who was still trembling in fear on the ground behind, thankfully he had managed to avoid any further harm to her both from the attackers and himself. Meanwhile Reina had managed to see a vague shimmering outline of him. Due to him spending so much time near her his increased spirit power had managed to stimulate hers and now that she had experienced an extreme fear of death she managed to acquire a very weak form of spiritual sight allowing her to see just a fraction of the spiritual world and it was only scaring her further.
Hisashi took a step towards her, but she grew even further terrified tears streaming down her face as she recoiled away from him and started crawling backwards in fear when he moved towards her. Finally her back hitting the wall stopping her from moving further away. His heart stopped for a moment causing him to hesitate.
"Reina" he tried to say to her gently, but it barely even sounded like what he was trying to say due to his current form not being anything like human and far larger in size creating an extremely low bass sound instead. It would have been hard enough to recognise as her name if she hadn't currently been scared out of her wits.
Despite being quite pained he turned around a moment later disappearing at the highest speed he could achieve leaving her alone, the only thing to remind her that this wasn't just some terrifying hallucination the 5 slumped bodies that were no longer breathing now that their souls had been consumed by Hisashi.
After running halfway across town and slumping down in another deserted alley to hide himself it took him quite some time to finally calm himself down.
'System, what just happened? I was barely even in control there.' he asked.
[Answer: Despite best efforts by the system hollow physique will still have some influence on host, the host will still experience hunger for souls and increased sensitivity to negative emotions such as anger, grief, desire etc. System recommends host stay mindful of their emotional state to minimise such influence.]
'No, though it's a little scary I wouldn't be able to survive as a hollow if I had kept a completely human mindset. I just need to make sure that I remain more in control if this happens again. Not necessarily prevent it completely. Thanks for the explanation.' he thinks as he considers how he was before his transformation and what will be necessary if he wants to survive and thrive as a hollow enough to be able to reunite with his family.
'Worse though is I terrified my sister. How was that even possible?' he worries.
[Calculating probabilities...]
[Answer: According to calculation the highest probability is that due to host having higher spirit power and regular interaction and close proximity her spirit power was stimulated. It hasn't been enough awaken spiritual powers on it's own, but today's events stimulated something.]
Hisashi sighs 'Is this going to be a good or bad thing? I'm not sure. If her spirit power is growing due to my influence I need to make sure to protect her though as this makes her more of a target for hollows. Well just another reason I need to become stronger, if I don't I'll be responsible for even more danger than she would have been if I didn't survive at all.'
'Now that I think about it I got an insane amount of XP there though. I got more in a few minutes than I usually get in days.' he thought to himself.
[Answer: Animals barely contain any spiritual power and their souls are weak fading quickly, they provide minimal amounts of spirit power when converted as compared to human souls. There is a similar difference between human souls and hollow or Shinigami souls. The variance in the latter two is far greater though than in human souls.]
'Yeah, I guess that rich kid did give a decent bit more than the other 4 did. I guess he wasn't as much of a waste as the rest. Not that I regret what I did, but I can't start attacking innocent humans or their souls. System am I powerful enough to be able to start confronting other hollow.' he asks.
[Answer: Not recommended, though host is powerful enough to confront the weaker hollow now if host comes across a stronger specimen injury and death become quite likely.]
'Ok, I'll keep it in mind. I need to get stronger faster though and the growth is really slowing down using just the animal spirits though.' he responds pensively. He can't keep the safe, but extremely slow path forever.
'What was that new skill I got as the mission reward?' he asks remembering he managed to complete the mission. He hadn't even though about it as the mission and reward was the last thing on his mind compared to his sister's safety.
[Answer: Spirit Power Concealment allows the user to completely eliminate the spirit power they passively emit. It would kind of be like stealth from any spirit power sensing ability or technology.]
'Isn't that exactly what I need to make sure I don't get caught by hollow nor Shinigami?' he was quite surprised.
[Answer: Correct, though the host still remains visible to individuals with high spirit power. Though system used stealth as an example this is not like an actual stealth skill. Host would need to gain some kind of camouflage skill to complement the Spirit Power Concealment skill to achieve something akin to true stealth.]
'No this is already a massive improvement. It will allow me to stay off soul society's radar, avoid being hunted by hollow and Shinigami while also enabling me to hunt other hollow and landing a sneak attack on them greatly increasing the odds of success compared to before. Though I've solved the speed issue, this huge body is still a massive pain when it comes to that aspect and this skill will help a lot in mitigating some of that.' he retorts to the system.
'Alright, so time to get back to hunting, but now while I'm on patrol and I come across what seems to be a weaker hollow I won't do everything I can to avoid it, but will consider engaging it if I'm in an advantageous position.' he decides.
