I Hate Systems

'Shit, is this where I die?' Pilkan stared in distress, regretting his actions as he fell through the layer of mist, turning around to see him emerge from the other side, noticing a vast swathe of darkness beneath, the ground situated at least a kilometre further.

On his forehead too was a tattoo of a bird that flashed before vanishing; the injured bird from before arrived beneath him, one of its wings clipped as it struggled to fly.

"Dammit!" He grunted in fright, watching the bird lose balance as it swirled around with him as their fall continued to accelerate.

"I'm sorry!" He choked due to his emotions, left with no other choice but to peel off the bird's remaining wing, kicking its body away as he used the wing like a parachute to control his fall. It was working, but not fast enough as he observed the ground approaching closer and closer while his rate of descent didn't slow down to a satisfactory level.

"Fuck!" That was the last he uttered as his figure crashed into the ground, fainting in response as his legs were broken, with parts of his ribs and shoulder too following suit.

The bird that he had been relying upon vanished, no longer returning as it was damaged beyond repair. Now, only death awaited him, something that would arrive in a matter of seconds, unless he was treated beforehand.

But, it was at this time that the Human Invoker crystal that he had swallowed began to take effect, gradually causing his forehead to shine once again, creating a mysterious space that seemed to be beckoning something from the void.

Immediately after, a tiny sphere rushed into it, causing the mysterious space to vanish as the tattoo of a human skull formed on his forehead, one whose eyes shone with starlight, something no other tattoo ever did.

A second later, the tattoo shone, disappearing as the dissipating figure of Compass Carburettor appeared before him. He observed himself, watching his hands and legs dissipate, sighing in response as he stared at Pilkan, "This is the boy I'll have to rely upon?"

He closed his eyes, clenching his hand into a fist as he muttered, condensing Anthozoa to take a shot, "Don't worry, Stencil. Dad will return after three years. My Lore has already taken effect."

Bullet Template—Tehela!

The bullet imbued with the power of the Titan Race's Immortality profession slammed into Pilkan, rapidly healing him back to full health as Compass Carburettor sighed, watching his figure crumble into tiny starlight fragments as he disappeared.

The tattoo of a human skull appeared on Pilkan's forehead once again, this time the starlight in its eyes dim, barely visible.

"Guh!" A couple of minutes later, Pilkan woke up with a start, getting up in a hurry to see that he wasn't feeling any pain, noticing blood surrounding him as he was startled, thinking that he had died. But upon a closer inspection, not only was he uninjured but wasn't even feeling an ache anywhere.

He was perfectly healed. "What…just happened?"

He hurriedly closed his eyes, focusing on his Dreamland, a mysterious space every Invoker like him possessed. It was where they harness part of their soul, fusing it with all their experiences to create an Invoked Spirit that fought on their behalf.

"Wait!" Pilkan was surprised to see a mysterious sphere in his Dreamland, "Wasn't my Nascent Soul destroyed? Then, how come this is here?"

As a Nascent Soul was moulded using part of their soul as the base, the destruction of the Invoked Spirit meant the destruction of the Nascent Soul, which correlated to the destruction of the respective part of their soul. In typical cases, this resulted in the user falling into a vegetative state for the rest of their lives.

In lucky cases, the user would survive but wouldn't be able to build another Nascent Soul until their soul was healed back to full health, which was only possible by consuming expensive resources daily for long term.

It wasn't wealth someone like Pilkan possessed. So, he had braced himself to either die as a vegetable or live as a cripple for the rest of his life. But, not only did he survive, but also retained his entire soul.

Moreover, he had obtained a new Nascent Soul. He would need to gradually build it into an Invoked Spirit. But, even this brought him endless joy, for he fared many times better than what he had expected.

"Wait, what is this Nascent Soul's type?" He muttered, probing the mysterious sphere in his Dreamland when his face paled, "H-Human type?"

In their world, there existed beings called Invokers, special beings that were able to call upon terrifying entities. They did so by using what was known as an Invoker Crystal, one whose work was to extract a part of their soul and create a base using it in their Dreamland, creating what was called a Nascent Soul.

Following that, the Invoker would hunt living entities in the world and swallow the minds of the killed entities using their Dreamland.

When their minds were swallowed, the majority of their memories, experiences, etc. would appear in the Dreamland, forming a large cluster—typically known as the Mental Fragments. The Invoker would then have to manually take out the desired Mental Fragments and fuse them into the Nascent Soul.

The Nascent Soul would inherit the traits of the Mental Fragments and once completed, it would become an Invoked Spirit. There was no limit to the source of the entity whose Mental Fragment was used to fuse into the Nascent Soul.

It all depended on the Invoker's creativity.

But, some limitations originated from the Nascent Soul, or rather the type of Invoker Crystal used. Invoker Crystals were created using a method similar to making an Invoked Spirit, so depending on the source materials for the Invoker Crystal, the Nascent Soul created from its consumption varied.

If the Invoker Crystal was created using Mental Fragments extracted from cats, then the resultant Nascent Soul's type was cats. This meant that the Invoker would have to hunt cats and capture their Mental Fragments to forge his Invoked Spirit.

Therefore, depending on the type of Invoker Crystal one consumed, their growth as an Invoker varied. And, only now did Pilkan recall the Invoker Crystal that he had consumed, paling in response, for it was a Human Invoker Crystal.

Meaning, he would have to hunt humans for his growth, a taboo of the world, despite the sheer power such Invokers wielded. They were hunted on sight. And, it wasn't possible to hide, for the tattoo on one's forehead revealed their Invoked Spirit's type.

As for him, it was a human skull.