As the pair made their way to his table he noticed how peculiar they were, one was a bald lean kid slightly shorter than Apricus, with emerald green eyes, sharp eyebrows, and a horizontal scar starting from the middle of his straight but slightly raised nose and going across his cheek stopping at his right ear. They both wore cloaks, however the person beside the bald kid had their hood up with a mask covering their face, leaving only the area around the eyes and forehead open.
Reaching the table the bald kid introduced themselves in an energetic but slightly gloomy voice.
"Your Apricus? Genso told me about you, you're supposed to train me right?"
Apricus nodded letting the bald kid continue.
"My name is Balwork, this here is my guardian Violet. But setting that aside, can we begin now? I've been looking forward to this for a week."
'Young and eager huh, although it seems like I wasn't wrong the kid does seem to be about twelve or thirteen years of age.'
Getting up, Apricus replied. "We can begin, however let's go to the open field in between the Dread Mountains and the village first, that way we won't disturb anyone."
Nodding Balwork and Violet quietly followed Apricus out the restaurant following him to the open field.
After a while when the open field was finally in sight Balwork finally spoke up once again. "Oh ya Genso told me to give you this, something about coming back from the Wailing Forest?"
Stopping and turning around Apricus saw Balwork hold two gold coins, with a grin he took them and thought to himself. 'He said he would give two gold coins if I completed the mission in the Wailing Forest which didn't happen, so I guess he feels bad for almost getting me killed.'
Turning back around and walking towards their destination Apricus gave a simple response. "Thank you for handing it to me."
Soon they reached the open field right in between the 10,000 feet tall white Mountain range, named Dread Mountains and Aria Village, giving them enough space for proper training without disturbing anyone.
As Apricus stood on the field in front of Balwork who sat cross legged on the ground, and the bodyguard and guardian Violet who stood beside Balwork Apricus started explaining most things he knew about the soul to Balwork.
"I'm not sure how much Genso taught you but I'll assume nothing about the Soul."
Balwork nodded, so Apricus continued.
"Well then I'll teach you things I know about it. First things first is the soul itself, everyone possesses a soul from humans to animals and even Unholy Creatures. The soul has the exact features and shape as your physical self however it's in spiritual form, without a soul you would immediately die. In place of a heart the soul possess something called an inner core which gives life and power to the soul, which can be utilized and formed to create soul abilities."
Apricus lifted a singular finger vertically when suddenly a tiny flame lit on the tip of his pointer finger, as he continued.
"Soul abilities derive from the soul and so the soul helps bring the abilities into reality. Think of them as your powers, however to create an ability you must first strengthen and have a clear, proper, and complete understanding of yourself, including your inner thoughts, emotions, and especially your soul and physical body. Then in some cases, not all, you must shape your personality, behavior, emotions, mind, and body based on the ability you wish to create. A name relating to the ability itself can strengthen the ability by two fold as well as make the creation progress much easier and clearer."
Then the tiny flame became bigger as it flowed around Apricus's body, as Balwork looked with an impressed and excited expression Apricus continued once again.
"However the very first step for you will be mediating to relax and gain a better understanding of your soul, which is how you can gain control of it to make it flow out your body, which can later transform into an ability. Then you will train your body with various methods to strengthen and gain an understanding of your body. After that, will be gaining a clearer and sharper mind through training.
With that a red aura-like thing enveloped Apricus's body and flowing flame, that was Apricus's soul. "Once you gain a better understanding of your soul you will understand its quality and quantity. Although the soul is the same size as your body in spiritual form, once you unleash it the more area it can cover the more quantity or size your soul has. While the more dense and more pressure your soul can exert the higher the quality, however the quality is the most important. For example if I had an apple sized soul but the quality was great I could attack more times with my soul then if I had a bad quality soul with the same size. Now since soul abilities are the powers, think of soul skills as the attacks or moves you can use from your soul ability, and calling out the skill can strengthen it ever so slightly."
With that he suddenly dispersed his soul and flames, then turned his back towards Balwork and Violet. "The flames you saw are a part of my soul ability, what you are about to see now is a soul skill."
Then he made a gun shape with his fingers and called out "Fire Beam", his fingers turned red and a long but finger width fire beam shot out, penetrating the mountains in its way and setting it ablaze. Balwork clapped with glimmering eyes and an impressed look saying in an enthusiastic manner. "WHOA, I wanna do that someday!"
Turning around, facing Balwork and Violet Apricus started talking once more.
"Now that you've learnt soul abilities and skills keep in mind that using your soul ability or most things having to do with the soul will require soul and if you have a low quantity and quality of soul you'll run out quicker leaving you defenceless. In those cases you'll need to use techniques, there are three techniques you could use in those situations. Body techniques, which deals with strengthening, attacking, enhancing, or using skills with just your body and strength alone requiring no soul. Mind techniques which can heal, clear, sharpen, speed up, improve, or enhance, your mind requiring no soul, however it also lets you influence and inflict mind damage to other people, although that does require a bit of soul. Finally there are soul techniques, which instead of using your soul ability uses pure soul from your body which you can use to attack or defend with, obviously requiring soul."
Then Apricus's body started to become slightly bigger and more defined at the same time he started flickering, appearing at multiple spots. "This is an example of a body technique." Balwork made excited sounds letting Apricus return to normal. Then Apricus suddenly started to become more energetic and alive while Balwork became drowsy and tired. "That is an example of a mind technique". However Balwork could barely understand as Violet went on guard, returning to a relaxed position as she saw Balwork return to normal. After that Apricus pointed to his right with his pointer finger, where soul gathered on the tip, condensing into a red ball which he fired. "That is a soul technique not to be confused with a soul skill."
Then Apricus sat down cross legged in front of Balwork with a sigh. "Any questions?"
Balwork shook his head as he replied. "No but that was super cool, can I try doing that now?"
Apricus shook his head as he replied back with another sigh. "No, you're still far from that; however you can get started on it tomorrow after I explain Categories and Rankings."
With a sad sigh Balwork listened as Apricus continued on about the Categories ranging from Beast to Sovereign as well as the ranks ranging from E to Z. He then talked about how Unholy was placed before the category for Unholy Creature while for humans it was simply the Category, leaving out the corrupted variant which Violet seemed to have caught on.
He then made his main focus on how Unholy Creatures were born and made stronger as well as progressing in the categories and rankings depends on how much stronger and higher one's power, refinement, and mastery are in the soul, soul abilities, soul quantity and quality, intelligence, and sometimes even physical strength stating that all of this can be improved.
When Apricus finally finished Balwork was as enthusiastic as ever making Apricus feel glad the kid had listened. By the time they completely finished the sun was setting in a crimson fashion as Apricus dropped off Balwork and Violet at the Village, returning to his hotel room, as he finished changing and eating he fell on his bed.
"Now I gotta teach him how to get started on understanding his own soul."
With a sigh Apricus fell asleep, resting for a new day.