[Congratulations, Hero, for your gift: Absolute Soul]

[Scanning Reward for effect and grade…]

[Highest type of Blessing detected]

[Congratulations initialized.]

Out of nowhere, small confetti of every color rose and fell before vanishing as if they never were there. The proximity and various small explosion sounds startled the newly Blessed for a few seconds even after they vanished.

[Absolute Soul]

[Description: Most mortals barely interact with their Souls in their lifetime. No matter the being, they regardless rely on it as their Origin. This Hero Blessing has granted you an upgrade to the highest grade of Soul possible. Multiple Effects. Internal Type]

Well… while the grade seems to be an amazing thing, John had no idea what to make of this Blessing, especially since the description was so short. Certain terms weren’t clear enough to him.

He could even call it useless at this point considering it didn’t grant him clear abilities and could backfire on him thanks to his low understanding of the spiritual subject of souls. His first reaction would have been to ask a priest but in this new world, specialists of the Soul such as Soul Mages or perhaps Spiritualists would be better options.

The messages continued.

[This Blessing cannot be merely attached to your soul and will evolve it]

[Please note that the upgrade effect will take place in a few moments, your corporeal shell shall be protected.]

[Unconsciousness or/and extreme pain is to be expected, please standby…]

Wow, the Blessing even needed him to go through a period of unconsciousness. This, considering his unknown and probably hostile environment, was not a good thing.

He tried looking around in hopes of a cave or something to protect himself. While he believed in the System’s protection, he wanted to take measures to protect himself.

Sadly for John, reality caught up to him too fast. A few seconds after the System Announcement, he slumped against the tree he appeared beside, not a step taken since his appearance.

Unknown to John, he started having a bit more than just a few visitors. 

While Origin’s wildlife was rather ordinary for the most part at the beginning, 2 major differences drastically separated them from what you may know about wild beasts.

First off, while it was in minute amounts, Basic Energies already permeated the newborn world. 

This meant that some of them were already beginning to slowly be altered by Mana, Natural Energy, Ki, Curses, Faith, and others. This granted them a flurry of Blessings and curses such as Intelligence, Wisdom, Strength, Instant Death by Explosion, and Dexterity.

Needless to say, those cursed by Instant Death by Explosion didn’t have the time to question what occurred or be attracted by John’s situation.

Secondly would be their connection to the System. 

While the Wildlife didn’t have the same windowed System Humans could see from time to time, they had a weaker passive permanent connection to it. This meant that, at all times, they could feel the System around them and be guided by its repercussions. It was a form of Instinct that was budding into an ability that guided them.

One instance of these guidances would be the present massive amount of supernatural energies that were emitted from John’s cocoon. Furthermore, what they were feeling was not only the Basic level of energy. A majority of what was being emitted was the System’s dedicated energy which was very attractive to beings with bare instincts and budding wisdom.

In fact, given enough time, the aftereffects of this phenomenon would probably lead to the creation of a Special Land touched by the energies, most likely a Druid’s Grove, considering the deep forest location.

Luckily for him, the high grade of his Blessing put him on the high-priority list of tasks the Origin System was dealing with. As such, the System dedicated more than enough energy to his protection, which wouldn’t have been the case for lower Blessings.

Some tried to dig under the System’s protection or even wait out the protection to attack but every single beast had to leave at some point. Their Instincts were warning them against messing with the Origin and those repercussions would be lethal, instant, and painful. 

Day turned to night and then day again as John slowly woke up from a restful sleep, from his perspective.

While he looked around himself, he felt strange. He didn’t feel pain anywhere and didn’t seem to be damaged, whether he was attacked or not by something while unconscious, the System’s protection worked well enough.

He finally managed to notice a few paw prints, hooves, and more unrecognizable ones around him, signaling the fact he did have visitors during his power nap. Not all of them were merely curious as some traces of something trying to dig the dirt to pass under whatever shield the System granted him could be found.

Slowly waking up, John could discern small changes in his perception. He seemed more alert, his eyes deeper, and he could feel that smaller problems of the past didn’t burden him as much, both logical or emotional.

Perhaps if John had gotten the lower tier of his Blessings, such as [Strong Soul] or [Divine Soul], he wouldn’t have noticed the small enhancements it brought as fast. 

Still, in the future, experimentation was needed to determine the extent of his improvements. Being calmer could bring its lot of trouble if he acted too logically and started disregarding what made him human for pure efficiency.

As he rose to his feet, he felt himself thinking faster and connecting to the unknown around him. 

Without realizing it, John was making his first steps in manipulating the energies around him, a vital skill.

While John usually would not bet with his life, his newfound intuition told him a direction to go toward. He aimed for the direction of the rising sun and advanced calmly.

On the way, his improvements solidified and seemed more tangible as he finely controlled his movements. He wasn’t faster or stronger but being able to perceive himself more accurately was a very important step to maximizing the familiarity of his new body. This would become a necessity if a battle was to be fought.

A few encounters were dodged on the way as he put his finer senses to use but overall nothing could impede him for long as he advanced, kilometer after kilometer, hour after hour.

It was half a day later that John escaped the sylvan confines of the forest and would begin his adventure as a Pioneer.