Soul War: Journey To A New Life 10 The Resolve

As soon as she heard that, Mackenzie went silent as painful memories, buried long ago, hit her hard once again. The same ones about the time when she just entered the Soul war plane, the desperation after learning about karmic points, then joining adventurers guild, the struggle, making friends, and then losing them, either to adversaries or betrayal, all that in order to move on to a higher plane because of love, yet not succeeding time and time again, and finally accepting the inability and her own weaknesses. She remembered her decision to stay here instead of rejoining the cycle of life and death, and use her skills for the betterment of Earth realm despite of everything she experienced, or because of it, she wasn't sure. She gave up on adventuring and killing and switched to a different position, something she believed to be almost as important for Earth realm, notwithstanding that this decision delayed her personal wish indefinitely.

She worked hard, and at some point finally broke through a normal human limit, and achieved Expert proficiency in cooking. Then the new problems appeared. Since her meals could now help recover Mana, the special effect that appeared after breaking though from Advanced proficiency, the demand for her high quality meals grew and she couldn't keep up with it. Not many people invested their time, effort and karmic points on cooking, so even though there were a lot of chefs with Advanced proficiency, there were barely a few hundred chefs with the Expert proficiency. Master level proficiency chefs could be counted on one hand and anything higher was never achieved by a human.

That is why Mackenzie decided to start training other chefs and help them reach the Expert proficiency in cooking as well as high job proficiency for a chef. This proved to be extremely hard for her because it clashed with her personality and obsessive attention to details that trainees couldn't easily keep up with and would usually quit after a while.

And then came Leon. A person with the same wish as hers, but a different starting point. All this time it was her that wanted to help others, to help the Earth realm, and now, for the first time, someone wanted her help. She could refuse, knowing exactly what hardships awaited him, but it felt wrong to her, she couldn't destroy the same dream again, it was like failing twice.

"Why? Just why did you tell me all of this? Why did you decide to trust me so soon? Why did you chose me to help you!?" She finally asked Leon, her voice slightly trembling.

"Because of this." Leon said and lifted the book on magical ingredients he was reading.

"I believe you wrote this, and your attention to details and safety was the reason I decided to put my trust in you. Only someone that knew a lot about this world and loved cooking could write it, and I needed a person like this." He answered with confidence.

"It is true, I did write that, but just how did you know!?" She questioned, a trace of bewilderment flashed on her face.

"Every other recipe book here had a name of its author, unlike this one so I took a guess. A shot in the dark, but a good one" He chuckled.

"I see..." She composed herself, stood up, and continued:

"Listen well, In order for you to succeed in your endeavor, and fulfill your wish, you can not become a chef. Cooking proficiency and job proficiency are two different things, that complement one another. If you picked a chef as your job, you would get a higher chance to produce better quality meals. It is a good choice for a novice, but not for you, who already have Advanced proficiency in cooking and can occasionally produce high quality meals without it. Basically you don't need the job proficiency, which resets if you quit a job in order to find a new one. Don't look at me like that, yes, the system is stingy with its points." She explained at last.

"Then if I don't become a chef, what should I do?" Leon hopefully inquired.
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"Unfortunately the only way for someone to get enough karmic points for ascension is through killing. And you will have to kill armies, thousands upon thousands of different types of beings. But in order for you to even get a chance to do that, you need to become something we call an Elite. If you ever heard a phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none" then what Elites are can simply be described with "Masters of all trades". What that means is that you will have to cover every aspect of combat imaginable. Hand to hand combat, ranged combat, a.s.sa.s.sination & stealth, magic, and recovery but most importantly knowing your adversaries. Not a single one of these aspects can be ignored." She paused there, contemplating how to deliver the harshest news of all, and soon decided to be as direct as possible.

"There is one more thing, and that is your resolve. You can never falter on your path, you can never show mercy as you will not be given one, you can never be compa.s.sionate and you must be extremely ruthless on the battlefield. For someone that is fighting for their loved one, that is the hardest thing to grasp. Remember this, that even if you succeed, the man you are now, will not be the same man that will ascend, and finally, you will not be the same man your wife knew and loved. That was the hurdle that I couldn't jump over, just how ready are you to take that leap? How ready are you to fight for your heart's desire, regardless of the outcome?" With that she informed him of everything she faced, and of every struggle that he will have to face.

That was when Leon's previous confidence showed signs of wavering. When a.s.sistant Overseer explained Soul war to him, he believed that he could do it without any problems, that his heart was strengthened enough, but now he wasn't so sure. Could he really do it? Could he bleed on the th.o.r.n.y path as he swore he would just a few hours ago? He only knew one thing.

"I would rather try and fail many times, than give up. I have to get to her, I have to because she begged me not to drown in my own regrets, the same regrets I sill carry with me for almost thirty years, and working towards this goal, no matter how small the steps, is the only way forward for me. If I have to lose my humanity, and become an emotionless slaughterer, then so be it. It is just another thing that I will have to apologize to her for when I finally get to see her again, and hope that she will forgive me." He vowed, making all the wavering of his consciousness immediately stop.

"That is far from good enough, but I can work with it." She uttered, and added an official tone to her voice

"Mr. Leon Swain, I , Mackenzie Mortimer have decided to help you. Your real training starts tomorrow" Mackenzie declared, and opened her system, as if searching for something.