After 30 minutes, the ss was half way done, but many of the students started to get bored.


    ''When will this be over…''


    ''Can I just drop out of here pleaseeee…''


    ''Why do we need to know all of this?''


    Most of the ss were bored out of their minds, but a select few of them, like Alex and the big chested girl, were still fully focused.


    It was students like Alex and the big chested girl that were the reason why Dr Zoric even epted the job of teaching here.


    The Soul studiesmunity may be small, but it was hugely appreciated by the awakenedmunity, especially the higher life forms among the awakened.


    And without inquisitive and interested students like Alex and the big chested girl, this research topic would very quickly die off when people like Dr Zoric retire or die.


    As for Alex, he was deep in thought at the moment.


    ''Energy… Souls… what do these two have inmon that makes them linked…''


    Dr Zoric had exined a little bit about the research that he and a few other elite researchers on the subject had conducted, but he didn''t go into enough depth for Alex to get any sudden epiphanies or anything like that.


    ''Maybe our soul cores are actual, physical entities somewhere inside our bodies like the energy core I created when I perfected the Heart of the Phoenix technique in one go? Maybe-''


    Speaking of epiphanies, it seemed like Alex had just found one.


    His eyes bloomed open as the other students around him looked at him strangely as he looked off into the open air at nothing in particr, with such an enlightened and gleeful look on his face.


    But in reality, Alex was looking at a spew of system messages that were pouring in.


    [Congrattions, you''ve actually learned something from this ss. How smart you are!]


    The first message was the system''s usual sarcastic quip towards Alex.


    It seemed like it had gone back to normal after it suddenly started acting weird the previous day.


    [The thirdyer of your Soulforge talent has been unlocked.]


    ''?''


    Alex was confused.


    Wasn''t he supposed to have learned something more about the secondyer, and how these ''Remnant souls'' are supposed to be useful to him?


    How the hell did he end up skipping that entirely and unlocking the thirdyer?


    None of it made sense to Alex, but then again, a lot of things in life made no sense to him.


    He just went with it and decided to take a look at what had changed about his talent.


    [Soulforge(Soul+): Firstyer - Condenses the energy of any in beast into a more refined energy source called soul orbs — the most valuable energy resource in the universe, many would sacrifice millions just for the chance to get one.


    Absorbing these soul orbs dramatically enhances your physical abilities beyond what others can do alone with Beast cores, while simultaneously condensing your own energy, enabling any attacks you deliver to be stronger than your peers.]


    [Secondyer - Soul orbs don''t just contain energy, but they can also contain the remnant soul of the defeated foe inside. This is dependent on the strength of the beast''s soul, so higher ssed and higher ranked beasts will have a higher chance of harbouring these remnant souls.


    Through absorbing soul orbs you will gain some remnant memories of the in beast, chosen at random from the beast''s entire lifetime — Find out the rest for yourself.]


    [Thirdyer - Souls and energy are intrinsically linked. Every soul has a certain amount of higher ss energy in them. Absorbing lower ss soul orbs now affords you two options.


    Option one, you can absorb it like normal, and use it to progress towards the next rank. Or with option two, you can absorb it, and refine the energy gained into its higher ss equivalent.


    However, if you do choose the second option, be aware that the amount of progress you will get towards upgrading your own ss will be substantially lower than absorbing a soul orb made ofplete higher ss energy.


    Remark: Choosing the second option also voids the chance of gaining any remnant souls, as they will also be needed to refine the higher ss energy.]


    ''What the hell??''


    Alex didn''t know what to think.


    He had gained moreprehension into souls, but the same stupid ''Find out the rest for yourself'' was still there on the description of his secondyer…


    However, he had a sudden realisation.


    What if the system meant to find out through actually absorbing a beast''s remnant soul, not through gainingprehension…


    ''Fuckkkk, I am so stupid!''


    Alex felt like an idiot for not even considering this until AFTER he hade up with the n to systematically learn more about souls through the Soul studies ss.


    But he also realised that it was still a very good decision regardless.


    It led him to unlock the thirdyer of his Soulforge talent, and might even enable him to unlock moreyers, if they existed, further down the line as he attended more lectures.


    Speaking of newyers, Alex inspected the thirdyer and his whole attitude flipped when he read through it.


    ''This is fucking amazing! Maybe I really do have the strongest talent!''


    The fact that he could now refine lower ss energy into higher ss energy was simply unheard of!


    It didn''t matter if the energy he would gain from only gave him decimals towards his progress towards Variant ss.


    With enough Mutant ss soul orbs, those decimals would add up very quickly.


    Not to mention the fact that there were A LOT more Mutant beasts than Variant beasts.


    The only Variant beast he had evere across wasn''t even through natural methods, but from a summoning.


    Meanwhile, he asionally met Mutant ss beasts every few days while hunting in the Primordial Expanse.


    This made it so that even if he didn''t find a single Variant ss beast when he went out on missions to Floodgates, he could still gain some progress towards Variant ss, so it wouldn''t exactly be a waste of time.