Maxwell sighed, staring at the satchel he was holding. There was a strain in his body one wouldn’t expect from someone holding a simple satchel. Of course, this was no simple satchel.

  How do I even carry this? Maxwell contemplated silently. Of course, the satchel he was holding was the magic satchel he had, but it was now full of different things Maxwell carved from stone.

  While this wouldn’t usually cause any problems, Maxwell quickly realized that he had overlooked a simple problem when improving this thing.

  The satchel weighed a lot. He could still lift it, but it was too much to carry for his clothes as they either ripped sadly or decided to leave him naked by getting pulled down.

  Maxwell sighed once more and started unloading his satchel solemnly. It seemed he would need to leave these behind.

  Things he carved looked ordinary enough. The problem was that he infused these things with a very high amount of mana. Maxwell suspected that these rocks would be more durable than most metals people in the city had.

  I guess I can do the same for the metals in the city. He consoled himself as he started to move south with a much emptier satchel. He infused some mana into his clothes to bring them back to their prime condition as he walked.

  There were many animals in the forest and this was starting to make Maxwell quite a bit confused about this place’s ecosystem. The diversity was way too much, even for a tropical forest.

  I guess beasts from the rifts could cause this. He watched as a snake got eaten by a hawk diving from the sky. Surprisingly, the hawk was tier two, but it was still very low-levelled.

  He walked for an hour, not being very hasty as he enjoyed the experience. Blueberry flew away from time to time searching for things of interest but as they went south the bird seemed more and more dissapointed.

  After a while, she just stopped leaving altogether as she couldn’t find anything anyway. The forest seemed awfully abandoned. Even the insects were getting fewer in number.

  Maxwell could feel something different from the air but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. The whole forest gave him a weird feeling.

  After some more trekking, Maxwell made his first interesting discovery under the setting sun. He crouched on the ground and examined the soil.

  He could see that there was footprints on the ground and they were distinctly human. He sincerely doubted any animall would wear boots.

  He followed the same direction for some time. He guessed that he moved around 20 kilometers from the cave since starting. The weird feeling he was getting was getting stronger too.

  He could also discern more and more tracks as he progressed. These were different tracks too suggesting that this place been a lot more crowded than it should be at some point.

  This didn’t really surprise Maxwell as he knew there would be mercenaries still searching for the puppy. Rich people was good at finding information. He hoped he wasn’t too late to the party.

  Can’t I find a dog somewhere else? He asked himself but he knew that would not be the same. This place was mysterious beyond housing a rare animal and Maxwell really liked sollving mysteries. He doubted people would pose much danger to him anyways.

  At worst, I can scream innside their head… He couldn’t use Soul’s Voice to defeat beasts but he still could use it to defeat humans.

  Athletics Leveled Up Lvl-15→16

  Well, I walked a lot, I guess. He could feel in the air that he was close to his destination. The air was heavy in a weird way. Maxwell could actually see it with his prima sense at this point. There was a haze in the air he couldn’t describe.

  He could see through the haze, but it was still there. It didn’t obstruct vision, yet it had color.

  However, Maxwell couldn't tell what color it was. Since getting the soul sense back when he was level 1 Maxwell could sense people's souls. It was one of the most surreal aspects of his skills

  Like his soul manipulation though, he never managed to find a way to use this ability to do anything meaningful. When Soul Sense became Prima Sense, the world of energies gained a visual quality, yet this fact remained the same.

  He could see souls as weird forcefields around living beings but he couldn’t interact with them. All of his attempts to use his soul manipulation was met with abyssal success as all he could do was tremblling his own soul a little.

  The thing he was seeing and feeling in the air had many things in common with the souls of other creatures. This creeped out Maxwell a lot more than everything he have seen since coming to this world.

  This was a world 2 months into the initiation. What could have so strong of a soul that it could be felt for 25 kilometers? For comparison, he could see Bob’s aura only around 5 centimeters around the boy.

  The difference was so immense that he was almost sure that it was not a living being causing this phenomenon but a natural event. He knew approaching the cause of it all, even after knowing what he knew, was not logical, but Maxwell was the cat who died of curiosity.

  He watched a bird fly as it passed through the aura. It was flying from south and Maxwell could see that it was haggard in a weird way. Bird had no injurries, it looked healthy but it swayed in the air like it was sick.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Maxwell kept walking, and aura kept building up. As he walked it didn’t took long for him to understand what was the bird’s problem.

  As he advanced into the forest, he could feel a weight slowly settling not on his body but on his soul. It was manageable for him with his insane soul, but this would be too much for a typical bird.

  He had his first encounter with people when he advanced another couple of kilometers. He could see a group in the distance sitting around a campfire.

  He had observed them before they noticed him, and he was not very impressed.

  Warrior - Lvl-12

  Ranger - Lvl-11

  Witch - Lvl-16

  A witch? He was surprised to see this base class. While he was quite hasty with his first-class choice, he was still pretty sure that he didn’t have any other magic class available for him. Maybe this class had some other requirements he simply didn’t meet. Not being a female would certainly suffice.

  He casually walked near the group, not really caring about being sneaky. His stats were way too abnormal for normal people to threaten him in a meaningful way. And these seemed to be pretty approachable group.

  From the first reaction he got from the group, he could see that they didn’t share his sentiment. He felt a weird tingling at the back of his mind while the trio hurriedly formed something like a defense formation.

  You Have Been Observed (3x)

  Oh, so thats how that feels like. It was an interesting experience for sure. He felt that if he wanted, he could pinpoint the trio's exact locations without using his senses.

  "I mean no harm.’’ He said as he raised his arms, showing his palms to the group casually. He really hoped that they wouldn’t fight him. He hadn't got much human interaction without them turning into fights.

  Now that he could see their faces, he could see that this group was relatively young.

  The warrior was a blond boy, and he was looking at him with challenging eyes at the moment. The ranger was a girl, and she seemed cautious.

  The leader appeared to be the witch, who looked around 20 years old, while the others looked a few years younger.

  "Who are you?’’ The witch asked him with caution, taking a few steps forward. Maxwell could see Mana build up inside woman’s body as she prepared for the worst.

  ’’Just a passing merchant. No need to use that.’’ He said. He didn’t know what the woman was charging, but acting like you knew things always helped.

  The woman gave a suspicious look but he could see charged mana dispersing by almost a half.

  "This is no place for merchants. Also, what’s with the question marks if you are a merchant?’’ She asked. Sounding somehow even more suspicious than before.

  ’’Anywhere holding something valuable is suitable for merchants don’t you think? Do you need anything?’’ Maxwell asked. He found himself liking this merchant identity he had been forging since transmigrating. It was always fun to see people’s requests in a magical world.

  The woman relaxed a bit and looked at his companions in annoyance.

  “Gred, why are you looking at him like you will tackle him?” she asked the young man. Maxwell watched the boy curiously as he blushed like a child.

  “I was just being careful.” Gred said, scratching his head awkwardly.

  The woman turned towards Maxwell. “ I don’t suppose you have something that will make them be able to continue?” she asked.

  Maxwell couldn’t understand what the woman was talking about.

  “Continue what?” he asked, confused. The woman answered with an incredulous look.

  “What do you mean? The pressure is too much for them.” She said, pointing in the air, making circles with her finger.

  Oh, is this soul pressure too much for them? Why are they so weak? Maxwell was genuinely puzzled.

  He could feel a strain, but it was just an observation on his side. His satchel was more of a burden for him at the moment.

  “Is there something wrong with them?” he asked in curiosity. At this point, he already guessed that there was probably something wrong with himself, but he wanted to be sure.

  “Are you kidding me?” the woman was starting to get angry. “They are promising initiates. I think they did pretty well,” she added, trying to give the unlucky initiates some support.

  “I see,” Maxwell answered with a blank face. He gazed at Bluberry, who was sitting at a nearby branch, contemplating how the bird was standing against the pressure better than these initiates. Blueberry quickly noticed his glance and decided that, now was her time to enter the exchange.

  She flew and landed on Maxwell’s head. This time, though, the reactions caused by this were much more different.

  Maxwell watched in surprise as the trio in front of him jumped back, and drew their weapons as if Blueberry was a ferocious animal.

  Well, I suppose this means she is stronger than the initiates? Maxwell thought, considering the fact that she could stand the pressure with ease for now. He didn’t really know how people compared to equal leveled animals but this seemed far-fetched by any means. Now, he was a bit concerned about bringing Blueberry along, though. What if she couldn’t continue after some time?

  “She is my pet, don’t worry.” He said, trying to ease their anxiety. They probably didn’t use observation on the bird because they assumed it’s level was higher than them. Never mind, Maxwell could pinpoint the exact moment the witch used observation on the bird as her face became ugly immediately.

  “How can it survive here?” The woman asked, questioning her life.

  “She eats all organic,” Maxwell answered, managing to keep a straight face.

  The woman relaxed once more, probably accepting the bird as a part of Maxwell's own weirdness and sighed. “My name is Audra. We come from the mercenary guild, who are you?” she asked.

  “You can call me Merchant,” Maxwell said,

  “Wait, you are the same person Darve was talking about?” the woman asked, suddenly very excited. “Are you?” she asked once more.

  “As far as I know, he was traveling in the opposite direction. How did he tell you about me?” Maxwell asked in curiosity. The man supposedly left for the city, but this was the opposite direction.

  “I have a skill for transmitting messages. It has many restrictions, but it’s pretty useful.” The witch replied, sounding a bit reluctant.

  She probably doesn't want to share too much, Maxwell thought, he guessed that the skill was probably used in advance. He really doubted that with her level, the woman could contact anyone she wanted.

  “Darve mentioned that you made his sword a tier-two artifact. How do you even do that to an ordinary sword?” The woman asked curiously. It was like the woman suddenly became younger.

  “Yes, I did. It’s simple for me, but I doubt many would be able to do it.” Maxwell answered, completely overestimating people’s capabilities.

  “I think I will go on if that’s all. I assume there are others beyond here?”

  “Definitely, there are many groups trying to find something in the core region but I don’t know if they could advance beyond a certain point,” Audra explained. The woman was immediately more friendly after learning who he was. She and Darve were probably close friends.

  “I see, I don’t think there is any point in trying to advance, though. It would just be dangerous for your initiates.” Maxwell said, really meaning it.

  Whatever the thing causing this wouldn’t be something random kids would be able to deal with. He once more cursed this small body as it felt weird calling people kids with a kid's body.

  “Anyway, maybe we will meet again.” Maxwell said as he started walking past the group, leaving Audra with a half-angry, half-thoughtful face. The ranger girl just watched the interaction without commenting.

  He left the group behind, and after some time, he could feel the strain getting a bit stronger.

  Unfortunately, something he feared happened not long after.

  Blueberry reached her limit.