[Unique system internalising]

He promptly brought the stone to his chest, almost subconsciously. It instantly dissolved into streams of multi coloured light that surfed directly into his chest.

Pain exploded instantly. Silver’s body jerked violently as the energy entered his soul. It felt as though his soul was being ripped apart and then regenerated anew.

His breath came out in rough bursts as he tried to be as quiet as possible, he didn’t want to attract any attention to himself at the moment.

Then, the voice came again.

[Happiness system activated...]

The pressure in his soul intensified. Silver held on to the edge of the bed instinctively as something inside him twisted sharply.

[Scanning host condition...]

There was a small pause, then it came again.

[Warning...]

This time, the voice had changed slightly, sharper.

[Severe foreign contamination detected within the soul pathways.]

Silver frowned immediately.

"What?... Foreign contamination?"

The answer came immediately.

[Accumulated soul poison detected]

Everything clicked at that moment. How untalented Silver had been, his inability to contract a beast. The constantly weakening body.

In the novel, he was said to be a delicate but neglected child after his parents’ death.

’What if someone already knows he has the multi coloured stone’

He shivered at the thought. He could already imagine how much trouble he was in. He just hoped his assumptions were naught.

Silver’s eyes darkened. This was no ordinary poison but a banned poison as well.

Soul Eater poison.

It came from a contractor who contracts a soul eater beast. Soul Eater beasts are famous for their ability to attack a Contractor’s soul directly and feed on both soul and beast.

They fell under the spiritual type of beasts.

A menace to any contractor. Anyone found to have contracted it would be banned from all Sanctuaries.

Unlike normal poison, it accumulates gradually in the soul core itself, corrupting soul pathways over the years. Most victims never notice until the damage is irreversible or just die without even knowing the cause.

Once the soul core deteriorates, the body follows and eventually both of them collapse.

A shiver ran up his back at the thought of it happening to him.

[Estimated progression before total soul collapse: 1 year, 4 months]

’They probably accelerated the deterioration of Silver’s soul’

Silence fell in the room. The former silver never made it past the next three months.

Silver stared ahead in thought and disbelief.

"... someone poisoned me," he mummbled to himself, almost disbelieving.

[Affirmative]

The system responded efficiently, cementing his disbelief.

’This is me right now’

[Soul poison has suppressed host development since early childhood]

That explains everything but not at all.

"But I’m a different soul."

[The effect will still affect you]

So he would have suffered the same fate as the former Silver even if he managed to avoid all the death flags in the novel.

He had thought he got a second chance but what he got was his soul getting poisoned.

’There is really nothing free in the world’

Reincarnation hadn’t been his salvation. He wondered if he had decided to be a gentleman and leave the box to Cruella, he almost did but decided against it.

Silver laughed quietly, his shoulders shaking with mirth. There was no happiness in his laughter.

"Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy."

The system continued.

[Initiating Purification]

Real pain hit immediately. Silver’s body seized as violent heat spread through his chest and spine. His soul core trembled violently as what looked like light veins spread beneath his skin.

Soul pathways.

Something black, almost like tar surfaced beneath the glowing current tainting its purity.

Silver’s breathing turned uneven as the poison was forcefully dragged out of his pathways. The sensation felt like hooks tearing through his nerves. Even the worst military training and experience hadn’t been this painful.

Minutes passed, seconds, hours, and Silver wasn’t even sure himself, and then the relief came. It was an overwhelming sense of pure relief as though a huge weight that he didn’t know he had, had been lifted.

Silver inhaled sharply. The air itself felt cleaner and his senses sharpened immediately.

’So this is how it feels’

He hadn’t noticed any difference but now it was really distinct that something had been pulling him down.

[Soul poison successfully removed.]

The system paused briefly, letting him absorb its benevolence.

[Reevaluating host potential..]

He felt as though something was inside his soul.

[Previous restrictions identified]

Silver frowned slightly.

’Restrictions?’

As though hearing his question, it answered.

[Standard human souls possess a fixed developmental ceiling]

Images formed instinctively in his mind. Soul capacities, tattoo limits, and rank structures.

Silver was left confused since everything placed before him was normal, nothing groundbreaking.

They were the laws governing contractors.

[Normal soul structures collapse beyond a defined threshold]

[Maximum recognised soul capacity: 19]

[Maximum stable beast tattoo count: 10]

Silver listened silently.

[Variant stone integration successful]

His lips couldn’t help but slightly curve.

[Removing soul growth limitations.]

And then, he felt something conceptually shatter inside of him, it was like invisible walls surrounding his core cracked apart all at once.

Silver’s eyes widened in surprise because he could feel it happening at the moment. His soul pathways widened unnaturally, branching beyond normal human structure.

His core also changed. It wasn’t evolving within its limit like before. He was only meant to reach rank three but now, he didn’t know.

[Soul capacity restrictions removed.]

[Tattoo limit restrictions removed.]

[Host evolution path updated.]

Silver exhaled slowly.

"... updated into what?"

[Unidentified classification]

The answer lingered in the room like a sort of forbidden secret.

He was now an unidentified, he was outside existing theory.

The system finally stabilised and the pressure that had been constant in his soul vanished.

And then, blue new windows popped up across Silver’s vision.