Autophagy

After leaving the cat on the ground, Song Lei made sure that he wasn't being followed and ran back to their house. He had managed to gather a good amount of information today, so it was time for him to rest.

After reaching his house, Song Lei opened the door and climbed the stairs. When he opened the door, he was met with Aston sitting on a chair, handling a purplish dagger in his hands.

"Oh, that looks great," Song Lei said as he walked towards Aston's side. "Can I try it out?"

"Sure, here," Aston said as he held the dagger out towards him. Song Lei took it from his hand and took a stance.

*Swish

He swung the dagger in an arch and turned around before swinging it again. Song Lei started practicing all kinds of swings with the dagger. With Song Lei's fast swings, the dagger would leave a purple trail wherever it went.

After swinging it for half a minute, Song Lei stopped. He dumbfoundedly stared at the dagger in his hands.

"That was so cool!" Song Lei said with an excited expression on his face. "How does it leave those trails behind? It is like an overdeveloped CGI!"

"CGI?" Aston asked while raising one of his brows. Hearing his words, Song Lei suppressed his excitement and coughed. His teenage soul that loved consuming fantasy content jumped in ecstasy.

"N- Nevermind. I'm saying that it's incredible," he said as he gave the dagger back to Aston.

"It is, right?" Aston said. He slightly swung the dagger and admired the trail himself. "And what's more is, it is incredibly useful even as a normal dagger. It is very sharp and incredibly durable. It also has the ability to stun the enemies."

"What? How does that work?" Song Lei asked as he started changing his clothes.

"You know how this shakes the souls right?" Aston asked. "We will use this to shake off the soul worms attached to the trainee's souls. It has a similar effect on normal people. It can shake their souls and put them in a stunned state. It will be enough even if you just scratch their skin."

"Then... Isn't this incredibly good?" Song Lei asked.

"Yes, it is. I was the one who crafted it after all," Aston said smugly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. Song Lei would have commented on Aston's bragging, however, he probably deserved every bit of it. So Song Lei didn't open his mouth.

"So? You think you can finish making them before we finish our mission?" Song Lei asked.

"It should at most take a week. If the mission looks like it will take less than that, try to stall it," Aston said.

"Sure..." Song Lei responded before lying down on his bed. "Let's go to sleep..."

...

"Finally..." Aston muttered as he wiped the sweat and soot off of his face. 'It took shorter than I expected.'

He raised the dagger in his hand and looked at it from every angle to be sure of its quality.

"Are you some kind of genius? How did you even learn this fast?" Calvin asked Aston dumbfoundedly. "And what even is that metal you are using?"

Hearing his last question, Aston shot an intimidating glance towards Calvin. As soon as His gaze fall upon him, Calvin shivered.

"S- Sorry. Act like I didn't ask..."

"*Sigh... Anyways. This was the last one I needed to make so we won't be seeing each other anymore," Aston said. Hearing his words, a bittersweet smile appeared on Calvin's face.

"You know what they say... Everything comes to an end. It was great to know you," Calvin said. He had gotten used to the fact that Aston would be here every day. He would feel a bit lonely when Aston went away.

Aston didn't know how to answer, so he just nodded and started packing up the daggers he had forged today.

"Umm... Do you want to stay for dinner?" Calvin asked.

"Sorry. I have to meet up with Lewis," Aston answered as he kept packing his stuff up.

"No problem..." Calvin muttered. Seeing that Aston didn't have any intention of spending more time with them, he left the forge.

After Aston packed up, he left the forge for one last time.

"Now..." He muttered. Standing in front of the shop, he took out a paper from his pocket and read through it.

There was an address written on the paper.

After memorizing the address, Aston burnt down the paper with a lighter and started walking towards the address.

They would meet up with Song Lei at 8.30 p.m. So he had to finish his job before then. It took him nearly half an hour of walking before he arrived at his destination. It was a two-story house. It didn't have any discerning qualities from the others. If Aston didn't know what this place was, he would never be able to figure out there was something weird about this place.

Readying himself, Aston grabbed the handle of the throwing knife just in case he was attacked before knocking on the door.

*Knock

"I'm coming!" A crisp voice came from the house. Aston made sure that his grasp on the knife was good enough. Shortly after, the door in front of him was opened. A girl that seemed to be around twenty years old appeared in front of him.

She had mesmerizing blonde hair and blue eyes with a shapely face. On contrary to her elegant physical appearance, she was wearing casual pajamas. Seeing Aston, a wide smile appeared on her face. "Oh! You must be the kid that those people from my father's company mentioned. Please, come in."

Aston nodded and stepped inside the house.

The insides of the house were elegantly designed with a mix of black and white colors. It was easy to figure out that this house belonged to someone with both money and taste.

"My father is upstairs. I hope you can take a look at him," she said with a bit of mockery in her voice. Although this slightly pissed Aston off, he didn't mind it. After the girl started climbing the stairs, Aston closed the door behind him and started following her.

"Can you tell me more about the patient?" Aston asked.

"We don't know... No doctor has been able to identify what happened to him so..." The girl muttered with a bittersweet smile on her face.

"I see..." Aston muttered. He was currently doing a commissioned job.

Everything started five days ago when a person in black clothing broke into their house while Song Lei was away. This person was called William. He was working for a secret organization called the Secret Blood Order. Although this organization sounded very shady, Aston had no choice but to heed to their words. After all, he had been discovered. 

'I didn't expect them to be able to figure out the tools I made...' Aston thought. From what William had said, they had figured out the fact Aston was making and using tools that were related to soul energy.

From what he had said, this was a groundbreaking achievement. Although soul energy had been used by certain groups for nearly a thousand years in different ways, there had been no successful systematic research about it till now. Fortunately, Aston would occasionally destroy his research papers and burn them into his mind. If his research was to be seized by them, he would probably be discarded.

Now that they couldn't get a hold of his research and they couldn't torture all the information out of him, they just opted to use him as a tool. Today, he had to take a look at a patient that had been struck by a soul-related disease and try to figure out a cure. Aston's approach on souls and their properties was a revolution. If traditional soul practitioners were to take a look at his inventions, they would feel like primitives seeing guns for the first time.

This person was called Arthur Newman. He was a relative of one of the Secret Blood Order's executives.

After climbing the steps, the woman walking in front of Aston lead him towards a room. When they entered it, a grotesque smell filled Aston's nostrils, causing them to constrict for a few seconds.

"Sorry for the smell..." The woman muttered. "He didn't smell like this before. Now, it has turned into an unbearable stench like this. I don't know why this is happening..." She said. It was more like a monologue rather than an explanation.

"No problem. Step aside please," Aston said as he walked next to Arthur. Arthur was a black-haired male in his thirties. His body looked very young and well kept, however, he wouldn't wake up no matter which doctor tried to cure him. Another distinct aspect of his disease was this unbearable stench.

After getting used to the smell, Aston took out his soul monocle and placed it on his eye. After turning around a little bit, a grim expression appeared on his face.

"Step back a little bit. Things are going to get dirty...."