You have become a [Chronicler of Departed Souls]
Death is not the End, but just another Beginning. You chronicle the lives of the departed, so that their lives would be remembered for an Eternity, that they may continue to exist beyond Death.
Gained +10 Mind +40 Soul
Gained Class Skill [Soul Manifestation]
Gained General Skill [Soul Sense]
Class Skill [Soul Bolt] Evolved into [Soul Armament]
Class Skill [Flesh is but a Vessel] Evolved into [The Body as a Weapon]
Naturally, the first thing Esperanza did was to take a peek at her status screen. She had already spent all of her free points prior to the class change, mostly keeping her Body somewhat close with the rest, as it started to lag behind. At the same time, she kept her other stats within tolerance to prevent negative effects from stats that were too lopsided, which was starting to become a risk with her Mind and Soul.
Name : Esperanza Marisol de Gonzalez Cabrera
Race : Human (?)
Age : 18
Class : [Spark of Hope Lvl20]/[Emissary of the Forgotten Lvl20]/[Chronicler of Departed Souls Lvl1]/???/???
Stats :
Free Major Stat Points: 0
Body : 59.33
- Strength : 59
- Dexterity : 59
- Constitution : 60
Mind : 74.66
- Intelligence : 60
- Perception : 64
- Wisdom : 100
Soul : 121.33
- Willpower : 89
- Intuition : 89
- Sanity : -186
Skills:
Class 1: [Spark of Hope]
* Far Down the Deep End :EX
* The Body as a Weapon: Lvl 8
* A Mask to Don: Lvl 5
* Consume: Lvl 9
* Gauze of Oblivion: Lvl 8
Class 2: [Emissary of the Forgotten]
* Shepherd of the Lost: Lvl 4
* Soul Storage: Lvl 4
* Soul Armament: Lvl 6
* A Lending of Power: Lvl 4
* Deprive the Wicked: Lvl 4
Class 3: [Chronicler of Departed Souls]
* Soul Manifestation: Lvl 1
* ???
* ???
* ???
* ???
General Skills:
* Respawn: EX
* A Glimpse of Understanding: Lvl 8
* Language Understanding: Lvl 6
* Gaze Unto the Abyss: EX
* Aura Mastery: Lvl 6
* Tracking: Lvl 8
* Quick Learner: Lvl 8
* Butchering: Lvl 5
* Poison Resistance: Lvl 6
* Soul Sight: Lvl 4
* Soul Sense: Lvl 1
* ???
* ???
* ???
* ???
Much like she had expected, two of her skills evolved, one from her first tier, and the other from her second tier. As it was an evolution of [Flesh is but a Vessel], [The Body as a Weapon] fulfilled the exact same role, just better. Where [A Mask to Don] was what allowed Esperanza to make the fine changes to her appearance like what passed for her hair and the better defined facial features, [The Body as a Weapon] was basically the skill that made her even better at fighting using her shapeshifting abilities.
While her Body stat was now on the lower end of the group – some of the more Body-focused Progenies had already matched if not passed hers – she still had additional bonuses from the skill which helped her in combat, and with the buff from [A Lending of Power] she was still more than capable of keeping up with them for the time being. It was clear that she might eventually fall off from that role, though.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
On the other hand, [Soul Bolt]’s evolution to [Soul Armament] gave her another way to make up for that, at least for the current tier. Where before the skill only allowed her to conjure bolts of soul energy that would be hurled at an opponent, the upgraded skill allowed her to condense the soul into a weapon that she could later attach to her body.
The condensed [Soul Armament] still dealt damage to the opponent’s soul, but it was no longer a one-use weapon, as it could linger and continue doing soul damage as long as it was “charged” with more souls to keep it in existence. As such, long term use of the skill in combat would drain quite a bit of souls, though it was a minor issue considering the thousands of souls that Esperanza had collected in her [Soul Storage] so far, only a minor portion of which were off limits for such purposes.
As for the new skills that came with her class, [Soul Sense] was quite straightforward. If [Soul Sight] allowed Esperanza to see the souls of beings in her line of sight, [Soul Sense] acted more like a radar that covered a rather large area even past her line of sight. Esperanza managed to get a general feel of the souls of every living being in that area through the skill, though it would take some practice – or levels – to be able to tell more details that way.
One reason that the skill was relatively harder to use was the fact that souls seem to vary quite a bit depending on what they belonged to. Regular animals had the smallest souls, though generally the larger the beast, the larger their soul. Monsters had even larger ones, but the largest of all were people by a good margin, though the souls of some larger monsters could satisfy her skill’s criteria and counted as “one” soul whereas some smaller ones only counted as fractions.
The arachnoid infested dungeon they were in made it even harder because out of every creature type, insectoids generally have the smallest souls. Out of all the arachnoids Esperanza had run into and fought, most had tiny souls despite their level and size, mostly only around the size of the soul of a large animal at best. The only exceptions were the queens and that one king, which all had souls that were particularly large even for monsters.
[Soul Manifestation] on the other hand was exactly what Esperanza hoped the skill would be.
It was a simple skill, probably limited by its low level, which only has one use at the moment. That use was to temporarily manifest a departed soul into the mortal realm, which would allow her – or anyone else around – to interact with the soul. The skill mentioned no side effect for the affected soul, but came with an unusual warning.
A warning that the realm of the soul is the demesne of the gods, and that excessive tinkering with it would draw their wrath upon the offending party.
Esperanza was not sure whether that warning was just one that came from the system, or whether the gods specifically placed it there. She did know that Oldies likely had some ability to dabble with souls, though, considering how they managed to “steal” hers from the summoning ritual. Given that the class was a rather natural progression of her path so far, and that her goal would go against those gods anyway, she decided that the warning was one that wouldn’t matter in the long run.
Her path would almost certainly involve a clash against those gods, since they would not stand quietly and just watch Oldies destroy the world either way, so what was earning their wrath worth compared to that? As it was, due to her connection with Oldies, Esperanza was pretty much already Persona Non Grata to the current gods anyway.
As Esperanza looked closer to [Soul Manifestation], she noticed that there were more limitations to the skill than she expected. For one, it had a long starting cooldown period of three days between each use. The skill was also mana-hungry, both to initiate and maintain, though given that Esperanza had grown plenty of Wisdom from her second tier, she had enough mana to sustain it for a decent while.
What the skill promised to do was to manifest souls of the dead. Normally she’d probably be limited to any remaining soul in the vicinity, but it turned out that the skill was also compatible with the souls in her [Soul Storage]. As far as she could tell, the souls would have no memory past their deaths, and would still be in the same mental state as their last moment of life. She could even manifest multiple souls at once, as long as her own Soul – which acted as the conduit – could manage it. Fortunately that was where Esperanza was best at.
Some minor experimentations made her certain that for the moment, she could manifest four souls at a time at most. It then came down to the choice of who to manifest, as ideally she wished to help the Progenies to see their late friends and parents once more, at the very least. In the end, though, Esperanza went for a more pragmatic choice, considering that it was the first time she would attempt this.
Most of the souls in her storage felt like they were in a panic or otherwise in distress, which was no surprise considering the circumstances of their deaths. Amongst those, however, there were a few souls that were calmer, the emotion she could “feel” out of them more one tinged with worry, not for themselves – they likely had accepted that they were dying – but for others.
Those souls belonged to Kvar-Litu and several of the older children they had lost in the forest during their first trip through the dungeon, the very same ones now buried beneath the lone headstone in the middle of their encampment. As such, Esperanza finally settled her choice on them for the first souls she would attempt to manifest.
First of all though, she gathered the Progenies and Iryl, and told them of what she was about to do. They naturally had deeper relations with those who had died compared to Esperanza, who had only been a guest at their village for a short while. Everyone had solemn looks on their faces when they heard about the possibility of being able to see the dead again, a mixture of hope and fear warring in their features, but eventually they all nodded in agreement.
They wished to see and talk with those already departed once more, should it be possible.
After the group gathered around the headstone – Esperanza had also briefed Ani on what she was about to do, though the warrior woman chose to stay on guard further away as she felt that she should not intrude in such a private moment – Esperanza finally went through the motions and channeled the skill, feeling how the souls she had chosen were pulled out from her [Soul Storage] and brought back into the world.
It felt simultaneously like a very wrong yet very right thing to do for some reason.
Moments passed before eventually four nearly translucent figures that appeared almost as if they were mere illusions one tricked themselves into seeing in what looked like thin wisps of smoke came into being in the air. While it was somewhat difficult to tell with the vague nature of the shape they took, the figures were still identifiable as Kvar-Litu and three of the children who had lost their lives defending the rest.
Why- Why am I here once more? I recall that I died- wait- why are you all still here?
Rather than a voice, it was almost as if the gathered Progenies and Esperanza could hear Kvar-Litu’s words with their souls instead. Kvar-Litu seemed mostly bewildered at first, before his tone shifted to a worried one. As for the three children that manifested with him, they seemed to take in their surroundings with some wariness and confusion, and not a little worry as well.
“We’ve grown stronger,” replied Esperanza out loud, though she was uncertain whether the souls would be able to hear her properly that way or not. When Kvar-Litu and the children seemed to have heard her words, she continued. “We returned here to reach our third tiers, and to clear this dungeon while we’re at it. We also returned… so that we can retrieve your remains and take it back with us.”
A wave of relief seemed to emanate from all the souls, together with a cacophony of “voices” as all four souls started speaking out in tandem.
I’m so glad-
Thank the deities-
We did not die pointlessly-
Thank you, messenger, thank you-
That wave of relief matched one that flooded the hearts of the gathered progenies and Esperanza herself. They had always harbored some worry that those they had lost would blame them for their failure to keep them safe, something all of them had seen as a personal failing that still haunted them even to the present day in their nightmares.
To hear the thankful gratitude from the very people they had failed to protect, gratitude that they carried on and kept themselves and the remaining ones safe, was a much needed balm for their souls.