The notification for Truce floated in front of them, and they telepathically communicated with one another, considering the option. Both admitted that they really wanted to accept it, as Gargeth had answers they desperately needed, but there was something they needed more.
Power.
Around them, Spirit and Soul mana tinged the air, all of which would be incredibly useful to them. Now that Spirit Dei realized he could extract information on how to better pilot his form using Spirit Mana, he was reluctant to let it go. Gargeth also revealed that he would be terrible at combat, giving them a good fighting chance.
Physical Dei didn’t believe as much. He thought Spirit Dei was letting his greed get the better of him, as he had already been thoroughly defeated once. While it was true that two Dei’s would be better than one, Spirit Dei hadn’t even come close to defeating Gargeth. He believed they should seek a peaceful resolution, perhaps bargaining for part of the mana around them, despite their disadvantaged power.
For this reason, Physical Dei took the initiative in speaking to Gargeth this time.
“Before we accept this, we need an assurance: Who gets the Spirit and Soul mana in the air? We fought the Wraith, so I believe we should have it” While he was willing to compromise, he thought a strong starting position would be best.
He sensed a feeling of amusement exit the small ginger-flesh man that Gargeth was using to speak through before any words came out, but he clarified with his speaking Skill too. “I forget that you are young, new to the Spirit World. Melders do not take all of the Spirit mana, we function as filters for it. Our unique constitution allows us to draw all of the wild mana in the air into our bodies, and we take from it the meanings we desire, leaving most of it unchanged. Then, after drawing all of it in, we give the unused mana to the victors of the battle. Like this, most predators allow us to filter through their spoils, as we make it easier for them to collect.”
Confused, Physical Dei asked “I am not sure I get what you mean, you take some of the meanings from it?” He remembered how Spirit Dei said each point of the mana was infused with meaning, so they would only take part of it? The Melder also made it seem like this was a unique thing for them to do though.
“Allow me to clarify further, then give an example. Spirit Mana holds the memory of every previous Spirit who held it at some point. By drawing it into your body, you can uncover these secrets and techniques imbued into the mana, strengthening yourself. Essentially, each point of Mana is an infinite encyclopedia of every previous spirit, but you cannot read it endlessly. In order to uncover information from them, you must bind it to your soul in a permanent union. After one point of mana is bound, only then can the next be bound to you, and information must be discovered in linear order. One cannot access the deepest secrets of mana instantly, they must draw Spirit mana into themselves by the tens of thousands, slowly building up the foundation of their knowledge until the latent will of their spiritual ancestors deems them worthy, as one theory posits… although it isn’t fully clear why truths must be uncovered linearly.
“The only way to unbind this information is to have the mana torn from you, which will lead to Soul damage as well as a disruption of the Spiritual form. Because each point of mana holds such vast wells of information though, most of it goes unused, and this is where Melders come in.
“Melders are born when a Spirit with specialized knowledge dies, and its mana is not fully collected. A Spirit of the affinity Body was killed to create I, and we have the unique ability to permanently siphon knowledge of our domain from Spirit mana without binding the rest of it to ourselves. In my case, I will take all information regarding bodies, before delivering the concentrated Spirit mana to you.
“Most Spirits allow this, as they do not have to waste Spirit Mana on figuring out Spirit Collection techniques, which take around five to six hundred Spirit Mana to fully learn. A small amount in the long term, yet many Spirits do not have such mana to spare.
If you allow me to take the ambient mana into myself, I will permanently siphon all information on Body away, then give it to you. Unless you desire to learn more about bodies, such a deal would be considered optimal for us both.”
Dei thought on it, and realized now why the Spirit Mana from the Convection Wraith felt like pure Soul mana, as the Wraith had yet to seriously absorb any Spirit Mana. Since it only had his knowledge, the knowledge of Soul, it was functionally identical. Yet, when this Melder came along, its mana tasted different, as it held true Spirit mana that had passed through many entities.
Actually, why did the Spirit Mana feel like it held many meanings? Shouldn’t it only feel like information on Body?
“Why does your Spirit mana which we tore from you- sorry about that- feel like true Spirit mana, rather than singularly defined Spirit Mana?”
“I keep a layer of unbound Spirit Mana around the core of my being, as I do not wish to suffer Soul damage at the lightest scratch.”
Yea, now that he thought about it, it made some sense to not permanently damage his mind by continuously gaining and losing knowledge. He assumed that his [Astral Projection] didn’t suffer the same issue, as it wasn’t infused with knowledge. It would still damage or kill him if his Identity died, but scratches didn’t cause him to forget things.
“Then would you still be willing to give up that Spirit mana, despite it being a cushion?”
“Yes, your own mana in the air holds a new view on bodies which is hard to come by: the union of Physical and Spiritual bodies. I am one such case, but I struggle to find others to compare myself to.”
“You have a Physical body, yet you can enter the Spirit realm?” Dei questioned.
“I suppose you’ll have to accept the truce to find out” the Melder said, chuckling “I hope I could assuage your concerns enough to merit a discussion.”
Both Dei’s began communicating again, agreeing that a discussion on the Spirit World would be worth a small amount of concepts from the mana around them, and accepted the truce.
Physical Dei again took the lead in the discussion “what questions about us do you have?”
“It is that of an inconsistency in your body. I am familiar with your kind, Gem Dweller Humans, as they are quite common belowground in this section of the world. Their racial bonuses normally give them a slight Tremor Sense. Slight Darkvision, and the ability to mimic the color and texture of stone once they press their bodies against it, if it is close enough to their natural skin tone. On top of this, a mild Earth affinity gives them the ability to soften the materials they dig in to.
What confuses me about you, is that I detect racial bonuses that are both the same and different. Your organs are un evolved, but they are… more efficient? It is difficult to describe. Would you mind if I Identified the portions of your physical body that confuse me?”
Dei understood where this was coming from now, his upgraded Racial Abilities from the System. Now that he thought about it, shouldn’t his variant of “Gem Dweller” changed? All around him, the titles of the creatures gave away their racial abilities, but his had been changed, so his variant should have as well. Instead, it was the same, most likely because the System didn’t want him to be ostracized by his community as some sort of mutation. ‘Lot of good that did me’ he thought bitterly. Ultimately, he didn’t mind giving Gargeth access to this information. While it was a secret that he’d reincarnated, he felt that giving away pieces of the secret would be worth it to gain more information.
“You can Identify me, and I will tell you how it came to be as well.” While he didn’t have to volunteer that he knew where it came from, he wanted to garner enough goodwill for Gargeth to give back as well.
“Oh? This seems to be a mutation of your birth, but if you have more information on the circumstances surrounding it, all the better. I am now Identifying.”
Dei felt a shiver go up his spine as a wave passed over him. While it wasn’t painful, it felt like a doctor inspecting him while he was naked. It was uncomfortable, but the eye scanning him felt professional in every way, alleviating some of the discomfort from the vulnerability.
Once it was over, Gargeth began thinking aloud as well “Hmm, yes, you have typical Gem Dweller organs, but their efficiency is supernaturally enhanced. This would doubtlessly come with issues, as they are not fully integrated properly, but well worth it for such abilities. How did such a thing happen to you? It is clearly divine in nature, only Gods or the System would have such fine attention to detail”
“Well, you aren’t far off. Shortly before I was born, my body was bathed in a massive amount of Human mana, and the System used it to upgrade my racial abilities.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Gargeth sent waves of confusion “are you not a human? Human mana shouldn’t affect you at all.”
“Ah, I’m not entirely sure on how it works, but apparently if an unborn child somehow comes into contact with large amounts of Human mana, the System can use it to upgrade their Racial Abilities.”
“That is… weird. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Until now, I suppose, but it makes sense for an event as presented to be rare. A pregnant human would need to walk into a Human Convergence, an unlikely scenario given the rarity of Sapience Convergences. I do not sense any lies either, so I will take your word at face value. Very well, my curiosity is sated, do you have any questions? I will answer as best I can, but please remember that I am a spirit specializing in Body. I can grant basic information in general, but Body is where my specialties lie.”
“That's fine, I am sorely lacking in all information, so even basic will be helpful. I guess I should re-ask my previous question. Do you have a physical body? I thought Spirits would be intangible.”
Gargeth hummed, contemplating the question for a beat before answering “I should start from the beginning: What does the Spirit affinity represent? It’s clear that a Body affinity represents bodies, but a Spirit affinity is a bit deeper of a concept. Spirit is a derivative affinity for Soul, one of the two large aspects of it.
Soul is composed of two direct derivative affinities: Structure and Perception. Structure represents how the soul interacts with your body, either physical or intangible. The Spirit affinity appears when Soul is removed from Physical structure. The soul provides its own structure to abide by.”
Dei thought about it a bit more. Humans, and other animals, didn’t naturally have the Spirit affinity, as the Soul was given structure by their bodies, solid and unchanging. If they lost their body though, and the soul didn’t die, it would create its own body, in the form of a spirit.
It reminded him of his own Projection. Was he not a structureless representation of a Soul? But, in that case, why was the Skill part of the Soul affinity, rather than the Spirit affinity. On top of that, what did Gargeth mean by Perception abilities? He thought that Mind and Heart were the two derivative affinities of Soul.
“I have a Skill called Astral Projection, which gives me the ability to become a spirit. It is Soul affinity though, why? Also, what do you mean by Perception abilities? Do you mean Mind and Heart?”
“Ah little one, I see your projection. You are not becoming a spirit, merely something close to spirits. In order for it to be a true Spirit affinity Skill, you would need to be able to survive without your body, but such is not the case. If your body were to die while you projected somewhere else, you would still die. Because you are reliant on a physical body, you are not truly a Spirit, merely Spiritual in nature.
“To answer you on perception affinities, yes, Mind and Heart are related to what I mean. There are also more, lesser known perception-related abilities. In order to form a Soul-derivative Perception affinity, you must limit the Soul affinity by linking it to an outside concept. If you link the affinity of Soul to the affinity of Hindsight, it becomes Mind. If you link Soul to Love, it becomes Heart. You can even link specific concepts, creating narrow pathways to power that are terrifying nonetheless. By linking Soul to the Sleep affinity, a subset of Sloth, you can gain the Dream affinity. Soul, by itself, has no control over the outside world. By linking it to something else though, you lose the introspective aspects of it, but gain control over the concept you have linked it to, thus gaining something called a Controller affinity”
“Wait, Hindsight is a real affinity?”
“Yes, and devastatingly effective. It’s also referred to as the affinity of ‘logic.’ I’ve seen a Hindsight fighter, and I know I would not have survived if I’d drawn its ire. They are supernaturally effective at learning from every mistake, even during combat, meaning that the same attack never works twice.”
Gargeth let him process the information for a beat, before he continued with the lesson.
“Now, back to the original question: Do I have a physical body? The answer is yes. Yours is composed of flesh, bones, and blood. My main body is composed of flesh and ectoplasm, causing it to be a bit more malleable than a fully physical body. I’ve surrounded the physical parts in Spirit mana, using pseudo limbs where I believe harm might come to me in order to avoid wounds.
“While it may seem like the Spirit World is not physical in nature, this is not true. Instead, each layer is an echo of the last, disconnecting from generic laws of nature the further each echo goes down, becoming more conceptual each step of the way. There are many creatures with flesh and blood bodies that jump between the Spirit and Physical world.” Gargeth finished.
“Could I take my physical body into the Spirit world?” Dei asked.
“Not as you are now. Your Spiritual self is different from your Physical self, which allows you to separate in the first place. This is common among beings born with physical bodies, as the Structure aspect of their Soul is disconnected from their bodies. In order to enter the Spirit realm yourself, you must permanently tie your Soul to your Body. this would remove your ability to project, but you would become both Human and Spirit in nature. It is a difficult process, which you will need to learn by absorbing copious amounts of Spirit affinity mana.”
Hmm, that sounded like it had its ups and downs. That also brought up the question: why did he have such powerful Spirit Racial abilities? The System only upgraded his Human Racial abilities, not the Spiritual Racial abilities.
“Do you know why I have such powerful Racial Abilities when in my spirit form? The System only upgraded my Human abilities” he asked
“Yes, but I’m not telling you. That is far too complicated to get into right now, and you will discover it naturally anyway.”
Irritating, but he’d learned a lot already, and Gargeth guaranteed that he would figure it out eventually.
He knew what spirits were now, but he still wanted to know about their behavior. “Why don’t spirits come to the upper layers more often, like you have?” He wanted to find out, as it might be important in avoiding fights in the future. Was there a limit to how high a spirit could go?
“The levels of ambient Spirit mana. Have you noticed that it is nearly impossible to heal yourself on the surface? That is not the case further down. Spirits are able to easily absorb Spirit mana from the air to heal themselves, the only downside being that it is meaningless Spirit mana, holding no ancestral knowledge, as it is yet to be absorbed even a single time.
“The ambient levels of Spirit mana become more important the stronger one becomes, as Spirits use small amounts to maintain function of their bodies. Larger spirits will slowly lose structure the higher up they are, but they can maintain full strength for a time. A good analogy would be that the Physical world, where we reside currently, is a Spirit desert, while deeper levels become more lush and plentiful, to the point that spiritual plants begin growing around level three. Speaking of, I tire of existing on this plane. I have already finished collecting all ambient Soul and Spirit mana, siphoning my meanings out of it. I will tolerate one more question, but no more.”
He wanted to sigh, as Gargeth gave him little to no warning at the limit being reached. It felt very arbitrary to Dei, but he supposed he was mostly out of questions anyway. Gargeth openly said that he didn’t really know anything advanced about spirits anyway.
“What's something that you think would be useful for me but am unlikely to already know?”
Again, Gargeth became slightly contemplative, before answering “I sense that you are young for your kind and lonely, in other words you have no community to warn you of the dangers of growing quickly. I notice that you are stunted in non-mundane aspects of the body. I am guessing that you struggle to sense mana in the air, as well as souls around you, despite your Soul affinity?”
“What? Stunted? My body just grows quickly, while my other senses are developing slower. I have an ability called Growing Pains that allows my body to grow faster” Dei responded.
“Yes, and there is the issue. You are not the only social being that has been separated from their community. I’ve found that such beings mature faster, oftentimes forming Skills that assist them in doing so. The drawback to this, though, is that they sacrifice aspects of their bodies that are not needed to boost their survivability. In your case, you have sacrificed your mana pathways and soul sense to grow faster physically, as you need more muscles to fight beings down here.”
“Oh…” Dei answered dejectedly. It was true that he couldn't sense mana very well, and he could only see souls, when he looked at them directly. He guessed that he could see them because the System upgraded his eyes with [Darkvision], allowing his Soul Sight to develop properly, but only in that one organ.
He had, unwittingly, been relying on a Racial ability to perceive something he should be specialized in seeing, rather than the very mild sense he currently had.
He didn’t even know that he’d sacrificed something to help him grow, he didn’t have a frame of reference before now.
“Is there some way to undo it? Could I develop properly somehow?” he asked, hopeful.
“It isn’t permanent, unless you reach level one hundred in either Class or Profession. Reaching level one hundred is a milestone where your body will cut off what is unneeded in favor of boosting the abilities you rely on for survival. Remember this though, it is not necessarily bad to specialize your constitution. If you reach level one hundred, and make the changes permanent, your MP will decrease by half, and your HP will double, this would be an amazing trade off, if you need to become tougher, which I suspect you do if you are alone in the wild as a human.
“If you wish to undo the changes though, simply allow yourself to mature naturally before reaching level one hundred. I would suggest waiting to reach level one hundred in either Class or Profession until after you turn twenty years of age: do this, and your body will rebalance itself. Luckily, your accelerated growth does not coincide with accelerated aging. If you spend twenty years doing nothing, you will physically be twenty years old. Even now, your future lifespan has the potential any other year-old should have.
“Now, I hope my guidance has been helpful to you, but the ambient mana irritates the skin, and I must be going. Here are the promised spoils of battle, siphoned of all aspects pertaining to the body.”
From behind the ginger-flesh creature, Gargeths main body reached out a thin gangly arm to his Projection. His Projection held out its hand, and a small, liquid drop formed on the tip of Gargeths finger.
Even with his stunted senses, Dei felt the blazing sun of mana concentrated into a single place as it fell into his Projections hands, and was quickly absorbed into its body.
Physical Dei watched as Projection Dei blazed brilliantly, and Gargeth opened another fleshy-blob portal into the Spirit World.
He sent one more message from [Meaningful], saying “Thank you! Everything you’ve done for me has been incredibly helpful, and I hope we meet again someday to talk more.”
“Certainly, human child. I wish you good luck in your endeavors as well. Goodbye”
With the final message and a quick pop, Gargeth was gone, and Projection Dei was still processing all the information it absorbed.