Luke wasn’t angry anymore. He wasn’t really angry at Mash either. He had just been surprised by the skill. Apparently, he could see more about the creatures that Mash made than he could. He was sweating a little and rubbed at the side of his head. Although that was likely due to the cyclical nature of their conversation thus far. Luke had tried to explain what he saw, what had set him off so dramatically, and failed. Luke was too stunned to speak with sense, which forced them to rehash the same question multiple times.

“What do you mean by a bland soul?”

Mash's voice held a little irritation. Luke had said that the soul he could see within the dragon was empty, blank, and now bland. None of that meant anything to Mash or the others. Thus, he repeated his question for the third time now.

“Stop! Don’t just answer stupidly.”

It was a rare occurrence when Red snapped at someone. She seemed thoroughly annoyed at the back and forth that Mash and Luke had been having. That was fair. Luke paused and took a deep breath. He let it out slowly, then took one more before starting.

“Sorry, I was still panicking a little. Mash’s skill seems to make living beings. The dragon over there has a soul, but it's not like ours. Our souls fill our bodies completely and are colorful, unique. No two souls are exactly the same. The shape, color, and purity are all different. Mash’s for example is messy; it has a bunch of colors and constantly shifts. There is no consistency in his soul. Red, yours, on the other hand, is a mix of red and black. It acts almost like a liquid that has filled your body. Jill’s looks like it’s made of yarn, and the color is a pure dark purple. Mine is gold, pure, and it extends beyond my physical body.”

Luke took another breath and finally seemed to calm down. For his part, Mash had some time to consider what Luke meant. It seemed like Luke can get a lot of information from someone’s soul. He should probably learn how to read people’s abilities from their souls. That would be a welcome improvement. None of them had any good ways of discerning their opponents’ abilities, and this sounded like it could work.

“That thing’s soul is empty. It has no shape or form either. It barely even fills the creature too. Its soul feels fake, artificial.”

Luke wasn’t done speaking, but Jill interjected.

“Wait, does that mean? Is his creation alive?”

Luke shook his head and explained.

“It is alive, but like halfway. Imagine a complex golem or summoning, but with more life. It's probably like that. The problem is that what he’s doing is dangerously close to necromancy. I’ve seen undead before, and this…”

Luke’s words ended, and he shivered at the mention of necromancy. The unsaid words were known by everyone, but Mash didn’t really care. Honestly, hearing that they were similar to undead was a huge relief. It made him more comfortable with using them. Undead were ultimately mindless creations. That wasn’t the right word for it, but he couldn’t think of anything better. There was some undead with the capacity to think, but they lacked things like emotion. They didn’t have desires other than slaughter as far as he knew. If Mash’s creations were like that, then it wouldn’t weigh on his conscience. His shoulders sagged as relief washed over him. That didn’t go unnoticed by anyone.

“Your creations are like the undead, but not the exact same. I don’t know what you should do with them, but you should decide now.”

Luke was being stern. He seemed to put a lot of importance on the skill, or rather on Mash to make a firm decision. Jill and Red both nodded along. Red added her own suggestion as well.

“I think you should just treat them as advanced golems for now. You can probably change the skill later to make it like that.”

Mash shared the opinion but was surprised to hear the confidence she had in him. She seemed to fully believe that his skills would continue to change and that he would have some control over them. Fifty-One made it sound like a near impossible task, and the others still hadn’t managed it. Despite all of that, Mash agreed with the Red. He would probably be able to alter the skill again in the future. Even still there was something he wanted to test before coming to a decision.

“Wait, I want to test my skills on it.”

Mash said the words as he summoned the dragon to him. It listened to his command, and it walked over to him slowly. The creation couldn’t feel pain. Priscilla had coerced Mash into adding that. She suggested that it was mandatory and that she herself couldn’t really feel pain. Mash hesitated only slightly but acknowledged the advice. His own skills prevented a lot of the pain he felt, and he often considered if he could remove his own sensation. Oddly, Priscilla told him not to do that. Well, he could always change it later.

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He slowly reached out and tore off a piece of the wood on his creation. It started slowly regrowing as soon as he did. The draconic creation didn’t acknowledge him in the slightest. It didn’t even notice him tear out the chunk of wood. Mash looked at the piece of wood in his palm. It was rough. Well, actually it was just a piece of bark. There was little special about it now. Mash grimaced and stuffed the small piece into his mouth. He didn’t really want to use any extra energy, and he could eat it easily enough.

The wood crunched as he chewed it. The result was somewhat expected. That being that he ate a piece of wood. It didn’t raise his stats or help him recover any energy. It was that moment when he accepted that his creatures weren’t truly alive. They were at best some kind of hybrid. Probably closer to undead like Luke had suggested. Honestly, Mash thought that even the undead would work for his skills so his creations might even be more like a golem.

His relief was palpable, and they returned to the training arena after talking some more. Mash shared his experience, and how he managed to upgrade his skill with the others. He tried to give them all of the details. He didn’t know if they could replicate it, but it was better than nothing. After the discussion, Mash had recovered enough to open a portal back.

The arena was much as they had left it. All four of them entered, but he left the dragon behind. He ordered it to just stick near the large tree and fly around. It would be a test too. He wanted to make sure that it would listen to his commands indefinitely. Plus, it would be a good way to test if it decayed or not. Previously, he would need to rely on the special wood granted by his treant-form to make self-sustaining imitations, but he felt like this was a step up from that.

Mash saw the others in the arena. Fifty-One was just standing around, and the two foreigners were working on their own thing. Every head turned as they returned. Mash wondered why Fifty-One wasn’t bothering the others like he did with them. It was strange, but he didn’t worry about it. Instead, he just waved toward Fifty-One.

“Hey, I’m back. Do you have any more food?”

Mash could have easily made his own meal, but the food that Fifty-One had brought out earlier had been good. He wanted to get some more of it if he could. The masked man nodded briefly and opened his storage space. He began setting some food out, but Mash could tell that he was just waiting for an opportunity to talk.

Mash walked over as Fifty-One finished setting out the food. When he got closer, Fifty-One spoke. His voice was eager, curious to the point that he abandoned his annoying pretentiousness.

“Did you really do it?”

It was a little startling to hear the man sound normal. Mash paused as he realized that most of the man’s attitude thus far had been an act. Why? Mash decided to just ignore it and answered simply.

“Yup, two skills in fact.”

Fifty-One had been looking for the table, but his head snapped up fast when Mash spoke. Mash wished that the man wasn’t wearing a mask. He bet that the man had quite the expression on his face, but the mask spoiled the moment of surprise. Still, Mash took some satisfaction in the way the man froze up. Mash pushed back one of the chairs at the table and sat down while he processed the information. His friends were taking their own seats at the partially readied table. After a few seconds, Fifty-One seemed to shake himself out of his surprise and he finished setting the table in a few seconds. Mash would’ve offered to help, but the food was in his storage space, and it was widely considered rude to enter someone else’s storage space.

The two foreigners had walked over as well, and the southerner spoke. His accent was thick, but Mash could feel the contempt behind his words.

“You expect us to simply trust your word?”

The man was still trying to act haughty despite failing where Mash had succeeded. His poorly kept jealousy was written plain on his face. Mash was smarter than to defend himself pointlessly. Fifty-One seemed to trust what Mash had said and that was enough. Instead, Mash chose to do something far more smug. He smirked wickedly and tilted his chin up slightly as he looked at the foreigner. It worked. The man's face remained somewhat calm, but his eyes burned with hatred. Mash was goading him a bit, but that reaction seemed a little extreme. They were saved from a confrontation as Timor, the northerner asked a question.

“Do you have any ideas about what to do?”

He repeated the words Mash had said earlier. Timor was a much friendlier person than the still unnamed southerner, and Mash was glad to engage with him. While he knew that his advice would be heard by both, he didn’t really care. Mash didn’t like the southerner, but he didn’t really care about sharing his advice. It kind of felt like he was bragging, and he liked the feeling. So, he repeated his explanation again. He had told his friends of his experience. How he felt that moment of inspiration and had felt like he could push his skills further. That moment had pushed him, and he had lost track of everything as he worked on his skill. He didn’t have more advice to give, but it seemed like his words were enough. Timor nodded graciously, and Mash noticed the southerner’s expression change a little as he listened.

Then Fifty-One finally seemed ready to reengage with the group. He had been oddly silent, but now he joined Mash in his explanation. He returned to his earlier attitude and bragged openly, as he explained the experience himself. Fifty-One claimed that he had experienced something similar dozens of times and bragged about how much he had managed to upgrade. He didn’t go into the specifics of his skills, and neither did Mash for that matter. They did explain what they could though.