Volume 2 Chapter 3: Soul Mana_Harem Reaper

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Elven Sailing (Lvl. 1 0%): The ability to steer and control a living ship using mana. Doubles as regular sailing. At higher skill levels, wind manipulation is possible.

Costs 5 mana per second to captain a living ship.[/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Elven Navigation (Lvl. 1 0%): Using the flows of mana within the ocean, earth, heavens, and skies you can determine which routes are safer. Allows you to navigate on any kind of ship and even on land, without a map. At higher skill levels it becomes possible to feel the mana flowing through living creatures from a great distance and predict the best route to avoid or encounter them.

Costs 1 mana per second when Elven Navigation is toggled on.[/col][/box]

Azrael had finally found the trainers, even though she never actually spoke or released her invisibility, Nyx was able to learn the two skills as well. They were definitely better than the regular versions but pretty useless to someone who didn’t have really good mana regeneration or a huge mana pool. When the two were walking out of the city’s northern gate, they heard a bunch of birds squawking at them from the sky. He immediately thought ‘For fuck’s sake! These damn birds better not ask me to go stop the apocalypse!’ but then he recognized one of them.

There was a giant golden eagle, flying next to a normal sized black crow and on the other side was a brown duck that was just free falling towards him. The crow landed on the top of the gate, the Golden eagle elegantly transformed into a beautiful golden elf as she slowed down and landed in front of him, then the duck crashed into his face and nearly died. He gently caught the falling duck and said “I hope you made antidotes for these transformation potions…” in a worried voice.

Freya laughed and said “What kind of novice needs an antidote potion! They just need to use their mana to release the effect!” in a confident voice. The black crow transformed into a beautiful female dwarf who was sitting on the top of the gate but the duck was just quacking loudly.

Azrael yelled “Peri! It’s been a long time! I need you to go tell the others that they have 3 in game years to help me prevent the apocalypse! We’re probably going to need Bunny and Odin too! By the way, what has ceda been up to?” in a moderately loud voice, to the dwarf who was trying to find a way down off the 20 ft tall gate.

Peri yelled down to him “Oh hi Plague! Yea, I’m not really surprised… but its going to be pretty difficult to convince Bunny to help us! Also, Ceda’s doing some class quest in the caldera of a volcano…” in a completely emotionless voice. Azrael equipt his gigantic siege blade in his left hand and held it up to the top of the gate, Peri was able to jump onto it and slide down to a distance he could safely jump to the ground.

After putting his sword away, Azrael said “You should go say hi to Osmond, I think he was in Forewarning but I still haven’t been able to figure out who the hell he was. He’s the village chief, tell him I had to leave… timed quest to save the world or something like that.” in an irritated voice as he turned around and started walking into the forest.

After a few minutes, the cotton vine kitten attempted to assassinate the brown duck who still couldn’t figure out how to break the transformation. It was a brutal assault from the kitten, but it eventually got distracted by a butterfly and went back to Azrael’s shoulder. After a few hours of walking, they reached the beautiful, bloodstained beach full of wreckage, abandoned loot, burned down huts, and ghosts. The souls of the NPC sailors who were massacred by the fairy pirates and the dark elf warriors who couldn’t protect their families were trapped on the beach, forced to keep fighting, but unable to actually kill each other.

Freya sighed and said “Spirits are so annoying, maybe we should find a less populated beach, to do whatever the hell we came here for…” in an irritated voice.

Azrael said “I would, but my class is Angel… it’s kind of like my part-time job to help those annoying ass-hats find peace and go on to be reincarnated or some such shit. I don’t really remember everything Matallost told me… actually, I’m 99% sure that I just hallucinated him talking to me but the hallucination definitely said it was important. You guys might want to stay back… and cover your ears.” in an excited voice as he handed the duck and kitten to Freya, then walked over to the relatively small battle that was raging in front of them. He sucked in as much air as possible while avoiding the ghostly blades swiping by his body, then yelled “Fuck off!” in a voice so loud that all of the spirits exploded into a swirling vortex of red light, that was subsequently sucked up into the sky.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]You have used Voice of Death! 679 angry sailor spirits have been purified, 1728 angry dark elf villagers have been purified! -4500 mana[/col][/box]

Since he didn’t feel like naming them individually or deciding their new bodies, it was all just randomly generated. However, there were still more spirits left in the burned down village who weren’t affected. He finally realized why there were some charred bodies that hadn’t disappeared, when he bent down to investigate a corpse and received a class quest.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Sacrificial Healing!

Death isn’t as simple as most people believe! Through great sacrifice it is possible to heal those who are long dead, yet still cling to life. However, not many have the conviction to sacrifice their own experience and life force to give a complete stranger a second chance at life.

Rank: ??

Reward: Karma, Faith, Fame, Unknown

Requirements: Resurrect at least 7 Dark Elves.

Optional: Resurrect 21 Dark Elves.[/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Sacrificial Healing (Lvl. 3 0%): You can give up a large portion of your own health to heal someone else. At higher skill levels it can be used in reverse.

Costs 450 health per second to heal 125 health per second.

You have discovered the secret capabilities of this skill, Sacrificial Resurrection. It’s not a separate skill, so it can increase in power and efficiency even if it’s not used. By sacrificing even more than health, it’s possible to bring dead NPCs with strong willpower back from the dead. When used on NPCs with good or neutral karma who aren’t followers, Faith, Karma and Fame increase.

Always costs 1 level regardless of the targets level. Costs 1 mana, stamina and health equal to 300% of their maximum and 1 point of Faith for each of their levels. Warning: It is possible to use less faith and still successfully resurrect an NPC, but their level will only equal the faith sacrificed.[/col][/box]

It was a great skill, but it came at a terrible price, levels. However, with Azrael’s OCD it was impossible to refuse a quest, or to avoid doing even optional parts. He didn’t even care about the rewards, he just liked filling up his completed quests window and quickly finishing his current quests. He yelled out “Who’s body is this?” in an angry voice, but no one responded. After walking over to the body of what looked like a small child he yelled again “If you want to be brought back from the dead, get your ectoplasmic asses over to your bodies!” in an angrier voice.

Meanwhile, Freya was busy scooping up globs of ectoplasm off the beach that looked like red jellyfish. So-Ra was fleeing from the kitten who couldn’t suppress its instinct to murder the brown duck. Nyx was standing behind Freya, holding a certain dagger while asking herself ‘Who is this beautiful woman? How does she know Azrael? Are they lovers? What are lovers anyway? Why do I want to kill her so badly?’ because she was obviously jealous and had no idea what that even meant.

The blue spirit of a little girl finally walked up to the charred remains and laid down inside of it. Azrael began to channel his life force and experience into the girls body, it felt a lot like being really thirsty and only having salt water to drink. His head was pounding and he felt extremely nauseous, it definitely wasn’t as easy as regular Sacrificial Healing. However, after a few minutes the girls charred body began to appear less like a humanoid chunk of charcoal and more like a Dark Elf girl with horrible scars all over her body.

-1 level, all stat points lost will be regained at the next level up.

-150 health -300 mana -150 stamina

+30 Faith +30 Fame +30 Karma[/col][/box]

After she started breathing and her heart began to beat she said “Mama? Papa? I’m scared, where are you?” in a hoarse voice as she attempted to look around, but her eyes weren’t restored yet.

Azrael said “Calm down kid, don’t speak yet, I’m not done healing you.” in a gentle voice as he continued to funnel his health into her body, healing her completely, except for a few scars.

When Lorelei was finally healed, what she saw first was a man who looked similar to the people who murdered her family and friends. However, there was something dramatically different about him, he was huge. Normal humans were a typically a little taller than dark elves but this man was practically twice the size of an adult dark elf. He was kneeling down, but he was still taller than she was when she stood up. There was a gigantic blade that was stabbed into the sand next to him, it even seemed to be alive somehow. She said “What happened? The last thing I remember was seeing my parents burning, then… pain. Who are you?” in a curious voice as the giant man stood up and towered over her.

Azrael sighed and said “Listen kid, I’m sorry about your parents but I’ve got a lot of work to do. You were just the first, I still have 20 more people to heal… about a couple hundred villagers escaped. They’re living with the Sharp Tooth tribe to the south, after i’m done here I’ll escort you all back to the city.” in a deep voice that made her teeth vibrate uncomfortably.

Lorelei was surprised that anyone survived but even more so that they were living with orcs. She never really understood why, but the adults would always tell stories about how terrible and disgusting the orcs were. One of them was that long ago, there was a race of green elves who would kill and eat other elves, but after massacring a dark elf village, a powerful witch who lived there cast a curse upon their whole race. They transformed into hideous and incredibly stupid creatures that were much stronger than before but could no longer use magic or crafting skills. The moral of the story was to not be a cannibalistic murderer… or something like that.

She followed Azrael around as he continued to bring the dead back to life, but no one thanked him. Lorelei wanted to cry when she saw how some of the villagers he healed, would scream in fear and hide from him, or become angry that he brought them back even though their children couldn’t be saved. Every time he healed someone, she could actually see his power flowing into them, it was obvious that he was becoming weaker each time and yet he still continued. After the 20th person was brought back to life and healed as much as possible, he gathered them together.

Azrael sighed and said “Listen up, there are 21 of you, some of which are actually around level 30 and warriors. I’m too fucking tired to walk all the way back to the city right now, so good luck and try not to die again. By the way, to the ungrateful pieces of shit who yelled at me earlier, get over yourselves. If you didn’t want to be brought back to life, then why the fuck did you beg me to do it in the first place? Now fuck off, I’ve got shit to do and you’re all annoying the hell outta me!” in an angry and tired voice, then he started coughing up massive amounts of blood. Everyone but Lorelei quickly left the village and headed towards the forest.

Lorelei walked up to Azrael and said “Are you going to be ok?” in a worried voice, he was bleeding out of his eyes, ears and nose profusely while continuing to cough up blood. He was back to level 100 again but he actually ended up gaining 111 Faith, since most of the people he brought back were only level 1.

Azrael smiled and said “Now I just have to figure out how to turn in the quest.” in a happy voice, as he completely ignored the little girl and walked back to the first corpse he found. She followed him and what they both found was a beautiful dark elf woman’s spirit hovering over her own charred corpse.

Lorelei ran over to the spirit and yelled “Mama!” in a happy voice as she hugged the barely physical body.

The ghost smiled and said “Thank you, kind envoy of the Gods. I’m ready pay the price for your services now. Lorelei, your mother loves you very much. I, Liesl, offer my soul to the envoy of the Gods, Azrael.” in a happy voice as she vanished in a bright flash of blinding white light.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]You have absorbed the soul of Liesl, mother of Lorelei! As long as you hold her soul within your body, you will have maternal feelings for Lorelei and occasionally be able to speak with Liesl.

+1 Soul Mana[/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Quest Complete!

You have leveled up 5 times!

+1000 Fame

+1000 Karma

+250 Faith

You have acquired a new class specific skill, Soul Absorption!

You have acquired a new class specific stat, Soul Mana![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Soul Absorption (Lvl. 1 0%): After a named NPC dies, its soul is vulnerable. You can absorb it to increase your Soul Mana pool. Absorbing souls is extremely dangerous and will greatly impact your karma and faith. Warning: Souls cannot be destroyed! Any soul absorbed will remain inside your avatar until you release it.

Costs 2000 mana, stamina and a health to absorb a soul.[/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Soul Mana: Like regular mana, it regenerates over time, but regeneration only starts after your mana pool is completely full. Each point of soul mana is equivalent to your current maximum mana, so it takes a very long time to regenerate even 1 point. When your mana is completely drained, 1 soul mana is used to refill your regular mana pool. Warning: Soul’s tend to be extremely annoying![/col][/box]

Lorelei yelled “No mama! Please don’t leave me!” as she tried to hold onto the ghostly body that was disappearing, but all she ended up with was a bunch of glowing white ectoplasm… which looked exactly as disgusting as it sounded.

Azrael yelled “Terfuckingrific! Twenty-one levels and now I get soul raped by some random ghost! Thank you, I always wanted to be a mother!” in an angry and sarcastic voice as he started crying blood again, but then he realized how useful the two abilities could be after reading the windows that blocked his vision.

While she was crying and trying to wipe the gross slimy radioactive looking goop off her body and tattered clothes, a strange woman with golden skin appeared before her. In what seemed like an instant, all the goo was quickly wiped off her body into a glass vial in the woman’s hand. Lorelei said “What are you going to do with that?” in a curious voice as she looked at the smiling elven woman.

She said “Lunch.” in an excited voice as she skipped over to Azrael and said “Wow, you look terrible! So what did you come to this beach for anyway?” while collecting the blood dripping out of his eyes in two separate vials at the same time.

Azrael said “I was just going to start growing a ship, but I need to rest for a little while first… also, can you please help So-Ra get out of that duck body?” in a tired voice as he slowly walked out of the village, while dragging his giant sword behind him.

Lorelei followed after them as they trekked quietly across the bloody beach until finally, they came across a brutal battle between a kitten and a duck. They both struggled but were unable to harm each other and after they became too tired to continue fighting, the duck transformed into a human woman. So-Ra yelled “Finally! Michael! Why did you leave me alone with this evil bitch?!” in an angry voice as she glared at Freya. Lorelei would have normally been terrified of humans, but since she was originally a duck and also friends with Azrael, she wasn’t even slightly afraid.

She said “Who are you people anyway?” in a curious voice as she looked at each of them, then she noticed a strange mana flow behind Azrael, it was a strong concentration but there was nothing there. Most elves have a strong connection to mana and can usually detect it without much effort, but since Nyx was used to hiding from dark elves, it was strange that the little girl could see through her spell. Perhaps it had something to do with the life force she received from Azrael, but her senses were much stronger than normal. Lorelei pointed to the invisible girl and said “Azrael, I think someone is behind you…” in a worried voice.

Freya said “Yea, it’s some kind of dark orc… mostly dark elf though. She is rather interesting, I noticed her trying to kill me earlier. Is she your pet? Or perhaps more like a toy?” in a curious voice, with an evil grin across her face while looking directly at the confused Nyx.

Azrael sighed and said “Ok, that's enough… Nyx, don’t kill anyone in our party please. Freya and So-Ra, try to stop being so annoying. Lorelei, we’re a party of adventurers, kinda… I need to find some tree called Yggdrasil and keep it from being destroyed or the world will end. Freya, where the fuck is it? I know you know.” in an irritated voice as he glared at each of them, including Nyx.

So-Ra yelled “What do you mean the world will end?! What the hell did you do this time!?” in a frantic voice.

Lorelei said “Wait, so the worlds going to end right after you brought me back to life?” with a disappointed look on her face.

Azrael said “Well, we do have 3 years to find it…” in a hopeful voice.

Freya sighed and said “It’s somewhere… on an island that moves constantly and it’s invisible. You have to ummm… do some stuff? There’s like a barrier or something, maybe? I’m pretty sure there’s a way to find it in Atlantis, so lets just go there.” in a serious voice.

So-Ra yelled “How the hell are we going to do that?! Atlantis is on the bottom of the ocean! It’s one of the 10 restricted zones that have over level 500 monsters just wandering around… oh and did I mention its on the bottom of the fucking ocean?!” in an extremely concerned voice but Freya and Azrael were completely unfazed.

Azrael laughed and said “Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m already level 100, I only need to get a couple hundred more levels before then. Anyway, stop being so noisy and go gather me some good tree seeds. Get as many as possible, I need to grow a ship… not quite sure how many magically enhanced trees that’ll take.” as he laid down on a non-bloodsoaked patch of sand and closed his eyes. The kitten went to sleep on his chest and he lost consciousness in-game for the first time since fishing hell with Matallost. While the others were in the woods searching for seeds, he was have a very interesting dream.

He suddenly found himself standing in a huge field of green grass… but it wasn’t really grass, it was actually leaves. They were hardened and even though he was walking on them, they didn’t give way, it felt more like walking on concrete. When he looked up, the moon was directly above him and it appeared much closer than usual. He thought that he might have been standing on a mountain, but he quickly realized that it was just a gigantic tree. There was a beautiful fairy woman kneeling down to his right, her eyes were closed and she had a worried expression on her face. Azrael tried to speak but couldn’t, then he saw a shadowy figure standing behind the woman, holding a scythe with glowing blue runes all over the blade. It looked at him, without eyes or a face… it was more of a metaphorical ‘look’ but to the borderline schizophrenic Azrael, it looked like Matallost was sad.

The generic God of Death was whispering something to the sleeping fairy and then it swung the scythe, decapitating her beautiful head. It twirled around through the air, spraying plenty of blue blood just about everywhere and then landed in his hands. It’s eyes opened and then he woke up to the sound of loud meowing, with a cute white kitten staring at him. Apparently it was feeding time, he had to use mana to heat some salt water to desalinate it, then using mana shield he collected the water in its gaseous form and used mana to also cool it back down quickly.

He gave the water to the kitten, along with small doses of mana for it to consume, everything else it could easily get by itself. It was so cute, yet for some strange reason it has the power to issue quests… he sighed and said “You’re the fairy on top of the tree, right?” while looking into its clueless little glowing eyes. Even though it was possessed earlier, the fairy only had enough power to control it’s body for a few minutes a day. She was simply watching helplessly through the eyes of the adorably stupid plant-animal creature, as it went through the hourly routine of napping, eating and trying to ruthless murder anything weaker than itself.

Azrael was feeling great, now that he slept for a few in-game hours, his health, mana and stamina were completely restored. He stood up and the kitten climbed onto his shoulder as he turned towards the forest. It was early in the morning, but the sun was already pretty bright. The three women and one little girl were coming towards him, carrying large bags full of seeds. Freya was too busy harvesting herbs, mushrooms and other random alchemy related items to actually search for seeds, but there were still at least a couple hundred. He yelled “I should have said to get me a couple handfuls! With all those seeds I could probably grow a fleet of ships!” in a sarcastic voice but then he realized something. If he just made a ship right away with his low skill level, it would be terrible and he would have to replace it pretty quickly.

He smiled and said “Never-mind, this is perfect, thank you very much.” as he took the 3 bags full of at least 400 seeds. Azrael briskly walked back over to the charcoal filled part of the beach that used to be a rather large fishing village. He started at the entrance, where he planted several seeds into the ground with a few feet in-between, they were seeds from the large trees that made up the forest. After concentrating a decent amount of mana into all of them at the same time, they started to grow at a rapid pace. It took a few minutes to become saplings, but then only a few seconds to start resembling trees. The trees meshed together to create a singular, stronger tree that had a small opening near the bottom that elves and orcs could fit through, it was too small for him though. It took an hour and all of his mana, but he finally finished the large gateway tree.

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[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]You have grown an Archway Quadra Tree!

This magically grown tree is much stronger and sturdier than normal and has the ability to create a mana shield to prevent enemies from entering the town. It is still young and fragile but will eventually become much more durable and capable of using higher level magic. Since you used mana sculpting to give it shape, it is technically considered a sculpture. This is an uncommon piece.

Health: 5000 Mana: 3000

Artistic value: 75

Natural value: 230[/col][/box]

Mana Sculpting proficiency has increased!

Mana Manipulation proficiency has increased!

Mana Growth has increased to level 2![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Art has increased by 30

Creativity has increased by 15

Fame has increased by 20

Natural Affinity has increased by 15[/col][/box]

It seemed like everything involving mana crafting took a massive amount of similar skills to create anything, which meant you had to multitask… constantly. After recovering his mana by drinking some disgusting blue fluids that Freya prepared for him, he began to grow the rest of the wall. All he really did was plant a bunch of trees in close proximity to each other and fuse them together into one gigantic wall-tree, it definitely looked a bit strange. On the opposite side of town he made another gate and to the far north, where the fishing piers were, he created large and wide branches that extended 40 meters to the north. By reinforcing them with thick vines, he managed to create new piers that hovered almost 10 meters over the crashing waves. He had begun creating his magical tree fortress, which had easy fishing access without ever having to actually leave the safety of it’s walls.

Azrael managed to create a desalination plant that was actually a plant, it would take in salt water from the ocean and convert it into fresh water. The plant was completely under the beach and distributed the water to the roots of the fortress. He had to take a lot of breaks to regain mana, so it had already been a week when he finished the wall. That’s when Osmond, Dala, 100 orcs and 50 dark elves came to start rebuilding the village. It was unbelievable, the beach was still dyed red and there was plenty of wreckage from the conflict, but there was an enormous tree where the charred remains of a village should have been.

Dala was shocked, she said “I don’t understand… how could such a thing exist?” in a confused voice as she gazed upon the strange, solid tree-wall. She walked up to it and placed her hand upon its bark to prove to herself that it wasn’t an illusion.

Osmond yelled “Over here! I found the entrance!” as he tried to walk through the open archway, but suddenly a mana shield appeared and blocked his way.

Dala said “It’s a magical barrier… perhaps we need permission to enter?” in a worried voice as she looked around the inside of the archway.

Osmond smiled and said “Plagued one.” in a calm voice and the shield disappeared.

Dala laughed and said “How did you know that would work?” in an excited voice as she hugged him from behind. Apparently, Osmond moves pretty fast… or maybe elves are just easy?

They all entered the walls and saw what they originally expected, a lot of ashes and charred wood strewn about. Although, instead of sand, the ground was covered in thick roots that were strangely even and were surprisingly comfortable to walk on. In the center of the town, Azrael was channeling mana into a small tree that was growing very quickly.

Dala was about to call out to him but Osmond said “Don’t make him lose concentration, who knows what might happen…” in a worried voice and she quickly realized why when the tree was suddenly soaring into the sky. It was growing at such an amazing speed that in less than 90 seconds it was already 50 meters tall.

A young dark elf girl walked over to the group and said “Dala! I thought you were dead!” in a surprised voice as she quickly ran over and hugged her.

Dala started crying and said “I see! You were one of the ones who were healed!” in a happy voice as she hugged Lorelei tightly. They were second cousins or something similar, it was a small village so it wasn’t particularly strange.

Lorelei laughed and said “Isn’t Azrael amazing? He built this whole place in just one week! He even brought a bunch of people back from the dead… but not mama. Well, I can still talk to her sometimes though so it’s not that bad.” in an excited voice, the tree was finally done growing. Azrael made it extremely wide at the base and gave it huge branches that extend all the way out to the walls on each side at varying heights. Within the center of the tree is a large magical elevator… perhaps its more like a tube that quickly sucks up to 5 people at a time to whatever part of the tree they want to go. It was incredibly useful, except for the fact that it’s disgusting to be drenched in tree sap every time you need to use it. Luckily, he decided to include a spiral staircase, with a railing, that went around the entire tree.

Osmond said “Most people only remembered Plague for his outstanding destructive capabilities, but those of us who actually knew him were more impressed by his creations.” proudly with a confident expression, but no one really understood what he was talking about.

Dala finally let go of Lorelei and said “What do you mean, you can talk to her? Isn’t she dead?” in a concerned voice, she thought that the child could have been haunted by a possessive spirit.

Lorelei smiled at her and said “Mama’s spirit is inside of Azrael, he let’s her take over his body sometimes so she can talk to me. Instead of sleeping like the others, he lets mama use his body for a few hours every other day.” in a happy voice. When users are offline, their bodies still persist in Royal Road, in a sleep-like state. However, they become untargetable and gain a protective barrier that can’t be dispelled or destroyed. Most people still prefer to logout in a bed or something similar, otherwise they would receive a debuff until they logged out in a bed for a few hours.

Osmond grinned and said “I understand, while his mind is sleeping, your mother’s spirit is able to take control of his unconscious body.” in a confident voice, although Dala already figured that much out herself.

An obnoxiously loud voice yelled out “Eww! Gross! Move it, ugly! I can’t believe I ever looked like you people!” amidst a plethora of angry orc sounds.

Another voice yelled “Freya! Try not to piss them off!” and then the two women emerged from the crowd of orcs and dark elves.

Lorelei said “Freya! So-Ra! You’re finally back! Did you find those scissor things you were looking for?” in an excited voice as she ran over to the two women. Osmond started laughing quietly, but apparently no one else understood the concept of a euphemism. Apparently, they did more in those two months than just making potions.

Azrael had finally completed the fortress and reached beginner level 7 of Mana Growth, it was time to start building his ship. He actually went online and looked up various ship designs that were popular in Royal Road and found one that he really liked. However, the typical elven ship designs looked like old viking ships that were made of living trees. The ship he wanted to create was a Ship of the Line, it was just a gigantic sailing battleship with as many cannons as possible. He couldn’t actually use it for anything, he just made it to practice his ship building technique and the various skills required. It took him three weeks in-game, but he finally finished the battleship. It actually took longer to build the cannons than to grow and sculpt the whole rest of the ship.

Artistic Value: 1000

Natural Value: 1250

This massive three decked, three masted, 132 gunned ship of the line has been grown through a unique combination of elven shipbuilding combined with advanced human and dwarven designs. Created by Azrael the Forgetful, although he probably doesn’t remember why. This huge 80m x 24m battleship requires a crew of at least 1300 to operate it properly. Due to its extraordinary size, only a powerful mage with a high elven sailing skill can captain this vessel. However, the mana requirement can be shared between all officers with elven sailing to lessen the burden on the captain. The speed of the vessel is relatively low along with maneuverability, but its health, mana and firepower are very high. In this living battleship, various fruits, nuts, berries and vegetables will grow over time within the corridors. Health will regenerate over time but healing magic is effective on the damaged areas. Deer, wolves, rabbits, and various other animals will spawn periodically if the captain enables the function. By using it’s mana, the ship can cast wind and magic to increase its speed, it can also use nature magic to fire grappling vines or summon sea monsters to attack the enemy vessels. Warning: Sea monsters aren’t your friends, they will try to kill you too. Also, if near death, the ship will activate its emergency regeneration, absorbing the life force and mana of all crew members, potentially killing them. This is a fine piece.

Health: 100,000

Mana: 40,000

Firepower: 850 x 126

Speed: 8 knots

Maneuverability: 3[/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Fame has increased by 300

Creativity has increased by 150

Art has increased by 250

Intellect has increased by 5

Wisdom has increased by 10

Maximum mana has increased by 1000

Natural Affinity has increased by 200[/col][/box]

Mana Sculpting has increased to level 9!

Manasmithing proficiency has increased!

Mana Growth has increased to level 8!

Mana Weaving proficiency has increased![/col][/box]

It was a beautiful ship and he had absolutely no possible way to use it in any capacity other than to sell. Azrael was forced to log off in order to access the auction website, but it was definitely worth it. He didn’t really expect too many people would be willing to buy it and he was afraid to ask too much for a ship that was so demanding of it’s crew. Under the display name Plaguedone he posted the stats of the ship and started the auction at 1000 dollars, which seemed like a lot to him.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Roflmaster999: This can’t be real.

CatzRkool: The location for pickup is that dark elf village that was destroyed by the Poseidon Guild, and it’s even posted by ‘him’...

Jaslberg13: How the fuck? Did you guys read those stats?

Roflmaster999: That’s what I meant… I can’t believe no one’s even bid on it yet.

CatzRkool: Im sure they’re suspicious that it might be a trap set up by the Fairy Pirates.

Forewarned: It’s real, such an overpowered battle ship could only be created by Plaguedone. I just saw him finish it earlier, it took him 3 weeks to finish… he made it by himself.

Chaoster88: That sounds like bullshit.

Doombraggar: I’ve seen quite a few elven warships in my starting city and even the small ones were incredibly powerful. It’s because they’re living ships, so they can even gain levels and become stronger over time.

Jaslberg13: OMG! If that’s the ship at level 1…

Doombraggar: Yep, that is probably the most powerful battleship in all of Royal Road at the moment. Any guild who owns that ship will own the oceans.

Forewarned: I’m the chief of the Sharp Tooth orcs who defeated Perseus’ army and I will guarantee the safety of whoever ends up buying the Sariel. However, if anyone plans on attempting to steal the ship, keep in mind that it’s a living ship that will literally devour any pirates that board it.

CatzRkool: No way! Seriously?

Roflmaster999: A ship that can’t be stolen… god I really wish I was rich enough to afford that ship! It’s already over 15k and its only been a few minutes…

Anon1846: lol I like how it grows food and can spawn animals… I wonder if he did that on purpose?[/col][/box]

He set the auction time to one week, so there was a whole month in-game before the buyer would arrive. Meanwhile, he began to work on his next project, the first ship that he would actually be using. It had to have some combat capability, but also be possible to operate with less than 5 people. Cannons were unnecessary and cumbersome for what he intended to use it for, which meant that he didn’t need to bother with gun decks. However, he liked how the Sariel could grow it’s own food and even spawn forest animals, it gave him a few ideas. Plus there were a few very important features that he absolutely needed for long term sea-travel.

While Azrael was working on the new ship, Lorelei, Freya and So-Ra were busy exploring the Sariel. They had been watching him build it, but it was still amazing to be inside of a forest on the ocean. Vines covered most of the ship’s interior and exterior, they would act like seat-belts if there was a sudden stop or if there was an impact they could even be used as a shield. However, what they found most fascinating was the fully functioning ecosystem within the ship's corridors and all throughout the hull. You could pick delicious fruit directly from the vine, tree or bush, and eat it… you could also get attacked by wolves and bears if you were careless.

Lorelei said “This boat is so amazing! It’s probably the biggest one ever!” in an excited voice as she spun around while standing on the main deck.

Freya laughed and said “A long time ago, the biggest ship was the Atlantis… although it was so huge that it was more like an island.” while picking some herbs off the ground.

Lorelei pouted and said “No fair, Azrael just started making boats! I bet after a little more practice, he’s gonna build one even bigger than Atlantis!” in an excited voice..

So-Ra said “I’ve been on a ship that was twice as big as this, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive. It definitely wasn’t alive...” in a serious voice.

Freya said “What’s real money? He said that he wasn’t going to sell this ship for gold but something more valuable.” in a curious voice as she looked to So-Ra for answers.

So-Ra said “In our world there are many types of currencies and they can be used to buy important things that can’t be found in this one. I wonder how much people will buy this for? Some people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for just a rare shield or sword…” in a worried voice, she knew that the more money it was worth, the more dangerous the sale would be. However, Azrael had already expected such an outcome might occur, so he had to multitask. As he was growing and sculpting the exploration ship, he was building hundreds of cannons, ballistas, trebuchets, and a few ‘special’ anti ship weapons that could defend the tree fortress against even the strongest of navies. The special anti ship weapons were small kraken style vine tentacles that were connected to the roots of the fortress and could pierce the hulls of wooden ships or land across the decks and break the ships in half if they were small enough. There was also a trump card that took a bit of time and effort to create, just in-case too many people came to the party.

The three girls were still pretty low level, Freya was the highest at level 5, so they decided to stay aboard the ship and train by hunting the weak animals that spawned. An Ancient Alchemist’s fighting style is completely reliant on using potions to transform their bodies into weapons, or simply transforming into monsters that can fight without weapons. Freya had created several potions of full direwolf lycanthropy from ingredients she bought from the orcs in the flourishing new tree fortress, Am Meer. Most elven languages are based off of German since the whole elven mythos was originally from there, the name means ‘By The Sea/Ocean’ which wasn't particularly creative but at least it was easy to remember. It also made sense why elven fairy tales always end with someone getting cursed, murdered, eaten or otherwise eviscerated for no apparent reason.

Lorelei was still classless since she was only a child, but her parents were relatively powerful mages who specialized in fire magic which was pretty ironic. However, because she literally burned to death, her natural fire resistance was extremely high, and her mother had been teaching her while in Azrael’s body. Even though the Sariel was a ship made out of trees, they were alive and well hydrated, so it took a lot for them to burn or take damage from heat. She was able to cast her level 1 fire magic as freely as she wanted to.

So-Ra was only level 3 but she already chose her class, a Priestess of Freya. It wasn’t particularly unique, but a healer was always useful, even a bad one. She had a lot of trouble remembering the chants, but the runes were relatively easy for her to learn how to read since they were based off of Korean. With Freya tanking in the form of a golden dire wolf, she added gold powder to make all of her transformations the same color, the other two were close behind since they didn’t know any long ranged spells yet. They could easily massacre a couple foxes, but every time they encountered a wolf it was a life or death struggle. However, they got overconfident after the wolves became easier to deal with and when they found a dire wolf, everyone died.

Azrael had to stop what he was doing and go into the ship to recover the mutilated corpse of Lorelei, which was nearly unrecognizable. When he finally managed to bring her back to life and heal her to full, she wouldn’t stop crying. The other two bodies disappeared after they died so he couldn’t resurrect them, but he knew that they weren’t really dead. He said “Stop crying, it’s annoying. You need to be more careful… but those two are immortal. Even if they died a hundred times, they would just come back to life with a level missing, three days later.” in an irritated voice as he had a flashback from the Heart of Suffering. Azrael wasn’t exactly looking forward to giving birth again, but having a full grown person burst out of your abdomen isn’t so bad when the pain limiter is working properly. He did have to take off his armor though, which was relatively difficult and time consuming.

When So-Ra logged back on, she was happy to see that Lorelei was alive, but she couldn’t find Freya. She was about to ask Azrael where to find her but she could speak, an arm burst out of his naval and started flailing around. He said “Can you please pull on that?” in a pained voice as he stuck his fingers into the opening and made it wider. She grabbed the golden hand and pulled the slimy, naked elf out of his body.

Freya started laughing and said “That was pretty exciting! You were right Azrael, if you treat life like a game, even dying isn’t so bad!” in an excited voice as she reached into his gaping abdomen and pulled out her clothes, items and bags.

He sighed and said “Yea… maybe you can try not to die so often? You still lose a level and why the fuck is your spawn point inside of me?” in an irritated voice as he used his mana to heal the wound. It was pretty strange but user’s avatars didn’t have intestines, they did have most of the other organs though and even some extra ones that do various things.

So-Ra started crying and then hugged the still naked Freya who was covered in red slime while saying “I’m so sorry! When you died… I can’t believe I was so useless! I’m gonna get better at healing so that this never happens again!” in a nasally voice. Freya was laughing awkwardly because she had no idea what was going on. When her parents and siblings died thousands of years ago, she felt absolutely nothing. Yet, her avatar died once and So-Ra was still so upset, it was very strange. Azrael sighed and whispered Freya, which was possible because she was his companion.

-She’s definitely in love with you kid.

-I don’t understand… what’s love?

-If you could never see So-Ra again, would you be sad?

-That won’t happen, we’re both immortal… there’s no reason to think of something so unpleasant.

-Possibly, but if the game was shut down in our world, you would die regardless of how powerful you were. Also, So-Ra isn’t immortal, in our world she will probably live for another 130 years at most, which is only about 520 years in this one. One way or another it is more than likely you will both be separated eventually… now do you understand.

-Yes… I think I understand now.

Freya stopped laughing and golden tears slowly leaked from her eyes, dripping down her face. Then Azrael yelled “Oh for fuck’s sake! I have shit to do! Go take your childish bullshit somewhere else! Just be more careful and protect Lorelei better, I have to sacrifice a level every time she fucking dies!” in an extremely angry voice that shocked both of them out of their weepy mindsets. They were both motivated to become stronger and the next time they faced a dire wolf, it was their overwhelming victory.

Azrael somehow managed to finish building all of the armaments for Am Meer with a few in-game hours to spare, when he logged off to check on the auction he was mildly surprised. At first, small guilds who were trying to quickly increase their military power could afford bids going all the way up to 100k dollars. However, that’s when it caught the attention of the larger guilds, the Sariel was just too valuable and dangerous for anyone else to own but themselves. It meant that every guild with a decent navy in the entire world needed to prevent such an overpowered weapon from falling into anyone else's hands but their own. The bidding wars turned into actual wars all across the central continent, and even the westernmost countries were becoming involved. Large guilds are backed up by huge, multibillion dollar companies who are willing to do just about anything to get what they want. If Michael wasn’t under constant surveillance and protected by Unicorn Corp it was possible that he might have been threatened or even assassinated in reality to prevent the sale of that battleship. The final bid was 750 million dollars, but Azrael was more excited by what he read in the comments.

Doombraggar: It does make sense though, now that Susanoo Guild owns the Sariel they really have become the ruler of the seas.

Roflmaster999: Lulz, that’s only if they can manage to survive the onslaught of every other navy in Royal Road! Not just the guilds but even the kingdoms have sent their fleets to destroy that ship at all costs!

Forewarned: Anyone who attempts to interrupt the sale will be annihilated, did they really think the Plagueone didn’t expect this to happen? He wants them to come, they are merely food for Sariel the Benevolent Angel of Death.

Plaguedone: :)[/col][/box]

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Volume 2 Chapter 3: Soul Mana

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