The books described several different techniques. They had the same contents as well, we had found after comparing.

The differences were in how you had to breathe, what you had to focus your mind on and then how you built up your spiritual energy on a larger scale. Some made you fill up your soul like a jigsaw puzzle, slotting each piece of energy into the right place, with the right shape. Others described a cloud of gas forming, slowly increasing in pressure as you created more energy.

I found that what Aslow had said about choosing what made most sense referred to the breathing patterns and focus, as when I tried each out momentarily, I found that some were incredibly intuitive, whereas I couldn’t do others no matter how much I tried. After reading through each twice, I settled on one, and Brad on another. I had my suspicions that they did have different effects, unlike what Aslow said, but I still chose the one that was easiest for me. Without time to slowly advance, I had to take the fastest route available.

My technique involved creating a circulation of energy through my soul, gradually increasing the amount of energy flowing, until it matched up with the circulation of the blood in my body.

On the other hand, Brad chose a technique where he had to fill each ‘cell’ of his soul with energy. Although the soul was energy based and immaterial, we had discovered that it was the same shape as each person’s bodies. Or rather, the body was the same shape as the soul.

That was how soul shapers kept their physical strength up to standard, when they improved their soul, their body was enhanced with it. For example, as I practiced my technique, my blood circulation would become much more powerful. Each of my blood cells would be able to receive energy, and get rid of their waste much more efficiently, whereas Brad’s whole body would become sturdier and contain more power within.

So, with nothing else to do, we both sat down on a mat and began following the instructions within each of our books.

—-

Settling into the right breathing pattern was the first part of the technique. Long inhale, two short exhales, short inhale, long exhale, two medium inhales, and finally a long exhale. I continued repeating that cycle, until it was firmly embedded in my mind and I could do it without thinking.

I then started to picture my body, creating an image of it in my mind. I focused on each small part of it; scars, hair, eye color, muscle definition, etc. As I started to build up the mental visualization, I noticed something strange. When I couldn’t quite remember something, the answer seemed to come to me from nowhere. Each time that I thought I had a roadblock and might have to restart and properly examine my body, I was able to continue.

Until eventually, I had modeled the entire exterior of my body in frightening detail. I could examine it much closer than I would have ever been able to with my naked eye. But there was still something missing, the interior.

I began to fill it in with flesh and organs, this time relying almost entirely on my intuition, as I had little knowledge myself. Of course, I had seen other people’s insides when I was learning about biology in school, but never my own.

This time, the process went quicker, as I quickly moved through my body, recreating according to my thoughts which seemed to come from the ether. Soon, I had recreated my entire body in complete perfection. It seemed complete and whole to my mind, as if I was looking at a magnum opus that an artist had gradually finished over years. My muscle tissue, my brain, my digestive system, my bones, and perhaps most importantly, my circulatory system. It was all there.

I felt a surge of excitement beginning to build inside me, but I pushed it away with the help of my breathing method, this next step required my entire attention.

I put my focus on the representations within the soul of my heart, my blood vessels and the blood itself, until they were all that remained in my mind. Though I could feel that my work was still there, just hidden from view. I could bring it back at any time.

My arteries and veins reached every part of my body in a complete cycle, distributing nutrients and oxygen as blood passed through. The blood returned to the heart where it was pumped through the different chambers in succession, leaving to reoxygenate before returning to the heart to be sent through the rest of my body.

I latched onto an individual blood cell and watched it travel around my body. Whilst thinking about my soul, I actively followed my breathing cycle to absorb energy from out of my body, and directed it towards the cell. And, after trying for a few minutes, I sensed that the cell had upgraded perfectly. If I was to compare it with its previous version, currently it could carry as much oxygen as ten other cells combined. But with energy involved, it was something more powerful, on a different level of existence, one which I had no idea of the capabilities yet.

I considered taking a break after succeeding, but it would’ve been pointless. We were stuck in this room until Aslow returned, and there was nothing else to do. Above all, I could still focus. I didn’t know whether it was the breathing technique, but since I could continue; I would.

So, I repeated the process of infusing energy into each individual soul blood cell, occasionally empowering the blood vessel walls as well, to account for the blood pressure that would soon increase. The heart would come once all my blood and blood vessels had been transformed as it would massively increase output. Once that was entirely finished, then I could get onto the meat of the technique, actually creating pure energy in a form that could be carried around by the cells.

Each subsequent cell was much faster than the previous, as I gained more experience in enhancing the cells; but it was hard to tell how quick I really was without anyone else to compare. Comparing progress with Brad would only show me a general difference, as we had different techniques.

Several hours later, he tapped me on the shoulder a few times to get me out of my meditation. Before opening my eyes, I looked through my soul, but I couldn’t spot any of my empowered blood cells, they were lost in the sheer sea of regular blood vessels. A realization dawned upon me that this might take far longer than I had anticipated.

I stood up and looked around, shaking my legs to work out the stiffness built up over twelve hours. Despite sitting cross legged for such a long time, there wasn’t as much aching as I had expected. In fact, I felt slightly clean, if completely mentally tired.

On my left was Brad, who also looked similarly sore, we both nodded to show that we had succeeded. In front of us was Aslow, he stood with his arms crossed and a small smile on his face. “Stand still and don’t resist, I’m going to inspect your soul.”

I wondered what I would resist for a brief moment, until I felt a strange sensation over my soul, which I had found I was still able to visualize. It felt as if there were hundreds of slugs slithering around my skin. Except on a spiritual level, which meant I could feel it much clearer than I would in the real world.

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It was severely uncomfortable, and I somewhat wished that it would’ve just been painful instead. Nevertheless, after a few seconds, the sensation abated and I let out a few breaths I didn’t know I had been holding.

At least, I was able to look over at Brad and see him squirming in his skin as he underwent the same procedure. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera to capture the scene.

“Well done, both of you. You’ve made good progress in such a short time. Fully visualizing your soul normally takes a few days, that you’ve been able to complete that in such a short time is an excellent sign.” He said, then took a deep breath. “I will now admit that I have lied to you.”

I felt a creeping sense of anxiety and small beads of sweat began to form.

“In order to join the society, we require every member to swear an oath that they won’t give us up or betray our secrets to outsiders. I couldn’t get you two to swear an oath, as you hadn’t empowered your soul in any way with the essence of reality, so there would be nothing binding you to keep your side of the promise. But now that your soul has a connection to the world, you can now be bound by the oath. If you went against it now, the very universe would strike you down.”

He paused to let his words sink in fully. “Now you have a choice, either swear the oath or leave right now. We won’t attack you, you’ll just be allowed to go and live your life.”

I glanced at Brad, a brief look was all that we needed to know each other’s thoughts.

“How do we swear the oath?” We said simultaneously, prompting a smile on Aslow’s face

“Nothing special, just swear the oath whilst using your breathing technique. The contents of the message doesn’t even matter too much, as long as the intention is in the right place, it will be successful. Of course, if you want to prepare something, that's fine as well. Other than that, just focus on a promise to not betray the Archive Society.”

Although we didn’t necessarily need to prepare according to his words, I still asked for a piece of paper to write it out. But as I began to brainstorm, Brad lost his patience and swore that he ‘would never betray the archive society.’

Before I continued, I asked him how he felt, and tested the limits a bit, once I had gotten a nod of approval from Aslow that we could try and push it. When trying to push the boundaries of the promise by thinking about betrayal, it had felt to him like there was a restricting sensation around his soul, and an impending feeling of doom. After that frightening experience, he didn’t want to risk it any further. I didn’t blame him.

Anyway, I had figured out what I wanted to know. A normal oath was comprehensive, to even restrict thoughts. I felt it a shame that Brad had acted so quickly, as there could be difficulties that would arise from such a strong restriction. However, it only served to encourage my planning. We would have to see if there was a way to ease the limitations later on.

I didn’t want to betray the society; they had already done a lot for us by giving us foundation techniques, but I still didn’t know much about them. I didn’t want to imprison my own mind, for a group that I had only known a day. So, after a few minutes, where the other two waited in dreary silence, I finished my script and spoke.

“I swear that I will never take action to intentionally betray the Archive Society, as long as they don’t betray me first”

Just as Brad had described, I felt a vague pressure attach itself to my soul. I had only been able to feel my spirit for a few hours, and now a restriction would be there, for the rest of my life. Although, I guessed that if the Archive Society were to be dissolved or destroyed, then it might disappear.

Thankfully, my efforts had paid off, as I was able to consider betrayal in my head, but I knew as soon as I actually did something to enact my thoughts, then the oath would come down on me like an iron hammer.

“I was worried about the future when I swore my oath so long ago, but I turned out completely fine. I’m sure you two won’t have any problems either, if anything you’ll be glad you did so. We possess one of the largest collections of knowledge in the world, in terms of the soul, enough to fuel your advancement to the peak of the third soul rank.”

He hadn’t mentioned anything about my phrasing, which must’ve meant that he approved, or he just didn't care. The latter was more probable; I couldn’t figure out how to bypass the restrictions in any meaningful way, and if Aslow knew, then he would’ve made me swear another oath.

Aslow coughed sheepishly. “I must tell you though, that I have told some more lies.” He held up a finger. “First, you don’t have to worry about this one anymore, but I thought I might as well tell you. If you hadn’t sworn the oath, I would’ve killed you, no matter if you’re a Cladus or not, the Society values its secrecy much more than you think. I didn’t tell you because oaths can’t be forced, the soul won’t agree to it, no matter what you do. ”

I was a bit surprised that we had been on a tightrope of certain death, but didn’t have a severe reaction, just because it didn’t matter anymore.

“Second. I told you that each technique ends up with a different result. They don’t.” I grimaced a bit, I had hoped this wasn’t the case. Now I would just have to hope that I picked a good one.

“Each has unique advantages that are difficult to otherwise replicate. Brad, the one you picked is called the Max Potential Body Technique. You’ll find your physical prowess extremely powerful compared to people of your level, but magic will be difficult, simply because your energy will be spread across your body. However this only becomes a disadvantage if you try to start casting spells.

That’s not to say it’s impossible though. Something you might find easier though is encasing your body with a layer of energy. This will further enhance your physicality, and it won’t be difficult as all you need to do is supply energy from the closest areas all around your body.”

I looked over at Brad, he didn’t seem disappointed, rather he was grinning. He must’ve been excited just about the prospect of increasing his strength. Aslow continued speaking.

“Now, David, you chose the Energy Circulation Technique. This will be able to enhance your recovery and stamina, as you might have guessed already. But that is not the most important quality. Unlike Brad, you will be able to use magic.” I inwardly let out a small cheer, I could accept not being able to use magic, but it would’ve been unsatisfying to find out that it exists, then not be able to use it.

“Once you reach the end stages, you will be able to have a flood of energy constantly flowing through your soul and body. This is great for pouring massive amounts of power into a spell and creating them quickly. In fact, I would say your technique is one of the best for casting magic there is. Of course, your body will be weaker, but there are ways around that.

The reason I didn’t tell you two about this, was because it would hinder you. The best technique is undoubtedly the one you understand best. You will be able to advance quicker, and get more out of it. If you picked one that you aren’t so compatible with because you liked the sound of it, you would be fated to failure. Any person on your stage who wasn’t stupid could wipe the floor with you, and someone even one stage above you? They could kill you with their eyes closed. So don’t feel regretful.”

Brad spoke. “If each one has advantages, why can’t we just use multiple?”

Aslow nodded his head. “It’s a good question, but one that’s simple to answer. Your soul can only take so much change in one level of advancement. Strictly speaking, you could practice more than one, but if you ever tried to approach the end stages of a technique, then your soul would be overcome with stress and explode.” He laughed. “But I know the two of you aren’t so idiotic to try that.”

Well, that was one idea already crossed off. I had been hoping that Brad and I could practice each other’s techniques, to get the best of both worlds.

“My last lie is that we don’t need your help.” He said. “The situation has changed since we last spoke and we need every hand on deck, at least until headquarters sends us reinforcements. That doesn’t mean you’re going to be fighting others. We’re moving parts of our analysis team to the battlefield, and you’re taking their spots back here.”

I nodded, it didn’t matter that we had taken the first steps. We would probably be completely outclassed by the enemies. “What does the analysis team do?”

“You can come and see for yourself.” He stepped outside and held the door open for us.

A gateway to our future.