Chapter 2

Volume 2

So, ‘noid killing.

I have finished the first three mana pebbles, wiped and cleaned the clearance where I will build my temple, gathered some heavy rocks and cut them with an [Aura Sword] … and now I can’t procrastinate anymore.

I must kill at least one each week, according to grandma.

The good side of this is that I can get corpses which are just full of aura and ready to be used as food for my mana pebbles.

With a single ‘noid I should be able to charge up to fifty pebbles full of energy.

Of course, I don’t intend to create fifty mana pebbles, but if I burn the noids to a crisp and store the ashes in ceramic pots I should be able to achieve a highly-aura-energetic ash which should provide at least one third of this much energy.

Then it’s just a matter of storing this ash in somewhere safe, like a small bunker created in the middle of stone, and make sure it doesn’t spill on the rock.

The ceramic may just become golems, but ceramic golems can’t do much more than vibrate by themselves, so this much is fine.

If I could use that ash to make highly-energetic grain full of aura so my qigong practice goes beyond the usual?

Far ahead of you buddy!

I’m preparing a special fenced plot of land right next to my temple. I intend to plant fruit trees there, like apple trees and peach trees.

It isn’t a big plot of land, but it has water and it’s protected in case something happens and the trees mutate into treants.

By using this special ‘noid ash as fertilizer and measuring just the right amount used I should be able to produce special fruit loaded with aura, just on the brink of monstrification.

Yeah, I could eat the ‘noids as barbecue as well, but it’s just disgusting thinking on eating something which used to be human – which is also the reason why I don’t intend to eat most of the monsters I catch while keeping the forest clean.

Mad hounds are fine as food, but spiders, slimes and treants are a bit too much. Maybe roasted treant seeds will do, but I swear to you, if I have to eat treant meat again, I will punch myself to death.

So those disgusting things will become ash to be scattered around my temple’s walls and in my temple’s orchard as well.

If I could just suck up the energy from the air around me instead?

It’s a nice theory, but it doesn’t work in practice. Just like what happened to me years ago, sucking the energy from the environment without having it processed by plants first makes your insides go nuts.

It literally turns your flesh into stone, and it also seems to be the basis of the [petrification] spell of the [flesh] spells – which is really a bitch to heal, since you have to control the invading energy and drain it slowly from the affected flesh.

It’s a useful set of spell and counter-spell for me since my body is immortal, but most people’s soul would scathe before they had the invader energy taken from their bodies. Besides, this energy is loved by plants, so petrified people may become soil for treants in the blink of an eye.

Cockatrices and treants are co-inhabiting monsters it seems. Dangerous things when living together.

So, I can’t eat the energy from the environment directly. I can suck the energy inside trees directly into my stomach, but it’s a bothersome technique which doesn’t give much energy, since I need to go sucking from tree to tree instead of just using whatever aura is around me.

So aura-filled fruit would be better.

***

The ´noid is a few meters away.

Grandma wasn’t kidding when she said the orc village is far away. It’s over one hundred kilometers from our village.

That said, I’m in a pickle.

You see, ‘noids are group creatures.

They don’t have enough humanity in then to be considered humans in mostly any aspects, but they still go around in groups as big as they get.

So all five ‘noids which have been bothering the villagers are in front of me and…

Well, those bastards are fucking too much for me!

All ‘noids, according to grandma, have very strong bodies.

They can’t use magic or any kind of battle skill, but they have insane amounts of aura inside of them.

And I mean it.

A ‘noid can easily snap a tree in half with a punch.

Seeing one of them hunting a deer was terrifying.

The thing took a rock from the ground and threw at the deer. The rock should be at least one ton heavy, and still it flew meters in the air and crushed the poor animal to death.

Really barbaric.

How do a ‘noid looks like?

Imagine a dried corpse. Now add a black, sticky luster over it. Now add pointy teeth and red eyes full of pain in them.

Now put this thing on its two legs, hands like claws, dirty smiles on their faces as they fuck a deer corpse while eating it.

That’s a ‘noid.

And I need to deal with five of them.

Gods help me.

***

So, it’s hit and run strategy.

Grandma said I’m clear to use aura techniques in the fight, but that she wouldn’t let me use magic spells.

It seems this is a combat training because I can’t find good enemies inside the forest anymore.

Now, this is my strategy:

‘noids sleep.

After a few hours walking around and killing things to only then have their sexual pleasure with them, they roll on their bellies and sleep.

So I’m using [aura needles] to lightly puncture one of them into getting up and running after me.

If I should use [toxic wind needle] and be done with it?

I tried.

The bastards are immune to it.

Besides, when I tried an [aura javelin] it barely pierced their skins. However, it made the ‘noid feel pain and scream, waking the others.

And that’s why this time I’m using just [aura needles].

They have enough strength to pierce a tree, but will feel just like a mosquito bite in a ‘noid.

And if the thing wakes up and starts chasing after me without warning the others, then I will be mostly grateful.

So far I haven’t happened even once yet.

They will always wake and then yell for their companions right after.

I need to be patient before showing myself.

***

Third week of ‘noid hunting.

I haven’t killed even a single one so far.

But I have a good feeling in my gut this time.

There we go…

It waked up, and isn’t calling the others.

Because this one is the leader. The alpha ‘noid.

He is also the most egoistic and barbaric of all. Usually he’s the one who will fuck the food first.

So I’m betting my stakes on this pride of his being his fall.

There I go.

I’m here buddy. Yes, right on top of this tree.

Can you see me?

Oh, you can. Now, would you please come over quiet…

OH SHIT!

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!

That thing leaped the whole distance to the place where I was!

Run legs, run!

I have a trap set a few kilometers from here, but I need to run until there.

Shit, this fucking ‘noid is damn fast!

Run, run, run…

YES!

Jump to get me, aaaand… NOW!

I jumped to the border of the camouflaged pit I have dug and waited a fraction of second.

The moment the ‘noid jumped after me I got my [Aura Trident] out and received it on that, changing its trajectory to the pit. 

With a powerful trust I added strength to his fall and ran to the rock right next to me.

It’s just two seconds.

I need the ‘noid to be impaled by the big stakes at the bottom for just two seconds, so I can drop this rock on top of him.

It weights some five tons, and I will expend most of my aura to..

….

Shit.

He’s on top of the rock.

Damn cocky smile.

There are holes in his skin from the place where the trident punctured him, but there’s no bleeding.

Since I saw it getting to his back this means he regenerated already.

Besides he’s on his feet.

So this means even though he landed on the stakes, he managed to jump from there and regenerate his feet in mid-air.

Damn.

His claws graze my neck, and I lose a huge amount of energy keeping my [Aura Armor].

So much that I can’t keep it on while he munches on the other side of it. 

There’s only one option left.

I release the [Aura Armor] and use [Hardening], [Sharpening] and [Last Breath] with the kitchen knife I brought with me from home.

I manage to pierce the thing’s heart. 

It falls to the ground on top of me, but won’t stop munching.

I go out in [Soul Walk] and see the dreadful scene of the ‘noid munching on my neck, my own hand holding the knife buried on his chest.

His eyes are watering out, but he’s still trying to come on top to stick his dick in me. His legs give up… and he’s finally dead.

“You should have paid more attention to your [Aura Trident]. If you had used an [Aura Spear] instead you could have dropped him on the ground and pierced his heart sooner. Or you could have used that moment to slash him in half with an [Aura Naginata].”

Grandma is criticizing my approach to the ‘noid problem.

“I thought I would have more time.”

She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t need to.

“I will try the naginata next time.”

“That’s good dear”.

She pats my head while I concentrate on maximizing my [spiritual] talent in order to go back to my body.

I still need to get this ‘noid’s corpse back home, burn him and get his ashes in a pot.

Then a good bath and some sleep.

I don’t need to sleep, but… right now, I need it.

I just had to use a suicide move to kill my opponent, and died before him died.

If I wasn’t an [immortal] then I would have died with him.

It’s my first time really losing to a monster. Not only losing a few fingers, but my life.

It tastes very bitter. I’m sad.

***

Aaaah, motherfucker!

What the hell was that, uhm?!

That damn alpha ‘noid.

At least now he has been replaced.

The group has a new alpha, and I have some ‘noid ashes in a small upwards cave I have dug in solid rock with an [aura sword].

So, I have been hunting the ‘noids by going for their alphas.

They are the only ones with enough pride to come after prey by themselves. All others will stick to the group.

But I have to say, at least the alphas are getting a little weaker every time.

I tried the naginata approach and it was successful once and failed once as well.

Then I started using a bunch of other approaches to the problem, and the better one has been quantity over quality.

Just store a massive amount of aura before fighting those bastards, so I won’t be toppled over by their strength.

If I store some four or five days of aura before fighting them I can even manage to kill them without the need for using the [Last Breath] suicide technique.

The problem is that I become unable to keep building my Temple as I do so.

You see, building the temple takes a lot of aura. I need to cut and place the rocks, clean the space, create the mana pebbles…

Besides, I shouldn’t do it while harboring bad feelings.

Since a big part of the work has to do with creating a [holy] site I need to work while feeling happy, lighthearted and truly glad to be alive and doing that.

Ain’t that hard as fuck?!

I mean, I have expended more days trying to be happy about my work than actually working on the temple.

It’s just so hard!

Especially after fighting some of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in my life, which are the ‘noids.

They just fill you up with bad feelings.

And that’s why I have been investing more and more time into getting quality relationships with the kids.

Jacen, Maurus and Elipha.

They are boring, childish and whatever else as always.

But they are also innocent and playful in the way only kids can be.

Looking at then after committing suicide to kill a monster which is trying to kill me and rape my corpse?

Healing.

It’s just healing for the soul.

They are small treasures in this aspect, and I’m actually glad to have them around and to be childish with them.

This way I can regain my good feelings and work towards building a nice temple.

And it also avoids me getting poisoned by the bad feelings from the ‘noids, so that’s a plus I guess.

You see, I need to take a lot of care when dealing with my memories.

I realized recently that I have multiple memories of the same fact.

I remember something, then I remember me remembering that thing, and me remembering remembering that thing…

And so on.

So if I think on my moments with the kids, for instance, I can recall all of them.

Soul hurt by battling the ‘noids as I currently am, the memories, even if they come with feelings of boredom and frustration at their childshiness, bring me a sweet taste and happiness when I remember them.

I want to smile at the pranks and playing we did, and laugh at my own haughtiness. Just like an old grandpa would while remembering his foolish days of young.

But the problem is, those memories are accumulating on my mind, aren’t them?

Just like with the ricin oil bottle, the memories of the feelings I have while dealing with memories of the past and the feelings I had that time, they do affect me in different ways depending on how my soul is now.

That’s complicated, but also a good thing.

If I create a lot of happy memories, then keeping a good mood should be easier. And if I ever fall in depression again, I can just look on then and, at the cost of building some memories of me sadly looking into the past, renew my soul a little bit and go for the creation of happier memories.

Indeed.

Creating happy memories is of ultimate importance to keep my soul healthy.

So let’s play like kids!

I’m allowed to do it.

I’m a kid after all.

Just six years old.

Hahahaha.

***

Damn ‘noids are done in!

Killed the last one today! Ashes are stored as well, and I can go for the temple building!

Yay!

So, I suppose I should start by finishing the soul-programing sequence of the mana pebbles, and then building the wall.

Except today I’m supposed to stay indoors at night.

You see, the tax collectors usually just pass by, take the stuff they need and go back their way to the local lord’s castle.

However, this time there seems to be some kind of problem with the taxes, so they will stay overnight at the militia’s barracks.

They are just common folk and I believe there’s absolute no danger for me to sneak out as I always do, but mother is especially nervous about those guys.

They are directly related to the local lord after all.

Of course, I haven’t been storing my mana pebbles at home. The family doesn’t even know I’m able to produce them.

Why?

Well, you see…

I discovered about father’s gift to Ann.

It came up during our night meals. Since I’m checking on her regularly with grandma I’m the one to give news of her development to the family.

So when I said the sword he gave her was broken in half during a [joint training] session he made a worried face and asked about the scabbard.

That’s when the old “why” came into question and he told us the scabbards secret.

If father knew I can produce mana pebbles by myself, wouldn’t his pride be too badly injured?

It is the symbol of his achievements in life after all.

I shall not reveal to them I can produce those. At least for now.

What’s this damn [Joint Training] thing?

You see, people in this world don’t have a clear concept of sparing.

Since everyone stocks aura on their bodies and the number of people able to effectively control it is low, no one spares.

It’s logical after all.

You see, I learned how to control aura easily because of my memories of my past life.

However, most people in this world doesn’t have such skill.

They use the passive boost aura gives to one’s body and that’s it. Then if they come close to a life-or-death situation, or just really scared like I was when older sister seemed to be on the brink of tossing me in the toilet, they just release it in an uncontrollable manner.

This would be too dangerous for normal people, so only those who are under the teachings of a dojo master spare – and when they do it, they do it while using their auras and controlling closely the amount they use.

Such form of training, where one spars while using Aura, is called [Joint Training]. Sometimes it becomes quite deadly, since the most basic of the defense techniques, like the [Aura Armor] one, are just too advanced for most people.

…

Yeah, I’m starting to think on myself as a little too out of scale for this world.

Maybe I got too many cheats?

HA!

As if.

Give me more. Give me all the cheats and I shall be happy!

MUAWHAHAHAHAH!

Joking.

So, there are tax collectors in the town today, I’m grounded inside the house and I can’t go to the woods to start programming my mana pebbles because of that.

I guess this sums up my situation.

Tonight’s night is promising to be really boring and…

…

Well, aren’t ma and pa back on it?

On having sexual relations, I mean.

Haha.

 They are going at it as if I wasn’t in the house.

I have been observing the signs on their auras for some time now, but I thought they wouldn’t do it knowing I’m awake here.

In the living room, obviously. Since I can’t sleep on the same room as Jacen.

…

Guess I should just go on [Soul Walk] and expend the night walking around the place. 

I could try and program the mana pebbles just with my soul, but not only would this make things more difficult, would also be bad for my training – which is to use soul magic while inside my body.

How am I avoid getting lost like it happened when I was in the forest before?

Well, there’s a technique to do it.

You need to ground your soul to the earth bellow you. It’s a simple process, very similar to controlling your aura to go below your feet and spread on the earth, but it makes your soul attached to the physical plane.

Most ghosts come to be like this. They just become naturally attached to a place and this avoids their souls scathing.

So, this is the way to avoid wandering around the soul world.

The bad side is that sensitive people will see you.

But I don’t have to worry about that. At the worst case I will scare an animal or two.

***

Sooo…

Mana pebbles assembled, wall built!

Now I just need to make the inner building, which will hold the altar and will be the “sanctum”, that is, the “sacred place” of my temple. The place where I will breed my friend, the next forest spirit to rule over our forest and protect it against every possible treat.

If something unusual happened last night?

Absolutely nothing. I mean, one of the tax collectors indeed seem to have been a problematic person, since he was peeking through grandma’s window.

But he didn’t do anything, and in the end returned to the barracks to sleep.

Besides, grandma was also taking turns watching what he would do.

We stood at the ceiling looking at him, while in soul form, our bodies sleeping calmly in our houses.

It was fun.

Anyhow, let’s keep building. 

***

Winter has come with good news.

Ann has finally started her process to break through the course!

Me and grandma watched in soul form as her skin started to present small cracks near the neck.

It seems my own process of breaking through the curse was definitely abnormal, but that is because it happened almost completely because of the [Body Refining] technique, while Ann’s is happening mostly because her aura aggregate amount is overflowing. The process, in her case, will take another year to be completed. 

On this time, she will be sheltered by the dojo, given food and space to train absolutely for free.

The reason is because one usually must avoid contact with the exterior world when going through the breakthrough.

Doing many things and being too active can lead to the person losing control of the aura in its body and becoming a monster.

Another reason why people need dojos to become superior beings. You don’t want to have to work and live an active life while battling the curse.

That said, we are both very confident that she won’t ever become a monster.

Ann has the [Willpower] talent, so she definitely won’t lose. She can control the process with iron will.

But that isn’t the only good news.

My temple is ready as well!

I choose a seed of [Old Man Tree], a tree of this world which is very much like oak. It’s like a little nut.

I planted the nut in a piece of land I filled with aura and then casted [Crop Growth] on it until it became a seedling.

I considered the possibility of making a mana pebble to continuously cast [Crop Growth] on the seedling, but grandma said it would be better if I did it myself after praying and filling the seedling with good feelings.

This way all growth bursts of the young tree will happen as it’s make to develop its soul as well.

Eventually this should learn to a pattern in the growing organism, where the more it grows the more it will grow its soul as well.

Perfect for a [forest spirit].

That said, praying every day is hard.

I mean, keeping good feelings every time I go there to pray?

Not easy buddy. Not easy at all.

Oh, right.

There’s also the matter of the little orchid I started with the ‘noids ashes, right?

The trees there have received some [Crop Growth] spell as well, but they are developing with a little twist.

It seems the ‘noid ash has some remnants of the ‘noids emotions.

So the trees capture that essence and become deformed and sick when they grow.

The only way to avoid this is by bombarding the tree’s souls and destroying them, but that is too much energy expenditure.

It’s just not efficient to do it by myself, so I burned the trees and added them to the ‘noid ash.

I will need to purify this ash first, before I can do anything useful with it.

Ash purifying… wonder If I should make an automatic system for that by using some mana pebbles with simple orders of gathering soul energy and producing good feelings from it, and then emitting those feelings in the general direction of the ash?

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Like as If it were microwave radiation.

I will try that.

***

News!

Important news!

Mother has finally allowed me to help her with the dangerous herbs on her medicine pantry!

I remember clearly how she made my but hot by spanking it when I tried to get a hold of those herbs in the past.

But I guess she still doesn’t want for me to become poisoned even because there is some very scary stuff there.

The sheer amount of side effects and strong venoms mother has stored in her special herb storage is freaking huge.

Purplecup, which is used on the Monsters Concoction, is just the tip of the iceberg.

She has Old Willow, Stripped Bush, Small Foot, Ika Berries….

What are those?

Haha. Just things which will make you die painfully if you eat. All of them will kill you in less than a day.

And there are others as well, like Little Brown Pea – which will make you starve to death no matter how much food you eat.

I suppose it fucks up your stomach and intestines, and it’s one of the reasons why mother wouldn’t let me touch these herbs even knowing I’m immortal.

She said, and it’s true.

What if I had eaten one of those and became poisoned for life?

Of course I could just use an advanced detoxification spell or, in the worst of the cases, had grandma cast advanced healing on my head after cutting it off.

I wonder… if I cut my head off, do I need the advanced spell or will it regenerate by itself?

And if it does regenerate, will it be from the head or the severed neck?

I’m digressing.

All of that would be pretty gruesome and painful regardless of the choice, besides, mother doesn’t know grandma knows those advanced spells.

Yeah.

Grandma has a lot of secrets, and these are some of the ones I can’t reveal no matter what.

I guess she would just totally stop teaching me if I did it.

And that would be pretty bad if I have to say.

Pretty bad indeed.

***

So, I have some spare time now.

Not that my training is being slowed, but I can’t train with grandma for the whole night.

There seems to be things she has to do by herself, and she won’t take me along all of the time.

Grandma has way too many secrets.

But at least she approved my two little research projects.

What am I researching today?

Hehe.

It will be the themes which took my attention in the past days.

The Little Brown Pea and the ‘noid ash.

The first one is just strangely interesting.

I mean, it’s an herb which will make you die because you can eat as much as you want and still you won’t be able to absorb the nutrients.

The people of this world say it will make you smaller and smaller, lighter and lighter and think that’s because the herb makes you dry.

But it doesn’t seem to have a diuretic effect like the Ika Berries which make you pee so much you will lose blood in the urine and almost surely die of dehydration.

It seems to be just something that will make you progressively lose fat.

Let’s test the effect on some wild rats.

And the ‘noid ash?

Well, this one is simple.

I want to see if I can cleanse it of the soul impurities it has.

I mean, I know I can.

If I use some basic soul spells like the [Holy Guard] and [Cleanse] ones I should be able to stir up all of the bad feelings with the first one and then clean them with the second one.

What they are composed off?

Well, the [Holy Guard] spell is composed mostly of feelings of duty and piety, making bad feelings lose strength and also for them to revolt and become stirred up.

It’s used to take bad feelings out from wherever corner they are creeping on.

While the [Cleanse] spell is a basic soul spell to scathe bad feelings into the air, which makes easier for them to decompose into their basic emotional composites and eventually disappear.

However, I don’t want to cast those spells myself, since I would need to keep doing it whenever I burn some monster meat and make it into fertilizer.

Instead I intend to make manna pebbles imbued with a programming which constantly not only release those spells, but also produces good feelings and let them go.

Let’s make it happen!

***

I’m a bit scared.

I mean, things are going too smoothly for me.

Both my experiments showed remarkable results and confirmed my thesis.

The mana pebbles have been able to wonderfully cleanse, purify and make holy the ‘noid ash, while the rats I have made to eat the little brown peas showed a lot of scar tissue on their stomachs and small intestines.

I mean, it was a bit gruesome to feed the rats poison and then, after a couple days, killing them and making a dissection of their insides, but it was something needed for me to advance my knowledge of this world.

The rats had not only ulcers in their stomachs and intestines, but bigger of all, cicatrized ulcers.

So the reason why this thing won’t kill you at once but rater slowly is because of that.

It will destroy your insides and then make you regenerate them – except it will regenerate not as intestine tissue, but as scar tissue, which can’t absorb nutrients.

There.

It’s proven.

And I may have found the reason why this herb is used to make a cicatrizing agent. It’s poisonous part which creates the ulcers must be removed in the process of mixing it with other herbs and making the cicatrizing oil, while the power to make someone cicatrize fast is kept.

So I should be happy, right?

The seedlings I planted with purified monster ash are growing into beautiful trees, I have cracked the mystery of the Little Brown Pea poison… and all on my first try.

But things tend to go wrong on the first try.

Doesn’t that mean I probably did something wrong in the process and just couldn’t notice it?

…

As I said… succeeding so easily is scary.

***

So, training is turning out to be pretty weird at this point.

Did you know it’s possible to make treant zombies?

It’s amazing. Almost anything can be made into a zombie as long as you attach correctly the soul to the physical body you want to use.

Except you also need to wire the body correctly and the thing you want to turn into a zombie need to learn how to suck aura from the environment with its soul.

Without intuitive wiring most things won’t know how to move since they don’t have this much aura control in the first place, and without energy from sucking aura with their souls they just don’t have enough magical juice to go around.

Yeah.

I’m learning how to make zombies.

And I can also use the same principle but different treatments of the base material to create other things as well.

It’s all based on the [Soul Grounding] spell, which grounds a soul to something in the physical plane.

The easier thing to do is to trap souls into places or objects and then create a ghost like this.

Then the second level involves trapping the soul into something which has aura wiring which allows for intuitive use of aura to control the body.

Obviously the simpler the wiring, the easier it is to make but also smaller is the amount of flexibility the soul has.

That’s why zombies are so easy to do.

They only need a little bit of wiring to connect the soul to key-pieces of the body and then some light programing to make the thing able to use it.

You know, like linking the ~feeling~ of walking with the ~act~ of expending aura to walk.

Then again, since the wiring is done by attaching retractable aura strings to the monster’s bones in place of the tendons, it isn’t easy to program and the walking is pretty mechanical as well.

I’m building a slow zombie which reacts by “walking slowly” to all and any feeling of moving his legs around.

And no, it isn’t easier to use mana pebbles to program everything from scratch. That would at least double or even triple the amount of effort needed, since I would need to program the ~feeling~ of moving legs in the pebble.

If I’m using a poor human’s soul to train?

Obviously not!

What do you think I am, a monster?!

I’m using a mad hound’s soul.

The thing almost scathed right after the hound was dead, but I casted [Soul Grounding] to preserve it while attached to a wooden plank and then transferred it to the zombified version of its original body by casting [Soul Release] on the plank and then re-casting [Soul Grounding] on the aura-wired hound corpse.

Call me doctor Frankenstein, it’s walking!

Since I’m just a beginner it can’t bite or scratch, just walk slowly.

But it’s a success!

Next step is to improve my wiring methods.

More wires, better placed in the corpse, with a more complex programing which reacts to a greater deal of feelings.

Then, once I’m good enough with zombie creation grandma will allow me to move to skeleton creation, complex undead creation and then magic undead creation.

Which are the differences?

Well, skeletons don’t have any meat on them, so I won’t be able to look into how the meat connect to the bones and the general muscular anatomy – which means I won’t be able to use those as guides for an effective zombie.

This makes it easier to create aberrations which look like they came from a B movie, but it makes it more difficult to make effective and efficient undead.

What’s the use of an undead made of intestines and heads if it can’t even walk because the corpse’s anatomy is totally busted?

It’s just bad taste decoration.

Even if it’s creepy as fuck and I definitely wouldn’t want to have one of those in my bedroom at night.

Oh, right, necromantic technical terms.

A “corpse” is anything anyone is using to make an undead. Including wood, clay or rocks.

And an “undead” is anything that has a soul attached to it. That includes golems which have their natural soul crushed and a new one added instead, so it doesn’t need to be something which used to be alive in the first place. Just something that received a soul from a being which used to be dead and now is bound to the physical plane by magic.

That said, after skeleton creation the complex undead creation includes things like armored skeletons, B-movie like horrors made in an effective manner and the such.

And after that…

Well, after that we go into the reigns of magic!

All undead can use magic if they know how to control it with their souls, but it’s also possible to create undeads which have intuitive wiring to be able to use magic when they have certain feelings.

For instance, undeads which produce fire magic when they are angry, or undeads which have holy auras around them.

Yeah, it’s possible to make undeads based on feelings of happiness. 

Just pretty mind-boggling.

That said, all of this is pretty much useless. To make an undead with effective magical skills one need to associate the magic’s activation to a feeling the undead can control, like the feeling of moving a tail in an undead made without tails.

It seems to be very related to which kind of feelings the soul used to be able to feel before dying.

Making it so the undead shoots fireballs by using the feeling of moving its tail would be useless in undeads born from human souls, but is perfect for undeads born from mad hound souls.

That said, isn’t it easier to just learn how to control aura by using your soul?

Grandma says this is already more than most of the people on this continent even think to be possible in the first place, but I hadn’t such a tough time learning it.

A little experience with [Soul Walking], a few years of practice and everyone should be able to do it, right?

…

No?

Well, back to undead creation.

And, yes, there are spells which allow to create undeads with pre-programmed wiring.

They are mixed spells – need to be sung in the physical plane at the same time as you emit the right feelings with your soul.

But they are boring after being used a few dozens of times, like I did to create battle-training undead enemies.

What’s the use of knowing the undead creation spells, like I have come to know at this point, if you don’t understand what they do in the first place?

[Magic Flexibility : Undead Creation] may be useful if you intend to be a carrier necromancer and take down a city with an army of skeletons.

But it’s useless for SCIENCE!

Not to mention the undeads created by this method have a fixed bug into them which compels the poor things to keep killing and doing terrible stuff in order to increase the feelings of guilt, anger and sadness – which are then used to re-fuel the [Soul Grounding] part of the spell.

So, let’s quit being lazy and let’s do some research!

So I can create even undeads who pet puppies for living!

Sweet, sweet research, ahahahahahahahahhaha!

…

After I learn the proper method from grandma, of course.

***

I knew it.

I just knew it.

Nothing good comes from thinking you got everything right on the first try.

What happened?

Well, my ash-powered trees have developed way past the point of being just mana-filled trees and started to move their branches by themselves.

They didn’t become treants, but they can move their branches.

I mean, I’m right in front of them, and they are all trying to move they small, twig-like branches in my general direction.

Why am I feeling down?

It’s a failure!

Grandma says this is the first step on the creation of Dryads. 

Having dryads around also messes up my plan to create a [Forest Spirit] since they will have to share the forest and the [Forest Spirit] probably won’t be able to take their souls.

Not to mention dryads are a kind of dangerous monster. They won’t kill people just for fun, but… well, how can I put this…

They are a kind of sex vampire.

They have two bodies. One is the original tree which is the dryad’s true body and life. And one which is made mostly of soft clay and can assume the form of many different kinds of beings to lure them closer.

Now, the original dryad tree can suck aura from the environment just like a mana pebble, while the soft clay body can assume a lot of different forms, textures and even temperatures.

So they will usually lure animals into humping them and suck on the animal’s aura while the thing is busy having its way with a bunch of clay.

If humans fall on this kind of trap?

It seems they indeed do. Some horny people won’t even notice the beauty they are having sex with is actually made of warmed-up clay.

Once the dryad learns the difference between beautiful and ugly human males and females, of course.

Now, a single dryad usually isn’t a problem, because they won’t suck something’s aura to the point of killing it. Their method of growth is more like “give pleasure, take aura” like.

But a collection of dryads like my small orchard?

Those will suck the life of you before you even have time to come.

So they are dangerous. Definitely dangerous.

But this is only the first problem.

You see, the mana pebbles I have been using?

Well, I found a big problem on their programing.

They continuously suck aura and soul energy from the environment, so this whole area is now extremely depleted in terms of aura and soul energy.

Entering here is almost like entering a sterile place devoid of life and emotion. With exception of my orchard and the small tree inside the temple, everything in a fifty meters’ radius is dead.

One can’t even feel any sadness for the dead trees and other flora, since all the emotional energy is being sucked as well.

So…

Should I maybe undo all of this?

Destroy the temple and everything else?

I could reprogram the mana pebbles to run a check to see the local aura levels before sucking it. That means low aura levels would deactivate the most aura-expensive functions and keep only the basic ones running.

…

No.

I don’t need to downgrade my current setting. I can still try something else and avoid the inevitable setback which would come with it.

It will take me a lot of time every night, but I’m sure grandma will agree to it.

We can change my training so I train the soul spells and techniques while also doing other things.

Especially since the focus has changed recently. Grandma has been teaching me techniques which are good for soul-on-soul battle like [Soul Weapon] and [Soul Armor], not to mention the soul versions of the detection and hiding aura techniques.

Those would be [Soul Analysis], which is a version of [Aura Analysis] but applied to a person’s soul, [Soul Hiding], which is basically [Aura Hiding] of the soul world and [Soul Sensing], the soul-sister of [Aura Sensing].

Those are difficult as fuck, but they can be trained while I’m in my body and doing other stuff.

So, that’s the plan.

I will keep training those techniques and will also hunt monsters every night from now on.

Then I will burn then and make nice monster ash, which will be purified by my special mana-pebble pots.

This ash then I will spread around the temple, creating a new orchard with better distributed trees.

They need to receive just enough ash as to grow and provide me with aura-filled fruit, but avoiding to become dryads.

This way I will be able to make a small tree-powered aura power plant, and at the same time keep my temple running nice and smoothly.

I just need to guarantee that I have enough monster ash to power it up. And also that this ash is purified and ready to be used.

But then the problem of the emotional energy shortage may be a problem.

You see, it is possible to turn things like sadness and anger into happiness and peace.

But that uses a bunch of emotional energy to cast the [Holy Guard] and [Cleanse] spells, so the final result is very small.

Like how you can get fresh water from the rain, but will expend so much energy building a device to collect this water it may be better to just try and find a river.

That said, I can make the trees produce happiness and other good feelings as well, but it will be difficult to keep them like this.

Why?

Well, they will be being sucked dry of those feelings, so they also need a kind of soul fertilizer.

And I know exactly how to get it.

“It’s possible, but very difficult darling.”

“Can’t you help me grandma? Pleease?”

“Okay, I will do a few for you. But only if you learn [Soul Isolation] until the end of the day, okay?”

“Okay!”

[Soul Isolation].

That’s a technique which is the first step to learn [Soul Hiding].

Just like learning to change small aspects on one’s own aura is the first step to learn [Aura Hiding]. It’s the same principle, but applied to the soul world.

How?

Well, souls naturally irradiate their feelings around them. Just like you can feel when someone passes by and the person is in a bad mood?

Like that.

So, the first step to manipulate this kind of thing in order to create a false appearance to someone’s soul is to control how much your own soul irradiate.

You know, ‘cause strong souls will irradiate a lot and weak souls will irradiate almost nothing?

So, [Soul Isolation] is just like that. Controlling how much you soul irradiate its feelings and information around itself. The goal is to learn how to completely isolate yourself once you want.

And I need to finish learning it tonight.

If I do it, grandma will make a nice thing for me.

Soul Pebbles.

You know.

Just how there are mana pebbles in this world, which absorb aura?

They can absorb and transform a little bit of emotional energy, since they have souls, but they can’t deal with big amounts of soul remnants and soul energy, since their own souls are very small and primary.

Instead Soul Pebbles are much more efficient and malleable.  They are just like mana pebbles, but made with rock from the soul world which has been manipulated by mind power.

Once I have one of those I can get the remains of the scathed souls from the monsters I hunt, purify those, decomposing them to their basic emotional compounds, and then mix and [Ground] then to my monster ash by using [Soul Grounding].

It will be a mixed fertilizer – able to make fertile things both in the physical and soul planes!

Soul fertilizer!

Very nice.

But also very dangerous, since the soul pebbles have small minds of their own. I will need grandma to keep a vigilant eye on them, so they don’t infuse themselves on my mana pebbles and become sentient dungeons.

I guess the safest way to do it is by having two different sets of purification pots. One to guard and purify the physical remains of the monsters and one to guard and purify the emotional/soul remains.

If I add a second bunker on the rock I’m using I can create a killing routine for the monsters. Hunt them, [Ground] their souls to a pot, get their corpses to my burning grounds, burn the corpses in a fire, put the ash on another pot.

The pot with the souls gets the soul pebble put inside and I release the souls with [Soul Release]. They shall scathe naturally in just a few minutes, while being kept in place by the soul pebble, and then have their remnants purified by it. 

The pot with the ash will have a mana pebble etched to the inside, and like that will be purified of any emotional remnants by using [Holy Guard] and [Cleanse].

Once both processes are done, I will have only to use [Soul Ground] to ground the soul ash to the physical ash and my special fertilizer Alvin 9000 will be ready!

But there’s plenty of room for failure with such complicated materials and process, so this time I will start in small scale.

Fewer trees, planted more apart of each other.

And I obviously won’t use this super fertilizer on the twig inside my temple.

[Crop Growth] is more than enough to keep that growing nicely, and I don’t want to submit myself to unnecessary risks and lose my precious [Forest Spirit].

That said, let’s go to work!

Starting by destroying this poor semi-dryad orchard.

Goodbye darlings. I’m very sorry, but you shall now become ash for me.

***