Chapter 5

Volume 2

Nails aren’t a problem for most people. I mean, all the manual labor we do is more than enough to slowly chip them off and slowly but surely keep them short.

It’s only obvious. Plowing the dirt, or washing clothes with lye, or even going all day long on the woods, holding into rough surfaces like ropes and rocks. It’s bound to eat on your fingernails.

And toenails… well, most people use simple wooden sandals to protect their feet, so those don’t get as rough as a treatment as the fingernails, but still they have its quota of wearing out naturally.

The problem is the people with too much aura on their bodies.

Since aura passively strengthens the aura wearer the most aura one has, it also applies, obviously, to its nails, teeth and hair.

I think it’s a good thing since the teeth brushing habits of the people of this world are less than hygienic. They are composed mostly of chewing on some tree resins or other fibers, at least on our village.

Having strong teeth regular bacteria can’t eat up is surely what preserves this people’s mouths full of them until old age.

Otherwise I’m sure they would lose them all.

But warriors and other aura-filled people. They do have it rough.

And that’s why I’m so interested on what father and Jacen are doing.

You see, I have had this problem recently. Mother hasn’t been able to cut my hair because my aura concentration increased too much recently. I’m just gathering insane amounts of it every day, so she can’t cut my hair.

Grandma has been using an [Aura Knife] to do it instead, and I have been using [Aura Nail Clippers] do keep my nails trimmed.

But, still, it’s interesting to see how the militia guards, which have a lot more aura than the others in the village but can’t use [Aura Weapon] or know what a nail clipper is, deal with the thing.

So, I’m in [Soul Walk] in the middle of the militia barracks, where father is teaching Jacen what to do.

The barracks are mostly just a common wooden house, except they are long and have an also very long backyard, where straw dummies serve as targets for bow, spear and sword training.

There are three main rooms in this big house, which are the armory, where weapons and armor are stored, the chief’s office, which is by the side where usually the sleeping rooms would be, and the militia barracks proper, which is where the living room would usually be.

Then there’s also a special room annexed to the chief’s office which seems to be the militia’s pantry. They must keep it safe at all costs, since not only the militia’s pay comes from it, but specially the grain taxes we pay to the local lord are stored there until the tax collectors come.

It may very well be the only stone room in the whole village. It has stone floor and walls, and no windows. Even the armory has a very small window, but this room doesn’t.

Anyhow. The militia seem to have a routine, as there is a board with small stakes and wooden rings on the barracks proper wall.

Since no one can read, it has colorful feathers on each ring. 

Father came in with Jacen and took two rings. One seems older and has a bunch of feathers from a variety of animals and monsters in it, not to mention intricate nots and weaving made of plant fiber. I guess this one is his ring.

And then there was a smaller one, which had just a lonely, small, white chicken feather. This one must be Jacen’s.

From father stories these rings are their militia rings. They get new feathers, pieces of horns and etc as the militiamen does great things and engraves its own story onto its wooden ring.

Father never was very specific about what it was used for, however. But seeing this wooden board with three stakes under three drawings – one being a straw dummy, which stand in the center of the stakes, the other two being wooden gates, one can imagine what this is about.

It’s a job rotation board to control who will be doing what.

There are always two rings on every gate stake, meaning those are the rings of the militiamen who have to patrol the gates.

Then there are the other rings on the dummy stake, meaning those must be the rings of the militiamen who must do training inside the barracks.

Father just took his and Jacen’s rings from the last gate stake and put on top of the dummy stake.

This means they have gone from the gate keeping duty back to training day, and I suppose the two bottom rings must be the ones which will replace them.

Clever stuff.

But that’s not what matters today.

No.

What matters today is hair and nail clipping. How do militiamen cut their hair and trim their nails?

And in case of father, just how does he deals with his beard?

He’s always shaved and smooth, so there must be some secret which I must learn!

Hum. There they go.

“So, once your nails get too long, you take one of these.”

Father just went to a chest in one of the corners of the room and took a weird shaped knife.

It’s shaped like a crescent moon, and has a sharpened edge on the outside. Is this a primitive nail clipper or something?

“Then you take the brick and you put your nail in it, like this… and then you cut the nail like this.”

Father put a small rock brick on the ground and positioned his toe on the edge of the brick, with his toenail sticking out on the rocky surface. Then he used the moon-crescent shaped knife to cut the nail while doing a small arc.

And there it goes. Nicely cut, round nails. But couldn’t he do the same with a regular knife?

I guess he could, but then he wouldn’t be able to roll it in an arc around the nail – which would leave those sharp nail edges which are just a damn bother to deal with.

Interesting stuff this nail cutting skill. Useless for me, since I do know [Aura Weapon] and would rather use nail clippers made of it, but interesting.

But what about your beard and hair, I wonder…

Uuhm.

The hair is cut with a knife, just like usual. Except since it’s strengthened hair, the militia people are the only one capable of cutting one another’s.

And the beard is shaved off with a sharpened round rock. I guess it fits better in his hands than using a knife, so it makes sense.

Interesting. Very interesting hygiene.

“Is everyone ready?”

Aaand… who are you again?

Oh, father just straightened himself up and answered with the others.

Is this father’s boss?

The militia’s top brass, the guy called Forehead?

I guess he is. His forehead is really enormous.

“Yes sir!”

“Good. Let’s start then. Jhon, you’re in charge of supervision. I will do my routine.”

“Yes sir!”

What. A. Dickhead.

My father may be a sergeant and the second-in-command, but why is he leaving everything to him?!

Shouldn’t this guy at least supervise the other’s training?

Father said this guy would just keep training all day long, all the days, in an attempt to someday reach a level beyond his current Superior Being stage. It seems to be an underlying belief to many of the people of this world, that there must be a way for people to become like the accomplished without the need to fuse themselves with a dungeon’s core.

But to think he would be so blunt and put all of the responsibility on father’s shoulders… father who isn’t even a Superior Being… why isn’t this damn walking forehead teaching others his own training methods and making them become Superior Beings as well?

And someone is shaking my physical body.

Dammit, can’t you see I’m busy being angry at father’s boss here?

*sigh*

Let’s return…

***

And it’s Elipha.

Now, I must confess something.

I’m not training my [Soul Analysis] properly. Or, better putting it, I am training it properly, but I’m not keeping it up at all times like I do with [Aura Analysis].

Because it’s too alienating. Grandma agrees with me. Once you come to know what the people around you are feeling, you just become this much alienated from them.

I have enough depression and alienating cheats as I am, without the need to know what everyone is feeling at all times and become like a total outsider to normal humanity.

Still, with the current Elipha, I will do it.

Because she’s crying, because I can’t find a reason for it in her aura, and because if I don’t stop her crying someone will think I’m beating her up.

So let’s use it.

…

Human souls are weak.

Extraordinarily weak.

I think my [Forest Spirit], which hasn’t even given any signs of being alive yet, probably has a stronger soul than this kid in front of me.

Her soul is just frail. Small, diffused, weak.

It makes me think maybe I should indeed be more attentive to my [Soul Isolation] technique.

Couldn’t I destroy her soul entirely by just sending a couple [Soul Needles] into it?

I wonder if she could resist a single [Holy Guard] spell cast on her. Maybe the soul is so weak it would break when the bad feelings stirred up and started to bubble on the outside of her soul.

…

Nah. [Holy Guard] is a kind of [Blessing] spell from the [Soul Magic Flexibility: Blessing and Cursing] series. It won’t destroy people’s souls, right?

Oh, right, she’s still crying.

Now is no time to be wondering about how strong her soul is. I’m looking for the feeling complex which is making her cry.

Yeah.

Because as frail as human souls are, they surely are demonically complex!

Feelings never come alone on them. They never come simple. It’s always a tridimensional knot of many feeling bubbles, each etched to different parts of the soul.

So let’s look for it.

I can see the human-looking outer layer of the soul. Nice.

Now to increase the potency of [Soul Analysis] and it starts to show small boundaries within the human appearance.

I can see through the soul-skin and the soul-organs.

But this isn’t enough. Even If I can see already some of the reason on her soul-heart, neck and eyes, it’s just as looking at a regular human. She’s soul-crying as well, but this isn’t revealing.

I need to see what are the feelings. The soul-composition which is making her cry.

So let’s concentrate more on the [Soul Analysis]. It’s too much for my current level to do it while also practicing all the other stuff I regularly practice as well, so let’s stop the qigong for a bit.

There.

More mind power available. Let’s look deeper.

Now I can see the soul bubbles. The small emotional components of her soul. There’s some happiness and childish innocence, but I can see the pulsating emanations of a bigger feeling there.

Uhm.

It seems to be a mix of fear, fantasy, frustration, feeling of injustice and loneliness.

Gods be damned, all of this work to figure out what is happening to her exactly and all this kid need is a hug.

She’s scared. Probably fearing to lose me or something. Or for her childhood to end.

It would be a fair emotion since she will be ten years old soon.

There, there.

Rest on my shoulders a bit. I will give you some consolation.

And learn not to over complicatedly analyze stuff when children are crying next to me.

… Not that it’s easy to learn how to be simple and still accurate.

There, there. Everything will be alright. Now sleep a bit. Soon you will be just as new. And then we will play with the other kids a bit and you will forget these feelings. You will forget everything about them, I’m sure about this.

***

There, now I can look at the militia training.

Hum.

Father’s and Jacen’s training with the other militiamen seem to be regular military drills.

They train with the spear, eat, train with the bow, train fist-fighting each other…

Wait…

Oh, so this is [Joint Training] then.

Fist fighting with your aura being controlled nice and slow so the other part won’t be too hurt.

And then fighting the air in front of you for real.

Nice, nice.

But I’m not interested in this.

Oh no.

What I want to see is this damn cocky forehead’s training.

He’s sitting in lotus position on top of a piece of wood, facing the fence, giving his back to the others.

A captain giving his back to his regiment. Ridiculous.

Let’s analyze what he’s doing.

Hum.

Interesting.

There’s no flow of qi on his aura. He’s not doing qigong.

But he’s muttering something.

Is this a spell?

….

It surely sounds like one. But I don’t see any effect.

Maybe he’s still chanting it.

Let’s wait a bit.

….

…

…

Seriously.

Half an hour of chanting and there’s absolutely no effect.

Maybe it’s for the best that he’s not teaching this useless thing to his subordinates.

Let’s get out of here and leave forehead to his own foolishness.

***

My [Forest Spirit] keeps slumbering.

It’s a beautiful tree and gives a very nice vibe to be around, but it’s unresponsive.

So, that’s why I’m with grandma tonight.

We’re hunting monsters and bandits near sister’s hideout.

She’s coming home! She’s really coming!

But she has chosen poorly where to sleep tonight.

There are two monster nests closely, and a couple of drunken hobos who aren’t up to any good searching around.

Grandma said she would take care of the hobos, so I’m dealing with the monsters.

A spider nest, which I took care of by shooting them with [Aura Javelin] and a couple ghouls.

What are ghouls?

Naturally-spawning undead of low caliber. A kind of zombie, but they have freewill and usually don’t rot – in fact, their appearances are disturbingly alike the ‘noids appearances, if not by the fact that they look moister. They come to be when either someone dies and can’t get over this fact, grounding itself to its own dead body and then becoming an undead, or when someone dies and the body for some reason accumulates a lot of emotional energy – enough to create a wild soul which is then taken over by a random mind.

So, there are a couple of those.

And that’s why, again, I’m using [Soul Analysis].

I don’t want to destroy humans which have grounded themselves to their bodies.

What if their grudge is justified?

Even if both are male, maybe they have been raped and then killed by the hobos of earlier, and now are back to exact their vengeance.

In which case I would totally support them.

So let’s see and…

Oh.

Oooh.

Oh my gods.

How unpleasant.

THIS is a rapist.

And the one besides him is a murderer-rapist.

The feelings are strong sexual desire, lust for violence and humiliation of others, not to mention bloodthirst. They just want to kill and rape, rape and kill. Humiliating their victims all the way down.

How. Unpleasant.

Really.

Still..

They are humans, right?

Even if they are undead, they are still human souls.

Even if there’s a strong feeling of frustration mixed with “I’ve got my comeuppance” feeling from both of them.

Even if they both have rope burns around their necks, so they are probably people from the nearby village who got hanged for murder-raping.

Still..

Kill or not to kill.

Or, in this case… to forcefully cut the bonds between their souls and bodies, and then destroy the souls after, or not to do it…

… What should I do…

…

You know what, I know what to do.

Make the fuckers kill themselves and destroy their own souls. Because of fucking guilt over having their bad feelings obliterated and experiencing good feelings, and then remembering what they did to others. This ought to reform them for the next life, right?

I casted [Holy Guard].

Their souls exploded.

Not the effect I wanted.

Now I’m covered in soul-goo.

And their minds are probably in a state of disarray and confusion after getting blasted with empathy and feelings which just obliterated all of their desires at once.

I wonder if they even had time to feel guilt. They souls where just so saturated with bad feelings the [Holy Guard] made them explode when entered in contact with it. They probably didn’t feel any guilt at all.

I do hope they are reborn not-to-be-psychos. But I can’t know now, right?

Sigh….

One more thing on my list of things to ask grandma.

What to do with rapist-murderer psychos and what is wrong with forehead’s training which consists of chanting what seems to be a useless spell, over and over again.

What a day!

***

“You seem troubled darling.”

Grandma and I just returned to the training grounds, where my body is resting near the [Forest Spirit]´s orchard.

“Yes. Lots of things happened today.”

“Really? Like what?”

Let’s give her the resumed version.

“I see. Well, I’m sorry you had to deal with that. It must have been difficult for you, taking your first human life.”

“They were bad people, but I don’t feel right… I feel bad about it… I don’t know why…”

Grandma’s soul smiled to me.

“Don’t worry so much. They were aggressive undead. You did what you had to do. It’s the village’s fault for not burning the bodies, but they would do much worse if you had left them there.”

I can’t argue that it seems things would have been worse If I had let them roam free, but still… I don’t want to take people’s lives.

I don’t feel like I can or should do it. Like, isn’t this meddling with something I have no authority upon? Something I have no responsibility or right to interfere with?

I do have killed a bunch of monsters and animals until now, but I don’t want to start butchering people as well. I don’t feel I have the righteousness to kill others and just say “sorry” if I make a mistake or something.

“Besides, they aren’t dead forever. They will be reborn someday, as you know. Don’t be so sad, okay?”

Well, that does makes the thing a little less dreadful, but letting go of the values of my previous life isn’t so easy…

Ah!

Okay, enough drama already!

I can’t stand forever thinking about how bad and wrong I am for having killed a couple of rapist murderers.

Let’s brush my face and focus my mind on something else.

Right.

Reforming people’s emotions.

“Grandma, what about what happened? Why did they just explode? Shouldn’t [Holy Guard] be a safe spell to use against normal people?”

“First return to your body and let’s get a little farther away. We are producing some bad emotions right now, and it wouldn’t be good if they affected your [Forest Spirit].”

And so we did.

Protecting the [Forest Spirit] so it doesn’t become a murderer rapist himself.

Not that it would have big chances at becoming a rapist, but murderer is quite likely I think. 

So let’s get away.

Here. A few dozen kilometers should be enough.

“Where were we?”

“The [Holy Guard] spell. Why did the undead’s souls exploded?”

“Uhum. You know how the [Holy Guard] spell stir up the bad feelings inside someone and make them get to the surface of their souls, right?”

“Yes”

“Well darling, when you use it in a regular human, as bad as he or she is, they will have their souls still grounded on their living bodies by feelings of sensation. Things like how your skin feels when it touches something, or what are certain smells. So, even if the person’s soul doesn’t have any integrity and could collapse from the [Holy Guard] spell, it is kept together by those feelings, and the person won’t die. Can you understand now what happened to the undead?”

“They didn’t have these feelings? But how could they move then?”

“Wild undead have very instinctive wiring darling. I suppose you didn’t took some time to study how they were wiring themselves to their corpses?”

I couldn’t even think on doing it at the time. I was too busy checking if I should kill them or avenge their deaths.

“No.”

“It’s okay. Next time you should check before destroying them, okay?”

Ah, grandma’s soul is patting my head.

It has been so long since someone patted my head. Years I think. Oh gods, it feels so good..

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“Okay.”

“Good. So, that’s the reason. They probably didn’t wire themselves to their corpses with sensations, or with just the bare minimum of those. Then, when you casted the spell, those basic sensations which everyone has weren’t wired in a sufficient amount and couldn’t keep the form of their souls. So they exploded. They could have also imploded or shredded into pieces, or a number of others things.”

“So I can’t reform their feelings like this?”

Now grandma is looking at me with pity.

“You can’t reform someone by touching their feelings alone darling. If you could, then you would be able to heal yourself from the Dark Night as well. You can make them happy or cut the emotional effects of their diseases, but from what you told me they had the [Man Eater] disease. It’s a disease of the mind’s core, very much like yours. You can’t cure it without destroying their minds.”

“What happens if someone loses their minds grandma? They die forever?”

“It would depend a lot darling. Some people have a thing called a [Spark of Divinity]. If you destroy their minds, they will return someday. Only with a new mind, so as if they had just been created by the [Thing]. Others don’t have it, and if you destroy their minds, then they will disappear from the three planes of existence as we know them. Only the [Thing] knows what happens to them.”

Uhm.

Spark of Divinity you say?

If I’m not mistaken, and, well, since this is a memory from before I get my [Reminder] ability I may as well be, the goddess said something about this to me. She also said something about being unable to heal my depression without destroying my mind, so I guess this would be the same thing?

At least I’m happy to know I do have this spark of divinity thing. If I have it, then not even the so called gods of this world can destroy me.

Only the [Thing], whatever it is, may have such power.

Still…

“Grandma, and what about forehead’s chanting? It didn’t seem to do anything to him.”

“Chant it for me for a bit.”

I started chanting the spell just like forehead was, and I could feel it chipping away a small amount of my aura. So it must do something, even if I don’t know what it is.

“This seems to be an old [Breakthrough] spell darling. It’s used to help people break the curse without turning into monsters. However, you need to hit the curse’s Aura Aggregate Amount limit, and it’s useless after you do this much. Even if you hit the maximum Aura Aggregate for a regular Superior Being, this spell won’t trigger the real [Breakthrough].”

Interesting.

Still, thinking better about it, I don’t know much about these breakthroughs, do I?

I mean, why do the Superior Beings of this world fuse themselves with mana crystals on dungeons?

All I had to do to reach a level beyond the one of a regular Superior Being was to keep training my qigong technique after all.

“Grandma, why won’t it work? How do the breakthroughs work when people don’t use our clan’s techniques?”

“The breaking of the curse happens when someone hits the Aura Aggregate Amount limit for the curse darling. Then, the first real [Breakthrough] happens when someone hits the Aura Aggregate Amount limit for humans. The first one can be pushed through by simply increasing your aura. But the second one is the limit of human flesh to store aura. Even if you try to accumulate more, you won’t be able to. You need to remake your flesh and bones, and every single wiring between your body and soul as well. That’s the difference between simply breaking the curse and truly going through a [Breakthrough].”

Oh.

Well, that does explain a lot. Like why the chanting would be useless and why Superior Beings fuse themselves with mana crystals. If they don’t know a qigong technique which can change the composition of their very flesh and souls, it would be useless to try to accumulate more aura.

“Then Superior Beings won’t turn into monsters while trying to go through a [Breakthrough]?”

“It’s possible to become a monster if you use very wrong techniques, but it won’t happen like how common people may become monsters just by accumulating too much aura. Still, it’s dangerous.”

“Why?”

“If your body can’t store the aura and still you try to accumulate more and more, not only can you be affected by [Petrification], but also you may start to leak aura all around you, at all times. Then it’s a matter of time before wild monsters appear on your house or wherever you go.”

Oh.

That seems problematic.

“And what about the Accomplished grandma? Are them so much stronger than me?”

Grandma is making a funny expression.

“Why would they be stronger All?”

“Because I’m a Superior Being, and they are accomplished. Shouldn’t they be stronger than me?”

“Well, some may be but, darling, you’re not a Superior Being.”

“Eh? Didn’t I go through two [Breakthroughs]? Shouldn’t I be a Superior Being?”

“Well, you are, but you are also above that. You’re a First Rank Cultivator, just like me. In terms of this era’s standards, that’s enough to make you as strong as an Accomplished or Dungeon Master as well. The only difference is that Dungeon Masters mix theirs bodies with the dungeons and absorb aura from the environment, while you can’t eat the environmental aura, but can use your [Spiritual] talent.”

…

Oh.

So I’m an accomplished.

And here I was thinking I was just a Superior Being.

And Grandma is one as well. And she’s patting my head again.

Well, it’s life.

Somedays you are a useless blob of fat and depression living on your hateful mother’s goodwill towards her more-than-useless son, somedays you are an amazingly powerful being in a parallel world with magic and head-patting grandmothers. 

I can live with that. I definitely can live with that.

***

It’s been a few months.

Summer has arrived and I’m enjoying an old memory. From the times when I still lived on earth.

Except the memory itself was terrible. What I’m enjoying is how I can live now and how things are so much better.

Oh yeah.

What is this memory?

Mosquitoes.

Fucking mosquitoes.

I’m remembering summer in earth. The constant buzzing. The itching. The diseases they carried.

FUCKING MOSQUITOES!

DIE THEM ALL!

IN PAIN AND UNIMAGINABLE SUFFERING!

So, mosquitoes.

There’re none here.

At least not on my village. Maybe it’s because it’s a bit cold here. Even summer doesn’t bring in too much heat.

So I’m happy.

Oh, Elipha?

Yeah, she turned ten. Now she’s going to the fields with Ralphe every morning.

As for me, I didn’t became too attached to the twins, so I don’t care much. I’m free. A boy without a gang. A lone wolf.

I do participate on some games with groups here and there from time to time, but I have been expending my time mostly laying down somewhere and watching stuff happening.

Literally watching the grass grow.

Not that I’m terribly bored. I’m constantly training qigong and the concealment techniques I have to keep up, like [Aura Hiding].

Not to mention soul techniques. Those I’m training as well.

But my physical body is laying at the feet of a tree between the village gates and the houses.

Confy.

That said, I just noticed something weird.

I’m feeling a certain stiffness recently.

Like as if my body was a little heavy.

It isn’t like when I’m depressed, but it’s weird nonetheless.

Maybe I should move a bit. Do more exercise and stuff.

Meh.

Let’s do it tomorrow.

***

Just a little more.

Just a little more and older sister will be back!

She’s already only a few dozen kilometers from us!

A shame she’s stopping at a village midway. But I can’t blame her. She’s been traveling all day long for three months now.

After the breakthrough she still stayed at the county’s capital for a time before coming back. Earning money to make the trip back and stuff like that.

She worked mostly with protecting establishments and so on. A private security business of a single woman.

I was worried when I first saw she doing it, but it seems no one even dared to mess around her anymore.

Not only Ann is now known as “Mad Hound” in the county’s capital due to all she had done to the abusive men, she was recognized as a Superior Being by a local dojo master. It’s just obvious that no one would dare create a mess if she was to work as private security.

That said, she would have expended a lot less time traveling wasn’t it for the problem of doing it in summer, when there’s constant rain.

500km can become quite a chore in a hilly terrain, even more when there’re summer rains to make you sore and tired.

It’s quite amazing she’s progressing with so much speed, I have to say.

That said, it should take maybe… I don’t know… ten days for her to come back?

It will be nice have her back. I will be sure to make a nice warm bath for her.

…

No, I’m not having perverted thoughts!

…

Maybe I am.

***

Mother of coincidences.

You see, I wonder why things decide to happen all at once sometimes?

I mean, one thing is for me to see that Ann is just a couple dozen kilometers from the village. She’s sleeping soundly in a tree not far from here.

I just checked on her. She has a tired expression, but she looks fine.

Now, other thing is for me to discover that the [Forest Spirit] has finally awoken.

It has taken one of the peach trees from the orchard, by extending its soul towards it.

So, it’s awaken, that’s for sure.

Now we need to teach it how to talk and stuff…

Except I can’t!

Hahah!

Why ? Because my body is fucking cracking.

There are cracks in my skin, in my bones, even in my freaking eyes!

As soon as I could I went on [Soul Walk] and got grandma’s soul to come over to look at me, and she was as dumbfolded as a soul outside its own body could be. 

Yes.

I’m going through another [Breakthrough].

However, this time it’s not a regular one.

You see, I’m not doing qigong for long enough to justify me going through another one of those.

Not after becoming an Accomplished.

Besides, the effects aren’t like the ones when you do qigong.

Because my body is cracking all up, instead of orderly, in layers, how it was supposed to.

Grandma herself haven’t gotten through the second rank in cultivation, but she said this isn’t how it usually happens.

Oh gods, I just hope I don’t become a monster.

Please don’t make me a monster.

Not when comeback sex with my sister is about to happen!

Pleeeeeeease!

***

First day of breakthrough.

I’m secluded on my training camp.

My flash is all cracked, in some points you can see my muscles. Those cracks emit a lot of aura.

I have placed the [Mana Pebbles] around me and gave them a simple command to absorb as much aura as possible.

Grandmother was the one to take them from home and bring here.

I hope it doesn’t spread around and start creating monsters.

Water is secured by grandmother.

Sister has come back home, but she went there and let everyone know that I have hit an unexpected event on my training.

I want to go back, but I don’t think my current appearance would be a good thing for them to see.

***

Second day of breakthrough.

My flesh is now becoming black dust instead of just cracking. 

Monsters are being born already. Earth slimes are born at each step I give. Grass treants have started to encircle this place.

I decided to cut a big bolder and made it as a place for me to seat on.

I thought about stopping the flow of Heavenly Energy and from the energy from my [Spiritual] talent, but if I do it then the wounds on my flesh don’t regenerate.

I’m afraid I’m becoming undead.

I have made a fire in front of me, in order to quickly burn all of my decaying flesh.

***

Third day.

The big rock underneath me has started to vibrate.

It probably became a rock golem with all of the aura that’s sipping through it.

The mana pebbles have hit max capacity and became useless.

I got two big pieces of rock with [Aura Hand] while in [Soul Walking] and placed them at my right and my left.

Each is a cube of 4mx4mx4m. Huge.

I’m consciously injecting all of the energy from the environment on them, controlling the process with my soul, and hoping that they become gigantic mana crystals.

I hope they don’t become dungeons. Otherwise I will be screwed.

But I’m constantly casting [Soul Dissolution] on everything around here, so I guess they won’t get souls.

I hope.

***

Fourth Day.

The rock golem beneath me has started to evolve into something different. The rock stopped to vibrate and begun to shrink.

It was a large 6mx6m piece, and now it’s reduced maybe 20cm or something. 

All around the ground I can see a lot of powder. I don’t feel any aura coming from it, so I guess it’s some kind of purification process.

I’m reduced to only my bones. Still I haven’t died.

I can’t see the wiring between my soul and my bones. Am I really an undead now?

Am I even alive?

***

Fifth day

The amount of aura I get from my [Spiritual] talent has increased thirtyfold. The amount of aura from the Void increased twenty fold.

It’s a lot. It would be fun if I had any chance of using it.

But my bones are disappearing.

I believe this is it.

This is how I die this time.

For real.

Soon there won’t be anything for me to regenerate from. If I could still regenerate.

The amount of aura I lose to the environment has become minimum. Nonetheless, the rocks all around seem to have created small cores.

They have mana crystals deep inside of them, I can feel it. But the whole of the rocks haven’t turned into it.

I decided to let the other mana pebbles spread around the rock pieces. Maybe they will fuse together.

***

Sixth Day.

Grandma doesn’t know what is happening to me either.

She can feel my aura all around where my body used to be, but not even my bones have remained.

I’m sure I will die, so I have asked her to bring the family here. Even if mother and little sister can’t come, I want to say goodbye to everyone else.

She said it would be difficult since my training camp is so far from the village, but she would do the best she could. That way they can at least make me a grave and retrieve the mana crystals before they turn into dungeons.

The mana pebbles have embedded themselves on the rocks. Indeed, they are merging.

I have put the rocks closer as well. This way they can all become part of the same thing.

***

Night of the sixth day.

I noticed something.

Powder from the environment is gathering around me. The aura bubble where my body used to be is organizing this powder around itself.

I can see bones forming.

I’m amazed.

What is this?

I shouldn’t have any bones or anything else remaining to regenerate. I thought I was a goner.

Still, it’s happening.

The moon is shining over my new bones.

I would go on Soul Walk and talk to grandma, but I’m afraid to leave this place.

What if my soul has something to do with how my body is being reconstructed?

I wonder if I will keep my cheat powers with this new body.

The [spiritual] talent surely will remain, but I don’t know about the others.

Let’s see.

***

Seventh day.

Grandmother’s soul has come to see if I’m still alive. She’s as surprised as me.

Grandmother’s soul is crying.

I’m crying as well.

Those are tears of happiness.

I will live!

***

Eight day.

My bones are done, and now nerves and blood vessels are growing.

I don’t have organs yet, so it’s quite the scene.

I also can’t see the wiring between my soul and body. If there are wires remaining, they aren’t of the same kind I used to have. They aren’t like others.

Around me the mega-crystal is growing vigorously.

It seems all of the rock has fused, and the mana pebbles have been absorbed into it.

There are small holes in the rock, making its path to the center. I believe the true mana crystal core is underneath me.

***

Ninth day.

I have organs and viscera, and some deep muscles as well.

There are no traces of life around me.

All plants have died, everything is sterile.

I believe it’s because of the programming I gave to the mana pebbles, to continuously suck energy from the outside.

I’m paying extra attention to the soul part of the rocks. I don’t want it to create a dungeon.

As soon as I’m done here, I will smash those rocks and retrieve the mana crystal inside. This way I will be sure nothing bad will happen.

***

Night of the Ninth day.

I have muscles and the skin is starting to grow over them, but I’m not alive yet. I can’t hear my heartbeat, and blood isn’t flowing through my body.

It’s as if I’m in a state of suspended animation.

I hope I get out of it.

***

Tenth day.

Morning brought me my first breath of fresh air in a long time.

And together with it, an unbearable itch which took all of my body.

It was as if I was itching all over, from the deepest part of my bones to the outer layer of my hair.

Still, it soon ended.

Ha.

Hahahahahaha.

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH!

I’M ALIVE!

I’M FUCKING ALIVE!

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA !

Oh gods, thank you.

That.

That was awful.

***

I’m currently breaking the rocks which I used as basis to my mana crystal creation.

Inside of them there’s a huge chunk of pink quartz crystal, the size of my head. I guess this is the mana crystal made by fusing together all of that energy, plus the mana pebbles and everything else.

It surely is big.

Let’s put it to sleep.

And then…

Take a bath, and head back home.

The family must be worried about me.

Oh, right…

Let’s try it out…

Regeneration came immediately as I cut myself with a small [Aura Knife]. It’s just as before… or maybe even a little faster, if that’s even possible.

So, my talents are all still here.

Or at least the regeneration, spiritual, reminder and so on. I don’t know about the [Immortal] talent.

Or want to try it.

I don’t want to risk dying again so soon. Even if I didn’t die in the end.

Gods, that was intense. Fucking intense.

Let’s go back home. Let’s see sister. Let’s sleep for a big. Let’s put this damn crystal somewhere it won’t be a treat.

That one was a close one.

I guess I will turn the Void Energy Gathering training off. I can feel it filling me up with energy at unbelievable speeds. I may not last another month at this rate.

Enough breakthroughs for now.

Seriously.

Enough.

***