Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.16]

Shaking his head in disbelief and resignation, he calmed himself down. He knew already that she wasn’t a true living being, but her behavior made him forget that little fact. There was no way she was okay with that fact, he realized.

Now, though, he could taste the bitterness and regret surrounding her small form. In the deluge of emotions, she forfeited a part of her self-control, spewing out the muck that was accumulating deep within her psyche.

He wasn’t able to stay angry at her after perceiving that.

Sighing, he decided to ask more general questions. If she was so self-assured about the details, he would rather ask for her general opinion.

“What are the chances of me damaging my Soul even more? What are my chances of dying entirely?”

She hesitated for a moment, but if she wanted to strike a deal, she couldn’t hide information as crucial as that.

“Going by my knowledge,” she started hesitantly, “as well as simulation’s results and your unique physique – vastly lower than being killed in the wilderness – around one in a million. The wilderness part… is around one in ten thousand. And that’s taking into account possible System Onji’s interference - without that, I could claim it’s as safe as it comes.”

He nodded. That wasn’t too bad. He would give himself an order of magnitude less in the case of System’s intervention, but that was beside the point.

“Soul damage… is a tricky question,” she continued. “We know nothing about the physicality on the other side. But you will be as prepared as we can make you. I would say that… the chances of you losing anything more than the expanded core Soul are one to tens of thousands at the worst.”

Sounds like a number she just made out… he thought with suspicion, but didn’t comment.

“Any new adversaries on Corora? Slowing down my growth? Irrevocably changing my path or being?”

“Except for the System Onji, you will find more friends than opponents. An all-out positive,” she said with certainty. “Even if you don’t manage to prove yourself to the Onjis – that, I can guarantee.” She stood up before proudly declaring... “We are the Faen. You will be considered our friend. If it comes to the worst-case scenario, we can relocate you. It will take time, but we can overshadow the System’s Soul-based enhancements if we put our minds to it. As for your last questions – no and no. You won’t be under our influence at all. If anything, it is an opportunity to gain more knowledge and open more opportunities.”

He rolled his eyes at the obnoxious advertisement and asked a few more questions to be on the safe side. Her answers weren’t exactly straight to the point – he could feel she wasn’t sharing everything with him. Especially when the additional information she was sharing threw him out of the loop. She was hiding something and was trying to cover it up by distracting him.

Because of that, the number of questions he had started to multiply instead of decreasing.

Although, when he demanded a straight answer, she was able to give him one. That was the only reason he kept with her antics.

After a few hours of discussion, his curiosity was mostly satisfied and his worries abated. Even if his knowledge was too shallow to pursue the truth hidden behind her misleading words.

He was left with only two important questions. Two distinct issues to clear with the Faerie. Those, in his opinion, carried the most weight. He had left them for last because he wanted to learn what kind of person she was. How she was speaking, what information she would give for free, and what she would try to omit.

He had an overall good impression of her, but he also knew that she was geared better towards negotiations than he was. She wasn’t malicious in her behavior, but he could tell that her instincts were fighting with her reason when he touched upon certain topics. And because sometimes she gave him more information than necessary, while avoiding a related topic on other occasions, it was becoming difficult to discern which one was a trap or a manipulation attempt, and which was her honest opinion.

The old being she stemmed from wasn’t stupid, leaving her with just the right mix of knowledge and convictions to force his hand. Even if the original seemed to lack some common sense.

Prepared mentally to lose all the goodwill they have built until now, he asked the first difficult question. The Faerie knew instantly it was important – he could see as she stiffened in response to his own serious mood.

“Explain to me, in detail, what did you mean by ‘your thrall’?”

Strangely, the question made her relax somewhat. “It means what it means. An individual from an intelligent race who chose to throw away their free will.” She paused, making sure he was ready to listen to her explanation. As he didn’t react, she continued. “A lot of people would do that for the chance of a prolonged existence, or in exchange for an unachievable wish being granted. By Soul-bonding with me, they can easily achieve the former, while I personally take action to grant the latter.”

Another pause. Zeph stayed silent still, leaving his evaluation for after the full explanation.

“But my mind is orders of magnitude more complex than theirs – it’s not an equal exchange,” she admitted without a guild in her voice. “I am thinking much faster than your race. As so, I am producing more Will. My Soul is active so deeply and is of such high density that it’s impossible to form a balanced connection.”

Seeing his blank stare, she paused to consider how to explain it to him for a moment.

“It’s the same as when you, humans, Soul-bond with animals. Their Will naturally aligns with yours, the same way as humans’ Will naturally aligns with mine. Additionally, their Soul isn’t able to sustain an equal exchange, so mine is influencing them at a more fundamental level, too. Even if dominated in such a way, they are the same people as before, technically, just led by my wants and needs.”

His nonexistent eyes squinted. “Slaves, basically… And how did you convince them to form the Bond?”

She raised her hands placatingly. “All was explained and warnings were given. The System Onji is monitoring things on their side, either way. It was their choice. True, the individuals I contacted emanated so much despair, dread, or desire that I could easily tell they would agree. But I don’t have a need to trick them – I just needed a few helpers and the dreams I influenced would be forgotten soon enough if they declined.”

“And the System didn’t notice you doing that?”

She shrugged. “It knows when someone is Soul-bonding with something they shouldn’t. I guess, it gives warnings of its own in such cases. But I am outside of its influence. It can try to force a scan through the connection, but that would be against its rules. And it wouldn’t pass without retaliation.”

He sighed mentally. I suppose… if she leaves them with a choice… Yeah, I can accept that. Now then… he straightened up.

“Your previous explanations left quite a big hole in reasoning. Reincarnation happens naturally. You said it's impossible to navigate the Soulscape without proper relative coordinates and that the information is spread out, so how does a Soul converge naturally?”

“Well, for the older iterations of your lives, you know the answer,” she started smartly. “Like I said, you will gain access after accustoming yourself to the context of what you were.”

He shook his imaginary head. “Explain that fully. It’s not like I will be given coordinates to the fragmented parts of my Soul, even if I get accustomed to the context of what I was. There is a variable missing.”

She huffed in dissatisfaction. It was clear that she didn’t want to talk about that topic, but she didn’t have a choice.

“The temporal dimension interacting with the Soulscape leaves a trace,” she started with a pout. “The aggregated information is accumulating chronologically in fractal-like structures. The clusters of data are barely discernable, but they are reacting strongly and coherently if under the influence of a timeline - even after losing the connection to said timeline at some point. The partial reincarnations do happen, but it’s a problem only for badly damaged Souls.”

Zeph frowned. “So, there is another way to interpret and navigate the dimension? And why would you want to hide that from me?”

Her shoulders dropped down even as her small form started emanating irritation. “It’s useless for ‘navigating’ if you aren’t going to influence the whole set of the data cluster. You can’t just read the planet’s history without becoming one with all that information. That’s why the System is making copies of everything in separate chunks. But yes, it’s the main reason you can keep your Soul coherent, reincarnate, and dig down to the memory of your previous lives.” She sighed. “I wasn’t going to explain that because it’s almost certain that you will try to use that knowledge. And you shouldn’t.” She sent him a silent glare through two borderless, unfocused holes that suddenly opened in the place of her eyes. They made him shiver. “It may sound simple, but the patterns manifesting in the Soulscape aren’t a product of just a few variables. Do not touch things you don’t understand fully or you will risk damaging your very core. If you attempt anything advanced without first interacting with other dimensions, you are guaranteed to fail. And remember, our knowledge will be available. Just wait patiently and follow your instincts – the natural order of things – and everything will be alright.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

He gulped. The tension in the space was intensifying through her speech and he wisely decided to follow her words to the letter this time.

Should I try to explain that to Gru, though? he asked himself. It wouldn’t be too difficult, at least in comparison with everything else he would have to describe, his current situation included. After pondering on it for a minute, he decided against it. If misconceptions can be that damaging, I better leave Gru to his own devices. She already stated that there was a natural order of obtaining that knowledge.

He deflated impotently. Even if she was telling the truth, he still didn’t like how much he had to rely on her words. Maybe that was the whole reason for avoiding those topics… The uncertainty that comes with knowledge…

“I understand,” he finally said, nodding with seriousness. “But I hope you will explain everything properly later on.”

The Faerie’s eyes almost disappeared as she beamed with her creepy, black smile of hers. “Everything, with time. But… does that mean?”

“Yes, I agree to the deal,” he conceded, somewhat irritated at the declaration. He was feeling manipulated to some degree. “It would be much easier if you weren’t trying to hide information from me.”

“Believe me, I have serious reasons for doing so,” she stated in a matter-of-fact tone. “To make you feel better – it’s similar to the time-traveling paradox. Would the information about future events make you able to change them? Or is it the very cause of what is to come?”

“We still need to contact Gru,” he changed the topic, not feeling even an ounce better after that comment.

“True! Any idea how to go about it?”

“Just… leave me some Will. Of the normal kind.”

She frowned. “If you use it on your Soul, you will probably lose connection to this simulation.”

He shook his head. “No, what I am going to do is much simpler. But I can’t use anything Nether-related. My body is my Soul right now, right?” She nodded. “Just give me access to a part that isn’t expanded. It doesn’t have to be from my core Soul…”

And so, the plans were put into motion.

===============================

This time, his consciousness was slow to resurface as he woke up – something that didn’t bode well.

It took his dazed mind a good minute to recognize the black ceiling and the golden trimmings running along the corners and wall surfaces.

Looking down at himself, he was lying naked on a stone table. His body was aching in too many places but otherwise stayed unmolested. He allowed himself to relax slightly, dropping back on the stone that was already warmed up by his body.

Instead of asking the System what was happening outright, he tried to revise his memories first.

There it was, the last day of the Tournament. And there was his opponent… whose name he couldn’t remember. Jerkanddo?... No… Jacka… Ugh, whatever…

Leaving behind the unnecessary details, he focused on the important parts. There he was, firing their new experimental weapon… Right! I was hit with something right after. Hmmmm… Was it a Mana pulse followed by a Soul attack? Oh…

Oh no! Panicking, he quickly opened his Interface and zoomed down to his Traits.

Sighing with relief, his body lost its tension. His Soul fragmentation was still at 10%.

Thank gods, Alex was wrong, he thought, being sure that the message from the Gibbons was written under Alex’s careful guidance. But that doesn’t explain much, does it?

“System?” he asked into the air. To his surprise, his throat wasn’t parched. In fact, he felt well-rested and energized.

And so, the victim finally rises from their unending slumber…

Their dry tone only exaggerated the bad narration.

“Har. Har. How many points did you take from me to save my life this time?” he asked with irritation.

None, princess. We could do nothing.

Zeph’s face paled. “Okay… that doesn’t sound good.”

It wasn’t. You are in a peak condition, physically speaking. But your [Will] was swarming around the Soul-injection side for the last week, occluding our perception.

We couldn’t interfere without employing harmful methods. As so, we decided to wait. Besides the vicinity of the injection, your whole being was stable.

“Wait, how many days have passed?”

It’s the 22nd of the first month. You were unconscious for 7 days, 11 [Earth hours], and some irrelevant minutes.

“What about the injection side?”

That’s a good question. Do you want us to provide a [Deep Memory Scan] of the area? It will cost you merely 10,000 UP.

A premonition – bad enough to make him clench his jaws – hit him after receiving that message.

Shit… “No, no… No scans,” he managed to say while massaging the muscles below his temples. “Somehow, that doesn’t seem like the best idea right now. You should be able to see the general state of my Soul either way? And what happened, exactly?”

…If you say so.

Yes, the event left you with… scars, for the lack of a better term. The area doesn’t seem [readable] anymore.

As for the event – the [Garuan] stayed dormant and unsure until a few hours ago. For an unknown reason (one for which we would reward you in case of sharing your insights) the [Garuan] took action and consumed a part of the intruding [Soul fragment]. It was a hasty and sudden action, possible only because you two share the same type of [Will].

The rest of the intruding [Soul fragment] collapsed and separated shortly after, but not without leaving a mark.

The [Garuan] informed us that the incomplete instructions to act as such came from you, [Zeph Einar]. But ‘he’ stubbornly declines to grant us any further explanations or details.

Really, that’s all? he thought because he expected that some unfortunate complications were the source of his coma. Instead, it was the other way around – he was unconscious but stable until Gru took action. And what is the System expecting from me? I was unconscious the whole time, you idiot!

Curious, he tried to contact Gru. His companion was suspiciously silent from the beginning, he now noticed.

It was like throwing rocks into a well – he knew Gru received them, but besides the initial splash, there was no echo.

He squinted his eyes. Suspicious… Or… “I think Gru is tired, he isn’t responding. Probably because of what he did,” he shared his unbiased opinion. Yes, there were other possibilities, but he had no reason to discuss them with the System. Especially because the Onji was probably already aware of them.

…

We will wait for the report, then.

But, in that case, we strongly recommend that you focus on the [damaged] part of your [Soul]. Any additional data you can provide will be rewarded.

This time, a sense of déjà vu blossomed in his mind. But that was the last of his worries, so he discarded it almost immediately.

“Hey, my fella… why are so nice to me?” he asked in a voice dripping with suspicion.

We don’t know what you are talking about.

You are bedridden. It’s only natural to be delicate. Or would rather engage in an instant negotiation session after waking up?

“Suuuure…” he smirked. “Receiving additional rewards for doing the most logical thing in this situation? No negotiations when I declined the scan? No interest in what Gru did?” He shook his head. “You aren’t even trying. Why are you—”

The doors to the room slid open at that moment.

Turning his head, he saw Aisha entering, an unpleasant grimace on her face.

He could smell a ploy in action from a mile away…