Two towers [an unknown location in the new world], local time [1793.04.26]

The first thing Zeph did, was to sort the Classes by compatibility. Not surprisingly, Mana-related ones were first, as Intuition and Willpower supported them. Next were Soul related ones, which he could also understand because his Will evidently allowed him to easily interact with a Soul. But after that, something unexpected showed up. He expected a Melee, Shooter, or Scientific-type. Generalist? Is it like ‘Jack of all trades’? Probably not, seeing as it is Intuition and Willpower based. Next is Shaman? It definitely sounds like a specialized Class, what the heck?

He was curious, so he spent some time on getting more information about those two. Generalist was strange, it gave only 3 free points to allocate per level, no auto-allocated points at all. It also couldn’t be specialized into any ‘element type’ later on, like normal Mana Classes. Its specializations strayed in the direction of Advanced Enhancements and depended on them. That was the reason for giving only 3 points, the number of possible Upgrades of other kinds were numerous for this one. As well as Skills, or rather CSMs. It required 3 level resets, from level 5 to 1, though.

Shaman, on the other hand, combined Mana and Soul arts. Ways of doing it were its specializations. It gave 4 auto-allocated points, and 1 free point, and required 1 level reset, also from level 5 to 1. It seems almost like a specialized Class already, no wonder it has such a name… I think I understand how it works, let’s try to mix some.

He scrolled down, trying to get a feel for what can be mixed. One entry stood out enough to make him pause. ‘Human’? There is a ‘Human’ Class? Well, it wouldn’t be strange if the System enhanced every entity possessing a Soul. Animals wouldn’t be able to choose a Class, after all, so a default one should exist. He read a little, and indeed this Class concentrated on expanding self-awareness and natural abilities. Does that mean the System is trying to create new intelligent species? No, let’s not jump to conclusions. It’s just another topic to remember asking about. But I can check if the System is really enhancing everything. He started reading about his Level from the Interface. Soon, he found relevant information, and an old notification opened again.

You have earned [Soul fragments]! You don’t have any [Class] or [Profession]. [Soul fragments] were deposited in the bank.

Soul fragments… Yep. After reading this one, a new notification opened up.

You are partially responsible for killing [Centipede Tomato – lvl 15].

You are partially responsible for killing [Centipede Potato – lvl 11].

You are partially responsible for killing [Centipede Tomato – lvl 10].

… (41 more)

There were two species? But they were identical? Don’t tell me the ones hanging from trees were tomatoes… Eh, whatever, so the System is enhancing everything! I wonder how much those are in levels. Should be like 2 levels or something, right? He tried to find that part, but ultimately his Interface gave him only something vague. If I were to… Take a basic Class? But the Symbiont… the group… something else… jeeezzzz! Assuming a basic Class, how much?! He snapped. And, unexpectedly, got a definite answer. No way… 0,8% from Level 1 to Level 2?! Is this world full of carnage, or something? WTF? No, wait, those were potatoes and tomatoes… Am I this weak, or is something skewed here?

He was truly lost at that moment, so he decided to ignore it for the time being. Mixing, mixing, mixing, he started to hum in his mind, throwing the rest out of his memory.

After some time, he chose to mix ‘Data Collector’, ‘Human’, and ‘External Mana Manipulator’.

Unexpected results showed immediately. No, no no no… I don’t want a ‘Neural mutant’! He changed the order of mixing the three. Gross! ‘Bio-fluids master’?! Nai wa! It’s too much! He exchanged ‘Human’ for ‘Regenerator’. After seeing the result, he sighed with relief, that’s better…

He needed to change the order a few times before he got what he wanted. I did expect this, but what’s with the strange naming? ‘Long Range Medic’? Whatever, it seems by mixing I can get to more specialized Classes. Or rather, more concentrated ones. They sure give less points, though. Only 3 points, two auto-allocated? And 2 level resets on top of that.

He decided to play with the Wizard next time. It was impossible to parse through all this manually. Now, he at least knew what he was doing. Probably.

How much time even passed? I should prepare for the night. He stood up and came to the cave exit. He checked the position of the sun.

Then did a double take.

I almost thought it’s a binary star… that would be fucked up. But why is the Moon so bright?

He saw a clear, bright, lightly blue full moon right beside the sun. From this position, it should be invisible? Eh, let’s leave that for another time, he surrendered.

It seemed it was midday, so he estimated he had 8 hours. I should prepare a camp, he thought and went back. He prepared rope and twine, a knife, a small hammer-hatchet, waterproof fabric, and his weapons. There was no need to carry his whole backpack, still, he had driven a climbing piton into the wall to hang it up. No need to tempt small critters.

Then he went outside and used his hatchet to gather needed wood material. In the beginning, he was wary of making noise, but the nice early-summer weather and silent surroundings filled with birds chirping slowly soothed his nerves. He also felt much more aware of everything, which gave him a boost in confidence. The terrain around his boulder was mostly open. He was able to tell that the old mansion collapsed, covering much of the surroundings in fresh debris. It was almost 10 years ago, but the vegetation wasn’t able to regrow fully yet.

Not far from the entrance to his cave was a nice debris-free piece of earth, he decided to make his small camp there. After gathering the wood, he sat there and cut four ‘Y’ shaped branches and sharpened their ends, then prepared a few straight ones. The ‘Y’ shaped sticks were stuck into the earth in pairs, under one pair he made a circle from stones and started gathering dry wood for a fire.

After that, he returned to the well. It resembled a huge hole in the earth, with a small rise around, made from stone. Everything was covered by wild plants, so it resembled a cave-in remnant more than a well, but the walls inside were tiled with the same white stone, and he could see water some 8 meters below. Leading twine through eyelets in the waterproof fabric, he made a makeshift bucket and secured it to the rope. He chucked a stone into it and lowered it into the water. Zeph needed to stand in an uncomfortable position to not hit the walls with the ballooned cloth, which wasn’t exactly easy when it weighed almost 7 kg. Finally getting it up, he checked the water. Good, it’s not murky. I will just need to use fabric to filter it. Using one of his hands, he placed one end of a straight branch on his shoulder while keeping the other end up, then he wrapped the rope around the middle, which was tricky to do with only one hand, but his new teeth loftily simplified the process. Using both hands to keep the water half-balloon up, he made for the camp. Ugh… I should have used two to place them on each end of a longer branch… he started complaining a minute later.

A few minutes later, he placed the branch on the free wooden holder and sighed with relief. After resting for a moment, he brought his backpack back to the camp. Using a twine, he secured his largest rectangular steel canteen, or rather his field pot, to the side of the fabric keeping the water, so that it hung there at the height of the balloon’s underside. Then he took out and cut a piece off of his bandages. A shame I didn’t take any clothes, he thought while soaking the piece in the water. Then he put the wet bandage through the waterproof fabric ridge in a way, that a part of the bandage was in the unclean water, and the other part was inside the dangling canteen. The water started slowly seeping down through it. It will take at least half an hour. Ok, time to get something to eat.

He didn’t even have to move away from the camp. The silent work with the canteen contraption was long enough for some birds to fly close. He took his crossbow from his back, and loaded it, stalking near bushes. Ten minutes later, he was a proud owner of 6 birds.

You have killed [Rainbow Magpie – lvl 7].

… (5 more)

You have earned [Soul fragments]! You don’t have any [Class] or [Profession]. [Soul fragments] were deposited in the bank.

Two bolts damaged… great, I will need to find something bigger, this crossbow just shoots right through them.

Then he started a fire. He would prefer to firstly scald the birds to easily pluck their feathers, but he didn’t want to wait that long. He hoped to finish before night, as he knew during the day the fire was less visible, and no predators were hunting. As long as nothing changed from the ten years back… Well, it would be unfortunate if suddenly an intelligent race showed up and saw the smoke, but what can I do?

He jinxed it.

Just kidding. He spent a nice, calm afternoon cleaning birds from their feathers and guts. Very relaxing. Meanwhile, his field pot filled two times. He moved the still burning wood to the sides and placed it in the middle on hot coals, placing some fresh wood around, and changing its placement from time to time. The first batch of boiled water he poured into a smaller canteen, then used the second to boil two birds, a shame I don’t have any vegetables… I could have taken some spices at least, damn it!

The rest of the birds he placed on one of the straight sticks he prepared, and smoked above the fireplace using the wooden holder, while the last batch of water was boiling.

When he finished, it was becoming dark. What water was left he used to clean his hands and kill the fire. Full, and with a surplus of rations, he retreated to the cave. He had no alarms to place around the entrance, but managed to camouflage it with some bushes and stones. I hope it’s enough. If the sound of snapping bush isn’t enough to wake me up, I don’t know what is.

He felt as prepared for a long session of reading his Interface as he could. He placed the two canteens with boiled water to the side, alongside the third with smoked birds’ parts, hung his backpack, and made himself comfortable on the smooth rock.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Diagnostics… Yea, there is a lot, he thought and started parsing the information. At least it was easier to read from than directly from the Interface.

First was his Soul wound. The System somehow found out what happened, and this part gave him a lot to think about. Because he learned that, evidently, it’s normal for Souls to find a new, unformed body after some time. In other words, reincarnation was a thing. This… has big repercussions. If that is true, where are my memories from past lives? Or was I just an animal and that’s why? he meditated on the topic for a moment, but he didn’t have a whole day. Soon enough, he started to read further.

Earth was isolated, in a way he didn’t really understand. The lack of Mana, or Prana for that matter, was somehow connected to this fact. The Souls, which normally don’t care much about a position in the physical world if not connected to it, were unable to find new bodies in other worlds. Well, I am sure some did… or were all those isekai novels a coincidence? Again, I don’t even know what am I talking about. Let’s not think about it, for the time being. Accumulation of wounds in the Souls was the direct effect of that, but Zeph knew it wasn’t the only cause. It was a much more complicated topic, but extracting information from this strange conglomeration of sensory data wasn’t easy at all. He decided to omit it for now. Those life conditions, though, were ‘a progenitor’ of their strange Will.

It’s important to note, that according to what Zeph was reading, Souls cannot change at all if not connected to the ‘reality’. ‘Soul once wounded, will wound all the time’, to paraphrase a certain saying. Our Will emerged as an ‘evolutionary adaptation’, just not purely genetic one.

This didn’t pose a problem at the beginning. Wounded Souls could still have had some time to heal in a given lifetime, especially as animals. Only after Earth’s population started to rise drastically, taking a lot of natural terrain in the process, positive feedback started. Because there weren’t any Souls from elsewhere, old Souls started to be reincarnated almost immediately. Again, it was complicated, because new Souls were forming, too, but the whole ‘Soul ecosystem’ was unbalanced already. It reminded me… We had quite a big percentage of miscarriages, didn’t we? Especially in the Middle Ages.

And the times those Souls were reincarnated into? The age of wars, basically. The age of slavery. Then, later, the age of ‘definitely not slavery’, corporation time. Meanwhile, the population growth rate became almost exponential. Accumulated Soul wounds started to go beyond the threshold. The number of suicides… And symptoms similar to depression… That actually explains a lot about the ‘21st century problems’. But I don’t understand one thing. How do you even get a Soul wound?

He started searching for that, but he quickly noticed that the information about the wounds was scattered, as it wasn’t the main topic of Diagnostics. So, he concentrated on the part that was. If I recall correctly, in the first Diagnostics… Yes, there it is. ‘Only deepening of existing fracture’, so this should be somewhere in the new Diagnostics, right? After a minute, he found the part.

The very beginning shocked him. This deepening of the wound? It was directly related to his Will. His Will depleted two times during his lifetime. I… basically died two times? he slowly thought. From what he understood, Soul, Will, and a living body were what defined an entity in its whole. He managed to produce a new Will before the old dissipated altogether, but this wasn’t something he could just easily comprehend.

After a moment, he managed to gather himself. I still don’t know what exactly Will is… I know those two moments in my life changed me drastically… but it wasn’t as if I was dying then. I was… very close to suicide, but not dying… Is it how it works? Depleted Will means no will to live, even if the body can continue? No… at the time, I did almost immediately choose to live on, despite the pain… I don’t remember it clearly, though. Was it immediately, or did some time elapse back then? Would my body die by itself, if I didn’t… choose to live?

He shivered right then. Was it hot? Was it cold?

He started analyzing his memories. And he found some very disturbing details. When his pet died, and when he was heart-broken, the change wasn’t as simple, as having a mental trauma. My likes and dislikes changed… My dreams changed… My goals did slightly, too… Am I… he felt a vertigo, strengthened by the memories of being a part-simulation in the System’s hands. He hesitated, but was unable to stop asking himself, Am I the same person… Or a… newborn one? Similar to a reincarnated one, but with the old body? Would I even consider my past lives as… me?...

A moment later, something started to rise from deep in his abdomen. He convulsed a few times, and then…

“HA! Hahaha!” deep laughter erupted from him. “Haha… Now? Ha… I have those thoughts now?!” He started laughing again, flipping to his side. It took him a while to get himself in control again, but he felt so much more refreshed after finally sitting up.

“It sure looks cliché on paper!” he exclaimed, sweeping tears from the corners of his eyes with a finger. “I remember reading such things often, but I never once stopped to think about them. It was stupid to even think about it, the answer was obvious! And suddenly it isn’t?! Bullshit,” he continued to monologue loudly, as if lecturing an idiot.

During his monologue, he could feel something slowly rising in him.

I am an idiot, he thought. I just got to know what my existence consists of, and I have a problem with it? What a disgrace! he continued berating himself. I am a fucking me, right now and right here! A conglomeration of changes! An effector! Of changes that happened to my mind, my body… my Soul! AND my Will! I survived, and I live. Because I live, I change. Constantly! The rest is bullshit! he declared. It wasn’t a deep philosophy, he knew, but what of it? Those were problems of other people, if they could treat him as the same person after such sudden changes, not his own.

An unknown… power.

Away with it! I want to try some magic! It’s almost all from the Diagnostics… Well, from reading it casually, at least. Where was I? Ah, yes, how you get Soul-wounded. So dissipation of Will can do it… but what causes dissipation?

He started reading again. It wasn’t exactly unexpected, but breaking someone’s mind typically caused Will dissipation. Or very strong emotions opposing one’s Will. Broken heart in case of… what is this? Shit, I don’t understand… let’s leave it be. Rape, of course… Death of a close one before your eyes… Yea, basically cases when you are Willing, heh, to tie your life to something, and are stripped of it by an external force. No wonder our world was full of Soul wounds. Most of those activities are in humans’ very nature, he once again mentally insulted humanity.

Something else joined it, something external.

He always knew something was wrong with how society on Earth operated. But what do they mean by very strong, opposing emotions? Hmmm… Oh… OH! Changing a worldview for a lover, or starting an opposition for the greater good, or leaving your dreams behind for your kids… Who would have thought, positive change also causes Will dissipation… Well, it’s logical, but still… But the Soul wound from that is… slightly different?... Shit, I can’t understand, but it seems important… I will have to remember to ask about it. Where is my Notepad, when I need one?

Congratulations! You have gained new [General Skill], [Will] from the [Knowledge Base]!

He flinched from the sudden message, fuck! This scared me. What is this? Consolation prize for not having Notepad in the Interface? he laughed silently. Stupid… But I will take it.

What’s left?... The third moment deepening my Soul wound? There is no entry in Will Diagnostics for it, though… Another method to get Soul wounded? he started reading, slowly. This part is convoluted as hell, but he didn’t stop.

And he was shocked again.

He could feel as if the soft and warm wind was blowing around him, his insides had been slowly heating, heart speeding up.

It wasn’t his grandma’s death that caused it, as he interpreted it during the memory reading provided by the MSTM. It was just BEFORE his grandma died. Cause of wound deepening… Soul vampirism… What. The. Fuck?!

Congratulations! You have gained new [General Skill], [Soul] from the [Knowledge Base]!

Shut up! My grandma was… trying to… what was she even trying to do?

He knew this feeling, echoes of his emotions amplifying each other.

Anger was welling in him, but it didn’t find a purchase, yet. He didn’t understand what this was about. So, he tried to read deeper, but found an unexpected blockade. It’s censored? No, I shouldn’t be that surprised. The System is against experimenting with Souls, and I didn’t even learn about it by myself. Let’s see what I can read… He tried from multiple different directions, but all he got was that it was a conscious effort of his grandma, and that it WAS harmful to him. Very much so. Shit! Grandma, what were you thinking! If my Soul dissipated, how would you live with it? He felt hurt. His own family tried to harm him. The worst part was that he couldn’t tell in what way exactly, nor could he confirm the intent to harm. This is fucked up; I was basically a kid at the time. No matter what her excuse would be, isn’t that too much?

An ecstatic experience, multiple emotions sending wave-like chills through his whole body, and colliding with each other along their way.

He decided right then, that he will use everything at his disposal to shield his Soul from external sources of damage. He didn’t know how reincarnation worked, but that was the only part of him that could survive the true test of time.

While his mind reached deeper still.

I suppose this is my first clue as to what Class should I choose. My Will is another part of me, that I would rather not lose again.

His body reacted to it.

It’s powerful, from what I understand, but getting attached too much to something may destroy it. If I ever choose a way of life, I need to make sure it’s sustainable first. Actually, it just reinforces my previous convictions. Yes, this is my way of life, this was…

He could feel himself… rising, riding on fire!

Something in his chest started to vibrate deeply, the two voices slowly becoming one. The feeling of coalescing into something harder, something more defined; flying up to the sky with overwhelming power; freedom, and a sense of unity with the world, overwhelmed him.

Congratulations! You have gained new [General Skills]: [Will manipulation], [Will-powered Mana Manipulation], [Ambient Mana], and [Ambient Mana Channeling] from the [Knowledge Base]!

Congratulations! You have gained 5 [Greater Willpower]!

You have gained 2.5% [Will, type: H1] [Soul contamination]! Calculating…

Warning! You have [Severe] [Mana poisoning]!

Warning! You have [Slightly] [Diminished Will]!

Suddenly, he dropped to his side, deflated, half-aware.

[Mana poisoning] reduced to [Medium]!

Warning! [Parasite] behavior detected! 1.39% of [Will, type: H1] [Soul contamination] was consumed!

Warning! Unauthorized [Soul transplantation] of 1.39% of [Instable Iron Alloy, type: ZW1] [Soul contamination] detected! [Soul-bond] confirmed, counter-measures impossible!

Wha… what is ha… he was losing consciousness; black marks covered his view. He could feel Soul pain in the background, but it was too distant to really perceive.

Calculations completed! Congratulations! New [General Skill] created! [Will contamination] was added to your [General Skills]!

[Willpower] [Perk] modified!

[Trait] updated.

[####] [####] upgraded!

You have earned 1.000.000 [Universal Points]!

[Mana poisoning] reduced to [Small]!

Warning! Your [Symbiotic Parasite] is growing!

What… did I do…

[Mana poisoning] cleared!

[Tabu] hidden skill added to the list.

[Garuan] gains new…

Then, he blacked out.