Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.05]

An unfamiliar, wooden ceiling greeted Zeph as he opened his eyes. The early morning light caressed the side of his face, inciting him to wake from slumber.

It seems my sleep is back to normal, he thought, noticing the perfect and instant clarity of his mind despite the few hours of sleep. I could use more physical exercises instead of always draining my mind during training… Yeah, the balanced lifestyle sounds more and more compelling.

He decided to refresh himself before donning his armor. The family that took them in for the night for a measly few silvers was already up and working if the sounds coming from the kitchen-slash-living-room were any indicator.

After putting on some light clothes, he opened slightly a window and forced his overblown Veil to leave the room through the crack. The cold air was unpleasant, but he had to do it to respect the people living in the building. There was no internal Mana-gathering system installed here, after all. Though a simple enchantment setup that was powering the water pipe system was a room away, he would have to move his Veil all the way to the input enchantment through the corridor. It just wasn’t doable - the house was filled to the brim with the Veils of their occupants. Moving his Mana all the way there would be inefficient and less than comfortable for everyone involved.

“Good morning,” he greeted the lady of the house, Gahilda, after entering the kitchen. “Can I use the bathhouse?”

“Is that some kind of a new greeting?” asked a corpulent woman, not taking her eyes from the dough she was working on. It had a slightly red tint to it, but Zeph wasn’t going to ask about its source.

“Eh, sorry… Just an old habit from my home,” he said abashedly.

“Understandable,” she nodded, throwing him a glance. A glint of curiosity was clearly recognizable in her eyes. For her, he was the size of a halfling, speaking in Earthians’ terms. His beard and the exotic equipment he brought with himself were causing even more misunderstandings. Not that he was unhappy with it. “Yes, the bathhouse is free right now. You two are lucky it’s our turn to process the catch. Anyway,” she turned back and started to clean her hands in a bowl of water, “the early-dinner will be ready in about an hour. If you don’t show up on time, I cannot guarantee anything but scraps.”

“Ah, I have no problem with that. Thanks for the hospitality,” he said, backing away and closing the doors behind himself.

Knowing these people, he had much less than an hour, so he speed-walked back to his room to gather his washing equipment.

The bathroom was a surprisingly nice place. It was vast and made from grey stone. Hot steam was filling the air as if it was a tuned-down sauna. It had three sections separated by half-walls, although higher than him. The first area contained a toilet. It was much too high for his comfort and the stone-made sitting was slick because of all the vapor in the air, but it was at least warm.

No, wait, that’s actually worse! he realized as the deeply ingrained memories from the public toilets on Earth returned. It wasn’t the first time he used a warmed seating of this kind, but the wet surface caused him to instinctually shiver in disgust. Whatever, he forced his body to relax, I am going to take a bath anyway!

He still finished his business in a record time. But the inbuilt water mechanism for cleaning himself… well, let’s not call the horrors of those movements back.

The second section of the bathroom had a big, if shallow, basin. The stone was heated up by the same floor-heating system that kept the house warm, and the water constantly poured into it from a pipe sticking up vertically from a small grove on one side. The water escaped it in pulses instead of being a smooth, constant stream. The drain was on the other side, on the rim of the pool’s wall.

Maybe a hydraulic ram pump? Well, that would be quite an achievement, he thought, dropping his clothes to the side. That kind of a system would be quite ideal here. However, they would have to set the valve setup deep underground if they are really taking in the water from the sea… He cautiously dipped his finger and tasted the water. Yea, salty. With Mana, it’s probably doable to do… He shrugged and entered the shallow pool.

He lay down in the hot water, savoring the moment. He didn’t expect the temperature to be that high, even after seeing the steam rising from the surface.

He hadn’t had much time to use the Tower’s facilities, so he felt less than comfortable with his current hygiene condition. Especially after their latest excursion into the woods.

Well, it shouldn’t really matter much on Corora taking into account the lack of microorganisms that could survive in his Veil. But even if he didn’t smell, the accumulation of sweat and overall grime made him feel clammy. The soap he received from P’pfel was a perfect answer to that problem, though.

He preferred to use soap instead of the strange, acidic concoctions the locals used more often. Sadly, the small market meant a poor supply. He was probably the only person who tried mixing fragrance oils into the mix. Or maybe not, but he could easily see how heightened senses could influence the market. Most probably, each person with relevant implants and each race needed a soap made specifically for them, with just the right strength of a chosen scent – something he had to do himself after he noticed that his implants influenced his senses slightly. That could easily break the market by blocking mass production efforts, thus increasing the prices unnecessarily. Not to mention, he wasn’t even sure if the fat of different animals or plants could have additional effects on the skin or fur. Or scales, although he never saw a scaled race.

He was a kind of a special case in that regard. His body didn’t care much about skincare anymore, he suspected. Not because of his origin, but because of his improved immunological and cardiovascular systems, among other things. Those two came late, but he also had the Willforce Morphon. As for his beginnings on Corora, he indeed tested his first soaps quite profoundly during his first months in the Torrent Mountains – to make sure he wasn’t poisoning himself somehow. Now, though, he just needed a random grease and a good-smelling oil. Most of the work was made by the P’pfel’s apprentices, anyway.

He noticed the small changes to his body while bathing, too. First of all, he had no fat. Like, at all.

It was quite surprising. He wasn’t paying close attention to his body in the last few weeks, and that was a mistake.

His wiry muscles were pronounced more than ever, even if he was sure they got smaller overall. That had to be the effect of his recent near-death experiences. Especially that poison that almost killed him. It seemed that his body eventually started to digest itself at some point. Even if the autophagocytosis wasn’t working like it should anymore, his body still needed a source of energy. If it was being balanced with his Will and Soul states, what would happen if both were similarly depleted or damaged? It was only logical to expect that his body would suffer. And he was abusing his resources for a few weeks now.

A balanced lifestyle, he repeated in his mind, taking a deeper breath of the damp air. Especially because this self-proclaimed resource balancing is fucking with my instincts. I… I am unable to tell how bad it is until I am near the death’s door now… I am a human. I never trained my other senses… It was a cause of natural progression discrepancy, in his mind. He was old, for an Earthling, and filled with instincts that had nothing to do with his new reality. Instincts that were engraved in his DNA… probably. This concept was never proved on Earth. But even if humanity was able to somehow interact with Soul and Will on Earth, it was much different than doing it on Corora…

Suddenly, a realization hit him like a sack of bricks. He was going to travel to other worlds. At least, that was what he wanted to do in the future. Worlds with different Mana; with different interactions between those three fundamental parts that made him a System-approved intelligent being; with different fundamental constants of physics perhaps... Hell, maybe even worlds like the Earth – with parts of the ‘natural order’ blocked off.

He was unprepared.

Stolen novel; please report.

No… It’s an understatement… he thought, looking down on his body.

Some implants were clearly visible through his skin. The veins were bulging out because of the lack of fat. Their color was dark. Not the blueish black he knew of, but more like dark brown. Unnatural.

He touched one of Gru’s eyes, placed at the far corner of his own. Those were already shielded by a thick cornea – Gru didn’t have to blink. He felt the net of his companion’s appendages cursing through his body, if only by navigating his own internal Mana flow. One of them terminated in another eye that he knew well by now.

The Power EE was pushing the water slightly, stirring it near his skin. It was a passive, but only now he noticed that it interacted with fluids that way.

He couldn’t even imagine how the biology of his body changed on the cellular level. It wasn’t just about his implants and symbionts – the PE themselves changed how his body was working on an even more fundamental level, assuming his guess was correct.

I think… I am not human anymore… he came to the conclusion. And yet… it’s still not enough?

The discrepancy shook him; made him shiver in inexplicable fear.

In the next moment, those feelings passed away.

His Will reacted, correcting his mental state.

My Will reacted… correcting… what? My brain activity?

No. The source of my Will.

What is the source of my Will?

My Brain? Isn’t that equivalent to my Will?

No. My body?

No. My Soul?

NO. My Will?

No, You.

Me.

I…

A long vibration coursed through his body, forcefully breaking the strange loop. Gru sounded angry and worried at the same time.

Congratulations!

[Extended Empathy: Feedback stimuli] is now [Tier 2] [Level 12]! (+2)

The [General Skill] [Extended Empathy: Feedback stimuli] was learned by the [Garuan]. Resonance effect detected!

Calculating… Resonance effect unpredictable…

Calculating… Resonance effect deemed safe…

Calculating… Anti-resonance effect occurred!

Congratulations!

[Extended Empathy: Feedback stimuli] is now [Tier 2] [Level 25]! (+13)

‘Don’t loop it!’ was the meaning of Gru’s gentle, yet admonishing message. A warning he never heard about, but it made sense.

I… am… am one. Zeph… he slowly extracted himself from the strange resonation. Why… was I thinking… like multiple minds? the thought almost made him go back into the loop. The physical experience of raising his hands above the water’s surface woke him up from it, though.

For a moment, he looked at his hands suspended in the air above his head with an innocent and confused look of a person not understanding where they were. Or rather, with a look of total ignorance, normally reserved for young children.

“What the fuck?” he said aloud in English, immediately vacating the stone bathtub.

He felt depleted. He felt like he should take more deep breaths. But his body was absolutely relaxed and in order, not asking for more oxygen. There was no indication that he should feel that way.

‘Gru… Did you see that?’ he asked his companion, using their method of Soul-memory sharing while making a distance from the bathtub, just in case.

‘Yes. Zeph’s fault, saw’ came the petulant answer. ‘Thinking to self is bad. Connecting worse.’

‘No, Gru. It felt… like I was speaking with someone,’ he explained the best he could. ‘And those emotions at the end… this was not natural. I am sure it was an external influence,’ he declared after searching his memories for an answer.

Zeph’s suicidal thoughts felt different. His lack of empathy in the early years of his life was different. The after-effects of his heartbreaking relationship felt different… His, probably complicated, relation to his grandma felt different – even after the System and he himself found out that she was sucking him dry with something called a ‘Soul vampirism’. The Will-depletion, the Mana-depletion, the mind-dulling exercises he did in the pasty… The resonations with Gru’s Will, too.

No, he had no experiences to compare to what just happened. It was as if for the first in his life, he felt the true meaning of emotions. Like someone presented to him how they felt when being in a similar situation while ignoring the true reasons he could have ever felt this way.

Am I actually going insane? he asked himself. Schizophrenia isn’t fun. Not at all. No… he blocked another flood of dread and… voices forcefully.

That Skill, the ‘Feedback stimuli’, wasn’t working only on Gru – he could also use it on himself. Or rather, the ‘Feedback stimuli’ was just an incorporation of what he could already do. I was just a General Skill – a source of knowledge. But, in the end, it was something he could do intrinsically.

It was his skill.

Is that my Memory acting up? I am becoming a second P’pfel? He squinted his eyes at the pool. Like I would believe that. They are processing algae here, right? He looked in the direction of the third section of the bathhouse. Slowly, he started walking in that direction. Some residue of Mental Medium from them maybe? Or some residue of Soul memories from the Souls of Undead that Gru processed? There are too many possibilities…

There was a two-meter-wide hole in the floor. Wooden railing rounded it. Looking down, he saw a body of water illuminated by luminescent lamps set on the walls. The surface of the water was a few meters down and was dominated by green and reddish slurry. He could barely see a lush underwater ‘forest’ below it.

I doubt they would use them if they were dangerous. I just hope it won’t happen again. But it felt like my Will was trying to change… If it really is like that, then no wonder Soul-wound fragments are dangerous. And also, the General Skills…

He finally found a probable reason as to why the General Skills were that foggy in their representations. They needed to be, or the person’s Will could be corrupted in the process. Reliving someone else’s memories one-to-one could have long-lasting consequences.

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He wasted enough time and he wasn’t going to miss the almost-free meal. His body needed many more calories now, not to mention that he was eating for two

And now I know how they catch the algae… Bleh!

He could see that the hot water from the basin—or maybe from a heating system—and other waste was streaming down there from a few pipes. He could also see a big opening in the direction of the sea. There was almost no smell, though, and it was evident as to why. On Corora, the role of biomatter decomposers was taken by organisms bigger than bacteria. Organisms like the algae below him. They either traveled from the sea and through the pipes, along the warm stream of water rich in nutrients, or just have grown all the way up to here.

It was only slightly disgusting.

I don’t want to see how they are extracting the food from that, though… he mused, walking back to the small pool. He felt stable enough to not worry about the resurgence of the strange resonation.

Instead of using a towel, he used a Heat cantrip all over his body. Their hosts didn’t give them anything for the occasion, whatever they used normally. The heat was slightly uncomfortable, but he could form the Spells almost instantly thanks to his EE, so using many at the same time was quite easy and effortless.

In a few minutes, he was back in his rented room, geared, packed, and ready for further travels. He left everything there for now and walked to the kitchen.

Makani, the father of the family, and the youngest son were already seated at the table, waiting impatiently for the food. The man had a surprisingly wiry stature and a face withered by the sea and sun. The kid was maybe in his early teens and looked strikingly similar to his father – especially his blue eyes and black, disheveled hair.

Makani was discussing something with their host but paused as soon as Zeph entered the room.

“Oh, welcome back,” Makani greeted. “It seems we don’t have to scout the nearby forests. The numbers we have gathered during the night are enough,” he said, waving his small notebook.

“Ye,” the man added. “Village hunter is keepin’ track. There weren’t any change in the local game yet.”

“Nice!” he said, sitting down by Makani. “So, what now?”

“Depends. We can either train and wait for the caravan, or try to catch up with the previous one. They were also delayed by the high demand. It’s a smaller one, so they should move faster later on.”

“Eh, I would rather not trot for a whole day…”

“Maybe buy some windsleds from the old Yarik then? Gods know we need the coin,” Gahilda suggested while bringing a big tray with freshly backed breadstuff, smocked meat, and some vegetables. Zeph was almost late for the small feast, it seemed.

“But mum! How are we—”

“No sleds for you this winter,” she cut in sharply, glaring at her son. The young man grimaced and it was clear that he was about to argue, but his father put his rough hand on the kid’s head, silencing him temporarily.

“Son, you think us stupid?” he asked not unkindly.

“…no…” the kid mumbled.

“The forest’ll change. Faster than sea’s weather,” he lectured. “Rumors of the horde were true. Don’t disappoint me.”

Before an awkward silence could fall on them, Gahilda loudly placed the tray on the table.

“Better eat well. The windsleds aren’t the best for transport, but you should do with Spells.”

“Thanks, Gahilda,” Makani said with a smile, then turned to Zeph. “What do you think?”

He shrugged and reached for the food. “In that case, I leave the decision to you. Just make sure that we won’t lose money this time.”

Makani laughed awkwardly at that.

Not much was discussed afterward as a small eating race started between the gathered.

The kid was sending them glances full of jealousy from time to time, but it was clear he would listen to his parents.