Rory whined at himself for a few minutes and then sat back up. He’d been through way worse but sometimes you just need to let out a good complain.
All right. Enough of that.
Thinking out loud, he said, “Maybe I have a Soul Technique that can help?” Tapping on his commo, Rory asked for his summary.
Soul Summary:
Available/Used Vessels (Gathered): 1/0
Available/Used Vessels (Granted): 16/252
| Wielder |
| Construct {Serpent Chakram} |
Melee (0/1)
Ranged (0/1)
Neutral (0/1)
| Soul |
Soul Bond (250/250)
Active Bond {Ice Basilisk} (1/1)
Soul Form (X/100)
Soul Control (1/1)
Soul Capture (0/5)
Soul Call (0/5)
“Well, that looks better. ‘Serpent Chakram’ is certainly accurate. Not sure what the Neutral tree is about, but it can’t be bad. Hopefully. Soul Form is a bit odd with an X instead of a number, but it goes to a hundred so it’s gunna be weird. I’ll just figure that out later. For now though…”
Rory held his hands up and called forth his Soul Weapons. His inscriptions flashed briefly and chakram that looked exactly like he had envisioned in his ghost appeared in each of his hands. The white was in his right and black in his left for whatever reason. He turned and twisted them in front of his face, examining them closely.
Rory softly whistled to himself. The level of detail was extraordinary. Every single overlapping scale could be seen. Even the little ridges around their eyes and the pushed-in edges around their mouths were visible. Looking closer, Rory noticed tiny specks of gold glittering throughout both, almost too small to see. Their eyes were more like gems than any metal. He’d never seen anything like them.
They almost look alive.
Holding then a little farther in front of him, he examined them from the flat side. Well, not flat really. They were rounded but ended in a blade. Functionally speaking, the edges appeared much sharper than his old ones. Not exactly cut-an-immortal-in-half sharp, but definitely much sharper than before. Releasing them and causing them to vanish, he looked at his summary again.
“Okay. I have seventeen SVs to spend. So what do I need? Well, first, I’ll need to see where the hell I’m going in the dark. I have no idea how there’s light in this forest, jungle, whatever. How is that even a thing?”
Rory had looked around before, but hadn’t really examined closely or registered what he had seen. Now though, he realized that it was only the leaves themselves giving off some small amount of illumination. Individually they were nothing, but when combined in the thousands, they created more than enough light to see by.
Well, that might be an easy solution. Can I just take some as a light source?
He looked around on the ground and saw individual leaves and branches with leaves littering the jungle floor. Unfortunately, none of them had remained lit.
Shit. Well, there goes that idea.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Continuing to talk to himself, he said, “Ok. Back to the summary. While I’m curious about Soul Form, it’s strange because I can’t invest in it. And I want to talk to Leilah about it first anyway. For right now I need to see in the dark. I don’t have the fire or lightning elements and I don’t think Ice is going to exactly light a room. If anything’s going to help me see, it probably won’t be in the Melee, Ranged, or Neutral trees. So that means I need to see what’s in the Soul Call tree.”
But he was hesitant. It was such a huge risk. Five SVs for just a chance. And not even a technique, but just to look inside and see if any techniques might help.
Thinking and staring at his summary, Rory let out a breath and headed into his ghost. He pushed deeper until he reached the Soul Call (0/5) cloud and sent five of his precious seventeen vessels into it. The purple cloud exploded into an orb like the others, giving him access to two more purple clouds and another gold one. Summoning (0/X) and Withdraw Soul (0/5) were purple and Soul Enhancement (0/25) was gold.
Another X instead of numbers. Even so, those techniques sound interesting. Let’s just hope they have something useful too.
Looking at each, he learned their purpose.
Summoning {Legendary} 0/X – A Soul Technique that offers the wielder the ability to call forth copies of captured souls. These copied souls are 100% loyal to the summoner and will follow instructions no matter what they are. Every vessel worth of myst invested will allow an additional simultaneous summon. There is no maximum. Each summon is its own branch and can be invested into. Every vessel worth of myst invested into a summon will increase its power. This can be repeated until its species maximum is reached. While effectively immortal, the summoned souls require a constant flow of Soul Power and will disperse when killed. As the wielder is not using their construct, all myst gained when a summon slays a foe returns to the environment. Additionally, capturing a soul is not possible using a summon for the same reason. Each summon requires one hour per point invested to reconstitute itself sufficiently once dispersed or dismissed.
Requirements: Soul Capture to be at a minimum investment of 1/5, at least one captured soul
Rory left the ghost, raised his arms up high, and silently cheered, pumping his fists numerous times.
That. Is. Amazing! I bloody love the soul tree! Summoning help? Yes, please. Especially since creatures are at least twice as strong as their human equivalent. Too bad about the myst though. That would have been great.
Taking a breath to calm his excitement, he dove back in and looked at the next purple cloud.
Withdraw Soul {Legendary} 0/5 - A Soul Technique that allows the wielder to steal the attributes of a successfully captured soul. A miniscule percentage of the highest attribute of each species will be applied to the wielder’s body. For every vessel worth of myst invested in Withdraw Soul, the percentage gained will slightly increase. Each species captured may be applied only once, and each will act as its own branch requiring a single vessel of myst invested. Adding to Withdraw Soul is not retroactive.
Note: Be aware that – due to extreme changes to the wielder’s body taking place immediately – use of this skill can result in severe pain and potentially dangerous side effects. Too much myst invested in a short period of time may even result in the wielder’s death if the body is overwhelmed.
Requirements: Soul Capture to be at a minimum investment of 1/5, at least one captured soul
Wow! If he was interpreting it right, that technique totally made up for not having access to the Wielder tree. Sure it was hugely expensive, but it was absolutely worth it. Especially since it could theoretically increase an attribute by more than one even after investing only one vessel. There was so much potential there. Of course, the whole dying-painfully-by-body-change thing didn’t sound so good, but it also seemed easily avoidable. Don’t do too much at once.
Before getting too deeply involved in planning the future changes to his body, Rory moved to the last technique, which was another unique one.
Soul Enhancement {Unique} 0/25 - A unique Soul Technique that enables the Soul Enhancement (0/3) branch to become available within the Construct tree. This tree grants the wielder the ability to apply the skills, abilities, and techniques of captured souls to the Soul Construct. A single capability is granted per species captured.
Requirements: Soul Capture to be at a minimum investment of 1/5, at least one captured soul
No wonder it was both unique and so expensive. It was a little strange that it was a technique that opened a branch, but the new branch was in entirely different tree, so he figured that was why. Well that, the whole soul tree was strange.
The technique itself was also far into the future for him given it was really twenty-nine vessels before he would receive any benefit. At that moment he needed to focus on his immediate needs: light.
“Okay. So I have a plan. Now it’s time to gamble it all.”
He entered his ghost and sent five vessels into Soul Capture. The cloud exploded and a pulsing purple globe was left behind. It offered no deeper branches, at least at this point. Next, he put one into Summoning and one into Withdraw Soul. For the first branch, Rory figured at this point he only needed to summon a single creature at a time. As for the second, while he wanted to invest more into his body, he also had to keep a few vessels in reserve to individually invest in the summons themselves. Especially since, at least for right now, they were likely the key to him getting out of this place alive. And, equally importantly, with something he could sell.
Alright, one more look at my summary, and then I’ll see if this gamble will pay off.