Far underground, in a bunker away from all other life, a journal lays. It sits on a metal table, surrounded by various alchemical concoctions.  The journal is made out of leather and an old type of papyrus that would be hard to find nowadays. The table is in the part of the bunker that was used as a laboratory. Below the table lays a pile of ash, from who knows how long ago. Around the table are other tables and racks, filled with bottles and mechanical contraptions. On the far wall of the laboratory is a glass container with an egg inside of it. 

A rogue wind blows open the leather of the journal, revealing the first page. Letters fill the page of the journal. If a human were to walk by, they wouldn’t understand what the letters mean. However, if an elf were to walk by, they might just realize that the letters are from the old elvish language. The ones that know old elvish would be able to read what the journal says with perfect clarity

‘Dear Journal,

Today is the day. King Elryon, the current king of the elves, has set upon me a secretive mission. I am to figure out why the pregnancy rate of the elves is so extremely low and find a solution. To accomplish this, King Elryon has given me, Arch-Researcher Toran, a vast amount of funding and a secret bunker to do my research in. His only condition is that I don’t tell anyone and that I research alone. I think that it has to do with some political bullshit, but I’m not a hundred percent sure. 

The task is going to be a complicated one, and I’m not even sure that I will be able to find anything out. To better understand what I need to do, I have split the task into two parts. The first is to find out why the birth rate is abysmal for elves but not for the other races. The second is to find a solution, whether that be magical, chemical, or mechanical…’

The wind from before blows through the room again, flipping through countless pages of the journal.

‘I think I’ve found out why! I’ve been thinking recently that it might not have anything to do biologically speaking. It might have more to do with the soul and or magic. To find out if my hypothesis was correct, I used an eyeglass of truesight to peer into the souls of various creatures as they give birth, conceive, and grow.

The results have been extremely interesting, to say the least. The first creature I tested it on was the goblins. They are known for their hyper reproductivity, being able to create offspring in the first attempt within a matter of weeks. During my research, I noticed that the soul’s of the goblins were incredibly weak, as weak as their intelligence. During my research, I also stumbled upon the birth of a goblin shaman. Unlike other goblins, shamans are usually smarter and can manipulate magic very well. While I was watching its birth, I realized that its soul was twenty times bigger than a normal goblin.

My next research attempt was on humans. The humans have way stronger souls than that of the goblins. The most striking thing, in my opinion, about their souls is that they can grow exponentially through various means. For example, I saw a human defeat an Orc Champion, and then its soul grew larger and more powerful. At the same time, I watched an alchemist complete a concoction and the same thing happened. It might be interesting to see if I could find a system to rate how powerful a soul is… Anyways, back to the topic. Humans have a lower fertility rate then the goblins and a longer gestation period. This seems to correlate to the size and strength of the soul though. The humans with more powerful souls seem to have a harder time giving birth than those with normal sized ones. At the same time, they have a slightly easier time giving birth if their partner is also at or around the same level as them…

My last research attempt was on the birth of a dragon. I was lucky enough to meet a copper dragon, known for their friendliness, that allowed me to watch it lay eggs. As it is well known, dragons have an even lower fertility rate then us elves, which is impressive. Dragons are also the strongest natural creatures aside from maybe a tarrasque. That evens out with the fact that the tarrasques can’t give birth to offspring at all. 

Anyway, while watching the dragon give birth, I noticed that the eggs, while way more powerful than an elves offspring, seemed incomplete compared to a live birth offspring. I proceeded to watch the egg over the course of a year, with the dragon’s permission, to see why it was incomplete. My findings are that a dragon’s offspring grows their soul, like a human does, in their eggs. Once their soul gets to the right power and strength, the consciousness of the dragon is restored and they come out of the shell.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

All three of the experiments have come together with my conclusion about why an elves birth rate is low. My answer is that it has to do with the soul. Unlike humans and dragons, we elves don’t grow our souls. We start out with a strong soul, which makes it harder to give birth. If I could find a way to weaken an elf and then allow it to grow throughout its life, I might be able to fix the fertility problem…’

The journal flaps through several more pages before stopping on one that has splattered ink all across it. The page seems to be wrinkled, like a liquid dried out on the paper.

‘The experiment was a success. The only problem is that the baby died instantly as the body wasn’t able to cope with the soul. I’m so distraught… I can’t even see correctly through my tears… I’ve never wanted to die more…’

The wind blows once more, due to its consistency, it almost seems more like breathing from a large beast. The journal flaps over multiple pages before stopping on a page that uses red ink instead of the normal black.

‘I’ve lost my funding… I agree with the King’s decision whole heartedly. I don’t even deserve to show my face after what I’ve done. That poor child… On the bright side, I’ve decided to start on a new project. Luckily for me, the King wanted this facility to be secret, even from other royalty. No one knows where this is… I’ve decided to try to create a new creature. I can make the body fairly easily through a mixture of selective breeding and alchemy. It won't be the first time I've created a chimera.

The soul is another matter… I can’t simply create a soul, no one can. I don’t know where they come from, be it a god or the universe itself, but they are exceedingly complex and nearly impossible to fabricate. I say nearly for a good reason. I’ve found that it is possible to, for lack of a better term, grow a soul much like how the dragons and humans do… The only requirement is a small fraction of a soul to begin with that will be compatible with the ‘growth’. I’ve volunteered my own for this project… Live birth, like the humans, will be nearly impossible to manage, so I will need to use an egg or some kind… I’m looking forward to seeing where this will go…”

The wind became stronger, flipping the pages extremely quickly. As the pages flip, numbers start to appear on the top of the pages. They rapidly increase from one to 3749, which is near the end of the journal. As the pages flipped by, the penmanship gets more and more sloppy and illegible. The only legible part in the later pages is the final one, which is written with the same consistency as the beginning of the journal.

‘First, the bad news… I’ve given to much of my soul. I realized it as I looked back through my journal, and it seemed to snap me out of whatever state I was in. I noticed that as more of my soul disappeared, since it can’t grow and come back, I’ve also lost my sensibility and some of my knowledge. I can barely even remember my name… Arch something Tor something… At the very least, it seems that this project has been the anchor for my remaining soul, since I haven’t lost any knowledge pertaining to it…

Now then, lets get past those dreary thoughts. The good news is that I have succeeded! After almost 3800 attempts, I have credtec created the perfect body for my creation’s soul. The soul itself grows rapidly inside of the egg that I have simulated from a dragon. The creature's body is a marvel. I’ve combined the parts of a fox, for their magical attunement, parts of a dragon, for their fierce resilience, parts of a phoenix, for their long life(I’ve found if they don’t have a pheonix part, they die within a week…), of course parts of my soul are supposed to be in it, for its base of growth, and I’ve added a part of a creature that shouldn’t exist. This last one was more tricky than any other to replicate… The creature itself came from the Labyrinthian, a place fraught with danger and intrigue. It seems to be some kind of bipedal creature that has an extremely good intelligence. The creature retained knowledge extremely well, so I decided to add it into my homunculi to boost its intelligence.

I have found that the soul has an extremely hard time adpatingi adapting to a body that isn't its own. To get around this, I've added a magical construct I call a system to the soul of the creature. It should be able to help adapt the soul easier than normal.

The vriterature creature is ready, next to me. All it needs is a brieth breath of life… This will be my final attempt. I don’t have engoung enough of my weary soul to keep going. It's only a miracle that I lasted as long as I have… It's for the best... I’ll be glad to go on to the afterlife, if I even can considering the shape of my soul… I’ve been thinking about it, and I think it will be a beautiful place, wherever it is… I hope I get to meta meet hat chidil taht I dellik. Ffo gnignis, Narot Rehcraeser-Hcra si siht…’

The journal lays on the table, forgotten to time. Crack! A sound reverberates throughout the laboratory, coming from the wall. Crack! The sound goes again, this time louder. The egg in the glass container fractures near the top of it the slightest amount...