~Victor~
Once the newcomers settled down Asha and I returned to the Walmart without much fanfare to gather a decent amount of baby supplies. We quickly headed back and gave the Espinoza's plenty of formula and diapers before unloading the surplus to our storage area. I tapped Asha’s shoulder, “Hey, follow me to the manager’s office. I want privacy for our little Q and A session.”
She smirked, “Sure Boss, I’m not in trouble, am I?”
I rolled my eyes, “We’ll see. I need to know the answers to several perplexing mysteries.” I grabbed a lit candle and headed to the employee only area. She followed me until we found the manager’s office behind the customer service desk. I took a seat at the desk and Asha sat on the other side just like an employee would.
“So, Master, what do you want to know?” She leaned back into the chair.
“To begin with, I have noticed my vocabulary has shifted since I awoke in this new world of ours. To be fair, I had talked similar to this when I was young and attempted to impress my peers with multisyllable words. However, I had quickly learned that merely annoyed people who saw a brat trying to show off. Yet, here we are, speaking completely different from how I usually do.”
“My guess is that your original habits are starting to settle alongside your soul. The other times I activated the Uroboros soul brand, you awoke with your previous memories intact. This time, however, you seem to be slowly gaining your memories instead. Do you remember anything?” She leaned closer, intrigued.
“Not particularly, I get a strong sense of familiarity from you, and I recalled the name of those Gobkin. However, I lack context. I know those things are called Feral Gobkin, but I do not know why. At first, I thought of them as Goblins, but I felt that was intrinsically wrong then the correct nomenclature appeared in my mind.”
“I see, well as for context, we do have a race of intelligent creatures called Goblins, but they don’t want to be associated with their feral cousins and so got everyone to refer to them as Gobkin and they adopted the name U’rhai.”
I rubbed my chin, “Just how many races are there in your world?”
“Our world.” She corrected, “And there are many, hundreds if you count all the subraces. Broadly speaking there are the Human races, the Fae, the Orcblood, the Ei’ko, the Elvara, the Dwarves, the Dracokind, the Necro, and the Helkin. Each is then divided into several subraces and cultures. Even the same subrace can again be divided based on culture.”
She shifted to get more comfortable, “The Human races, also referred to as Humanity, are very similar to the races on Earth. Surprisingly, there are very similar cultures to Earth races like European kingdoms, Asian dynasties, etcetera. One key difference is the Aliar. They are a subrace of humans devoted to magic nearly to the point of religious zeal. They have blue skin and purple runes. The runes look like tattoos across their bodies, but they are completely natural. They’re main government is very wealthy due to their incredible advances in Magitech.”
“I understand, I think. What about the others.” I asked.
Asha nodded, “Well, next in political power are the Elvara, or the Elves. There is the Celestial Elves, which most call High Elves due to their holier than thou attitude. Then there is the Wood Elves which are officially called Na’tal. Next are the Shadow Elves or Dark Elves. They have a poor reputation thanks to the High Elves who enslaved them a few dozen centuries ago. They freed themselves in a civil war, but some High Elf kingdoms still produce anti-Dark Elf propaganda.”
She raised two fingers before a third as she announced, “Third in terms of political power are the Dwarves. No real special names for them. Even their subraces are blunt and to the point. There are the Ironblood who live in mountains, the Hill Dwarves who live in hilly areas or plains as the name suggests. They live lives not unlike those hobbits from those books everyone likes. Finally, there are the Depth Divers. A semi nomadic Dwarves that live deep in the ground.”
“Do Dwarves and Elves hate each other?” I asked, wondering how many stereotypes were shared.
“Not really. The Mithril-bone clan had a pretty nasty blood feud with some High Elf nobles that is still raging despite a thousand years passing, but no more than anyone else I suppose. I mean, High Elves are pretty snooty and tend to look down on everyone equally. After the ‘Big Three’ who have the biggest population densities in Veru, there are the Orcblood. These include Orcs, Trolls, Giants, Oni, Goblins, and Brownies.”
I raised a hand, “Hold on, aren’t Brownies some type of faerie?”
“Oh right, there is some type of myth about Brownies here. No, Brownies are not the Fae. Some may think that because of their small size and mischievous personalities, but no. Fae are functionally immortal and Brownies only live about eighty years. They are humanoids at roughly 12 inches tall with yellowish skin. They look like old men and women even when they’re young. Trolls are the least intelligent of the Orcblood and they barely count as a proper race.
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The only reason they make the list is because of a subrace of Trolls called Eotin who are essentially ugly old teddy bears. Oni are a bit complicated; they have a bad rep due to their parentage. Technically, they are a subrace of Orcs that are caused by an Orc mating with a demon. While not common, even a drop of demonic blood in their ancestry has a more than 50% chance of an Oni being born. If an Oni has a child, it is guaranteed to birth an Oni.”
I raised my hand as if I was in school and asked, “How are they all related? Since they’re called Orcblood did they all evolve from Orcs?”
She shook her head in the negative, “It's complicated, but the short answer is no. They were spawned by the spilt blood of the Orcblood goddess Orc’tcha. The next race on our list is the Eiko. Also called Beastkin, but some dislike that term. They are humanoids with animal characteristics where only parts of their bodies contain traits such as a tail or animal-like ears, whereas others are completely humanoid animals. Lycans, Mermaids, Sirens, and Harpies are all Eiko. Similar to the Eiko are the Dracokind. These are dragons and their descendants such as Wryms, Kobolds, and the Hikai. Wyrms are similar to Lizard Eiko except with draconic traits like wings and breath attacks. Hikai are an extremely rare demigod race of Dragon Turtles. The final two races are not commonly welcomed in ‘polite’ society. They are the Necro and the Helkin. As you can likely tell by their names, they are sapient undead and demonic races respectively. There are many subraces, but we won’t go into them.”
“Wow, how big is Veru for all these races and monsters to exist?”
“I’m not sure, but it was huge. Must be even bigger now that it is combined with Earth.” She shrugged.
“How is that possible? If we assume Veru was bigger than Earth and this new chimeric world is bigger than both, then the gravity must be insane. We should be crushed under our own weight if not have the planet collapsing into a dwarf star or something.” I asked, shocked.
“Mana changes the laws of physics, and our souls inherently use mana to tweak reality around us to become viable for life. It isn’t instant nor tremendous on an individual scale as the average person is relatively weak. But with so many souls in a realm along with the gods who can actively influence reality, then the world is relatively safe. As far as I can tell, both Veru and this new world have similar gravity to Earth, at least similar enough for me not to notice. Also, there are wells of magic called leylines that can interact with the world in strange ways.”
“That implies gods are real.”
“Well, no shit. Earth didn’t have any due to its nonexistent mana, but now it's so rich with mana the gods can persist here no problem. I’m sure they’re both freaking out and excited for something new to happen. Immortality can get pretty dull when you have incredible power. Speaking of mana and incredible power, how about we get away from history and on to the good stuff?”
I grinned, “Absolutely, it is every man’s dream to use magic. I kind of got a feel for it already.”
“Right, I am truly impressed with this incarnation of yours master. Your original self would be jealous of your current talent. Let’s see, you can shape blood as you did with the spike and weaponry. You learned how to infuse mana into your body when you enhanced your voice.” She began.
“And I can turn into a mass of blood to fly around.” I announced.
“Really?” Her eyes widened.
“Yes, I learned how to do that right before the Gobkin attack.”
“Nice one! It took me a while to learn how to do that. But those are what’s called intrinsic magic, as I said before. Blood manipulation that comes natural to your race. We call that ability Blood Step. It's a combination of blood manipulation and manifestation. Every race has their own innate abilities. Elves can interact with aspects of nature, Dwarves can infuse stone and their metal with mana to strengthen and manipulate it, humans can naturally enhance their body with mana, and us vampires are adept at manipulating blood and shadow. Higher tier races like us Vampir Noblesse also gain access to unique powers upon our birth.
For example, I have powerful illusionary powers. You, on the other hand, seem to get both the powers from your previous awakenings along with a new power each time you reincarnate. It's an odd quirk of your reincarnation. So, I am not entirely sure what you can do. You’ll just have to figure it out. It takes a good amount of meditation and introspection to reveal your talent.”
“That is not entirely helpful.” I chuckled. "But I see what you mean. I can sense something still hidden within me besides the abilities I used on those helhounds."
Asha rolled her eyes before continuing, “Now, onto real magic. To understand magic you must first understand the Dao. The Dao is the fundamental truths underlaying every aspect of reality. It shapes mana and matter into what you see and feel around you. Right now, you are at the stage of mana manipulation. More of a pseudo stage really. You appear to have a natural talent at mana manipulation that would make your original life jealous. Mana bends even to your subconscious will."
"You mean that odd heat haze when I got infuriated?" I frowned and enunciated, "When I got pissed off. Man, I sound like a dork."
Asha chuckled and nodded, "Yep. This means you should have a head start with forming your core. The mana core is the both your reservoir of mana along with the organ that allows you to interact with the Dao. Well, I guess organ isn't the right word. It's an ephemeral construct that is superimposed on your body and soul. This is why you don't have a core right now despite some of your previous lives having one."
Asha looked around and managed to fine copy paper and a pen. She drew a circle and pointed to it, "Upon forming a core, you must then interact with and choose an aspect of the Dao that most resonates you. Now it won't be too advanced of a concept since your soul and body are weak. With a Dao concept, you then use mana to bind it to your soul and form a Dao Foundation." Below the circle she drew an oval.
"The next step is forming as many Dao Pillars using related concepts to your foundation as you can. The more Pillars, the stronger future stages will be," with that, she drew four rectangles standing along the oval then connected the pillars with a line, making a wall and continued, "After the Pillars is the Bastion stage where you connect the Pillars with a complementary Dao focused on defense to strengthen your soul."
Finally, she encased the original circle in a simple castle like drawing, "The third stage known as the Dao Pavilion. When you form you Dao constructs, you will see your core somewhere in the space. You will encapsulate the core in a building known as the Pavilion. The more floors you create, the better."
"Wait, is this place real? I thought you were speaking in metaphors," I asked, perplexed.
She scoffed, "Sure, because I'm definitely the type to speak in riddles. No, they are real, just not physical. Now pay attention, after the Pavilion is the pinnacle of cultivators and where most stop. This is known as the Palace stage. You add wings to your Pavilion along with as many floors per wing as possible. However, the few that step further on this pass reach the peak known as the Dao Summit by most. This is a nearly legendary stage and only a few on Veru reached this point. It is when cultivators begin to shed their mortality and open the gateway to becoming an Immortal." She finished the drawing with a triangle that seemed to be a mountain beneath the previous drawings. "Any questions?"
I raised a hand, "Why do your drawings suck?"