By the time Nick got to the swamp, it was almost sundown. Nick saw nothing but pools of murky water, mangroves and trees that looked like they were diseased all over, being bent to varying degrees and spotted; there was also an almost unbearable stench flowing through the air.

(Okay Slade, this place doesn't feel very welcoming and its almost sundown. What information do you have on this place?)

Slade spoke plainly:

[This place is mostly filled with laws related to poison magic so it's fairly dangerous if you don't know where you're going or the habits of the magic beasts here. Lucky for you, I know both. The magic beasts here are nocturnal, meaning that they hunt at night and sleep during the day, resting in the various pools and the water of the mangroves so you still have plenty of time to get to the murky pool I told you about before they become active; also, there are many poisonous insects that hide themselves in the tree branches but they won't bother you unless you interact with the trees. To traverse this swamp safely, you just have to walk through the mud without getting too close to any bodies of water because the magic beasts sleep in groups at the bottom of them; the pool we're looking for is close by, being only a few minutes from our current location. The magic beasts stay out of it because the corpse is harmful to them and the pool has somehow managed to preserve the corpse's dead flesh for a long time. While you find the pool, you are to pick up a reed from the surroundings, I'll explain everything when you find our pool. I'm going to send the directions to your thoughts now.]

A moment later, Nick became aware of where the pool was located and traversed the swamp through mud that went up to his knees trying to avoid touching the trees or falling into any body of water; Nick picked up a swamp reed's two meter long, hollow stem along the way but Slade still had not mentioned why he needed it. Nick got to a pool of murky brown water in thirty minutes, just as it was about to get dark.

"Now what, Slade?"

Slade spoke with a sense of urgency:

[Jump into the pool to save your life.]

"What?"

[I already told you that the magic beasts here are nocturnal creatures and it's about to get dark. Trust me, when they start hunting, their numbers will seem like a swarm and most of them are extremely poisonous. The only way to save yourself is to jump into this pool and stay there until morning.]

When Nick heard how dangerous the magic beasts were, he no longer spoke out loud.

(Are you crazy? This water stinks and may have all sorts of diseases and parasites in it. So are you telling me that to save myself from the magic beasts, I have to risk disease killing me?)

Slade was amused by Nick's reaction:

[Ha, don't worry. Despite how the water looks, the corpse of a rank 6 Hero Magician would have definitely purified this body of water of diseases and pests considering how long it has been in here but you might be affected by the laws on its body in an unpredictable manner. Are you willing to take the risk? If not, then just go die! As a Magician, you'll have to brave even greater risks than this to get to a high rank; now if you're done finding excuses, put that reed in your mouth and dive quickly.]

Nick began to hear many screeching and growling noises all around him in the dimness of the evening. He no longer hesitated and jumped into the pool, sinking to the bottom while a portion of the reed stayed above ground delivering life giving oxygen to Nick's lungs and also allowing him to exhale the bad air out of his lungs. The water was so murky that Nick had to close his eyes while remaining underwater. Trying not to breathe through his nose was difficult but he did it with only a little strain. Slade instructed at this moment:

[The corpse is only a few feet to your left so just slowly move towards it and stay beside it so that you can easily drag it out when morning comes. I will alert you when that time arrives.]

Nick followed Slade's instructions and a few minutes later, as he was feeling his way around he apparently touched the leg of the corpse but something unexpected happened. While Nick's eyes were still closed, the scenery in front of him actually became a wide expanse of grassy plain with the sun raised high in the clear blue sky.

(What's going on?)

Nick was confused as this was a very strange and unexpected circumstance; he was just in a murky pool of water located in a swamp at night and now he has found himself in a grassy plain during the daytime. Nick looked around trying to understand his situation better when he spotted something very strange a few meters away from him; a man in his early thirties sitting on a blanket, pouring tea into a ceramic mug was looking at him, seemingly waiting for him to come to him. This man seemed to to look Asian with tall black hair reaching down to the middle of his back, he had glowing red squinted eyes and he was wearing what looked like a gold yukata.

Nick walked up to the man and asked:

"Hello, who exactly are you?"

The man smiled at Nick and said:

"Why don't you have a seat. We have much to discuss."

Nick was suspicious but he did not seem to have any alternatives so he complied and took a seat on the blanket facing the strange man.

(Slade, why are you being silent at this time?)

Nick received no response. The man looked at Nick, took a sip of tea and then spoke:

"If you are trying to communicate with that foreign will in your mind, don't bother. He and I just agreed that he would give me a few minutes to speak to you. Don't worry, our interaction will surely benefit you."

Nick squinted his eyes as his suspicions grew bigger; it felt like Slade had sold him out. The man began to speak again:

"My name is Sahashi Miyamoto and I was a rank six Regular Magician that had once lived in the Agron realm. After a battle with a very cunning magic beast, I was inflicted with an incurable curse and found myself dying slowly. Knowing that I was going to die, I decided to explore a few distant realms before the inevitable happened and so when I came to this realm, my time was finally up and I decided to die in this swamp, leaving my will and inheritance for a fortunate Magician to find."

"Huh, another inheritance? Is it normal for a dying Magician to leave an inheritance?"

The man answered plainly:

"Yes it is, for various reasons, most powerful Magicians almost always leave an inheritance when they feel themselves dying so that their unfulfilled ambitions may be accomplished by a later generation. Mine is no different. Will you hear me out?"

Nick nodded his head indicating his approval.

"Yes, I will hear you out but if you are asking me to sell my soul or something like that, you can just forget it."

Sahashi laughed:

"Ha, ha. No, it's nothing like that. During my lifetime, I had a dream of becoming a rank 10 Soul Magician but unfortunately my life was cut short. I would like you to accomplish my dream in my place. I can't control what you will do as after our discussion, this will of mine will dissipate so all I need is your word that you will push toward that goal and I will give you my inheritance. Do I have your word?"

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Nick had a weird expression on his face.

(That's it, he only wants me to become a rank 10 Magician down the road. That was already my plan so this seems like a good deal, I've been getting a lot of those lately.)

"I have no problem agreeing to your demands but I have to know what kind of inheritance will I be getting."

Sahashi's smile widened.

"The inheritance includes my corpse as a high class magical material and my soul magic true meaning. Oh, and If you don't agree, don't even bother trying to move my corpse. It will surely only bring you misery if you do as I will infect you with the same curse that I was plagued with, using the last ounce of my strength."

Nick didn't like being threatened but he could understand Sahashi's attitude considering that he would still want someone else to gain his inheritance?

"No threats required, I agree to accept your inheritance and in exchange, I guarantee that I will become the strongest rank 10 Soul Magician that ever lived. But I have a question...what the hell is a true meaning?"

Sahashi was not surprised by Nick's ignorance because Magicians that can produce true meanings were in fact extremely rare, probably rarer than the number of the living World Class Magicians. Sahashi explained:

"A true meaning is the accumulation of a Magician's knowledge and expertise that can be transferred to another person. A Magician's expertise is usually divided into several levels that include: ordinary, master, scholar, archmage and scourgemage. The last classification is what it is because most of the Magicians that had reached such a level in the past caused tremendous disasters to the realms that they visited for all sorts of reasons, some just for a bit of entertainment. I was a scholar specialized in soul magic during my lifetime, admittedly far from ever reaching archmage. I gained this attainment after 600 long years of slow accumulation because my talent wasn't all that good."

Nick was satisfied with that answer and he was excited that he had a chance of obtaining so much mastery in soul magic. This situation was almost unbelievable.

(I must have some serious dog shit luck to get an opportunity like this.)

Nick didn't want to waste any more time.

"I've already agreed, let me have my inheritance."

Sahashi Miyamoto did not feel the need to explain anymore either. He just spoke once more before Nick's vision was shrouded in darkness again:

"Good luck to you, young man."

Once again feeling the pressure of the water around him and the discomfort of breathing through a reed, Nick's mind was overwhelmed with knowledge as if he had known about soul magic his entire life and it was all that he had thought about; the feeling of recalling information about soul magic felt like magic itself, he was now shocked by his own comprehension.

Slade spoke at this moment:

[It looks like that junior gave you a great benefit. Not even I could produce a true meaning when I was alive despite being an archmage, only a few steps away from becoming a scourgemage. Well, congratulations, kid, I did not expect this. The universe truly works in mysterious ways, maybe you were destined for this. I had not known about the curse on this corpse until I read your thoughts, it must be a pernicious one indeed. Since even I cannot sense it, it's probably produced from shadow or phantom magic; those types of magic can be used to create imperceptible curses but generally only affect the inflicted while they are alive. That junior's threat was probably a bluff.]

Nick wasn't so sure about that, he felt something familiar about Sahashi, a kind of hidden but menacing conviction.

(Maybe I just imagined it.)

[There is still time before the sun comes up, you might as well learn a new soul spell while your down here. I wasn't going to teach you anymore spells until your understanding of soul related laws and magic increased to avoid you killing yourself from the backlashes from failing to perform them but with your new expertise, that is no longer a concern. This spell is called 'Soul Vision'. It allows you to share the vision of the living things around you within a fifty meter radius by sending out and receiving magic signals from your soul; think of it like a video feed. This spell will adjust itself according to your rank just like Soul Pressure and will only work if the target has a weaker soul than you which will likely be the case unless you encounter a rank 3 magic beast. The laws for this spell are fairly complex, I'm about to send the symbols translated to Valteese to your thoughts.]

A moment later, Nick knew the laws for the spell, Soul Vision, like he knew the back of his hand. Nick smiled, with his new comprehension, the ins and outs of this spell were as clear to him as distilled water. He would very easily be able to perform this spell after becoming familiar with the laws.

...................................................

At the moment of sunrise, Nick raised himself out of the pool of water carrying the mummified corpse out along with him and after getting to the muddy ground, Nick took a good look at the corpse and cringed at how degraded and ugly it was.

"Even a glorious rank 6 Magician becomes nothing but a mass of rot and crap after he dies. Sigh."

Slade chimed in at this moment:

[Don't get poetic on me kid. This is your last day within this realm so let's make the most of it. About one kilometer north west of here is a cliff overlooking an expanse of rocky treeless terrain. That place is also a land of death like the desert we had previously been in. Carnivorous buffaloes live in that area. I want you to kill some of them and cut out their bladders to obtain their urine. You can use it as a drink to increase your concentration for a few hours. A few liters of the stuff may be useful in the coming days.]

Nick was horrified.

"You want me to drink beast piss?"

Slade laughed manically:

[Ha, ha, ha...you'll be doing stranger things than that in the future so get over yourself and move forward.]

Nick sighed at Slade's ruthlessness and used his space band to store the corpse; he couldn't store it while in the pool because he needed to see it for the space band to store it.

Nick took a look at his clothes and was disgusted at the muck that he found now covering him, he also sniffed himself and realized that he smelled like sulfur for some reason; his state was truly repulsive but Nick would not let the temporary circumstance get him down. After checking himself, Nick used his new spell to check on his surroundings before moving from his spot.

(Soul Vision.)

All sorts of scenes appeared in Nick's mind showing him the circumstances of many magic beasts within his vicinity. With this advantage in scouting the surroundings he could tell that none of them had their eyes on him giving him some peace of mind.

Nick followed Slade's directions and headed in the north west direction, his face beaming with a hopeful smile.