Beacon from Beyond

[Since the Fall: 5/9/809 - 7:08:52]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (3) -> (4)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (4) -> (5)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (5) -> (6)]

[Skill Leveled Up: High Mind (3) -> (4)]

[Skill Leveled Up: High Mind (4) -> (5)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (3) -> (4)]

Two weeks passed since the first time he peeked out of his cave. He fell into a routine of checking on his garden, looking outside, then meditating for the rest of the day.

Every time he used his [Tremor Sense] outside of his garden, it hurt his head just a bit less. He was pretty sure that he was somehow working out his brain, but he wasn’t gaining any Mental stats. He assumed that it was because stats couldn’t naturally exceed fourteen, they needed certain conditions to surpass that threshold, such as a Class, Profession, or Skill (like his [Growing Pains] Skill). To him, working out his mind beyond stats was even better than stats themselves, as it meant that his stats had ‘more’ to multiply, per se. At this point, it was all but a guarantee that stats worked as a multiplicative of existing strength.

His Profession began to frustrate him. He spent so much time, thinking and pondering, yet another level never came. He knew that it would become harder to level up with each successive level, but he was only on level two! He had to assume that, even if it was easy to gain experience for the Profession from thinking, he would need to do a lot of thinking.

This was a Profession meant for someone who had lived a long life, losing themselves in thought for months at a time. It was made for an immortal with uncountable years to their name, so he came to terms with the fact that a couple measly weeks weren’t going to change much.

He had a new idea today. Something he realized he could do now with all the Soul mana he was building up. He checked his [Pandora’s Box (Contained)] to see all the mana’s stored inside

[578/2000 Wrath

7/2000 Kindness

182/2000 Soul]

He was doing some experimentation with the different Skills and attuned mana, and he found some interesting things. When it came to Skills, there were two types of mana they could use. MP- Mana Points with a capital M- could be used for any Skill. They were general use. The second type of mana Skills could take was the attuned mana of their type. So, to use [Astral Projection], he could either use Mana, Soul mana, or a combination of the two. His Confluence Skill [Identify of the Stout Protector] had three affinities, and he found that he could use any of them. He could feed it with Soul mana and Wrath mana. He assumed Kindness as well, but he hadn’t wanted to risk the seven mana he had for Kindness, as he didn’t know when he would get more. He also noted that he could use Wrath mana to use the Kindness version, but the potency was reduced than if he had used Wrath on the Wrath version. It reduced the concentration that his [Pandora’s Box (Contained)] gave it back down to its base form, if it wasn’t used with the “correct” version.

Todays experiment with his powers was to try using [Astral Projection]. Combining both his Soul mana and MP, he had two hundred and eight mana he could pour into it.

After he was born, the Mana Cost for it changed from a big fat zero mana, to “??? initial MP cost” in the description. He still hadn’t figured out the limit, but he was going to try now.

He sat in his typical meditation pose, and activated his [Astral Projection] Skill. He felt as it drained the MP first, before moving into Pandora’s Box and rapidly consuming the Soul mana he had in there.

It was a weird feeling, like he had been sitting for too long on a leather couch, and now he was peeling himself away from it as he stood up.

Before he made it very far though… he ran out of mana, and his Identity that was being slowly peeled away from his soul clicked back into place.

‘What!!’ he thought with exasperation ‘It costs more than two hundred mana? I thought it would cost at most two hundred mana!’ Worse too, he could sense that it hadn’t even been close. He needed a massive amount of mana for something like this, which was irritating when he could do it for free before.

He had wasted all that Soul mana too. It didn’t get refunded to him, just consumed by his Skill and sent exactly nowhere.

Sighing, he sat back down and started meditating.

* * *

[Since the Fall: 6/9/809 - 5:44:18]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (6) -> (7)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (7) -> (8)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (8) -> (9)]

[Skill Leveled Up: High Mind (5) -> (6)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (4) -> (5)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (5) -> (6)]

[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 2) -> (Level 3)

[Stats Gained: +5 Spiritual]

‘Today!’ he woke up excitedly ‘Finally!’

It had been exactly a month since the last time he tried to astral project, and now he would try again.

His meditation was getting higher leveled, and he found that he was earning more Soul mana from it as it did. He opened his new pool of affinity mana

[578/2000 Wrath

7/2000 Kindness

497/2000 Soul]

He had almost five hundred Soul mana, but that last little bit would be covered by the MP he had. Judging based on the feeling he got last time from the Skill, it shouldn’t even be five hundred mana. When it failed, he sensed that he was a bit less than halfway through the process. If he was right in his feeling, today would be the day he actually managed to use his [Astral Projection].

He needed to begin working it out, as there was a place far away that he needed to visit, one he saw through [Tremor Sense]. He also resolved to use it to just fly around outside his cave, because he desperately needed some fresh air. Even if he wouldn’t be able to go far, seeing outside would do wonders for his mental health. He had a thought in the last month of meditation though, that the bubble would perhaps block him from leaving. Just as a precaution, he decided to stick the smallest, teensiest bit of his finger outside the bubble, that way he might be able to travel through that point to get out.

He moved through the crag excitedly, reaching the edge of his safezone. He sat down, scrunching his legs to his chest and placing his hand on the ground, right before the wall of protection. He wasn’t sure if his body would collapse to the floor when he cast the spell, but he didn’t want to take chances.

He stuck a little bit of his finger out, then began casting the spell.

Similar to last time, it drained his general MP first, before moving into Pandora’s Box and drinking greedily of the Soul mana.

Slowly but surely, the Identity aspect of his Soul came loose and, with a pop, it was free.

Shortly after that, he felt as his identity got squeezed through some small hole, smaller than his body should fit through, and he was out.

[Skill Leveled Up: Atral Projection (1) -> (2)]

Looking down excitedly, he saw his solid bone-white body. It felt more tangible than the last time he had cast [Astral Projection].

Before, he felt like some sort of ghost that a gust of wind could’ve blown away, now he felt like he was made of solid stone. Was this the effect of all the mana? Before, it had been incredibly easy to pull himself from what he would consider his Identities “slot.” Now though, he could feel all that Soul mana coursing through him, making him stronger.

He opened the Skill description, not being surprised that it had changed

[Astral Projection - Level 2 - Soul Affinity

A confluence of Mind, Body, and Magic, the Soul is made of the cracks between all three. It is both the divider that separates components, and the glue that makes them greater than the sum of their parts. While identity and a sense of self is not required for survival, what is life without a witness? Who you are gives purpose to your survival, but what if your identity could reach beyond the base components of life, and experience a second life of its own?

Allows for the physical manifestation of one's identity into the realm of spirits while still maintaining a link to the main body of the soul. The vanquishing of one's identity will lead to irreparable soul damage, and potentially death.

Identity of the soul can move away from the body at a distance of 4000 meters per level. 450 Initial MP Cost.]

More than just the cost, he could move a much larger distance away too! It was incredible. He also took note that in the last description it said the destruction of his Identity would “inevitably” lead to death, but now it said “potentially,” an important distinction that he had no intention of testing.

He looked over his Interface, searching for any other differences, and found two important ones.

[Name: Dei Grrata

Race: Human (Spiritual)

Soul Strength: 450/450

MP: 0/26

SP: 26/26]

Firstly, his Race had changed to a Spiritual human, whatever that meant. If he was changing Races though, was he changing Racial abilities? He opened the racial abilities menu to find out.

[Spirit Sense (Major)

Darkvision

Spiritual Re-Attunement (Major)

Natural Claws (Major)]

All but Darkvision had changed, but it seemed more like they were translated over into their equivalent spirit form. [Spirit Sense] was like [Tremor Sense], but for detecting spiritual energy. Simple enough. Darkvision was of course the same, [Spiritual Re-Attunement] was the [Camouflage] equivalent, and he checked it now.

[Spiritual Re-Attunement (Major)

There are multiple layers to the world of spirits. Few reside on the top layer, becoming more prevalent and powerful the further down one goes. Spiritual Re-attunement grants the ability to enter lower and higher layers at will.]

He had to assume it would work as some sort of camo ability, same as its predecessor. While it would be dangerous, he could see himself hiding out at a deeper layer of this new spirit world, waiting for a strong ghost or something to pass him by. If other spirits couldn’t change layers at will, he might even be able to fully dodge something trying to attack him.

[Natural Claws (Major) - Passive

Innate hyper-specialized Spirit affinity gives +600% efficiency when digging into spiritual entities or formations]

This one was derived from his Digging ability, but was apparently more lethal when converted to a Spiritual affinity. He could see why, as digging into spirits would just kill them. Or dissipate them? He didn’t think spirits could be considered alive.

The other change in his Interface, other than his Racial abilities, came in the form of his HP. More accurately, he didn’t have HP. Instead, it was replaced with [Soul Strength], and it had an amount equal to how much mana he had poured into his [Astral Projection] Skill, no doubt an intentional parallel.

It was likely that his Identity would ‘lose integrity’ and die when he ran out of strength to maintain himself.

Other than his Race and HP though, everything else was the same. He tried to quickly use an [Identify] on the stone around him and realized two things.

First, he was out of MP and drew from his [Pandora’s Box] just now by accident. Second, he could still use his Skills, which was great for him. Everything accounted for, he turned around to check the way he came.

Instead of seeing the light further into the cave, it looked like the crag just sort of tapered off a bit further away. He could see his finger, just barely poking out though, and nodded to himself. It looked weird, seeing the tip of a finger appear from nothing, but the invisibility held from the outside. He pushed on the barrier that cut off his vision, and felt his hand press against something elastic, pushing to enter the hidden pocket his body resided in. While he couldn’t walk through the strange magic that protected the cave while he was a spirit, he could push through it eventually. Confident he would be able to make it back to his body again, he made to leave the enclosed space he found himself in.

When casting the spell, he thought he was only going to be able to sit at the entrance of his cave, at best. Now that it was essentially overcharged with a massive amount of Soul mana and he could move freely for eight entire kilometers, he had the option to adventure.

Finally popping out into the corridor, he saw for the first time in months with his own two eyes something outside of that oppressive green room.

Despite watching this same corridor every day, he didn’t recognize it when he was using his own eyes. It was also weird, being cut off from his [Tremor Sense]. His [Spirit Sense] was much quieter too. He sensed a few small pockets of spiritual energy, but there was almost nothing sending out the spirit version of vibrations.

Not wanting to waste any more time, tried floating upwards with his mind, and succeeded. He smiled at that, happy he wouldn’t have to walk everywhere with his tiny legs. Without further ado, he floated down the hallway towards the moss he always saw with his Tremor Sense, keeping an eye on his [Soul Strength], [MP], and [SP] to check if any of them would drain.

To his surprise, his [SP] actually did start draining. Rather quickly too.

[SP: 19/26]

He stopped and floated down, landing on the ground. Immediately, the drain on his SP stopped. Testing to make sure it wasn’t just the act of moving, Dei continued walking forward, almost reaching the moss before he was completely positive that his SP only drained when flying.

It was a bit irritating, but he actually would need to walk on his toddler legs. At least he had a last-resort flight plan, if he needed.

Reaching the patch of moss, he looked at the multiple little bugs and plants that lived with it. None of them were noteworthy of having any special abilities when he Identified them, but being regular things. The moss just read.

[Green Moss - Level 52

A type of moss that is green

Edible]

That was okay. He had to temper his expectations a bit more, because his cave was teeming with magical plants and bugs. Not so much out here.

It was interesting to see, but the bugs truly could not perceive him at all. When he placed his hand on them, they crawled right through. Same with the plants, he phased through each.

If he willed himself to, he could actually stand on top of the grass without making indents on it, but that took a very small amount of SP. Not as much as flying, but still.

He didn’t want to go too far in case he got lost… unless he could find a way back? Maybe with his [FIne-Tooth Comb] that wouldn’t be an issue.

He continued down the cave until there was a split in it, one going left and right.

He went to the left, turned around, and asked [Fine-Tooth Comb] “Which way back to my-” and then paused as he realized he didn’t really see it as his home. Refuge? He should name it something.

“Which way back to the Garden by the most efficient path?”

He would call it the Garden. He could place his most valuable magic plants to grow there without being disturbed, but he definitely needed to move out at some point. It was nice to have safety, but it was so claustrophobic.

When he asked that of his [Comb] ability, it pointed right, towards the Garden.

He tested it a few more times, getting deeper and deeper into the cave system, and it always pointed correctly. Even when he actually started making his way back, it looked like this Skill had an uncanny sense of direction, which he didn’t.

Satisfied, he realized he could actually explore without care his [Spirit Sense] was almost dead silent, just four or five scattered pockets of spiritual energy, so he didn’t need to worry about predators.

From all the energy, he could tell that he was actually the most powerful thing in this spiritual layer.

One such pocket of spiritual energy was somewhere he saw using [Tremor Sense], his entire reason for pushing to leave the cave with [Astral Projection. It was a connection between the dry cave system and wet cave system. The cavern he saw while using tremor sense was barren rock with no plants, but a swirling beacon of vibrations were perpetually released from the lake in the center of it.

It was a long ways away, about ten miles, and on the edge of his [Tremor Sense]. He couldn't reach it, as it was slightly out of reach for his [Astral Projection] even with the distance upgrade, but that was okay for now. What drew his attention to it though, more than [Spirit Sense], was a long-unused Skill that recently reawakened: [Call for Help].

When using his [Tremor Sense] to scan the caves, his [Call for Help] ability had activated, bringing his attention to this barren room. The cave was far, far out of bounds of [Call for Help], so he had reread it when the feeling first came to him.

[Call for Help - Level 9 - Kindness Affinity - Passive

Going out of your way to help others when it isn't required, you actively seek out those in need. No evildoers shall escape your vision as you come to the rescue of those in their darkest hour.

Grants the user a sense for those who desperately want help within a 100 meters per Level radius of the user or within the users perception

+0.01% chance per level for user to be made aware of situation that they would greatly desire to be at for selfish reasons]

A single clause was added, “within the users perception.” Yet again he discovered some synergy the System did not list between Skills, and it was added to the description. He most likely had never discovered this clause in his previous life, as his “perception” would almost always be lower than that of [Call for Help]’s effective radius. Now that he had some supernatural senses, that was no longer the case.

With the new synergy, Dei felt a sense of low desperation emanating from the faraway cave. There was someone in that empty room, someone desperate for help, and he wanted to help them. Not just because of his sense of justice, but also because he was lonely, and wanted to talk to another person. Even if his Soul affinity helped alleviate the symptoms of madness stemming from isolation, it couldn’t eliminate them entirely. Now that he had [Spirit Sense], he had another clue as to who, or more likely what they are. Rather than a human, there was supposedly a trapped spiritual entity, either a monster that taps into the spirit realm or just a generic spirit. Despite them not being human though, he hoped they could feel gratitude.

That in mind, he looked towards the lonely, isolated cave towards miles away. He sensed the desperation every time he stepped out of the Garden, so he believed the situation this person was in was not immediately life threatening. The feeling persisted for the past month and a half, so he had to assume they would be fine until he could reach them in order to try and help.

He intended to use his [Astral Projection] to accomplish such a feat. It would be far sneakier than his physical body, and it could reach the cave. His only concern was being caught by either a Soul-derivative affinity monster that could interact with the spirit realm he resided in, or other spirits. Now that he sensed the other spirits were incredibly weak, he had only monsters to fear.

It was not unlikely either. His mother stated that most people had ways to touch upon the realm of souls, if only to protect themselves from Heart or Mind based attacks. He imagined that wild creatures would have more protection, as nature took on a more “forged in fire” approach than humans did. Animals would have to evolve protection against Soul attacks, or they would be easy prey for the first Soul-user that happened upon them.

The bugs around him might be a bit different, as a bugs chosen form of protecting their species was to have so many children that predators couldn't catch them all, and they didn’t really need protection against such magics. Anything that didn’t rely on a swarm tactic though, and was actually required to defend itself, would have to be one tough son of a bitch to live in the brutal ecosystem he found himself competing within.

Despite his fears for the toughness of monsters around him though, boredom and loneliness stopped him from turning back to the safety of the Garden. Whoever was out there needed help, and he didn’t know if their life was in danger. This might be his only chance to find someone else, someone that wouldn’t potentially turn him in to the Shamans.

Suppressing his fear, he activated [Fine-Tooth Comb] and put in the command “Take me to the location I sensed the desperation emanating from through the most efficient path.”

It worked the same way it had when he tried finding his Garden, picking a corridor to go down. He might not remember everything he saw using [Tremor Sense], but his Skill did. Cautiously, he set out to find a potential companion.