Beacon from Beyond

With his new sort-of ability to manifest into the physical world, Dei quickly checked his SP, trying to gauge if it drained when he used it, same as the other times he used his ghostly abilities. It did drain as expected, but weirdly slower than he would have assumed. The strain he felt from pressing into the physical world made him assume that he would be bleeding stamina like crazy, similar to when he was flying, but after watching it for a bit, it only drained at a rate of around one SP per four or five minutes.

This also confirmed that his ghost abilities were reliant on stamina. He could stand on plants, fly, and manifest into the world, but it would drain his stamina to do so, which was an interesting thought to have.

Without further wasting any time, he looked around him. The bugs had all fled away from him when he first manifested, but now they slowly came back in. He scanned one that was getting a bit brave in flying around him

[Mosquito - Level 55

A blood drinking pest that carries diseases and may transfer those upon biting something]

It was so weird, seeing such a mundane description, but the bug itself wasn’t actually a mosquito, just this world's version of it. It looked fairly close to mosquitos, but its legs were a bit differently shaped as they did not arc above its main body. It looked like some sort of cage with a small bulb in the middle of it, a convergent evolution?

Distracted by the description, the mosquito actually landed on his arm. The description rapidly changed.

[Soul Mosquito - Level 57

Baptized in concentrated soul mana-]

[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (1) -> (2)]

Before it popped like a balloon, sending a small amount of spirit energy into the world that he felt dissipate using his [Spirit Sense].

He saw his status change slightly [Soul Strength: 449/450]

He also noted that he didn’t need to use the Wrath version of his [Identify], was the mosquito so dumb that it didn’t classify as a sentient creature? That was a little funny.

More bugs flew around him, trying to land, but not many tried biting him. He could actually swat them out of the air too, but his SP shot downwards whenever he did.

Satisfied with his experiment, he released the grip he held on his manifested form, and fell back into the first layer of the spirit world.

His SP was [11/26] right now, so he would need to wait to do such a thing again, but he now knew what he had to do in order to cast spells on creatures that actually had any sort of innate defense in their souls.

This would be troublesome. He had taken three or four seconds to stabilize his form, and that was ample time for wild animals to either attack him or flee.

Now that he thought about it though, he didn’t really need animals anymore. The insects around him proved to be perfect test subjects. Some were too dumb to resist identify, but there was at least one type of fly that could, based on how his [Identify] reacted to him trying to use it while in the world of spirits.

He went through all the different bugs, testing [Identify]’s on them to see how it reacted. On some of the smaller swarm creatures, like gnats and mosquitos, it eventually found purchase on them. While other, more solitary bugs like a weird fat fly he could see, it failed against. He also decided it was time to test out the Wrath version of his [Identify], and used it on a mosquito.

Oddly enough, it slid off. The mosquito drooped in the air a bit, like it had become paralyzed for a second, but Dei was unable to get any information from it. There was only one instance of him using it in the real world, and that was when he used it on the [Nightstalking Devourer]

It had done some serious damage, but he did use basically all his mana. He was also pretty sure that his Wrath and Kindness affinities had produced more mana for him to pour into the spell while he was forming it, as he was doing something kind and acting in anger.

Rather than trying again with the minimum amount of MP required, he waited for it to fully replenish. While he could easily use the mana in his [Pandora’s Box], he felt like saving it would be more worth it, in case of an emergency. He had avoided using any of his stored affinity, and would continue doing so. When his MP was back to max, he used all [26/26] to hit one of the mosquitos with his Wrath [Identify]

He felt as a veritable beam of soul-rending fury barreled towards and through the mosquito, only for this mosquito to fare even better than the last one. The beam didn’t just slide off, but completely failed to interact with the mosquito.

‘Hmmm, more power makes less damage? If the Kindness version actually kind of works, and the weak Wrath version stuns it, then the more damage it would do, the less it interacts with the world?’

That didn’t make sense to him at all. The more mana he poured in, the more damage it should do, yes?

Waiting ten or so minutes for his 26 mana to come back, he tried it again. This time, he observed the soul of the mosquito, looking for anything wonky it might try.

He saw as, moments before the beam hit it, the mosquito’s soul placed some defenses around itself. It wasn’t a conscious effort, just an instinctual reaction to having something pass through it.

He’d seen a similar barrier before, when he tried peeking into his mothers soul before he had ever been born, right after he learned to astral project. All the humans he’d seen had a version of this defense and, now that he was looking for it, some of the bugs too. It was harder to peek into the inner workings of their soul.

Testing a bit more, the bugs with defenses could not be passively scanned with Kindness, while the ones without it could be, same as plants.

[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (2) -> (3)]

Was this sentience? Was he somehow observing their intellect, a natural desire to hide its own weaknesses from enemies?

He tried to use Wrath on the brambles, only to watch as another instinctive barrier blocked what little his [Identify] would normally divine from its scans.

It wasn't sentience he was watching, it was survival instinct. Some bugs and plants were simply not smart enough to know fear, but when they felt a powerful attack barreling towards them, they still reacted to it immediately. A mosquito didn’t know what a hand was, it just felt like it needed to move when one closed in on it. The reason weaker Wrath [Identify]’s had a small effect was because they couldn’t respond properly, their survival instinct did not register an attack, as it would cause no harm.

From this he gathered that every creature, every soul, would naturally protect itself if it could. This natural protection was enough to deflect his [Identify] completely, no matter the power, as it wasn’t really meant to be used from the spirit world into the physical world.

He had actually figured out everything he needed to know without ever seeing another animal. He now knew the rules on attacking things from the spirit world, and why it would fail, as well as how to manifest himself physically. It had only been around two hours, most of it focused on waiting, and now he could go back if he wanted to… but did he? He was making some absurd progress in his Skills, and he felt he should take advantage of this. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, sit around in his cave for years until his power level was too high to be taken on. That being said, he wasn’t going to be dumb about this.

He wouldn’t [Meditate], as that required him to let his guard down. Instead, he would work on the abilities he could while staying safe. He pulled up his full Interface, going down the list of Skills he could use.

[Name: Dei Grrata

Race: Human (Spiritual)

Class: Prodigal Detector (Level 34)

Profession: Pondering Sage (Level 4)

Achievements: Void Walker, Soulspeak, Beyond Understanding, No Rulers Above All, Bearing the Burden, Slayer of Mountains

Contracts: Soul of the (IIIIIIII)

Soul Strength: 449/450

MP: 1/26

SP: 26/26

Stats:

Physical: 13

Mental: 27

Spiritual: 34

Magical: 28

Affinities:

Kindness: Mid-Rare, 57%

Wrath: Mid-Uncommon: 0%

Soul: Low-Uncommon: 58%

Inner Skills:

Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (50) (627/2000), Call for Help (9), Good Samaritan (1)

Wrath: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (2), Growing Pains (19)

Soul: Astral Projection (2), Connection (1)

Mana: Meditation (9)

Confluence: Identify of the Stout Protector (3)

Outer Skills:

How About a Demonstration?, Fine-Tooth Comb (6), Vigilance (1), In Tune (1), Commune with the Universe (2), High Mind (7)]

The answer was not many at all. There were only three relevant Skills he could use: [Identify], [Comb], and [High Mind].

He could use them though, and he would. His training plan would be to designate a certain amount of insects as his ‘test subjects,’ then use [Fine-Tooth Comb] to keep track of that, while using [High Mind] to split his attention onto each one, keeping them all in focus. Then he would attempt to use [Identify of the Stout Protector] as much as he could without depleting his [Pandora’s Box].

Without further ado, he began to split his attention into two pieces, [Fine-Tooth Comb] now able to focus on two different targets.

While he wasn’t fully splitting his mind into pieces, he was able to multitask better using his Skill. Even that though put a heavy strain on him, and he wasn’t able to [Identify] each mosquito more than once before he had to stop and take a break.

‘This might take a while’

* * *

[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (3) -> (4)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (4) -> (5)]

[Sill Leveled Up: High Mind (7) -> (8)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (6) -> (7)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (7) -> (8)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (8) -> (9)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (9) -> (10)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (10) -> (11)]

He looked at his notifications, humming a tune at how well it was going. Most of the time was spent waiting around for either his mana to rejuvenate or his soul to rest itself enough to withstand more Skills. The only exception was his [Fine-Tooth Comb], that he could use all the time. It wasn’t straining enough to significantly affect his rate of healing, so he decided to leave it on all the time.

In just a single hour, he had achieved levels in his Skills that would take months if he were still in the Garden.

He was feeling good, but stopped his training to check his notifications. He was feeling a bit… off, right now. At first he assumed it was because he was just excited to open the notifications and see his progress, but now he didn’t want to continue working at all.

Slowly, a feeling of unease welled up inside him, and he wasn’t sure where it came from. He backed out of the marsh slowly, deeper into the caverns while he continued to observe the three bugs he was able to focus on using [Fine-Tooth Comb].

The tab for notifications were still open, so he saw immediately when he received another.

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

His first instinct was to freeze when he saw it, but he forced himself to keep moving back slowly, scanning the mud of the bog and the bramble wall that enclosed him. Vigilance didn’t tell him where the danger came from, merely that there was danger, and a general instinct of where he should go to avoid it.

He didn’t even try to turn around and look behind him, the idea of the danger being behind him hadn’t even crossed his mind. He was positive it came from the front, but what was it? What was the danger?

Twenty or so feet away, he received another notification

[Skill Leveled Up: Vigilance (2) -> (3)]

‘That is really, really bad news. I’m still in danger, this far away.’

Carefully on his guard, Dei watched as a small bump formed in the mud, right under where he previously stood, and began to grow as the body moved out from underneath it. It was a lumpy ball, with two larger wart-looking things on top of its head and tens of tinier ones across its body.

The two massive warts pulled back to reveal eyes, the eyes of a frog. A frog the size of his fucking torso.

The frog observed the swarm of bugs he had been experimenting on. It watched them for about ten seconds, him continuing to move backwards the entire time. Right as he was about to move around a bend, losing sight of the frog, he saw it slowly turn his direction, looking straight at him.

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

Dropping all pretense, Dei took off running.

He heard a crack sound out behind him, and stone shrapnel flew through his intangible body. His mind raced at what was going on, trying to reason out both how this frog could see him, and how it knew to find him.

He wasn’t completely in the dark though, as he had seen this as a potential scenario when he first left his Garden. This frog had either a Soul affinity or Soul-derivative affinity, and was able to tap into that power in order to sense him.

It wasn’t exact either, as it had taken the frog about fifteen seconds until it was able to lock on to him in the first place, so he suspected it wasn't the Soul affinity itself. As to how it found him? Either that first mosquito bite sending out one point of Soul affinity was enough or, more likely, it could sense the copious levels of Mana being used in his spells all the mana was somewhere in the spirit world, rather than the physical world, so maybe it gave off a distinct scent to monsters that knew what to look for?

His [High Mind] worked in tandem with his [Vigilance] to keep track of any attacks from behind him, as [Comb] kept him moving back towards the Garden in an efficient manner.

He suspected that re-attuning himself would help lose the frog, but he did not want to drop into a deeper level of the spirit world, for fear that even stronger enemies would find him if he did.

His mind picked out the sound of wind brushing to his right, and he threw himself to the ground. He heard a whistle pass by his head, barely missing it, and the wall to his right exploded.

Dei didn’t bother standing up, throwing himself into flight down the tunnel as he threw a glance backwards, seeing a long pink tongue withdraw itself from the cloud of dust and disappear around the corner.

Refocusing back on the pathway in front of him, he knew his SP was draining too fast for him to fly the entire way. Instead, he used the momentum of flight to give himself a running start as he landed.

A rumbling croak sounded out from behind him, causing his entire body to painfully begin vibrating like a tuning fork.

He let out a cry as he felt the projection he was using destabilize, coming apart slightly and causing Soul mana to flood the area he was in as it bled off him rapidly.

[Soul Strength: 378/450]

[SP: 10/26]

Right as he crossed out of the cloud of Soul mana, he heard the tongue behind him whistle through it. Using his [Spirit Sense], he saw as the cloud quickly converged onto the tongue, the energy shining like a beacon in his mind's eye as it was pulled backwards.

He felt as his view of it was suddenly cut off, the Soul mana he could sense previously suddenly disappearing the moment it entered the frog's body.

He didn't pause for even a second as he continued to sprint down the cave. In the single minute it had been since the chase started, he had already taken heavy damage. A sense of dread overtook him as he realized he wasn’t even close to his cave, and that just a few more croaks would kill him. The frog didn’t need to get close, didn’t even need to catch him to take all it needed.

Despite that though, no more came. At first he assumed it was because the frog couldn’t use that croaking ability too quickly in rapid succession, but after five straight minutes of running with complete radio silence behind him, he realized it was something else.

He never stopped his running for even a single second, perpetually keeping his guard up, but no more attacks came. The tongue never snaked out from around a corner, and the Skill the frog used to destabilize him never resounded again.

In the back of his mind, he realized it was possible the frog thought it had already succeeded, that the chase was over. If he were a weaker spirit, that call would have vanquished him, but he wasn’t.

The thing hunting him had most likely gone back to the bog, but he didn’t care enough to slow down to find out. After tirelessly running the entire way, he spotted the crag leading back into safety and dove through.

Pushing himself fast enough to begin using SP as some parts of him phased through the wall, he dove for the finger sticking out of the barrier and felt as his Identity locked back into place in his soul. He shot upwards and moved further down into his cave, finally breaking into the blessed green room he loved so much.

He collapsed into the center of it, heaving as panic overtook him and his heart beat like a drum in his ear. He couldn’t move, muscles going stiff as he curled into a fetal position and began to hyperventilate. Dizziness overtook him, and he passed out.