Stray Soul

“Look how they massacred my boy…” watching the wolves tear apart the bird I had killed after such a hard time was… heart breaking to put it lightly.

Wings, teared.

Guts sprayed around.

Blood, spewing out.

Watching from a bush that was just far enough for me to watch, and for them to ignore my smell, I lamented the situation I had found myself in.

And the worst thing was, I knew I needed that body. No matter how damaged, I still needed to take it after the wolves had their way with it.

“Oh, the tragedy!” I said to myself but, deep down, I knew, it wasn’t actually that much of a problem…

Sure, it was going to cost a lot of mana to move with that damaged of a body, and it wasn’t going to last as long as it could’ve, but it still would be usable… for a day… hopefully.

Shaking my thoughts away, I focused on the scene in front of me, and started wondering if I could’ve fought of these wolves if I had decided to take control of the terror bird…

“Nope, not a chance.” while the terror bird was strong, the reason my horn couldn’t penetrate its feathers seemed simple after watching the wolves eat it, this body was simply not built to tackle such an enemy alone.

I mean, it made sense, the bugs seemed to be made to swarm their enemies and stay underground. Not go around hunting a gigantic bird that could potentially destroy a colony of theirs alone.

And even if the terror bird was strong enough to defeat this pack of wolves, I wouldn’t be able to control it completely. I mean, I may be the greatest stray soul this forest has ever seen, but I still need an hour or 2 to manipulate my soul into fitting a body perfectly, which I would like to once again remind you, is fucking hard!

And I am not even sure if my manipulation can be called ‘perfect’ by any degree, a master soul manipulator would probably just see what I do after hours and laugh their ass off at me!

“But what a bad luck I have…” I mean, even though the terror bird wasn’t that strong in the grand scale of things, it would’ve been the strongest thing I had taken control of by far! And just imagine what I could’ve done with it!

I could’ve mapped out the forest much more quickly, scared away dangerous animals, or escaped from them!

And with it being a gigantic bird, with a lot of stat points, it would’ve allowed me to experiment with magic much, much more easily!

“Only if my future wasn’t destroyed by a hungry pack of wolves…” I kinda wish they caught the vine deer or whatever and didn’t come here after smelling the blood of the bird, or the sounds of running… but no point in lamenting what’s already done. I need to start thinking of new things to do with this body, otherwise I am gonna have a really bad time.

Quickly focusing on the terror bird carcass once more, I started thinking about the difficulties I might face with it.

It didn’t have any organs or blood, and, while not having organs wouldn’t be a problem for me, I still had some use for blood, because not having any would just make the body dry up quicker, limiting or completely destroying the usability of many muscles.

“But other than that, I can’t see anything that bad…” I mean, yes, it didn’t have wings, an eye, most of the muscles in the legs, and no organs, oh, and it also had a large hole in the chest that came with not having any organs, but, other than that, it was completely usable!

Legs can be made usable once again with better soul manipulation, organs are useless, the hole in the chest can be mostly ignored because I doubt mana would come down and then up into it all the time, and the left eye… is my mistake and will actually be a big problem…

…Wait, are the wings and tail important at all?

… Because they are kinda gone…

…Guess I’ll find out soon…

As, I continued to watch the wolves desecrate my future body, I quickly grew bored. I mean, there is not really a lot to watch them do now, is there?

Then I remembered the system messages I missed and decided to ask the system about them.

“System, can you show my back log or whatever it’s called?”

*ding*

Congratulations! You have defeated Terror Bird (H) Level 5!

As Terror Bird (H) is a rank higher than you, you will get increased exp.

10 exp> 13 exp

Congratulations! You have levelled up twice and have become level 7!

Congratulations! The system has adjusted your rank and you've become rank H!

Congratulations! You have developed the skill Mana Strengthening (Z)!

As I read through the system window, I experienced a variety of emotions.

YES! I levelled and ranked up?

W-wait? I got a skill?! THE FUCK DID I DO?!

And after the initial shock of everything passed away, I quickly opened my system window.

Name: William Race: Stray Soul (Adult Chitinous Bug)

Level: 7 Exp: 0/11 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/19 Mana Points: 36/43

Strength: 0 (1)

Vitality: 0 (1)

Agility: 0 (4)

Intelligence: 3 (1)

Wisdom: 6 (1)

Charisma: 0 (1)

Free Stat Points: 7 (12)

Skills: Ethereal Body (S), Mana Sense (Z), Bind (Z), Soul Sense (Z), Soul Manipulation (Z), Mana Control (Z), Mana Strengthening (Z) +

Titles: Reincarnator (S), Otherworlder (A)

Quests: Meddling with the Unknown (S)

Quickly scanning through the system window, I was surprized by the fact that my exp counter jumped from 5 to 11 in 2 levels, I mean, I wasn't expecting it to increase by a single point forever but I was hoping it'd continue like that for a while!

Then I saw my new rank which was nice.

And as I looked down, I saw that I had gotten 7 STAT POINTS INSTEAD OF 4?! AND WHAT’S WITH THE 12 NEXT TO IT?!

“System, why did I get 7 stat points this time?! And why is there a 12 next to it in parentheses!?!”

*ding*

As you are now a H rank being instead of Z, you will gain 4 stat points every level instead of 2 and as the system doesn’t want to make the power disparity between beings of the same rank too large, the system gives beings, whether they be intelligent or not, extra stat points to compensate them after ranking up, and the stat points they are given are equal to the amount they would’ve gotten if they were to level up as their new rank and not the previous one.

But as giving too many stat points at once would be too damaging to beings, the system gives them their stats to them over the next few levels and you can see the amount of stat points the system owes you in the parentheses next to your free stat points.

After reading through the system message, I quickly made calculations from my head and found out the system was saying the truth.

But that made me wonder, how was the system calculating which rank a being was?

“Wait, can’t I just as-

Nope! I am not going down that rabbit hole once again!

Fucking satan have mercy on my soul before I do that!”

…

..

.

…Who am I kidding? I am addicted… I need to talk to a therapist as soon as I find one.

“System, how do you calculate when a being reaches the next rank?”

And to my surprise, the system actually answered!

*ding*

The system assigns beings ranks according to various factor which include their levels, stat points, skills, their intelligence, and many more.

But there is also a baseline of stat points a being has to reach before ranking up, though a being can pass that baseline without ranking up.

“…So… what’s the baseline of stat points you are talking about?”

…

..

.

“Look here you little piece of—”

Quickly giving up any hope of receiving an answer from the system, I decided to look at the last thing of importance, my new skill Mana Strengthening (Z)!

Willing up its description, I quickly gave it a read.

Description Mana Strengthening (Z): Allows the being in possession of it to use mana to strengthen themselves. Needs a developed mana cloud network in the area to be used.

Mana cloud network? What is it talk—oh! Its talking about my expert soul manipulation! I see, I see… why call it such a weird name though?

But I guess it makes sense… mana cloud network, huh?

While thinking, I noticed something else in my status screen.

“Wait… why does it have a plus sign next to it?” quickly pressing the sign, I was surprised because the skill expanded further!

Mana Strengthening (Z) –

Sprint

Dash

“Wait, WHAT?! It has fucking sub skills?! System, wtf is this?!”

*ding*

The (+) sign next to some skills indicate that those skills have multiple functions in them that you need to learn or develop by yourself.

“Wait, but what the fuck do you mean by sprint? Couldn’t I just run before? I understand dash but, wtf.”

*ding*

The skill Mana Strengthening (Z) allows the being in possession of it to strengthen themselves by using mana, and you can think of both sprint and dash as functions of the skill you have learned and while both functions do similar thinks, aka increase your speed, they do it in different ways.

Sprint allows you to increase your speed for a long amount time in return for small amounts of mana, but your speed also doesn’t increase by a lot.

Dash allows you to increase your speed for a short amount of time in return for large amounts of mana, but your speed gets increased by a lot.

“Hmm… I understand but why doesn’t every skill have ‘functions’ to them as you call it, and why is it necessary for this skill to have them?”

*ding*

Not all skills need functions to them, so they don’t get them.

As for Mana Strengthening (Z), it has functions to be foolproof and easier to use.

…

..

.

“T-that’s it?! And who the fuck would need a fool proofed fucking skill?! Who is stupid enough to not understand that using a lot of mana leads to greater speed?!

Fucking cavemen?! But I am sure even they would go like ‘Hmm, yes, big mana go big speed, small mana go small speed’ like, who actually needs this?!”

…

..

.

“Of course you don’t answer you fucking piece of shit…”

After I finished bitching at the system over… nothing actually, I just couldn’t understand why it does the things it does and that angers me, I focused once more on the wolves.

And to my surprise, they were gone!

I must have spent too long focused on the system that I completely missed their leave, and they even left most of the carcass here too!

Quickly going to the corpse to make use of the remaining day light I had, I immediately left my rotting bug body behind and jumped into the terror bird’s.

And after a few moments of being stuck in the fucking shadow realm that is the state of not being in a body, I regained my senses…er—most of my senses in the terror bird’s body.

Like what I said before, I didn’t have a left eye due to a certain body skipping cretin, who shall remain unnamed, and I couldn’t really… feel a lot too!

Must be because the wolves ate too much of the body before I could enter it and start supplying it with mana…

Not letting the fact that I won’t be able to feel much of anything for the next few days, I quickly started developing my mana cloud network throughout the body, slowly and meticulously crafting it to perfection so that this body may be of use to me.

And after god knows how long, I finally finished toiling away with my development of the mana cloud network, I started getting up and doing a test run of my new body.

And problems started showing themselves the moment I applied any force anywhere.

My legs strained to lift my massive body up, my body swayed uncontrollably to the sides, and I was unable to correct it due to the lack of any wings or tail.

And as I finished getting up, loose bits and pieces of flesh and feather fell to the ground.

“Okay… maybe I am not doing as hot as I thought I’d do…”

While I had my beak and talons to defend myself or attack anything that might want a piece of me now, I didn’t have anything else.

My vision was limited massively due to the lack of my left eye and my body was having a hard time keeping itself straight.

With a thump, I let myself fall to the ground.

“…Not doing hot… at all…” for a moment, I actually considered returning to my bug body, just to realize I had accidentally fallen on it and squished it.

“Welp, that plan’s gone.” turning my head to the sky, I saw it quickly darkening, the night was approaching, and I was nowhere ready.

The only thing I had was a broken body, and the fact that I could live as long as I had mana.

“…Can’t say I’ve survived worse… because I haven’t, but I am going to live through this night, one way or the other!” hopefully I don’t attract too many predators with my rotting body and the blood all around me… thinking of that I should actually get going and find a spot to hide for the night.

Getting up, I fought against my unsteady body, and as I walked forward miniscule amounts of mana entered my chest cavity, which wouldn’t be a problem if not for the fact that the majority of my mana cloud network passed through there.

Strengthening my resolve, I continued to walk forwards, starting to think of a plan for the hard night to come, but before I started planning, I first opened my system window to see the changes this new body of mine made on it.

Name: William Race: Stray Soul (Terror Bird)

Level: 7 Exp: 0/11 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/7 Mana Points:42/67

Strength: 0 (-0)

Vitality: 0 (0)

Agility: 0 (4)

Intelligence: 3 (3)

Wisdom: 6 (4)

Charisma: 0 (-3)

Free Stat Points: 7 (8)

Skills: Ethereal Body (S), Mana Sense (Z), Bind (Z), Soul Sense (Z), Soul Manipulation (Z), Mana Control (Z), Mana Strengthening (Z) +

Titles: Reincarnator (S), Otherworlder (A)

Quests: Meddling with the Unknown (S)

… Fuck, I forgot to use my free stat points.