Stray Soul

*Ugh…” I groaned as I suddenly hit the ground, my head basically splitting apart in a headache like no other.

Slowly, I started to get up, trying to make sense of what was happening, but I honestly wasn’t sure.

Then, as my headache started to lessen, bits and pieces of my memory started returning to me, or more like they started the fit in their places once again.

“My name is William, I was… reincarnated into another world then I started controlling corpses? And after a few days I fought against some… hybrids and then… then?” not being able to quite remember what had happened for me to get a headache like this, I started looking around because I recognized the place as the same place where I fought against the hybris.

Looking around the small clearing, trying to remember what caused me to have some sort of memory lost, my eyes fell upon a corpse of a gigantic bird. But, while most of the corps lay on the ground, its neck was straight and its head was looking at me in curiosity, and the moment my eyes fell on it, I started having this weird feeling of familiarity.

“Oh yeah, that’s me.” I said to myself, finally remembering what had happened just a few moments before and realized that I could still control the other part of my soul inside the terror bird like we were connected.

Then I started moving my other neck to the sides, watching it move as I ordered it from afar, but before long, I stopped controlling it and laid it to the ground, not wanting it to lose all of its mana.

“But how can I even control it? I mean, I don’t even have anything connecting me to my other self…” I said to myself and started to think, while walking towards the corpse to, hopefully, reconnect with my soul.

Could it be some sort of system shenanigans? Or something about how souls work? I mean, even tough we are not connected, I can still somewhat control my soul, and feel it, but even when I am not controlling it directly, it seems like it has a will of its own… even though it shouldn’t happen because, well… its my soul, and I am focused on controlling this body, so it shouldn’t move, right?

But it does for some reason… but it also doesn’t feel like my personality has split into 2, it is more like… both pieces of my soul, even though they are separated, are connected, and I am subconsciously controlling my other part, because, even though I never gave it an order to raise its head, it raised its head, and I can even somewhat remember giving it that order… even though I never did such a thing…

As I came next to the terror bird and extended a tendril of mana and soul into the bird, touching the separated part of my soul, it reconnected with the rest of my soul without any obvious problems whatsoever.

And, after I reconnected with my soul, I wanted to test something. So, I tried to remember the feeling of my soul snapping like a twig, and after a few more tries, I was able to separate my soul into 2 once again, which caused a light headache but nothing more.

“Huh… neat, not sure if I’ll ever use it though…” I muttered to myself. And, even if I wouldn’t use this new ability of mine anytime soon, it will probably be useful in a different situation in the future. One which preferably doesn’t involve any danger that could damage my soul… either one, or both parts, because I really don’t want to experiment with soul damage, at least not on myself.

“Hmm… though I wonder if me separating my soul into 2 has any effects on my system window…” I wondered, and then with quick motions, separated my soul into 2 parts once again, and retracted my mana tendril into the hybrid, then willed my system window to open.

Name: William Race: Stray Soul (Hybrid)

Level: 7 Exp: 5/11 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/10 Mana Points: 45/52

Strength: 0 (0)

Vitality: 0 (1)

Agility: 0 (3)

Intelligence: 3 (2)

Wisdom: 13 (2)

Charisma: 0 (2)

Free Stat Points: 0 (12)

Skills: Shadow Meld (H), 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)

“Huh… so, separating your soul has some effects on the system… but, what is this weird thing I am feeling?” I asked myself because, there was something weird I was feeling as I looked at the system window, it was as if… something was concealed. But it would make itself known if I just reached out and removed the curtains that were blocking my view of it.

Trusting in my gut and thinking this was a weird way of system telling me about something new without actually telling me, I reached out to the system window with my mind, grasping onto that weird feeling and removing the curtains, and the moment I did that, an overlapping window appeared above my system window.

Name: None Race: Lesser Soul (Terror Bird)

Level: 1 Exp: 0/10 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/4 Mana Points: 13/37

Strength: -0

Vitality: 0

Agility: 0

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 4

Charisma: -3

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills: Ethereal Body (S)

Titles: Lesser Self (A)

Suddenly, a new system window appeared before me, causing me to recoil a bit in surprize, going back a few steps.

And, as I realized what was happening, and what this system window exactly was, I started going over the system window of my… other self? Fuck it, my other self.

And, as I went through my other self’s system window, everything seemed to, mostly, match what I remembered from the time I was in the body of the terror bird… except the new titles, the race, and the lack of skills… I mean, shouldn’t it have my skills if its just me but in another body? That just seems weird…

Shaking my thoughts off, I decided to start from the top of the system window, and to the bottom, asking questions as I see fit. So, first of all, system, what the fuck is a lesser soul?

*ding*

Lesser Souls are separated chunks of souls that belong to another entity.

… And? Is-is that seriously it?

… You mothe—NO! Calm down William, arguing with the system will not bring anything good, just move on… but still, fuck you system. Oh, and why doesn’t my other self, or the lesser soul, have any skills?

*ding*

Lesser Soul has the racial skill Ethereal Body (S).

…You know that’s not what I meant… you… argh! I meant, why doesn’t it have the skills I have?! It’s just another part of my soul yeah? So, it should have my skills too, right?

*ding*

As the Lesser Soul is, as its name implies, a lesser soul, and while it can use the skills of its parent soul to a lesser extend, it cannot it cannot gain skills other than its racial skill.

...So you were basically just fucking gaslighting me into believing that it cannot use skillls, even though it can?!

A-are you fucking serious?! I swear one day, one fucking day I’ll find the fucker who made the system and… argh!

…Forget it, moving on! System, give me the description of Lesser Self!

*ding*

Description Lesser Self (A): This title is given to entities that are a part of an another being, whom has absolute control over the entity with this title because they are practically and functionally the same being.

After looking at the description of the title my lesser soul possesed, and getting rid of my anger at the system, and its absolute lack of ability to say anything that makes sense, I once again focused on my lesser self—other self, who cares what I call it honestly.

Anyways, I once again focused on my lesser self, and started thinking if it would be a good idea to keep it separated from me.

Though I didn’t know what’d happen if it got destroyed somehow, as long as I keep it in a body with high intelligence and a good amount of mana… it shouldn’t be that much of a problem, and having it would help me use tactics other than attacking from the front and having to pray to whatever god or demon is willing to hear my prayers and let me succeed.

Deciding on what I was going to do, I decided to try to use mana through the Lesser Self and expand its mana cloud network throughout the terror bird’s body, except there was a tiny miny problem in the shape of me not knowing how to do that!

So, like any self-respecting protagonist would do, I turned to the only being in this entire world who I hated more than anything else and asked for guidance.

*ding*

To use mana, skills, or spells through the Lesser Soul’s title Lesser Self (A) you just have to imagine using whatever skill or spell you want it to use. rom it.

But please note that, your connection with your lesser soul is not perfect, and mana can be lost during transfer due to that, and because of the distance, and things in the way of you and the lesser soul, you will lose more and more mana the farther you are from it.

Reading the system window, I just decided to not bother with the title and just go up to the terror bird and extend a mana tendril into it, once again connecting to my lesser soul, and then just expanded the mana cloud network through the corpse.

Then, as I became satisfied with the level of complexity of the mana cloud network, I once again separated my soul into 2, letting the lesser soul take control of the body, then I willed it to get up and… nothing happened.

“Why the fuck is it not getting up…” I asked to no one in particular, but just as my line of thought ended, I heard something weird from behind the corpse.

*meow~~*

“A meowing? What the…” I said, carefully going around the terror bird’s corpse and looking at what was there and… it was a fucking hybrid.

A lone hybrid that was eating the legs of the terror bird…

Was it one of the 2 escapee hybrids from before? Why was it just sitting there, eating the legs of the terror bird’s corpse before looking around and making sure there wasn’t anything moving? I had absolutely no idea why it was here, nor did I know why it didn’t look around beforehand, but I knew one thing. This was an opportunity.

“If I can sneak on it and kill it… I will have another hybrid corpse, then I, and my lesser self, can just head out into the night, and stay separated into 2 corpses until I find the corpse of something that is big enough to contain my soul.” I thought to myself and, while I thought I had killed quite a few hybrids this night… I was also sure there were a lot of these things around because they weren’t that big, and they were shadow melding, nocturnal, ambush predators for fucks sake, of course they didn’t have any problems with finding enough food to sustain themselves and to reproduce… hopefully…

Then, slowly, I moved behind the hybrid, and started to prepare to strike it at once, quickly killing it and getting a new corpse, but I wasn’t quite sure were to attack… wait, I can just scare it with the terror bird, and when it tries to escape jump on it from behind and attack its throat with my teeth, no need to do expansive planning or anything, its just a lone hybrid!

Then, I just did that, I charged up my legs with few points of mana, preparing to strike it the moment it got scared and tried to escape, and then, I made the terror bird attack towards its legs with its head and neck, which didn’t actually do anything because it just couldn’t reach there, but it was enough to scare the hybrid for a moment.

Using its moment of confusion, I quickly jumped on the scared hybrid, quickly ending its life with swift movements.

*ding*

Congratulations! You have defeated Hybrid (H) Level 2!

4 exp gained!

…Why are all these guys so low levelled? You know what, I don’t care.

Then, I went back to the terror bird, once again reconnected with my other self, then went back to the hybrid corpse, and started making an extensive mana cloud network, and after I was satisfied with what I had made, I separated my soul once again and started moving my other self around to test if something needed fixing.

Then, I decided to do a short test run with controlling both bodies at once and, my other self moved exactly as I wanted it to in my test run. Which was kind of… weird. Because I was able to see, hear, and smell from 2 bodies at once, but it didn’t put any strain on my mind which I thought would not be the case… not that I am complaining though.

But I wonder, could I have more lesser souls? Like, can I just make a small army of them right now? Or do I need to increase my rank and get more… ectoplasm or whatever to separate myself into more souls.

Though having multiple small souls doesn’t sound bad, it might have some adverse effects on me… I should wait until I am safe and sound, or at least are of a higher rank before I separate my soul into smaller chunks.

“Hmm… what to do now? Do I just try to find somewhere safe or—”

*rustle* *rustle*

Suddenly, I heard rustling noises from one of the bushes behind me, then I started legging it with my other self, running in the opposite direction of the sound without even looking back because goddamn it! I am not having another wolf scenario!

Gob walked out of the bushes with Gob’s stone spear at hand, the bush’s leaves and branches bothering Gob as he passed, and not even Gob’s loin cloth was able to stop them!

“Move it!” Grok screamed from Gob’s behind, pushing Gob forwards and making Gob nearly fall down.

As Grok came out of the bushes with his iron tipped spear, and leather armour, Gab, Gib, and Gid, quickly fallowed behind Grok with their stone spears.

Then quickly, Gob got in line behind Grok with the others, waiting for Grok to say something.

“…This… it couldn’t be…” but betraying Gob’s expectations, Grok didn’t scream orders at them, and instead muttered something to himself. But Gob heard, like all the other things Gob heard at home.

Then, Grok remembered Gob and the others were there and turned back to face them, stupid Grok. Always forgetting things. But Gob wasn’t like Gronk, Gob never forgets.

“What are you standing there like a bunch of twigs! Go! Gather branches and logs! Start making a campfire!” Grok screamed, then pointed at a big bird on the ground with his spear.

“The great one has given us, in all his benevolence, a perfectly fine dinner! So, who are we to reject his gift?! We shall rest for tonight, and fill ourselves with this gift presented to us, and tomorrow we shall head back to home! Now, go! Stop standing around like twigs!” Grok screamed, but Gob wasn’t stupid. Gob knew Grok wasn’t the one to share. Grok was going to eat most of the bird by himself! But what could Gob even do to stop him…

Then, as Gab, Gib, and Gid scattered to collect branches and logs to start the fire, Grok turned towards Gob. And only then did Gob realize that he was standing there like a twig.

“And what are you standing there for? Are you—are you questioning my orders?” Grok said calmy, but Gob wasn’t stupid. Gob knew Grok was fuming right now. Quickly, Gob started to think of something to save Gob. Then Gob remembered.

“NO! N-no Grok! Gob doesn’t disobey Grok. Gob was just… wondering about what Gob saw when Gob entered the clearing. Grok saw what Gob saw too, right Grok?” Gob asked, shaking in his place.

Then Grok stopped for a moment, he was thinking Gob thought.

“And who said that you needed to think, Gob?” Grok asked, but this time Gob understood from Grok’s voice that Grok wasn’t actually going to beat Gob and was just trying to assert his authority.

“N-no no o-one! Gob sorry Gob bothered Grok. Oh, mighty Grok! Oh, stronk Gro—” then Grok slapped Gob.

“THEN GET TO WORK YOU TWIG!” and screamed at Gob.

Understanding this was Gob’s time to go, Gob quickly ran away, and started helping others to gather wood to light the campfire.

And, as Gronk stood in his place, looking at the escaping Gob, he started thinking.

“Hmm… an undead not of the Shaman’s making… did the damned dungeon spew out more of its dreadful spawn? Or is it something else… no matter, I must go back as soon as possible and report this back. This might be the thing the Shaman was talking about…”