Stray Soul

After a few moments of being angry at the system for its general lack of competence, I started thinking about how to complete my quest and preferably, live.

To complete the quest, I need to either learn how to sense mana and then control it or find a corpse that can ‘contain and protect me’. Which I don’t know how to do and I am pretty sure its not as simple as ‘go and find a deer corpse’ as I am pretty sure any corpse I could find would be either eaten, or being eaten, which would not be a good thing, so realistically, my only option is to somehow learn mana sense and then mana control, and for that I need somewhere with wind to test my theory…

As I made up my mind to go and find somewhere with ample wind, I started looking around me, more specifically, at the swaying branches and leaves of the trees.

Now, I am not a forest ranger nor someone who knows how forests, forest in general. So, the only thing I can do is… pray and choose a random direction to walk at.

… Were you hoping for me to say something smart or intelligent? If so, I’d like to remind you that I AM A GODDAMN COCKROACH, A SPECIES NOT KNOW FOR THEIR ABILITY TO FIND WIND OR USE MAGIC.

The best I can do is maybe climb up a tree, but I highly doubt that I can do that so, I am going to do what I am most sure of doing and start running in a direction and praying to whatever god, demon, or something else that may be listening, because honestly, my options are not looking too bright.

Saying that, I chose a direction without too many shrubs and roots that could slow me down and started running… or the best I could do with only 5 legs as something has eaten my back and one leg and left the rest of me on the ground, not that I am complaining as this body has been quite convenient so far.

After I started walking at a…great speed which would put Usain Bolt to shame, I decided to take a look at my quest window while I was running, more specifically, at the skill the system offered to me as a reward.

Quest Rewards:

-6 exp.

-Skill: Bind (Z)

System, explain the skill Bind to me.

*ding*

The system cannot give out details about skills you don’t have.

… Then why are you even allowing me to ask questions about it?! God, I swear I am going to destroy this system one day…

After grumbling for a bit longer, I started to actually focus on the forest around me and tried to see as far as I could so that I could re-direct myself to a clearing if I ever saw one, but one major issue showed its head, I was on the fucking ground, and had to just hope I was going in a correct direction without any visional proof, which was going to be so fun.

“Hmm… I mean, its not like there is any guarantee that I will, find a clearing or something, so I might as well start and try to get Mana Sense while I am traveling…”

So, I just did that, and started focusing on my soul, and started sensing all the mana particles going through me in waves.

Like before, they felt like wind or water, not that that stopped them from somehow deteriorating my soul though… because apparently, I can’t have anything good.

As I continued to just look at the waves, trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to sense them outside my soul, I realized something that might be slightly important, I didn’t actually know how my mana felt like… yeah, I should’ve focused on that way before now, shouldn’t’ve I?

I once again focused on my mana points to see that it hadn’t dropped any more, which was a good but I wasn’t actually sure how to sense them, not like I had a body I could sense them in anyways… well, I had the cockroach but I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be useful unless I had some wind, which I did not, I only had my soul, a useless skill, titles, a system and… that’s about it… if we don’t count the aches that is.

Wait… actually, are the aches really my soul? I mean, I am pretty sure they are a part of me, and allow me to control the cockroach, but if my soul was deteriorating so much that it started to hurt, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to think with such clarity as I currently am… so what are they exactly?

As I focused on my soul to figure it out, I decided to start from the surface level of my soul and go down from there. My soul currently felt like it was on fire, well not really but you get the point. Most of it was filled with those long and sharp pains and a really small part of it was filled with the sharp and short ones and the aches.

I know for a fact the mana in the air is somehow deteriorating my soul, so is this something related to… Ethereal Body? But that skill didn’t have anything about mana or how my aches worked, did it?

As I asked myself that, I quickly asked the system to show me the skills description once more.

*ding*

Description Ethereal Body (S): You are the very essence of life, a soul. Thanks to you being an ethereal being, no physical matter can interact or harm you, but you are extremely weak against any and all magical phenomena.

As I went through the skills description once again, nothing really caught my attention, other than the last part of it but even that didn’t really say anything about the aches… Wait, actually, why is this even a skill? Won’t my body be affected by magical phenomena if I don’t have this skill? Or is there another reason to why this is a skill…

…Wait, what actually makes a skill a skill?

If skills are just things I can do by myself, then why don’t I have a skill for connecting with dead bodies?...

System, what makes a skill, a skill? And what’s the difference between the things I can do and skills?

*ding*

Skills are either things that beings have a natural affinity to and are considered magical in some way or another, or things that have been learned by a being through practice and hard work.

While the difference between skills and things beings can do without them are small, they are not non-existent as without a skill, beings can’t see their progression on a skill and improve upon them with the help of the system, however small that help maybe.

And do not forget that, while most skills use mana in some way, shape or form, usage of mana is not necessary for all skills.

Quickly reading through the system window, my eyes stuck on the first part and last part of the system window.

“So, beings can have natural affinity to things, and if that natural affinity is considered ‘magical’ system gives them a skill for it, and while not all skills use mana, most of them do…”

As I repeated what I learned to myself, and thought on it for a few more seconds, I became sure that, even though it wasn’t written in the description whatsoever, my skill Ethereal Body used mana, in some way or the other… but how?

Not long after I started thinking about how the hell Ethereal Body was using mana, I heard a system message appear in front of me.

*ding*

Due to the realization of relevant knowledge, description of skill Ethereal Body (S) has changed.

Description Ethereal Body (S): You are the very essence of life, a soul. And thanks to you being an ethereal being, no physical matter can interact or harm you, but you are extremely weak against any and all magical phenomena. And due to you not having a body, your mana is stored around your soul, and it protects your life force from being scattered by magical phenomena, be it natural or not.

Due to this skill being essential for the life of the being in possession of it, this skill will be constantly active unless the being in possession of it decides to de-activate it while not being under any effects that may alter their decision-making skills.

… A-are you being serious right now? SINCE WHEN COULD SKILLS’ DESCRIPTION DEPENDED ON WHAT I KNEW?! AND WHY AM I ONLY BEING INFROMED ABOUT IT NOW?!

AND WHY WASN’T THIS IN THE INTIAL DESCRIPTION?!

I SWEAR, WHEN I FIND WHO THE FUCK MADE THIS SYSTEM, I AM KILLING THEM!!!!

Calming myself as fast as I could, I started reading the system message once more, and my attention stuck at the part about my mana being stored around me.

So, my mana is just the aches…? Well then, how do I sense the mana around me…

Let’s go over what I know about mana. Mana appears to be everywhere in the air, well, not literally, but you get the point. And mana also seems to be able to disrupt other mana if they interact with each other, and normal creatures, as normal as they get with mana, store their mana in their bodies, but I don’t, because of this, my mana gets stored around me and normal mana in the air is able to… destroy it? No, that’s not the right word, and I can’t use deteriorate because, I don’t think mana can destroy mana… or can it actually?

…Fuck it, I am going to just continue using deteriorate until I find a better word for it or learn more about mana.

Like what I was saying, normal mana is able to somehow deteriorate the mana around me, and after deteriorating all of it, it will be able to somehow scatter my soul or something.

So, back to the important question, how do I sense the mana around me?

… Wait, can’t I just use my own mana to sense the mana around me?

I mean, mana interacts with mana, and I can already sense my own mana, so if I somehow figure out a way to send mana particles outside me, I should be able to sense the mana around me in something akin to echolocation or something… hopefully.

After I said that to myself, I started looking closely at the mana surrounding me, and started wondering if I could temporarily detach small amounts of mana from it, and send it flying towards the ambient mana, because I didn’t really need to continuously feel the mana around me, I just needed to feel it once and then I’d be half done with the quest!

Saying that, I started trying to somehow control the mana surrounding, as far as I knew, I could somehow control the mana around me through repeating basic motions like swinging myself from side to side, how? I dunno, maybe something to do with my soul…?

Eh, I’ll figure it out later. Now, focus.

As I focused on a particularly damaged part of the mana surrounding me, I tried to look closely at the places it connected with the rest of me, not that I could see it, but you get the point.

And after confirming that it was just a small patch of mana, I tried to cut it, not like finger or something, no no no, but more like cutting nails or hair, nothing important and not something that couldn’t be replaced and, it worked!

… Somewhat as few moments after I cut it, it lost its connection to me, and I was no longer able to feel it, but I still could feel it for a moment or two! So, if I started wiggling myself aggressively, I should be able to, hopefully, throw some mana at the mana waves coming at me, and theoretically, get mana sense!

… Hopefully this theory of mine works, because if it doesn’t, I may experience a bad case of not alive…

Anyways, after detecting another patch of badly deteriorated patch of mana at the edges of my soul, I started wiggling aggressively, and cut it.

As I felt the patch of mana move fly away at… relatively incredible speeds, I could also feel it passing through waves of mana, and giving me some heads up at the waves that were coming in my direction, not like I could do anything about them anyways, not like I can get away…

And as the patch of mana started slowly losing its connection to me, I felt the familiar dinging of the system, which gave me un-godly amounts of dopamine, not that the system was somehow administering drugs to me, I was just happy about succeeding.

*ding*

Skill gained Mana Sense (Z).

Description Mana Sense (Z): Allows the being in possession of it to sense mana.

…A-are you serious? If you are going to give me a description about something, WHY NOT ACTUALLY DESCRIBE IT!!

Shitty fucking system, I swear one d-

*ding*

Stray Soul William’s amount of mana has dropped to dangerous levels, if you do not gain more mana, or find a way to conserve more, your life may be in danger.

Mana Points 1/10

Ohh… shit.