[Dr. Kerenski / Klint / Keps ]

[Hrm. There are a few solid options. Let me break it down for you, lad,] Keps spoke in my mind with a raspy voice of an old sky-sailor who smoked his pipe daily while playing hex-cards with his comrades in the lounge waiting for the next deployment.

[Invest more in Soul and you'll be able to manage your soul-shards a lot easier and be able to carve more shards without too much pain.]

"Right, that would be useful," I commented.

[Invest in Luck and you'll be able to know what path to take, be able to subconsciously see the future that lies ahead, sometimes even have prophetic dreams warning you of horrific, preventable events.]

"Also sounds incredibly useful," I sighed.

[Invest in Dexterity and you'll be able to control the your pet's claws and your own threads a lot better,] Keps said.

"Hmmm... what about the rest?"

[Strength makes you stronger, but won't strengthen your drone. Being stronger won't help fight a thousand of these buggers.

Agility would make you faster, but won't apply to your drone.

Vitality would heal you. Handy in a fight. Had lots myself. Lost both of my legs and an arm once, rewound them back.

Charisma would make you better with the ladies, if you know what I mean. There are no lovely ladies around these parts, alas.

Magic would grant you more mana storage. Not very useful in here, since you can just eat to refuel.

Intelligence would make you better at mathematics. Completely useless.

Wisdom would make you a better problem solver. Mostly useless. You have just one problem right now - survival and growing your own little legion.]

"Gotcha," I nodded mentally and slotted all of my five points into Soul.

The Soul menu flickered and updated itself, expanding into lots of extra tasty information.

Base value

46 Invested + 5 Shards gained [Keps] & [Klint] + 100 Shards carved [Legonnie] - 1 Soul damage - 3 Soul decay - 100 Total: 47

[Damn,] Keps whistled. [Have you been lifting soul-weights, boy?]

I smiled and shook my head. "I don't think so."

[This is very good. Your Soul remained remarkably intact after death and is already somehow segmented into forty six pieces. Count me impressed. You should be able to split yourself up into a lot of manageable shards this way. Best get cracking,] the old Archmage ordered.

. . .

I got cracking.

I carved little holes in the vein, releasing Lymphagons. Legonnie and I ate, gaining experience. I noticed that both of us were growing in size.

As I slowly got bigger and stronger, I carved more pieces out of my soul, capturing and infecting more Lymphagons.

My experience ticked up as I grinded the small enemies. I was getting better at controlling Legonnie, becoming faster, more experienced at hunting the hexagonal spiders in a three-dimensional space without gravity.

I was becoming irate at my inability to tell how much time was passing, so I made Legonnie sit atop me akin to a hat and made him count seconds, functioning akin to a chronometer.

In this manner, fighting with my troops, devouring and growing, I had build myself a division of twelve more Lymphagons. I was only properly tethered to Legonnie, but it didn't matter that much. My little thirteen killers didn't leave my side. They did their job well, murdering enemy Lymphagons and giving me experience without me telling them what to do.

[202/200 Experience optimum reached! Initiate level up?]

The Soul-Song inquired.

"Make it so, Sasonny," I said, having given the Soul-Song a nickname. I liked making silly nicknames for things. It made me feel less like a lonely man who was talking to himself while being trapped inside of a giant ghost whale for weeks.

I briefly wondered if I was this world's Jonah as the Sasonny drowned me in an ocean of pleasure, musical tones and pain.

My little army lead by Legonnie had guarded me well when I slept.

"Anything to report Commissar Leggi?" I asked, looking down at the little Lymphagon. She shook her hexagonal body sideways, signifying something akin to a no.

I checked my stats. I had ten points to spend. I spent 5 on Soul and held onto 5 remaining points. Things were staring to look interesting.

Name:

[Evaluation error]

Age:

[Computational error]

Species & Subtype:

Astral Phantom [+ 2 in Agility & Dexterity]

Affinity: Alanian Legion [+ 2 skill channels]

Blessing of Emperor Celesar [+ Soul Song skill]

AEX [+Tether skill] Specialization: Soul hunter [+ Soul Devourer skill]

Level:

2

Experience:

2/450

Health:

2/2

Stamina:

2/2

Mana:

2/2

Mana regen:

2 m/hr

Strength:

0

Agility:

0 [+2]

Dexterity:

0 [+2]

Vitality:

0 [+1]

Charisma:

0 [+1]

Magic:

0 [+2]

Luck:

0

Intelligence:

0 [+2]

Wisdom:

0 [+2]

Soul:

Base value

46 Invested + 10 Shards gained [Keps] & [Klint] + 100 Shards carved [Legonnie] & [ 12 Lymphagons] - 13 Soul damage - 3 Soul decay - 100 Total: 40

Skills:

[Soul-Song LV 2] [ON]

[Raising Spell efficiency by 0.4%]

[Providing detailed Soul-Stats]

[Translating the Soul-Song's Language]

Known Song-Spells:

[Tamus-Anima] [Sectus-Anima] [Conjugo-Anima] [Identify]

[Tether LV 2] [ON]

[Shards tethered]: 1 [Legonnie]

[Soul Devourer LV 2]

Phylacteries:

[Legonnie] - [Astral Whale Lymphagon LV 0] [Chronometer LV 0]

[12] [Astral Whale Lymphagons LV 0]

Affliction:

[Soul decay: - 100]

Investiture points: 5

I glanced back at the wall. I was starting to get a bit sick of repeating the same thing over and over.

"What do you think, Leggi? Should we keep growing our army or venture into the depths of this beastie?" I asked her, not really expecting an answer.

[Grow a bigger Lymphagon army inside the membrane space]

[Dive into the vein]