Chapter 9: The Broken Souls

Night turned into day as Kaz kept walking deeper and deeper into the woods. As he travelled deeper into the forest’s interior, the amount of sunlight that came through the leaves decreased. Without sunlight to help bring warmth to the forest floor, the ambient temperature began to drop noticeably. Unwilling to stop until he found a suitable shelter to hide from any possible additional pursuers, Kaz grimly continued his trek.

I need to eat something. Even with an increased amount of usable magical energy at my whim, I cannot ignore the needs of the body. Sending his magical sense outward to scout, Kaz started to scan the area around him for signs of life.

It’s a real pity that Soul Rupture previously reduced the all of the hunter’s bodies to ash. I’m almost certain that they would have had prepared rations. Even if they expected to catch up with me within a day, carrying extra rations is...probably standard military procedure. Finding nothing to eat within earshot distance, Kaz put more effort in his magical search.

After several hours of walking, Kaz’s magic probe found several deer which were resting in a patch of warm grass. The forest’s canopy had been broken somehow, and the warm sunlight that broke through to the forest floor told Kaz that it was just before noon. Very carefully maneuvering himself so that he was downwind from the animals, Kaz stepped closer and closer.

Having moved until he was within ten meters of the deer, Kaz finally saw the animals with his eyes. Confirming that there were indeed four animals, Kaz saw that there were three female doe and one stag. Upon further inspection, Kaz recognized this particular species.

With a single long white stripe across the fur on their backs, these should be the Whimsical Deer. They are very playful and uncaring of dangers, which also must be the reason they were hunted so often. Seeing them deep into the woods where normal hunters would not explore therefore makes sense.

With a groan, Ahriman decided to chip in.

{It’s just some filthy animal that shits in the woods. A deer is only a deer. Why don’t you just kill it and eat so we can move on with our lives?} Ever unconcerned for matters non-magical, Ahriman had little patience for matters such as Kaz’s hunger.

Unfortunately distracted by Ahriman’s complaints, Kaz accidentally stepped on a dry twig.

*CRACK*

Although the crack wasn’t extremely loud, the noise it made in the previously silent forest glade spooked the deer. Turning to look at him, the stag decided that Kaz was too close as a threat. Snorting and pointing its impressive antlers at the cursing necromancer, the stag charged straight at its quarry.

“Devils take you, Ahriman! If you’ve got nothing constructive to say, don’t say it at all. You’re dead, waiting just a bit longer really won’t impact you in any way.” Kaz furiously berated Ahriman as the stag quickly approached. In the blink of an eye, the stag nearly impaled Kaz upon its antlers as Kaz rolled to the side.

Unable to stop and change directions fast enough, the stag headbutted a nearly tree violently.

*CAW CAW CAAAWWW*

Disturbing several crows that were resting in that particular tree, the stag shook its head as it tried to reorient its sense of direction after slamming into the tree trunk.

Unfortunately for the stag, this delay in its attack was all the time Kaz required to mount a counter-offensive. Gathering the necessary mana in his hands, Kaz quickly cast two spells in quick succession.

As soon as the stag locked its sights on Kaz again, a unavoidable Bitter Grip chilled the animal’s bones down to the marrow. Unable to run very quickly and startled, the stag had no way of avoiding the Frozen Spear ripping through the air at its chest.

Always aim for the center of mass. I missed that hunter previously because I was too focused on trying to get the headshot. Some damage is better than no damage at all. Satisfied that both of his spells had worked flawlessly, Kaz approached the stag as its lifeblood bled onto the cold forest floor. Looking towards the once peaceful forest glade, the other three does were nowhere to be seen.

Forcing himself to look at the dying stag, Kaz realized at this point that he had no idea where to even begin preparing the deer for consumption.

I can’t just….bite into it. The stag has all this..fur on its skin. Plus, what about the inner organs? I don’t even want to begin thinking about eating those…

Exasperated again, Ahriman spoke up again.

{Look, the solution to this problem is really easy. I previously mentioned that necromancers are basically historians of the soul. You have access to the memories of the souls that you have enslaved. Why don’t you just concentrate and get the information out of one of those hunters? They have to know something about how to gut a stupid deer or I’m not a Elder Necromancer.}

He’s right. One of these hunters must know how to prepare venison from a freshly killed deer. I’d expect that it would be one of the most basic of survival skills. Sitting beneath a tree near the deer’s now lukewarm corpse, Kaz inspected the spirits bound to his will.

Reaching into the soul of a spirit, Kaz’s mental probe was violently rebuffed. Shocked out of his meditation, Kaz frowned.

“You didn’t say that the souls would still have defenses. What other things are you not telling me, Ahriman?”

{Look, kid. I can’t just tell you everything ever. I’m old and running out of patience here. Plus I never explicitly said that the spirits wouldn’t have mental defenses. Think about it, the thoughts of the enslaved souls are all they have left. Wouldn’t you make every effort to defend them if you were in their situation?}

“You’re right. So what do I do? I’m assuming that this issue is one of willpower since if it involved magical power I would have overpowered the souls without issue.”

{Yeah it is. So just….think at them harder. Look, it’s really hard to explain. Just try again but try to smash the mental walls that these poor bastards have put up.}

Taking a deep breath, Kaz once again delved deep into meditation and focused on the same soul. Expecting the violent mental rebuff this time, Kaz easily blocked it this time around. Forming several mental battering rams, Kaz sent wave after wave of mental attacks at the soul’s relatively petty defenses.

Silently screaming, the soul’s mental defenses shattered within a minute of Kaz’s renewed attacks. Like the flood of legend, the soul’s memories spilled out towards Kaz. Blasted with tons of information, most of them not having any relation to the other, Kaz’s senses were overwhelmed with information for a short while.

Ugh...what is all this? That’s...the smell of a hot meat pie. It’s taste….the meat used is beef, a particularly tender beef at that. What….now this is a training yard, pain coursing through my arm because I lost a mock duel with another hunter trainee. Then...a log cabin? Shit. I’m a toddler now? This crib looks so big. I guess the memories that flood out aren’t in any particular order.

Forcing himself to concentrate, Kaz started to filter the memories one by one. Viewing the deceased hunter’s memories one by one, Kaz’s memory processing speed increased noticeably as he tried to find the information that he sought.

Heh, this is just like trying to catalogue all of the books in the library after the Historian finished a research project. All these memories can be assigned to a specific...genre almost. By sorting these memories by chronological order and genre, I will very easily be able to find the information that I need now, as well as browse for any other information that I might require from this soul in the future.

All of this takes a while to explain, but happened nearly instantaneously due to the brain’s remarkable mental processing speed.

{Gods above and Devils below, what have I done? I forgot that this brat was..well still is, a historian. I have literally just given him a new toy to play with. Gods, what if he does this with every soul that he encounters in the future? I know it doesn’t take a lot of time to sort memories, but I have to experience everything that he does because of this damned mental link.} Sulking more than ever before, Ahriman fell silent as if accepting his fate.

Hmm. Here’s all the information that this hunter, who goes by the name of Rolf, knows about preparing venison from a freshly killed deer. There’s enough information to get started, but I want to know what the other hunters know about preparing venison too. I guess it’s time for me to get serious. A eager grin broke out on Kaz’s face at the challenge of learning more information about survival topics and techniques.

{There he goes, off in his own little world. Well it’s not exactly his own world I guess, seeing as how he’s invading the depths of these pathetic hunter’s privacy. There’s no two ways about it, I’ll just have to bear it for now and hope he keeps it quick.}

Contrary to Ahriman’s fervent desires, Kaz absolutely did not make his inspection of the hunter’s memories quick. Poring for long minutes over the relatively intact souls of the deceased, Kaz took the time to carefully and brutally break open their mental castles.

The difference in mental strength between these hunters surprises me. Some of them are even more easily broken than Rolf, while others have held on for significantly longer before I was able to crack their mental castles. Heh, Ranik’s soul actually was the easiest to break open. I guess the relatively cushy castle position made him feel too comfortable with life. Kaz’s face darkened as he continued to sift through the memories of the fallen.

It seems that these men were actually extremely experienced. They were trained through a super demanding regimen at the Ranger Academy in the capitol. It could easily be said that these hunters were the best of the best in terms of scouting and hunting criminals. However, it’s to their detriment that they had to hunt a magus with surprising incantations.

A cold sweat broke out on Kaz’s body as he realized that additional hunter-killer squads would be sent after him when this squad failed to report in after a predetermined amount of time. Standard military protocol required hunter-killer squads to update their status within a week at most.

So according to their operating procedures, I have about six more days before a second more experienced squad is sent after me. I need to probe the memories before me for more information. These memories might very well contain the information that is critical to my survival.

Finally after about two additional hours, Kaz came out of his meditative trance. Although the forest was teeming with insect life, nothing wanted to get near the deathly chill that surrounded Kaz as he flexed his necromantic might. Having formed a plan of action from viewing and analyzing the hunter’s memories concerning the preparation of venison, Kaz drew his weapon.

Ah shit. I didn’t take a knife from one of the dead hunters. I took this tomahawk. I guess it’ll have to do. Mentally berating himself for his oversight, Kaz brought the edge of his weapon to the stag’s body and went to work.

Okay, so you make the incision starting from the throat, and go down the stomach. Gods, what is this smell? It’s absolutely unreal. Although Kaz had the knowledge of what to cut and how to do it, the wrong tool combined with the lack of mechanical muscle memory caused Kaz to make mistakes. Accidentally rupturing the stag’s intestines, Kaz had to actually step away for several minutes as he tried to get rid of the smell.

I knew that the inside of the animal would smell bad, I even knew what it would smell like. But, why is the actual smell so much stronger than the hunter’s memories?

Pacing in a circle around the corpse, Kaz thought about the smell problem as he tried to bring up the courage to get back to butchering the stag. Bracing himself, Kaz went back to work as he thought about the disparity between memory smell strength and actual smell strength.

It’s probably because the memories are only a pale shadow of themselves. People’s memories of things that are not important to them don’t seem to be particularly sharp. For example, eating favorite foods always seemed to be a much more vibrant memory than eating other foods.

Quickly working, Kaz soon had the entire stag disassembled and ready to cook. After digging a fire pit and making an gathering enough wood to make a rudimentary spit, Kaz began to cook his catch.

Actually, does the breaking process have any effect on the total amount of Soul energy that each soul provides? I feel like mentally dominating a soul would affect their capacity to store and regenerate energy. Hmm...it doesn’t feel as if any change in my total Soul Energy pool has occurred.

Satisfied that his power remained at the same level before he broke the spirits’ will, Kaz happily bit into a finished piece of venison. Pulling a face at the taste, Kaz sighed.

“This meat would be a lot better with some salt.”

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