DIVINE SOULSTONE CHAKRAMS

Lynne carefully read through the guide about crafting – or rather forging – Soul Weapons. It took him roughly three hours to completely read through it and memorize everything, but he was still far from truly understanding the process. In essence, forging a Soul Weapon wasn’t difficult; one simply had to use Soul Force to mold the material and then infuse strands of soul into the weapon, hence linking it to one’s soul. However, Lynne had absolutely no idea what any of this meant.

To his limited knowledge, he always thought that the concept of ‘soul’ wasn’t something tangible. Rather, he believed that it was simply related to one’s life and one’s origin. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Every text he read mentioned that the Mana would be processed through one’s body and eventually either enter the soul, or one of the seven points directly connected to the soul. As a Spellweaver, his Mana reserves – supposedly – rested within his soul.

While he was utterly confused, the monkey helped him again; Lynne truly wondered just how much knowledge was stored in the creature’s head, but once he remembered the monkey’s bloodline, he simply scoffed and move on. According to the monkey, Soul Force was directly related to the concept and arts of Mind. In truth, Mana had little to no effect on the arts of Mind, and if one wished to study it, one had to have impeccable Soul Force.

Soul, in and of itself, had no true resting place within one’s body; rather, it can be moved, enlarged, shrunk, and myriad of other things. It was neither physical nor abstract, but rather something in-between. It could manifest, but only as a background to something else, whilst most of the time it wasn’t there. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that a backwater Kingdom like Highlind wasn’t aware of it.

In reality, most Mages wouldn’t come in contact with Soul Force until they began trying to either comprehend Laws or evolve their Spell Arts into Laws. Someone at Lynne’s level would even have trouble imagining the very concept of Soul Force, even if they had innate Gift of Comprehension that Lynne had. Still, thanks to the monkey, Lynne was slowly able to sense this intangible soul resting within him.

It was truly as the monkey said; at one point it was in his abdomen, then it was in his brain, then in his heart, and at one point it even left his body completely and floated in front of his eyes. However, even if he could somewhat sense it, controlling it was a whole another matter. Thus, grueling week began.

In order to take control of the Soul Force, he repeatedly had to exhaust his mind, and this was whilst doing it in the most barbaric way – through Mana. He’d continuously send wisps of Mana along the stretches of his soul, trying to barbarically tear off a piece or two for him to control. At the stage he was, there was simply no other way.

Still, at least it wasn’t painful – merely boring. He slumped into a very gruesome routine of exhausting his mind, taking a two-hour long nap, exhausting his mind again, and then taking another nap. While almost nearing the border of madness, on the fourth day, he finally made some progress. He managed to tear off a small tinge of his soul and actually take control of it; however, the moment he let go of it, it scurried back to his soul.

“Ugh,” Lynne groaned. From a relatively handsome youth he was, he turned into a makeshift corpse; large bags hung underneath his eyes, his skin lost all its hue, his lips were dry and his eyes appeared vacant and dead. “Is it even worth it? You told me it’s gonna hurt, but you never told me it’s going to hurt like this!!”

“Eh, rotten brat! What did you expect? You, a mere Two Star Dao Archmage wanting to form a Soul Weapon, you think it’s going to be a walk in the park? Blegh, if those monsters who spent dozens of years trying to form their Soul Weapons heard you, they’d bury you alive!”

“… it’s too evasive of a concept,” Lynne sighed, too tired to argue. “Although I’ve gotten more adept at sensing its movement, it feels as if it’s not even a part of me. As if it has a mind of its own.”

“Of course it’s a part of you idiot!” the monkey snorted coldly as he listened to Lynne’s woes. “It’s controlled completely by you sub-consciously. Of course it’s difficult! You just even learned that it exists, how the hell do you expect to make progress so quickly?”

“Aaah, give me a shortcut monkey, I beg you!” Lynne nearly dropped to the floor crying, as he simply lost all motivation.

“There’s no shortcut when it comes to your soul, idiot!” the monkey screamed angrily at him, shaking Lynne out of his stupor. “One mistake, and you’d become a fool, or even die! One mistake, and suddenly all your Mana would whisk away as if it was never there! Soul is the source of your entire being, you idiot! And stop using your Mana to try and move it! Even if you managed to do it, you’ll never be able to forge a weapon through that method! I told you, you simply need to subvert the control from your sub-consciousness to your consciousness! It’s yours! It’s part of you!”

“Ugh, fine, whatever…”

With the monkey guiding him, Lynne slowly began trying to shift the control of his soul. Finally, on the sixth day, as if enlightened, he felt a splitting headache and deep-seated confusion. It felt as if he had grown another limb, and now, as if he were a newborn child, he had to learn to control it. He grit his teeth and endured the headache, and slowly began moving the intangible soul through his body, from one place to another.

On the seventh day, he had managed to conjure up first whiffs of Soul Force.

On the eight day, he had managed to project the Soul Force outwardly.

On the ninth day, he had managed to pick up physical objects with his Soul Force.

On the tenth day, he had managed to separate the Divine Silverstone into two.

On the eleventh day, he had managed to establish connection between himself and the stone.

On the twelfth day, he began forging the first Chakram.

On the thirteenth day, he had managed to form an outline.

On the fourteenth day, he had managed to forge the first Chakram!

Because of the success, he also asked Anna and Elynal to delay departure for another 5 days. The duo agreed, as they also had a few things they’d like to run through again. In addition, Ancient City would open in 52 days, and if they rushed there, they could arrive easily within 15 days.

On the fifteenth day, he began forging the second Chakram.

On the sixteenth day, he had managed to form an outline!

On the seventeenth day, he had managed to forge the second Chakram!

Two weapons were identical in design; they were bladed for almost 340 degrees, less than an inch in thickness, with mosaic of coiling Dragon running through the blade’s surface. The weapons were completely white, and their handles were double-sided, with additional, round compartment where they could be attached to an extension line – something like a chain – to increase their range. The moment Lynne finished forging the second Chakram, he had crashed over and fell asleep. He was simply exhausted beyond repair.

Sitting next to him, the monkey’s eyes were wide like eggs. He actually had zero expectations in Lynne forging the weapons. He merely wanted to introduce him to the concept of soul and Soul Force for the future benefits. Soul Force was a necessity for concocting Heaven Rank pills, from 11 to 13 in rank.

“Damn…” the monkey said in a low tone. “It seems I’ve truly underestimated this brat…”

The monkey wasn’t lying when he told Lynne that most other Mages would make first contact with Soul Force only when they begun comprehending Laws. However, first contact was first contact; most would already be at least several hundreds of years old by the time they’d manage to reach Lynne’s current level. In reality, most of the high-end battles between Mages revolved around soul attacks, as using ordinary means had a chance of completely upturning nearby life into ashes.

By now, two Chakrams had already disappeared directly into Lynne. The small cave resounded with heavy breathing and deep groans, having only a lumped over body of exhausted youth and the monkey within it. The monkey looked at Lynne deeply, his eyes revealing traces of longing, expectations and solemnity.

“Maybe… just maybe… he could…” the monkey then shook his head and sighed, as if laughing at himself. “What am I thinking? He’s not even twenty yet. The journey is long, and he’s yet to even step on it… ah, Lynne… I wonder if you can…”

Meanwhile, within Elynal’s dwelling, his expression was of utter astonishment, relief, awe and joy. His eyes were closed as he sat cross-legged on a small, erected earth platform. The source of his joy was a potion he found within the cave: Dispelling Potion, Rank 10. He had swallowed it on the very first day, and had finally managed to completely process it through every part of his body. The impurities that were blocking his growth, the seal planted by countless pills and potions that were stuffed down his throat for the past three years… everything was gone… and he even managed to make a breakthrough to the One Star Pius Archmage. Fire burned within his eyes alongside deeply hidden hatred; he looked towards western direction, as if piercing through the earth of the mountain, deeply into the distant horizon. He clenched his fist tightly and took a deep breath before relaxing.

“I’d love to see dad’s expression once we meet again… I’ll have you pay for everything you’ve done to me…”

At the same time, Anna was sitting calmly within her own cave, a strange, blue creature dancing around her feet. She was smiling, gently placing her finger atop the creature’s head and caressing it. The creature was no taller than five inches, slightly translucent, with top half of its body resembling human, while bottom was a simple, elongated tail. This creature was the endpoint of Anna’s grueling struggles over the past two weeks. She recognized the shape and body of the creature from the ancient texts she used to read within family’s library: it was Fey. Fey were blessed children of nature, comparable to Dragons and Phoenixes. Each generation of Fey had no more than hundred children, yet each would grow up to become a formidable force. The only time when they could be contracted, the only time when a soulbound contract could be established was when they were just born. And Anna managed to do it. As the little creature danced around her feet, Anna smile joyfully before a solemn expression crossed her features…

“I wonder how’s mom doing,” she spoke softly, sighing. “Only because we fought against the invasion of Highlind, we must now suffer… I wonder how’s Elynal coping with it… ah, just thinking about it makes my head hurt… I can only imagine how much he angered his father for my sake…”