Pendant of Sacrifice

Made from the souls of sacrificed beings?!

I somehow manage to control my expression from changing as I closed the door behind me. The priestess’s smile seems a lot creepier now.

From when did you start advocating for rights? And its not even about the closet pervert thing.

I start walking alongside Lena to at least act normal. I have a feeling the priestess is able to sense her surroundings and would be able to practically see if I act off suddenly.

Lena is conveying her excitement over the ‘trip’ but I’m too occupied to pay much attention.

Yes, let’s think calmly. Everyone can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t harm other people. And it doesn’t say those sacrificed beings were humans either.

What even are souls? And though it said that only a priestess could make it. It can be an heirloom or something left behind by the previous priestesses.

Souls can be explained as, consciousness.

It is what differentiates the ‘dead’ from the ‘living’, however imperfect that definition may be.

For example-

If you manage to create a perfect body, like Frankenstein, it still cannot move on its own till there’s a soul inside it.

Automations do not require souls. And souls can be developed over time by an intelligence smart enough to do so. It is a messy thing.

…Frankenstein was the name of the scientist, not the creation, but, that use is also acceptable. I kind of get it now.

Extra details of a specific item can be found out by holding said item.

Okay, yes, this can be clarified much easier now. I just have to ask the priestess to let me hold that pendant for a bit.

That… Cannot be written off. If giving a ring to someone is enough to say you’ll marry that person, it won’t be that far off to change the ring to a necklace.

Anyways, worrying about that comes after I find out about that pendant.

“-you think we should carry that?” Lena’s question finally reaches my ears.

Not like I could completely grasp it since I didn’t hear the first part.

“What do you suppose we do?”

Mirror the question back. Cheap but effective move.

“Carrying the bed might take too much space but it would be worth it.”

Ignoring that,

“…Could we even carry it?”

“My storage bag has about a chest worth of space. I can manage it if I take everything else out. The bed can be folded a bit.”

“Show me that storage bag. I’m curious.”

“Okay… Sect leader gave it to me for winning a competition for our sect.”

She reaches into her clothes and takes out something like a satchel bag, but it’s made of cloth, and hands it to me.

Compression bag

This high-quality bag can be used to store objects. It compresses the object as you put it in, thus allowing to store more than its apparent volume.

It compresses things using the qi from the user. It will break and spill all the items if no qi is supplied for a while.

Things that are resistant to qi like top-quality weapons or living beings cannot be compressed.

This bag was given to Lena by the sect leader as a prize for winning the annual inter-sect competition of the Wind kingdom. However, it was actually a gift for her 17th birthday.

Internal volume for compressible objects: 1 cubic meter.

You can see its contents by reaching into the bag using your hand. But are you sure you want to do that?

Yeah… Let’s rather not look more into what she might have in there already.

I return the bag to Lena and she returns it to its place under her clothes. I didn’t notice it before but she seems to be blushing a little.

…Ignoring that,

“I think you should choose what to take yourself, I don’t have many things here. I’ll wait outside the room.”

“Okay… I’ll be done quick.” She says as she heads inside the room and starts packing whatever it is that she needs to pack.

I had a few things I needed to check.

I open the system’s storage and first, take out my school uniform.

Type: Clothing, 4 stars (can be refined further)

Model: Serenade (cost 30)

Custom made for Gray using the bleeding edge of technological innovation with fabrics, contains titanium-gold alloy, graphene and diamonds.

Extremely resistant to cuts. However, does not provide as much HP as other clothes. Very flexible.

HP +1000

Movement speed +50%

Equipment ability:

Untouchable.

50% chance to dodge any attack.

Any melee attack below 500 dmg will be blocked.

Blood Retribution.

10% chance to bounce back 600% damage to attacker.

Refine conditions… (Show details)

That’s… intense.

Unfortunate that I can’t wear it right now.

Lena walks outside the room as I put the school uniform back into storage.

“I finished with the packing.”

“Shouldn’t we carry any other supplies like food or, maybe bug repellant?”

“Master will have that taken care of.”

I look at the system clock, it’s already about 2 in the afternoon.

“So, we should have lunch now, right?”

“Ah! Yes, you must be hungry after not having eaten for long. Cultivators after the sky realm can do with only one meal a day since they can substitute it with qi. But we should eat at least twice.”

“Where to, then?”

“I’ll go to the kitchen in the temple and make your food, wait here.” She says as she rushes off to another part of the temple.

I walk inside the room and sit on the chair and continue inspecting the items in my storage.

The other items don’t have anything special to them, except my smartphone which is also like my school dress.

Type: Weapon (cost 15)/ Skill (cost 20), 4 stars (can be refined further)

Model: Panacea

Custom made by Valentine Enterprises.

A technological marvel. It approaches the computing limit’s peak. Its battery is powerful enough to stun people.

If used as a weapon-

Dmg +100

Equipment ability-

Stun.

90% chance to stun any enemy below your level. Chance decreases by 15% for every level higher.

Needs 5 seconds of preparation time before a stun attempt and 30 seconds for the next attempt onwards.

If used as a skill-

Equipment ability-

Panacea.

Immune to status effects- confusion, poison, stun, chaos, slowdown, immobilize.

Unusual Killer.

Raise 30% of elemental damage for each instance of debuff on the target.

Refine conditions… (Show details)

This seems a bit more usable in the near future but still not yet.

Now as I’m left idle to wonder about what else I should do. Right, the practice for controlling mana.

I could try to control the wood around me but that would be too hard to do. A more gradual learning curve would still require me to practice on still green plants. I head outside into the hallway and towards the small garden.

I sit down on the grass and try to remember the textbook once again. It said to practice by trying to replicate complex patterns, since that would help you knowing where to try and control an object to best be able to use it.

It’s like knowing to use an axe by holding its handle, instead of holding the axe head and using the handle to chop down a tree.

Introduced? It was around the end of 11th century, but as history is, it’s not very well documented. Nor did we have any reason to believe they figured out how to use these abilities. ‘Mana’ just suddenly appeared and people with the ability to control it started being born 2-3 generations later. They didn’t know how to use it, so it was largely just a novelty.

It was only around the end of medieval era, when gunpowder was being used in weapons, that people started to understand how to use it. It started with the alchemists or rather, chemists who figured out they were able to control certain elements without touching it. And it spread to other people who realized they could use it too, however not to its full potential.

It helped technological progress by leaps. Certain people were even able to ignite the gunpowder without pressing the trigger. Though it still didn’t have much use. There were a few wars of course but the first country which managed to make a weapon that can be launched into space and could be able to destroy a city in minutes, it practically ruled the world, thus ironically leading to world peace through diplomacy. That country figured out a way to use the mana with technology, making it possible to manufacture guns that shot using mana, i.e. without any ammunition. The relative peace also allowed people’s power to truly flourish, which required a lot of resources to nurture from a young age. So, the previous generations made a stage, a foothold, so we could finally try to reach its limits.

Only my generation could truly use the innate power to its peak, however the problem really is that there is no other reference point to what even is the peak.

Because it is. Cold weapons largely became irrelevant by the 21st century and the development of projectile type weapons skyrocketed. They figured out ways to fire magical projectiles that ignored the traditional type of armor and so elemental armor was also made. My school uniform is one of them, however it’s still a trial piece and doesn’t block all damage.

Nothing really, but if I had to say then it would be ‘money’. After that forceful peace was established, people started using that technology for things other than weapons. A few companies managed to benefit tremendously from that and practically rule the world now. These companies which can become independent from the country they originated from because of the power they hold which is more than the country itself. What really is left now is to try and colonize other planets I suppose.

Knowledge itself is power.

———

The chapter ends here. Since that much is how I wrote before stopping.

It’s a train-wreck, my novel. It’s apparently worse than a ruined Japanese harem novel, though I find that very hard to believe.

While the novel starts just fine, it quickly turns into an apparent comedy, pushing the story to the side, and then takes a few chapters to get the story going again. The story which already is quite hard to grasp, which I understand a little. But by then most readers would have already quit.

So, I’m going to stop continuing this novel.

But wait, I said I had every intention to finish it. And yes, I do.

Stories that lack proper closure, which admittedly are most novels on this site, sadly, I really dislike those.

So, what am I going to do?

Rewrite this novel from scratch. This time a bit clearer directive and way to proceed in mind.

The MC and setting will stay ofc. But the way the novel progresses will change.

So this novel ends right here.

You can look forward to the new, re-written first chapter during next year(2018), maybe, but no promises. But next year, definitely..

Hopefully I’ll have a bit of a stockpile of chapters ready by then, thus giving me a cushion to fall if i don't write regular chapters.