Chapter 83

I wake up from my day long trance feeling groggy, it isn’t very often I can meditate for a day straight. My head is quickly cleared with some light exercise, and I feel amazing, I can feel power pulsing through my body like I never have before. A quick inspection of my surroundings reveals the reason, a pitch black bile covering my skin and a puddle of the stuff where I was meditating. My clothes nowhere to be seen, likely destroyed by the purged poison as it was leaving my body. I start to gather up the bile into flasks to give to uncle, no idea what he could do with it, but knowing him it will be useful somehow.

I spend a moment to investigate my body and soul, with clarity that I have never experienced before, it seems that all but the most complicated poisons have been purged from my body, and while my soul hasn’t grown much, my control of it is much higher than it ever has been before. As a result I notice things I have never seen before, many aspects of the soul that confirm or disprove theories of mine. Overall it hasn’t unlocked any new abilities, but it has certainly made the ones I have much more powerful.

Before I get up to take a shower something catches my attention, a part of my soul I never noticed before. It seems to be a soul based ability, but what it does or how to activate it will require time to figure out, the one thing I always seem to be in short supply of.

After a quick shower and a new set of clothes I look for uncle, it doesn’t take long for me to find him in his laboratory, finishing up a potion.

“Ah, jack. One moment please.” Uncle

While I let uncle finish up his potion I review my status page.

Jack: Level 36Active Title: KingHealth: 170/170Stamina: 125/125Mana: 24/24Ki: .00001/.00001Soul Energy: 79/79unknown: .0000001/.0000001Strenght: 75.3 (80%)vitality: 100 (90%)Spirit: 142.9 (87%)Constitution: 60.7 (75%)Dexterity: 89.3 (75%)Self Control 45 (91%)Wisdom: 45.1 (79%)Insight: 37 (98%)Sight: 20.3 (85%)Stat points: 0TitlesSkillsRacial dataSettingsLog

The changes to spirit are completely expected, but the substantial increase in efficiency in all of the physical stats is surprising, especially vitality. I knew it would increase, but not by that much, and the increase in health. I mean damn.

“Alright, finished, this thing will fetch me a nice profit. So, what did you need?” Uncle

“I just came to drop something off; I think you will find it useful.” Jack

I pull out the bile filled flasks and hand them over to uncle, who after testing one gets excited.

“How the hell did you get this? And can you get more?” Uncle

“No, I will not be able to get more, likely ever.” Jack

“Well, whatever, this should be enough.” Uncle

“What are you planning on using it for?” Jack

“This is an incredibly potent poison; if I can refine it I can make some amazing things, anything from universal anti-venom to one of the most potent psychedelics in the world. Of course the problem lies in refining it; it will be long and tedious to refine something this raw and full of impurities into something useful, usually not worth the effort.” Uncle

“I’ll leave you too it then.” Jack

As I leave uncle is gathering up tool and materials, with some pretty interesting things, like a fire breathing flower.

Almost as soon as I leave the workshop Joe finds me, accompanied by his party.

“So, can you upgrade the enchantments on me?” Joe

“Fine, it will only take a moment, what do you want?” Jack

“Improved regeneration again, been using it a lot.” Joe

This is accompanied by some grumbling from Selena, something about him refusing to be healed.

A quick inspection of his soul reveals a surprising amount to work with, he definitely has been exercising his soul quite a bit. It takes me less than a minute to upgrade the already existing regeneration enchantment.

After I send the group on their way I decide to visit the new trainees. I find them in one of the larger training grounds, running drills. There is some improvement, about what I expected. At this time there is no one that really stands out, no diamonds in the rough yet.

Hunter happens to be sitting around in the area and hops over to me, sending me thought of hunting with him. Chuckling a bit I agree, telling him we should find a dungeon to invade. In response he has me follow him.

We head out into the forest, occasionally stopping to kill something. Along the way we find something much more interesting than a dungeon, a ghost. This one resisting reincarnation through brute force instead of surrounds itself in mana or Ki. This means this is the ghost of a soul mage, the rarest form of ghost. Unfortunately this one is more or less feral, it has lost its ability for intelligent thought in its attempt to resist reincarnation. Why it has tried to resist reincarnation will never be known, but there is very little I can gain from its soul, it’s memories are too damaged for me to gain anything I didn’t know already. I could refine a rather large soul stone from it, but most of it would be lost due to how unstable it is.

Ultimately I decide to have hunter kill and consume it, it will be a massive boon for him. As soon as he attacks the soul I attempt to restrain it and overwhelm it so it can’t resist as hard against hunter’s onslaught.

Too my surprise hunter leaps at the ghost and impales it with his horn, which causes actual damage to the soul. He takes a second to recover and leaps again, hurting the ghost. Over the course of half an hour hunter completely shreds and consumes the ghost, and he falls asleep to process what he has absorbed.

I pick him up and put him in pack that I strap to my back. I begin to walk back to the village when I come across a clearing, deciding to stop for lunch I sit down and make myself a roast using meat from some of the creatures we killed.

When the roast gets close to finished I hear popping sounds and feel the area flood with mana. Creatures flee the area and some plants visibly retreat underground, cursing I blink as far as I can into the forest, just in time too as immediately after a building appears, right on top of my roast.

I move forward to get a better look at the building and grin.

It’s The Library.

End chapter 83