Chapter 3:

The bell was like the choir of the heavens to me. I rush out at top speed towards the woods where I usually train. Reaching there after about a quarter of an hour, I lean against a tree, panting. Resting up a little, I put my bag down and get up.

I test out my new skill Soul Manipulation, which I guess will be harder to use than mana. I feel instead my body to find an energy, I see a blue energy, it is my mana. I search harder and harder, but I can't find it anywhere, there was only one place I didn't check and it was my brain. I slowly check throughout my brain, until I find a faintly glowing spot. I go closer to the glowing spot, I notice a white ball floating. The brain is connected to the white ball of light, which I'm assuming is my soul. If I die, I feel like my soul will cut off its ties with my brain.

Examining it for a little while longer, I go on to try out my skill. I send some of my mana to wrap around my soul, then I use the mana to shape it and move around. I then bring my soul and move it around my body. I then try moving it out of my body, and see how far it can go.

After stretching my soul it reaches the distance of 1 meter, it seems 1 spirit equals 1 cm. Playing around with Soul Manipulation a little more, I rest since I had only 50 mana left.

Later, I tried out my Soul Sense skill. It sends out my soul in very miniscule amounts in the form of waves out. This forms a circle, with me in the middle. The radius of the circle is 100 meters, so I can see 100 meters anywhere around me. It is actually more like a sphere since I can see above and below me as well. I can also detect things I couldn't normally see with my eyes like traps. I feel like this skill will work perfectly with the Detect Trap skill.

Playing around with the skills for a while, I got both of the skills to Beginner Level 2. Manipulating my soul got easier, and the distance I could see with my Soul Sense enlarged to 110 meters.

Soul SenseYou spread out your soul to find out what's in your vicinity. You can detect bad traps, people, animals even if they are using sneak, unless it is at a much higher level than your soul sense. You can use soul sense to attack other peoples souls, and soul sense can reach furthur than your eyesight. 10 mana/sec. Current reach of soul sense is 110 meters.

Soul ManipulationYou can manipulate, move and shape your soul at will, although only a little better than a complete amateur. 15 mana/sec.

I continued my routine of training, but with the addition of training my new skills. 1 week before December 31st, both my Soul Sense and Soul Manipulation went from beginner to intermediate. My Mana Manipulation upgraded to Intermediate Level 3, my Mana Armour went to Beginner Level 4, my Mana Roar to Beginner Level 6 and finally my Mana Claws to Beginner level 9. My Identify stayed the same as their was nothing new to identify.

My upgrade in the skills were massive. My Soul Sense could now see 500 meters away, not 200 which I thought it would be, but the biggest improvement was Soul Manipulation. Now I can make shapes with my soul like I did with my mana.

Soul SenseYou spread out your soul to find out what's in your vicinity. You can detect ok traps, people, animals even if they are using sneak, unless it is at a much higher level than your soul sense. You can use soul sense to attack other peoples souls, and soul sense can reach furthur than your eyesight. Your soul sense can now defend against other peoples attacks to your soul . Costs reduced. 5 mana/sec. Current reach of soul sense is 500 meters.

Soul ManipulationYou can manipulate, move and shape your soul at will like an experienced soul mage. 8 mana/sec.

I tried covering my claws in soul, and it worked. I'm guessing that when I hit another person, it will do damage to their soul. I also integrated my soul into my roar, the purpose of this was to damage the souls of other creatures, which will hopefully make more chances for stun, dizziness, etc. My skills updated because of this.

Mana/Soul Claw Covers users claws in mana. Allows for more armour penetration, increases sharpness of claws, increases speed of claws and increases the damage of claws. 5 mana/sec. You can cover your claws in your soul and can attack both the body and the soul of your enemy. This can destroy their soul making them unable to reincarnate or preserve their soul to create a new body for themselves. 10 mana/sec.

Mana/Soul RoarMana is directed to the lungs and diaphragm, which is then used to enchance an roar. The roar has 5% chance to cause higher level creatures to feel dizzy, 2% chance to stun and 0.3% chance to knock out. It has 20% chance to cause same level to feel dizzy, 10% chance to sutn and 6% chance to knock out. It has 50% chance to cause lower level creatures to feel dizzy, 34% chance to stun and 25% chance to knock out. 50 mana/roar. Using your soul to roar will cause damage to the soul while also causing your enemy a migraine. 55 mana/sec.

I tried combining both the mana aspect and soul aspect of my skills together. It was hard at first, but I eventually got it down after a day of practicing. I'm guessing it was this easy to do because I use my mana to move around my soul.

Mana/Soul Claw Covers users claws in mana. Allows for more armour penetration, increases sharpness of claws, increases speed of claws and increases the damage of claws. 5 mana/sec. You can cover your claws in your soul and can attack both the body and the soul of your enemy. This can destroy their soul making them unable to reincarnate or preserve their soul to create a new body for themselves. 10 mana/sec. You can combine both aspects of the skill to get all the effects. It also causes additional damage and adds defence to the claws. The attack also has more reach and your soul won't be damaged because of the mana covering it. 23 mana/sec

Mana/Soul RoarMana is directed to the lungs and diaphragm, which is then used to enchance an roar. The roar has 5% chance to cause higher level creatures to feel dizzy, 2% chance to stun and 0.3% chance to knock out. It has 20% chance to cause same level to feel dizzy, 10% chance to sutn and 6% chance to knock out. It has 50% chance to cause lower level creatures to feel dizzy, 34% chance to stun and 25% chance to knock out. 50 mana/roar. Using your soul to roar will cause damage to the soul while also causing your enemy a migraine. 55 mana/roar. You can combine both aspects of the skill. This will allow you to have all the effects of both the aspects, and they will be improved. The enemy will feel head-splitting headache and some minor pain throughout the body. The chance for for each effect have increased 5%. 85 mana/roar.

I never made any armour with my soul because it sounds pretty stupid to me. Blocking attacks with my soul? I don't know what will happen but I'm guessing my soul will get damaged instead of my body.

After thinking about it for a few days I eventually did make the skill to use as a last resort. It had a pretty good effect but I still feel insecure using it. I tried combining both aspects, but it only creates 2 layers of armour.

Mana/Soul ArmourCoats skill user in an armour of mana. Increases attack damage, defence and speed of user. 20 mana/sec. Can cover yourself in your soul. Instead of damage to your body, you do damage to your soul. Only by breaking the soul armour to you take damage. Causes damage to enemy's soul and decreases the casting time of magic. It also increases the damage caused by the magic, roughly by 1 wisdom point in stats. 22 mana/sec. Combining both aspects of the spell only creates 2 layers of armour while causing a little boost in both of the armours effects. 45 mana/sec.

My last week flashed by in a flash, and I was saying goodbyes to my parents.

" My son, are you sure you want to go? You know you can stay with me and your father right? You can inherit my bakery and live a safe life."

My mother owns a bakery which is pretty famous in town.

I just say "No mother, I don't want to stay. As much as I would love to stay with you and father, I want to realize my dream to conquer the dungeon. "

My mother looked like she wanted to say something, but my father put a hand on her shoulder and nod his head to say no.

He then says " Son, I want you to know that both me and your mother are proud of you no matter what. If you ever want to stop climbing the floors, remember you will always have a home to return to. "

He pulls me in a hug with my mother. We hug for a few minutes before my father pushes me away and says " Now go son, go realize your dreams. You better at least clear 10 floors. We will be always waiting for you here. Bye. "

His voice cracks a little at the end, and tears flow down his face like my mother. I run towards the school with tears in my eyes. It was hard saying goodbye to your parents, fully knowing you might not return. But it's worse for my parents, as they see off their only child going to a place full of dangers, not knowing if he will return.

I wipe away my tears and smile, before I say " Dungeon here I come! "

To be continued.

Status Screen:

Spoiler : Status Window Name:Arjun HunterLevel:1Race:Black Tiger/High Elf HybridGender:MaleTitles Reincarnated One2 Souls, 1 Body Merged Souls-Health Regen:1.1x fasterMana:308 / 308Mana Regen:1.65/ Sec-Strength:15Agility:26Vitality:22Dexterity36Intelligence:49Wisdom:33Charisma:30Luck:20Spirit100Perception 10

Skill List:

Spoiler : SkillsMana ManipulationIntermediate Level 3Mana/Soul ArmourBeginner Level 4Mana/Soul ClawBeginner Level 9IdentifyBeginner Level 9Mana/Soul RoarBeginner Level 6Cooking (passive)Advanced Level 1 Engineering (passive) Intermediate Level 3Parkour (passive) Intermediate Level 8Blade Proficiency (passive)Intermediate Level 4Firearms Proficiency (passive)Intermediate Level 2SneakIntermediate Level 5ScoutIntermediate Level 7Leadership (passive) Intermediate Level 9Picklocking Intermediate Level 1Disarm Intermediate Level 2Soul SenseIntermediate Level 1Soul ManipulationIntermediate Level 1