I’m back!

Lots of things happened in my personal life. My writing style is rusty, I have lost my rhythm as well as my grip on the character’s personalities and Ode will probably never be the same again.

But I will keep writing it. Story has got to get an ending after all.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Please enjoy.

Volume 3

Chapter 1

It was difficult finding sister.

I can’t just sprint on the main road, so I had to do it in the shadows of the woods nearby… except doing so prevented me from clearly seeing the road itself.

It took me a few days to come with a solution for it.

I call it the “Hey I’m here!” Alvin patented method of finding people.

You see, if I can sense someone’s soul but not know how far it is in the physical plane, then all I need to do is to attach something I CAN feel on them and then follow it, right?

I did It by making small aura threads which I spread all around sister’s immediate location, as far as I could go before the soul world disconnected from the piece of the physical world she was in.

Then the process was quite easy. I just needed to cover the distance between Cinna and Dorank a couple times and found her.

I scared a couple of guards which were camping nearby due to using [Aura Sensing] with a relatively strong output for a normal person, but I guess they will blame it on the wine or something.

I passed through them really fast, so there shouldn’t be many clues of it being me.

Anyhow, I found her.

Finally.

[Ann] - Who’s there?!

Of course she would be guarded against someone approaching from the woods. I’m giving in a regular human’s aura output after all.

[All] - It’s me sis!

[Ann] - All? Has it been six months already?

[All] - Yes.

[Ann] - *sigh* I’m delayed…

Indeed, she is.

We are maybe half the way to Dorank… and that’s only, like, half the way to the Kingdom’s Capital.

[All] - It’s okay, we can get there in time.

[Ann] - Right. Come, sit with me.

It’s the beginning of the night, but I guess she’s preparing to sleep already. Or at least is what I would think seeing as how she’s making vegetable-and-boar-meat skewers at the bonfire.

And she’s needing it.

Ann’s face is pale, and she’s thinner than when she left our village. Much thinner.

I guess she may have lost 15 kilos at least.

Not to mention she’s also kind of… sick?

Maybe it’s just the bags under her eyes, but it doesn’t feel right.

[Ann] - So, you’re ten now, aren’t you?

She’s brushing my hair.

[All] - Yep.

[Ann] - Good. Here, take one.

She’s giving me one of the skewers.

Seriously sis?

I don’t need to eat, but you do.

[All] - Uhm. I’m not in the mood.

[Ann] - Are you sure?

[All] - Yes.

She started eating it.

Sister is pretty even like this, isn’t she?

…

Isn’t her aura a lot weaker than when she left the village?

Yeah… it certainly is…

[All] - Sis?

[Ann] - What is it?

[All] - Are you sick or something?

…

She’s laughing.

Really now?

I’m worried about you!

[Ann] - Haha. Don’t worry. I’m just tired.

She’s brushing my hair again.

*sigh*

If traveling makes you so tired you lose weight and have huge bags under your eyes, then maybe you should stop for a few weeks and at least regain weight.

[All] - Then, why have your aura depleted so much?

[Ann] - I had to fight an orc.

[All] - I see.

An orc?

Seeing how much aura she used, it should be one of those who have transformed after going through a failed [Breakthrough].

Why hasn’t grandma helped her?

[Ann] - Would you mind helping me with it?

[All] - No. It’s fine.

The way to do it is simple. I have done it before after all.

When sister was getting ready to go to Cinna, I would put just enough aura on her beer so she would have a high-energy concentration drink. Almost like a MP potion.

I can’t say it recovers a lot of energy, since too much of it and the beer would become a beer slime, but I input just enough aura so it gets to the edge of turning into it.

Well, sister’s meat skewer isn’t much different. The major difference is that it would turn into a flesh slime.

…

Wait.

If slimes are born out of microbes, then would a flesh slime even be born out of this?

I mean, if there are no microorganisms in the meat due to it been cooked only a few moments ago, then even if I put a lot of aura in it… it shouldn’t turn into a slime, right?!

…

OF COURSE!

OF COURSE IT SHOULDN’T!

And then I could make real MP potions, ones which would be useful even for me!

…

Unless it became a golem or something.

Rocks become golems, so… could meat turn into a golem as well?

Let’s try it out later.

For now, here you go sis.

High-aura packed meat skewers.

And I have one of Alma’s peaches with me as well. You can have it as desert.

***

Yeah, it turned into a golem.

Sister is sleeping soundly in the ground next to me.

She has only a blanket with her, so she’s sleeping with her back on the grass and the blanket over herself.

Still, I guess it’s a lot better than sleeping on trees, without even a bonfire next to her.

Her face looks a lot better than before.

Really pretty.

We haven’t done it, of course.

Sex, I mean.

It’s dangerous having sex in the middle of traveling.

Not because of monsters or people - those I can deal with… I think.

But… sister is just tired.

Really tired.

One can see on her face, as well as in her body.

As she was taking the armor off, I could see how much she had been enduring.

Her skin is full of calluses where the armor scrapes against it. Her muscles are tight, but the skin is pressed against them in a weird way.

She’s not like a ripped girl who goes to the gim every day.

She’s more like… like…

It’s weird, I can’t say what she’s like.

Maybe a pilgrim?

But even those tend to have a religious glam around them.

People who expend a lot of energy because of the need to are different from people who expend a lot of energy because they want or feel religiously compelled to.

Her body just gives me this impression of unhealthiness.

Maybe it’s because of the stress of travelling on foot. It’s very different from going on a mystic journey or jogging.

She’s looking forward to arriving at Irma, not sightseeing the world around her.

Yeah.

That’s the kind of thing which transforms someone’s body.

Which creates calluses and marks which show that they have gone way beyond a leisure pace in order to get where they want to get to.

Like the ones on her shoulders, which the armor rubs against.

And the weird bra-like thing she uses, by bandaging her breasts.

One would think it’s just for sexiness purposes, but seeing the two localized blood stains on the bandage would quickly change one’s mind.

Bandaging the breasts is a way to avoid the nipples to rub against the underarmor and the armor, since they would bleed otherwise.

Anyone who have done long amounts of exercise knows about this. If your nipples rub even against regular clothing, they will start hurting.

Then they will bleed and open a wound.

That happens to males and females, but woman have a harder time - because they have breasts, which naturally bounce around when they walk.

Man can just put on a tight piece of armor and hope this binds their nipples in place.

Woman will still brush their nipples against even tight armor.

So sister has to bandage her breasts.

Not to mention her feet, which are those of someone who have been walking with leather boots every single day for months.

She just smells horribly.

I took care of most of it, of course.

I casted [detoxify] and [healing] on her and then [detoxify] in the armor itself.

That’s probably one of the reasons why she’s sleeping so well today.

Still…

A regular adventurer or soldier would pass salt on their wounds, so they don’t get an infection, and then scrap any mold out of the armor with a knife.

I’m pretty sure sister must have done this countless times already.

…

It’s brutal, and it’s also why she’s so tired. That’s why travelling isn’t the same as jogging or even running a marathon.

So, we are not having sex tonight.

Or any night until we find a good inn, I guess.

And then… maybe after she soaks in a bathtub for a week to get rid of the smell of molded sweat which has incrusted all the way to her bones by now… then maybe some sexiness will ensue.

Anyhow!

My experiment.

I have thoroughly cooked a meat skewer and then increased the amount of aura in it a few times.

At the beginning I was quite happy with the results, since there didn’t seem to be any bacteria eating the aura and I had already gone beyond the regular aura threshold, but then the meat started to vibrate.

It turned into a golem in the end.

Meat golem!

I ate it.

No hard feelings, but I have quite a bit of seasoning with me and I can’t allow for a meat golem to keep vibrating around, attracting insects and rats.

They would turn into monsters after all.

Then, on the good side it had quite a bit of energy in it still. I wonder if I can just keep pouring aura in it and accept the idea of eating golems?

***

Sometimes, things are just too complex.

For example, my relationship with Alma.

After testing with the meat skewers last night, she poked my soul.

It was the first time I saw Alma pouting.

I guess she missed me already, since she kept demanding my attention through the night.

We visited our emotional playhouse, feed the emotional ducks and then went around a few of the emotional places we used to go to.

In the end we collected a lot of emotional stuff and expended our time playing with it.

For instance, if you take some crystals which breed when you have emotional “stillness” earth illuminated by an emotional “magnanimity” sun, and then mix those crystals with pure emotional water which appears in places where emotional “stillness” earth is mixed with “silent, cold, mysterious satisfaction” you get a funny reaction where both start to attack and infiltrate each other.

In the end they become a weird mass of almost liquid crystal, which is much like emotional plastic, but the process itself is fun to watch.

So, that’s the kind of stuff we have been doing together.

Which makes walking down this road a really, really boring process.

I mean, there are small differences everywhere.

These flowers have more pigment than those, this kind of stuff.

But in the end it’s just a small road paved with stones and surrounded by grass.

And it’s the Kingdom’s main road!

I mean, it’s what… 4m wide?

I’m pretty sure two carriages wouldn’t pass side by side here.

Really, this world…

Not to mention, it’s almost empty.

Maybe it’s because it’s winter, but the roads are totally empty.

…

Should we be traveling in winter at all?

I mean, I won’t get affected, since my body has a lot of aura to spare.

I just need to use a bit of [Aura Cushion] around my skin and the cold won’t affect me at all.

But Ann is using just her regular clothing and the leather armor.

Isn’t she cold? Won’t she get frostbite?

…

Let’s extend the [Aura Cushion] to her as well.

[Ann] - Uhm? Did you do anything?

[All] - Uhm. It’s dangerous to walk on the cold like this!

[Ann] - Thank you.

[All] - You’re welcome!

*sigh*

Seriously… how long have you gone by like this?

We are lucky winter has just begun, or you would surely have lost the tip of a couple fingers by now.

Well, I would be able to regrow them with magic, but, still.

Sometimes sister’s willpower is just too strong for her own good.

***

In the end we reached a small village by midday.

I guess sister was hopping to reach this place yesterday, but had difficulty because of how bad her body was.

Anyhow, we will stay by for the day, and then tomorrow we will try to reach the next village before night comes.

It’s my first time in an Inn! How exciting!

Not something I would say, of course.

It’s just a small wooden cabin after all. Like a house with extra rooms they rent to people.

Except the living room is huge.

There’s a big fireplace, some stools and tables around, so I guess this is a place for people to eat.

Interesting stuff, though - there isn’t any alcohol.

I didn’t ask about it, but I guess it’s because drunkards make business hard.

Anyhow… this world’s money!

It’s just small metal coins.

Or at least sister’s money is. Round coins made of something I guess would be copper or the like.

One night at the Inn’s communal room and two meals cost us 10 pieces of it.

What’s a communal room?

Well, it’s a big room with a lot of straw beds in it, and no storage place. It seems most travelers sleep on those.

What about hygiene?

…

Well, I killed at least twenty insects so far, amongst which where at least eight cockroaches.

Nothing poisonous, but, still, kind of disgusting.

Almost on the same level as the soup with hard rice. Doesn’t these people know about cooking stuff?!

… well, at least sister seems happy.

I can’t blame her, since she has been sleeping in the open for months.

But I can’t just stay still as well, so let’s start working on my mana crystal.

I have brought it inside my cloth bag, so I can just hug it like everyone else is hugging their belongings and start to work.

Let’s see…

Here.

I can feel the mana crystal overflowing with energy. Nice. It will make a really good basis for what I want to do.

Now, what exactly do I need this thing to do in the first place?

I mean, I want to be able to build a dungeon by using it, but there are other uses for this kind of equipment as well.

A regular Dungeon Master would, for example, be able to use the crystal’s energy easily to cast spells and the such.

Not that I can’t do it. I can just manipulate the crystal’s energy directly.

But maybe I should program a macro to release some easy-to-use spells, just in case.

Like fireballs or the such.

This way I can have a greater degree of control over my dungeon.

…my dungeon…

I need to have a way to cut through rock. And then to put this rock away.

It will be difficult. I don’t have anything as convenient as a game’s inventory.

I would need to reallocate the rocks.

That said…. How do dungeons usually dig their way inside the rock?

I remember seeing something like this when I was going through one of my breakthroughs.

The small mana pebbles I had dug a tunnel around the rock and met at the center.

If I’m not mistaken… those tunnels had more solid rock?

Meaning the mana pebbles didn’t exactly dug through the rock, but rather pushed the rock away and made natural walls around their path to the central rock underneath me.

That, combined with how the Black Dragon Coal Mine felt with all of those weird feelers coming out of the crystal…

I guess, maybe…

[Earth magic: Soften Soil] and [Earth magic: Statue Maker]?

Those spells expend tons of aura, but they are able to make rock soft or harder, and even compact smaller rocks into a bigger boulder.

As most of the spells grandma taught me, I don’t understand very well how they work. They just do.

But maybe those are really important spells to have.

Yeah…

…

On the other hand, I could make it better by creating the blocks in a hexagonal shape and them making them into golems.

This way I would be able to order them to change the dungeon’s map or even close it entirely.

Besides, if I give them enough aura, I guess they could learn [Aura Armor] and become stronger.

Or maybe I could just put this programming inside of them since the beginning. This way they will absorb aura directly from the environment and be self-sustaining.

…

Nah.

I’m thinking too hard on stuff and deviating from my point.

Besides, if I made the dungeon’s walls absorb aura and store it on themselves, I wouldn’t have a good measurement of how much is the dungeon absorbing and expending.

Keeping a good control of income and expenses is needed.

By the way… I suppose those feelers had some function like that at the Black Dragon Coal Mine?

They do look like the strings I use to control the undead. Except they were being used at the dungeon.

Can I control rock by using the feelers alone?

I mean, of course I can. I could make them cast [magic hand] or become information relays to the golems in the walls.

But, how am I supposed to control all of them at once?

…

Yeah.

I know the answer about how.

Damn, this is unpleasant.

I look at the sensory feeler in front of me.

So unpleasant.

But I need to do it, right?

Otherwise, I won’t be able to use my ability to not have a limit to my growth.

Argh.

I can imagine the headaches already.

***

Alvin’s Over-Sensory Input Journal

Day 1

I just connected the damn thing to my mind.

The mixed [Aura Sensing] and [Magic Hand] sets of self-made threads.

It stood there for less than five minutes, and it already gave me such a FUCKING HEADACHE!

I tried using only a single one of them, but it’s like having a split view of the world. My own, from my always-active [Aura Sensing], and the threads as well.

Enough.

…

I’m tired. My head and soul both hurt. Let’s sleep a bit.

***

Day 2

Ann’s decided to leave the village at morning. She hopes to get to the next one until the end of the day.

It would have been difficult if we didn’t have my [Aura Cushion] to ease the cold and such, but in the end we made it in time.

And I also got to expend some though on how to deal with the sensory inputs.

It’s useless to just create a single sensory thread and then use it while shutting down my own [Aura Sensing].

First, because that would make me unprotected.

Second, because I need to expand my mental ability in order to be able to control each thread individually.

It’s like growing a new hand, except it has [Aura Sensing] all around itself.

*sigh*

Grandmother is here, and Alma as well.

Let’s talk a bit. Maybe they have some new ideas for me?

***

Day 3

As expected of grandma.

Not only did she not had an easy answer for me, she even made things more complicated.

Indeed, using only [Aura Sensing] on the threads wasn’t much different of being semi-blind to what would happen in my future dungeon.

I should create undead-like sensory threads and make each thread able to sense at least all five senses.

Hahaha.

Yeah.

Thanks grandma.

Thank you very fucking much.

Now I can’t rest until I have found a way to do it.

Except my own megalomania has just kicked in from that commentary.

I mean, if I should make those threads able to use all six senses I have at my disposal, why not increase it even more?

[Aura Analysis], [Soul Seeing] and [Mind Reading], not to mention expanding the field of vision to include the [Nightvision] spell.

With those each feeler would have as much sensory input as my own body has.

And if I someday found I spell which gives me another sensory-enhancement skills, like being able to smell better or see farther, then I could even start getting my mind used to it and grow new senses on my mind.

…

Let’s not go too far.

I don’t intend to make myself inhuman so quickly.

I mean, I could always try and study insects and other beings which have more fine sensory-inputs than humans, and then try to emulate this kind of sensory input with the right emotional threads.

But the problem would be how to create the necessary supplementary structures in my mind in order to be able to understand those kind of stuff.

How does a new color, which humans usually don’t see, look like?

Should I just make a random change on my mind, creating a random structure to represent that color?

The [nightvision] spell probably translates infra-red and UV light to regular light, so it allows me to see the world while still using my human view of the world.

Should I mess with my mind and start seeing things with a new point of view?

…

Nah.

Too dangerous.

Let’s just translate stuff.

New colors, fuck it.

Let’s just make like the [nightvision] spell and translate things.

I’m fairly certain I can deal with any stuff I fuck up within my body and maybe even in my soul.

But my mind?

I can’t be too careful with it.

So!

Translating other sensations.

Like subsonic waves.

I will need to collect some animals with over-human sensory skills to look at their soul-body wiring.

Bats, flies, those kind of things.

Once I get what their soul-aura strings are made of, I should be able to reproduce them at my sensory input dungeon thread.

And then I should normalize them in order to connect pair-to-pair with a regular human-soul like set of threads.

This way I will have a human-friendly interface to work with.

Yeah.

Let’s work on that tonight.

First, making a copy of my soul’s general structure, and then grounding it to the crystal.

This way the interface will be as intuitive as it can be for my own use.

Then, I should start making the sensory feelers and connecting them to the soul-sensing parts of the dummy soul I made.

Vision-sensors to the dummy soul’s eyes, sound-sensors to its ears, this kind of thing.

Let’s do this!

First, to get myself a copy of my own soul…

[Mind Walk] followed by [Aura Analysis] and the right thoughts of the exact [Soul Structure] mixed with the thought of [Gathering the specific emotional energy and consolidating it in the right places] would be the answer.

Mind-puzzling, but I can handle this much.

Let’s go!

***

Day 5

Maybe I have been a little too conceited.

It took me two whole days and a little help from grandma and Alma to be able to create a dummy of my soul.

Of course, it doesn’t have even a hundredth of my soul-energy levels, only the quality of my soul.

But, still, there are just so many little parts and details.

Not to mention, some feelings fall apart if their supporting feelings don’t stay in place.

Like how my soul-brain will fall apart if it isn’t connected to any soul-sensory-input organ.

Making my soul-eyes first, and only then my soul brain.

Isn’t this just fucking counter-intuitive?!

Regardless.

I have been taking a lot of care not to let any mind come inside this dummy soul.

That’s why I have made a single mind-emotion thread connecting my own mind to it.

It’s a secondary thread connected to my thoughts of “disposable body”, so I’m fairly certain I won’t be badly damaged even if this soul is destroyed.

At max I will lose the piece of my mind which understands the idea of a disposable body.

Which can be regrown fairly easily, I believe.

So that’s why I will be using this part as my own safety-proxy to deal with this body.

Even when all emotional threads are done, I will only access this body through this though of “disposable body”. And all sensory inputs will go through it as well. This way I can have something like a “firewall” between me and the dungeon core, avoiding it from penetrating into my ego or, worse, my mind’s core.

Yep, safety first!

Now let’s make some sensory threads.

***

Day 6

We have hit a town today.

It seems towns appear once in a while along the way to Dorank, the city before the kingdom’s capital.

The biggest difference would be the size those have while compared to the villages in the way.

This one is as big as our county’s capital.

Also, for the first time today I have seen a noble.

We have encountered one or two other travelers on our way, most of them almost freezing to death in the cold.

We helped as we cold, making camp and giving them Bigfoot roots to help with the frostbite, but at those times I had to cancel the [Aura Cushion] around me and sister, just for safety.

Anyhow.

This guy wasn’t a traveler, that’s for sure.

He was mounting a bulky horse and used full-plate armor.

We could notice him from far in the distance, since the horse was at full throttle.

Then we went to the side of the road and he just ran past us.

I wished he went a little faster, so I could put the [Aura Cushion] up again.

Horses are quite slow, aren’t them?

Anyhow, that’s a noble for you.

Gladly it had no business with us.

Now, sensory feelers!

I have added the standard undead-like sensory threads to a single, bulky thread made with [Aura Hand] which was programmed to be constantly cast by the dungeon’s crystal.

I have also made a small algorithm to ensure the dummy dungeon soul would be able to re-do the threads or make new ones if I sent it the correct order of thoughts.

More specifically, I needed to send an [order - order confirmation- order] routine to the soul.

Like this:

[My mind]: Create new thread

[Dummy soul]: Create new thread?

[My mind]: Create new thread.

The difference between actually doing it and just thinking of doing it comes as the dummy soul answers with the feeling of “this is real”.

This way I can avoid creating new threads while I’m lost in my imagination or stuff like that.

Anyhow!

My first multi-purpose sensory thread is done.

It has a soul portion and an aura portion. It can sense everything I would be able to sense with all of my sensory abilities and it also has an [Aura Hand] - like ability, which I have connected to the feelings of moving my arms.

Of course, since it’s an Aura Thread I should be able to move it like a tentacle, but I’m a damn human, not a tentaculoid monster.

I don’t know how to control a tentacle. My mind doesn’t have the needed knowledge.

So let’s be satisfied with having an all-sensing hand.

Fuu.

First test is tomorrow.

Hope I get it right.

***

Day 7

Towns surely have better Inns than villages.

Even if we stayed at the same communal room as ever, this time the straw was new and there weren’t as many insects as in the villages.

Truly relaxing.

Except for the ruffians.

One of the guys in the room tried to rape sister tonight.

He just entered the door and launched himself on top of her all of a sudden. He didn’t even hesitate.

Motherfucker.

Of course, sister awoke with the man trying to hold her, but at this point I had already given him a nice one in the ribs.

…

Maybe I have exaggerated a bit, since my hand just went right through his guts.

I definitely exaggerated.

So, that’s why we are running way by jumping above the wall.

Sister didn’t even flinch.

Once she saw the wound on the guy’s side and felt the blood, she immediately took her stuff and jumped through the window.

I followed behind her and we jumped above the town’s walls.

Then we started to run.

She is using quite a bit of aura to run while using the tree branches, so I will make her an extra-aura-filled set of meals in the morning, as soon as we stop.

Anyhow, no dungeon sensory thread testing tonight.

***

Day 8

We are at a small clearance some three days of traveling away from the town where I hit the guy in the guts.

It looks like sister has finally calmed down.

[Ann] - All… why did you do that?

[All] - Sorry. I didn’t intend to hurt him that much.

She’s sitting in the ground while holding her legs.

[Ann] - Hold yourself better next time.

[All] - Okay. Sorry.

[Ann] - Can you get us a meal?

[All] - Uhum.

[Ann] - Then do it. I will make a fire.

*sigh*

I’m really unused to this kind of things.

I mean, I was sure I was using just enough force to break the guy’s ribs.

For him to be so weak to the point where my hand went inside of him.

Have I committed some kind of mistake?

…

Now that I think about it, his aura was really thin, wasn’t it?

He surely had a lot less than a regular farmer or even than the people from the villages we have been going to.

Sister have told me of these kind of things before. People in the cities are really weak. Weaker the more developed the city is.

I mean, I’m not surprised.

They don’t get to exercise as much as people from the countryside after all.

So they don’t accumulate as much aura.

But that guy had even less than a regular person.

Maybe he was an adventurer. They usually expend almost all of their aura when they go doing their quests and stuff.

Yeah.

Well, he was a rapist.

No reason to worry about such a guy, right?

Oh…

A boar just entered my [Aura Sensing] range.

Let’s get it.

Boar meat is nice with some pinebush seasoning. Besides, I can use detofixy on it and fill the meat with a reasonable amount of aura.

Let’s go.

***

Day 9

Sister is avoiding the villages for now, since we don’t know who that guy was.

In the worst-case scenario, I may have just killed a noble.

I mean, nobles do have weak auras.

It’s an amazing thing.

They either strive to be a Superior Being and live in fancy houses right at the entrance of a dojo, or are just very, very, fat and useless.

I guess the fat ones are first-sons who will inherit their father’s houses or something, while the ones at the entrance of dojos are the kind who need to do something with their own lives. Like third sons or something.

But on the other side, why would a noble be at a cheap inn, and, moreover, at the communal room?!

That doesn’t make sense.

But sister is wary so let’s just do it.

Besides, she’s safer here and I can use this opportunity.

The pain from using the sensory threads from before was great.

If that hurt, what to say about this super-thread then?!

I may even get out with a trauma.

I mean, it’s reckless, but the worse that will happen is for my mind to shut down the emotional-mental sensory threads coming from the proxy.

The “disposable body” proxy is my safety measure.

I’m counting on it.

So, let’s do it.

First, casting a silence zone around me and sister.

And then…

Let’s do it.

SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!

AAAAAARARRRRRRRRR!

IT HURTS!

FUCK!

ARRGH!

ENOUGH!

ENOUGH!

With. This. Shit!

Aaarh…

My head.

It fucking hurts.

Shiiiit.

Aaah…. I have held my own head so strongly I have cracked my skull.

Shit.

It’s regenerating, but this was dangerous.

Still.

Aaah…

It hurts to think.

I need to sleep.

Now.

***

Day 10

I woke up feeling renewed.

There’s a mad hound corpse right at the edge of our camp, so I guess Alma killed it.

It was a good idea to have her around.

Eh.

How weird.

Everything seems slow somehow.

Aah.

It’s like when I get too focused on stuff.

Time seems to get to a halt.

Let’s just…

Yaaaawwwnn!

Yeah.

That’s better.

[Alma] - ALL!

Whoah!

You’re there?

Really?

I haven’t seen you yet, why did you took so long to call me?

Oh… my [Soul Seeing] is down.

I should put it back up.

There. Done.

[All] - Uh? What’s happening?

[Alma] - I was worried! You passed away and I couldn’t wake you up! Not even your soul!

[All] - Don’t worry, I was just tired.

Oh, she seems sad.

[All] - There, there. Wanna see how I’m fine? Here, feel it.

I just transferred a little bit of my current feelings to alma.

It’s working well with her.

[Alma] - It feels…. Refreshing!

[All] - Right?! How long have I been sleeping?

[Alma] - Almost all of the night long.

Uhm.

So, I took enough damage to lose conscience all of this time.

I should access how much damage that is.

[All] - I will see if I’m fine. Just wait a bit, okay?

[Alma] - Okay!

First, [Soul Walking].

Uhm.

No damage here, I see.

Now, [Mind Walking]….

OUCH!

This hurts!

What’s….

Oh.

I have almost blown up my “disposable body” proxy, eh ~~~

It’s badly wounded.

I can barely notice it.

I guess I will need some days of resting and qigong to be able to repair it.

But!

It’s still on one piece.

Which means I can use this mind-bomb to get mentally stronger.

Nice.

But let’s start with something a little less intense the next time.

Yeah.

I will make a new thread, with only [Aura Sensing]. Then I will wear it all day long and go increasing the amount of senses a little bit at a time.

This way I guess I can reach the big bulky all-senses thread faster than by blowing up pieces of my mind.

Once things get damaged like this, you know your training has gone too far anyway. And I do not have a perpetually self-repairing mind.

***

Day 15

I have been resting my mind the past days. Just enough so my it recovers from the excessive pounding of information.

In the meanwhile, me and sister have been going through a few villages and she has finally decided to rest a bit.

I have been adding aura to all of her food and drinks, but it isn’t as if I could just give her all of the aura she has expended on the past months at once.

Still, I think she will recover enough by the time we get to Irma.

Now, to restart my training…

Let’s plug this little one here…

There. The small sensory thread, the one with just an [Aura Hand] and [Aura Sensing] combo, has been connected to my mind.

Urgh.

It still hurts.

A lot less than before, but it’s a lot of info to take in.

The first time I tried to use it, I was at the mountain, so the amount of info was unbearable.

Then, at the Inn, I used a bunch of them at once.

I was being too greedy.

Let’s control my ambition a little bit, and start low.

Baby steps.

A single thread, with a simple [Aura Hand] and [Aura Sensing] combo, and with an [Aura Sensing] output of only a few centimeters beyond the thread’s thickness.

The difference is that I should use it all day long, and try to control it as a remotely-controlled sensory organ.

Like a long-distance eye.

There.

Let’s do it.

Day 17

I’ve gotten used to it.

To the single thread, that is.

I can use it all day long without feeling headaches.

It’s time to increase the intensity of the training.

I wonder if I should increase the number of threads or the number of senses in a single one?

…

I think it will be easier to increase the number of threads once they have reached a certain number of senses than it would be to increase the number of senses in many threads.

Like growing an extra eye.

What’s easier on your mind?

Growing a single extra eye, or getting eyes after being blind your whole life?

Let’s start by giving this sensory thread a new sense.

Which one should it be?

Day 21

I’m finally getting used to having an extra visual sensory input.

Being able to see in 360° with my sensory thread was…. Confusing as fuck.

I mean, it’s just like…

My whole sense of balance has been affected.

Even while expending a lot of aura to increase my accuracy I would sometimes trip on a rock and fall on the ground.

Sister got a bit mad because I was delaying her, but since we’re still on time to get to Dorank she isn’t complaining much.

It’s been only roughly one month since we got together after all.

I think I still need more time before adding another sensory input on this one…

Day 25

Finally, I’m able to walk on my two legs without needing to use aura.

Adding a visual input on this thread and trying to walk while using it has been trippier than any LSD trip. Specially since I can see stuff with the thread I wouldn’t be able to see with my regular human eyes. Like infrared and ultra-violet lights.

It’s impossible for me to fight in this state.

Or even run properly.

I guess I will need to learn how to do it latter.

Now, let’s add another sense to the thread.

Since I have a LOT of walking to do, better to have some use to it. Like getting myself used to hearing, seeing and doing stuff with extra weird aura limbs which I have created using the huge dungeon core in my possession.

Yep.

Day 30

Listening to sounds one usually wouldn’t listen to…

It’s weird.

Very weird.

Like the sound of some birds, and, weirder of all, the huge amount of sounds made by our own bodies and clothing as we walk - even on grass.

Or maybe that’s because the thread gets really close to my body before spreading to the outside at a small hole in the back of my right knee, so it’s like having my ears plugged at only a few millimeters of my skin.

Anyhow, it’s weird.

Very weird.

But it’s definitely better than the trippy LSD-like visual inputs I have.

I guess I’m good for adding other senses.

Day 35

Senses of smell and taste were weird to implement.

Tasting and smelling my own body odors all day long isn’t exactly a nice thing.

Luckily I don’t feel like puking thanks to the “disposable body” proxy on my mind.

It’s different sensing a bad smell with your own nose and sensing it with only a “disposable body”.

Still, since I didn’t want for the thread to experience reflex reactions from my dummy soul, or to sense the weird feelings of repulse and disgust it would reflexively feel from awful smells, I have taken out this part of the dummy soul.

So, awful smells and tastes come to me only as information, without the regular sensations of being awful or stuff.

Maybe I should feel humiliated by knowing the taste of things like dirt and horse shit, since the threads touch all of those things in the ground, but it’s better not to think about it.

Knowledge is always useful.

I should believe in this and don’t think about the weirdness of tasting every single pebble I touch with my feeler.

Anyhow.

Sense of touch is next. Pressure, heat and pain.

But I will make it so pain comes only on a certain threshold. Only so I be aware if something cuts my threads.

Nothing which would be really painful.

Let’s do it.

Day 40

[Alma] - Hihihi.

[All] - Could you PLEASE stop that?

[Alma] - Hhaha. It’s fun how you twitch if I do it like this.

[All]…*sigh*…

Weird thing about pressure inputs.

They can either be pleasurable, painful, or something in between.

On another words, if I make my threads more or less sensitive, I can either feel a lot of pleasure or even some pain by touching stuff with the feeler.

And that’s where Alma’s playing with the thread comes by.

Since I have been learning how to calibrate the feeling correctly, she has been tweaking with it by using an [Aura Hand] of hers and sometimes she either makes me feel a little bit of pain or a little bit of pleasure.

Of course, I have taken the reflexive emotions from the dummy soul, so only the information gets to me.

But, still, it’s weird and makes me cringe thinking Alma is mostly masturbating me through this thread.

Of course, I can’t tell her what she’s doing.

She would do it even more, just to make me feel embarrassed.

This damn kid… she’s indeed a wild spirit in the end. No respect for human taboo at all.

*sigh*

Now…

Only [Soul Seeing] and [Mind Reading] left.

I can imagine which kind of trippy LSD stuff I will see with those, since I don’t usually keep them on.

Seeing the emotional and mental planes surrounding the thread while walking with it on the physical plane.

That will be a new experience.

Anyhow.

Day 45

It has been quite trippy indeed.

The various emotional and mental planes we go by seem to have some theme in common.

Like how in the road they are mostly connected to [Loneliness], [Freedom], [Longing], [Tiredness], [Nature] and so on.

On the cities and towns the regular themes would be things like [Money], [Hunger], [Desire], [Longing], [Frustration] and [Dreaming].

The weirdest part is to many at once even when standing still. Since the aura thread goes beyond the physical place of docking of single planes.

Anyhow, I try to keep the perception from the threads to a minimum.

I don’t want to expand it too much and end up seeing stuff which will make it even more difficult for me to walk around.

Seriously.

I have been having to make a huge effort to be able to follow sister.

Simply walking around with my own legs is hard as balls when you have just so much information about the world around you.

Not to mention how weird it is to walk while seeing and hearing things with other stuff instead of your own eyes and ears.

Besides, I have been keeping the [Aura Cushion] around us all of the time, not to mention my regular qigong training and hiding skills.

Haha.

My [Unlimited Growth] skill is really the most powerful one in my arsenal of skills, isn’t it?

I guess I should be at least at the level of a supercomputer now.

….or maybe not.

Okay, I’m being too prideful now.

I’m just doing a little bit more than a regular human, right?

So let’s keep doing this much, and a little more as well.

Next step is to reactivate the old thread I made last month and increase the number of sensory threads.

Fuu.

At least it’s the end of having to learn how to deal with multiple new sensory organs.

****

Okay.

Walking with two threads is difficult as fuck.

[Ann] - Come on, you’re lagging behind.

Argh.

Let’s pick my pace.

Right foot, left foot. Right foot, left foot.

…

Shit.

Big stuff at three o’clock.

I think it’s a monster mantis or something.

Shit, shit, shit.

Calm down.

I can deal with this…

…

Fuck, sister’s safety is at stake here.

Let’s stop this whole training stuff.

There.

Unplugged.

…

Eh?

[Ann] - ALL!

SHIT!

The thing’s sickle just cut me from shoulder to belly.

DIE FUCKER!

Okay.

Aura Spear to the head.

It’s dead.

AAAAH~~~

Shit.

I’m not feeling any pain. Big wounds like this don’t hurt. Your body can’t understand what the screaming nerves mean, so it just ignores it.

And I’m regenerating already. So, I will be fine.

But what the hell was that?!

I…

I feel lost.

It’s as if suddenly I lost an eye or something.

…shit.

Am I becoming useless because of this whole extra sensory organs shit?!

***

Sister had a less strong reaction than I thought.

She just came running to me and, right after seeing that I was okay, gave a relieved sigh and began walking again.

[Ann] - That startled me.

[All] - Sorry. I was doing something…

[Ann] - …

Aaah~~~

The awkward silence.

It’s fine sis, I won’t die from being cut in half.

I will feel the unpleasant sensation of my insides itching for a little bit as my juices get reabsorbed by my body, but that will go away soon enough.

Still.

Walking is still hard.

Even after turning off the sensory threads.

Shit.

I may have done something stupid.

I mean, it’s obvious that this would happen.

If someone has two eyes and you take one off, then the person will be disoriented for a bit.

If someone has only one eye and you add a second, then they will also be disoriented.

On another words, I need to get used to more than just having extra sensory organs.

I need to actually get used to be without then once I return to my regular state of mind.

…

This will require some training after all.

***

Okay, Alvin’s patented sensory-training will now start.

My routine with sister has been very simple.

We get to a new village; she buys rations and sleeps at an Inn. We leave in the morning.

That taken into account, I need to jam a nice sensory training in there. And maybe some extra training as well.

My body does remember all of the cool fighting moves grandma taught me, but my perception of my own body is all messed up.

So I need to get that in order first.

And the best way to do that…. I don’t have the smallest idea of which would be.

I mean, I remember ninjas in manga doing equilibrium training, and children and small animals do the same, right?

They go around walking and jumping on poles and stuff like that. The ninjas I mean. Small children just try to walk, run and climb.

So I guess this is what I need to do.

Which means I will be away from sister, doing silly stuff in the forest while she walks calmly in the road.

I should keep one of my threads near her just in case, but the other one I should keep with me.

This way I can get used to jumping from branch to branch on the trees while using multiple sensory organs.

And then…

I guess I will leave her to enter the villages alone and remain in the woods, training how to move around without using my extra senses…. And maybe without using the [nightvision] spell and the [Aura Sensing] and other skills I have.

This way I can get used to all of the possibilities. More senses than usual, less senses than usual, and, of course, the usual amount of senses.

There’s always the risk of a new ruffian attack, but sister would have been more than able to deal with that guy by herself.

Besides, I can take breaks at training to look at her with [Soul Walking].

Or better yet!

[All] - Alma.

[Alma] - Uuh? Found something nice ?

Sometimes I found small flowers or insects which I find funny and call Alma so she can see them.

But not this time.

[All] - Can you take care of Ann while I train at night?

[Alma] - Sure! But you will train even more?

[All] - Right?! It’s as if the need never ended! I’m always getting myself between a rock and a hard place. But it’s nice. I feel like I’m powerful like this.

[Alma] - Heheh.

[All] - What?

[Alma] - It’s funny because you always want to be more. That’s silly!

[All] - …

Sometimes I don’t get this forest spirit.

I don’t get it at all.

***