Instead of being met with flying in the air as he had expected, he found the entire world go dark. After a brief second of panic, he realizes it's not black. It's much more similar to that time he temporarily went blind before a migraine, complete nothingness. He checks if any muscles are movable. He finds none. No fingers, no toes, no eyebrows, nothing. Ok, so, no body. I can't see. Did I somehow kill myself? I thought Soul Grasp was supposed to not deal damage.

So, all I have is my thoughts. Did I disconnect my soul from my body? Given how much force Soul Grasp can generate, I wouldn't be surprised. If I'm immune to damage except things that can interact with a soul while like this, this might actually be a great way to feign dead, as long as I can get myself to a space I know they won't find while also being unable to see... or use any sense, actually.

His thoughts stay silent for multiple seconds. I wonder if a new body is being generated around my soul. If so, I bet using RCD would accelerate the process. Though, now that I think about it, I've never actually used it. Given the name, it probably also has some physical body healing capabilities that aren't listed. He stops thinking and focuses on using Rapid Cell Division.

Not long after, he can feel his arms, legs, and other muscles being able to be used once more, though he remained sightless. He moves his hands toward one another. Just before they touch, he stops. It might be exposed muscle. That would hurt so bad. He mentally sighs and tightens up slightly before lightly touching his two pointer fingers together.

No pain assails him, so he presses onward, finding his hands covered in their normal skin. He reaches up to where his head would be, and finds it there, though he checks the top of his head, and his hair is gone. Bringing a hand up to his eye, he finds his eyelids closed. He tries opening them with just their own muscles, but he's unable. He forces them open and finds he still can't see.

Then he notices his hand holding open his eyelid. It wasn't that he couldn't see, it was that there was nothing to see. A pitch blackness, yet somehow, despite there being no visible light source, he could see himself. He thinks for a second before loudly saying, "Hey, if I'm just standing here like an idiot, please come drag me inside." He hears himself say that. Good. If I am somewhere else, at least there's air.

He mentally feels around his body, taking in every sensation he can feel. "Wherever I am, I don't think I'm free falling or otherwise in zero G, my stomach isn't angry at me. But I also don't feel ground on any part of my body..." He rubs his eyes with his fingers, bringing them in toward the bridge of his nose. After a little while, he puts on his typical thinking pose, his right thumb under his chin with his pointer finger bent on the top of it.

"Let's think over possibilities. Space is a no go, as there's air. Death is improbable, Soul Grasp has no damage. Magic condition is possible, I would like to replicate this as a skill in the future. It's great CC. Insanity is unlikely but not impossible. Somehow dealing non-health damage to my soul, as you can with bodies, is possible."

He fast claps while looking up. "I highly doubt I died. CC is also unlikely, as I highly doubt that a 20% increased difficulty level 1 monster would be capable of this. Let's rule out insanity because I doubt it. So, soul damage? Then what happened, specifically? Am I inside my soul or something, or did I maybe somehow lose parts of my soul...?"

"If I'm inside my soul, that would mean that RCD making me a new body wasn't because RCD does that, though it might still, it was because I believed it would, right...? Let's..." he trails off, extending his left hand. He imagines his blue rocking chair appearing. He sees a flash of something blue before he's hit with a massive headache and finds himself falling to the ground where he tried flying with Soul Grasp.

He catches himself, checks his body, and notices a notification.

Notice.

That was dangerous. Don't scare me like that again.

You'll get it naturally soon enough, safely.

He looks back toward his dad, who's watching him, slight amusement on his face. "Was I just... Was time stopped while I was wherever I was and he assumes I tripped or something...? And what's that notification...?" He turns back around toward the tree line, walking over to the nearest tree and sitting down beside it. He lays his head back on the tree.

"Why was that notification worded like that? What was that space? Was that inside my soul? Does that mean there's something similar to a Soul Skill from Randidly, and I just accidentally tried to make mine before I should have...?" He rubs his forehead. "I don't doubt it's something Beltag can't say until someone on Earth knows for sure." With that, he takes a slow, long breath before slowly exhaling it.

"As for that notification, was that my Patron? Maybe it was someone else, who has some interest in me, like the creature from Randidly...? I highly doubt the latter. While ranking high, I wasn't particularly interesting and my dungeon was easy enough. As for it being my patron..." He looks up and to the right, moving his head with his eyes. "I wouldn't doubt it, and it's the only logical choice, but..." He shrugs.

Just in case whatever he did was noteworthy, he checks his paths, finding two new ones. He doesn't notice he has 120 new PP.

Soul Survivor 0/50

Hardy Soul 0/100

"So, yes, that was my soul... And attacked? All I wanted to do was make a chair. Unrefined soul...? So, will there be a soul skill, or does 'unrefined' mean something different...?" He sighs. "Whatever, I'm asking questions I don't have the resources to get answers for again. I need to stop that. Anyway, let's get to 1k." He checks his skills again to help think about what he wants to do for training.

Stomp lv3

Running lv71

Improvised Weapon Mastery lv13

Search lv5

Scan lv4

Visualization lv152

??? lv0

Punch lv4

Kick lv1

Jump lv9

Mana Bolt lv6

Dig lv4

Mana Manipulation lv8

Mana Sword lv106

Greatsword Mastery lv200

Strength of the Hoarder lvX

Soul Grasp lv50

Mana Armor lv50

Great Cleave lv1

Haste lv80

Requiem of the Gravedigger lv125

Unholy Covenant

Omen of War

Omen of Pestilence

Omen of Famine

Mana Detection lv1

Tough Skin lvX

Rapid Cell Division lvX

Summon Ally lvX

With that, he notices that Visualization went up 120 levels from his excursion into his soul. He scrunches up his face. "Mmmmmm-graaaahhhh," he says in slight frustration. "It's cool that vis went up so much from that, but that's also 120 levels I don't have for combat skills. I wish Imagineer's completion bonus was to make Vis not count toward SLT. But whatever." He quickly puts 97 PP into Greatsword Mastery II to max it out, gaining four more strength.

Congratulations! You have completed the Greatsword Mastery II path!

The road to mastery is long and arduous, but you have steeled your mind, forging forward.

Overhand Strike lv1

He holds the decision for the rest of his PP for later, looking back at his skills. "I should get Haste to 100, then I'll have... 894, 914..." He takes a long pause to mentally subtract 14 from 100. "86 levels remaining after that. Also, it's interesting that OHS is practically exactly TERA's OHS. Maybe I should spend that last 89 getting Great Cleave and OHS up. OHS is basically useless without a skill used before it, so..."

He hears a horn sound from down the driveway. He looks over and sees his aunt's vehicles, followed by a couple he doesn't recognize. "Looks like mom's side is here. It would be nice to have dad's side, too, since they're big burly dudes who almost definitely had high base stats and aren't afraid to be aggressive. And know their way around guns. But whatever, knowing them, they might not come, and having them around would be annoying."

"Anyway, I'll deal with family later. For now, Haste, Great Cleave, and OHS." After very quickly getting Great Cleave to 43 and Overhand Strike to 45, he turns on Haste and walks over to to the gathering of family that's going on. Currently, everyone is talking with each other, finding out what happened with everyone, what went on between the last time the talked and now, etc..

Not one for socializing, he jumps up onto the roof of the garage and sits down with his legs over the edge. "Should I get Soul Survivor or Hardy Soul first...?" He lets his brain go on autopilot for a while. "No, you're right, I should just not get anything until I get a class. Don't want any skills I'm not guaranteed to use taking up a level. Stupid dig, kick, punch, stomp... And Visualization is taking up 152 levels..."

He sighs. "Whatever. I have like 25 people to get optimally prepared for when I make our village." After a few minutes of thinking about what he's going to say, everything died down, at least to levels he felt comfortable interrupting. He whistles and claps loudly. After everyone's attention is on him, he begins talking, "I'm terrible at talking, so I'm going to keep this quick. Everyone who's willing to fight, please meet me next to the telephone pole."

He walks to the edge of the roof and walks off, walking a few feet over to the large pole. After a few seconds, everyone came over. "Ok, cool. I'm going to be making a village soon. I mean a system one, not just a gathering of people. About 24 and a half days after I do so, something powerful will come and attempt to kill us all. Why do I risk such a thing? Because you can get a class at a village.

"Classes will allow you to become much more powerful. Who cares, though, right? Well, occasionally, things even more powerful than the village monster will come, whether or not we make a village. So, we need to get powerful, and now." He sighs, glad he managed to not mess up. "So, come up to me one at a time and we'll get you a training regiment fitting what skills you have and what you want to do in the future."

The first one to step up, almost immediately after he finishes talking, is his aunt.

The training distribution went well and he found out that almost everyone was much more specialized than him or his parents in terms of skills. One of his cousins almost exclusively had skills that increased the effectiveness of her strength or greatly used her body while another had almost exclusively healing skills. He found this interesting, but didn't comment on it. By the end of the day, everyone had a skill level total over 700 and he reached 1000.

His uncle, the muscle cousin, and a couple others took the watch for that night. Cars were packed and the floor inside was filled with sleeping bags. Two tents were pitched outside. In the morning, those who awoke found that there were many bodies of giant, blue cockroaches lying around the edge of the tree line. Degritone ignored them and quickly got everyone back to work.

Around 3 PM, everyone has gathered around the car port. "Alright, everyone," Degritone says, "good work getting to 1k as fast as you did. Now, right now, I know four people who are going to be in this," pause, "but I need," pause, "mom, dad, Kelk, uncle Jeff, and anyone who they pick to come with me. Please keep it below 10 people." He pauses before saying, "You're going to be making important decisions," and walking away toward the house.

After out of earshot of everyone, he says, "'A single point,' huh...? Is the size of a single mana point enough? I wonder how many villages have been made so far. At least one. I don't have the mana to do it alone." After a few seconds of sitting on the couch, his parents, his aunt and uncle, and his grandparents walk in. He nods.

"Come over here. I don't know how much mana it will take, but we need to pour as much mana as we can into a single point." He holds out his hand, flowing mana toward a point above the coffee table. "Help me, as I don't have enough mana for it alone." He keeps it slow and steady until everyone gets around and does the same. Once everyone joins in, he quickly uses all but 100 of his mana in the process.

After a second, the mana expands and solidifies and Degritone says, "Stop, we're done. Just in case, mom, pick it up."

"Me?" She asks.

"Yeah, it might make the first person to pick it up village leader. I don't want that responsibility, regardless of the benefits, if any."

"Then I think Kelk should take it," she says.

Degritone tunes out their short argument before his mom picks it up, and focuses on something close to her. "Where do we want to make the village?" She asks.

"Anywhere on the property. We have three buildings we could use as a base, if it requires one, or whatever it's asking," Degritone says.

A short discussion between everyone is had, and his aunt finally asks the question, "Why did you want us specifically here?"

"Because I want you to make a village council. Once I get my class, I plan on leaving until the last day. I'll probably come back at night or something, but I want to go find a monster node, make it into a dungeon, and then we'd have a dungeon to use for experience and stuff."

A short QnA session is had, his mom and dad trying to convince him not to leave, but he's a solo player by heart and doesn't relent, and they eventually finalize the decision to make the village now in the house. As his mom accepts whatever prompt she was given, she says, "I need a name."

Degritone immediately responds, "Why not the Grimey Gulch? We already have a sign and everything."

Everyone laughs as his mom nods and puts it in. As she does, a notification and a man dressed in a butler suit appear.

A village has been formed in your immediate area.

Monster spawns in the area will increase in difficulty by 500%.

The butler says, "Thank you for creating a village. I am your village spirit, Ted. You will need to contact me to get any changes done to your village. Seeing as this is not one of the first 10 villages made on this planet, I start with 100 village points. Additionally, I can give you a class."

Degritone asks, "Is there a village leader?"

"Yes, this woman right here," he says, gesturing toward Degritone's mom.

"Great, give me a class. Mom, if he needs permission from you, tell him to do so."

Everyone in the room except him is staring at Ted, who just appeared out of nowhere. Maybe not the craziest thing they've seen, but seeing a human just appear out of nothing was definitely a slight shock to everyone. Degritone rolls his eyes, but Ted approaches him and places his hand on Degritone's head.