Mike part 2

"So, as I'm sure you gleaned from my journal, I have been away investigating this business. I interviewed one of these great powers, and let me tell you, it was enlightening. I interviewed an Arch-Mage by the name of Jinks. Arch-Mage Jinks has some crazy powers. He can teleport, throw fireballs, heal, and use different elements for various spells. The interesting thing is that he seems to be heavily involved in the soul stat as well. I asked him what it was like to be at the top, and it turned out he was fairly forthcoming. There are different factions at the top ranks. A principality rules each faction. The principality's job is to orchestrate events within their domain to further the faction's cause. Sort of like a grand strategist, but on a scale, you wouldn't expect. The frightening thing about this principality is they have a SOUL skill that links them with their subordinates and lets them influence things directly. Have you ever seen a slight glow about the eyes? That means a principality is in control or viewing what's going on. The different factions frequently war with each other, and many of the world's conflicts result from direct or indirect manipulations by principalities vying for control of different areas. There are also some arch enemies. For example, the Demon Lord faction and the Arch-Mage faction have always fought. Whoever controls an area can levy a SOUL TAX skill, which funnels a slight amount of people's soul power to the head principality."

My eyes were pretty big at this point. This whole thing sounded crazy. "So you're telling me there is a power that manipulates all the local governments, and even Kingdoms? How do you know if you're being manipulated or part of their whole game?" I asked.

"Well, you need to have a high enough SOUL stat just to get invited into a factions community. I suspect they begin tracking potential members at level 10 but may not interview them till their SOUL is +15. I have a whole bunch of material from my research that I have prepared, but if you want to see how the world works, you should get to SOUL +10 as soon as possible."

This whole thing sounded crazy. I toggled my com. "Armageddon, please find out what the SOUL stat of the Strange is. If he is level 10+, he could be part of a hostile faction of some sort."

I looked over at Mike, who grabbed a paper off the desk and held it up. "Oh, another thing. You may not be eligible to join a community till level 10, but there are SOUL possession skills that can be used on people of a lower SOUL level. So, the only real way to be protected is to have an extremely powerful SOUL stat and be smarter than the principality that is controlling things. I suspect that this is the reason I was being followed. I was asking around about SOUL techniques to prevent myself from being possessed when one of my interviewee's eyes glowed. The principality saw me!"

I frowned. This whole thing sounded incredibly dangerous to me. If I got possessed by a principality, they could order the Armageddon to destroy stuff. That would be very bad. "So what do you recommend we do to stay protected while leveling up our SOUL stat," I asked.

"Well, there is only one option after your soul gets to level ten. We got to hide somewhere and level up. If we interact with too many people, we may find ourselves the subjects of one of these faction games to control things and end up in a bad place. "Why level ten?" I asked. "Well," Mike replied, "Level ten is where people become spiritually active. Like I said factions may start tracking people around this level, although they usually don’t show intrest in them till level 15”

I thought about what mike was saying. The SYSTEM "messages, combined with the odd things people were saying, did give me some evidence supporting what mike was saying. I also saw glowing eyes, and I knew that I was marked as a cultivator. I had just been lucky so far. I didn't think anyone had used IDENTIFY on me.

"Hey Mike, what do you know about the cultivation path? I selected it, and now apparently, I have been marked by the system as a target."

Mike raised his eyebrows. "A cultivator, huh? That's rare. Once cultivators raise their SOUL stat past level 5, IDENTIFY is no longer required. Their status is out in the open, and people promptly kill them. That is not good for you, my friend! You see, the path of cultivation, if ever completed, would give the cultivator powers unrivaled by anyone other than another cultivator. This terrifies principalities because even their power is nothing compared to an ascended cultivator. There are histories of one or two cultivators that made it to that stage, but they long since left this world for whatever else is out there in the cosmos."

I sat down in an extra chair and thought about what Mike had said. It was evident that I could not be wandering around this world until I had enough power to protect myself. Being immortal was not enough in this universe. An idea sparked into my mind.

"Hey, Mike! I do have a safe place we can stay, far away from these crazy things. You could continue your research using some of my machines, and I could work on my SOUL stat. We could even start our own faction for enlightened people who don't want to be part of some principalities manipulations. "

Mike scratched his head. "I bet you mean back where you keep that Armageddon machine?" "Yeah, that's the place! Do we need to worry about the Strange? "Oh, no, the Strange only care about food and can somehow resist all attempts at SOUL spells as far as my research suggests!"

"That's fantastic! Hey Armageddon, don't work about the Strange. Apparently, they are resistant to SOUL spells. Anyway, we need to leave and go back to the ship. Can you send two starfighters to pick us up? I don't want to be exposed out here anymore. Have them land in the forest outside the city!"

'So, Mike! I have some flying machines coming to pick us up as soon as it gets dark. They will be in the forest outside the city in a few hours. I just got to go tie up some loose ends here. I may not r return before its time to leave." I drew the spot where the starfighters would land on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

Mike started packing again. I grabbed my bag and headed out to find Brea.

I entered the Herbalism shop and found Brea helping a customer. She didn't notice me when I walked in, so I started browsing the wears. There were many different potions on sale, including manna shield and health recovery potions. I picked up some potions labeled "Body refinement" and figured I would give them a try. I stood in line, and when my turn finally came, Brea jumped up in excitement!

I spent the afternoon helping her with the shop, and she invited me to dinner. The herbalism master arrived just before it was time to flip the "Open" sign to "Closed." The master was a frail-looking lady but moved swiftly, and it almost seemed that she floated instead of actually walking.

As we ate dinner, Brea told me about all the cool things she was learning. There were so many amazing herbs and different ways of processing them. She had leveled up her IDENTIFY skill and could now identify some of the more rare and precious plants. The master ate in silence and watched as Brea enthusiastically described everything. I found the master to be a bit creepy.

After dinner, I told Brea that I had to go on a trip for a while but would try and visit when I could. She smiled and gave me a bag of herbs that would help my SOUL training. Just before I left, she whispered in my ear, "I know about your cultivator path! Don't worry; I won't tell anyone! These herbs will help with that!" We finished hugging, and I turned to leave. I didn't notice the glowing eyes peering out of the upper window as I finally embarked towards the forest.