Gregor picks up one of the boxed potions and hands it to Jason. “Looks like we got lucky! The potions did come in today. Now, there aren’t any special preparations needed to drink the thing, so just sit down in that corner. The only thing to keep in mind is to drink it all in one go. Unlike some potions, you can’t take your time.

“Once you start the potion activates and if you stop the rest of it will instantly evaporate away. Mind you, the potion won’t fail, it just won’t be as effective and since you can only use this potion once it would be a waste.”

Jason raises an eyebrow, “Any particular reason to have me drink it here?”

Gregor laughs, “You and I both know it is to try and observe how the potion affects you.”

Jason just shakes his head, “And we both also know that isn’t going to do much good.”

Gregor shrugs, “True, but when your kingdom asks something as simple as this there isn’t a reason not to do it. Plus, we truly don’t know what it will do to you. This room is the most secure in the house and has survived an explosion or two. Not that I expect you to explode after drinking the potion but I’m sure you understand being cautious. I would hate for my neighbors to think less of me if you end up screaming bloody murder for hours on end because of soul tearing pain.”

Jason rolls his eyes, “I’ve experienced soul tearing pain before and I highly doubt your potion will manage much on that scale. Plus, it isn’t like it affects the true soul. A simple potion to advance the soul’s shell should cause too many problems.”

Gregor raises an eyebrow. “So I didn’t say anything about it not affecting the soul.”

Jason shrugs, “The number of things that can affect a true soul are vanishingly small. So much so that it is to the point that there might not be a single thing in all of NeoRealm capable of it including the System. And don’t try to act surprised and say you didn’t know that. Anyone who has played around with souls enough to make a potion like this will know the truth.

“The true soul is immutable. What this changes is the shell that forms around it that is made up of our experiences and such. Basically the bit of a soul which makes you who you are. Sure, the true soul is a decent identifier. But if you die and the soul’s shell has been worn away, it won’t matter if someone pulls that exact soul back to resurrect you. Without the shell, even if you had all your memories and experiences intact in your head the new you would be completely different.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Gregor scratches his head, “Well that was a better way of explaining it than most people manage. Strange seeing as no other traveller seems to have even a portion of the knowledge so it is unique to you in particular.”

Jason nods, “I’m sure the whole soul thing is of great interest to you guys after the travellers came around. We treat your world as a game so anything to prove that isn’t true would have been quite important. The fact that everyone’s soul is the same probably went a long way towards settling down the higher ups of the world.”

Gregor shrugs, “That was before my time when it all went down but that covers it pretty well. Of course, just as the System has a chokehold on us, it can in some circumstances have an equally tight hold on you travellers. No System skill that a traveller has will be able to show the souls of a fellow traveller. Anyway, you seem a bit knowledgeable on the subject. Do you know why the System is so picky about who can and cannot be brought back?”

Jason sighs, “The System isn’t all powerful and I am certain that the soul is one of those things it barely has a grasp on. Like I said, the true soul is extremely hard to change. Bringing someone back from the dead requires a soul to not go directly into the more general cycle of reincarnation.

“True gods manage this through a person’s faith. By setting up a place to act as an afterlife, they can cause newly dead souls of those faithful to them to redirect to that afterlife. While the faith of a soul isn’t as powerful as the faith of a living sapient, it is better than nothing. But as with all things, this state of being dead yet holding onto their old life must eventually end and the soul will fly away to true reincarnation.

“If I had to guess the System has done something similar except instead of based on faith, it is based on importance to the System. So when a random farmer dies their soul likely just flies away. On the other hand, when a king dies the System will redirect them to whatever it has decided an afterlife should be. Though travellers should be different.

“While we might die in NeoRealm, these bodies aren’t truly our bodies. Instead, it is more like we are puppeting the bodies. So when we die here our soul snaps back to our real bodies. In fact, seeing as this is a different dimension from our own it might be even trickier than that. For all we know, the System might just be overlapping the dimensional boundaries so that a traveller’s soul is in both bodies at once. Either way, the System isn’t actually in control of the souls.”

Gregor smiles, “That’s good to hear. For some reason I wouldn’t feel comfortable if the System could actually play with my soul.”

Jason scoffs, “It might not control our souls but it definitely has its hooks into our bodies and minds. All it not being able to mess with our souls means is that death will eventually be an actual escape. After all, while a faithful can last quite a while in an afterlife, they do eventually fade as the soul shell gets worn away and their faith is forgotten.”