I sigh. I fucked it up, huh.
I walk back to the campfire and finish eating. I was still hungry even if I just lost my appetite. I made too much food, how was I supposed to know elves don’t eat meat? I remember her taking a bite of the cooked meat. A pit forms in my stomach.
“Oh no, did she think I was forcing her to eat meat? I didn’t know!”
I want to roll on the ground and scream. I desperately want something to distract me. Oh, I haven’t distributed my stat points for getting to level 10.
“Status.”
Class (Monk) / Level (10)
Stats / Stat Points (5)
Strength (16)
Durability (39)
Agility (7)
Endurance (7)
Intellect (7)
Soul (11)
“Okay so, what do I want?” I stare at the screen for a few minutes without a thought going through my head. I wait even longer until I’m not sure how much time has passed. The muscles in my forehead are sore.
“Magic! I wanna learn magic!” I decided to put 4 into Soul and 1 into Intellect. I feel my soul grow slightly. It’s hard to notice the amount, but I can see it clearly. I still don’t know what Intellect does, but I intuit that it’s important for magic. I think.
I frown and look down the cave. The problem is that I don’t know what I’m doing. I look down the path where Eva left.
To my surprise I can still sense her soul. Usually there is a range on how far my Magical Aura Perception can see and she is way farther out than it’s limit. That’s odd. Is this a function of my class skill I didn’t know about?
I pull up my status again and look at my intrinsic stats. Confirming my suspicions, my mana is flickering between 100 and 99 percent. I’m expending mana to keep track of Eva subconsciously, and luckily I’m recovering more mana than I’m spending.
I sigh. It’s good that I can find her now if need be, but that still doesn’t solve my problem. I wish Eva was here so she could give me guidance. I think back to what Eva said about getting new skills.
“I just have to focus on what I want and make it happen.”
I look over at the other dead mole. There’s no way I can eat all that meat before it goes bad. If I had some sort of magical ability to freeze it? That seems like a good place to start, but my instincts tell me otherwise.
I’ve been having a feeling ever since I got this class. I called them instincts since that’s the closest comparison I could make. For some reason I can just tell what’s possible with my class and what isn’t.
I start to ruminate over this feeling I have. I do this for what I think is an hour and I manage to come to a few conclusions.
I can’t cast magic the same way Eva and the other cultists do. I don’t know the process of how they're casting magic, but I can tell that their mana flows outward and mine flows inward. “Whatever the hell that means.”
The way I do magic is actually similar to what the Abominable Mole did before I stomped on its head. It is not the same thing though. Its magic was more ‘natural’ while my magic is ‘demanding’ or… commanding?
I think harder. The moles could perform that magic because their soul was already in the shape that lets them do that. I can alter my soul to different shapes to let me do different things. I think.
The moles' mana flow was inward, like me. But they couldn’t change their soul like I can. If I can manipulate my soul to be like the moles, could I breathe fire?
I look over at the dead mole and search my feelings. A grin breaks my face “I can. And that’s not all, is it?”
I walk over to the mole to get a closer look at its dead body. Its soul is already gone. It didn’t dissipate. Its soul was whisked away by something the moment it died. I wonder where it went.
“Maybe it went to the afterlife. I can see something like that existing in this world.”
I wanted to see a mole soul again because I think it would help me get breath magic. That’s what I’m calling it.
I sit cross legged in front of the mole. I’ll just have to make do with my memory with its soul. I think back to the moment when I stomped on the moles head. I felt it with my perception.
I close my eyes and manifest my aura completely. The mole's soul shifted. No, it grew and then deflated when the fire came out. What the hell did it do? I focus on that moment as hard as I can.
It breathed in. It’s soul inflated. It exhaled fire. It’s soul deflated.
It clicks. It’s where the soul was located. The mole soul wasn’t just in its chest, the soul was in its lungs. Or actually lung. I only found one large lung when I butchered the other mole.
Wait, it didn’t have a diaphragm. Was it using its fucking soul to breath?! That’s badass! “Ha! What a weird ass creature.”
From what I can tell, the mole was drawing air into its soul. Then used its inward flow of mana to ignite the air. Then it exhaled fire.
I crack a single eyelid open to look at the monster and I think back to Eva’s advice again. Think of what I want and make it happen.
I close my eyes and breathe in through my nose, deeply. The aura coating my body flares. I exhale out my mouth and my aura shudders… nothing comes out.
I furrow my brows “This is gonna take a while like last time, huh?”
I sigh and tilt my head to the side. I decide to get up and take off my cloak to use it as a cushion to sit on again. I get comfortable and take a few quick breaths. I look down at the mole then close my eyes.
I whisper “What I want is-” I breathe in sharply and exhale deeply and I feel my mana-
Drop.
I open my eyes to see the mole, and everything else in a cone in front of me, covered in frost. I feel the temperature of the air in the room fall several degrees.
I get a notification “Holy shit.”
Congratulations, you have unlocked a class skill
-
(Frost Breath)
I did it! “I’m like a fucking dragon!”
That was so cool! I reach over to the dead mole and touch it. My finger sinks into its fat. “It’s not cold enough yet.”
I smile and breathe in once more. This time instead of manifesting my aura completely, I try to manipulate my aura to cover only my lungs. I blow and a cone of frozen air flies out of my mouth. It is far colder than before and the mole freezes all the way through.
After I empty my lungs I immediately fall backwards and gasp for air. A profound exhaustion holds me down, similar to when I used Obscene Presence. I pull up my status to see that my mana is at 2 percent.
It seems that making Frost Breath stronger makes it expend more mana. I roll my eyes at myself, duh!
Anyway! I managed to preserve this mole by freezing it. I’ll probably have to keep using Frost Breath to keep its temperature down though. Well, it’ll be good practice to level the skill.
I immediately want to learn fire breathing next. If I breathe fire and ice, will it come out all swirled or will I just exhale mana dense, room temperature air. I wanna find out, but I hope it’s the former!
It takes about 10 minutes for my mana to get to 30 percent. In that time, I used the skin of the mole I butchered to make some straps. I tie the straps around the icy mole and sling it over my shoulder. My Strength is high enough that I barely feel the large creature pulling me down. My cloak serves as a nice border between me and the mole so I don’t get frostbite.
By now I realize something, it’s completely dark. The campfire is extinguished and now there is only absolute darkness. All the more reason to learn fire breathing as fast as possible.
I start walking in spite of my lack of sight. I actually go in the same direction Eva went. It's not to try and make up with her or anything. I don’t even think that's possible. I am following her because she is trying to get out of the dungeon.
I wanted to explore the dungeon because I assumed we could leave in a short amount of time. But after finding out how big this place is? Leaving this place alone would take months, maybe even years.
So, I’m gonna follow Eva and when we get out of here, we’ll go our separate ways. I find myself frowning.
Whatever, I need to figure out fire breathing now. I close my eyes. It’s not like I can see anyway. I’m holding onto the left wall and I’m testing every step. Last thing I want is to find a drop off and fall to my death.
I manifest my aura and I start focusing on my breathing. It’s taking way longer than it took to get Frost Breath. Probably I’m not putting every ounce of my being into learning it. Do I not want it enough?
I accidentally triggered Frost Breath for the 3rd time. “Uugh!”
My frustration slowly builds as time goes on. I have to keep focusing on Eva’s soul so I can keep track of her. The darkness around only fuels my annoyance as I almost trip over a rock for the 50th time.
The irritation gets to a point where my breathing becomes erratic. Eventually I lost my temper completely and let go of the wall. I uncaringly walk forward at a fast pace and focus even harder on my breathing.
I breathe in sharply and finally I feel my mana begin to drop. Before I’m able to exhale I dumbly trip over a random stalagmite and the magic in my lungs dissipates as I land face first into the floor.
I drop the frozen mole onto the ground and roll over on my back. I open my eyes and I stare at the pitch dark ceiling. I slowly process what just happened and disappointment starts filling my whole body.
That disappointment turns into annoyance as I start thinking about everything that has happened to this point. I begin beating the back of my head into the ground. My aura slowly recedes back into my body.
The annoyance starts turning into self loathing. I think about everything I did wrong. How much I was an asshole to Eva cause though it was funny. I start slamming my head into the ground harder as cracks begin to form in the rock. My soul begins shrinking further as I subconsciously start squeezing it with Magical Aura Manipulation.
The self loathing turns to hatred toward the world. Why the fuck am I in this place. Did I leave to entertain myself? To entertain Ydri? Fuck that! I slam my head even harder as rock shatters around me.
My soul constricts even tighter and starts glowing brighter. My spiraling emotions reach a new low and finally-
My soul breaks through my manipulation to crush it and explodes.
It rushes to fill every corner of my being and my aura rips itself from my body. Black fire is flung in every direction, setting the entire cavern ablaze. I got new notifications.
Congratulations, you have unlocked a class skill
-
(SoulFire)
(Magical Aura Manipulation) has leveled up! (2 → 3)
“Huh, my mana hit 0 percent.”
I passed out.
---
I woke up in pain. It’s like I just did a full body workout the night before. I groan and pull open my eyelids. I see the ceiling of the dungeon illuminated by a pale fluorescent-like light.
I blink and turn my head to the side. I see dozens of small black fires floating around me. They’re outlined by a silver shimmer. “Woah.” I remember the skill I got right before I passed out. SoulFire was it?
Suddenly I felt something was wrong with my body, aside from the aching. I look down and see nothing particularly bad. I mean, apart from all the dried mole blood. It hits me.
I look down at my chest, “No soul.”
I look back up at the small embers burning around me. “Oh.”
Oh man. I attempt to pull the flames back together. They lazily float through the air and slowly gather in front of me. The fire melts back into each other until it's one solid black flame. There it is.
I pull my soul closer to me. It drifts through the air and then collides into my chest. As soon as it enters my body, the pain immediately recedes and the room goes dark. Having your soul removed from your body is painful, who knew?
I’m about to relax for a moment, but I immediately panic. I swivel my head around to find Eva’s soul. My eyes land on a small speck in the distance. I sigh in relief, I thought that I had lost track of her soul when I completely depleted my mana.
I sit up and bury my face into my knees. The exhaustion I’m feeling is more mental than anything right now. I decide to manifest my aura and my entire body lights ablaze. The cave lights up and I can see around me again.
The dungeon is scarred from what I did to it, scorch marks everywhere.
I take note that my clothing wasn’t affected by the fire, so that’s a plus. But the mole and part of the strap I made is kaput. Turned to ash.
I look over at Eva’s soul once more and I notice that it’s no longer moving. She must be resting. Wait, if she can’t eat meat, how is she gonna get food? She didn’t have any rations on her, I checked.
Well, whatever. I bet she’ll figure something out. If Eva’s now resting, I’ll rest as well. I need to recover more mana. Magical Aura Perception will let me know if anything gets close.
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---
After about 30 minutes I realized something. I’m bored as hell!
I get up and start walking in Eva’s direction again. She hasn’t started moving, but I think I should get closer. I’m not sure how far away I can track Eva and I don’t intend to find out.
I have my aura fully manifested. My body is covered by glowing black flames and I’m using my SoulFire to light the way. Using SoulFire like this surprisingly doesn’t expend any mana. I think that’s because I’m not using it to burn stuff.
I’m pretty sure this also means that my aura is now visible to other people now. I tried showing Eva previously, but she couldn’t see anything. That’s because she doesn’t have Magical Aura Perception. Now though my soul is emitting light, others should be able to see it.
Oh, I haven’t checked the description of my new skills yet! As I’m about to pull my status, Magical Aura Perception picks something up to my right.
I turn my head to look at it. It’s a soul with a dark green flame about a hundred feet away. It’s on the other side of the dungeon wall and isn’t moving. I gauge the size of the soul to be only slightly bigger than my own.
“Thank god for wall hacks.” My face breaks into a grin.
I start running down the dungeon to try and find a path to what I presume is a monster. I turn a corner to see if I can see it from this angle.
As soon as I see them my heart drops and my aura dims. Massive cockroaches, hundreds of them.
(Roach Legion)
(Roach Legion)
(Roach Legion)
(Roach Legion)
-----
(Roach Legion)
(Roach Brood Queen / ???)
The Roach Legion’s are basically cockroaches the size of my forearm. I also see that the roaches don’t have souls. All except for that thing.
It has a body in the shape of a snake, but is definitely not a snake. Its head is dark and has dozens of eyes. The only legs it has are clustered around its neck and 4 long mandibles hang loosely around its mouth. The rest of the body is translucent, showing off the pulsating organs within. They’re holes that run along its back and I see a Roach Legion pull themselves out of one of them.
(Observe) has leveled up! (1 → 2)
(Roach Brood Queen / level 27)
“Gross.”
As soon as I speak the shuffling roaches stop and their queen shifts its whole body and cranes its head towards me. Its legs dangle like decorations, completely unaiding its movements. The monster's soul dims slightly as we hold each other's gaze.
Is it… waiting to see what I’ll do-
The Roach Brood Queen screeches and its legion starts rushing to me. I immediately use Frost Breath to blow frozen air into the swarm of roaches. I killed several of them and dozens of them slowed down at best. The rest of the Roach Legions trample over their injured comrades to get me.
I grimace at the disturbing sight “fuck it.” My aura grows brighter as SoulFire flares. I charge back at the swarm and grab onto the first roach that reaches me.
I crush it in my fist and green viscera splatters all over my arm and face. The corpse lights ablaze with black flame and I throw it back into the swarm. It manages to burn a couple other roaches.
I kick the next one, setting it on fire and flying through the air. The rest get to me and start crawling up my legs. They ignore my SoulFire and cut through my overalls to bite into me. A few die to the fire and a few more die to my stomps as I run through the ocean of Roach Legions.
You have slain a (Roach Legion/level 0)
-
Very little experience rewarded
You have slain a (Roach Legion/level 0)
-
Very little experience rewarded
You have slain a (Roach Legion/level 0)
-
Very little experience rewarded
-----
You have slain a (Roach Legion/level 0)
-
Very little experience rewarded
You have leveled up! (10 → 11)
-
You have earned (5) stat points
I ignore the flood of notifications. I continue to slaughter the roaches by crushing them and setting them on fire. I let out another Frost Breath at a cluster of bugs. I look back at the Roach Brood Queen as it just sits there, watching me massacre its children.
“What?! Are you just gonna let your subjects die?!”
It doesn’t react to my taunt. A roach reaches my shoulder and bites my ear.
“Damnit!”
I activate Aura of Strength out of spite and flick the insect. It explodes and covers me further in roach guts and slime. Much to my annoyance the Roach Legions are starting to do some real damage. It’s gonna be a death of a thousand cuts if I don’t do something.
I decide to ignore the swarm completely and run directly to the queen. I hear a click come from its mandibles and its legs start swinging. The legs carve blue lines into the air. Is that- magic?
I quickly decide I need to reach it before it does whatever it's doing. I manipulate my aura to my legs and activate Aura of Strength to jump at it.
Right before I land on top of it, the roach queen vanishes.
“What the fuck?!”
I look around to find it, but I remember to just use Magical Aura Perception. I found it behind me, where I was standing when I first entered its lair. “Did you just teleport?”
The Roach Brood Queens mandibles start rapidly clicking and its dark green soul glows bright. I have a strong feeling that it’s laughing at me. “Oh, I’m gonna make you regret that.”
The queen screeches and the legion’s restart their assault. I fully manifest my aura again and run back into the fray. I don’t pay too much mind to the canon fodder. Stomping on them when I can and letting SoulFire take care of any that crawl up my legs.
When I get halfway to the queen, it starts scratching blue lines into the air again. As soon as it does I stop running. The legs of the queen halt and I can tell all its eyes are focused on me.
I raise a hand at it and the Roach Brood Queens soul dims. I can tell it’s trying to parse what I'm doing. I’m gonna use that fact against it.
I activate Obscene Presence.
Its form pulls back for a moment as I hear a screech that I think is the bug equivalent of a gasp. I deactivate Obscene Presence before it consumes too much mana and the queen closes its many eyes and starts thrashing around violently.
It squishes many of its own children as it swings its massive body around. Surprisingly the other roaches simply stop moving. I think they don’t think for themselves and that's why they didn’t die, or even react to Obscene Presence.
I drop to my knees as exhaustion fills me. I check my mana and see it’s at 9 percent. Shit, I had spent too much mana.
The Roach Brood Queen uprights itself and turns its rage filled eyes at me. Its soul shines brightly and the carapace on the back of the creature breaks open, revealing massive insect wings. It charges directly at me. It’s so fast I barely have time to fall backwards.
But at the last moment it swerves out of the way and slams into a nearby wall.
I’m slightly shaken from almost dying. There was nothing I could have done and I would have died.
The queen pulls its head from the rock and its eyes start rapidly glancing around the room. I furrow my brows as the monster completely ignores me right in front of it. It lets out another blood curtailing screech and I prepare myself for the Roach Legions.
To my surprise the legions start shuffling around randomly, attacking at nothing. The queen blows past me again and slams into another wall.
Oh, it's hallucinating. The queen's sanity must have dropped below 70 percent at least. I need to take this time to recover my mana. I also have a hunch about something and I decided I’m gonna take the risk.
I dump all 5 of my stat points into Intellect. My hunch is that intellect affects the recovery rate of mana. And I was right.
My mana was at 10 percent and jumps up all the way to 33 and slowly ticks up to 34. I grin as I manifest my aura once again. It comes at me again and I step out of the way. It keeps slamming its body into the wall, ceiling, and floor.
It's trying desperately to find me and it accidentally kills many of its own.
I bide my time as my mana slowly recovers. When it hits 50 percent I decide to make my move. I wait for the Roach Brood Queen to come near me again. My aura shifts to my legs and I activate Aura of Strength.
The queen flies past and I jump at it. I rapidly manipulate my aura to my arms and grab onto one of its wings. It immediately falls and crashes into the ground.
I pull myself onto its back and grab its other wing as well. The queen starts thrashing around and screeching. I, however- pull.
Aura of Strength lets me easily rip the wings off the back of the queen. I let go of the amputated wings and grab onto the two new open wounds. I let SoulFire seep into its back.
It cries out in pain and slams into another wall. My grip strength with aura is too strong to throw me off though.
I reach forward with my right and grab into another piece of exoskeleton. My fingers sink deep into its body and I start crawling toward its head.
When I reach the front I start pulling off mandibles one by one. I grin ear to ear as I pull off the last mandible and look at its mouth.
The Roach Brood Queens soul dims as it screeches at me for the final time.
I give it an innocent smile “Night Night!” My soul shifts into my lungs and I blow frozen air down its throat.
The queen shudders in place as its insides are annihilated. The entire length of the body freezes and cracks start forming along its neck. I finish exhaling and fall off the brood queen's head.
I roll over, exhausted. I look up at the frozen monster and I see more cracks forming around its neck. The head finally falls off and bounces along the ground. It rolls next to me, its beady eyes still open and I meet its gaze.
I burst out laughing. That was so much fun! I wanna do it again!
You have slain a (Roach Legion/level 0)
-
Very little experience rewarded
-----
You have slain a (Roach Legion/level 0)
-
Very little experience rewarded
You have slain a (Roach Brood Queen/level 27)
-
Massive experience rewarded
You have leveled up! (11 → 12)
-
You have earned (5) stat points
-----
You have leveled up! (14 → 15)
-
You have earned (5) stat points
(Quick Thinking) has leveled up! (1 → 2)
(Pain Tolerance) has leveled up! (1 → 2)
(Magical Aura Perception) has leveled up! (3 → 4)
(Aura of Strength) has leveled up! (2 → 3)
(Frost Breath) has leveled up! (1 → 2)
(Frost Breath) has leveled up! (2 → 3)
(SoulFire) has leveled up! (1 → 2)
I let out a satisfied sigh then wince when I try to get back up. Though I’m pretty lucky I didn’t get hurt more, but my body is still not in good shape.
I don’t have any major injuries, but I’m covered in hundreds of cuts and bruises from the Roach Legions. It makes me wanna laugh that the level 0 monsters did way more damage than the level 27 monster.
Still, the next skill I need to try and get next should be a healing one.
I tilt my head to the side. It's the most amount of movement I can do right now. The rest of the roaches seemed to have died when the Roach Brood Queen died. If they were still kicking they probably could kill me with the state I’m in.
I rest my head back down and look up at the ceiling. A grin breaks my face.
“Status.”
Name (Tiffany Day) / Age (23) / Race (Human)
Alignment (Chaotic Neutral)
Class (Monk) / Level (15)
Stats / Stat Points (20)
Strength (21)
Durability (44)
Agility (7)
Endurance (7)
Intellect (13)
Soul (20)
Intrinsic Status
Vitality (62%)
Stamina (8%)
Sanity (78%)
Mana (1%)
Traits
(Interloper)
(Serial Killer)
(Ydri’s Jester)
Skills
(Quick Thinking) level 2
(Pain Tolerance) level 2
(Observe) level 2
Class Skills
(Obscene Presence) level 1
(Magical Aura Perception) level 4
(Magical Aura Manipulation) level 3
(Aura of Strength) level 3
(Frost Breath) level 3
(SoulFire) level 2
“Now, what should I spend my points on-” A new notification interrupts me.
New Objective / Earn Trust!
-
Gain the favor of Eva Le’tain (0/1)
-
Reward / New Skill
I stare blankly at the notification. After a solid 10 seconds, I scowl “What the fuck?!”
