Book 2: Chapter 2 — Soul Strain

Book 2: Chapter 2 — Soul Strain

Noah stared at the invitation in his hand, before putting it into his inventory. “What’s the time frame on the invitation?”

“The Lord didn’t specify, but it would be rude to keep him waiting for an answer. That said, you can claim that you’re still recovering from your injuries if you want to delay,” Nae replied.

“That’d be nice. I’d like to rank up before I go at least,” Noah said.

“Actually, you really shouldn’t,” Aurelia said.

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t have a full set,” Nae replied.

“A full set?” Noah asked, confused.

“A full set. Each path lets you unlock four abilities on your own. Naturally, since most people only have one path at rank F, this is not a difficult task as you always start with one ability unlocked. But for you...” Nae trailed off.

“The reason you unlock a full set is because you gain your fifth ability on rank up. This ability cannot be obtained through a Tome, and is a product of your own actions, the rest of your ability sets, and the direction you want your Path to go. When ranking up, you’ll essentially craft your set ability that’ll define your Path,” Aurelia said. “My Flames of Fury was my set ability for example. I unlocked it when I ranked up to rank E.”

Noah frowned. “So I can’t rank up till I have all my abilities filled out?” Noah asked.

“You can, it would just be really stupid if you did,” Nae said.

“There’s also another thing we have to discuss,” Aurelia said, glancing at Nae.

“Noah, do you know how Astral Scripts and leveling work?” Nae asked.

“You kill things, you fight or do things in accordance with your path and you level up, which strengthens your soul,” Noah replied.

“That is correct, but not accurate. It doesn’t quite strengthen your soul, but more so, increases its size and potential well. The reason we limit attribute strengthening is because rapidly increasing our attributes can cause harm to our bodies as they fail to keep up with our soul,” Aurelia said.

“It’s called being Oversouled. It’s one of the most stupid things you can do. And guess who almost did it to themselves?” Nae said, looking at Noah.

“Okay... so how bad is that?” he asked. “I feel alright.”

“Show me your Astral Script,” Nae said.

Noah looked at her before glancing at Aurelia in surprise.

“Don’t look at her, show me! This is a private conversation and I’ve already seen it anyway,” Nae said.

“How?” Noah asked.

“Right, you don’t know. I may be a half, but I’m still a Celestian. Just mentally direct it towards me and I’ll be able to see it,” Nae said.

Noah thought over it for a moment, before nodding. Reaching out to his Astral Script, he opened the page, before trying to mentally nudge it towards Nae.

You’re about to share your Astral Script with Nae Celestine.

Do you agree to this action?

Yes/No?

Noah selected the yes prompt, as he felt something link him and Nae together.

Astral Script:

Name: Noah Brown

Race: Human (Symbiont)

Rank: F

Paths:

Exsanguinator (Rare) - level 50

Astralwalker (Epic) - level 50

Void Hunter (Epic) - level 50

Attributes:

Power: 231

Agility: 200

Constitution: 223

Mystic: 264

Attribute points: 0

“By the stars... how long ago did you arrive on Erandir again?” Nae asked, glancing at Noah.

“A month I think? Maybe five weeks” Noah replied.

“And you went from nothing to here in a single month?” Nae asked again?

Just looking at the description brought a smile to Noah’s face. He’d only grown more and more ridiculously strong as his abilities had reached higher ranks.

Moving on, Noah opened Dimensional Storage next.

[Dimensional Storage (Legendary, Intermediate) - level 10]

The astral energies reside in your soul, forming a pocket dimension that you have access to. Allows you to store things inside your own dimensional storage and merge other dimensional storages into your own to permanently increase their size. You can anchor three items to summon into your dimensional storage regardless of distance.

Dimensional Storage on the other hand, had not had any changes that immediately stood out to Noah, but upon practice he’d found a few things of note. The inside of his storage felt a lot more stable now, the drain on his own mana reduced significantly. If Noah wanted, even without meditation he could remain inside for nearly five minutes before his mana ran out.

But the larger change had been the item allocation. Three slots hovered above the ability, where Noah could mark items he wanted to attach to. Testing with a pebble, Noah had throw it outside his window as far away as he possibly could. After the pebble had long escaped his line of sight, Noah had tried to teleport it back. The pebble had returned immediately to his dimensional pocket. But what was even more surprising, was how he could assign himself as the target too. The act was pointless as Blink allowed him to enter his dimensional storage at any time, but it showed him that there were no restrictions placed upon assigning people or living things as the target, and if he could pair this with the dimensional pockets he had, and blink, he could effectively swap places with allies and enemies mid-battle. He’d been unable to sleep properly as ideas had kept flooding him on the various ways he could use his new abilities.

Trying to keep his grin and the itch to escape this room in check, Noah closed the menu, before moving on to his skills. Both Soul Modification and Rot Resistance had reached rank intermediate, and he opened them up to look at their descriptions.

[Soul Modification (Intermediate) - lvl 10]

You dabble with your soul, meddling with the very connection of the Astral Script to your existence. The task is risky, but you’ve managed to avoid the drawbacks for now. Become capable of modifying your Soul and Astral Script to your preferences. Become capable of peering deeper into the underlying layers of the Astral Script.

Noah had nicknamed the skill, developer mode, as it essentially allowed him to peer back the layers of his Astral Script, and look at its insides. He had not tried to mess around too much given how unstable his soul had felt ever since he’d received Hellion’s blessings, but the temptation to do so had never quite left him.

Moving to the last item in the list, Noah opened the description for his Rot Resistance.

[Rot Resistance (Intermediate) - lvl 10]

You’ve survived the deadliest of Rots, and now your body is resistant to its effects. Your blood harbors the rot with no harm to you any longer.

The last one was the one he was the least sure how to feel about. According to the description, his blood no contained the crimson rot, so he could no longer use his healing abilities from lifeblood as long as he kept the resistance on. He could turn off the resistance if he wanted to, but then using his spear would inflict him with Crimson Rot again, if he ever forgot to turn it back on before he did.

Closing the menu, Noah remembered the reward from his last quest. Reaching out, he opened the party menu.

Party Members:

Noah Brown:

Exsanguinator (Rare) - level 50

Astralwalker (Epic) - level 50

Void Hunter (Epic) - level 50

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Two bars displayed his status on his interface.

“Hey Aurelia,” Noah called out. “Can you come here for a second?”

Aurelia looked at Noah in surprise, Rising from her book as she walked closer. “What is it?” she asked.

Noah did not reply, looking through his menu before he found the option to add a member. Opening the option, he pointed it at Aurelia as a prompt rose.

You’ve asked Aurelia Fauster to join your Party.

“Noah... What did you do?” Aurelia asked, staring at a screen floating in front of her.

“I sent you an invite to join my party. Not sure how it works yet, but I think I have an idea. Click on yes,” he said.

Aurelia looked at him uncertainly for a moment, before she pressed the yes option on her screen.

Aurelia Fauster has joined your Party!

Party Members:

Noah Brown:

Exsanguinator (Rare) - level 50

Astralwalker (Epic) - level 50

Void Hunter (Epic) - level 50

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Aurelia Fauster:

Berserker Monk (Rare) - level 104

Flame Touched (Rare) - level 102

Cinderborn (Legendary) - level 105

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Noah looked at the interface, before his eyes widened in surprise as he turned towards Aurelia. “You got a legendary Path?!”