The Lone Wanderer

Percy scanned the sea of souls, looking for his next host. Having grown more proficient at drawing the concealment runes, he was ready to return to the Vault for his next lesson.

Initially, he’d thought to look for an Orange or Green body this time. According to Gabe, higher grade challenges yielded exponentially more credits, and those were the two grades he had personally experienced – so he’d have some idea of what to expect.

But he’d changed his mind.

Realistically, he doubted he’d even get through the first wave of the combat challenges with a beast clone. They were tough, even for mages with bloodlines and blessings. Let alone for somebody who couldn’t cast a single spell.

‘My only chance to earn some credits is to grind my way up from the Red magiscript challenge.’

The rewards would be minuscule at the start, but if his budding understanding of runecrafting could get him through the first couple of waves, he should manage to purchase some more reading material. Enough for him to keep going.

He did consider asking his friend for a loan, but he quickly shot the idea down. He’d already imposed on Gabe way too much. The guy had his own problems to deal with – whether it was his gruesome injuries, the two cores he had to support, his own training, or his worry over his future in the artificial world. It might take Percy a little longer, but he wanted to stand on his own two feet.

‘Or however many feet I end up with, I suppose…’n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

In any case, Percy was trying to pick between two Red beasts, when something else caught his attention.

‘What the hell is that?!’ he wondered, glancing at a strange Yellow soul different from any he had seen before.

Percy was pretty confident it wasn’t on its deathbed. He had sent enough clones by now to tell that this person was essentially healthy. Yet, somehow, they were not rejecting him, radiating a powerful attractive force instead! In fact, it was almost like they were intentionally inviting him to possess them!

Curious, he approached. This was obviously suspicious, but he’d never seen anything like this and, in his experience, new was good. Soon, several more souls popped up in his surroundings. Most of them appeared normal, but a significant fraction behaved exactly like the first one. They ‘looked’ wounded, though it was as if their injuries were artificially exaggerated. It reminded Percy of chumming the waters to lure a fish in.

Part of him wanted to bolt. He had no idea what was up with this place, but he had a gut feeling that remaining here could spell trouble. Still, he hesitated to peer away. This was unlike anything he’d encountered before. He’d never even heard of anybody who could interact with the plane of souls like him, yet this seemed like an entire culture of people who regularly did just that – to some extent.

‘Do they all have a soul affinity?!’

It was a bizarre thought. From what he’d seen, his affinity was one of the rarest. At least, he’d never met anyone else with it. But the idea that some race of people could be born with a disproportional proclivity towards a specific affinity wasn’t new to him. Everyone on Huehue was stuck with the pure affinity. Even his family’s bloodline affected his relatives in a similar manner, giving many of them the life affinity.

‘Well, now what do I do?’

This could easily be some kind of trap, but it was also a unique opportunity. Whatever these people were after was probably unrelated to him. After all, he doubted another wanderer existed, otherwise Metatron wouldn’t have been so keen to recruit him.

‘I could play it safe and go for an Orange host…’

The good news was that he had a lot of options. He spotted people all the way from Red to Yellow in this state. A Red host might be too weak to get much done with. They might not even know anything useful for him to learn. Conversely, a powerful one could be difficult to deal with if they ended up being hostile.

Fuelled to the brim with teal mana, he estimated an Orange core was about the most he could safely handle. If they proved to have malicious intentions towards him, he should be able to fight his way out of the body. Happy with his analysis, he was about to go for it, when he felt a piercing pain in his “side” as something slammed into him like a cannonball.

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‘What the fuck?!’ he cursed in shock, trying to extricate himself from his aggressor.

Whatever it was, it had chomped down on his soul, showing no intention of letting go. The creature thrashed about, trying to tear a chunk off. The pain was excruciating, though he could handle that, having experienced many gruesome injuries with his soul over the years. Percy was more unsettled by the principle behind this situation – if not downright frightened. He’d never met another soul in the space between worlds, much less one capable of attacking him!

Forcing himself to calm down, he drew some of the fused mana, stabbing right into the creature’s maw with a hastily made knife. It seemed to do something as the monster shuddered, its jaw opening slightly, easing the pain on his soul a little. Though it refused to let go entirely.

Stubborn as he was, Percy didn’t give up either, pushing the construct even deeper in, trying to locate its brain – assuming it even had one. At first, it didn’t do anything, but he continued to stab around blindly, trying to fend the monster off.

‘If only I could see what the hell I was dealing with!’

Sadly, this wasn’t an option. Strictly speaking, he wasn’t even sure it was a living creature. It definitely seemed to behave like one, but it might just be a spell, cast by the residents of the mysterious world.

One clone and one disembodied monster fought for what felt like hours, with their survival on the line, as Percy expended more and more of his stashed mana, inflicting all sorts of nasty wounds on his attacker. To his relief, the abomination eventually let go. Perhaps, he’d weakened it, or maybe it had decided its meal wasn’t worth the hassle. 𝙧

Either way, Percy wasn’t exactly in the mood to celebrate. By now, he was down to a third of his reserves, his soul wisp severely injured. The ethereal cord linking him to his main body was already pulling at him intensely. Perhaps, he’d spent way too long in this place, or maybe it was his poor condition cutting his trip short. Whatever the case, he had to make a decision, and he had to do it fast.

‘Do I return to Remior, or give this place a shot?’

Worst-case scenario, he’d get himself destroyed. It would certainly be unpleasant for him, but it honestly wouldn’t be the end of the world for his main body. While he’d lose the clone’s memories, the original Percy would be fine. He was confident he would recover completely given some time.

Technically, there was a chance he’d permanently lose another chunk, but he seriously doubted that was the case. The scar in his sternum had probably remained because of the ethereal cord linking him to his familiar. If the clone got destroyed entirely, the wound would likely close.

‘Even if I end up trapped, I can probably self-destruct with what little mana I have left.’

Just as he was contemplating his choices, two more creatures bit at him, shaking him out of his thoughts. At first, he panicked, thinking he couldn’t possibly deal with them in his current state. However, he soon realized they were much smaller than the last one.

‘No. You fucking don’t!!’

Expelling another costly burst of mana, he cleaved the creatures right off him, leaving his stash down to a fifth of his original reserves. It wouldn’t be enough to fix a regular host, but these people didn’t seem like they’d need too many patches.

‘To hell with it, I’ll do it!’

Having decided to take a gamble, he rushed towards the nearest soul he could find. The first two were completely healthy, only the third one being in this peculiar condition. It was at Yellow – stronger than he had initially planned for – but he no longer had the luxury to delay. More monsters could attack any moment now. And he sorely lacked the means to defend himself for a third time.

The strange soul enlarged in his vision, as he finally escaped to “safety”, finding himself in the somewhat familiar position inside somebody’s body. Though he felt extremely crammed this time, his soul wisp having to squeeze to a fraction of its size to fit. The cracks in this person’s soul were tiny, not leaving him any space to move.

Suddenly, he felt something pushing him in a certain direction. It was as if he was clogging a narrow pipe, and somebody was filling one end with water. Though it wasn’t water – it was something else he recognized.

‘Soul mana!’

But he couldn’t control it, as it clearly belonged to somebody else, filled to the brim with their willpower. Without his core, he couldn’t replace it with his own.

The mana continued to push, as the friction against the pipe’s walls hurt him, scraping chunks of his soul away from him. He was about to beg his host to stop whatever it was they were doing, when he finally popped out one end, finding himself inside a slightly larger space. It was still small, but at least it didn’t hurt as much to be there. It contained even more soul mana than the pipe, his host finally allowing it to flood Percy, soothing his injuries slightly.

‘Am I inside this person’s mana core?!’

His connection to his new host was significantly weaker than any of his previous ones, as he hadn’t interfaced with their soul as much, and thus couldn’t tap into their body, nor their senses. A few seconds later, his host spoke to somebody, their words inadvertently seeping into Percy’s mind. At least, the connection seemed to bundle the words with their corresponding meaning, allowing him to understand them – a minor convenience in an otherwise shitty situation.

The voice sounded female, but he wasn’t sure how well his preconceived notions translated to the natives.

“Dad! It worked! I’ve caught one!”