The Lone Wanderer

The soul mana gushed through Percy’s channels like a torrential river, lighting up a silver maelstrom around his sternum. Tears formed and closed throughout his soul, but he didn’t pay them any attention, having long grown used to this version of his boosting art.

Instead, his attention was glued to the hole around his stomach, as it had been over the last couple of weeks. The rush of mana tried to fill the crater like a lake, a lot of it leaking out of the wound, though Percy held it back as best as he could. Instead, he guided it to stick to the surface of the hole as much as possible, cutting down the losses.

In addition, he willed it to act with purpose, boosting his soul’s natural regeneration rather than blindly attempting to patch the wound up. Not only that, but he focused it in interspaced locations, prioritizing the growth of thin tendrils all over the wound, rather than letting the mana act uniformly.

[Congratulations! You have mastered a new spell: Mend – Crude!]

‘Finally.’

He had spent several days making up for his nearly destroyed clone, the crater having already shrunk from the size of a grapefruit to that of a cherry. The latest healing art he had brought back from the mysterious girl – whose name he didn’t quite remember – had clearly done wonders, even in its incomplete state. Yet, it wasn’t until now that the Status deemed his mastery sufficient to list it along with the other spells.

Naturally, Percy was elated his efforts were recognized, but he didn’t let his concentration waver, continuing the arduous process of mending his soul. Doing so was especially critical right now, as Micky had informed him he was about to munch on a Yellow beast, providing him with another potent source of mana.

‘Starting.’ the crow spoke through their bond, sending him the image of a snake lying motionless under his talons.

Sure enough, more mana flooded Percy’s saturated soul a second later, forcing him to let some inside the crater. Like this, a portion would inevitably end up wasted, but he’d still lose less than if he allowed it to spill out randomly from his pores.

It wasn’t until four hours later that he finally stopped, satisfied with today’s improvements. The wound wasn’t entirely gone just yet, a small hole still present in his stomach, but it was already smaller than the scar in his sternum. Plus, this one didn’t have a cord extending outwards, so he was confident it would close completely tomorrow.

‘Can’t wait to resume sending clones.’

His latest misadventure had cost him some valuable time, though he didn’t regret it. How could he, having gained so much from it? Grinning, he pulled his Status up, taking some time to appreciate the fruit of his labour.

___

Percival Avalon

Mana cores:

• [Mana core 1 – Orange – Soul]
• [Mana core 2 – Orange – Pure]

Bloodline:

• [Clone] – Create a copy of yourself. Effect varies by affinity.

Spells:

• [Secret Art: Familiar – Crude]
• [Glove – Crude]
• [Mend – Crude]
• [Soul Harvester – Refined]
• [Reinforcement – Refined]
• [Synchronization – Refined]
• [Mantle of Deceit – Refined]

Decrees:

• [Phoebe’s Decree] – Grants access to your Status.
• [???] – Grants a bloodline.
• [Moirais’ Decree] – Grants a second mana core.
• [Metatron’s Decree] – Open a one-way portal to the Vault of Magic at will.

___

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Percy was back to seven spells, having previously ‘lost’ one when his Quarterstaff and his Parting Gift merged into the Soul Harvester. That said, the overall quality of his arsenal had never been higher, with over half his spells now being Refined! Even Elaine only had two of those, despite having two grades on him!

‘And I’m not even done digesting the gains from the last clone!’

He still wasn’t completely clear on how this absorption process was supposed to work, his memories of the trip a little foggy. But he did remember enough to give it a shot – as soon as his soul was back to normal. Whatever the result would be, it was definitely worth delaying his return to the Vault by a few more days…

***

‘Micky, are you ready?’ Percy asked through the cord.

Another two days had passed, and he was finally ready to begin. Luckily, his wound had fully closed yesterday, though he’d chosen to play it safe and get a good night’s sleep before experimenting with the strange technique.

‘Yes.’ the familiar replied, sending the image of another freshly slain carcass.

Percy nodded. It never hurt to have some extra mana stashed on the side, just in case. Sending a trickle to his eyes, he examined his soul once more, making sure everything was in order. He might use his boosting art later, but he’d decided to hold on for now, unsure whether it would help more than it hurt.

‘Ok, I’m going for it.’

Gathering some mana on his index finger, he delivered a few precise incisions in various sections of his soul, inflicting several narrow cuts along his limbs and torso. He winced in pain, of course – soul injuries weren’t something he’d ever get completely used to – but he kept going, having experienced far worse over the years.

Naturally, he would have never dared to try anything similar on his flesh. While the pain would have been much easier to stomach, he would have risked dying of blood loss. Luckily, his soul didn’t work that way. Besides, this latest series of injuries vastly paled in comparison to the crater he’d just finished healing.

‘Now, I think I’m supposed to leak mana through the cuts…’

This next part was a bit foggier in Percy’s mind, but he figured it couldn’t be far off. After taking a few seconds to replenish what little mana he had spent, he pulled a sliver of it from his core, splitting it in multiple parts, before pushing it out of the cuts all at once. At the same time, he focused on the pain, trying to exaggerate the idea of his injuries in his mind.

Unsurprisingly, having possessed dozens of dying bodies made this rather simple. He guessed he had a huge edge in this regard, compared to the natives of the mysterious world. Motes of silver soon leaked out of his wounds one after another, fading into nothing within mere metres of his body.

‘Is this really going to reach far enough to lure them here?’

He didn’t know if he had done a good job giving his mana the ‘scent’ of a dying soul, but it wouldn’t matter if the motes didn’t even leave Remior. His only hope was that the creatures could sense it from much further away, through the plane of souls that they presumably dwelled.

Pushing the rest of his mana out of his core, Percy repeated the process one more time, yet without seeing any tangible results several minutes later. His failure was definitely a little disappointing, but he wasn’t one to give up easily.

‘Time to bring out the big crossbows.’

Heeding his request, Micky soon sent him a ton of soul mana, as Percy activated Synchronization, now pushing the silver motes out several times more forcefully than before. Naturally, the substance tried to latch onto his injuries, to heal them as it usually did.

But he didn’t allow it.

In fact, he did the exact opposite. Not only did he actively prevent the cuts he had manually inflicted from closing, he even did his best to keep some of the tears caused by his boosting art open.

Visualizing the horrendous state of his past hosts and capitalizing on the intense pain, Percy kept at it for a couple more hours – until long after Micky had run out of mana to send.

‘I guess it’s not happening today.’

Sighing in defeat, he finally allowed the mana to close the minuscule cuts, restoring his soul to pristine condition. Percy wasn’t sure what had gone wrong. Yes, his memories of the technique weren’t too clear, but he was confident they were at least complete. There didn’t seem to be any key component missing. He’d even released a lot more mana than any Orange mage had any business wielding. Or even a Yellow, for that matter.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

‘Is it possible there just aren’t any of those strange creatures nearby?’

This was the only logical explanation he could come up with. After all, he was competing by his lonesome against an entire culture of people who did this regularly. Their collective efforts had probably drawn plenty of the creatures to linger in the outskirts of their world, massively lowering the barrier of entry for any individual person trying to lure one of them over.

‘For all I know, the nearest creature is on the other side of the universe…’

His expression drooped, as he grew more and more certain of his guess. If he was right, then he could only think of two possible solutions. The first was to leave Remior with his main body, repeating the experiment at a more suitable location.

‘Yeah, fat chance of that happening.’ he smiled bitterly.

Currently, his only means of travelling across worlds were his clones and Metatron’s Decree – neither of which would help in this situation. Which left him only one option. He had to massively expand the scope of his efforts, to lure the creatures from much further away.

‘I’m going to need a lot more soul mana…’