Dave

At least this time, as I was lying in my bed recovering, I was more functional than the last. I hoped that meant my recovery time wouldn't be as long as before, but even if it was, at least I had managed to cure both of the brothers at once. That just left Connie and my increasing worry about what was going on inside of her.

But I couldn't do anything about that until I could actually get out of bed reliably. So, for now, I decided to go over something I had been putting off for a while. Both my life and soul-siphon orbs had ranked up when I cured Rabyn, and I had been too out of it to do much with that information until yesterday.

I started with the life orb and found nothing new despite the rank increase. That was now two ranks of mana skills I didn't seem to be able to see on it, which told me I had to make the decision I had put off for so long.

Mana Orb Life (4) -Fifth Tier- Eternal Body (0) Requirements: Regeneration (25) Eternal Body allows the host to specialize the life orb towards ailments of the body. Only one eternal one mana skill in the fifth tier may be chosen. Eternal Soul (0) Requirements: Soul Regeneration (25) Eternal Soul allows the host to specialize the life orb towards ailments of the soul. Only one eternal mana skill in the fifth tier may be chosen.

While the decision was obvious now, I was still glad I had waited. I had been leaning toward eternal body, and that would have been a mistake considering what had since happened. I placed a single rank into eternal soul and looked through the new mana skills it had unlocked.

-Sixth Tier- Soul Telemetry (0) Requirements: Inner Vitality (35) Medical Telemetry (35) Eternal Soul (1) Soul Telemetry allows the host to use Medical Telemetry in order to detect diseases of the soul. Further ranks allow for greater data collection. Soul Stitch (0) Requirements: Stitch (35) Eternal Soul (1) Soul Stitch allows the host to repair damage to their own soul using a combination of soul and core mana to form a stitch across the damaged portion of their soul. Further ranks have increased benefits. -Seventh Tier- Greater Soul Regeneration (0) Soul Regeneration (25) Requirements: Soul Regeneration (25) Eternal Soul (1) Greater Soul Regeneration further enhances Soul Regeneration, allowing it to repair deeper soul damage from soul tears to soul exhaustion. Further ranks decrease the mana required.

The description of greater soul regeneration made me wish the mana orb had another tier so that I could actually unlock the mana skill instead of only reading the description. It would have been great to speed up my healing at the moment, but I couldn't have everything just because I needed it.

Both soul telemetry and soul stitch were both obvious enough to see their uses. I suspected they would make it easier to heal Connie, and I likely should have looked into this before I had attempted the Twinoges. But it was too late for that regret anyway. Everything had worked out in the end, even if my whole body ached at the moment.

Despite that, I did put the maximum twenty-five ranks into each, bumping up the other mana skills to make sure I met the requirements. These were worth my dwindling skill ranks.

I pulled up the soul siphon mana orb next, taking a look at the two mana skills I hadn't had access to before, and the surprising addition of four of them in the fifth-tier. That was more than I usually seemed to gain access to.

Mana Orb Soul Siphon (2) -Fourth Tier- Soul Mark (0) Requirements: Soul Detection (30) Soul Reflection (25) Soul Mark allows the host to place a sigil directly onto the soul of another. This will allow the host to track that soul as long as they are in range. Further ranks increase the range of detection. Inner Foundations (0) Requirements: Soul Strengthening (25) Soul Absorption (25) Inner Foundations allows the host to begin to channel absorbed soul mana into their own inner self. This will directly allow them to build their soul foundations, allowing for future refinement. Further ranks allow for more absorbed soul mana to be used in this fashion at once. -Fifth Tier- Soul Implosion (0) Requirements: Soul Drain (35) Soul Reflection (25) Soul Implosion allows the host to instead latch onto the targeted soul and collapse the energy onto itself, causing a catastrophic implosion as their core energies backfeed into their soul. Further ranks help to overcome the target's defenses. Soul Trickle (0) Requirements: Soul Drain (35) Soul Absorption (25) Soul Trickle allows the host to drain small amounts of soul energy from a large group of creatures, dispersing and somewhat hiding the effect. Further ranks increase the size of the group that Soul Trickle targets. Soul Weight (0) Requirements: Inner Foundations (25) Soul Realm Soul Weight increases the defensive capabilities of the host. It dramatically solidifies the outer edge of the host's soul, making it all the harder for anyone to pierce it. This also directly correlates with the soul walls that protect the host's soul realm. Further ranks harden this shell even more. Soul Turtle (0) Requirements: Inner Foundations (25) Soul Realm Soul Turtle allows the host to create a soul creature within their soul realm. Doing so will require ten infusions of unique soul energy. Once created, further abilities may be unlocked by providing more soul infusions. Each rank allows for the creation of a single Soul Turtle.

I still didn't know entirely what inner foundations did, but the addition of two fifth-tier mana skills that required both it and a soul realm gave me a few clues. I had already somewhat guessed it would work toward building up our platforms there, or possibly something resembling a house, but now, with the addition of soul turtle allowing me to create a soul creature of my own, I wasn't entirely sure.

Considering how Unakite had turned out, I wasn't overly enthusiastic about the idea of creating more life bound to me. But considering the strange monsters that seemed to infest the soul plane, it likely wasn't something I could avoid forever. At least I had easy access to the initial requirements, even if I was jumping the gun a bit on considering it. The orb would also need another tier before I could actually unlock anything beyond the descriptions of the mana skills.

Between soul trickle and soul implosion, I much preferred the former. It didn't seem nearly as destructive, and while I was sure there were plenty of times soul implosion could become handy, it was easier to predict the use of soul trickle. That tied into my shields, and my stronger soul regeneration could finally solve some of my soul mana reserve issues.

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Soul mark was something I had decided I wanted the first time I saw it, and with the new additions relying on inner foundations, that one was a must as well. As I increased the ranks in the mana skills to maximum across the soul siphon orb, I wondered how much I was hurting myself by not investing nearly as much into normal skills, or even my core skills, for that matter. The exchange rate of how many skill ranks it costs per single increase for a core skill made it a hard bargain, though.

I suspected the more I grew, the less I'd be able to ignore them both, and I was quickly reaching a point where I doubted I could easily support another mana orb. I'd either need to find another way to grow my own abilities or look deeper into core pearls. How did the invested skill ranks work once the orb became part of my core?

If those were returned to me in any fashion, it would be something I would probably want. There was also the whole mana orb awakening option within my class. That was one seemed a bit riskier though. Hopefully Karlinovo would learn more once he met with Henjen.

As I moved inner foundations up to the full twenty-five ranks, a new notification grabbed my attention, entirely pushing aside my thoughts on core pearls for the time being.

Mana Orb Rank Increase

That I hadn't been expecting. As far as I knew, the mana flow here still wasn't great for anything involving mana orbs ranking up. Also, why had it happened the second I fully invested in inner foundations? Was it possible that the growth orb's growth was somehow directly tied to my own?

Due to the way the requirements on the orb worked, I still couldn't unlock any new mana skills, but I could increase the ranks be on do a little better. I would still need another four ranks before I could touch the second-tier, and that meant another orb rank. I added looking into growth orbs to my ever-expanding list of things I'd never completely have time to look into.

With that out of the way, I pulled up a chat window, intending to check on the brothers.

Dave: Cecile, Elicec, how's your recovery going?

Cecile: A little tired, but not as bad as Rabyn made it out to be.

Elicec: I suspect that has a lot to do with our unique class feature we took the first step toward.

Rabyn: I would assume so, not all of us had the luxury of a soul class to blunt the force of Dave's soul surgery.

Dave: Any after effects of you two splitting apart?

Elicec: Not that we can tell.

Dave: Good. Karlinovo, any progress on Korl?

Karlinovo: He's still regenerating, healing, whatever you want to call it. The process is complex for a Mimic that was as badly hurt as he was. I'm reasonably sure he will survive, but it's going to take a while. Timon wants someone with him constantly, though, so we will need to figure those rotations out.

Dave: Yes, especially as I don't want anyone who doesn't already know to know.

Corey: Between the cores, we should be able to handle keeping watch. We require very little rest, and our manifested forms are able to function even while we are.

Karlinovo: That's one problem down, at least. Dave, how soon before you think you can get to Connie? I think it's best we remove that last soul knot as soon as we possibly can. Timon and I have both reached the same conclusion on Korl, and it's true we need her infection-free.

Dave: Some bigger faction working with the jesters and Korl discovered it?

Karlinovo: Something like that at least. It would explain why he thought we were the only safe place.

Dave: Yeah, he watched us beat them in the Arena, and even though we had a few soul knots, that would likely be better than anything else he knew about. That assumes he wasn't in on it, though.

Karlinovo: There is always the possibility of a trap, but if he went this far on it, then he truly took a gamble with his life. It was pure luck we were able to save him.

Rabyn: Sometimes all you can do is walk into the trap prepared.

Elicec: Wait a minute. Korl is here? When did that happen?!

Dave: Sorry, yeah, forgot you two are newer to the soul chat. I'm guessing that means you can't see the logs from before you joined.

Rabyn: No, I couldn't see anything from before I joined either.

Dave: Ah, okay. Well, Cecile, Elicec, Korl showed up on the planet begging for help and nearly died. We have him imprisoned while he recovers until we can learn what he knows. Do not tell anyone about him.

Cecile: Who was Korl again?

Elicec: The person you thought was another Twinoge.

Cecile: Oh yeah, I didn't like him. Keep him in jail.

Dave: Planning on it. Can someone send me Pryte? I want to talk to him.

Gamma: I am in the hall. I will get him.

Dave: Thank you.

I closed out the chat window on my appreciation of Gamma. I was back to considering Orglina and Red's desires to be soul-bonded. The growth of the soul chat was proving useful, but what would happen if we added a spy to it somehow? As of now, we had no idea how to remove anyone, not to mention there was no means of direct messaging within it that anyone had found.

I had almost forgotten I had asked Gamma to find Pryte by the time he arrived. While waiting for him, I had initially distracted myself by thumbing through several reference books on mana signals and how different types and sources interact with each other when forced within close proximity. It was a topic I had been studying in my downtime, as the defense of the city required its use, and I didn't want Karlinovo and the former librarians to be the only ones that fully understood it.

The loud knocking on my door brought me back to the present. "Come in," I called through the door.

"What's up? Beyond the mountains of shit we have to deal with?" Pryte asked, grabbing a chair from my nearby desk and sitting down.

"How hard do you think it would be to convince Doctor Scalestone to join the faction?" I asked.

This was something I had been thinking about a lot recently as I spent an increasing amount of time in recovery. We needed a real expert in treating Spiral diseases, and while I knew that wasn't the Kobold's specialty, she was the only doctor we had worked in depth with. And she had done a great job so far.

"Incredibly difficult. She's one of the leading experts in her field. She only did all of this as a personal favor to me. I'm not saying it's impossible, but we'd have to have an in-depth meeting with her and see what she'd want for something like that. There is always the chance this is something that would interest her, as there is a lot she could learn here, but I don't know. We could also admit the existence of some of our resources, which would probably do it. But again, I'm not sure that's a good idea," Pryte answered.

"If we can't get her, we need to find someone, and we need to start training our own doctors here as well. The soul knots have me worried about the kind of Spiral level diseases that we could face, unless you want to tell me they won't be a problem," I replied. I needed something to help curb the nightmares of those little monsters growing within my friends, cured or not.

"No, I can't tell you that, and finding us a real doctor has been on my list for a while. Between Korl and soul knots, it has jumped to the forefront of my thoughts as it seems to have yours. I'll talk to Scalestone. But before I do, how badly do you want her here?" Pryte asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

I knew what he was asking. He wanted to know just how much information I was willing to risk giving her. The answer to that question, though, was something only he could really give.

"How much do you trust her?" She had already likely saved both my daughter's and my grandson's lives before. But I still didn't really know her, Pryte did.

"I don't know. I'm going to have to think about that question. Unlike most of the misfits we've collected, she has a home she could easily go back to. She's a household name on her home planet. But thanks to her own efforts, she isn't needed there anymore. She's one of the few people I have ever met who I believed cared about the sanctity of life beyond all else," he explained.

"Interesting. I'm surprised, given what I've learned about the Spiral, that she's allowed to operate on her own to those levels." Was this the root cause of Pryte's uncertainty?

"And now you see why I'm so unsure of this idea. I think what might be best is to talk to Glunderlin about finding some Reltleons trained on medicine within the Spiral that want a more permanent home," Pryte replied.

"Huh, actually, we should talk to Glunderlin about any expert Reltleons out there looking for stability. I know there aren't really any other cities out there, and we still don't know what's going on on the highways, but there are pockets of them stuck all over the Spiral, right?" I asked.

"There are, and I think Glunderlin is already considering this path. It's why he's working to find that lost class of his people, but yes, I'll see if he can't speed it up a bit. How much longer do you think you're going to be down for anyway?" There was a look of concern on his face as he asked.

"Well, thanks to one of my newer mana skills, I can tell you I should be entirely good to go in three days. I'll probably push down to two, though, because Connie has me worried. Those soul knots in the Twinoges had gotten much stronger than the one in Rabyn, and I don't want to wait on hers," I explained.

Pryte sighed. "Yeah, I was worried that was what you were going to tell me. Alright, I know I can't stop you. I'm past trying to convince you to do something unless it's critical. Just make sure you take some help with you."

"I will."

One of the bigger questions surrounding mana beasts is where to draw the line between animal and mana beast. While I'm sure we could eventually debate out an academic answer that covered most of the edge cases, I'm not sure it would be worth the time. Once a mana flow has been introduced, it is only a matter of time before all animal life becomes mana beasts. Just because they lack noticeable magic doesn't mean it isn't brewing within their cells.

The only reason I think this debate happens is because they are usually the first of the many kingdoms of life to absorb the flow. And while this isn't always the case, the recorded list of primal mana beasts that are animals far exceeds any other kingdom. It's even possible that if we were able to do a comprehensive study, we would find a reasonably equal distribution. It just tends to be much more obvious when an animal becomes a primal. No one is watching for when that single blade of grass moves ever so slightly away from the cut.

Mana Bestiary Volume 1 by Elody Lylin Rels, Paladin of Knowledge

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