– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 219, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 1 –

"Fascinating…" Samuel's pen rushed over the paper in a speed that any martialist would yearn to emulate with their own movement techniques.

The small orange blob that was the target of his research experiments didn't appear impressed… or care at all.

"Will Goo be okay?" asked Miguel worriedly. He stared at all the different contraptions that Samuel had set up in his improvised laboratory inside the Crafting Tower. He whispered to Terry. "Your uncle is emitting some serious crazy professor vibes."

"You named the slime?" asked Terry. He raised an eyebrow and moved his gaze from his uncle's experiments to his dwarven friend.

Miguel shrugged. "I've grown attached to the little blob. Goo's almost cute when I'm feeding him mana. I'm trying to tame him and then surprise my pa when I'm visiting. He's never seen a slime in his life."

Terry grinned and nodded. It made sense that Miguel's manaless father had never encountered a slime. The reason was the same that had Samuel so excited.

Slimes simply didn't exist outside of dungeons.

Tamers had naturally tried to catch magic beasts – including slimes – from dungeons, but any creature with a core didn't survive leaving their dungeon's domain. While dungeon-assimilated creatures had a matching equivalent living outside of dungeons, there was no such thing for slimes.

The fact that Terry could summon creatures from monster cores had many people excited. For Samuel, the slimes were of particular interest.

Terry looked over the various containment cells that were filled with slimes of other aspects. The cells had all been prepared by the crafters to emit the different aspects required to sustain and grow the slimes.

Even though the laboratory was brimming with slimes, Goo, as the oldest summoned slime, remained of interest to Samuel.

"Fascinating…" Samuel finally lifted his eyes from the orange slime. "Your coldfire appears to already influence its internal mana composition."

Miguel frowned. "Is that bad? Will Goo be okay?"

"I think it should be fine," said Samuel pensively. "But if I'm right, then this will lead to something spectacular."

Terry got the feeling that his uncle meant spectacular for researchers, which might not matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

"Your little Goo might evolve into the first coldfire-aspected slime ever recorded." Samuel grinned widely. "Spectacular." He focused again on his notebook.

"Neat," mumbled Miguel. He didn't really care about an appearance in some scholarly book, but he figured that it would get him closer to bonding with Goo as a tamed beast. "Perhaps then the little bugger will start to listen to my commands. So far he's just a bottomless stomach that consumes my mana."

Terry couldn't help but recall the time he had fed the little white blob in the dungeon where he had met Devon. Terry had relied on mana cores from dungeon constructs, because, unlike Miguel, Terry couldn't provide a compatible mana type of his own.

"Wouldn't it be better to evolve the slime while keeping the major fire aspect?" asked Terry. He had never thought much about the existence of beast tamers, but if the slime is supposed to become an animal companion to Miguel, then mirroring the dwarf's aspect appeared somewhat redundant.

"Given how much of a glutton Goo is, I'm not sure I could afford to feed him if not with my own mana." Miguel grimaced slightly. "And I don't even know if Goo can be tamed properly, so I'd rather not burn through my savings for this project."

"Fair point, but…" Terry's voice trailed off, because he could see his uncle grinning like a child that had discovered a new toy.

"Slimes have always been surmised to be close in their evolution to aspect beings." Samuel's eyes were practically sparkling. "If that theory is correct, then it should be possible to create a multi-aspected slime from a single-aspected one." He rubbed his chin and picked up his pen again. "Going by aspect theory, the best intersection aspects to create bridges from coldfire should be…"

"I think we should leave," said Terry with a chuckle. "And let Uncle Samuel order his thoughts."

"Are you sure?" Miguel hesitated to pick up Goo. "We can still try to help, or at least watch the experiments."

Terry furrowed his brow. He didn't remember Miguel being a research enthusiast. Miguel loved the outdoors and it came as a surprise that the dwarf volunteered to stay cooped up in a stuffy laboratory.

Miguel felt Terry's questioning gaze. "I mean we can bounce around ideas and stuff." He cleared his throat. "Oh, and I should feed Goo again."

That caught Samuel's attention. "Wait, I want to record the mana…"

***

"Are you serious?" Terry stared at the huge box of monster cores.

"Very," insisted Siling.

"The Spirit Tower Master said she would be grateful," added Siyu.

"I thought you only wanted to discuss the soul-empowerment synergy?" Terry picked up one of the cores. "How many are these?"

"Only a few," assured Siling and grinned. "Only ten more boxes."

"What?!" Terry stared at the cores with dread. Even with his mana regeneration, it would take him ages to summon this many creatures.

"For now," added Siyu.

Terry still had to get used to this. To Siling walking around with a twin sister. To Siyu with her porcelain skin and purple markings that outed her as an elven soul spirit.

To her almost cold interjections.

Terry narrowed his eyes. He glowered at Siling, who made a display of batting her eyelashes at him.

"Please~" Siling whined.

"If everything works and if monster cores can slowly form souls, then this would be huge for the Spirit Tower," added Siyu.

"And for meeeee! Your best friend! Bestest friend!" Siling batted her eyelashes at a ridiculous speed.

"You look like you're having a seizure," said Terry and groaned.

They had a point. Searching and defeating the creatures whose souls they wanted to catch was a huge bottleneck and risk for the Spirit Tower. If his strange skill could be used to summon them in a trap or a cage, then it would be a tremendous help. Not to mention that transporting a monster core was a lot easier than transporting a living creature.

With his core summoning, the soul spiritualists didn't even have to be present. Hunters could delve dungeons and return the cores instead of capturing the magic beasts outside a dungeon.

Terry furrowed his brow. A few martialists had already approached him to summon creatures from a core for them. Evidently, they didn't see a problem with the creatures being basically feral and hostile to anyone.

A few was fine, but summoning a whole batch of creatures for the Spirit Tower was a whole other level of mana investment.

Not to mention time.

Time that Terry would miss for the preparation of the realm expedition.

Terry looked from Siling to Siyu. Thinking back to the original reason he had come, he took a deep breath. "Okay fine, but I want to be there when you catch the first soul."

"Of course, of course." Siling grinned.

"The Spirit Tower elders will be present, too," added Siyu.

Terry nodded. "Yeah, it's natural they would be intrigued." He looked from Siyu to Siling.

Siyu can empower souls. For soul spiritualists like Siling, that's a phenomenal ability to have access to.

Empowering souls before they capture them would shorten the strengthening process tremendously.

Empowering their own souls before capturing should, in theory, allow them to capture stronger soul spirits before their own souls could handle them unassisted. Holding stronger souls would, in turn, allow their own souls to grow stronger faster than before.

A synergy that creates a nice feedback loop.

Terry himself was intrigued by the potential of Siyu working together with the Spirit Tower, but his excitement was dampened whenever he remembered where Siyu's powers had come from.

Remembering the origin of the Spirited Duchess always forced him to recall the monster that had brought this about.

"But I still have to train and prepare for the cursed realm," stressed Terry firmly. "I don't know how many cores I'll manage before I leave, so you have to prioritize the magical beasts you and the Spirit Tower consider as candidates."

"Of course…" For the briefest of moments, a frown flashed over Siling's face, but she recovered before Terry noticed. "Speaking of that, I could use some input on what to choose for myself. With Siyu's help, I should be able to form a new soul spot soon, but in case it doesn't work as quickly, I'll have to decide which of my current soul spirits I should replace. Going by weakest soul, it should be Peekaboo, but there are so many things to consider and…"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Before Terry knew it, his inner Academy Student had taken over once more, and he was being engrossed in a conversation about magic beasts, their different mana abilities, and how they might pair with future spellwork that Siling was considering.

***

At a certain field on the training grounds, there was an eerie silence.

"Brother, are you sure you have everything covered?" Rafael whispered to Terry, who was standing back-to-back with him.

Terry contracted his disruption domain. "Yeah…"

Rafael and he were locked into a sparring match against Tiana, Patricia, and Rosheen.

"Why?" Terry couldn't suppress the urge to tease his martialist friend. "Afraid?"

"As if." Rafael scoffed but he couldn't fool Terry.

Terry couldn't blame the felan. While Terry was sparring, Rafael had ended up challenging a few of the spectators and it just so happened to include Derek and Rosheen. While Derek's Mana Drain had annoyed Rafael, it was Rosheen that had left the biggest impression.

Or rather Rosheen's Resonance spell against which the felan had been entirely unprepared.

"There is no spellwork close to us," assured Terry. "But since I can't sense anyone either, it means they're either traveling through the shadows or have found a way to turn themselves ethereal."

Terry had never seen any of the three execute an ability that achieved the latter, but he also knew that Patricia was trying something.

Thinking about the shadow-wielding companion of his sister caused Terry to furrow his brow. By now, he had learned about who was going to accompany him into the cursed realm. Besides Jorg and Rafael, three others had insisted on joining the mission.

Tiana was the least surprising.

With Tiana going, Vess was not much of a surprise, either. The dual-aspected woman that had nearly lost her life to elementals always clung close to Tiana. Terry wasn't sure how he felt about dragging others into his stubborn plans, but having a trustworthy mage with him that specialized in healing and barriers was certainly reassuring.

The one person whom Terry had not expected to join was Patricia. He would have found it easier to believe that Maximilian would join. They both had their disagreements with Terry, but Maximilian often displayed a sense of duty that might serve as a reason to investigate the cursed realm.

And yet… Maximilian would stay with Calam while Patricia would join Terry.

He still couldn't figure out why and it bothered him a bit.

Perhaps Lori has talked her into it? I hope not. That would be a stupid reason to take such a risk.

Terry shook his head to focus on the fight again. He wanted to settle this spar quickly. He knew there would be more afterwards and he still had other stuff to do.

Over the past days, his friends had often come to spar with him. More often than usual. They had come up with many different ideas or combinations that they wanted to show to him.

Terry enjoyed the spars, of course. He also learned a few things.

But it still ate into his available time. He still needed to acquire all the required supplies for the cursed realm. He needed to look over the list of Guardians and Guildheads.

His aunt still wanted to show him some equipment that might prove useful for him and the others.

Siyu had invited him to observe Derek's soul and mana pool during the man's treatment.

His uncle wanted to discuss his latest findings on Goo and the other dungeon-emancipated slimes.

Jorg wanted to discuss his newest mana-crafting ideas.

His father wanted to teach him the basics of scavenging for materials to create a healing paste.

There was just never enough time.

***

Terry strained his mana sense and soulsight while following the preparations in the Spirit Tower's outside court.

He recognized the magic beast they were taking out of a special cage even while its concealment ability was still active. It was him that had summoned it from a souled monster core, after all.

The ghostsea stingray was a high-level species that only existed in dungeons and in a large forbidden zone connected to the shadow plane between the Free Factions Union and the Lich Kingdoms. It primarily carried the darkness and shadow aspects while air, venom, and lightning were less pronounced.

It looked like a large stingray with a black, and almost oily, shimmer to its skin. Its side fins were waving in the air like weird wings. Its stinger appeared half transparent with a strange haze surrounding it.

As soon as the beast guards had deactivated the inscriptions in the cage, the creature floated through the cage bars as if they didn't exist. The only reason it wasn't attacking or fleeing was that it was already under Siyu's soul control.

Terry could see why Siling had eventually chosen a ghostsea stingray to replace her jumpscare cuttlefish soul spirit. He only hoped that his friend hadn't overestimated her limits. Her soul was being empowered by Siyu's abilities, but the ghostsea stingray was a high level mana-corrupted. It might be on the weaker side among high-level corruptions, but still.

The ghostsea stingray represented a sharp jump in magical power compared to Siling's current soul spirits, including her most recently acquired soul spirit, the thunderblood hawk.

Normally, Siling wouldn't have dreamed of catching any high-level corruption for years to come, but with the assistance of Siyu and the Spirit Tower, she was now risking the attempt. If it worked, then she would earn not just a powerful soul spirit and accelerated growth, but also a new soul spot in the weeks to come.

And a new soul spot would allow her another attempt to exploit the synergy without removing any of her old soul spirits and having to wait for her soul to recover.

Siyu unleashed her abilities to empower the souls of both Siling and of the mana-corrupted beast. Worry washed over the face of the Elven Soul before her twin sister finally nodded for her to stop further empowering the capture target. Siyu couldn't help but worry, but it was up to her sister to judge her own limitations and how much of a risk she was willing to take.

A second nod from Siling and Siyu together, and the Spirit Tower assistants stepped forward. The ghostsea stingray died quickly and painlessly at their hands.

Terry watched with bated breath when Siling stepped forward to capture the departing soul of the magic beast.

In his soulsight, Siling's soul radiated a mesmerizing light. Siyu's empowerment caused her soul to appear much clearer and bigger than Terry had seen it before. He believed he could almost see the different pockets that were the soul spots for her different soul spirits.

Terry's mana touch followed Siling's finger movements attentively. It had been a while since he had seen her rely on hand movements for casting, even for her unorthodox soul spiritualism. It was proof of how seriously his elven friend was taking this trial. A testament to how sharp a jump in difficulty she was attempting to overcome today.

Terry frowned because the procedure was taking much longer than he remembered. He could even make out beads of sweat rolling down Siling's forehead.

Terry could feel movement from next to him and he lifted his arm to stop Siling's mother from rushing past him. "Don't. Her soul is stable. I don't think interrupting is a good idea."

"But…" Daiyu clenched her fists. She trusted Terry and his soulsight, but she couldn't help but be anxious.

After several agonizing minutes that felt like hours, Siling finally opened her eyes. A new spellwork continued and she moved her middle and ring finger of one hand from her forehead down to her sternum and then thrust it forward.

After a strong glow visible to everyone's mana sight, a soul spirit version of the ghostsea stingray appeared with the familiar white color and purple markings.

Siling grinned and demanded in a reprimanding tone. "What are you waiting for? Don't let the good blood go to waste!"

"Seriously…" Elena grumbled. As if a few minutes would make a difference. The loss in blood essence was negligible. This was her first attempt to refine her blood anyway. She was bound to lose an order of magnitude more blood essence through her own unfamiliarity with her chosen martialist cultivation than whatever waiting would lose.

Elena sat down cross-legged and couldn't help but grin, anyway. She had worried that Siling was risking too much, and didn't want to risk disturbing anything with her martialist technique, but now that her friend had succeeded, she could focus on the supply of powerful blood essence.

From everything Elena had learned from the martialists, such a high-level beast to feed her first blood refinement was outright luxurious. She almost felt like a spoiled young princess. Even more unbelievable was that, with Terry's and Siyu's abilities, there would be no shortage of high quality blood to fuel her growth and body tempering. She should be able to unlock all her acupoints in no time, even the secret acupoints that Terry's martialist fan club had pointed out to her.

Elena involuntarily glanced at Terry. She could see that Siling's plan was working. The burning curiosity in Terry's gaze was hard to miss.

Even so.

Elena wondered for how long it would work. In her opinion, Terry was too similar to Lori for Siling's plan to work for long. They were both too strong-willed to be distracted from their goals for long, no matter how much of a show you put in front of them.

***

Terry stepped out of his room and frowned. He could already feel the movement around him, which confirmed his earlier suspicions.

It had taken him way longer than expected to settle all the matters for the pioneering mission into the cursed realm.

At first, Terry hadn't thought much about it. It just happened to be this way.

Then Terry thought it couldn't be helped, because there were other matters to take care of as well. The astonishing synergy between Siyu's abilities and the Spirit Tower was too big of a development to ignore. His core summoning was the best fuel and, unfortunately, he was the only one with this strange ability.

At some point, Terry wondered if he really wanted to go into the cursed realm at all. There were so many things to do and so many interesting mana techniques to capture his interest. He had never thought much about martialist techniques beyond how to counter them, but seeing Elena grow with her new focus was simply fascinating.

After all this, Terry simply chalked it up as himself wanting to be as prepared as possible. Entering an unknown realm, and a cursed realm at that, was naturally dangerous and preparation couldn't be ignored.

Now, however, Terry had a different theory. He narrowed his eyes at the approaching signatures of his first two real companions: Siling and Calam.

Calam hasn't been around in forever. He's helping out with the clean-up around the Freedom Cooperative. Why is he here now?

As if I didn't know…

Terry sighed. He loved his friends and family, but they sure could be cheeky. Worst of all, they knew just how to catch his attention.

Whenever Terry had found the time to progress on the preparation for the cursed realm, they had found something urgent to deal with or something so fascinating that he couldn't help but follow along with what they were up to.

By now, Terry had summoned a whole reservation full of magic beasts from mana cores.

They really had a knack for finding important and extremely urgent tasks that ought to involve Terry.

Recently, Terry had finally put his foot down. He had finally mustered the resolve to rebuff all attempts to lure him into the research of dungeon-emancipated slimes, or soul synergy, or martialist body tempering, or elemental body inscriptions, or disrupting demonic possession, or innovative discharge combinations, or all the other things they had brought to his attention.

"Terry!" Calam waved at him.

Terry narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his force-aspected friend.

"The Valkyrie is coming!" Calam grinned from ear to ear. "She should arrive before the end of the Rising Moon. If you come with us to—"

"No." Terry cut off his friend. He looked from Calam to Siling. "This was your idea, wasn't it?"

"What?" Siling blinked innocently.

"Uh, the Valkyrie wanted to meet you ever since she saw you in the prison dungeon, but she's really busy and—" Calam tried to explain.

"Yeah, I don't mean just this meeting," grumbled Terry. He leaned closer to Siling.

Siling smiled awkwardly and batted her eyelashes at him before sighing. "Can't blame us for trying, can you?"

No, I guess not.

Terry could understand them. He wasn't exactly keen on Jorg and the others accompanying him into a cursed realm, either. The way he felt about them, all of his friends also felt about him. He knew it was dangerous and he could understand why they tried to stall him or get him to change his mind.

Even so.

This has to stop.

"I'm not putting this off any longer," stressed Terry. "Khaled and Mercedes are getting impatient as well." He looked at Calam. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be there to meet the Valkyrie."

Calam looked flabbergasted. "You don't want to meet the Valkyrie?"

Not if it means stopping my own path.

Great, now he looks like I kicked a puppy.

"On the contrary, I'd be thrilled to meet the legendary Valkyrie," said Terry appeasingly. "But unfortunately, it doesn't look as if our timelines allow it this time."

Terry meant it. Who wouldn't want to meet the legendary hero of the Era of Upheaval?

The Valkyrie had been an inspiration to many, including his aunt the Divine Hammer.

But he couldn't allow himself to stop for just that.

It was time to step into the cursed realm.

***

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