“Will you tell me about souls?” Lukas asked the goddess before him, “You said something about them earlier, but didn’t elaborate.”
“I will,” the goddess nodded. “It’s a topic too important not to discuss. Do you know anything about souls? It seems like you’re familiar.”
Lukas shrugged. “Not really. Just that the soul is spiritual.”
“It is spiritual. Where the body interacts with the physical world, the soul interacts with the spiritual one. After taking on the Stone of Rebirth, you should have a better connection to your own soul. At least it should feel like it.”
“I did gain a few ‘senses’ I guess you could say,” Lukas said, “feeling some things I can’t really explain.”
“That’s normal, but most of that has to do with your physical body being more sensitive and in tune with the magical aspects of reality. During the process of absorbing the Stone, one of the biggest things that happens is the connection between your body and soul growing stronger. Think of it like two balls held together with string; what happened was the string growing stronger and thicker, while pulling the two balls closer together.
“The soul also dictates the shape of the body; sure, your parents have something to do with it, but it’s ultimately down to the soul. It’s also how healing magic works, using the soul to return the body to the state it’s meant to be in. Now with the strengthened bond you now have with your soul, you’ll no longer get scars.”
“Really?” Lukas asked, fascinated by the subject. “Are there any books on all this in the library?”
“No,” the goddess laughed. “There are only books on alchemy and the magical theory related to it. Anyway, another aspect of the soul is the aura.”
“Did you say aura?” Lukas asked.
“I did. Are you familiar?”
“Yeah, there are people back home who believe in auras, crystals, and rocks. Most people just see them and make jokes behind their backs because that stuff is ridiculous.”
“Do you know what an aura is then?”
“It’s the feel of a person or thing, right? Like a monster giving off a feeling of danger.”
“You could describe it like that,” she nodded slowly. “Someone with a weak connection to their soul would definitely get a vague feeling rather than a real understanding of what they were dealing with. The aura is an expression of the soul. A person with good control over their aura can decide what is shown in their aura; others not so much.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ever since you absorbed the stone of rebirth, your aura has grown stronger and more detectable, and with your lack of control over it, it wafts out of you, allowing anyone to read you like a book.”
Lukas coughed uncomfortably and shifted on his stool. “So you can read my mind?”
The goddess shook her head. “Nothing so intrusive, but your emotions are in clear view. Now, if someone got to know you well enough, they could read your emotions and know what you’re thinking, but that’s another thing entirely. Besides, it wouldn’t matter how good your aura control is before me; I’m so much more powerful I’d easily be able to see through you.”
“How do I control my aura?”
“I’ll show you another time, before you leave here that is. Can’t have you wandering around with people able to see you’re an outworlder, and no aura control means you’re always projecting, so any beast would be able to pick it up.”
Lukas nodded with a frown. “Am I able to feel your aura right now?”
“You should be able to, yes. More powerful people will be able to completely hide their aura from you if they wanted to though.”
“I think I can feel it, like perfume that is constantly rolling off you and washing over me, but I feel it over my entire being.”
“And what does it feel like?” the goddess asked curiously, as though no one had felt it before.
“I don’t- I can’t,” Lukas tried, struggling to put the feeling into words, “Dangerous, strong, powerful, and what might be divinity? Whatever it is, it’s not mortal. I can sense there’s something else below the surface, but it feels beyond my reach, like trying to see the ocean bed from the top. It’s a strange sensation, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”
“I can imagine coming from a place with no magic. You’ll get a handle on it before long, same with your mana control. Which brings us close to another topic we should discuss.”
“No more soul and aura talk?” Lukas asked, slightly disappointed as he’d found the topic very interesting .
The goddess smiled warmly, clearly sensing his emotions. “We’ll delve deeper into that once I teach you the basics of controlling your aura. For now, we’ll move on to the important steps of growing your power, or gaining levels in your case.”
Lukas perked up at that, ready and willing to take any chance to grow stronger. “What are they?”
“There are many ways once you start breaking it all down, but it comes to pushing yourself and never being satisfied with where you’re at.”
“So how do I push onward?”
“First it’s important to understand where the incoming power comes from. No matter whether a person is a warrior, alchemist, or a smith, they all grow stronger by delving deeper into their ‘class,’ as your ability called it. A master black-smith truly reaches the pinnacle by pushing his boundaries in the forge, not the lab. Sure, anyone can gain from killing beasts and monsters, but to really move forward it’s the class that matters.”
“So my combat alchemist class will level quicker when I’m making potions and whatnot?”
“Not quite.” The goddess smirked. “You’ll grow by crafting alchemical products, but the real gains will come when using them in combat, even more so when you kill something with them. The combat alchemy class is great because of this, being able to progress whether you’re in the lab or on the battlefield. Most other classes require one or the other.”
Lukas nodded, taking it all in. “What about my second class?”
“Classes are gained when a person has a good enough understanding of something. They’re usually gained around 15 or 16, so most around that age become apprentices or go to schools to learn more about what class they want. A class can also be gained through artifacts like the tome I left out for you, something to bestow enough knowledge to grant a class.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“As for what second class you should go for, it’s up to you. Some people go with two combat classes, or one combat and one crafting class, one combat and one magical, combat and healing, two healing, two crafting. I could go on and on, but I would suggest a full combat class as it would grow in power alongside your first one.”
“That sounds like a good idea. How will I gain one though? I’ve never taken any kind of martial art training before.”
The goddess waved this concern away. “I have a number of relics I planned on presenting to you, each will give you a combat class so, if you want to go another route, you’ll have to find another way to gain the class.”
“No, that’s fine, a combat class is what I want. I don’t just want to sit in a safe lab forever; I want to go out and explore what this world has to offer.”
“Good.” The goddess smiled. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Now back on topic, progressing and getting stronger.”
“Right.”
“We went over gaining power, next is consolidating that power through meditation.”
“Oh?”
“You’re right at the beginning, so imagine all the power and strength you have as a single snowflake. The more power you gain the more snowflakes there are. After a while it might seem like you have a lot of power because there are a bunch of loose snowflakes around, but that just means your power is hollow. What you need to do is condense all the snowflakes into a snowball. It will be smaller, but your power will be denser and there will be room for more snowflakes. You keep condensing and consolidating until that snowball holds the weight of a star, that is real power and something people can pick up in your aura.”
“How do I do that?” Lukas asked, eager to try.
“You meditate. Clear your mind of all things, focusing on the power flowing through you. You need to guide all the loose power somewhere—most using breathing techniques. They inhale to draw the motes of power towards their chest, and with each following inhale they get closer before condensing.”
Lukas nodded, being sure to remember the words. “Got it. What next?”
“Training is important, striving to be better even if you feel you’re already at your best. This won’t help you gain power or levels, but you’ll be pushing your limits in order to take on more and push further.”
“What kind of training? I assume you mean getting better at fighting, but there’s more isn’t there?”
“Yes, you need to train your body and mind, squeezing out every drop of potential possible. Once you get out into the world and find others, you’ll find out more, but for now the best way is to look towards those stats of yours as a guide. Practice each one, getting everything you can out of each individual stat point, aiming to make them as efficient as possible.”
“I can do that,” Lukas said. He wanted to ask what some of the stats points did; he had a pretty good idea about them, he wasn’t entirely sure, but since the goddess hadn’t heard of stats before, he doubted she’d have answers. “Anything else?”
The goddess stood from her spot across from Lukas, as though to leave. “I believe we’ve covered enough for one day. We’ll speak again before you leave; I want to make sure you have a solid grasp of the important things.”
Lukas blinked, and just like that the goddess was gone.
He took a moment to recover before he grabbed a piece of paper and hurriedly scribbled down everything he’d learned. It was all surface level stuff, things that children probably knew, but to him it was all vitally important. That being said, he was also left with even more questions than before, and he wrote these down as well. Lukas knew the goddess wasn’t likely to answer them all, but he still planned on throwing them all at her.
Once he was finished and had everything written down, Lukas stared at the paper somewhat lamely. What was he going to do now?
Lukas’ eye fell upon the cauldron that was still lying on the ground. Moving from his spot on the stool, he went over and picked up the cauldron, checking it for damage. The thing was thankfully free of any blemish, and Lukas walked it back to the other side of the table, where he’d originally been sitting and where the goddess appeared.
Setting the cauldron down where it belonged, Lukas looked at it blankly for a moment. Before his talk with the goddess, Lukas had been going at it like a machine for days. Now that process had been interrupted, and he found himself unable to get back into the groove. He had too many things racing through his mind to concentrate properly.
Lukas wanted to try something new, and as stupid as it sounded with his mind racing like it was, he wanted to try meditating. He had no idea how to do it properly or if he’d even get anything out of it at this point, but he’d at least be setting the groundwork for greatness. And getting in the habit couldn’t be a bad thing either.
Nodding to himself, Lukas turned from the lab table and made for the door. Originally, he’d been hoping to craft his first successful mana potion today, but it seemed like that was going to be pushed back a little.
Making his way across the central room, Lukas headed for the bedroom. Once there, he took a seat on the edge of the soft bed. Getting comfortable, he took in a deep breath and rolled his shoulders in an attempt to relax himself.
Then, closing his eyes, Lukas attempted to empty his mind and let everything fall away. It wasn’t easy, the things he learned from the goddess swirling around in his head. Not to mention the fact that any small thought led to a distracting tangent that he had to pull himself away from.
In the end Lukas just had to focus on the process, looking inward and imagining little pinpricks of experience floating freely in his body. The goal was simple, take those small pieces of power and collect them in one spot, condensing and consolidating them. Lukas took in a deep breath, filling his lungs until they felt ready to burst. With the breath, not only was air taken in, but so too were the motes of power drawn closer to the center of his body.
Letting out a slow breath, Lukas made sure not to push the motes away. Then taking in another deep breath, the dots of experience moved in once again. He continued this over and over, collecting all the loose power in the center of his chest, next to his heart. He didn’t stop there, using each breath as a press that squeezed the motes together. The number of motes shrank as they combined, the small pinpricks growing in size as they came together.
Eventually it came to a point that it wasn’t just something Lukas was imagining, but something he could feel. It was like he was creating something within himself. He kept going and going irrespective of time, only willing to stop once the coalescing motes solidified into one solid ball. A ball he would put pressure on until it was as dense as possible.
Eventually Lukas stopped, his progress slowing the more he pressed on. It was clear that he wasn’t going to reach his goal of having some kind of core of immense power like the sun. At least not yet, maybe once he got stronger.
That didn’t mean he made no progress however. Even when Lukas stopped meditating he could feel that condensed power in his chest, ready to be put to use. Granted it was a feebly weak feeling, but it was something. He also felt how close he was to leveling up as well; he could almost taste it. It seemed that consolidating loose experience would help with leveling.
Standing from his spot on the bed, Lukas felt oddly rejuvenated. Checking his mana, he found it to be nearly topped off. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been at it, but he had a feeling his mana had regenerated faster while meditating. Whether or not health and stamina were affected as well, Lukas didn’t know as he’d already had both resources full when starting.
While meditating was refreshing, it wasn’t going to be something that replaced sleep. Although regular meditation might mean not needing to sleep for as long. Unable to answer that question for now, Lukas let it drop for the moment. Instead, he’d focus on alchemy now that his mind had settled once more and since he was so close to another level.
Not long later, Lukas failed yet another brew, but was greeted with some very welcome notifications:
Level gained: [Combat Alchemist] has reached level 2 - Stat points allocated.
Level gained: [Human (outworlder)] has reached level 1 - Stat points allocated.
Smiling to himself, Lukas opened his status screen to see those sweet gains:
Lukas Hellstrand
Race: Human (Outworlder [unique]) - Level 1
Class 1 - Combat Alchemist - Level 2
Class 2 - N/A
Health Points: 390/390
Stamina: 270/270
Mana: 320/320
Stats
Vitality: 39
Endurance: 27
Intelligence: 28
Wisdom: 32
Agility: 28
Perception: 26
Toughness: 30
Strength: 30
Willpower: 30
Free Points: 3
Titles:
Prodigious Dimensional Traveler, Unkillable, True Heart of a Warrior, Indomitable Worm.
Abilities:
Race abilities: (Dimensional Traveler), (Tribute of the Fallen), (Steel gut), (Tongue of the Multiverse), (Stranger in a Strange Land).
