Lithco walked out from behind , put a fancy blue cushion on the dirt, and sat down.
How much do those pants cost? I asked sarcastically.
"They’re trousers," he said aloud, dusting off the charcoal pants. "And it’s not about price. It’s about being civilized."
I rolled my eyes and continued speaking telepathically. What part of my request translated to the way you dress?
"You requested confrontation. I doth provide."
I picked up a pebble and threw it at him like a child. It bounced off him the mont before I heard the real pebble hit the ground. Kline’s ears twitched, and he looked at . Narrowed his eyes at Lithco and then went back to sleep.
Lithco raised an eyebrow. "Are you done?"
I pouted. Yes. Well? You gonna tell ?
"Ah, yes. Soul cooking. I can’t tell you much about it without a skill, but I can say three things. First, it allows you to process the soul-force at so it cooks normally. Second, doing that will refine it, increasing your soul force intake significantly—making it a wildly sought-after skill amongst the elite. Lastly, if you get good at it, you can even align beast-specific soul force patterns with your own. It’s called Adaptive Soul Refinent, and it allows you to steal certain elents—like soul force—specifically designed to harden a beast’s skin and make it part of your own. You’re nowhere near that level, but that’s one of those spicy benefits of a platinum technique."
I grimaced. But it’s out of my class…
"Which ans you needa spend a diamond."
I cupped my hands into my face and groaned, capturing the attention of the lurvines. I blushed and stared ahead, refusing to increase the perception that I was crazy by staring into dead space like I was having a conversation.
They know I’m speaking to you, right?
"No~pe. These beasts don’t have a guide."
You’re kidding.
"I’m not. But that’s a discussion for later. Now then, I assu you want to know if it’s worth it? Hmmm?"
I held still. Yes.
"I don’t think you have a choice," Lithco said. "You need power now, and this’s crank it up for all of you now in a way that doesn’t require effort. No need to thread. Build cores. Do shielding. You just throw around so at and it’ll get the job done."
I grimaced. I had two diamond requests left, perhaps the last two I would ever get, but there were advantages to this skill. I needed to eat three tis a day, and this would give power during every al. And, at the very least, I wouldn’t have to eat burnt at that took ten hours to cook.
Do it… I whispered weakly in my mind.
I got the chi and got six books, five skills, ten tutorials, dozens of recipes, and a variety of spells. I didn’t even look at them. I just opened up the tutorial.
Teach .
"Let change," Lithco sighed. He got up and walked behind . A minute later, he returned in chef gear, and I almost blew a gasket. I threw around so sarcastic remarks; he responded with sass and snark. We moved on.
The lurvines watched untie the bear at from one of the lurvines and take it back to my pop-out stove, which blew up into a wood fire stove just by adding so mana. I then pulled out cooking knives I got from the Big Bag ’o Tools and a core container. I gave Kline the third evolution core and brought so to Aiden and the lurvines. Then I sat down in front of a flat rock with the bear at on it, knife in hand, waiting for Lithco to teach .
We began.
2.
"Soul force aura makes you stronger and resilient to the elents," Lithco explained, duplicating my knife, rock, and at to work with. "So, naturally you have to remove those elents to make it weak to fire."
Makes sense… I whispered.
"To do that, we need to learn spells. You have enough spells to process up to fifth evolution at… although barely. And, like all things, it’s gonna take you ti to learn it. Thankfully, the beast’s dead, and the foundational breakdown spell’ll process just about anything. It’s like trying to chisel a statue with a jackhamr, but it will work. That’s what we’re gonna learn today."
I nodded.
"Close your eyes and chant."
I did and learned that it had more in common with creating my soul core than threading mana. It sent icy chills through as the world around seed to warp, and I felt intimately connected to the world around , and it almost felt like foreign elents were trying to enter my skin like worms. It was disturbing.
"Feel that?" Lithco asked. "That’s you connecting to the soul network. It’s all around us, perating the air as raw mana. The chills you’re feeling are coming from that raw mana trying to invade your mana channels and body. If it wins, it will corrupt your soul."
I cried out and stumbled back, capturing everyone’s attention. The lurvines sneered and treated crazy. Kline growled at them. Aiden smoothed it over. Whatever he said made the lurvines look at with wide eyes and then continue a conversation.
I moved on.
Why didn’t you tell ? I asked.
"There was no need," Lithco said. "What’s the point of having a soul core if you’re unable to withstand raw nature. Now chant. Once you feel that again, churn your soul core and see what happens."
I complied, and when I did, the world of soulmancy opened up before .
3.
Soulmancy. The art of manipulating souls.
Between Lithco’s initial explanation and what I learned from my domain practice, there were two types of soul mana. The first was "aura," an internal usage that amplified the power or sharpness of attacks, increased your concentration and ntal shielding, built resistance and attacks and natural elents, and created external pressure and domains to control your environnt. The second, and one specific to soul manipulation, was called neara, an external soul mana that allowed you to communicate with people and creatures in wide networks, inflict ntal attacks that distorted an opponent’s mind, allowed you to fix, strengthen, or refine souls, and to breathe life into other beasts or inanimate objects. This form of soul manipulation was truly terrifying—
—and it was coincidentally what I was practicing.
I churned my soul core while using the chant that Lithco taught , and an icy chill of soul mana washed into my chest, making feel a deranged sense of deja vu where I felt like I was on the verge of rembering sothing important.
"Judging by the clusterfuck you started at the river, you have learned soul cleansing sohow," Lithco said dryly. "It’s strange but it makes this easier to explain. You know how you feel like you’re gaining sothing right now?"
I nodded. Yeah… it’s different.
"Yes. That’s because cleansing only cleans the aura and neara. This allows you to thread the aura around your core and absorb it from within. The aura isn’t bad. It is uniform, and it’s just like winding thread around a bobbin, just like your mana core. But neara is different. There’s many types, and when you absorb them all, you absorb the types for enhancing intelligence, capturing mories and emotions, and the type that enhances the nerve system. Without a core, the neara would hijack your own, corrupting your soul. But with a core, you can cleanse the neara directly, breaking it down into raw energy to feed your own. That’s why you feel like you’re about to rember or experience sothing, only for it to be deleted a mont later. You’re taking it in and cleansing it."
That was all too much to process.
So… how does this relate to soul cooking?
"When a beast consus raw soul at, the aura inside works as a barrier, like ti seal coating on dicines that prevent active ingredients from destroying your body," Lithco explained. "Once you remove the aura, the shield’s off, and eating it will corrupt their soul. That’s why you need to cleanse the neara inside the at. It’s actually quite involved."
I looked at Kline and shivered. The thought of poorly processed soul at corrupting his soul cranked up the pressure significantly.
Lithco put his hands on the bear at. "Thankfully, you’ve already learned soul cleansing sohow, and what you learn here today will be useful on your path to soulmancy. So even if you ss up repeatedly, it will only help to make you stronger."
I nodded hesitantly and put my hands on the at like Lithco. Got it.
"Now listen carefully. This is third-evolution at. Do not break focus and crank your soul core to the maximum possible. After two seconds, release. Do you understand?"
I nodded.
"Good, now repeat after ."
Lithco chanted to reconnect to the soul network around , and then I churned my core to the maximum.
"Good, now repeat after ." Lithco had start another chant. Not a mont later, an extre force slamd into my core, and I thought I’d lose my mind, personality, and consciousness. I spiraled into limbo, and when my spinning core caught up, I snapped back into my body. What followed was terrifying. I experienced a kaleidoscope of flashing images and intense emotions, making cry out in pain and release the spell.
"What the fuck was that?" I scread. Aiden rushed over, and Kline pawed but I put both my hands up to stop them both.
Lithco remained calm. "That’s what happens when your core can’t process neara fast enough. It’s uncomfortable now, but the ability to see images and feel emotions can allow you to take over the eyes of beasts, feel emotions and speak to souls. Everything you experienced is the nature of your new Wood Wide Web spell."
I wanted to scream at him, but this was how it was—the thing I asked for. I dug my hands into the dirt as Kline licked my wrist with his scratchy tongue.
Why didn’t you warn ? I telepathically hissed to Lithco.
"Because soone I know’s got a bad habit of pushing things too far," Lithco said. "And if she does that here, she’ll lose her mind and body and soul in seconds. So it’s best to feel the risks around a teacher."
I released my hands from the dirt and grabbed my forearms. They felt cold and looked sickly pale.
"Wood Wide Web, Soul Cooking—Soul Pacts," Lithco said. "All the diamond-level spells you just bought have the ability to destroy your soul. So don’t fuck around."
I nodded.
He nudged his head to my backpack. "Get weaker at."
I felt deep hesitation.
"The only way to overco this type of trauma is to jump right back in," Lithco said gently. "But… try to trust . It’ll be okay."
I did trust Lithco. I learned to be wary of his lessons a long ti ago, but even that wariness wasn’t a bad thing. From the beginning, his warnings and lessons had helped to survive. So I trusted his sincerity and pulled out the at I had marinated.
I put my hands on it and Purified it. Then I touched it.
Okay… I said.
"Let’s begin." Lithco began chanting, and so did I, sides splitting with aches, soul strained with fear. Yet the minute I started pulling the aura from the at, it felt like there was a gentle stream that I could wrap around my soul core. It wasn’t comfortable. It still had force and power, but it didn’t even affect my mind."
What’s… going on? I asked.
"When your soul force is stronger than what you’re interacting with, you have control over it. Before, neara was breaking out of the at, but now, you’re unraveling the aura and any neara that does make it into your soul is within your cleansing tolerance."
Oh… I kept churning my core and fighting against the pressure. Amazingly enough, it started fading after a few minutes until I could barely feel it.
"That was step one," Lithco said. "Now it’s ti to purify it."
I groaned but followed along he started chanting. The mont he hit his stride, my eyes widened in amazent when I realized that it was a rudintary version of the cleansing spell I was using in the river. Very rudintary. It was like playing tic-tac-toe when I was accustod to chess.
Can I… I asked Lithco.
"Yes, you can use your cleansing technique."
I did, and soon, the energy within the at turned smooth like whipped cream, uniform and mixed.
Is this right?
"That’s better than alright. Start up your stove and try it out."
I opened my eyes and looked at the at. It looked dull and lifeless, but then I realized that it didn’t have an external soul-force glow.
I turned and found Aiden hugging his knees. Kline was to my right, sitting straight, eyes fixed on .
I grimaced under the pressure but pulled out my cast iron skillet, used separation to remove the rust from my last trip into the water, put it onto the heating array, and heated it up. I waited for a minute for it to heat up, created a water drop on my finger, and let it drop into the pan. It sizzled and turned to steam.
I then pulled out marinated steaks and hesitantly threw them onto the pan, trying not to get my hopes up.
The second the steak reached the at, it sizzled. Oh, yes, it sizzled. And it slled incredible. I took in the aroma of strange edible plants and herbs from the marinade and then waited a few minutes before lifting it with a normal fork.
It was browning.
It was actually fucking browning! I wasn’t waiting a year and so change to get at. It was browning in real-ti.
"Oh fuck yes," I whispered aloud.
Lithco laughed as he looked around. The lurvines had slowly walked up to and Aiden was trying to shoo them away. As for my little warrior, he rudely jumped onto my lap to get a better shh~niff, and I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t bla him. It was food. Real fucking food. I felt bad that Halten was dying while I felt so much joy, but it had been months since I ate sothing that didn’t taste like charcoal and disappointnt.
Twenty minutes later, I sliced up slices of the dium rare steak and took a bite.
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