[Soul Manifest]
[Name: Rey Stein]
[Race: Human (Awakened)]
[Constitution: Sloth]
[Soul Level: 73]
[Mana: 28 930]
[Intelligence: 511]
[Physical Level: 56]
[Strength: 483]
[Agility: 798]
[Stamina: 535]
[Ki: ?]
[@###%$^()!@#!@$#$%^#!@]
[Karma]
[Protectors Presence]
[Level 2]
[Exp: 44 322 / 100 000]
[Protectors Presence: Your mere presence instils a sense of safety in your allies. Your mere presence instils a sense of danger in your enemies. When fighting for the sake of another, all allies' stats increased by 2 %. When fighting for the sake of another, all enemies' stats decreased by 2 %. Ability is automatic.]
[Corrupt Resistance]
[Level 1]
[Exp: 8 765/10 000]
[Corrupt Resistance: you have developed an immunity to the corruption in the universe by consuming it. Consuming stronger corruption strengthens your immunity. Devouring a creature of corruption temporarily gives you minor attributes of that creature]
[Luck: ?]
[Martial Affinity: Reaper's Harvest]
[Spells: Rubius, Accel, Incras]
[Rubius: (Mastery 1) allows the user to produce an invisible shield at will. This spell costs 500 mana to use. The shield can block all attacks that are empowered with less than two times the cost]
[Accel: (Mastery 2) increases the speed of the user by 51 %. Costs 1 mana per second relative to the user]
[Incras: (Mastery 2) increases the strength of the user by 26 %. Costs 1 mana per second relative to the user]
[Domain: Minor Flame]
[Minor Flame (Domain): the flames accept you and eagerly receive your will.]
[Incarnat: (Mastery 2) allows the user to produce a crimson flame at will. This spell costs 500 mana to use. The flame can be empowered with additional mana at 25 % the cost]
[Sea of Flames: (Mastery 1) (Passive) your flames are more destructive than usual.]
[Abilities: Spark, Soul Manifest]
[Spark: allows the user to manifest a light from within or around the user's soul with a significant radius. The light source produces a small amount of heat]
[Soul Manifest: allows the user to manifest there will. This ability assists the user as it's understanding of the user increases.]
Whilst contemplating the extensiveness of my resume I grilled my most recent kill.
Being able to harness flames at will is quite handy for cooking. I don't have to wait for the meat to passively cook over a heat source. Instead, I can control the flames heat to penetrate the meat and cook evenly in a tenth of the usual time.
That makes things a heck of a lot easier given the amount of food I consume every day.
Over the last year-ish my soul manifests profile has exploded. My physical and spiritual level have gone through the roof, and my skills have all advanced significantly.
However, alongside my increasing strength, my appetite has exploded as well.
It's fucking nuts.
Yesterday I ate an entire elephant.
Well, it wasn't a real elephant. It was an ugly fucker the size of an elephant with purple goop dripping from its eyes and ears.
I felt sceptical about the goop but thankfully it cooked right off and the remining meat was rather tender and tasteful. As far as corrupted creature's tastiness goes. Honestly, they're all nasty.
My current meal is a lowly wailer that got way too cocky for it own good. Came right up to my camp site it did. No fear.
It paid for it dearly.
Over the course of the last year, I have been dutifully slaying creatures as I promised to the goddess Malenia. But, I've been a great deal more careful than I used to do.
I've placed a lot more stock into the capabilities of my spells and abilities. Studying them furiously and testing the limits of what I can do.
For example, [Minor Flame Domain] gives me an affinity to fire. Not only can I control flames, I can do it with just my will, to a certain degree. That means I don't need to expend as much mana when using flames.
I'm also resistant to my own flames although other heat sources seem just as effective.
I can also control temperature fairly accurately, given my cooking practice I might even say I've mastered it. I can even freeze meals for later by sucking the heat out of them, although that's more difficult to do.
Using a sequence of heating and cooling methods I even managed to make a semi-reasonable new arm. It's not the greatest looking thing, given it looks like a cracked brimstone appendage from hell, but it is effective. I can also extend a flaming sword from my hand which is epic.
I've also tested the boundaries of [Corrupt Resistance] as the description says I can temporarily attain the attributes of a creature. Although, the results left much to be desired.
My karma doesn't seem to be strong enough for any real effects, but I do obtain some minor increases in stats like strength in mana. These attributes generally last between 4 and 24 hours, depending on the size of the meal.
So yeah… overall my understanding of my abilities has improved drastically, and it's done wonders in keeping me alive.
Throughout my hunting career I started mapping the locations that I've killed creatures and the general numbers. I've also discovered a total of 4 purple portals now, all of which had some kind of guardian protecting them.
Eventually my map started to express how the creatures are nearly always concentrated in an area around these portals, but never getting too close to them to get the guardians attention.
These guardians all have humanoid body shapes and features apart from the few clear indicators that they aren't human. Like purple skin and horns.
My goal is to kill these guardians and investigate the portals, but I'm nowhere near strong enough to face them yet.
Whilst contemplating the various ways to prepare to face these guardians I finished eating my meal and prepared to move on. Standard practice now to get a kill, move the body somewhere safe, eat it and repeat the process.
It's the only way I seem to be able to offset my increasing appetite. I think it has something to do with either my increasing strength or my mana capacity. Recovering mana after eating is definitely quicker, as the meal tends to be quite rich with it.
And although there is mana in the atmosphere, it isn't particularly dense which makes progress through meditation quite slow.
Taking out my map I consider the route to my next targets.
I saw a group of long four legged creatures with skinny torsos and no head about 10 kilometres from here. I scouted them when I was looking for a safe place to eat and decided I needed to move further away.
There are no indications of a portal nearby, so the population density around here isn't unmanageable. After a few more days of hunting here it'll be time to continue north.
I've been travelling north because there is an archipelago near the coast which leads all the way to the main continent to the east.
If there are any humans left, then they'd probably be over there. The number of cities and developed areas on the main continent was significantly greater than most places in the world.
So far, I haven't found any signs of human activity so staying here seems rather lame. Might as well travel.
Jumping from roof top to roof top I quickly cover the ten-kilometre expanse between me and my targets. Speed is life.
It didn't take long to find my prey again as they are rather large in numbers and seem to act somewhat like cattle. I've killed a few of these before but I've never seen one eat anything. Or even how they would eat. They get angry when they notice me and charge at me, but they have no mouths, so I don't know what they intend to do if they kill me. Just leave me there, I guess. Kinda rude. At least have the decency to eat your kills.
Since these creatures are in a herd and they aren't particularly strong, killing them at once is the way to go.
Staking out from my high vantage point, I prepare to attack.
With my smouldering right arm, I increase the temperature rapidly until it combusts. Next, I concentrate the flames to prevent excessive heat loss, and my arm starts to shine a bright blue as the temperature sores.
Keeping the heat away from my clothes so I don't make myself naked, I raise my arm above my head and concentrate the heat into pockets in the air.
This is an adaptation of [Incarnat] that only uses the mana expenditure of a single cast but is far more destructive.
As I form the pockets of heat into arrows of bright light the creatures finally notice me but it's far to late.
Copying a certain general who's name I forget a swing my arm down, signalling my attack.
The arrows explode forward with a sonic boom.
It must be quite a sight, staring up at a full set of [Incarnat] infused arrows of light.
In an instant all of the creatures were skewered clear through, and the arrows dug deep into the ground. The hardest part of this spell is not letting the arrows explode on contact, as they would obliterate my meal.
Letting the heat set the grass on fire, I grab a few meals before retreating to the high ground again.
I want there to be a fire so that anything left in the area will come investigate the cause. It makes it easier to find the stragglers left before I move on.
Enjoying my meal, I watch as the world burns, and I occasionally fan the flames to help the process.
It's not like it matters that it burns. The whole place is long abandoned. By both humans and creatures now.
I have to say though I might enjoy this a little too much.
Eating a meal whilst viewing a burning city is too enjoyable.
After a few hours of sightseeing, the sun begins to set which queues my return to homebase.
I found an intact mattress that wasn't too grotty inside a bunker room. I'm sure the owners don't mind me using it. They're probably dead by now anyhow.
No creatures came to check out the fire so there are either none left in the area, or they weren't interested. Either way I don't see much point to trying to find them, so I'll rest for a day and then move on.
I really need a better scouting method than setting everything on fire and seeing what happens.
Perhaps I can manage some kind of thermal imaging system? Maybe develop a seventh sense for temperature gradients? I'll need to investigate this one.
The next location for extermination is going to be a town about two hundred kilometres northwest of here.
Considering the general pattern of the four portals I've found so far, I believe the portals could be spawned in an intentional kind of grid matrix. If there is a portal near this town then that would support that theory, which would complicate matters somewhat.
Either way I'm not strong enough to get rid of the portals yet so I'll just mark down all the ones I find and come back later.
It doesn't take long for me to get back to my bunker and plop myself into bed. Using my flames I set a few bricks in the corner on fire for warmth.
My bellies full and the suns setting but I'm nowhere near ready to sleep yet as I consider the possibility of thermal vision.
Or something similar.
How would I even go about achieving that.
[Minor Flame (Domain): the flames accept you and eagerly receive your will.]
Would I simply need to will the detection of thermal gradients in my vicinity?
Or would I need to modify the light receptors in my retina?
It could help if I found a creature that could detect heat. Maybe a corrupted snake?
If I could study how, it does that then it could give me some clues.
I considered the various possibilities of thermal imagery well into the night before putting it off to tomorrow.