For the next few days, I investigated the corrupt creatures in the area.
Since they were kind enough to treat me as one of their own, I decided to go full David Attenborough on them and make a full monster compendium on everything and anything I could find.
To make my notes I made use of a handy little quirk to do with [Soul Manifest].
[Soul Manifest: allows the user to manifest there will. This ability assists the user as it's understanding of the user increases.]
Through a combination of my will and desire to document the intricacies of the dark creatures from up close, [Soul Manifest], well, manifested a new ability for me.
[Soul Archive: allows the user to document information in any understood language.]
Basically, it's like a notepad that fills in at the same speed that I think. It also displays the information I desire in front of me automatically.
It's almost an automatic passively updating database with instant and accurate search engine.
It merely requires a little bit of mana and concentration to keep operating continually.
Throughout these few days I've been stalking various species and updating my [Soul Archive] to take notes on the creature's habits, body shape, potential strengths and weaknesses, pack or individual mentalities, diet, and other nuances that I noticed.
Here is an example:
[Soul Archive]
[Corrupt Shade Wolf]
[Four-legged wolf body structure but with two heads. Black fur. Long claws and strong mauling capability. 2m adult height. Significantly camouflaged in dark environments. No known spell capabilities. Strong sense of smell. Pack mentality. Carnivorous, tends to hunt smaller prey. Does not express growling or barking behaviour. Silent hunters.]
And the description comes with a sweet illustration based upon my memory.
[Soul Manifest] assisted me pretty heavily with the naming in particular but also the descriptions.
It doesn't allow misinformation into the animal's descriptions. At least nothing too crazy.
For example, I can't add to the description of a [Shade Wolf] that it has wings and can fly. Because it's not true.
So the information that goes into [Soul Archive] has to at least be somewhat reasonable and will update as my understanding of a creature improves.
Over the last few days, I've investigated a total of 34 creatures.
Some of them have long detailed descriptions like the [Shade Wolf] but others have very little such as this strange blob of flesh with hands that is definitely alive but hasn't moved at all since, I got here.
I've also added what I know about creatures I've seen before such as the [Corrupt Lamia] which could become invisible. Or the [Gazers] that I nearly died to when I met them. The [Bomb Chickens] too.
I've even got a description for the beast that can curse people.
[Soul Archive]
[???]
[Can curse undeath upon humans. Methods unknown.]
That's the most I can manage for now since not even the skeletons knew what it looked like.
Whilst searching the area I also naturally needed to eat so I 'hunted' what I assumed the 'community' would find acceptable.
It seems that there is a natural order here where the larger creatures hunt the smaller ones. Some of them try for prey above their belt but very few do.
Therefore, I stuck to hunting creatures my size and under, which meant I had to hunt more to make up for the lack of satisfaction. But it was better than needing to burn the whole town to a crisp before I could finish my investigation.
Now, however, I've collected everything I wanted, so I set the town a flame and started killing everything in sight.
From a top the town cathedral I can see most of the local area. My goal is to produce chaos to kill the weaker creatures and bring the more dangerous ones out into the open.
As far as I know I'm the only one here that can withstand the smoke since I can circulate warm air as I please.
This gives me a major advantage, and I make full use of it by sending arrows of molten plasma at the suffocating creatures desperately looking for an escape.
And I give them one. Just not the one they wanted.
[Soul Manifest]
[Your soul is excited]
[You have slain 11 Corrupt Bezoror]
[You have slain 9 Corrupt Shade Wolves]
[You have slain 87 Corrupt Knight Ants]
You have slain 444 Corrupt Sting Beetles]
[…]
The display of unholy deaths was beautiful. The cacophony of death announcements was even more profound than the city in Auralia.
I guess some escaped from there and came here? Or this area is more habitable since it wasn't overrun with corruption? That's unlikely though. You would think the corruption would be an ideal environment for them.
Either way… their dead now.
As my plasma arrows ran down from on the poor unsuspecting monsters I see a new string of interest amongst the death rows.
[Soul Manifest]
[You have developed a spell]
[The universe is impressed]
A new spell?
[Plasma Arrow: (Mastery 1) concentrated flames shaped like arrows piece your foes clean through. Everything is destroyed when faced with your flames. Mana cost 800 per arrow.]
[Your understanding of the flames improves]
…
So, I can create spells?
Let me think. As it is [Incarnat] requires 500 mana to produce a flame, and then I develop the volume of flame by providing kindling.
Like starting a normal fire.
Keeping control of the flames requires mana expenditure but nowhere near as much as producing it.
And then I compress those flames to create arrows of plasma and propel them towards my foe.
That in total probably takes about 800 mana per arrow. But it costs less to reuse the flames of the expended arrows to produce new arrows, so continued use is more efficient.
And as long as I eat enough to replenish my mana, I can continue firing arrows pretty comfortably.
And with the heat of my flames plus [Sea of Flames] most things catch fire pretty easily, so I only need to use [Incarnat] once or twice if I'm happy to destroy everything.
Actually, considering that I only have about 29 000 mana, my recovery rate must be quite high. I almost exclusively eat corrupt monsters thanks to [Corrupt Resistance] so the temporary attributes I get from those might be making my mana and recovery rates a lot high than I realised.
Is [Corrupt Resistance] some kind of cheat code?
[Soul Manifest]
[Corrupt Resistance]
[Level 1]
[Exp: 9 871/10 000]
[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]
Just a little bit more and it will improve as well.
[Protectors Presence]
[Level 2]
[Exp: 52 114 / 100 000]
[Protector's Presence] is making steady progress as well.
Although I haven't actually had a chance to use it. Need someone to fight for to use that [Karma].
Back to [Plasma Arrow] it's wonderful to know that I can create original spells. That bit of knowledge helps a lot with my stagnated progress for new scout skills.
However, what's the benefit. If the mana cost is essentially the same then what's different between the spell and how I usually do it.
Naturally I have to test it to find out.
[Plasma Arrow]
On command a single arrow of light appeared in the air next to me. Exactly the same as the others in shape and power, I can't tell what the benefit of the spell is.
Firing the arrow the test its destructibility it pierces a simple cow creature clean through before burying itself in the ground, turning it to magma. The corpse and the ground melted as the arrow kept its shape, continuing to burn everything around it.
Since the arrow kept its shape, I figured I'd try and reuse it.
The arrow obediently dislodged itself from the ground on my command and then flew off towards another target and impaling it.
Now the benefit of the spell is showing itself.
With the same arrow I skewered creatures repeatedly, destroying everything in the way to get them. With a minor temperature upkeep, the arrow flew around pierces foe after foe, clearing a good chunk of the total remaining population on its own.
Now this is a good spell.
If I don't have to reform arrows and I can easily change their trajectory with my will then I can achieve a lot more with much less destruction.
Frankly I enjoy the destruction, but this will prove useful when annihilation is less convenient.
Now I just need a way to read temperature gradient from a distance and I'll be able to spear creatures from long distances with accuracy and lethality.
It would also be nice if I had a way to retrieve corpses and store them for a time.
…
I wait to see if [Soul Manifest] is feeling extra nice today, but it seems it's met its daily quota.
Finishing up with the utter destruction I start travelling along the coastline.
I don't have a map of the archipelago as my current map only covered the eastern coast of Auralia and a few of its nearby islands.
The archipelago is well know though as it's the land bridge between Auralia and the main continent, Uro.
However, I figure that as long as I follow the coast, I'll eventually see the next island and if I'm lucky ill find an intact map along the way.
The port town that I just destroyed didn't have much that was intact other than the buildings themselves. Not surprisingly given the monster population.
As I jogged along the coast I munched on a monster leg and played with my new toy.
I mean spell.
The arrow is capable of more than just going forward it seems. Although its functionally designed for piercing, the extreme heat also makes it useful when flung horizontally. For example, it can cleanly slice through the trunk of a tree.
I tried to adjust the shape of the arrow, but it wouldn't budge. I guess the spells constraints require it to remain an arrow for it to function.
I haven't developed much more than the plasma arrows and my sword by manipulating my fire yet but perhaps I can evolve [Plasma Arrow] into something more like [Plasma Construct] later by increasing the number of shapes I'm used to producing with my fire.
It would certainly be beneficial to manifest something like a plasma wall instantly that can be repaired with mana.
I'll have to experiment some more on this front.
For the time being I'm back on the road so I've got plenty of time to figure things out.