Capítulo 11: Lost Souls
Olive, Lily, and Isaac continued downstream for another week. They ate the fruits that swayed above them, cooked the flesh of the Goblins they hunted, and experienced a far more tame journey than the harrowing escape from before.
The Goblins attacked once a day, usually exhausting another new strategy they had cooked after the previous day's failure. Oddly, though, no matter how many Goblins the team of three slayed, more Goblin's continued to pour in.
In an effort to smoke out their nests, Isaac went as far as to set a few of the gigantic trees ablaze, but the fires always died off before fully engulfing the trees. The jungle's trees were too large and too moist, their leaves thick and robust, filled with outlandish proportions of liquid. And, after traveling and fighting for yet another week, the band of three eventually made a shocking discovery.
"Here's another one!" Isaac shouted, his sword lodged in the chest of a larger Goblin, about four feet tall, his other hand rummaging between the Goblins' innards. He wrapped his fingers around the octahedron shaped rock and ripped it from the Goblin's heart.
"Can I have it?" Lily's high-pitched voice responded through the wind, carried downstream by its robust thrust.
Isaac turned towards Lily and chucked the Magic Shard into the air. Like a bullet, it flew forward without any curve and slammed into Lily's chest with enough force to make her stumble back a couple steps. But as if she didn't feel anything at all, and with glee still radiating from her, she picked up the baby blue crystal and lobbed it into her mouth.
Licking her lips, Lily bent over to grow some more yellow flowers, but an uncontrollable yelp left her body as she fainted head-first into the dirt.
"Lily!" Isaac yelled as he bolted upstream.
Flipping her over, Isaac pulled back her eyelids to check her pupils, but immediately upon doing so, overwhelming light burst from Lily's eyes.
Bright and blue, the light ignited from her eyes and burned from within. Isaac grabbed Lily's wrist and pressed his thumb against it. She had a heartbeat, a strong one at that.
Lily's heart was beating rapidly and soon after she collapsed, she began to sweat profusely.
"What do we do?" Olive looked at Isaac.
Isaac shook his head while still looking down at Lily's complexion, "If she gets too hot we can try to cool her with the river water, but all we can do now is wait."
So they waited. First an hour with no changes. Isaac and Olive brought Lily closer inland, finding a secluded area within the jungle, hidden underneath an amalgamation of vines and surrounded by a wall of brush.
They removed most of Lily's clothing, leaving only the two necessities and propped her into the fetal position in a cool and shaded spot. After another two hours Isaac left to hunt something for dinner. Two hours later he returned with the leg of a larger Goblin and, after constructing a fire outside of their temporary home, Isaac cooked it underneath the darkening sky.
Isaac rotated the Goblin leg every so often, meanwhile, Olive sat on the ground beside the fire. Hugging her knees, she stared into the flames and watched them dance.
"We're heading back tomorrow." Isaac's voice, solemn, interrupted the crackling of the fire.
"Even if she wakes up before then?" Olive asked, her gaze still lingering on the flames.
"Even if she steps out of there right now. The fifth group has already arrived. We're a week over schedule as is. By the time we get back the sixth will have already appeared or be on the cusp of it." Isaac argued.
"That's true. . ." Olive lingered, "Most of them won't recognize us."
"Yes," Isaac answered, "that is what I fear most."
"Are you afraid of losing your power?" Olive asked, curious.
"No –" Isaac shook his head, "If a person arrives who I feel is more qualified, perhaps a current Military Commander, then I would step aside. No, losing my power is not what I fear."
Isaac pulled the roasted leg from the flames and placed it on the bed of leaves he laid out prior, "I fear being led by the arrogant and incompetent. Without an authority figure with power around, it only takes a single loud voice to create disarray."
"What are you guy's cooking out here?" Then, Lily's voice illuminated the night.
"Lily!" Olive and Isaac shot towards her.
With a face-eating grin, Lily crashed into her two approaching teammates and held them in a bear hug.
"Are you okay?" Olive grabbed Lily's face and stared into her eyes.
In response, Lily rolled her eyes and pushed Olive's hands away, "Yes! I'm okay, I'm okay! Actually –" her eyes shone even brighter as she jumped from Isaac's gaze to Olive's, "my Rank went up!"
"What?!" Olive shouted.
"Is that what happened to you?" Isaac asked.
"Yes, yes, yes! It's the Magic Shards! At first, they just felt good to eat. You know that rush that bursts into you when you eat them, but after a while, the burst of energy got dimmer, like it was running out of space for the burst of energy to travel in. So I thought, 'what if I try to fill up that space?' and then I ranked up!" Lily spoke fast, almost as fast as her neck switching between the eyes of the two people standing above her.
Isaac closed his eyes in thought, "It's true. It has felt a little off as I ate them recently."
"I thought they were just for Mana regeneration!" Olive countered as she had consumed the least amount of Magic Shards since they had all been acting under the assumption the shards merely revitalized one's Mana; and Olive doesn't possess a Mana reliant Ability.
"Well we were wrong!" Lily smiled in joy.
Olive and Isaac berated Lily with questions for the remainder of the night.
"How many Magic Shards did you consume?"
"What Rank are you now?"
"Did Ranking up provide you with anything new?"
"Have any of your Stats increased?"
The discussion seemed potentially endless. And luckily, the fruits it bore were equally endless.
Thankfully, after undergoing Sherry's crash-course on isekai webnovels, Lily made sure to pay close attention to the amount of Magic Shards she had consumed.
"100." She said flatly.
An easy, crisp number to reach. The first goal was always a hundred, it was something both Olive and Isaac expected. The real mystery, however, is the second number. Will it double? Be a multiple of five? What are the measurements of power used to determine Rank?
But Lily didn't stop there. She continued to fuel her party's ravenous hunger for information.
"I've become a Neophyte and three of my Stats have increased: Endurance, Intelligence, and Mind." Lily answered.
"Oh! And yes, I gained a Trait!"
"What's it do?" Isaac asked.
"It's called |Photosynthesis| and it lets me convert sunlight into energy for me to use, but so far, all it does is recharge my stamina!" Lily replied automatically.
***
For the remainder of my time, Baku and I continued to walk in the endless desert that is my Domain. Much like we did in the jungle with Olive, walking in a straight line seems to be all the hype these days.
Unfortunately, Baku and I have yet to find anything other than more dry rock. On the bright side, however, I have noticed a couple other irregularities. For instance, the temperature of my Domain seems to never change and although the two suns in the sky continue to rotate around, yes there are two suns, one is yellow like Earth's while the second is smaller and red, night seems to perpetually evade my Domain.
Most of the time, both of the suns are present in the sky, but after a while, the brighter yellow sun will vanish and the red sun will take over. When that happens, my Domain gets darker, but not as though it were night. Instead, the sky becomes crimson orange and I bear witness to an infinite sunset.
And even when that happens the temperature remains the same. Finally, after what felt like days of walking with the yellow sun disappearing twice, we arrived at the end of my Domain.
Rather than there being a strict cut off, a wall that cut into the earth or a wall of mist, the edge of my Domain presented itself via a portal to the opposite side of the space.
Almost like the ripples in space that appeared when Baku was spawned, an infinite wall of spacial ripples appeared at the boundary of my Domain. Wary of the visible ripples that seemed to warp my vision, I sent Baku in first and upon his return he told me it was the same on the other side – but I couldn't see Baku on the other side.
It was as if he was swallowed by the spatial ripples — disappearing in an instant.
Then I entered myself, Baku was fine so why wouldn't I be? After passing through the portal wall and feeling an intense tingling invade my senses, I found myself in nearly the same place – my Domain, but the other side of it!
My Domain repeats itself!
"So there's really nothing here?" I mumbled.
"If I may, my Lord." Baku bowed.
"Continue." I replied, now used to Baku's foreign way of speech.
"The System possesses great structures and tools that can be exchanged for Lost Souls. There is nothing that cannot be done within this Domain with the use of Lost Souls, my Lord need only say the word and I shall exhaust the Lost Souls to fulfill your wish."
"So the Lost Souls are a currency for the System?" I asked.
"Lost Souls are Lost Souls and the System merely responds to their sacrifice."
"So what are Lost Souls?"
"Lost Souls are Mortals resisting the cycle of rebirth. As such, they have no place in the realm of Mortals or of Immortals anymore. The System exists to exhaust them." Baku informed me.
"So I'm the Grim Reaper?"
"Forgive me, my Lord, that is an existence I am unfamiliar with."
I suppose the Grim Reaper is nothing more than a myth we humans made, but from Baku's explanation it sounds pretty spot on. It would also explain how I'm able to be in my Domain without being dead myself; since I am Death or at least seem to possess some aspect of Death.
Is Death the Progenitor who made my System?
"So how do I go about collecting Lost Souls?" I asked.
"Currently, my Lord possesses two means of calling upon Lost Souls. First, my Lord must simply imbue your claws with Corruption and tear space. That tear will lead to the Void which is where a part of the Lost Soul resides. The other method has to do with the other half of the Lost Soul; which is to invite the lost portion of the Soul that is trapped in the realm it died. Calling upon either half of the Soul will direct it in its entirety to your Domain."
"Imbue with Corruption?" I asked curiously.
When it came to the strangeness of my black arms, I felt like I was starting to make some progress. So far I could make them incredibly sturdy and robust, making them harder than steel. I could also somewhat manipulate the shape of my fingers as, with enough concentration, I can turn my hands into vicious claws that possess an unnaturally powerful sharpness, but none of that sounds like the imbuement of Corruption.
"In order to imbue your claws with Corruption you must first convert your Spirit into Corruption and then apply it." Baku answered diligently.
And so with that, for the next several hours Baku instructed me on how to access and utilize my Spirit. As it turns out, the hardening and sharpening of my hands is a result of expanding my stamina, a purely biological ability I've gained due to the uniqueness of my new constitution.
Meanwhile, accessing my Spirit did not come easy. Baku had me sit cross-legged and meditate for what felt like an eternity.
"Control your breathing!"
"You must feel the Spirit flow within you!"
After hours of instruction, I finally located my Spirit Sea and struggled to push and prod at it. It felt like I was learning to use a muscle I never knew existed.
Luckily, I was eventually able to draw out a minuscule amount of Spirit. Immediately upon doing so, I directed the Spirit in my body to travel to my fingertips and the moment it passed my elbow and entered the black portion of my arm, I felt the Spirit undergo a transformation.
The feeling of my Spirit was originally pure and bright, it produced a semblance of heat as it traveled from my heart through my body and something about it felt extremely clean. But then, once it entered my arms, that energy grew cold and sinister. It slowly trudged through my arm, seemingly heavier than the pure Spirit, and instead of a comforting warmth it gave me the feeling of caustic frost – a different type of burn.
Although it burned, I forced it through my arm until it arrived at my fingertips. Then, I opened my eyes and stood up; ready to cut into space itself.
I first noticed an eerie, almost staticky energy radiating from my hand. The energy was colorless and almost invisible to the naked eye, but upon closer inspection it appeared as though black electricity was bolting off of my fingertips and each bolt of Corruption felt distinctly cold and disturbing.
I sharpened my fingers. They meshed together and flattened, this time creating somewhat of a blade-hand instead of claws. The erratic Corruption naturally glided to the edge of my hands' blade. Then, I raised my arm and cut the air in front of me.
Instantly, I felt the Corruption from my fingertips diminish, but space remained intact before me. After a few more seconds of waiting, a small crack appeared in the air, no larger than a billiards ball. Then, just like Baku appeared before, a much smaller figure flew through the crack in space and arrived in my Domain.
It's body was transparent and long, something like a worm? It rhythmically squirmed through the air as though it were swimming and although it had no physical form, I could instinctively tell that the foul ghost was slimy.
I reached my finger forward and prodded the Lost Soul.
And immediately upon contact.
[Lost Soul Detected]
[Would you like to Transfer?]
"Yes!"
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
TheLostBoy
TheLostBoy sooooo not that you would have any idea, but around chapter 30 I swapped to third person exclusively…….. sue me if you have a problem (flexing emoji) (100 emoji) (kissy emoji too because why not)
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder