I float around my soul barrier, tethered so I don't lose my way.

I really can't see anything... I'm using [Astral Projection] to try and see if I can learn anything about my curses but all I see is my soul barrier.

I return to my soul, close and seal the door, and wake back up.

"For starters how can I even leave my soul if I am my soul?" I muse.

I then move to my backup plan. Much like how I got [Sense Mana] I feel for the souls around me, or more accurately try to feel the soul barrier. Having prior knowledge of these things should help me quickly get the skill.

Ting! You have gained the Sense Soul general skill!

Sense Soul: You have sensed the souls of others, this will help you learn what souls really are.

Not too hard. Prior experience with obtaining similar skills and breakthroughs really does help, and by a lot too.

I see dozens of tiny orbs floating in the house. Almost all of them are the various spirits that drift on the winds of mana like jellyfish in a sea. There are five brighter and more distinct souls each one a member of my family, me included.

Our souls overlap our mana cores... no, the mana cores are in our souls!

Ting! Sense Soul has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Soul will now continue leveling past level 10!

1^st Breakthrough: You have sensed a soul component, this will help you study the makeup of souls.

Ting! Sense Soul has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Soul will now continue leveling past level 20!

2^nd Breakthrough: You have sensed past the soul barrier, this will help you see through the soul's defenses

3rd Breakthrough: You have sensed a primordial soul, this will help you understand the evolution of souls.

4th Breakthrough: You have sensed a legacy soul, this will help you understand the evolution of souls.

Ting! Sense Soul has obtained level 2!
...
Ting! Sense Soul has obtained level 18!

Huh... I got the first two in the wrong order, I was supposed to see past the barrier first but since I could already sense mana cores with [Sense Mana] I got it first. It's good to know that some skills may have overlap with others. Now that I know this [Sense Life] may have something to do with vitality, or at least it's a shared breakthrough and it may have a shared breakthrough with [Sense Soul].

Then there's the third and fourth breakthrough, clearly, that's from seeing my soul but how exactly is it different? My soul has several components. One is the mana core, the barrier if that can even count, then there's... the mind? Maybe that's why! Astral Projection works by sending the mind out of the soul!

Ting! Astral Projection has obtained level 17!

If that is the case then what is the tether that I made? From what Kayafe said Ectoplasm is related to souls, perhaps that's what it was, Ectoplasm. If that's the case then there should be some in my soul. But how do I see it? One Soul component is the core, that one is easy. There's what I think is the mind, then they is the one next to the mind it looks... dim? My memories! What's the fourth component? The fifth? There's more.

Let's compare my soul to others.

Mom's soul is... different somehow. I can't tell how but there's something off about it... No, it's my soul that is different, purer. Everyone else has three extra soul components, I don't know what those even do nor do they seem to be doing anything.

Our soul components are also arranged differently, my soul component seems to have a clump of three components stuck to each other like bubbles. Further focusing on that I realize one's my memories and the other two are my minds! My minds aren't fully divided, however, more like compartmentalized, the indicator is there but still technically of the same soul component. Could I purposely try to divide it? What will happen if I do?

Focusing intently on the stuff between my soul components. It even seems to pass through my soul components, the more I watch the more I see that it behaves similarly to blood. It carries stuff from one component to another. I focus on entering a state of perception to get a clearer look into what's happening. Soon I could see that this stuff is somehow passing through my soul barrier and into my body, spreading throughout.

Ectoplasm... I realize. It is the blood of the soul, the thing that glues the soul to the body, the thing that takes memories from the brain and stores them in the soul and takes copies of memories from the soul to the brain to be remembered. Ectoplasm holds stuff, it holds signatures of our magic and mana. It fills our body with vitality and directs mana to be used and even holds it to empower us if need be.

Strength stat increases how much one can be magically augmented, does this increase how much ectoplasm I have? Or does it increase how much ectoplasm itself can hold? Agility increases the ease of how much it can take which probably means how readily my ectoplasm can hold enhancing mana.

Ting! Sense Soul has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Soul will now continue leveling past level 30!

5th Breakthrough: You've entered a state of perception, this will improve all of your soul sensing breakthroughs.

Ting! Sense Soul has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Soul will now continue leveling past level 40!

6^th Breakthrough: You have sensed ectoplasm, this will help you understand the nature of this strange substance.

Ting! Sense Soul has obtained level 19!
...
Ting! Sense Soul has obtained level 26!

There's a soul component that produces Ectoplasm and I bet there's a specialized one that produces vitality although to confirm that I'll want to get vitality observation breakthrough with [Sense Mana].

I exit my meditation and stretch. After sitting for so long my muscles cramp up. I walk around before sitting back down and focusing on my body. Vitality is in every part of my body, it sustains me and animates me. Which means there's a difference in the mana of my body and the vitality.

I enter my states, observing both my ectoplasm and my body, looking for similar manas. I first start by ruling out the mana I already know. Then what little is left has to be either vitality or some other mana. If what the Guardian said is true then I should look for the mana that doesn't have the MM force and has minimal intensity... there it is!

Ting! Sense Mana has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Mana will now continue leveling past level 260!

25^th Breakthrough: You have sensed Vitality, this will help you study lifeforce.

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 219!
...
Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 223!

New color fills me as vitality became clear to my senses. I watch the vitality settle into my cells, invigorating them. I watch the vitality-filled ectoplasm replaced drained vitality, vitality that lost its luster. Strange, instead of intensity vitality seems to have... something else? It's a form of intensity but less dangerous. It's almost like a glow, a revitalizing aura around the peculiar mana. Once the vitality was used up it became neutral.

I wonder if there's an opposite. If vitality is life mana then its opposite would be death mana that drains instead of revitalizing, but wouldn't that be included in the breakthrough? Then again vitality is pretty strange for mana and probably only barely qualifies.

With my breakthrough goals met I went to Chyzu's Dojo, telling Mom where I was going.

"Aly! You came! We were just about to start" Chyzu comes in for a bear hug only to grab my illusory clone. "Huh? Oh, there you are!" I reveal myself, regretting how widespread [Sense Mana] is, I'll need to find a way to mimic my mana composition as well or my illusions will never work.

I successfully dodge Chyzu and was starting to be chased around when Esofy put her foot down.

"Can we please get this on! There's a lot of people waiting!" Indeed, every Kheshamo fighter is here, not just the students. Even Tana is here, he will be unlocking his class in a few months, too late for the tournaments, unfortunately.

"Oh, sorry!" Chyzu bopped her head in a Teehee pose.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"Although every one of us will participate in the competitions only one of us will be chosen to represent the village. We will each face off against each other and the one with the most wins over losses is the one chosen" Lionr, Aunty's new husband answers.

"Of course that means you can't use your Kyhosa, Aly. We have to keep things as equal as possible." Chyzu informs me.

"What about level differences?" I ask.

"That's a complicated issue. Bond level, class level, race tier, class tier, skill levels, general skill levels. It's too much. The representative is meant for the best of each village, if they fall short that's on them. As for the other fights, those are based on class and bond level. You're given a score of the sum of both levels. My score is, three hundred forty-two" Esofy says.

In comparison, my score would be three thirty-two, just ten points lower. However, since my class is a Bond skill class my damage output should be higher, but then again I have over a thousand stat points unspent and I don't plan to spend any. Even with that handicap, I can expect a seven or eight hundred percent bonus to my beauty magic, and my fairy explosion can still do a lot of damage.

"What's the average amount of stats I can expect people to have? And has there ever been any accidental deaths?" My stats are around twenty for physical and forty for mental I'm basically a glass cannon.

"A few hundred at least, but usually only half the stats are spent I haven't seen anyone with more than five hundred in a single stat. As for anyone dying we obviously prioritize life and we are required to go easy at the start and slowly ramp up our attacks. Any dangerously powerful attack will have you immediately disqualified" Esofy informs me.

In other words, the odds of someone dying are very low.

"That means don't use your explosions, Aly, that is an example of too dangerous," Chyzu says shifting her weight with a twitch of her tail.

With my questions answered the matches began. I was first paired with Another student, she has a wind bond and wind class. She is a sword fighter and looks athletic and nimble.

Before we even start I set my core to produce earth mana. I wasn't allowed to have my familiar already out but I don't think I'd need to.

At the signal, we started and I immediately launched fairies with five mana at her to distract her. Then I turned myself invisible and summon my clone as I move. The wind fighter casts a wind edge on her blade not paying enough attention to me. I sneak around her and weave a ribbon of dark mana. As she engages my clone I wrap the cloth other her eyes and weave threads through the cloth to sew it on her. As she struggles against the cloth I leisurely summon fairies and strike her with more and more power until she yields.

"First round is over! Good job Aly! Nice thinking outside of the box, and putting your craft to use. You could also trip them up, tie their legs together and bind their arms." Chyzu was refereeing my fight and complements me.

I disperse the dark mana cloth and refill my mana from my Kyhosa reserves. That strategy isn't going to work, it took too much mana to weave the cloth.

The next fight I blinded my opponent by latching an illusion of dark fog around their head. By my fourth fight however the others are wary of my debilitating spells, however, it is only a matter of time until I fight someone with a high enough [Sense] skill that can counter my blinding strategies.

My first loss is against Esofy who quickly rushes at me almost faster than I could react, I had only barely dodged the first attack but was held vulnerable on the follow-up.

"You need to practice your stances again, Aly, tripping up like that in an attempt to dodge me could get you killed"

My fight against Chyzu went a lot better. I counter her spells with ice spells, making use of [Mana Manipulation]. However, I lost a war of attrition and ran out of mana.

"You should participate in sparring more, Aly, your inexperience is really showing"

I lost several more fights simply because of that. I didn't know what my opponent was planning and couldn't react appropriately.

"When using barrier magic you can't just recast the spell whenever you need it; even with [Clear mind] it's hard to react fast enough. You don't have any support skills for that, a caster mage does, so always have your barrier spells up." Even though they aren't my teacher everyone offers their advice and point out the biggest issues they see.

"Use your directable fairies and your [Sense Mana] to your advantage always keep your front covered. In your case, you can't see anyway so you don't need to be able to physically see."

"Your bond is great for misdirection but not everybody will fall for it. Putting up barriers in random locations after going invisible may be good for many reasons but don't rely on fooling your opponent, because when they have a way to beat that you lose"

"Excellent barrier work at the end there, but you aren't making full use of your casting capabilities. Your bond class isn't versatile enough so you need to cover your weaknesses with your casting skill. You've got misdirection so use it to lead your opponent into a bad spot don't just blind them but lead them into traps, turn your illusions into weapons even if you can't do any damage directly with them."

"You have a [Multitask] type skill, even if it can't do as much as [Multitask] you still need to use it to your full advantage, I can tell that you've neglected it, it's one of the best skills for a caster"

"You only have one defensive skill against physical attacks, you need to master it"

At the end of the matches, I had ten wins and eight losses. Fighting monsters at a distance is vastly different from a one on one close-up battle but it clearly highlighted my weaknesses. Esofy had only lost two fights and had beat out Chyzu who had only lost three fights. Esofy is this year's representative for the fighters.

I can only win against people who I can easily blind and debilitate in some way, otherwise, it's my loss. I could focus on this strength and branch out in escaping or I could cover my weaknesses. In this case, I think the most appropriate choice is to cover my weakness as it's a lack of experience. Later I may have abilities to run away and delay any attackers.

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 223!
...
Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 226!

Ting! Graceful Movements has obtained level 40!
...
Ting! Graceful Movements has obtained level 43!

Ting! Clear Mind has obtained level 19!
...
Ting! Clear Mind has obtained level 22!

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 243!