[Spirit Magic] level 8
- [Spirit Bullet] level 13
[Cursing Magic] level 3
[Spirit Flight] level 8
[Materialization] level 17
[Instinct] level 12
Each rank of ten levels was a barrier between different proficiency levels.
They were as follows:
Novice; Neophyte; Apprentice; Proficient; Intermediate; Competent; Professional; Expert; Master; Grandmaster;
While the difference between a neophyte and an apprentice was minimal, as you leveled up your skills, the difference between a level 90 Master and a level 91 Grandmaster was earth-shattering.
The difference between ranks wasn’t absolute, of course, but 9 times out of 10, a higher rank would defeat a lower rank while two individuals in the same rank but at different levels would be much more uncertain.
To activate the skill, surpassing Novice would allow activation with no issues in a calm situation. A higher level and rank would be required to be consistent in a fight, around the Apprentice or Proficient rank depending on their battle experience.
A few days passed in this cold ambiance, alternating chats with the System, trying out his ghostly abilities, and expanding his repertoire of Spells in both Curses and Spiritual Energy.
‘This environment is really getting tiresome, I’ll have to do my best to avoid anything blue or crystalline in the foreseeable future’ John sighed, he even started forcefully emitting more spiritual energy a day ago to increase the mist around his form and see less blue.
[...]
As he spent time learning the limits of what he could ask the System for, he learned a few key phrases that helped him quite a bit.
“Is there something I can do with my abilities to change my environment?”
[You do not currently possess the abilities to change your physical environment]
“Okay, so do I possess the abilities to change my non-physical environment?”
[...]
[Checking Current Authorized Knowledge Level…]
[Your blessing can accomplish such a task]
Huh?
“How does having a strong soul help me change my environment?”
[Query Valid… Forcefully extracting Database Answer before 5.0 Update]
[Rank 5 Beings, Demigods, Immortals, and those above possess the strength to create their own space. A form of Domain, their Territory]
[This ability has multiple forms. Some choose a physical emplacement for their Territory while others place theirs in other planes.]
[Some, if they possess a strong enough Soul, may place their Territory on their Soul]
[While it lacks some features of the other options, Soul Territories are portable and always on their Owner]
… HOLY F*CK!
A short mental outburst later, John was once more reminded of what was considered the Highest-ranked among Blessings. They were already considered cheat abilities granted by the Gods but the Highest Rank was in a dimension of its own.
It reminded him of a part of his chat where John asked for the System’s definition of most of his vocabulary.
[Soul: Origin of an individual.]
[Absolute: A peak that cannot be surpassed by anything]
An [Absolute Soul] was a Soul that would never be surpassed in its department. While the connection between the Soul, Spirit, and Body gave him minor improvements everywhere, it meant that the cradle of his consciousness, his self, his Origin, was the strongest it could be.
Hell, if that analysis is accurate, even if he wasn’t trapped in Eternal Ice, he may have survived as a Ghost anyway after death, high concentration of energy or not.
But if everything he thought about was correct, a question remained.
‘This is clearly a Blessing that grants me a form of Immortality.’
‘According to Probatio, a Blessing like that doesn’t exist’
‘What the hell gave me this Blessing?’
The origin of his powers would have to wait for another time.
For now, he had a Territory to set up.
…
“System, how the hell do I launch my own Territory?”
[Downloading complete guide to Soul Territory…]
[Assistance by the System may be given in exchange for a favor]
“A favor?”
[Correct. A Promise of future accomplishment of a Quest on behalf of the System.]
“Will the quest kill me?”
[Unless more favors are asked for, the Quest’s difficulty will not increase.]
[The System keeps the possible decision to separate a difficult mission into two or more possible Quests]
“You want to multiply what I owe you?” John was disgruntled at the possibility of having to sell his Soul and independence for help.
[Incorrect assumption. I meant we keep the possibility of sending you through 1 Hard Quest or 2 Normal ones]
[According to the System’s system of value, a transaction must be fair]
[Do you agree to the terms of this agreement?]
John wasn’t feeling very comfortable with the idea of promising help to something that abandoned him a few weeks ago… or was it years now? He wasn’t sure of his perception of time now.
Still, he mended his opinion of the System through interacting with it with Private Chat.
The System could be heartless but it was fair and couldn’t lie from what they had discovered. He still had to be careful, lies by omission were possible. As such, his queries had to be as comprehensive as possible.
John sighed at this.
It reminded him of formulating a [Wish] spell to his old DM.
As he died and came back as a soul, improving himself was equivalent to training his soul. He recovered sealed parts of his old memories.
While his identity wasn’t coming back, thoroughly dealt with by Probatio it seemed, the more mundane parts of his identity were coming back to him piece by piece.
John once again thought over the deal once more.
A System issued mission for Tier 5 knowledge on Soul Territories.
He would normally take this kind of deal in a heartbeat as he had accomplished a few System Quests of his living but his feeble self made him doubt his current capabilities
He questioned the System a bit more to ensure he wasn’t making a mistake.
The difficulty was set on his current self’s peak, not his lifetime’s peak. He wouldn’t have to accomplish a Hard quest from the Human John’s point of view which would become an Impossible one for his current self.
Most of his skills were locked, especially [First Marksman] which pained him to look at.
“Will I be doing this quest once I’m resurrected again?”
[Unsure, the current quest hasn’t been designed yet. A pseudo immortal allows us to keep such a deal for when we need help the most.]
Sigh He really needed to get some way to train himself other than mindlessly casting at an Eternal wall and this was his way to do so.
An opportunity especially tailored to his Blessing that granted him a Tier 5 Ability wasn’t something one could find easily.
John Materialized himself to look at his surroundings better before fixing his gaze on the air before him.
“I agree to this deal”
As those words were left in the air, a burst of multicolored energy burst into the air. Swirling and shining, they settled and formed long lines in the air.
Those lines rotated as they finally stopped when their edges pointed at John’s form.
Huh?
A millisecond later, every line, or as John realized every spear, pierced him through and through.
Fortunately, John wasn’t having the full sensory experience of an iron maiden.
This System Energy wasn’t hurting him, merely interacting with his being in a more profound way than what was possible normally.
A soft reassured sigh escaped John’s lips. While very rare, he saw a few skills that used System Energy, Iro had a few and one or two could be used to attack. They often trained with each other and he knew they could hurt as much as any Energy, maybe more as they could hurt Status directly.
[Contract has been made]
A few seconds passed before the spears impaling John slowly melted away from one hand to the other.
A quick check revealed a [Contracts] tab in his status now. It placed itself at the bottom of his [Status] screen with the others.
He now had [Skills], [Chat] and the bugged [C̶̠͛̔̈̓̅͆̀͗͌͝ļ̶͓̘̭̭̤̺̂̌̉̆á̶͇̱͈̹̤̻̆͛͋̊͛́͑s̸͓̞̭̯͓͓̟̒̇͐̊͐͘s̵͕̼̘̞̅͂̋͂̑̀̚] from his strange half Pioneer status.
He had tried to access the bugged tab but he merely received a headache from it.
As the energy finished its work, John blinked.
The vast sapphire expanse vanished, replaced by a white room.
White walls with a white floor and ceiling. If John couldn’t touch the limits himself, he would have believed it stretched into infinity, even his [Magic Vision (improved)] couldn’t register his surroundings.
[Magical Vision type Skills will not work in your soul]
The gray familiar window popped up, the blue one not appearing even when brought up by John.
[Tier 5 Territories can interfere with System Energy.]
[This is especially so for the current Version 2.0 System]
[While you haven’t trained yet your Territory, your [Absolute Soul] is already a Territory’s Seed by itself]
[The System can only reach you through Pioneer’s John currently maintained Link connecting with the System Seed within you.]
[Warning: while Pioneer John was assessed to be able to have the capabilities to handle a Soul Territory, be warned that above tier abilities are as dangerous as they are powerful.]
‘Interesting’ A smirk appeared on his face as he learned more about his Blessing and the System’s limit.
To be honest, John wasn’t the type to fight against the System for peace or justice. It was a facet of this world that made their lives both easier and more complicated but overall more interesting.
The System wasn’t an enemy of John and his complaints about it were more of an internal monologue than real problems. Every being in Origin accepted the System as something positive, even if it also reinforced their enemies.
Still, as it was proven multiple times, the System wasn’t perfect and learned at all times yet this weakness was different.
It wasn’t a loophole or a mistake but just a difference of magnitude in powers.
The System was a part of the World that gave its inhabitants options. As a part of the World, while it stood above most, if an individual obtained godlike abilities, it couldn’t exactly click a [Erase] button.
This was one of the reasons why the System created Quests that involved its Users.
As John refocused on his surroundings, he picked up the massive tome on the ground in front of him and focused on it, his skills still worked.
[Soul Territory Guide, System Created]
[Description: a complete guide to Soul Territories, a Tier 5 Ability. Please note that this text is made up of pure information state and issues will occur in case of overuse.]
[Tome 1: Description and Modification]
