"I see, well don't forget your end when the time comes." He's rather insistent on that huh? I nod. "Good. Then lets get on with whatever you wish to discuss."

"The most important thing for me to learn about is spirituality. For sure. Especially the conditions for Spiritual Evolution, so I can elevate the others. I can make some guesses based on how it happened with me. But knowing for sure would be better." I tap my chin thoughtfully as I consider further. "Beyond that, I need to know more about Enchanting, how Magic works, how to make Staves, and I think I'd like to learn more about Black Powder. And I suppose I'll need more materials for building Automatons, though I could just rely on the dungeon for that, I'd like to get more varied, and better materials."

"Thats a fair bit to go through. To start, Dwarves aren't well known for spirituality. I imagine we can learn about Spiritual Evolution from a race that is. The Jiangshi perhaps? I'll have to ask around to see if there are any in Bedhal." He writes something on a spare scrap of paper, a reminder to look into that perhaps? "As for Enchanting, Magic, and Staves, I should have some information on those here in my library. As for black powder, you already read that book if I'm not mistaken? Cannons are primarily used in siege warfare. So I'm skeptical as to what you hope to use it for." He raises an eyebrow, but then moves on.

"But I suppose we can get you some Sulfur, Charcoal, and Saltpeter. Though we'll need you and perhaps the other Automatons to start doing proper quests to make money." He rubs his fingers together in a universal, or perhaps multiversal? Gesture. "Lastly, I'm, not certain you can still enter the dungeon. I don't know what level you were before you evolved into a Machine Soul, but considering that you're stronger than the others by a decent bit, I'd imagine you're too high to enter a Stage two dungeon."

"W-what? Dungeons have level restrictions?! And it accounts for total levels not just current? Uhh. Lets see, I was level eleven as an Automaton, and I'm level six now. So a total of Seventeen?" 

"Too high." He waves a hand dismissively. "Stage one dungeons allow level ten and below to enter, Stage two allow level fifteen or below, and so on. Though its fine if you level up while in one. Still, you can at least send the others in without you for materials? Even then, you can certainly do some work around here. Hunting preferably." He turns his head as if popping his neck, though I don't hear it if it did pop. "The land around town is a bit poor for growing crops, though many other plants grow fairly well, so our main food source is from animals and edible monsters. Thus, the most common quests are for hunting."

"Do you know why crops don't grow as well?" He shakes his head and shrugs, apparently he's not an expert on farming. "Right, should have figured that. Still I might try to look into it on my own sometime. Different perspectives and all that." I shrug, then move on. "I see, what sort of animals and monsters are hunted the most?" I pause then hold a finger up. "Maybe those Ampagu things I saw?"

He looks alarmed at that for some reason. "You didn't kill them did you?!" I lean back from the abrupt exclamation, then shake my head. "Okay, good. Ah, sorry. Hunting an Ampagu is, sort of a Taboo? You see, they're considered signs of good luck. And they rarely show themselves in front of the Races, so its a good sign for the town that you saw, more than one even. Huh."

"Oh, so those Good Fortune and Blessed Fortune skills are for people who see them, not for themselves?" 

"Royal Ampagu even?!" He pinches the bridge of his nose, then looks behind me as if checking to see if anybody is eavesdropping, though with the door shut I'm not sure if he could tell. I go ahead and use Spiritual Perception to look for nearby souls, and there's certainly nobody near the door. "Do not, tell anybody else about that detail." The way he said Do not instead of just Don't makes me a little nervous for some reason. "Royal Ampagu are a wholly different matter from Ampagu. If even a rumor gets out that there is one in the forest, there will doubtlessly be issues."

"Rare enough that people who don't care about the taboo would come to hunt him?"

"Most likely yes. There isn't much value in hunting an Ampagu despite the taboo, but Royal ones are, more useful. I suppose. Their antlers make excellent weapons and their bones are a potential ingredient for a whole slew of potent potions. But, it is thought that one who kills a Royal Ampagu will actually be cursed. So it's worse than a taboo even." He thinks a moment more, then waves his hand, indicating the end of that subject.

I go back to what we were talking about before. "Right, uhm. What would you recommend I hunt?"

"Most animal like monsters are at least decent choices. Nobody will want to eat something like a goblin or kobold though. And, other large herbivorous animals are good. Funny enough, I'd actually say plant like monsters are probably the best choice around here. Not trees, but fruit, vegetable, and mushroom like monsters for instance. In fact, Malicious Mash, a mushroom monster is the most commonly hunted creature around here. Though the rare Dark Attribute Death Mash are poisonous, so watch out for that." 

Did he just include mushrooms among plants? Eh, guess I can let it slide. They might not be the most advanced scientifically. "Alright, and where do you usually find such monsters? And, what causes Variants anyway?"

"Weren't you going to read about subjects like that? Well, the short of it is that Variants occur when monsters live in certain environments. Like, if a group of goblins lived near a volcano for several generations they could start producing Smiths and Prospectors. Though Dungeons can spawn them in without needing the right environment. So Variants are typically rarer out in the world than in Dungeons." He points to one of the shelves, apparently indicating that I can find more on the subject there. "As for where to find them. Almost anywhere outside of town. Though they're a bit harder to find in the Balm Forest, given that the elder trees prey upon monsters that wander too deep."

"Mash monsters specifically tend to grow from the corpses of other monsters, including ones that couldn't be eaten. So many Adventurers who know how to butcher their prey themselves just take the valuable parts and leave the rest as potential fertilizer for them. Ah, though if you bring whole monsters back to the guild we can break them down for you, and we usually send the leftovers from the guild's slaughterhouse to the Balm Forest. Part of the town's deal with the Wise Balms."

"Ah, well. I have the butcher skill. But I think I need better tools for it. I tried skinning a Dire Wolf with, poor results." I gesture towards my sword. "So, I probably need a skinning knife at least. I might be able to use my sword in place of a cleaver with my strength stat though?" After some more thought I sigh. "For now, I suppose I'll just bring monsters I think to be edible back. At least until I know what I'm doing."

"Well, if you raise the skill's level you could probably do it all with a sword." He stands up from his desk, then pushes the chair back into place. "For now, I am going to go get a few hours of sleep. Feel free to stay up and read if you like."

"I don't think I actually need to sleep. Though I can if I just want to pass time. Sooo, I would be happy to avail myself of some of these books." Marel smirks and mutters something along the lines of "Lucky you" though it was a little quiet so I'm not quite certain. He walks around his desk then heads for the door. Watching after him with spiritual perception I can see as he simply walks into one of the rooms in the hall. Does he live out of the Guildhall? After shrugging it off, I focus on the books. Time to figure some stuff out! I head for a random shelf and start looking for interesting titles.

After a couple hours of reading I happen across a slight mention of something very interesting. Apparently, Jiangshi is actually a catchall term for a large number of Spiritual Races that inhabit the corpses of other Races. Similar to how Beast Man is used for all the races evolved from mammals and mammal like monsters. But, more to the point the description of the Jiangshi mentions a proclivity for a special weapon they use that can harm spirits, even when used by normal living beings.

Okay, how does that work? Theres no explanation for it beyond that. And I haven't found any other books that seem like they would mention Jiangshi. Well. Maybe its like how I can make Soul Gems by just radiating SP into it long enough? Though that didn't get me an enchanting like skill. . . I draw my sword and hold it in front of me. Then I start filling it with spiritual energy and go back to reading, figuring that if that'll work, it'll happen by the time I next feel like stopping.

"So thats the deal with magic?!" Obvious by my verbal reaction, I have just read something that explained quite a lot actually. Turns out, there are two main ways to use magic, the system assisted spells you gain at each level of the magic skills and use by just releasing mana and saying the spell's name. And custom made spells where an individual makes up their own chants and names for a spell, pulls forth mana, converts it to the appropriate element, then incants the chant and calls the name in order to cast them. Though that does still require appropriate levels in the associated skills to use.

The main benefits of the two categories are the speed and simplicity of the System assisted spells vs the flexibility and power of the custom spells. My efforts to alter the system spells have been effectively halfway between the two. Though the book doesn't make any mention of altering the system spells, I imagine it is something others have come across before.

There are also a number of other interesting points in this book, mostly the general abilities of the six magic types. Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth basically are used just for attacks, but Light and Dark have support and ailment type abilities, as well as being the only magics from the six that can damage spirits. No mention other magic types? I hope there are some advanced magic skills too. Might just not be listed in this standard book?

Ah, and might as well check my status and sword. SP 85/260. Ah, well time to stop that. I cut off the flow of spiritual energy, then check the weapon. Its Status is unchanged. "Damn. . . So, guess there's only one option now. I'll put a soul in it!"

I turn my gaze down, looking for the Soul Siphon. Looking through my own body is a little weird. Doubly so when it also means looking through my spiritual body, but I can see the Soul Siphon and its stored, Soul fragments? Pretty easily. The contents are much denser than my spiritual body, and look like little white cubes with black specks at the center. There are ten little, almost sugar cube sized pieces, and I get the impression that each one represents five points of SP, so the perfect size for my needs.

I focus on moving just my spirit for a moment, causing my spectral right arm to diffuse through the physical arm and reach into my chest, and further into the Siphon. Then I simply grab hold of one of the soul cubes and pull it out, nice and easy. I hold it up, looking closer for a moment, then, finding nothing new by looking closer, I move my hand over to the sword. My quasi-gaseous hand moves through the sword's cross guard and I drop the cube off in the center of the former gemstone.

Thats, when things get a little weird. The whole sword starts, glowing black. As best as I can describe it, it seems to be radiating an aura of darkness about ten centimeters around the whole thing. The Aura also seems to rather enjoy clinging to the arm that holds the weapon, its moving around a bit more actively over there than along the blade, and specifically wrapping around my hand and wrist. I can actually sort of feel it, despite my lack of a sense of touch, so maybe its spiritual? Though checking my status shows no change, and the sword's status doesn't appear.

After perhaps a minute, the darkness swells up more then draws back into the sword, which now looks quite different.

The blade and handle are now sheer and glossy black. And it is longer, still a longsword I'd say, but now near the upper limit of such. A little over a meter. Though the shape is the same. As for the odd wiry guard, it's still green, and in fact seems even brighter than before, but it seems to have specks of black flowing through the mana threads bound to the gem. Naturally, I scan it. To another interesting result.

"Now why'd it show up twice? Waaait, maybe because of the Weapon Transformation skill? Eh, use Weapon Transformation?" The black glow swipes over the blade, though it only lasts an instant. Once it has passed the sword looks the same as it had before I put a soul fragment in it. And Scan reads it as.

It looks like it expends SP to transform, but still, that is. Pretty cool. I go ahead and transform it back to its Spirit Arms state, then use Deep Scan. [Spirit Arms Anima: A Spiritual weapon created by Anima, Possesses the unique powers of; Weapon Absorption, Weapon Transformation, and Parallel Growth] "That didn't tell me much more." I stop and think. "Ahhuh. Maybe? Well. No harm in trying? Lets see if the Double Appraisal idea works here." I look at the phrase "Spirit Arms" in the open scan menu, then repeat Deep Scan.

It takes a few seconds, just long enough for me to think it won't work, but. . . [Spirit Arms: A type of Spiritual weapon formed from a piece of the intended wielder's soul, said intended wielder is the only one who can use it to its fullest. It gains a special set of powers based on its creator.] What was that delay about? Mh. Never mind. More interestingly, it seems like any Spirit Arms I make will work the same way? Hm. Absorption and Transformation are pretty obvious. Basically I can feed it other longswords and it can take their forms. And, Parallel Growth? Does that mean that it will grow as I grow, or that it can grow separately in each of its forms?

I mull it over a bit, then eventually decide that I'd lean towards the latter, though I'll have to figure it out as I go. I decide that I should just go back to reading for now and worry about the weapon when I can test it out. So I use mana control to reshape the mana thread based sheath for the new length then put the sword away.

I've just started in on a book on the local geography when Marel comes back in. Though he walks straight for his desk without acknowledging me. So I keep reading, sparing a bit of attention for what he's doing. First, a sip from that flask again, then writing something on a paper, rolling it up and putting it in a small tube. Then setting the tube in an open space on the desk before looking through some other paperwork.

Around the time I'm halfway through the book he seems to wrap up whatever he needed to do right away and turns his focus to me. "Your sword looks different." A brief pause. "Why does a sword count as a living thing?! What did you do?" Oh. I close the book and look at him. He is rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Ehhm. Well. I read a book that talked a bit about some of the Races, and it mentioned that Jiangshi have special weapons, so I wanted to make something like that myself?" I place the book back where I found it, then look down at the sword. "I'm not, certain that I did what they do. But it turned out pretty interesting." I pause then look back up at him. "Hang on, you can use Scan too? How common is that skill?"

"Er, ahh. Well that varies a bit based on what group of the population you're talking about. For adventurers its around one in five people who have it? Scholars are over half as I recall." He grabs the tube from before and stands up. "This is a letter explaining a bit of your situation. I'll be sending it off to the Capital's Adventurers Guild, and they'll check their records for anybody who will be able to teach you." He walks towards the door, then pauses to look at me. "Say, you should see how we send letters for future reference." He nods, then continues on his way. Given the situation I simply follow.

Marel leads the way through the bar, down the stairs, and outside of the building. Then he walks around the side of the guild to, what is obviously an Aviary. A large cage built alongside a small building to the side of the guild. I can't see any birds currently in the cage, but there are several openings into the building itself, so they must be in there. He approaches the cage, then gives a short whistle. After a moment, five largish, thin birds fly out through the bird doors, landing on a series of branches mounted throughout the cage.

All told, I think they look about like Ibis birds, but with shorter, sharper, more hawk-like beaks. They are all a light green color with a few spots of darker green forming patterns. "Arrowflits. A weak and rather tame type of Monster. They can be taught to fly to specific places fairly easily. Each one of them know three or four other locations." He steps forward and hold up the tube, showing me a little crest of some sort on the end, then pointing the crest towards the birds. Three of which seem to lose interest, turning away and grousing among themselves while the other two hop forward to closer perches. "Rather clever as well."

He opens a door on the cage and holds up his arm before barking a word that I'd guess to be a name, "Plame." the slightly larger of the two nearer birds hops through the open door and lands on his arm, its, rather sharp looking claws gripping onto him.

"Ahhh, shouldn't you be wearing like, a leather glove or something?" 

He finishes tying the little tube to the bird's leg before looking back at me with his eyebrows furrowed. "No? Perhaps if I was level one they might be able to scratch me a little? But my Vitality is much higher than an Arrowflit's Strength." Apparently Vitality and Strength go head to head to determine damage? Even in ways that have nothing to do with combat. I'll have to look into that more later. He turns his focus back to the bird, then pulls a piece of dried meat out of a pouch at his side and holds it up to the bird, which snaps it up.

After some, chewing? The bird makes a chirruping noise, then takes to the air, flying kind of north by northeast. The other birds are all staring at Marel now. He gives a soft sigh, then grabs four more pieces of meat and reaches into the cage, carefully handing each bird one. "And, perhaps a bit spoiled." After that he closes up the gate.

He leads the way back into the Guildhall. It looks like the other Guild Workers have shown up during the time we were out with the birds. Marel pauses by the Black haired one. "Rute, if Flynt comes by, let him know I have a special request for him." When the dwarf at the counter nods, he continues back towards his office.

I follow the rest of the way, then move to address something else of interest. "It's been a full day now hasn't it? So, should I talk to the other Automatons and have some of them go into the dungeon for loot and materials?"

"Hmm. Not a bad idea, and its not like we would stop them from entering. There are quite a few of them though, so you should split them into parties and give them specific instructions." I nod and walk off to find them again.

I find them pretty quickly, they are once more in the room I had left them in before. When I walk in and wave for their attention they all focus on me. "Alright, so the dungeon is open again. But I'm apparently too high level to enter it as it is now. So I'd like most of you guys to go in for various purposes instead." I glance around, noticing that the ones who were Blank before are awakened now. So since I don't feel like naming them just now, I'll think of them as Unnamed.

I make a noise like clearing my throat, despite such an act being unnecessary. "Number 1, you take two of those who don't have names yet, preferably one with mining like yourself and one with solid combat skills for protection, your obvious goal, mining Magic Iron, and anything else you can find. Emeth, another pair. Train them both for combat. Crimson, the last couple without names. You can do as you like, but I'd prefer you focus on training your pair as well, and gathering Automaton Components spawned by the dungeon. Just to see if they're different. Goibniu, you, Patch, and Mend should stay in town and try to learn a bit about more conventional forging techniques if you can. Also, try to teach Patch and Mend mana control, I'd like to teach them Light Magic later, since that attribute apparently has healing spells among its abilities."

They split into their specified groups and fall into lines. "Ah, and one last thing, for those heading into potential battle. Would you like to get upgraded weapons, even if it costs a fragment of your soul~?"

Chaos_Sinner777

Is dried meat okay for trained birds? I don't know?! Curse you attempted realism and lack of knowledge. But, even if that wouldn't be fine for like a hawk IRL, that doesn't matter. Arrowflits are monsters anyway. They don't need real world biology and nutrition.