Soul Spotting

The moon birds were chirping, the calm artificial wind cooling down the sweating Kai. Combined with the heat from the artificial sun, Kai could have almost considered himself to be on holiday.

If not for the looming threat of war, that is.

Once under the shade of one of the trees of The Dome, Kai sat down and entered the meditation position. With one solemn promise that he never trash-talk meditation again if this worked, Kai closed his eyes and tried to find his soul.

Focusing on the image of the silver orb which The Ever-changing showed him, Kai scoured every inch of his body for anything remotely similar to that.

Seconds passed, seconds which turned into minutes. The boredom was nearly killing Kai but he pushed through, he persevered in the hopes of reaching a breakthrough.

It didn't work.

Giving up, Kai silently cursed meditation once as he got up.

Why doesn't it work? Even The Ever-changing said it would work. Is there something wrong with my soul?

The idea that the problem could be his own soul stuck with Kai, an idea to test that theory popping into his head.

Making his way back towards the centre of The Dome, Kai looks around the vast open area for a test subject.

Perfect timing, actually...

Walking through the centre of The Dome was a man with broad shoulders, short, jet-black hair and a gray bodysuit which struggled to contain his muscles.

Not really caring what John was up to, Kai activated Soul Sight and tried to see the burly man's soul.

Kai's eyes flickered with something, something that he couldn't see due to it being in the depths of his own pupil.

The bodysuit which was stuck to John so tightly seemed to peel away, followed by his skin, then his muscles. All that was left after what was only a split second was a silhouette of a burly man.

Luckily, the silhouette was not the only thing Kai could see. In the middle of the dark outline was an orb, much smaller than the one The Ever-changing had shown him.

While the soul Kai was first shown was an illuminant silver, John's was a dark green. The colour reminded Kai of a forest, one that would never be cut down.

Ahaha, it worked!

The fact that Kai could see the dense, green ball meant that it was, in fact, Kai's soul that was the problem.

But why though? Hmm... Maybe since the skill is Soul Sight I have to actually be able to see what I'm looking for... If only I had a mirror.

Leaving John to himself, Kai wandered around under the artificial sunlight once more while looking for his second test subject.

This one was just as easy to stumble upon.

A tall, red-haired woman with a purple bodysuit and the figure to draw the eye of any man. Kai knew better than to try though.

Sofia walked over towards one of the trees of the little meadow in the corner of The Dome, plucking out the arrows which she must have just fired. Each arrow embedded about an inch into the bark.

Jeez... what's her strength stat to give her shots enough power to do that?

The bark of the trees were much thicker and sturdier when compared to standard Earth trees, so just the fact she could get them in that deep was shocking.

What would it look like if one of those hit me?

Pushing away the thought, Kai activated Soul Sight once more. Kai watched as every fibre of Sofia's being peeled away, leaving only a black silhouette and a vibrant silver orb.

Sofia's soul was slightly bigger than John's, but much brighter and prettier. The shine it gave off reminded Kai of the stars in the night sky.

Well, kind of, I don't really remember what they looked like.

The fact that Sofia's soul resembled a star didn't really surprise Kai, her innate ability was based on constellations after all.

A loud cracking sound could be heard from the hardwood bow in Sofia's hands as she let an arrow fly, the arrow then embedding itself into the tree.

Leaving Sofia to her training, Kai once again left to find his third and final target. Since he has already used the skill on Sofia and John, why not just complete the trio?

The final person which Kai wanted to use the skill on was currently practising with her scimitar. Her olive skin glistened with sweat as she swung her blade in an almost elegant dance, the only reason he wouldn't consider it to be actually elegant was because of the absolute ruthlessness and depravity in which she swung. It looked like a desperate attempt at injuring something she could never hit.

Ignoring the brutal dance for now, Kai activated his new skill to peer into Noelle's soul. The same thing which happened to John and Sofia happened to the Arabian woman, her entire being peeling away before Kai's very eyes.

Left with only a shadowy silhouette and a soul before his eyes, Kai focused on the orb which he assumed to be Noelle's soul.

An orb very different when compared to John's and Sofia's sat in Noelle's chest. At first sight it seemed like a normal, golden orb. A slight glow was all that could be said to be abnormal about her soul.

But upon closer inspection, Kai could spot countless minuscule cracks decorating the outer layer of Noelle's soul. Thin, black, wisps escaped from the cracks in her soul, creating a slightly creepy image.

Not slightly, really.

Shivering slightly, Kai turned off his Soul Sight and looked away from the olive-skinned woman.

While walking away, unsure what to do, Kai inwardly complained about the lack of mirrors in the forest. Since he definitely would not be able to see Failure's, Aldred's or even the majority of the moon beasts due to the Mana difference, he could only silently curse the skill.

With nothing really left to do, Kai was about to just go to sleep so he could be rested for when he has to ambush more abominations with Wa'rak when something caught the corner of his eye.

A small stream flowed through a small valley in the ground, the water reflecting the image of the artificial sun back up at the roof of the Dome.

Reflecting...

A grin grew on Kai's face as he stumbled his way towards the stream, lifting the legs of his bodysuit up and unequipping his tunic and shoes at the same time as to not get them wet.

The water warped around his ankles as he stood in the stream, the sound of water gushing being a nice sensation for the ears.

Gazing down at his reflection, Kai can't help but think about how much he's changed. If before the tutorial he was a four out of ten, now he's at least a six.

His hair, which was once short enough, was down to his shoulders. For some reason it was a much darker shade of red when compared to before the tutorial.

Maybe it's something to do with not enough sunlight, or something like that.

His face, which used to be slightly chubby, was now well defined. Any trace of fat was gone, yet he wouldn't call himself attractive yet. Maybe if he cut his hair he would possibly push himself up to a seven, but that's a topic for another time.

The main reason Kai decides to take a dip in the stream was because, like a mirror, water can be used to see reflections.

Activating Soul Sight once more, Kai watches as he peels away into nothingness. While he can tell nothing has actually changed about him, his reflection is now only a dark silhouette, the same as the three test subjects before him.

In his silhouettes chest lied a small dull, lifeless orb. No colour to be seen anywhere on the sphere. Even though the orb itself is colourless, there's small glints of different colours in the bleak bead.

Six minuscule dots lay inside the orb, each varying in size. The order going in smallest to biggest was blue, red, green, violet and yellow were the same size, then white and finally gold.

What are those? And why is my soul so dull? Am I really that boring?

Continuing to use the skill to peer at his soul, Kai can't help but wonder why his soul is so different in comparison to the others. Theirs all had a different signature colour that seemed to match their personality or abilities, yet it was as if Kai's soul was calling him boring and weak.

Whatever, I'll come back to it.

The matter of the off brand rainbow in his soul could be dealt with another time, the main thing Kai wanted to focus on was trying to interact with his soul.

Since the description of Soulcery said there was many possible branches to the skill, Kai had an extremely wide yet extremely limited selection of what to choose.

While there may be countless possible paths, it's not like he knew what direction to take, and what's to stop him getting lost or blocked mid way?

The reason Kai settled on trying to interact with his soul is that it seemed like the most versatile option. It could probably be used to defend, protect, or even attack. Then again, Kai could just be completely wrong and end up in a terrible situation, which has been a common occurrence in recent times.

With nothing left to do until his next ambushes with Wa'rak, Kai got ready to do a whole bunch of nothing for the next few hours.

*****

Time seemed to pass in a blur while Kai studied his soul. He didn't even bother to check how long had actually passed with the help of the system incase he ruined the trance like state he's in.

The whole time he watched his soul, nothing of interest happened. It seemed to twitch the odd time, like an egg trying to hatch, but other than that nothing happened. The six glows stayed still in the dull orb, nothing changing about those either.

An idea popped into Kai's fried mind as he was about to pass out of boredom. If his soul though he was boring, what about when he's fused with Umbra?

Activating his innate ability, Kai used Grace of The Ever-changing to help fuse with his familiar.

The transformation only took a few seconds, so Kai gave some extra time to see would his soul change at all.

To his disappointment, it didn't. Letting out a sigh, Kai went to turn off Soul Sight, but something did change. The blue, green and red orbs inside his soul seemed to get bigger.

Frowning slightly, Kai wondered to himself what could have possibly caused the change. Opening his status once more, he looked towards the description of his transformation and he saw what he thought was the reason for the change.

+15 Strength

+15 Dexterity

+15 Constitution

Do those three colours represent those three stats? If so, then... if I go in order... blue is Dexterity, red is Strength, green is Constitution, Stamina and Mana could either be violet or yellow, Will is white and Gold must be Luck.

With the secret of the six coloured dots in his soul solved, another question edged itself into Kai's mind.

If those dots are in my soul, does that mean my soul can only have a limited amount of stats? If so, that's kind of rough. Then again, the dots are tiny in comparison to my soul, so how many can it hold?

That question seemed a little to hard for the tired Kai, so he decides to pick an easier one.

Which still wasn't that easy in hindsight.

Is it possible to move my stats between the dots?