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These last 7 days I had been not only sharpening my Magic, but also my soul.

Although 7 days is not so much, I have been able to strengthen my soul by a bit through the overuse of the Phantom Body Skill.

Although I have yet to find a way to materialize my Phantom Body, which is somewhat of a representation of my soul, I learned how to… well, cut it.

I had actually realized I could bend my soul the moment Phantom Body reached Level 3.

Bending it, I was able to move it around to my will, sometimes overextending a tentacle made of soul or stretching it as if it were a mantle.

Albeit it wasn't so much, when I used a lot of intent, I could tear it down and damage my own soul.

It was painful the first time I tried, albeit the wound was small, I damaged my soul.

However, after I infused mana into the wound and then the natural mana regeneration filled the wound, my soul recovered and suddenly I gained some more soul density, increasing my Soul Cultivation Stage to Middle Stage.

Like this, I discovered I was able to bend and damage my own soul by stretching it like a piece of fabric until it broke, and then recovered it through natural healing to make it stronger.

But each time the soul breaks, it hurts horribly.

And Pain Resistance doesn't affect my soul, only my body.

So every time I wanted to train my soul, I had to bear with the horrible soul pain, which is several times greater than normal physical pain… It was so painful that I was feeling fatigated where I shouldn't, and I couldn't easily do this every day.

But I still did it.

Yeah, I simply decided to live with the pain.

Although it was horribly painful, and it still is, every day I at least broke my soul once…

Only rip it open a little bit, and then I let it regenerate automatically through pouring mana into the wound.

Like this, I slowly accumulated soul density over 7 days, which amounted to reach Upper Stage in the Realm I currently was in Soul Cultivation, making my soul even stronger… well, it might become even stronger after I manage to reach the next Realm.

But that's not the important issue here. The important issue here is that… I managed to divide my soul!

Yeah, it weakened me.

It weakened me a lot…

But I did it for the sake of experimentation!

I am still recovering from dividing my soul, as I've gone all the way down to the Initial Stage again.

It was a fitting sacrifice for my very first creation, of course.

When I split my soul, I did the same thing I did when I damaged it.

I manipulated my soul and accumulated a lot of it, and then I stretched it until it came out.

When it came out, a split soul would probably… I don't know, dissipate into the air?

But instead of that, I infused a Split Mind into it beforehand, and when the split soul was cut off, it gained sentience and became something like a tiny will-o-wisp.

I am an ice dragon but maybe I have the aptitude to be a Dracolich!

More importantly, this little will-o-wisp wasn't a clone of me. As I stated earlier, Split Minds through the Parallel Mind Thought Processing are not "lively" and are more like small AI that can do things for me, they lack emotions.

But when one of them was given a little split soul body it began to discover the world and everything around it, becoming an individual.

However, it only lasted for a few minutes before it began to slowly dissipate.

So, I had to desperately put it somewhere.

It seemed rather risky, but there was no other option than to try, so I decided to use it like a ghost that possesses an inanimate object… and possessed the whole fortress with this little split soul!

It had some difficulty at first, but I used my Mana to fuel its possession until it worked…

And this happened just last night.

It seems that by employing my own soul, I can possess inanimate objects and create something like golems.

I can't see other souls at all, nor control them, but if it is my own soul, it seems to work.

Perhaps one day I might be able to do it with other souls, but for now, only with my own.

Well, I am a straightforward Ice Dragon with wind magic, expecting me to be an expert at necromancy is too far of a stretch!

Nonetheless, I decided to reveal something that not even the cheeky Benladann knew about!

The wolves became alert as the phantasmal and icy aura of the fortress began to leak out, their hair becoming spiky as they became scared!

Even Yuki got all shocked, jumping out of the snow and falling on her head… she's fine.

And Benladann fell over her butt as her large eyes widened even more, glaring at the entity that I had awoken!

"Awaken, my fortress!" I said as the near 20 meters tall two-floor fortress roared!

"GUUUUOOOOONNN…!"

The floor below us trembled as the Ice Fortress released a loud roar!

"Amazing! This is just… so cool! Drake, how did you even do this?" asked Benladann, she looked like she was looking at something completely out of her mind.

"Long story short, let's say that I just cut off my soul and stuck it into it," I said.

"Eh?! That sounds dangerous!" said Benladann.

"Well yes, but actually no, I am fine. I mean… I got tired, and it hurt a lot, and my Soul Cultivation went down, but now I am slowly recovering. And the outcome was totally worth it," I said.

"The outcome was… making a living ice fortress?!" asked Benladann.

"I told you it was worth it," I said, petting the fortress with my claws.

"GUUOOOOOOONNNN- Ahem, can I drop the act now?" asked the fortress.

"Ah, well, yes, I suppose you already instilled enough fear into their hearts," I laughed.

"Eh?! It can talk too?" asked Benladann, she was getting surprised way too much now!

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