From the way Samantha asked the question, posing a challenge for me to differentiate between three Sandmen—two illusory, and one real—the implication was that this was something I could actually figure out, with the information I had available.

She was right, that I needed to stop depending on her. Eventually, maybe I would figure out a way to kick Samantha out of my head. If that ever happened, then I would want to able to make decisions for myself, not relying on Samantha 24/7.

I could sneak up under the Invisibility Cloak with heightened Perception, I suggested.

Then I’m stuck, I said, mentally throwing my hands up in the air.

Wouldn’t that give away my presence? I asked. I thought I wanted the element of surprise.

And are you sure it’s worth it to give up the Stat Points? I wasn’t nearly as dedicated to my own development as much as Samantha, so it was something of a surprise to hear that she was willing to sacrifice my own Stat Points.

Alright.

As far as Samantha’s plans went, this actually seemed reasonable, well-thought-out, and cautious. It definitely beat getting swallowed whole by a monster the size of a building and fighting my way out of its digestive tract.

There were two limiting factors to Soul Explosion. First, I could only use 20 Stat Points at a time. Samantha offered a rough calculation about what this would mean. One Stat Point sacrificed would be capable of killing something’s soul at level 5. 2 Stat Points could kill something at level 10, and so on. 20 Stat Points put into a Soul Explosion could kill a creature around level 100.

It didn’t seem like a coincidence that, if I were to kill a Zone Lord with a Soul Explosion, I would likely have to use 20 Stat Points, and then I would gain those same Stat Points back.

The effects of this meant that each additional Stat Point that I sacrificed made the Soul Explosion far more effective. Killing something that was level 5 was a joke, killing something at level 20 was well more than 4 times harder than killing something at level 5.

This was why Samantha was suggesting that I spend 2 Stat Points. An explosion that could kill a level 5 creature might not even be enough to make a Zone Lord turn its head. Hopefully, an explosion that could kill a level 10 creature would at least draw the Zone Lord’s attention.

The second limiting factor to Soul Explosion was that the explosion originated from my soul, meaning my soul had to be near my target.

I quickly lowered my spirit down towards the ground, focusing my senses on the three Sandmen I was suspicious of. One at the top of the mountain, two in caves below me.

In addition to the nearby monsters, I had decided I would also target a Sandman turd.

Let’s blow shit up.

I was only in the range of the turd’s illusion-magic for a split second, before I immediately activated the Soul Explosion.

True to form, Samantha had neglected to mention that it would be painful.

It felt like I was cutting off a portion of who I was, a deep pain at the core of my being that would never be mended.

Samantha shouted in my head.

I immediately sent my soul flying back up into the air, to escape from the illusion magic around me, and focused on the three Sandmen.

They were all staring intently at where I had just set off the explosion.

Samantha sounded like a teacher, calling out the student who had been staring distractedly out a window.

I don’t know. You tell me. You should have mentioned that Soul Explosion would be incredibly painful.

I flew through the air, again at an incredible speed, until I found my body. Since Personal Mana Shields are tied to your soul, I was able to travel through the Personal Mana Shields around my body easily, re-entering without any difficulty.

I opened my eyes, wriggled my fingers, and breathed deeply.

After experiencing the Spiritual Realm, it was nice to be back in reality. I still had Mana Sensing’s passive effect active, so I could still see the mana inside the trees and monsters around me, but it was nice seeing the physical outsides of everything. The textured bark of trees, the various colors of the leaves, and the far-off peaks of the Swiss Alps.

I rose carefully, unsure of how my body would react to being soul-less for a few minutes. I felt a bit of lethargy like waking up from a deep sleep, but I still felt very capable.

Samantha said.

I unequipped my Personal Mana Shields, choosing instead to equip my usual assortment of items, including the goat mask, since it would add to my perception.

Then, I started my newfound skill, building up mana outside of my body, essentially creating a second mana pool outside my body.

It took some focus. I wasn’t telling the mana to do anything except for follow me around. I waited for my mana pool to refill.

I felt I rush of excitement. I was currently more deadly than I had ever been.

The only thing missing was that Cursed Lightning was still on cooldown.

I shrugged, enjoying the physical feeling of my shoulders rising and falling. Then I sighed, in pleasure. It was strange, how much I missed the physical feeling of movement, and the random itchy feeling of needing to move, after just a few minutes outside of my body.

I split my floating points between Agility and Perception, and I rushed up the mountainside.

I was still under my Invisibility Cloak, so I was able to rush around the hundreds of monsters swarming the mountainside.

I could see, with my Mana Sensing, when the first Illusion-attributed mana from the Sandman feces reached me.

I braced myself for weird hallucinations, but I didn’t feel anything. I just kept running through a field of Illusion-attributed mana, charging past the Dire Rats, and past a strange hybrid of a greyhound and an eagle called Parons.

The Parons had the lithe torso and four paws of a greyhound, with the head of an eagle and a massive wingspan much greater than any eagle I had ever seen.

There were hundreds of them, and I could only imagine how hard it would be to dodge their attacks from the sky and from the ground. Fortunately, I didn’t have to, because none of them had noticed me yet.

As I rushed up the mountainside, my path grew steeper and steeper, gradually reaching what was essentially a vertical wall.

To my surprise, Samantha’s combat shadow continued directly through the wall.

she said.

I stretched out a hand, watching my own hand disappear though what looked like a very solid rocky cliffside to me. I had thought that my heightened Perception would be enough to break the illusion.

I stepped forward, through the wall and into the darkness—it didn’t look like I was surrounded by dirt. It was just like I was walking through a pitch-black murky nothingness. I was meeting no resistance with every step except for the ground at my feet.

The combat shadow had slowed down considerably, allowing me to take slow and deliberate steps. It was hard, taking a step and not knowing right away at what level your foot will land on the ground.

What were the details that showed you this cliffside was fake, then? I asked.

Everything Samantha said sounded incredibly difficult. First of all, how was it even possible to memorize the topography of a mountain to that level of precision?

And I had been tuning out a lot of the Mana Sensing information around me, because it was giving me a headache. Everything around me was whitish gold, swirling in confusing patterns. I could barely make anything else out.

But I didn’t want to praise Samantha—I didn’t want it to go to her head.

But wouldn’t people eventually just touch the cliffside and find out that it’s fake? As I asked, I took another step in the darkness blindly, trusting Samantha’s combat shadow to lead me up the mountainside safely.

Samantha’s questions put me on edge. My five senses were providing me with absolutely no information. Mana Sensing, on the other hand, was oversaturated with confusing blends of white and gold. Mana Sensing gave me a view of the world that was even more chaotic than a toddler painting with watercolors.