chapter 55

ten minutes latter i find a party that is getting attacked by the bear king of the forest. this group is painfully obviously not native to this area, by how poorly they are doing against him, the bear king is basically playing with them. the party consists of 5 people, two warriors 1 male one female, a healer, a mage, and a rouge type, most likely a thief the only non-human in the group was the mage, who was some sort of elf. i watch for a couple minutes before 'accidentally' stumbling on them.

"oh, look what we have hear." jack

"can't talk, please help." female warrior

"why should i? what do i get out of it?" jack

"name your price, just get us out of this. i can tell you have the strength to do so, so just help us." female warrior

the female warrior, who was obviously the leader of the group, was basically in tears while she was begging me.

"i need a corpse, a fresh, humanoid corpse that i kill myself." jack

a startled look spreads across everyone face. at that moment a killing blow was struck against the thief.

"why-why don't you use him?" female warrior

"to mutilated, i need a clean corpse." jack

after a couple seconds of emotional conflict, help along by a certain 'mind mage' as oracle called it, she came to a

decision.

"there is nothing else you want, is there? not money, not anything else?" female warrior

"nope, all i want is a corpse." jack

"fine" female warrior

"if you back out on this deal I'll kill all of you." jack

i blink forward and pat my friends belly, just a light pat. i tell him to leave this group alone but he can take the thief.

"hey! he's taking our friend, stop him!" elf mage

"why? what are you going to do with that corpse? turn him into an undead?" jack

"no! i wanted to give him a proper funeral!" elf mage

"that is a proper funeral the world around, only your kind that follows the church practices the abomination of placing a

body in the ground to do little more than rot. where a soul goes after the body dies has nothing to do with how its body

was taken care of after death, so might as well make them usefully." jack

"then why do you want a corpse?" elf mage

"for magical experimentation, nothing more." jack

"lets just get this over with so we can mourn." elf mage

"so who's volunteering to become a corpse?" jack

the male warrior was going to volunteer but before he could the female warrior volunteered.

"I'll do it, just make sure my companions are safe" female warrior

"certainly." jack

i use some healing magic to heal any and all wounds she received from fighting.

"whats this?" female warrior

"i want the corpse to be in perfect condition" jack

i lean in close and whisper into her ear.

"tell them jack sent you, you'll be placed somewhere nice." jack

i then use another spell, one from my personal domain. i sever her mind from her body, causing a quick, painless death.

of course this kind of magic is rather draining, using up to half my mana for more intelligent creatures.

"what did you do to her?" male warrior

"i killed her, quickly and painlessly" jack

"well, thanks for that much, i guess" male warrior

"one hundred feet east you will find a trail, take it uphill and you will eventually reach a village at the top. it has been a

pleasure doing business with you." jack

"i wish i could say the same" male warrior

i gentle pick up the corpse of the female warrior and blink away to a nearby tree.

"well, we should probably go to that village" male warrior

i could feel the sadness in the air, i felt like i could grab it and play with it in my hands, which i actually could do. i jumped

away through the trees, carrying the corpse, a skill i mastered as a child.

a couple minutes latter i was with laura again, standing in the same tree i left her in. after putting the corpse down laura

inspects it.

"who the hell did you kill her? i don't see any damage at all, it's almost like the soul was just split from the body." laura

"something similar happened." jack

"first I'm going to teach you how to make a soul tether. basically exactly like it sounds like, tethering a soul to a body. in

this case your own soul. it will help you get used to manipulating souls." laura

"so am i just going to tether my soul to her body?" jack

"fuck no, an inexperienced person would just kill themselves trying to manipulate their own soul in any way" laura

"so what will we do? what soul will i use?" jack

"first, in order to get used to the feeling of souls" laura

suddenly i feel something inside of me moving, it feels powerful, and familiar. it feels similar to the mind, not identical,

just similar. it gives me some ideas for experimentation with the relationship between the mind and the soul. i try to

move this energy around inside my body.

"good, as long as you don't pull it out of your body there is next to zero chance to screw up and accidentally kill yourself,

but the rate of improvement would be at a snails pace." jack

"alright, so what am i going to do?" jack

"you are going to tether this rabbits soul to this girl. help me take her cloths off, they can make this process harder,

exponentially so if you are new to it." laura

after about ten minutes of striping her laura grabs the rabbit.

"alright, try to feel this rabbits soul." laura

that part wasn't that hard, i had been sensing the minds of people for a while now, and the soul isn't all that much

different.

"alright, got it." jack

"well, that was quite fast. it normally takes people as much as an hour to do it. you did it in minutes." laura

"so what next?" jack

"grab a piece of the soul and move it into the corpse." laura

it takes a couple tries but i managed to grab a piece of the soul, although perhaps a little to big of a piece, and put it in

the corpse.

"good, a little sloppy but good for your first time." laura

laura snaps the neck of the rabbit and something interesting happened, i felt the soul move from the rabbit into the

corpse, and i also felt the mind move as well. the mind felt damaged, like it had gone through a vicious fight for it's life,

which it probably had.

"good, really good. half the time the creature simply dies, and almost always when moving bodies the creature becomes less intelligent." laura

like that we spent the rest of the day and a good portion of the next. during that time i learned many things about the

soul, and the mind.

end chapter 55