Soul Form: Ash

Soul Level: 2

Soul Exp: 5080/10000

Soul Hp: 300/300

MP: 6216/6216

Soul Coins: 189

Well, that was not what I was expecting, and I am actually fairly disappointed. While it is nice to have a way to level my soul faster, I really wanted to be able to control the energy. That would have been a far more useful ability, maybe only a god can do that.

That puts my plans in a bit of a lurch, even if I can control the fire gem, it won't matter. While I might learn something from it, I doubt I can do anything without being able to control the energy. Now the question is, do I use energy to improve my eyes or forget it and spend it on my soul level?

While there might be something to learn from the red gem, there is no guarantee. If I spend all the energy I have to improve my eyes and learn nothing it will have been a waste. Well, my eyes being upgraded would probably be useful, but so would leveling up my soul.

Then again, I already have a way to level up my soul, it just takes some time. On the other hand I haven't had any luck leveling up my eyes other than using energy. Looking at it that way, using the energy on my eyes is probably the better bet.

Besides, leveling up my soul through exploring the hall sounds a lot more fun. The fact that from now on stealing energy will be a lot more difficult is also a factor. So, I am going to wait a few days and then use the remaining energy on my eyes.

The problem now is that I have to sit on the energy and not do anything with it. Self-restraint is not my strong suit, especially since I am curious as to what else I can do with it. Luckily, I already did most of the experiments that I thought of, so my curiosity is sated for now.

Instead of just sitting around and waiting I take out some of the wyvern hide. Then I start making a new set of armor for Silverstream, similar to Brightfire's. By the time the new armor is done and enchanted it is late enough for me to eat dinner.

When I am done eating, since there is still no sign of the elves, I create a soulscape. Then I invite the kids and play with them for a few hours before ending the soulscape. The elves still haven't shown up so since I have some time I head into the hall.

Wanting to do something new I head past all the doors I have already tried. As soon as I come to a new door I open it and step through, once again I find myself in a forest. After building my body, I spread my mana out and then start walking around.

After climbing a hill I come out of the trees and I suddenly have a wide view. Ahead of me the land drops and then evens out becoming a grassy plain. Currently the plain is covered by two armies that are trying to kill each other.

The first thing I notice is that the bodies of the fallen are disappearing after they die. That is reassuring because it means that they are spiritual bodies not physical. Both armies look to be humans, or at least something similar to humans.

It is hard to tell because they are all in armor and still a decent distance away. It is easy to tell the sides apart, one side wears white armor and the other side wears red. These are the first humanoid spiritual beings I have seen, but I am not sure if I should interfere.

Without knowing more about the two sides and why they are fighting it is hard to pick a side. So, instead I just sit down on top of the hill to watch the battle and see what happens. One thing catches my attention, the armies are made up of only soldiers.

There are no knights, archers, mages, or siege engines, it is just soldiers beating on each other. Yet their armor is obviously decent, meaning they have at least blacksmithing. It is strange to me that they don't have other troop types, especially for humans.

If it was orcs or goblins then I wouldn't be surprised, they are more primitive. Even then, normally they have shamans to back their troops up and use archers. So, why are the humans, who are more advanced, fighting in a primitive way?

What confuses me even more is the fact that I can't see any signs of commanders. Throughout the entire battle so far there has been no one yelling orders. There is also no one staying behind the armies, it really looks like nothing but soldiers.

None of this matches what I would expect from humans, so maybe they only look human. The only way I can find out more is going to be to interact with them. The problem is, which side do I interact with, or do I try to interact with both of them?

The last thing I want is to get dragged into their fight, so I decide to wait a bit. It is easier to just wait and then try to interact with whichever side wins. Besides, the winner should be weakened after the battle, so if they are hostile it will be easier to deal with them.

Honestly, I am half tempted to just wipe out both armies at once and then loot the battlefield. After all, even from here I can see that some of those that have died have dropped things. I can't tell what they dropped from here, but the items are still sitting on the ground.

A few of the soldiers have stopped to try to pick things up, but most of the time they end up getting killed. The soldiers are dying constantly, but both side's losses are staying pretty equal. At this rate there might not be any survivors at all, which would be good for me.

If they wipe each other out completely then I will be able to loot the entire battlefield. While I would like to talk to some of them, there are surely others I can talk to. At this point I think I would gain more benefits from looting than I would from talking to them.

Instead of just sitting and watching the battle, I get up and circle around it. If I am going to kill any survivors, I first want to make sure there is no one else around. Witnesses would cause a lot of problems, so I have to make sure there are none before I act.

However, as I circle around I am not only looking with my eyes but also sensing with my mana. It turns out to be a good thing that I am paranoid, because there is someone watching. I find a male human in a robe floating above the battle and he is invisible.

When I sense him, he also senses me and turns around to look right at me. The fact that he was able to sense me means he is also able to sense my mana. For the next few minutes we both just stand there staring at each other.