Soul Dungeon 3.12 - Naked Soul

I am going to try to make sure I write at least one chapter a week. I have been feeling good and I really, really hope it continues. I am sure all of you hope that too. We are currently three chapters ahead here on Patreon, and if I write more than one chapter a week we will be getting further ahead still. Enjoy! And I love your comments.

We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.

-Ernest Shackleton

Great gasps of air filled his lungs as Caden sat up. The ground beneath his hands was rough, the cold startling after the more muted sensations he was used to.

He could taste the air, the faint taste of stone and his own saliva. It tasted amazing.

He looked up. His core hung in the air. The light it shed wreathing around it like a halo in the dark. The room had other lights too, remnants from his experiments, but mostly it was darker than a human would enjoy, the shadowed corners playing tricks on his eyes.

Was he back? Alive?

Surely there had to be something about this in his notifications. Yep, there they were, flashing at him. A brief thought and they appeared.

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Your skill Soul Meditation IIhas increased to Soul Meditation III

You have gained a new skill:

Past Life Projection II

--- Normal skill incompatible with species – skill will be adapted.

You are the first dungeon variant to achieve any degree of this skill.

Skill changed for new species, Skill is now:

Dungeon Soul Manifestation II (First)

You have tapped into a former body imprinted on your soul. Now you can manifest this form as a partial avatar of your soul. Fidelity and usefulness of the avatar will increase with ability. Go forward and see this new world as you once were.

(First) Your dungeon abilities are hybridized with your avatar

You have gained a new title:

One Small Step for a Man

You are the first of your species to gain a particular skill. Use your uniqueknowledge and giftsto become what you desire.

+1000 Ability Points

+2% Additive bonus to all other learning bonuses from titles and skills

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Caden’s first thought, somewhat bemused, was to wonder why English hadn’t counted. His second was a wish that the descriptions of his skills were as exacting as the titles.

As his thoughts reengaged he realized that he was not exactly alive again. He was, a… projection, an illusion, a temporary body? He didn’t know.

As he gave himself time to think he could feel something else. Himself. He was still in the core too. As his thoughts connected to his other self he felt a brief exchange of information and he suddenly had memories of watching his body appear out of the air, seen from inside his core. Small memories of many other tasks being started up again too.

He was still a dungeon in full then, just himself too in some fashion he still did not really understand. Well, that had never stopped him before; he would need to run tests.

First… clothes. He was naked again and not particularly enjoying it.

Imagining himself in clothes did nothing. So the rules were at least different from that strange soul space. A similar lack of results from imagining food and books sealed the conclusion that he was at least different in some way.

He created a bowl on the ground of perfectly smooth stone and filled it with the food that the adventurers had brought with no more than a thought and a bit of effort.

It looked like his dungeon abilities were indeed working just fine in this form. He reached down to pick up a piece of dried fruit and his hand passed right through it.

“Damn it. Again?”

He scowled at the food.

He was some kind illusion after all then. Or maybe not, he could taste the air, he could see in a way that  his dungeon could not, he could feel the cold and the rough texture of stone. If he could feel… why couldn’t he pick up the fruit?

He extended his hand toward the fruit again. This time he didn’t try to pick it up, he just tried to feel it. And he could. The leathery texture of dried fruit. The faint stickiness of the natural sugars. When he tried to grab it his hand just passed through it again though.

He felt everything in the bowl. Each could be felt but not moved.

Was his status different in this form?

He called it.

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Status

Name 1: Caden

Name 2: Exsan

Type: Dungeon Core – Twin Souled

Level: 6

Crystal Status: 100% - Undamaged

Status Effects: Location Bound – 474.47 (450.75) 5% Discount from Soul Power

Available Mana Caden: 154/400

Available Mana Exsan: 214/400

Passive Mana Generation: 138.6/Day

Next level: 480 Mana Cost

Survival Points: 400

Next Level: 200 Survival Points

Subsections Available: 2

Ability Points: 4830

Skills:

Directed Mana Absorption II,

Limited Omniscience (Dungeon)

Soul Mana II

Dungeon Aura Expansion III

Manipulate Earth II

Learning II

Enhanced Aura Perception II

Ambient Mana Manipulation II

Soul Meditation III

Interdimensional Repository II

Aura Mobility II

Destructive Assimilation Iii

Matter Fabrication II

Found Dungeon

Emblem Symbology II

Life Affinity III

Language: English IX

Mana Diffusion II

Dungeon Control Menu

Appraise II

Calculation II

Dungeon Soul Manifestation II

Titles:  Reborn Soul

First of its Kind

Skill Evolution

Mana Specialist Ii

Escape Artist IV (Deception)

Dungeon Martyr III (First)

Touch of the Grave I

Seen the Infinite Void

Investment Specialist

Back from the Brink I

Innovator III (Dungeon)

Partial Soul Bond (Master)

This Immortal Coil

Additive Pact

Soul Power I

One Small Step for a Man

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Wow, that was a lot of information. Nothing separate for this form though. He was just considered to still be Caden, he supposed.

Frustrated he kicked the bowl, and watched as it tumbled away.

Wait, what?

He looked down and he could see the stone beneath the bowl had shifted.

Huh. Well maybe if he tried moving the bowl…

He took a few steps and did just that. As he put his hands under the bowl and lifted, it rose into the air. Beneath the bowl he could see a column of stone connected to the earth.

He tried touching the fruit again, nothing.

He knelt onto the ground. He put his hands flat on the floor and pushed down. The stone sank down into hand-prints.

He thought for a moment. Then, concentrating he pushed down again. This time when he moved his hands down they sank without resistance or feeling into the stone. The stone remained, untouched and unmoved.

He quickly tested with a few other items, but only things made of stone, sand, or dirt could be manipulated.

“Yep, looks like it has to be related to my earth manipulation skills.”

His senses were a little different in this form, but his abilities otherwise were still restricted to what he could do as a dungeon. He still hadhope though. The skill descriptionhad said that the utility of this form would rise with increases in level. For now, having a form that was truly able to focus on just one thing at a time could prove useful. Not to mention, this way he would be able to see like normal people and make sure his dungeon was at the proper scale for them.

Actually, that was something he could do right now.

Even more important, was there some way for him to teleport, and was there a way to make it so that he was not naked?

It turned out that teleportation was easy. He imagined where he wanted to be in his aura, and there he was. He couldn’t leave his aura, but he would have been surprised if he could.

He checked in with the rest of himself and learned it was still the middle of the night. He thought so, but sometimes time could get away from him.

He started by teleporting into the entrance tunnel. Fortunately it was a repeated pattern, so it was easy to make a few minor tweaks for perspective and then mirror them along the entire tunnel.

After that he walked through the Starlight Grotto. It was ethereal, beautiful, and dark. He made a few tweaks to the lighting, making a note that his core actually saw better in the dark than this form did. Most of the statues were good, but he made a few minor corrections so things seemed the right size from below. He was pretty sure he was actually distorting some things, but perspective was weird that way.

By the time he was done, the adventurers were beginning to stir.

He wondered if they could see him?

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Zidaun woke to vague memories of mana stirring and moving. Had he woken up last night? He couldn’t remember for sure. It might have been a dream.

Regardless, he readied himself and went down to join the others. Breakfast was a jovial affair, each of them still enjoying the novelty of the larger amount of good food. They didn’t have to hoard the fruit so their diets would stay balanced over a longer trip.

It was a small and simple thing, but it made them all a little more cheerful. Not that that stopped Gurek from complained, but then Zidaun was pretty sure Gurek liked complaining.

“And then, after all of that, what do we get? Nothing. A few numbers on these weird amulets the dungeon gave us. I, I mean we all, sweated buckets. Those rooms were literally red hot.” Gurek said.

Inda looked at him. “You realize you were to only member of the party who could have kept going, whose abilities meant they were not pushed to their absolute limits.”

Gurek scowled at her. “That… that is beside the point.”

Firi chuckled and shook his head, exchanging looks and rolling eyes with Zidaun.

Just few minutes later and they were on their way. The next challenge began in a hot room. Through the clear wall they could see the same setup as the day before. A statue walked into the room, the walls glowed red and he walked into the next room. Then another statue walked in, wiped its brow and leaned over panting. Then it left through the exit.

“No. Just no. I am not doing this again.” Gurek said.

“Not exactly,” said Zidaun with a grin and pointed to the four doors. “This time you get to go by yourself. And just think, this time you get to actually go until you cannot go any more. Then you can brag about how far you got. And just be glad we don’t have to deal with increasing heat while we are running another challenge.”

“Bah, don’t say that! You will make the heavens curse us and laugh.I hate this dungeon already. This is like being on the central plains in Burn.” Said Gurek.

“Yep, keep it up, that anger will help push you through.” Inda said.

With a little more grumbling and good natured ribbing the party set off. Though they did wait and make Gurek go first, just in case.

Soon enough however, each entered into their own personal torment of heat, sweat, and pushing forward one step at a time.

Finally Zidaun finished. To no one’s surprise he made it the furthest with his ability to manipulate the environment. None of them made it as far as they had together as a group though. The lack of their synergies helping each other was painfully obvious. Gurek was even so tired he barely complained.

They moved on, and they each went back to their base to clean up and rest.

Shortly after, mostly refreshed, they left for the next challenge.

On entering, Zidaun froze. A naked man turned toward him and he heard one of the voices echo in his head as the man smiled and spoke.