Chapter 18 W.O.A.D.E

"Breathe in and out, slowly." His raspy voice bore its way through my mind as I attempted to follow through with his instructions of the umpteenth time. Sitting here with my eyes closed was a lot harder than I could have imagined. I was itching to move around and do things, and sitting there trying to clear my mind wasn't cutting it. It only made me want to move around even more then before.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes once more to try and clear my mind. The darkness filled my vision and I attempted to force all of the extra thoughts out of my mind. "Good, now Im going to tap my finger, try and focus on the beat." His words tore through my brain, and I bit my lip and nodded. Why did this have to be so hard? I forced my eyes to stay closed and took a deep breath to relax my self.

After a few seconds, I heard the sound of bone tap against a stone. Then another shortly after that. I focused on the sound and pushed the rest of the thoughts from my mind. I felt myself start to spiral mentally, but I forced myself to hold on this time. A few dozen taps later, I felt my mind start to spin, and a wave of vertigo assualted my mind. I felt a creeping numbness start to fill my body as the sound of Kharon's tapping slowly started to fade.

You have unlocked the auxillary skill: Meditation I

Meditation: This skill severs your connection with your consciousness and allows you to interact with your inner self. This skill costs nothing to maintain; however, you lose access to all of your senses and your ability to move.

So I could still interact with my system even though I was like this. I turned my head around all around me was encompassing darkness that wrapped around me like a loving parent. Okay, Calixa, you need to be smart about this. Don't do anything until you get further instructions from Kharon. I closed my eyes and forced my body to shift, allowing to me finally wake up.

Kharon sat there staring at me as his fingers kept tapping into the stone beside him. "I did it. I unlocked the skill." I told him as I flexed my fingers. I felt different, like I was more aware of myself.

"Good. Now, this is the hard part. When you activate the skill again, you have to go as deep as possible into yourself to get to your soul. Once you get there, you have to fracture a piece off and drive it into an item." I reached out and grabbed my phone and placed my hand over its cool screen.

"How much do I need to break off? Will it hurt?" Those all seemed like pretty rational questions to be asking in a situation like this.

"You only need to break off a small fragment. The soul is a very powerful thing, and it will heal its self over time. As for pain, I won't lie to you; it will hurt." I toyed with the casing of my phone for a moment, picking at a well-worn spot. I hate feeling pain of any sort. Maybe this wasn't the class for me, but it wasn't like I could just back down now.

"How do I fracture it?" I set my phone down on my lap and placed my hands over the top of it, and shifted my legs around to get comfortable.

"Once you are in your inner self and see your soul, you will find that it's malleable to you. So it shouldn't be too hard. Just be careful not to overdo it. As for the rest, that is up to you to figure out." I bit my lip and nodded my head. It seemed easy enough. I crossed my legs and got ready to reactivate the meditation skill.

"Thank you Kharon. I will do my best." He nodded his skull, and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and closed my eyes, and thought about the meditation skill. The familiar sense of falling overwhelmed and the darkness returned as I became numb.

In all directions, the darkness seemed to stretch endlessly around me. So this was my inner self? How do I go deeper? Maybe I should use try and press down. I mean, that should work, shouldn't it? I began to press down with my mind, and the darkness visibly warped as I pressed down.

Come on already, just give. The darkness bulged before it shattered like glass, revealing a small island that bobbed gently on the air. On each side, a vast horizon stretched in every direction. Coming from the bottom of the island was a thin steady stream of glowing blue liquid. I wish I could say it was something like a magnificent waterfall, but it was more like a leaky pipe. Big enough to know it's there, but not enough that it will flood something.

I wonder what this place was—just a small island floating in my subconscious with magical-looking water. But something told me that this wasn't deep enough. I closed my eyes and pushed down again and the world warped as gravity wrapped its tendrils around me once more.

The horizon shifted from light blue to a soft orange. In the center of a boundless space sat a small rock platform. Orange bolts of power shot through the sky, and small globs of orange liquid floated through the air. If I had to guess, I'm guessing the realm before was something involving mana and magic. This would be a Qi realm, guessing by the mystical orange color. That would also mean that this still wasn't deep enough. I looked around once more before I pushed down. This time it fought me, pushing back with all of its might. This belongs to me, and I would not be kept out. I clenched my teeth and pushed with every fiber of my being before the realm warped once more, and gravity pulled me down.

The sky shifted to a ghostly grey, and in front of me was a ball of glowing white power that was in roughly the shape of a female. So this was my soul. I reached out, and my fingers brushed across the surface. The power clung to my fingertips and felt like a feather. So this was what he meant when he said it was malleable. I would have to break a piece away and move it to my phone to complete this process.

I dropped my hand away and looked at the area around me. There was a ruined fountain next to me, and in front of my soul was the familiar sight of my phone. Black shapes were moving in the distance, and one sat in front of me.

So I could only see shapes through the darkness. Was this a spirit form then? One that allowed me to interact with everything? That would be the thing that makes the most sense. Alright, now, let's get this over with then, shall we?

I reached out and grabbed a piece of my soul. The bits of energy wrapped around my fingers, and I yanked it back. It stretched out, and I felt my body protest as a pain, unlike anything that I ever felt before started to course through my spirit form. It felt like something was on the verge of being shattered and a primal fear coursed through me, a fear that threatened to make me run away from whatever I was about to do.

But I would not yield; I refused to back down from what I was about to do, no matter how wrong it felt or how bad it hurt. I started this, and I swear by whatever gods exist, I would complete it. I pulled again and my soul gave way, and a piece pulled out.

This action instantly magnified whatever pain that I felt before, and I dropped to my knees. Molted lave poured through my viens as I felt the sphere in my chest shatter. My vision greyed for a moment, but I refused to yield. I stood up, and my spirit form groaned in protest. The sphere in front of me recoiled and shrank down in size, hiding away the hole that I just tore out.

My vision blurred again as the pain started to throb with the intensity of a jackhammer, and I stumbled. I reached out and grabbed my phone and pushed the floating mass of power into it. For a brief moment, the screen lit up as the power seeped into before it began to meltdown. Once this started to happen, I couldn't think from the sheer amount of pain coursed through my body.

I stuck my hand into the mass of melting material and forced it to conform to the shape of my right hand. This time a more familiar pain reached my senses. It was of being burned, one that I was far more used to, and one that was thankfully taking my mind off of the pain that wracking the fiber of my being.

But I was at my limit, the pain was driving me mad, and my vision was slowly starting to fade, and my body refused to respond anymore. Hopefully, that was all I needed to do.

You have lost the ability to manipulate mana. All stats related to mana have now been removed. You have gained the Will sub stat and the soul bar.

Will: Will determines the strength of your soul and resistances to skills that affect it. It also affects soul regeneration.

Titles Earned:

Force of Will: You have ripped a piece of your soul out of you and transmuted it into an item that is now soul bound to you. You have taken the first step into this branch of power. The question is, how far will you make it?

+3 will.

(Temp titlle name): You have felt pain that gnaws at the very psyche of a living being and kept your sanity in the process. Good job.

-Grants you level two in the Pain resistance passive

Congratulations! You have fully unlocked the Soul Catlyzation class line! You now have one milestone point! You have also unlocked five stat points as well. Please use this milestone point to determine the path you wish to walk. You can choose more than one specific path at each class milestone.

My tired eyes read over the text that assaulted my vision relentlessly. My head throbbed as my body ached, I really didn't want to deal with this right now, but there was no option to escape from this set of menus. Fine, then let's see what you have to offer.

D.P.S.: You value overwhelming damage over anything else. You have no regard for protection and only wish to overwhelm your foes.

Utility: You value tampering with groups of opponents through the use of A.O.E. abilities and various forms of CC.

Support: You bring more to the table than just damage and crowd control. You heal your allies while keeping your opponents on edge.

Guardian: You trade your damage for the defense of yourself and others.

Hybrid: Instead of sacrificing one for the other, you instead have decided to dabble in everything—a jack of all trades, a master of none.

I read through the list and wiped away a fear tears that were starting to crawl down my cheek from reading the overly bright words. I instantly knocked off the D.P.S. and the Guardian option. Neither really seemed to fit me. After reading this list, I think the best option for me would be the hybrid milestone. Besides, once I hit my first milestone, I can pick another, so I wasn't too far into a loss. I confirmed Hybrid, and the screen blinked again, allowing my vision to be free once more.