Excerpt 6
(Page 9, Section 1)
Magic casters manifest in countless forms, each drawing power from a distinct source. Some wield magic by sheer instinct—whether sparked by a bond with the elements or by pacts with spirits, both tied to the core of existence, a dimensional essence present in all things. Others harness magic through force of will, bolstered by knowledge, runes, and disciplined study.
Broadly, there are two primary kinds of magic casters:
The first is the innate path—often referred to as soulborn—those who channel magic through the essence of their being. Their power stems largely from an inborn affinity rather than formal instruction. Druids, shamans, spirit warriors, and even those who tread darker paths—like necromancers and warlocks—embody this approach.
The second is the arcane path—commonly called arcanists—where abilities are honed through rigorous study and disciplined practice. Their magic is guided by intellect and structured understanding rather than raw instinct. Often, ordinary people simply call them “mages” or “sorcerers,” since these spellcasters occupy a broad spectrum of specializations—from crafting to warfare—and include experts like runecrafters, arcane reapers, and battle mages.
Both paths bring their own advantages and drawbacks, and each demands a stroke of fortune: a soulborn requires an awakened gift, while an arcanist relies on a keen mind to conquer the complexities of magic. Yet there are rare individuals who inherit both gifts—unbound by ordinary limits—and they often ascend to extraordinary heights along the path of magic.
Source: Introductory to Magic Casters – Arcane Professor Turval
Excerpt 6 End
Wasting no time, Hassan mentally requested the Basic Soul Manual.
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Initiating transfer of the Basic Soul Manual
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Once again, darkness enveloped him, along with the familiar appearance of a book. Unlike the metal-plated tome or the massive, plain volume from earlier, this one was moderately sized and bore the simple title Basic Soul Manual. He also noted, yet again, the mysterious absence of any author.
This time, the book focused on humanoid species once again. Hassan speculated that this might be tied to his talents—after all, his physique talent came solely from the Zamongarai, while his soul talents encompassed both human and Zamongarai traits.
Shaking off these thoughts, Hassan delved into the text.
The soul, it seems, is one of the most enigmatic and complex aspects of existence. It cannot be perceived through ordinary vision; typically, only the mind or another soul can detect its presence, rendering standard eyesight insufficient. However, some creatures possess vision so powerful that it merges mind and soul, allowing them to see souls directly—though such cases are exceedingly rare. According to the book, there are also spells that grant this ability.
What is understood, however, is that the soul experiences its most significant growth during the earliest stages of life, often attributed to childhood’s constantly shifting emotions. Unlike the mind, the soul can continue to evolve later in life, particularly during moments of great significance.
At its inception, the soul is entirely pure, unmarred by corruption. Over time, however, malevolent desires can tarnish it. This corruption intensifies when one takes the life of another soul-bearing being, especially if done unjustly or wrongfully.
Hassan wasn’t sure what counted as truly sinful—would slaughtering a chicken qualify, or were chickens without souls? The ambiguity puzzled him.
Even so, what followed sparked his interest in bolstering his soul attributes. A stronger, purer soul granted superior command over energy, even extending to an ability to sense it. Supposedly, certain magic casters couldn’t perform particular spells because their extremely impure souls blocked proper control.
Such impurity often arose when dabbling in demonic magic, which gradually corrupted both soul and mind, sometimes causing permanent harm. Practitioners of demonic magic often find themselves shut out of traditional spellcasting, instead gaining access to more dangerous and unstable arts. This path frequently leads to criminal behavior, marking them as hunted fugitives. Even those who have not committed any sins are met with distrust and outright rejection, unwelcome near people’s homes.
Purifying the soul is possible through methods like meditation and good deeds, but both require patience and dedication. For many, that level of effort simply seems impractical.
Hassan wasn’t sure what the demonic arts actually involved, but he sincerely hoped they didn’t include teleportation or anything similar. After all, mastering teleportation was crucial to his ultimate goal of returning to Earth.
Next, the manual introduced a method for training the soul: meditation. Though many meditation techniques exist, a number of them prove ineffective or risky—such as exposing the practitioner to spirit possession. Fortunately, the method outlined here was dream meditation, regarded as one of the safest and most effective approaches.
The practice involved entering the dream realm and creating an entire world within it. The essence of this world would shape the user’s elemental and spirit affinities, aligning them with the dominant traits of the environment created.
Most practitioners built nature-based worlds for the protective advantages and the heightened bond with natural spirits and elements. However, it wasn’t uncommon to forge realms of fire, pure magic, or other distinctive concepts. Hassan wondered if it might be possible to design a world that enhanced teleportation abilities—an idea he intended to explore in due time.
There was, however, a critical restriction: one could not create beings considered too complex or powerful, defined here as creatures capable of independent thought and creation—gnomes, elves, dragons, and so on. The mention of these races caught his attention, though it made sense in a fantasy setting. Simpler life forms—such as animals, trees, rocks, and water—were perfectly acceptable.
During world construction, impurities could appear in the form of anomalies. Practitioners were advised to guard against these disruptions or remove them entirely, though the latter was challenging. Left unchecked, anomalies could cause widespread damage or even complete collapse of the dream world.
If anomalies overtook or destroyed the dream world, the practitioner faced two options: dismantle the world and start over—since stability was key to this cultivation method—or, in a desperate measure, turn to demonic arts. For some, investing so much time and effort only to begin anew felt like an impossible setback.
Because starting over involved cutting away that portion of the dream world, the practitioner would suffer a substantial drop in soul attributes, sometimes ending up with less than they initially had. Worse, the soul often became less pure over time, making a fresh start even more difficult. The manual stressed that purity was crucial for initiating soul training, which was why most people began as children, when their souls were relatively untainted.
The possibility worried Hassan. Had his soul been polluted by his previous life? Would he even be able to begin this training? Quickly pushing those doubts aside, he reassured himself he hadn’t harmed anyone or overindulged in vices. His soul likely wasn’t that corrupted.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Refocusing, he delved into the dream meditation method, which was quite unconventional. It started with learning to sense one’s immediate surroundings through all senses. After mastering that, the next step was to maintain this heightened awareness during sleep, allowing it to function instinctively and eventually lead to lucid dreaming.
From lucid dreaming, practitioners of this manual advanced to creating various items, terrains, or other imaginative constructs they desired.
Once a practitioner achieved a high degree of dream control, they could enter a mysterious empty zone within the dream realm. The first task there was to establish an anchor—a vividly recalled object or memory. By concentrating on this anchor, they could bring it into the dream realm, using it as a focal point for returning or awakening directly. Once the anchor was in place, the next step was to begin constructing the world core.
The world core functions as the foundation of the realm you intend to create. Its composition depends on your envisioned environment—if you’re building a nature-oriented world, the core might be made of earth, whereas a fire-based realm might rely on lava.
Before forming the world core, you must decide on the size of the world you plan to build. A larger world yields more soul attributes in return. However, crafting the core requires intense focus and soul energy, so most practitioners keep it modest in scale—after all, even a small core can take years to complete with average reserves. Expanding too soon could also stall the rest of the world-building process.
That said, a larger world core offers benefits beyond simply raising affinity. It boosts stability and overall soul energy production, helping the world sustain itself. By contrast, an undersized core might fail to generate enough energy for a large world, risking a collapse under its own weight.
Maintaining the world core’s purity is equally crucial. Minimizing anomalies during construction prevents structural flaws and keeps the realm stable. A well-formed core fortifies the world’s foundation and cuts down on potential threats over time.
Ultimately, success hinges on balancing growth with stability—expanding the core sufficiently to support the world while preserving its integrity for a durable, enduring foundation.
The next phase involves building the rest of the dream world, but the specifics remain unclear. The only concrete guidance is that once you begin constructing the exoskeleton, there’s no turning back—implying later sections of the manual must elaborate on the details, much like how the Basic Mind Manual withheld actual spells to focus on core principles.
Hassan found the concept of dream-world creation thrilling. He had always wanted to control his dreams, and now he could not only shape them but also forge an entire realm within them.
The manual’s latter sections presented supplementary insights, some of which appeared crucial yet were disappointingly brief.
First, there were no diets, consumables, or items that could directly enhance the soul. The only method to strengthen it without training was by consuming the soul energy of other creatures—an act that heavily corrupted one’s own soul, stunting future growth and possibly leading to madness.
Second, a stronger soul increased the growth potential of both body and mind, a concept Hassan found puzzling but attributed to the soul’s role in amplifying vireth and neurotha energies. The manual vaguely described the soul as “both the container and the contained,” leaving plenty of room for interpretation.
Like other attributes, the soul operated within a feedback loop, such that improving the body and mind also reinforced the soul. Greater intelligence allowed more complex emotional awareness and clearer self-expression, thus aiding the soul’s development. Meanwhile, enhanced physical strength improved the senses, boosted endurance, and minimized rest requirements.
Behemoths, for instance, possessed notably powerful souls because of their colossal physiques, even without dedicated soul training. However, this feedback effect had limits: though their souls were potent, their physical prowess remained their defining characteristic.
Third was the core of existence. Its exact nature remained mysterious, yet it was a fundamental element found in all things—living beings, inanimate objects, and even entire worlds.
The core of existence transcends physical reality; it is not a tangible structure but rather a metaphysical nexus belonging to each whole entity.
Everything possessed this dimensional essence. By linking one core to another, magic could flow freely between objects and creatures, while also facilitating binding contracts among living beings.
This core was indestructible and could only be removed by true death or complete annihilation. Not even the mightiest forces in the universe could damage it, nor could it be traced once an entity had been utterly destroyed.
Although the core of existence typically resided within a being’s soul, some creatures hosted it in their body or mind. Every object or entity had exactly one such core; if two or more cores were combined or separated, the resulting fusion or separation would assume a newly shaped core or cores.
Flipping through additional pages, Hassan discovered intriguing anecdotes regarding the soul. Certain beings could harness their soul energy alongside their physical prowess to gain superior control, or merge it with their minds for spellcasting. These capabilities were sometimes handed down to descendants as “bloodline spells,” though such heirs often plateaued upon reaching their ancestor’s level of mastery.
Much like the physique and mind attributes, base soul attributes also existed. However, unlike the other two, these soul attributes worked differently; there was no concept of energy overload. Instead, the specifics varied with each type of training. In dream meditation specifically, the critical threshold occurred after completing the world core phase, when one began constructing the actual world.
Similar to how base physique and mind attributes serve as multipliers, base soul attributes fulfill a comparable role. But in contrast to physique and mind, the soul can undergo dramatic shifts, so it isn’t confined by the energy overload mechanism that limits the other two.
The strength and purity of the soul are crucial for several reasons. A weak soul slows energy production to a crawl, hampering overall progress. An impure soul poses even greater danger—it remains highly susceptible to corruption and lasting harm. As a result, soul strength and purity aren’t just advantageous; they’re essential for both safety and growth.
Finally, Hassan arrived at the end of the manual, titled Basic Soul Manual: Humanoid Edition. Once again, he marveled at his flawless memory of its contents—a remarkably useful gift.
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Transfer of Basic Soul Manual complete
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The space warped, returning him to the system area, where delroaches still crawled everywhere. He hastily requested an exit.
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Exiting System Training Space confirm [Yes/No]
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Yes!
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Exiting System Training Space in 60, 59, 58…
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He grimaced. Why a full minute? The sensation of delroaches scrambling over him made every second unbearable.
At last, the space twisted again, and he found himself back on the familiar bed. It had been a harrowing experience.
He felt relief wash over him as his fatigue and pain reset to their previous pre-entry levels—he was still tired, but not as severely as before. After collecting himself, Hassan resolved to deal with the delroaches someday. For now, he planned to head toward the forest, hoping it was free of those pests.
Turning his focus to the gains he’d made, he spoke a single word:
System.
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Attributes:
Physique: 0.12 → 0.13
Mind: 10.50 → 10.52
Soul: 9.57 → 9.81
Talents:
Human Intelligence (Rank 3: 14% → 15%) – Expand
Human Soul (Rank 2: 86% → 93%) – Expand
Zamongarai’s Physique (Rank 0: 12% → 13%) – Expand
Zamongarai’s Sense (Rank 1: 91% → 93%) – Expand
Zamongarai’s Soul (Rank 0: 23% → 32%) – Expand
Vessel Control (Rank Unknown) – Expand
Skills: Physique Manual (Basic: 1%), Mind Manual (Basic: 2%), Soul Manual (Basic: 0%)
System Training Space – Time remaining until reset: 0 hours, 40 minutes, 13 seconds – Current Mode: Tutorial
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As usual, reading a manual increased his attributes and talents, and he gained the Soul Manual skill. He also noticed that the system’s reset timer remained nearly unchanged from before, implying that time truly froze or slowed to almost nothing inside the training space.
He then decided to plan ahead for his next visit:
First was to select items before entering. One to cover himself and get shelter as if he returns and its still night time and the delroaches are still there, he wouldn’t be able to stay without it. Two convivence like for the cold at night. And third for hungry and thirst, selecting his food paste that contained the waterisus herb that would allow him to stay full and water saturated for a while.
The other was to plan out his training. The way he was training didn’t include the Soul Manual. He needed to incorporate additional training based on the insights from the Basic Soul manual. He planned to practice sensing his surroundings, ideally while resting mentally or physically to make efficient use of his time. Once he achieved proficiency, his goal would be to construct different objects within his dreams and then build the anchor and world core.
The next time he entered the training space would likely be when the caregiver prepared the food paste.
Yawning, Hassan decided he needed some rest—those delroaches had truly rattled him.
He couldn’t help but wonder how his family was doing back on Earth, hoping he could see them again before they grew too old.
