“Oh god…”

  [It’s a real shame you didn’t take the opportunity to grow your spirit while you were waiting to be reincarnated! Oh well! I’m sure you’ll be fine!]

  I snarled, finding it hurt my face to do so. “Well, if I’d known I was gonna be sent somewhere like this, obviously I would’ve trained! Can you not just, I dunno, send me back for a couple weeks? Put this guy in a coma in the meantime or something?”

  Someone stirred in a bed opposite me, and I realised my whisper shouting was more shout than whisper.

  [Unfortunately, you cannot be sent back. Your return to the afterlife can only be triggered by the death of your mortal vessel. Better luck next time!]

  “Gee, sorry I asked.”

  [Apology accepted! Anyways, there’s no use dwelling on the past! Just try to make the most of your new life!]

  I squinted at the obnoxious system, which was once again superimposing a stupid smiling face at me.

  “My new life is probably gonna end in a few days, and horribly. This dude you put me in had a freaking deathwish!”

  [Is that so? Great! Adversity is the best fuel for a fledgling soul, after all!]

  “Glad you’re so optimistic about it… why couldn’t I have been put in the body of a farmer, or something? Something lowkey, nothing trying to murder me.”

  [Because I decided Cael would be a good fit for you! Besides, you seemed like you needed the wakeup call!]

  My eyes darkened as I took in the implications of the screen’s words. I almost reached forward to try and strangle it.

  That’s a lie. I did reach forwards. My hands phased right through the screen.

  “You put me in this guy to teach me some lesson?!”

  Ow. My back. My ribs. Feel like I’m being crushed by a bear. Shouldn’t shout but…

  [Of course I did! It’s my job to guide souls to their highest potentials and utmost fulifllment, as well as to strengthen them for their eventual destinies. Cael Soulgrave felt like an appropriate challenge!]

  “You asshole.”

  Okay, now an initiate with a leg in a cast was staring at me half-awake. I… coughed. Like I was just having a violent coughing fit and sputtering curse words.

  Seemed to work.

  [I promise you, my decision wasn’t based even a tiny bit on personal animosity! I definitely wasn’t even a LITTLE annoyed when you chose to use the myriad and almost INFINITE possibilities of a multiversal training room to gorge yourself on snacks! I’m incapable of feeling anger, resentment, or any other vindictive emotions towards you, despite the fact you laid in bed and used me as a phone for two months!]

  “So why are you even here? You just come here to rub my nose in how shitty I am, or something?”

  [I told you, I’m here to check on your reintegration! Now that I know you’re fine, I’ll leave you to your own devices! You’re welcome. Nice to see you!]

  “Wait!”

  The text box remained inert.

  “What… what do you actually suggest I do here?”

  [I’d suggest you avoid dying! Your soul is fragile and untempered, and another premature death might cause you some serious, immeasurable, horrible pain, or weaken your soul!]

  I was pretty sure System hated me. He had to. There was absolutely no way he didn’t.

  [I’d also suggest you learn to use magic! This world is rich with mana, and filled with all of the tools a budding soul needs to reach a higher potential! It would be great if you learned to use them!]

  “...you’re telling me you didn’t put me here just to see me struggle and fail?”

  [I earnestly believe you have at least a slight possibility of growing on this world, yes! That’s why I put you here. It might be difficult though, seeing as you have to acclimate to a whole new body first! Plus survive!]

  “Thanks. I’m really fucking grateful.”

  [You’re welcome!]

  God I hate this thing.

  I rubbed my eyes with my index and thumb, fighting a sudden headache.

  System fucked off eventually. Said something about me being able to summon his interface to check up on some of my stats and then left.

  I was tired. Not that I figured I was gonna get much sleep, but still…

  I needed to figure this place out, plus my new body to boot. I was still getting used to compartmentalising Cael’s memories, which almost felt as if they were layered over my own unless I focussed heavily on separating our two pasts.

  It was… weird to sift through his mind, his previous thoughts and the echoes of his personality. A drop of it all was still in there, despite his soul being vacant.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  I refused to believe System hadn’t put me here for anything other than to punish me. I’d love to throw myself off a bridge just to spite the bastard at this point, then spend my next however long in the afterlife playing mobile games on his interface, but I needed to get realistic.

  Immeasurable pain didn’t sound good. Weakening my soul sounded pretty shitty too. I wondered if strengthening your soul was necessary to ensure you didn’t fade, or keep your mind sharp or something.

  Ah well. All I knew was that for now, I was stuck here, and I needed to get with the program if I wanted to have a chance of surviving. I had a lot of acclimating to do and little time to do it, and I needed to either bridge a massive gap in strength between me and that Damian guy before he caught up to me, or find a different way of dismantling that situation.

  I wasn’t gonna manage to do all of that in bed. I knew I was safe in here, but I was also a sitting duck. The moment I was seen as fit to be discharged, I was dead. I needed to find a way to get stronger before that happened.

  That… gave me an idea.

  A horrible idea. But a good one. Maybe. Possibly.

  For my plan to work, I needed to wait until it was late. Really late, to the point of complete darkness.

  Well, that was assuming people even went to bed at normal times. I thought through Cael’s memories for a moment, and their days and nights seemed pretty normal. One sun. Seasons. Day and night time.

  Yeah. That part should be fine, at least.

  The other part though…

  I looked over my stats while I waited for nightfall. Saying ‘System’ aloud brought up the interface, as did thinking it, I learned with a bit more experimentation. I didn’t get a greeting, or any form of communication this time, but I got the screen, and that was really all I wanted.

  There were a few options to choose from, far less than when I’d used System in the afterlife, but one new one I was immediately drawn to was [Status]. I clicked on it.

  [Soul: Grade F, Level 6. Next advancement at 50.]

  [Vessel: Cael Soulgrave. Tier 1 Ascendent, Third Stage.]

  [Strength: 12 (13).]

  [Agility: 15 (18).]

  [Constitution: 8 (9).]

  [Dexterity: 18 (24).]

  [Willpower: 10 (16).]

  [Intelligence: 10 (15).]

  [Bracketed stat values are ‘true’ values given by combining the strength of the vessel with the power of your soul.]

  Well, shit. Even if I probably couldn’t use Cael’s body anywhere near to the potential he could yet, it was nice to at least see that my soul was improving it in some way.

  Well, that’s assuming his soul wasn’t giving him even bigger bonuses before.

  Best not to think about that.

  Below that there were vessel skills, of which only four were listed.

  [Bloodline Skill: Rock Spear, Grade F.]

  [Earth Affinity: Grade G.]

  [Poison resistance, Grade E.]

  [Mark of Corruption: Dormant.]

  Reading each but the last triggered a memory in Cael’s mind. Rock Spear was the most basic variant of the Soulgrave clan’s premier earth spell, Stalagmite. Cael had spent months trying to evolve his Rock Spear ability in the past, but his low level earth affinity had consistently held him back. It’d taken a fortune in mana elixirs to push his Rock Spear ability to Grade F, where it now packed enough of a punch that it could at least injure another low level fighter, assuming he ever used it.

  Still, he wasn’t great with the ability, and Cael hadn't been a fan of learning mana-based skills in general, mainly rejecting them for physical training after failing to either grow or evolve his affinity.

  In fact, sifting through Cael’s memories, he’d only ever managed to do basic spells. Enough to shine a bit of torchlight, light a candle, or minorly enhance his sword strikes, but little else despite his impressive background.

  This guy had wanted to be an archmage? The notion felt more ridiculous by the second.

  As for the [Mark of Corruption] passive, I had no idea what to say about it. Cael didn’t have any memories of such a thing ever being mentioned to him. It was a complete mystery to me.

  Then there were the stat numbers. I tried to find a basis of comparison, and learned from a quick read that they worked on a gradient, where 15 was considered the average for an Ascendant at any given stage of a tier, and that said attribute numbers often shifted down upon reaching a new stage in order to conform to the new average.

  It was strange, but I picked up the idea of it quickly. It meant that being a 15 in Strength as a third stage, Tier 1 Ascendant would likely make you a far lower number if you were to move up multiple stages without getting significantly stronger in the meantime.

  In other words, if I had 15 Strength and Damian Voss also had 15 Strength, his 15 meant something way different than mine. His 15 meant he was average for his tier and stage. My 15 meant the same, but he was three stages higher than me, so the number represented a way lower average.

  Not that I’d calculated just how big the gap between stages were, yet. From how Damian whooped Cael’s ass in their last fight, however, I figured the gap had to be pretty dang significant.

  Mental stats seemed like they might work on a different gradient, though. I imagined that reaching higher stages didn’t require a dramatic increase in a person’s Intelligence, for example, otherwise every high ranked Ascendant would be a super mega genius, and I wouldn’t be sitting in a low tech fantasy world with no internet.

  With all that said, Cael was below average for his rank in almost every attribute without my soul bonus, and even with it, he lagged behind in Strength, and majorly in Constitution.

  Might explain how he got his soul slapped out of his body. Oh well.

  The one thing he had going for him in spades was Dexterity. He was way above the level of the average third stage Tier 1 with my soul bonus.

  Or rather, I was. I needed to stop thinking about Cael’s body as someone else’s, honestly, as alien as that might be. If I thought of him as someone else, I wasn’t going to do things with the right sense of urgency. It was my soul on the line if I screwed things up here, after all.

  Speaking of which, the light outside had steadily receded by now, and the healer in the tent stepped out not that long ago.

  I waited until I was absolutely sure the coast was clear before I made to stand.

  Standing really hurt. I felt as if I was going to tear my body in two as I shifted myself off of the bed and moved to an upright position. Pulling myself onto my feet was excruciating. Multiple times I wanted to quit and get back in bed, resign myself to recovering naturally and forget my stupid impulsive idea.

  Determination, for once, won through for me. As it turned out, the pain of real injuries paled in the face of an unknown pain I could only guess at, and I’d rather deal with something I knew I could handle.

  It got easier as I started to walk. It wasn’t long before I realised that even in spite of my injuries, Cael’s body was much more fit and agile than mine had ever been. Despite the pain, I barely limped, and my movements were fluid and smooth as I stepped out of the hospital wing and out into the cool night air of Skyreach.

  A thousand stars stared down at me, questioning me.

  Why was I out here?

  To train until I keeled over.