Chapter 40 - Astral plane

  His surroundings slowly came into view as his essence was nurtured by the warmth. He found himself floating in a blue-and-white space. The more he looked around, the stranger the space appeared. A colorful jellyfish was slowly drifting a ways off, but the most shocking thing was a ghostly form around himself.

  He didn’t know how he could see anything without his body, yet it was somehow reforming around him. His arm, skin, and muscles looked like a transparent hologram around himself that was slowly becoming more opaque as time went on.

  He was still circulating soul mana but his soul had been healed sufficiently by now. He had trouble moving in this strange space, it resembled an endless ocean but with a healing energy rather than water. He could see a layer form around his soul, a blue-hued wave at first, but soon it turned into the holographic-looking image of himself. Some parts were more transparent than others, and he found that he was still wearing those black fur shorts he crafted.

  Confusion was mounting in him as he took in his condensing image. His soul was still visible and he knew that this body he was looking at wasn't real flesh and blood but rather an illusion of some sort. He wondered if that nearby jellyfish was a spirit like him, and if so, this transparent form must be linked to him becoming an astral spirit. He tried to will his soul to return to the soul realm for a while as his essence was healing but nothing seemed to happen.

  He didn't know how he got to that place the first time so he wasn't sure how to return. The thought that it was no longer possible to get back there since he had died scared him, but his status window still displayed that ability unlike the mana spells, so if he couldn't use it, it probably wouldn't show up like those missing spells.

  He was now floating adrift in a strange space but now had a sort of spiritual body encasing his soul. Despite it not being real, he still felt a little less naked and vulnerable. He could move his ‘body’ and flex his limbs like he would a real body, but he was still motionless in this white space.

  He looked back towards the floating jellyfish as it seemed to expand and deflate its main body in slow motion as it slowly drifted away.

  Adam tried to wave his arms in a swimming motion as he kicked his feet. He looked like a flailing child as he unsuccessfully tried to swim in mid air. He had no concept of distance here other than the lone pulsing yellow and purple jellyfish that was incrementally moving away from him.

  When flailing about did nothing, he tried to use his soul mana to propel him forward with small blasts.

  To his surprise, that didn't work either. He had assumed that if this was the spirit realm, his soul magic would definitely be of use, yet it had no effect other than continuing to waste his efforts.

  He stopped moving when that failed as he once again looked around. It was a strange feeling to be motionless in an empty space. He had of course been in that dark void dimension where souls were visible, but that was a different experience altogether. Here, he could see a ways into the distance and color was visible. He tried to focus on what lay deeper but discovered that this place was actually covered in a layer of mist all around him.

  It was very thin so he didn't notice it at first, but while observing the jellyfish as it moved ever further away, he noticed a light blue haze beginning to obscure its form. The realm as a whole was a mix of white and a faint blue color so it became clear to him that what he could see probably wasn't all the was to this place. If he could move, maybe he could find other things here like that exotic pulsing yellow and purple jellyfish.

  Since he couldn’t do anything other than float idly for now, Adam focused on the sensation of that thin mist enveloping him and the warm sensation it provided him.

  He discovered that it was indeed being absorbed by his soul but it wasn’t growing the soul any stronger so that must be the reason this strange holographic image of himself before his death was being overlayed over his soul.

  In truth, he didn’t really care about having an image of himself reform around him since he was planning on reincarnating anyway. The only issue was that the method he used to do so would be very annoying and he wanted his entire soul to reincarnate rather than a single fragment.

  He feared what might happen to him if he was once again wounded from the process. His soul may have been pulled back together but it was in no way anywhere near as strong as it was after his soul augmentation experiment. Attempting the fragmented reincarnation now would only give him a few minutes before his soul would be destroyed by any potential dying hosts.

  What he really needed was a way to heal souls and flesh…

  He knew that soul magic had a healing property for both the soul with his own soul circulation spell and the body since it had rejuvenated him when he flooded his essence back in the tunnels. If he could only bring his soul core with him, he would have a much greater chance to successfully reincarnate.

  His human form finished condensing as he pondered his next possible moves, and that was when a shift happened.

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  The hazy energies around him didn’t stop getting absorbed now that both his soul and outer image had been finalized but rather continued to feed his silver essence.

  He stopped reviewing his options when he noticed this and focused on the reaction his soul was having to this energy. It reminded him of his mana core, once it was full, it could still absorb more and go over its limit and the result of that would inevitably be a core evolution.

  His eyes opened wide as he took in this new information. Perhaps this place was actually rather beneficial to him. If he can continue to evolve his core as he did during that experiment, then he would be fit to attempt another reincarnation attempt. After all, the last time he possessed the tiger, he only damaged his soul by trying to hold on to life. It was akin to repeatedly injecting dopamine into oneself while driving to stay awake. It would work for a little while but eventually, all those injections would cause serious damage.

  But if this place can help him improve his soul, he wouldn’t have his fragment be on the verge of destruction after every attempted reincarnation but would be able to essentially take a peak at the dying host's general condition and species and he simply wouldn’t force himself to stay if the conditions were bad.

  This was the best plan he had come up with so far except he still hadn’t tested if the reason he couldn’t get to the soul realm was truly because only a fragment could be sent. Therefore, he would put that theory to the test right now.

  He didn’t want to attempt to reincarnate now since that would likely drain everything from his weakened soul fragment, but would instead simply remove a piece of his soul and send it to that soul realm and have it return directly if he succeeded.

  The jellyfish was no longer visible by now as the haze had completely obscured it. Adam floated without any way to orient himself as he willed his silver magic into action. He briefly wondered if this was the result of him only possessing an ethereal form or if his previous mana core had actually been negatively impacting him since his ghostly mana felt a lot smoother and easier to control.

  It was yet another thing he wished to talk to another magic-wielding person about, how do people generally go about gaining mana cores? He now presumed that he had possessed a soul mana core since childhood, perhaps even from birth. So was eating that coconut heart fruit the reason for his ‘standard’ mana cores creation and was that actually a good thing or not?

  He dismissed those idle questions after adding them to the long list of unanswered questions in his mind and began to coat his hand with that silver magic. He attempted to repeat the same action as the last time since he knew that it had worked back then.

  He obviously didn’t have a hand anymore but you wouldn’t have believed it if you saw him now. He didn’t understand how but a perfect copy of his body was covering his soul. Even the deep blackness of the fur around his waist was reproduced as he drifted about in the white space.

  When his hand was covered in the magic, he carefully plunged them into his stomach clenched his fingers, and pulled out a silver ball of flowing flames within his grasp. A small piece of his mind separated from him along with that soul fragment. It felt weak. The weakest his soul had ever been since he discovered its existence… Though I suppose death would do that to you.

  The portion of his mind that was separated from the fragment was linked to him with a thin tether like before. With everything in order, he completed the process by lobbing it as high as he could. Obviously, he had no idea if he threw it up or down due to his disorientation, and nor did the momentum propel him in either direction. At least, as far as he could tell, he remained still and the soul was sent flying away at a rapid pace.

  He watched it get smaller and smaller in the distance until he could no longer see it through the haze. His connection to the sparse ball of soul energy disappeared soon thereafter.

  The consciousness within that lump of soul energy felt weak, or maybe old would be the correct term. Adam's fragment didn’t have a hurting back or arthritis, but rather a sense that his life force was reduced to a tiny candle in the open, where even a soft breeze could blow it out. He found the primarily white world around him bend and invert as if reality itself was bending in on him. Then darkness engulfed him as the white world was swallowed.

  The fragment didn’t have any noticeable loss of function despite his weak condition so he hoped traveling in and out of this realm didn’t cause his soul any further weakening. Everything has a price after all but he couldn’t figure out what triggered or fueled his innate reincarnation power.

  His soul hadn’t appeared to change between both realms so it likely didn’t use this soul fragments’ energy as a power source but he wondered if it pulled on his main body’s… or currently only his main souls’ soul magic. It would be worth checking when he returned and merged with his soul.

  He knew that the plan was simply to test the waters to see if he could indeed return to this realm, but that change in his status screen had gotten him curious.

  [Divine patriarch (reincarnation): [soul realm pioneer]]

  The God he spoke to had claimed that his innate ability gave him direct access to a higher dimension and the title seemed to confirm that. But if this place truly was off-limits to all others, being a pioneer also meant that all the hidden treasures of this place were his for the taking.

  This was a realm of souls after all, as a soul magic user, the had to be something that would be incredibly useful to him. The were of course many lights beginning to appear, but he was too weak currently to even attempt a reincarnation. What this test had given him however wasn’t negligible.

  He had proven that accessing the soul realm was indeed still possible and that this place in combination with his main souls’ current location in that white place, no doubt called the astral realm, might prove to be the perfect combination to not only regain his soul's strength but also surpass it as he prepared for a second chance.

  Ever since he had discovered the existence of magic, he had wanted to know more. That desire hadn’t changed but rather deepened greatly. His entire life had been turned upside down with everything he thought he knew about the world completely upended. Not even death, the final destination of all living beings had proven constant enough to withstand this monumental upheaval of the natural order… Or maybe it was humanity's fault for foolishly believing they had a single clue about what the hell they were talking about.

  Either way, as his soul fragment floated in a dark void surrounded by dozens of silver lights, each representing another life, he felt excitement at the opportunity to discover all those new worlds that awaited him. All those experiences and civilizations that might exist, unfathomable beings of godly abilities…

  And who knows, it might just be his ticket back home.

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