Dominik had tried using telepathy, but nothing ever worked. He thought it should come easily enough to him now, he could offer contracts, he could feel the souls of other people, even animals, by doing so. But he couldn’t quite create a link directly, at least not mentally.

  He could cast spells on someone in his line of sight, even more easily for those under contract in his dungeon, just by looking at them on any given floor. But trying to use telepathy with those he had yet to make a contract with was proving to be futile.

  Dominik told Fran he was going out in the forest to practice magic, then made his way toward the village. He walked slowly and tried sensing things. He could sense the animals near him in the forest, when he looked at them. He could check their bodies for injuries, he could heal them, and he did as he walked through the forest.

  But when he tried closing his eyes, it became more difficult even after he made this spiritual connection. Once they went off, the further they went the harder it was to maintain this connection. And eventually it broke. He wasn’t trying something so deep as the contract. He focused on healing and sensing their spirits.

  Plants were even more difficult to sense even when near him. Their spirits and consciousness were different from animals. They were a sort of nature spirit, like the earth elementals. But they were much weaker, and simpler than the others. Scholars had theorized that elemental spirits eventually may transcend this plane and enter a less tangible elemental plane, or that elemental spirits die and weaken in the elemental plane and descend to the physical plane. Though the latter seemed less likely considering how numerous plant life was in this world.

  Regardless of the various theories, they were living, they could be injured, and they could be healed. He healed the sick and injured plants and animals as he walked on, bringing more life to the forest as he made a path from the dungeon to the village.

  Dominik eventually came to the village one morning, and sat just outside it, on the edge of the forest. The people were out and working. The sun was bright on this cold morning, and he could reach out and sense the small injuries and scars on the people and their livestock, and least the ones in viewing distance. But he closed his eyes and tried to reach out again.

  He tried to reach out with his mana, just a bit going out everywhere in front of him, and then all around him. It was all connected to his spirit, which was itself connected to this body. His consciousness occupied it fully, and soon he felt the other spirits around him. Souls, some weaker, some stronger, from human spirits, to animals, to elemental spirits. Though at first it was difficult to understand what each of them was.

  It was extremely difficult to maintain multiple connections, as gentle as they were, but he tried to increase the number he could hold simultaneously. He tried focusing on them, on some larger souls. He felt for injuries on them, or at least, on the bodies containing them. He could feel out their form as he searched for injuries, finding small cuts or bruises, scars and damage to flesh, bone, and tendon.

  When he tried to heal them from far away, it took more mana as expected, but it also exhausted him in a way he could hardly describe. It exhausted him spiritually and mentally, but not in the same manner as running low on mana, or as the physical strain of mental exhaustion. It was like using a muscle you had rarely if ever used before, and putting so much strain on it, but it wasn’t physical.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  He healed the people and the animals of the minor injuries that afflicted them, and held each connection, adding more as the day continued on. He healed damaged trees and plants as well. He grew back chewed leaves and plucked flowers.

  Soon he felt he’d reached his limit, but he still needed to attempt using telepathy while he could still feel the connections. He wondered, why limit it to one person? And so he focused on his connections to everyone, or everything that felt human and attempted speaking to them.

  Dominik could feel the connection, and he tried sending his thoughts to them. But he realized he needed to reach more specifically for their consciousness, rather than just their spirit. He had to be more specific, and as he searched for it and tried speaking to them, he felt it. He reached for their consciousness and tried to make a connection, and then he spoke to them.

  He felt his words go through a sort of resistance or barrier for a few of them, and felt some kind of response come back to him. Though it was too hard to make out. He had to control the receiving end of this communication and allow their speech, or thoughts that were directed to him to reach him in a more coherent state. Soon he managed to create something stable enough to begin making out what they were saying.

  But one voice was the clearest. From what Dominik sensed, it was a child, but for some reason, whether their mind was more open, or they were simply better on their own end at mental communication, this was the clearest communication. Dominik chose to respond to their messages. To focus on perfecting this connection.

  “Hello? Who is this? I can’t hear you really, but I think someone is speaking.” said the child.

  “I am (Dominik?) Dominus, I was practicing magic. First I was healing everyone from just outside the village, then I thought I’d try telepathy.”

  “Dominus? The druid? Are you doing druid training?” asked the child.

  “Yes, I suppose you could call this a sort of druid training. Would you like to help me?” asked Dominik.

  “Sure, how though?” asked the child.

  Dominik needed to practice chaining his telepathy from one person to another. So he instructed the child to gather a few more people, it didn’t matter who really, children or adults, and he would give them instructions on finding him.

  Soon the child gathered a few others. First he tried finding one on the already created connections, then he simply created connections from the child to those nearby. Then he spoke to them and listened as well, though the connection wasn’t as clear as with the previous child.

  He had them describe where they were and gave them hints on where to go. Soon they found him, though he wasn’t exactly hidden. It was more so about finding the right area and looking out to the forest. When they found him he slowly withdrew all the connections he’d made over the course of the day. When he opened his eyes and looked at the group, he realized it was already sunset.

  He spoke to the group for a while, they were a few small children, and two older women, either much older sisters or mothers, he couldn’t quite tell. However, as he spoke to these people, he felt a tiredness he’d been ignoring, despite still having plenty of mana. And soon, he fell asleep.

  His consciousness returned to his eldritch body deep in the dungeon, and soon after he fell asleep his human body fell to sleep as well. Or it began mimicking sleep as he had made it do when it was meant to appear as sleeping.