Chapter 39

  Routines

  So, Ravenous Soul? Isn’t that what we were saving for?

  “I’m not so certain any longer.”

  Really? What changed?

  I’m on my bed, three showers clean and still suffering from pore-clogged PTSD. The squirrel guts hardened into a chalky mess that crumbled into rotten-milk flavored…

  Nope. No thank you. The amount of trauma I’m shoving into the ‘repressed’ box in my mind is a bit concerning. Luckily, that is a problem for future Sam. At least the sheets are warm and the experience is behind me.

  “I’ve been considering your achievements and the rewards they’ve offered, and I’m beginning to think that Ravenous Soul, while useful, would be borderline redundant. How much more efficiently can you absorb soul energy?”

  More of a question for you, I think.

  “Yes. And I think we may have practically exhausted that avenue of growth. Any gains we make in that area will be of marginal benefit, at least for now.”

  Hm. So, what then? Wait, before you answer, I’ve been thinking about something. Do you remember when I first used my soul to affect the world?

  “When you improbably defeated the ice centipede, yes. What of it?”

  Well, I did that without a Skill. I just kind of learned the Skill through desperation. I didn’t ‘spend’ any soul energy to do it. So… can I make shit up?

  “You mean creatively? Outside of the awarded Skills of your Class? Yes, it is possible. Especially considering that you are the first and only Singularity in existence, I imagine you are afforded that flexibility. Though anything you manage to create will turn into a Skill itself.”

  Yeah, it said something about a soul’s ‘allowed maximum’ when I got that achievement way back when. How do I know how many I’m allowed?

  “It is a product of the development of your soul. The way my Mentor described it… imagine a canvas, blank and unblemished. Traditionally, the acquisition of a Class serves as the first brush strokes to frame the work to come, but the Seventh’s intervention and your own will led you on another path.”

  So we just started splashing paint around.

  “Not as much. The Seventh, malicious as his ‘gift’ was intended to be, is an artist whose only equal can be found in his eleven peers. Your own Soul Expression was the natural first steps of any soul-endowed being stepping onto the path to power. As a result, your first three Skills were beautifully and naturally wrought, and, with the divine gift granted you by your achievement, those talents exist alongside, yet beyond, the swiftly-filling canvas of your soul.”

  Does that answer how many I get?

  “It depends upon the soul involved. Between Ravenous Soul, your unique Class, your achievements, and the strength your soul already possesses, I imagine you have room for quite a few.”

  An ache begins to form at my temples, my brain stretched to imagine things it was never meant to. I have a thousand questions, about evolution especially, but I hardly know where to begin. I guess, back to the original point.

  I can make new Skills? Paint how I want to?

  “You should be able to, yes.”

  Well then, what do you think of this idea?

  She’s quiet as I picture what I intend, that rare, contemplative quiet she enters when I’ve said something she doesn’t immediately and viscerally disagree with.

  “The idea has some merit.”

  Then how do I make it happen?

  “Focus inward. Feel the soul energy flowing within you. Feel the torrent, urging to be spent. Know what you seek, and will it to be so.”

  I wait. Keep waiting. Silence.

  You’re kidding me. That’s it? I just have to want it?

  “It is remarkable how much the soul listens when you have the will to demand it.”

  Hm.

  The fire burning in my chest is still raging, the extraordinary jump the horde of, uh… I shudder involuntarily, hand wiping at the back of my neck. Yeah, the jump that last Challenge gave me.

  I picture the magic I want, thinking vaguely of the high school science explanation of gravity my physics teacher tried to drill into my brain. Honestly, my idea does less to fuck with the laws of physics than Gravity Manipulation does, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Don’t choose a direction, just choose a location.

  The fire races and rages and begins to… carve.

  Like the channels I’ve vaguely felt before, the power etches new lines into the contours of my soul. The fire weakens as it spends itself in the craft. An image, impossibly bright, sears into my mind's eye for the briefest instant.

  Lines, curves, grace; fire made art, etchings made light, a complex symbol growing to incorporate this new shape that fills in space that yearns to be filled.

  Instinctually, I know it is incomplete. There is room, I am sure. Room for embellishment and refinement, room for new light where emptiness exists.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  It is a symphony missing wind and brass. A masterpiece lacking color and depth.

  A story whose end remains unwritten.

  My story.

  Skill acquired! Attraction (Unique, Magical)

  You have the ability to choose a particular object or location to be the source of gravity in a localized area.

  Energy Cost: Variable

  Cost determined based upon area of effect, strength of effect, mass affected, and souls affected.

  Evolve to gain additional benefits.

  I think… I don’t know. I’m not sure I’d call it a painting.

  “It is different for all. Metaphor is all we have to speak of what it means to develop a soul. And metaphor will always, in the end, fail.”

  Fair. I think I have room for at least two more Skills before it gets… crowded.

  “For now.”

  I still have enough to evolve my Skills. Even a Legendary.

  “And?”

  The first order of business is survival, no? Perception and Identification have already served me well in that regard, but I certainly know which Skill I’d like to stop hurting.

  “It is a fair choice. You are certainly, fundamentally, and categorically talentless at anything resembling martial endeavors. That you will be hit is as foreseeable as the sunrise. Perhaps evolved, the Skill will better be able to help you recover.”

  Kora, were you a lawyer?

  “You already know I was a healer.”

  Then stop making me feel like you fill out your insults in fucking triplicate.

  “What?”

  Letting the fire flow into the curving, complex channel is more relief than effort, this time. It drains away like an ocean compressed into the banks of a raging river, waters impossibly deep and current impossibly strong. The curving lines written upon it grow deeper, more meaningful. It is a truth written in steel and bone, a certainty that echoes through an endless, soundless space.

  Boon evolved! Psychic Telos (Legendary Boon, Soul Evolution) has become Psychic Telos (Mythic Boon, Soul Evolution)!

  Your soul completely knows and recalls your spiritual and physical form. Your soul can autonomously spend energy to return you to your proper form as your soul understands it. Evolve to gain additional benefits.

  I read the description once, then again.

  Wait, what the shit? How is that any different?

  “It… isn’t.”

  But I just spent all that fucking power to make it better! Where’s the “and you won’t have to feel your bones snap back into place” or “and your nerves won’t feel like they’re hooked up to a fucking car battery” perk?

  “I told you evolution isn’t always what you expect it to be. Though… wait. I do see a difference.”

  Go on.

  “It used to read ‘more completely know.’”

  I… you’re fucking kidding me. What does that even mean? Judging from the shit it does every time I get hurt, it certainly seemed to have a good fricken idea before, and…

  My soul pulses.

  Wait, no—

  Pain.

  My vision is white. I’m on the ground, I think. Skin of fire, blood boiling, organs—

  I’m drowning in a sea of pain.

  The wave crests. Recedes.

  I gasp in a breath.

  The wave rises again.

  Time feels meaningless, drifting in agony. I only know that it is forever.

  Eventually, there is an end. Whether it was a few seconds or a few days or a few months, I can’t hardly imagine or care. It is enough that it is over.

  This ability sucks.

  “It is the first Mythic Boon I’ve ever encountered in all my time Mentoring. And still it can evolve. I wasn’t aware of a rarity past Mythic beyond baseless rumor.”

  Sure, sure. It will keep me alive and all that. But, for the love of all that is holy, isn’t there a pain management ability in this divine nonsense?

  “Competitor… bring up your soul summary.”

  Name: Sam Foreman

  Race: Human (Pure)

  Class: Singularity (Unique)

  Level: 31

  Class Evolutions: N/A

  Soul Energy: 301

  Statistics

  Strength: 2

  Agility: 4

  Toughness: 7

  Intelligence: 8

  Will: 12

  Charisma: 8

  Skills:

  Identification (Legendary, Evolutions: 4)

  Perception (Legendary, Evolutions: 4)

  Soul Expression, Gravity Aspected (Rare, Evolutions: 2)

  Weaken Gravity (Rare, Evolutions: 1)

  Strengthen Gravity (Rare, Evolutions: 1)

  Gravity Manipulation (Unique, Evolutions: 1)

  Attraction (Unique)

  Boons:

  Ravenous Soul (Legendary)

  Psychic Telos (Mythic, Evolutions: 1)

  Artifacts:

  Deity’s Bauble (Rare Artifact, Toy)

  The Slippers of Queen Elia, the Bounding Princess of Thellin (Rare Artifact, Equipment)

  Repurposed Aethid Techsuit (Unique Artifact, Equipment)

  Level 31. Finally allocating my soul energy, finally evolving one of my most potent abilities, and one crazy confluence of achievements nearly doubled my supposed ‘power’ in a day. I’d like to say that I don’t feel particularly different, that I’m still me, but I’m not really sure who that girl is or was. I have the ability to bend and break Newton, simple as sunset. I do so on a daily basis, traveling with three aliens I’ve befriended despite gods demanding I kill them. I’ve nearly died more times than I can count, and I, shockingly, still have the strength to keep putting myself out there. The lonely girl pining after unrequited love feels like a stranger.

  Pure human? Kora, what’s ‘pure’ mean?

  “I imagine the experience you just endured was your soul realizing its vision of your body. Whatever it viewed as other has been purged.”

  I find my feet and, with an effort of will, meet the gaze of the girl in the mirror. She looks… good. Healthy. Glowing. Certain. Her brown eyes sparkle. Her hair is lustrous, curling around her shoulders. Skin unblemished, cheeks hollow but strong.

  The feeling of horror that surges in my chest is not reflected on her confident, stoic face.

  “Competitor? What is it?”

  I remember what I look like. What I looked like. I don’t think Katie would recognize me now. I’m not sure even my father would.

  This is not me.

  “A foolish thing to say. You are more yourself now than you have ever been.”