Stray Soul

Walking through the forest, I looked at my status window and lamented at my lack of progress in the last few days.

Name: William Race: Stray Soul (Pale Lizard)

Level: 26 Exp: 32/97 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/553 Mana Points: 798/1.110

Strength: 0 (90)

Vitality: 0 (55)

Agility: 0 (77)

Intelligence: 64 (47)

Wisdom: 40 (30)

Charisma: 0 (40)

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills: Spirit Communion (C), Ethereal Body (S), Mana Sense (Z), Bind (H), Soul Sense (H), Soul Manipulation (H), Mana Control (H), Mana Strengthening (H) +

Titles: Reincarnator (S), Otherworlder (A)

Quests: Meddling with the Unknown (S), What Lays Beyond? (C)

While I had gained a level and some more exp, and of course put all the free stat points I gained into intelligence, I still felt bad about my... relatively slow progress, slow for me at least.

But I was slow because I was really not doing much... maybe joining the goblins in their delves will help me level up?

After becoming their deity that is, and yes, it still feels weird to think myself as a potential god candidate, and I’ve just decided that I am going to develop a totally healthy imposter syndrome to cope with all my future stress instead of accepting the decisions I’ve made and my new future because I am a mess of an adult.

Fight me.

But returning to my... stellar progress, I learned that I wasn’t actually doing that bad according to Rifu-san.

Because, according to her, at my rank even this small amount of exp was great, and she tried to reconcile me by informing that she had only earned around 1000 exp in the last day... which was, apparently abysmally low for her and her rank.

What rank and level is she you ask? Well, I am happy you asked because GOD am I having a bad time accepting reality, because she is apparently an A rank deity that is around level 700.

Goddamn seven hundred! FOR FUCKS SAKE HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO COMPETE WITH THAT!

I THOUGHT SHE’D BE, I DUNNO, MAYBE C OR AT BEST B RANK!

I NEVER ASSUMED SHE WAS ACTUALLY A MAJOR POWERHOUSE IN THE REGION, which is totally not my problem because she definitely never talked about her being the only deity that a literal pantheon full of gods decided to talk to in this region, and they definitely talked to the other neutral deities and didn’t ignore them and she totally never implied or outright said that the other deities in the region were not aware of the pantheon’s presence or existence.

Totally.

And learning her true level... I’ve come to the realization that she seriously doesn’t need me. If she didn’t care for the reaction of the locals down south, she could definitely just send a small force and get in contact with a bishop, or a deity under the pantheon’s control.

But because, and only because she cares too much about her ‘children’, which is what she calls her believers, she doesn’t want to send them down and risk them killing or dying for no reason... and she said that she was sure even a small group of lilies could destroy a few towns, and while I am not sure what kind of ‘lily’ she means, I just assume the ‘lilies’ are what her people call themselves or some kind of military scout group or whatever that I am not keen on meeting.

“William-san, have you reached the turtle?” Rifu-san’s voice resonated from the sceptre while I was thinking to myself and caught me off guard.

“Ah—yes, I have. I was just sitting down and recovering mana because even if I contacted you, we would still have to wait for a few hours for me to recover.”

“So, I take it that you have reached the turtle you were talking about?” She said, and I focused on the eye that was looking at a weird clearing with a small bump in the middle.

“Yup, sure have... I mean, I don’t have any visual confirmation, because I really don’t want to wake that thing up without having to, but if I am correct, I am only a couple metres away from the turtle.” I said, as I continued to stare at the weirdly grassy and bump in the clearing, that looked like it had been there always, but I knew for sure it was the work of... whatever magic the turtle used.

“When will your mana fill back up?” She asked and I willed my mana counter up.

Mana Points: 983/1.110

“2 hours should be enough for it to fill up.” I told her and she left, telling me that she’d be back after an hour and a half to explain her plan to me.

And before I forget, she told me how wisdom worked, and my wisdom was basically how much mana I regenerated per hour.

So, because I had 40 wisdom coming from myself and 30 from the Pale Lizard, I basically got 70 mana regen per hour, which was pretty great!

Then I spent the rest of my alone time by listening to the songs of the spirits, which is of course a weird way of saying I was just listening to their voices.

People talk about birds and their ‘songs’ so I am allowed to talk about spirits and refer to their voices as their songs too, and no one can correct me!

“Are you ready?” Rifu-san returned once again and asked me.

“As ready as I’ll ever be!” I told her, excited to hear her plan to get me the turtle’s body.

“Now, what’s the plan?” I continued.

“Firstly, get as close to the turtle as you can and put the sceptre in a tree, or near it.” She told me, and quickly moving towards where the turtle was, I put the sceptre next to a tree and it half fused with the tree, but the semi-divine core stayed out of the tree itself, so after touching it I was able to communicate with Rifu-san.

“You were right, this is a Centurian Turtle, a rare species of monsters that have the ability to manipulate earth from their birth and have no need for nourishment and live only by using mana. But this one seems like a juvenile, so its not as big as it should be, but it should still be of at least peak F or early E rank.” She said after staying silent for a couple of seconds and, I just want to state that, I want nothing to do with an adult Centurian Turtle if even their juveniles are as big as this!

“So... how are you going to kill it, and what do you want me to do?” I asked her, wanting to get this over quickly so I could kill that bear by myself, and get all that juicy exp.

“Simple really.” She started, and after a moment of pause, the trees around the weird clearing started bent down in the shape of a circle, encasing me and the turtle inside.

*CREAK~~*

And the small bump in the ground where the turtle hid started shaking and I could see bits of dirt breaking and something rising up.

“I just need you to keep it from escaping outside for a minute or less.”

“Not to appear ungrateful but... can’t you do whatever you are doing faster?”

“I very well could, because the spell I am casting is a really low ranked spell but casting it any faster would just take too much mana that it really isn’t worth my effort to do so.” She stated matter of factly which was... based to say the least, and... that’s about it actually.

I mean, what can I say in this situation other than okay? I am already getting the corpse of an F or E ranked creature, and that’s enough for me!

After a few moments, I told her I’d keep the turtle inside, but before I could even transmit what I wanted to say through the semi-divine core, the sceptre had fused fully into the tree.

*rumble~~*

Hearing the ground rumble, I turned towards where the turtle was, and saw that its head and shell were breaking out of the ground, and it was looking around the clearing, and even though it saw me, its eyes only stayed on me but for a moment and then continued looking at the surrounding bent trees.

“...So, I need to just annoy this giant murder turtle for a minute to get its body? Well, more like 50 seconds but yeah... still bad. But at least I won’t die.” I thought to myself, and yes, I wouldn’t die... probably.

But I also wanted to keep this body safe and sound quite a bit so... what to do?

Remembering the escapades from my vine deer days, I locked my sight on the turtle’s shell, and as it turned around away from me, I pumped mana into my limbs and dashed onto its shell!

Realizing that I was rushing at it, the turtle made an attempt to turn around and face me, but I was able to still land on its shell and I held onto the edges of its shell with my life!

Then the turtle tried to shake me off, but I stood my ground!

...Until it managed to throw me off that is.

Rolling on the ground, I stopped only after I hit a wall of wood and leaf.

Focusing on the turtle once again I saw that it was... charging the wall opposite of me, great.

I mean it kind of made sense seeing that it was a literal child... which felt weird to say because it was as large as a fucking car, but still, it made sense that it’d try to escape from danger other than confronting it.

Then I rolled my reptilian body up and started running at turtle, hoping it wouldn’t be able to just crash through the wall, which it couldn’t!

It tried to just ram its body through the wall, but it was futile, and it had to start chewing the wall and cutting it with its claws, which was not fast, and gave me more than enough time to reach the turtle!

I then, once again, tried to jump on its back and this time I planned on trying to aim for its eyes, maybe if I blinded it, it would not know where the wall was and would just run around aimlessly?

But it realized I was jumping on it, and this time managed to turn around and snap at me and catch one of my front arms in its mouth!

I then coiled around its neck and head, and tried to pull its mouth open, but it just continued to bite my arm and tried to crush it!

Not knowing what to do, I started hitting its head with my tail mace, strengthening it with haste, and tried to gouge out its eyes with my remaining claw, but I just couldn’t get through its fucking eyelids for some unholy reason!

It’s the fucking eyelid, not the shell! How hard is this fucker’s skin?!

But even though I was unable to gouge out its eyes, my continuous presence made it spit out my arm, and I immediately jumped on its shell and continued hitting it with my patented tail mace!

And I totally wasn’t thrown off immediately because one of my arms was crushed!

Nope, totally not!

And as I got up once again, the turtle turned to fully face me, and it seemed that it had had enough of me, and then it started cha—

*RUMBLE~~*

Suddenly the earth beneath us started rumbling, and soon cracks appeared on the ground, and out of them dozens upon dozens of greyish-white roots emerged and started coiling the turtle.

In its terrified, the creature then started screeching.

*SCREE—*

But its screech was suddenly cut off, and the turtle went limb, and as quickly as they came, the roots disappeared and not a sign of their existence could be seen on the clearing... other than the car sized turtle which was gushing out blood from where I assume its heart is.

Then the trees started separating, and the wall made of wood and leaf disappeared, and turned into just normal trees, then I felt something touching my leg and turning around, I saw that it was the sceptre.

“I tried to only destroy its heart and ignored brain as you said you were able to use its stats. How is it?” Rifu-san asked and looking at the... large fucking hole in the turtle’s heart, she did a damn good job.

“Its great, you seem to have only hit the hearth and a few other organs but... can you tell me beforehand the next time you decide that it’s the better option to throw me in a pit with a monster stronger than me? You see, it’s quite inconvenient to lose an arm for nothing.”