Stray Soul

Walking through the forest, I was soon met with the buzzing of bees all around me, and looking around, I saw that they were the giant bees I had been looking for instead of normal bees.

Now, I just had to find a bear...

“Rifu-san, can you feel out for any large animals or something? Because its going to take a really long time to find the bear by myself.”

“I’ve told you before William-san, that’s not how my senses work. If you put the sceptre to the ground, and it is only a few dozen metres away, sure, but anything more than that and I won’t be able to say clearly what I am seeing.”

“Well, that sucks.” I responded and just... started walking around, because it seemed like there really was not any easy way to go about finding the bear, and I highly doubted I could find it by just going to the beehive or something... wait, maybe...

So, I just started going the direction where there were more bees, and after a bit of time, I saw the top of the hive and... it definitely had seen better days.

Because there was not really a hive remaining, instead, it was just a collapsing structure with a big hole on the side of it.

“That guy sure did some work...” I muttered to myself, and got off of the turtle, which I had covered in bushes by this point too, and just let that body of my charge in.

*ROAR~~*

After a few seconds of walking inside the bear-made cave, my lesser soul met the bear, and a fight started between them.

Sadly for the bear, the turtle was just stronger than it.

*ding*

Congratulations! You have defeated Black Bear (F) Level 50!

As Black Bear (F) is 2 ranks above you, you will get increased exp!

500 > 750 exp gained.

“...Well, that was way, waay easier than I had thought...” I muttered to myself once more, but something seemed off for some reason... I wasn’t sure if it was just me being paranoid but yeah, something was definitely off.

As I was having the herby jeebies, the turtle walked out of the cave with the bear corpse, and I realized what was the thing that was bugging me.

“Oh yeah, it didn’t level up!” Saying that, I quickly opened its system window to see what was going on.

Name: None Race: Lesser Soul (Centurian Turtle)

Level: 1 Exp: 270/270 Rank: E

Health Points: 0/2.704 Mana Points: 1.800/1.845

Strength: 254

Vitality: 270

Agility: 168

Intelligence: 184

Wisdom: 163

Charisma: 161

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills: Ethereal Body (S), Earth Attunement (D) +

Titles: Lesser Self (A)

...A-are you fucking serious system? D—Where did all of my exp go!

Looking at my own system window, I couldn’t see the rest of the 750 exp either. It had just... disappeared. Just like that.

“...God, I hate how this system works...” I lamented my great lost, but couldn’t do anything about it, so I just accepted it and tried to think of a way to extract the 270 exp from the turtle.

Hmm... I mean, just touching it with my soul would be enough now, wouldn’t it? I have no doubt that the system requires me to do some weird bs to extract the exp... but lets just hope the easier and simpler thing is the one I need to do!

And, thankfully, the moment I touched my lesser soul with my soul, everything was fine.

*ding*

Congratulations! You have levelled up 3 times and become level 29!

Quickly opening my system window, I quickly put 9 points into intelligence, bringing it up to 73, and the other 3 into wisdom, bringing it up to 43.

Level: 29 Exp: 4/118 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/553 Mana Points: 1.028/1.200

Intelligence: 73 (47)

Wisdom: 43 (30)

Well, that’s nice. It could’ve been better if a certain system explained me how lesser souls worked, but at least the next time I won’t make the same mistake.

“How many levels did you get William-san?” Rifu-san asked suddenly.

“Oh, only 3. I would’ve gotten more, but apparently, I don’t get all the exp when my other bodies kill something. Only the amount they can hold in their bodies.”

“Hmm... so, what level are you right now? And how much more exp do you need to level up?”

“Level 29, and I need only 114 exp to level up. So, not much, but I’ll probably get to level up after we return to the goblin village... not because I’ll be killing goblins or anything, but they do have quite a bit of undead that I don’t mind killing.”

“You should get to level 30 before we return if you are that close to it then.” She then suddenly said, which confused me because I saw no reason to go out of my way to punch a few deer to level up just once. It just didn’t really make much sense.

“And why should I do that?” I asked her, making my confusion known.

“You should rank up at level 30.” She said, which surprized me because she never told me about this before.

“Wait, isn’t there a minimum amount of stat points you need to reach before you rank up?”

“Yes, there is. And you reach it at 30. Well, you reach the maximum amount of stat points you can have at H rank at 30, because I’ve seen a few rank up to G at 27 or 28, so the minimum is probably something lower. But you should rank up at 30 nonetheless.”

“Huh... well, then, I guess I just go around punching random animals?” I muttered aloud, letting Rifu-san hear it.

Then I just turned towards where the river was and started walking. And whenever I saw a big critter, I’d just threw my lizard body at it with my turtle body or rushed at them with my bear body and... voila! Exp!

*ding*

Congratulations! You have defeated...

Congrat...

...

...

...

And as hours passed, I just continued to kill any big animals I found, and I managed to catch a small pack of wolves, which helped me greatly! And by the end of the day, I managed to nearly level up!

Level: 29 Exp: 114/118 Rank: H

“One more hunt and I’ll finally rank up... but for now, I need to rest.” I muttered to myself as I looked at my mana counter.

William Mana Points: 314/1.200

Yeah... I had used a lot of mana, probably more than necessary, in order to get this much exp, but the turtle and the bear had quite a bit of mana in them, so everything was fine.

Centurian Turtle Mana Points: 823/1.845

Black Bear Mana Points: 450/600

Talking about mana... I never talked about the bear’s stat points now, did I? Well, here’s its status window.

Name: None Race: Lesser Soul (Black Bear)

Level: 1 Exp: 0/90 Rank: F

Health Points: 0/100 Mana Points: 450/600

Strength: 130

Vitality: 100

Agility: 90

Intelligence: 60

Wisdom: 53

Charisma: 57

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills: Ethereal Body (S)

Titles: Lesser Self (A)

It has great stats! Greater than mine definitely! But after seeing the stats of the Centurian Turtle... yeah, its—its not that impressive now, is it? And it doesn’t even have a racial skill!

How dare ye be just a normal bear in my fantasy world!... I mean, makes sense as bears are already beasts of hell on earth. They don’t really need that much of an improvement to thrive in a fantasy landscape I guess... pandas might though... and red pandas too!

But other than those 2, other bears are fine... and yes, I am not sure if a red panda is a bear or not, and no, I will not be correcting myself because I am literally stuck in another world.

Kinda can’t open google and look it up here, ya know?

“William-san, did you rank up?” Rifu-san came back and asked.

“Nope. Just need 4 more exp points and I am fine though. I’ll probably get going after a few hours of resting.”

“Hmm... Okay then... but before I go, do you need anything from me?”

“Hmm... do I need anything from you... actually, Rifu-san, about our studies.” I said.

“What about them?” She asked.

“Well, they just suck honestly.” I said.

“O-oh...”

“I was thinking, could you just send me books about everything you want to teach me instead of... you know, trying to teach them to me verbally? Its kinda hard and inefficient to do so.”

“Well... that’s doable. I assume you want them for after you become the deity of the goblins?”

“Yes, that’d be perfect.”

“Okay then. But, in what language do you want them?”

“...Not sure honestly... I actually can’t really read any language that well, but I can speak a bit of goblin so I guess written in goblin, but also imperial is the most spoken language in this continent so... wait, can you send me 2 copies for each book, one written in goblin and other in imperial?”

“Sure. I’ll start getting the books ready for you, but I will only send them after you become the deity of goblins.”

“Eh, fair.” I said and just continued to rest.

That is until a deer decided to come into my view and sacrifice itself for the... great... good... fuck, that’s an undead.

“BEAR, I CHOOSE YOU! USE POUNCE!” At my command, my lesser soul rushed to action and quickly took out the poor undead critter.

*ding*

Congratulations! You have defeated Undead Deer (H) Level 20!

40 exp gained.

Congratulations! You have levelled up and have become level 30!

Congratulations! You have ranked up and have become rank G!

That was... lucky, I guess.

“System.” I muttered, and my system window appeared in its full glory a moment after.

Name: William Race: Stray Soul (Pale Lizard)

Level: 30 Exp: 36/130 Rank: G

Health Points: 0/553 Mana Points: 372/1.200

Strength: 0 (90)

Vitality: 0 (55)

Agility: 0 (77)

Intelligence: 73 (47)

Wisdom: 43 (30)

Charisma: 0 (40)

Free Stat Points: 12 (52)

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)

Appreciating the new number next to my rank for a moment, I immediately put 2 points into intelligence and 10 into wisdom, as I felt like I’d need all the mana I could get, however small that may be.

And after that... I just called Rifu-san through the semi-divine core in the sceptre of the forest because... I needed advice.

“...So, let me get this right...”

“Yeah.”

“When you were leaving the perimeter of the goblin village, you saw a goblin watching you.”

“Huhu.”

“And you just... let it be?”

“I mean... I wasn’t going to kill it, so yeah, I just let it go.”

“And now suddenly a random undead appears in front of you...”

“Yeah... letting that goblin go might’ve been a... slightly bad idea...”

“William-san... your chances of becoming a deity are really dropping faster than I thought possible, I am not even sure if you can become one anymore... and, what do you want me to do? Help you out? You know I won’t do that, right?”

“Ah, no no no, I was just here to ask for your advice. Do you think I should bounce off? Do you think I can bounce off?”

“...No, I think that’d be the wrong option. Afterall, you can’t run with your tail tucked between your legs if you want them to respect you now, can you?”

“I see your point but, but I’ve just gotten 2 new bodies and I am not sure if I want them to get hurt before we breach the walls and go into the heart of the village...”

“Well, on the contrary, I think fighting right here and right now will actually increase your chances of winning. Seeing your strength and seeing that you are willing to spare their life, in your final attack some goblins may be willing to let you through, or route.

And there is no guarantee that whatever force is here is actually here to hunt you down or something, they can also be basic hunters or scouts of sorts. But no matter if it’s a small group, or a big one, fighting now can only benefit you.”

“Well... you do make sense... lets just hope you are right in saying that this might not be a big group of goblins.” Saying that, I just stood where I was sitting down, and waited for the goblins to make themselves known.

And unlike the last time, this time there was no convenient feeling of being watched that implied the goblins were getting closer.

After waiting for half an hour and assuming it was just a random undead, in the distance I saw a few flickers of light, which looked like torchers, and suddenly a lot more torches lit up around the forest...

“I—Goblins do sure love ambushed huh? Even when their hunt is literally sitting down and waiting for them.” I muttered to myself while looking at the goblins... wait, I know that guy!

He’s the bloke whose mace I stole and... he doesn’t look that happy now, does he?

Yeah... bouncing off might’ve been the right call there.