Wraithwood Botanist

I was bombarded with questions and chastisement as soon as I woke up.

"You shouldn't push yourself!" Felio cried.

"Agreed," Aiden said. "But can you do it again? I almost feel cheated with that cliffhanger."

"Don't encourage her!" said one of the guards.

"I'm not! I mean, well, at least tell us."

"Forget the story," Cassain said. "It's amazing you could do that. I felt like I was living it."

"I agree," Felio said. "How much have you practiced?"

I cradled my head. "I'll answer everything later. Just…"

"I see." Cassain was the first to stand up. "Forgive us for intruding during your recovery."

"No problem…" I said. "I think I'm going to get some rest."

"Okay," Felio said. "You want some soup?"

"Sure." I laid on my bed as the group dispersed, but I didn't sleep. The real reason why I couldn't answer the questions was because my brain was on fire. I opened up my Guide. There was something I felt I needed to do—something with obvious consequences.

For once, I was going to message Brindle before starting something big, unaware that I was reaching the first major turning point in my life.

And, of course, it wasn't positive.

It all started with an innocuous message. It read:

"I've obtained a Numina Anima elixir to build my channels. This should allow me to increase my nearan strength to communicate and negotiate with the Treskirita. I'm unsure how much of the elixir to take and am seeking guidance to establish a strong foundation for my nearan pathway. I will wait one week for your reply."

I got a message when I tried to send it. It read:

-

Warning: Requesting the aid of a god for a tribute quest will eliminate the bonus reward you can receive, regardless of whether your patron chooses to aid you. Do you still wish to send the request?"

-

This was a hard decision. Up until that point, all of the bonus rewards I had received had aided me significantly. At the same time, foundation was everything. Establishing my Kyfer core built my strength and earned me Kira as a reward—but I only did that with Yakana's help. Yakana. Brindle. Elana. Kyro. It wasn't a stretch to say my success was born from the aid of others. And this was a pivotal moment.

I made my decision and amended my message, adding:

"Please note that I'm actively declining the bonus reward to request your help, so I would appreciate a reply, if only to reject me."

I sent it, kicking myself because I didn't think I would obtain his aid, but two days later, I got a reply from Brindle—and that's when the trouble began.

It read:

"Kill a beast and use the soul extraction method from the crypt to capture its soul before it dissipates."

That was an enigmatic response—and it made me nervous.

Soulmancy…

Soulmancy was illegal. Reviled. Taboo. Cassain already made it clear that my being a soulmancer would put Felio in danger, and she wouldn't have come if she knew. At the same time, a grieves investigation was a certainty, and I had to get stronger—and that included soulmancy. So I put on a coat and protective wear the morning after the message, before the others awoke, and entered the bitter snow to start this journey.

"Kline," I whispered. He took his battle panther form, and I climbed on his back, and we set out south to easier territories.

Finding second evolution beasts with Wood Wide Web felt cruel because every time I sensed one, it was certain to die. Kline warped right next to the beasts. Then, I jumped off, stabbing it with my machete while attempting to use the spell. Unfortunately, the soul burst too fast. It was like death instantly made souls explode like frag grenades.

I clicked my tongue on my fourth attempt, capturing less than half of the souls.

I need one of those crystals… I thought, referring to the crystal balls at the crypt. Yet I didn't have one, so I pressed on.

After a dozen kills, I had a breakthrough. I learned that I activate the skill before the kill. Once I learned that, I experienced significant improvement.

It was messy work.

All of the soul force slammed into me, and sometimes, it just hovered around in large mounds. Then I had to organize it. The question was how.

The soul repelled itself until it was in the right place, so I spent half the day remembering how to do that.

Once it was over, I snuck back into the campsite like a cheating spouse.

Luckily, no one questioned me when I arrived. Felio just offered me food in the guard quarters, and they asked me how my day was. I told them it was good and enjoyed the night as usual.

The next morning I exploited Wood Wide Web to the fullest, repeating my training, knowing full well that Brindle wouldn't accept half-assed bullshit. So I trained and trained and trained that day, then did the same for two weeks in the blistering cold, in blighted snowstorms and poison gusts, doing it over and over until the souls I stole from second-evolution beasts created perfect spheres that snapped together.

Nice, I thought as I sent Brindle a message.

"Complete."

During this two-week period, I packed second-evolution meat back to the camp and cleaned it. Felio, Aiden, and the guards were getting much stronger and could likely handle third-evolution meat. Yet no one particularly cared—they were just tired of dried meat stew. It was nice and I prepared to spend a few days after completing my task indoors, but I got a message from Brindle that night. It read:

"Capture the soul of a third evolution beast."

I dropped my spoon in my stew when I read that, and Felio turned to me quickly. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Tribute," I said. "Well, not really tribute. Elana just wants me to find these damn snow flowers, and it's getting really annoying."

"Oh, so that's where you're going?" Felio asked. Stay tuned to My Virtual Library Empire

"Yeah," I said hesitantly.

Aiden smiled slightly.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just…" His eyes drifted up. "The Claustra have this rule: never tell half-truths when you can just keep silent. You're sneaking off—we get it. No one's questioning it, so just keep mum."

I smiled wryly. "Elana really is giving me tasks."

Cassain studied Aiden, who studied me. He furrowed his brow as if he was surprised that he was wrong, or at least half wrong, and then he said:

"Well, share or keep secrets. Pick one."

"Then I'll keep secrets," I said. "I don't want anyone running after me."

"Like we would," he said. "You know how cold out there it is?"

"I do." I smiled grimly, yet thankful for the advice.

Felio paused hesitantly and then said:

"Is it dangerous?"

"Is what dangerous?" I asked.

"Finding those snow flowers?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's some bullshit. I already searched south—now I need to go north."

Everyone understood the implications, but they didn't try to stop me.

The next day, Kline and I traveled deep into the north, where we started finding third-evolution beasts. We were still stronger—but they were incomparably stronger than the other foes we had been facing—and the environment was deadly. At one point, a boorish creature with massive tusks and huge nostrils used wind magic to send a blinding wall of blighted snow at me. Thankfully, I managed to close my eyes in time, but I didn't even get to take its soul because my entire face had swollen up, and I couldn't see out of the puffiness.

I drank Diktyo water, but there wasn't enough on hand, so I had to take my chances with the Diktyo River. When I got there, I dunked my head in the river, and low and behold, foreign souls tried to take over my body. I had a strong enough core not to get corrupted, but underwater, Yakana's familiar force called out to me. He spoke simply:

"Get out of the river."

I did. It took me a few hours of drying off with Dessicate and warming up by a fire before I could convince myself to fight on, but I did.

The battles were faster—more vicious. Kline and I could move faster than the jackals and cats and sprinters, and after my recent power-up, third-evolution beasts might as well have been second evolutions under Moxle Dilation. They moved slow, and I moved fast, cutting through them with intense mana sharpening.

Capturing a third evolution soul was incomparably more difficult than a second evolution soul. It had more pieces that were locked together in complex networks. It was like every soul piece was a twelve-sided die from Dungeons and Dragons, and it fit together with thousands of other dice. It was a puzzle and it was frustratingly difficult to do.

I failed a lot—and it felt wasteful.

We brought one beast home a night like clockwork, but most was still going to waste. So, we ended up cleansing the meat and leaving it for the beasts.

If there were fewer beasts in the forest, I could at least make them stronger. Not just to protect the forest—but as a future investment in my strength when I later ate them.

This wasn't about survival. It was about desperation—a fight to get stronger and protect the forest. So, I did what I had to do and gave back where I could. Then, I went home in the evenings, bringing home fresh meat to Felio and friends. By that point, they were eating third-evolution meat in small quantities, and while it was intense, they were flushed with vitality and excitement. It was nice. I felt like a breadwinner, and Felio was my country wife, with the way she treated me.

We moved on.

I made a breakthrough in the midwinter. The beasts were getting stronger since I was feeding them, but I was improving as well. With every kill, I was inching toward soul stasis—the point where souls reconnect and stabilize—before I broke off. I was using Moxle Dilation with my new Mental Shielding techniques to block out the world as I did it. It was slow yet steady. Just a few more.

And then I broke through. One day, I just blinked and found myself staring at my first static third-evolution soul. Two days later, I was able to do it consistently and that's when I knew that I had succeeded.

I messaged Brindle:

"Done."

I got a message not five minutes later. It read:

"Collect Diktyo Water in a jar. Then, capture the soul into the water in the same way you did the crystal ball. Collect three third-evolution souls."

I suddenly got an eerie premonition about what was happening. He wants me to save it…

I didn't want to get Felio involved in my soulmancy, but my tribute, patron, and forest were on the line. Besides, I brought her in despite knowing the grieves would get involved sooner or later. So I was guilty on that front already. Right? I wasn't convinced by my justification, but I followed his instructions, filling a preservation chamber with fresh Diktyo water and then going on a hunt.

It took three days, fifty miles of travel, and eleven beasts to get ten full souls into the chamber, but I finished.

That's when I got a message that was far worse than I was even expecting. It read:

"Fill your bath with Diktyo water and one liter of your elixir. Assimilate the souls into the water and call for Yakana. If he deems you worthy, he will aid you."

I read it a few more times. "So you're not going to help me?" I cried. I couldn't believe it. I paced back and forth in the snow, causing Kline's eyes to glide back and forward as he kept an eye on me.

"Okay, let's recap: since I can't contact Yakana through the river, I'm going to create my own river with river water and casually throw the souls of the angry animals I just murdered into the water. Then, I'm gonna fight off their attempts to take over my soul, hoping Yakana will show up. And I'm going to do this at camp, in an open and sketchy display of soulmancy, all while I try to absorb a liter of this shit? I'm going to die from dehydration!"

I ran my fingers through my hair.

"I can block people out, sure, but what if I start dying. What if they can't…"

I stopped. There was no sense in getting flustered.

So I calmed down, took three large breaths—and screamed.

I was fifteen miles from camp so no one was there to listen except the falling snow and howling wind. I then grunted and got onto Kline's back, making a strategy for the way home.

I didn't have a good one when I arrived—just a backpack full of souls, which I was afraid reeked like marijuana. I had an image that Mommy Cassain was going to find it and turn me into the grieves.

Naturally, she wouldn't do that—and couldn't do that—but still. It didn't change the shame. I felt like a drug mule at an airport, and it showed in the way that I spoke.

"So?" Cassain said at dinner. "Did you find it today?"

"Uh… what?" I looked at her. "Find what?"

She eyed me suspiciously. "The snow flower."

"Huh? Oh… no. Why would you think that?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Because it's obvious something happened."

Fuck, I thought.

"Is everything alright?" Felio asked.

"Uh… yeah," I said quickly. "I'm just a bit rattled, is all. I had a big battle today. A bad one."

Felio's eyes flickered worriedly. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Around here?" Asail asked, looking around nervously.

I put up my hands when I realized people were concerned. "No, it was twenty miles north on the river. But it was pretty nasty. It used wind magic to blanket us in blighted snow, and my whole body swelled up. I had to jump into the Diktyo, but since I have a soul core, hundreds of beasts tried to claw their way into my soul. It was like diving into the pits of hell."

Cassain and the guards studied my expression and realized I wasn't lying.

Thank God I had a story… I thought. I looked for Aiden to see if he was calling bullshit, but he wasn't in my room. Thank God.

The fire pit crackled.

"Where's Aiden?" I asked nervously. In my panicked state, I was expecting her to say, He went looking for you today just because, you know, I was guilty of some planet-destroying shit and assumed the very worst, but Felio just smiled weakly.

"He's in his room," she said. "He thinks you need space, so he's giving it to you."

"Oh… well, that's… kinda true?" I sighed in relief. "It's actually considerate. There's something about the opposite sex that makes you… I don't know. Try harder? That's a bad term because I'm not trying to do anything. I think we're just evolutionarily primed to…" I paused when I saw their smirking faces. "What? It's not like that."

It actually wasn't, but the awkward atmosphere indicated that I couldn't talk my way out of it, so I quickly changed the subject.

"Anyway, I'm taking a break," I said. "It's been a month or so, so I think I'm ready to take the elixir. I'll be doing it tomorrow."

Felix and the guards' smiles disappeared.

"Understood," Cassain said. "What time?"

"Before light."

"Okay. We'll be ready."

An icy tingle dripped down my back.

"Wait… what? Ready for what?"

"Watching over you," Felio said. And that's when I knew things would get complicated. And I had no way of knowing how complicated this ritual would actually become.