Prologue 4

The next thing Victor created was the body gates, each represented an aspect of his being. They were black gate tattoos spanning the top of his back. They were another neutral concept. These tattoos would help him in a variety of situations.

Victor constructed the body gate featuring a politician giving a speech behind a podium that representing his view on charisma. He viewed charisma as getting people to listen to what you had to say. This gate would later be strengthened by other people's charisma.

***

The Spokesman Gate of Charisma

'A tattoo designed to help project its creator's intentions'

Helps to convince others of the user's viewpoint

***

The body gate representing his will featured a wounded man running through muck. The purpose of this gate was to strengthen his will. This gate was strengthened by his will. The gate fed on itself which leads to greater heights, but if his will weakens or gods forbid break then so too will the tattoo.

***

The Unending Gate of Will

'A tattoo designed to urge its creator ever onwards'

Provides the user with the drive to continue as long as their will remains unbroken

***

Victor constructed the body gate representing his instincts. The gate featured an old woman whittling a piece of wood as it represented the instincts he wanted especially strengthened, the ones developed by practice and hard work. The purpose of this gate was meant to translate his theoretical knowledge into practical experience. This gate was strengthened by Mena's Record and his own life experience.

***

The Artisan Gate of Instincts

'A tattoo designed to translate theoretical to practical'

Uses theoretical knowledge to guide the user through tasks

***

The body gate representing the mind featured a fortress as that was what he deemed most critical. His soul would handle information storage and processing, so his mind was unneeded to handle those tasks. So, he decided to focus on eliminating a core weakness, his mind. This gate would strengthen the defense of his mind. This gate was strengthened by his excess psionic energy and the psionic energy of others.

***

The Fortress Gate of The Mind

'A tattoo designed to protect its creator's mind'

Protects the user's mind from all sources of manipulation or attack

***

Victor constructed a body gate featuring a vault that represented luck. This gate's image related to its purpose, to store his luck until he needed it. This had two advantages: misfortune would make him more careful and skillful as he would lack the protection luck provides and when he needed that protection it would be a bastion with its stored strength.

***

The Banker's Gate of Luck

'A tattoo designed to store its creator's luck until needed'

Stores the user's luck until it is needed

***

Victor constructed the last of the body gates that featured a hunter with his bow drawn. He used the various essences he collected: the sight of an eagle, the olfactory sense of a wolf, the hearing of a bat, the taste of a catfish that he found in a river, the night vision of a cat, and the infrared vision of a snake. This gate will strengthen in the future as he gets better sense essences.

***

The Hunter's Gate of The Senses

'A tattoo designed to improve its creator's senses'

Enhances the user's senses using extracted essences with its focus being on tracking

***

After the gates were done, he then constructed his next soul tattoo, One's Heart on One's Sleeve. Its purpose was to store heart emblems, a type of magic artifact that he created to fit with his theme. He used his own heart to craft the tattoo as it would truly solidify his heart theme as his last name was the only connection to it and was a weak one to boot. He could survive without one as the tattoo and theme would substitute for it.

***

One's Heart on One's Sleeve

'Most wear their hearts on their sleeves, I wear other's'

Stores and empowers heart emblems

***

The first of his heart emblems was a crimson heart held by white bone claw and its name was The Beastly Heart. It was fed by the heart blood of the various animals he caught in his traps. It would later be strengthened with more and better animal essences.

***

Beastly Heart

'The heart of a beast'

Grants beastly instincts

***

He then moved on to useful artifacts he will need in his adventures. As he was planning to utilize his newfound freedom to the fullest.

Victor extracted his shadow and pupils. This had two major side effects that made it costly thus more conceptually powerful. Losing his pupils costed him his sight but this was countered by his soul eyes as they did not require light to see, in fact he could "see" better now that the light was not hogging his attention. Losing his shadow costed him his protection against the sun, the sun's light would now score the flesh from his bones. This would be countered by the artifact he was planning to craft out of them.

He first divided his shadow into two different essences: a shadow elemental essence and an essence representing the aspects of a shadow that is always there for him.

He crafted an elemental armament, a pair of glasses, using the shadow elemental essence and his pupils. The resulting glasses were a pair of circular wireframe sunglasses with the lens being a twilight blue and sunset orange-stained glass twilight sky. The sunglasses empowered mana and concept weaving when it involves light, darkness, and the concept that bridges them, shadow. They would also protect him from the sun.

***

Twilight Glasses

Tier G

'A powerful artifact made by a soul weaver using his own pupils and shadow'

Enhances all magic related to the concepts of light, darkness, and shadow

***

He then crafted a knife out of the other part of his shadow and durability essences he previously created. The purpose of the knife was to be always there for him no matter the situation. As a result of the knife being so conceptually linked to him, he could always summon it to his hand.

***

Companion Knife

Tier G

'A reliable artifact made by a soul weaver using his own shadow'

A virtually indestructible knife that the user can always summon to his hand

***

These artifacts would strengthen in the future with Victor as his shadow and pupils were still conceptually linked with him. The removal of his pupils also cleared up his concept sight.

The next artifact was Bloody Clothes. He used blood collected from a deer he captured using his hunting trap traps.

***

Bloody Clothes

Tier 1

'The mark of a killer'

Enhances all magic related to the concept of blood

***

The armament was a glob of blood that could take the form of any set of clothes. The properties are unaffected by form, so pajamas and a suit of armor are equivalent. The greatest advantage and disadvantage of the artifact. The artifact would strengthen when supplied with better quality blood essence. The artifact did have the downside of only coming in shades of red. White and black were also options due to saturation.

He turned the artifact into a long sleeve white t-shirt, black jeans, and crimson running shoes.

Victor then created an artifact that will improve his survival chances out in the unforgiving world, The Hat of the Selfish. It was a black wide brimmed hat with a black chiffon screen. When it's hot outside it expels heat and when it's cold it absorbs heat. The hat cannot be shared with another though. Every life taken by its user's selfishness strengthens the artifact, it was currently tier 1. Every life taken by the heat adds a red crystal figure hanging from the brim. Every life taken by the cold adds an ice blue crystal figure hanging from the brim.

***

The Hat of the Selfish Survivor

Tier 1

'To put yourself above others in similar straits'

Protects the user from harsh temperatures

***

The day before he was set to leave the area, he ran into one of the rarest creatures in his old world, the devouring rat. The rat had a spatially expanded stomach allowing it to consume a theoretically infinite amount. They were one of the worst pests in his home reality as they never stopped consuming and growing. Its only disadvantage was that it's mana was a disordered mish mash of various mana types. As a result, it was always the weakest of its tier of organisms. Fortunately, this was a young one, as a result it had yet to gain momentum. A single stone spike was all that was needed to defeat it.

He gained a very rare and powerful essence from it, devouring. This allowed him to construct a very valuable soul tattoo that was on his wish list, The Essence Tree. Its purpose was to aid in extracting essence from various sources. It would also aid in the extraction of flaws and imperfections from his mana and body. The process by which this happens was he created what he called "essence fruits". They appeared as different colored fruit tattoos on the tattoo's branches. He then fed the fruits to the applicable artifacts.

***

The Essence Tree

'Enjoy the fruits of your labor'

Aids in the extraction of essences

Creates soul fruits

***

The tattoo had the appearance of black tree branches that spread across his body and interwove with his various other soul tattoos.

The fruits he was most often going to see were the black flaw fruit, the white with black lettering knowledge fruit, the pale blue soul fruit, and the various colored energy fruit. It would also provide extra protection against energy attacks.

After finishing the tattoo and resting the final night in his first base in this world, he donned his coat and then set out to explore this new world he found himself in.