Catacombs

Entering the Cathedral once more, I went straight to the art area and went to the first floor. The same instructor was there, rocking in his chair like last time. No one else was here again which was nice. He noticed that I was back and asked for his payment, and then gave me another sword. While it was still challenging to feel the energy, now that my soul stat was almost twice what it used to be, the energy seemed to be clearer this time. Every once in a while I would stand up and drink some conjured water and stretch. Stretching cleared the mind and made sitting in one spot bearable. After a few more hours I finally felt the same energy in my body as what was in the sword. While I say in my body, the energy felt disconnected from my body a bit. Seeing as how I had to raise the soul stat, I guessed that this was my soul. I tried drawing energy from my soul to use, but it was something I was unfamiliar with and very difficult. I eventually managed it though. Whenever I had done something like this in the past, be it using a type of magic or just learning mana absorption, the book in my pocket always showed it as a skill. Taking the book out to look at it showed me that I was correct. The skill lesser Soul force(Level 1) had been added. I continued trying to manipulate my soul's energy until I felt confident enough to try making an ink sword. However, I was quickly humbled. Even after trying until I was kicked out I wasn't able to manage it. When I went back to the Inn, Kevin was already asleep. After getting a meal I also went to sleep.

Earlier that day while Winter was doing his art class, I went to the shapeshifting class. Being level ten this time and having the shapeshifting skill, I was hopeful that I would be able to accomplish something this time. This time the teacher was sleeping in a chair. There was a bell on a desk so I rang it until he woke up. The teacher was a boisterous middle aged man. He was missing his left leg and most of his fingers, which was probably why he was teaching and not out leveling. "Oh, back again" he said loudly. "I'm level ten this time" "Good! Let's not waste any time then!" He exclaimed. Waving me over to him, I gave him my payment and in return he gave me a claw. "What's this?" I asked, "A goblin claw. It's a rare drop from the goblins, around 1 in 50. It's the perfect first material for starting to shapeshifting." He replied. After thinking for a second I asked "what does nadir mean?" He burst out laughing, "If you are asking because of the name of the skill it means the lowest, the lowest of lows, the worst!" he said, still laughing. "I also used to think it meant something but that's it" he said after stopping his laughter. Feeling a bit disappointed and not knowing what to say I just gestured at the claw and awaited instruction. "Everything has a path where lifeforce and mana used to flow while it was alive, for a goblins claw it's basically just a straight line, but they get so complicated that you couldn't even comprehend it, like fourth dimensional! so i've heard, anyway right now just put the claw in front of one of your fingers and try to integrate your lifeforce into the claw. At more advanced stages you can actually just shapeshift into things, but for now this is what shape shifting is!" After saying this the teacher waved me over to a corner to try it out. The only hard thing was controlling my mana flow. As soon as I arrived here I could feel and sense that there was something different about my body than back on earth. After seeing magic I figured that it was the power source of magic and I was right. I didn't figure out how to move the mana inside my body, but for some reason I was able to move a little bit into the claw. I was pretty sure that the skill helped with this. After inserting a small amount of mana into the claw, I realized that all I had to do was push mana a bit farther inside and that would be it. In total it took me like half an hour. Looking at my hand and seeing the claw attached was a bit strange. I got up and showed the teacher. After a bit of sputtering he whispered "How! It took me 3 months!" then looking smug he said "see if you can figure out how to take it off." he looked triumphant for some reason. I tried just pulling but it kinda hurt so I stopped and reassessed. If to attach it you had to put mana into it, taking it off should be just as simple. And it was. After retracting the mana I was able to pluck it off with no difficulty. I watched as the smile faded from his face and he just told me to leave because that was all he really taught, so I left. After leaving I decided to go to the forest and kill some goblins. If what the teacher said about the claws' drop rate was true, then I should get another claw soon. 10 goblins later and I got another claw. I messed around with the claws for a bit before heading back to town. Heading back to the inn, I pulled up the system and looked at my skills. My shapeshifting skill was now at level 3 and I had quite a few stat points and skill points. I was tired however, so I would decide what to do with them later, and I went to sleep.

When I woke up, Kevin was sitting in a corner. Upon noticing that I was awake he stood up and we headed to the brotherhood building. There was a small commotion near the request board so we went to check it out and there was a request that offered exp as a reward! And it wasn't a small amount. It offered 500 exp. Apparently some members of the brotherhood had gone missing in a certain catacombs. It was not uncommon for there to be lots of undead in catacombs because of the number of dead buried there. It was also not uncommon for people to go missing in them. This time however, it was a group of 13 that went missing. Such a large group of people around level 10 going missing in any area on this island was unheard of, so it made sense that such a large commotion was being made. Speaking quietly to me Kevin said "Hey, Let's go kill some goblins or something," thinking that we weren't up to the task of succeeding where a large group of people had failed. I, however, was very interested. "Hey" "what" "i'm going to the catacombs" I stated. I went up and took the request and gave it to the receptionist. To my surprise they let me take on the request myself. The Brotherhood does not usually let people take on requests that are likely far above their skill level by themselves, maybe it had to do with the exp reward?

Kevin really did not want to go. I could tell. He even threatened not to go and leave me by myself. To which I just said "so be it," and left. So Kevin begrudgingly ended up following me. I would have come back and dragged him with me if he didn't, but he did. On the way to the catacombs I practiced my 'art' the whole way, not making too much progress and using a quarter of my ink. I did feel closer to managing it however, and I enjoyed the new challenge.

The entrance to the catacombs was just a mossy stone doorway embedded in the ground with stairs leading down into its depths. Tombs lined the walls of the catacombs and the passageways were lit with blue lamps. They seemed to be powered by weaker mana accumulations. Some tombs were opened and there were bones lining the passageways, seemingly from fallen undead. The undead here were around level 7-10, but were not hard to take out. After about 20 minutes we had only come across around 2 undead. A large group of people had just cleaned the place out so it made sense. The only thing that did not make any sense was the fact that there was no trace of anyone that had been here recently, no new looking dirt on the floor, no dust being moved, no food or clothing bits. There was nothing! According to Kevin at least.