Chapter 5

  Slowly my eyes began to flutter open and as they began to take in the forest canopy that spread out above where I had landed, an ache that encompassed my whole body hit all at once.

  Groaning I began to pull myself off the ground. It should come as no surprise that after falling to my near death my whole body would be bruised and sore from impacting several tree branches and the hard ground.

  As I finally pulled myself to a standing position, I dusted the debris from said fall off my clothes. It was really a futile attempt as my clothes were dirty and ripped in several places. Hopefully, I will be able to hide this from mother otherwise she will hound me with questions about what I was getting up to.

  Looking around I noticed the barest hint of the sun beginning to peak over the tops of the trees and shine through the morning fog. It appeared I was unconscious for the entire evening. I should be thankful that a monster or wild animal did not find me and mistake me for an easy meal.

  Abruptly, I heard a voice ring out inside my head and I immediately recognized the voice as being Adam’s. “So, this is the Nigh Glen Forest.” A little startled by the voice I replied out loud, “Can you see what I am seeing?” “Sure can! And believe you me it is very disorientating to be seeing things through someone else’s eyes.” Adam replied in a chipper tone.

  Thinking to myself that I would probably look like a crazy person if I was constantly speaking to someone no one else knew was there, I had a thought. “Can you hear me talking in this way?” Adam’s answer to my question was immediate, “Yes! I hear you loud and clear.” That was a relief, it seems that we could communicate with only our thoughts which would help me converse with Adam without looking suspicious.

  Adam then chimed in again with a question, “Hey, can bring up your status board? I am curious to see if the information we gleamed while in the void transfers to the physical world or if it changes completely.” Being a little curious about it myself after the point was made, I spoke in my head Status.

  Name: Callum Luxeria (Adam)

  Age: 16 (Soul Age: 25)

  Skill: Dual Soul (Soul Knight & Grand Sage)

  Sub-Skills:

  Callum- Soul Slash, Soul Shield, Soul Blast, Spectral Sight

  Adam- Mana Manipulation, Mana Perception, Grand Elemental Magic, Scholar’s Eye, Spell Manipulation

  Str: 15

  Agl: 18

  Dex: 18

  Mana: 30

  Int: 25

  Wis: 25

  Soul: 40

  Seeing the new status board in front of my eyes made me both happy and a little nervous. What would others think if they saw this unusual Skill and information that made no sense. I mean, a person is not supposed to have two skills, two sets of Sub-Skills or two names to them.

  Just as I my thoughts were about to race out of control Adam spoke up in my head. “I can feel the distress your having about the information portrayed there. Just calm down and think. Is there any way for others to see your status unless you specifically show them?”

  Adam made quite a bit of sense. As far as I was aware the only ways for another person to see your status was for you to willingly show them, when you placed your hands on the Registration Stone at the Adventurers Guild, or if someone had the very rare skill Scholar’s Eye.

  Wait… Adam has that skill. I realized abruptly.

  With Scholar’s Eye Adam could spy on anyone’s skills and stats without them knowing. Keeping the two of us always at an advantage to others. Adam could even use the skill to analyze monsters and know what they are cable of before engaging them in battle.

  A smile began to stretch across my face as I realized just what a tremendous gift my ‘near-death’ experience and, subsequent, ‘re-awakening,’ was.

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  Calming myself down before I got ahead of myself, I made a silent promise to myself to always keep a level head and not get full of myself. Father was never short of stories of adventurers who thought their ‘supposedly infallible’ skills could get them out of any trouble. Only for them realize to late that, that was not the case and end up dead through their carelessness.

  After all that internal processing I quickly made my way back through the forest to reach the backyard of my house and started climbing the trellis up to my window.

  After I reached the top of the trellis, I carefully leaned my upper body over to the window and slowly raised it open. Once it was open enough, I placed both hands on the window ledge and swung the rest of my body over. From there it was a simple matter to haul my body over the ledge and into my room.

  After I was inside, I lowered the window as slowly as I opened it and then locked it to complete the illusion that nothing was amiss. I quickly peeled off my dirty and torn clothes and buried them in my closet with the hope that they would remain undisturbed and undiscovered by mother.

  Throwing on a clean set of clothes I then used the wash basin and towel on my dresser as an impromptu bath to scrub the remainder of the dirt from my night in the forest off any area that would be readily seen by my parents.

  Making my way downstairs I could hear movement in the kitchen and knew immediately that mother was awake. As I walked into the kitchen mother saw me enter and said, “Oh… sweety, I didn’t think you would be up this early.” She said in slightly surprised tone of voice.

  I just rubbed the back of my head and replied in slightly nervous tone of voice, “Yeah… I couldn’t really sleep last night so I ended up waking up earlier than usual.” Mother just smiled and said, “That’s okay, it just means you will have to wait a bit for breakfast as I just got started.”

  Smiling I replied, “Here, let me help since I am up.” “Thanks, sweety, that would really be appreciated.” Mother answered in kind. I figured helping mother out would help me get my thoughts in order about what to do with my new reality and create the illusion that all was normal.

  As I went through the motions of helping mother, I heard a familiar voice speak up, “Hey, Callum, what are you thinking about doing with the new situation that you and I find ourselves in?”

  I had been thinking about this as I carried out my tasks for mother and had finally come up with a starting point for Adam and myself. Mentally, I replied, “You and I do not have enough information to make an informed decision at this time. What we need to do is find out if there has been anyone else who has experienced what we have or at the very least find some information regarding souls and how the new Soul stat plays into how you and I conduct ourselves within our new reality.”

  “Plus, you have the [Grand Sage] Skill which means the more spell guides we can get our hands on, the more you will be able to start practicing magic and your Mana Manipulation skill.”

  “[Grand Sage] is a highly coveted Skill because it allows its wielder to master many types of magic and the Sub-Skill they awaken with, states what spells will be the most powerful when they to cast.”

  I could get the general feeling of mulling over and then acceptance before Adam said, “Ok, I am with you on this plan of action, but where can we start with this information gathering quest.”

  Not knowing why, Adam phrased his response like that, I decide to ignore it and mentally answered, “We will start at the Adventurers Guild. They have an extensive number of records and books that is open for all to view. They also have numerous spell guides that are also able to be viewed by the public.”

  A quick response from Adam soon followed, “Wait… I can understand records and other assorted books being okay to be accessed by the general populace, but why would spell guides also fall into that category when they could be misused?”

  Understanding Adam’s concern, I calmly said. “Because, those with skills that can understand and utilize spell guides are uncommon. Additionally, it was decreed long ago that restriction of magical knowledge could harm those without an influential background.”

  “As was the case of the pauper mage who came into existence before this decree and was only discovered to have a great talent for the magical arts much later in their life. It was said that if they had access to magical knowledge earlier in life, their power could have been even greater.”

  Adam did not say anything in response, but I got the feeling that he understood and was testing if he could manipulate his emotions across our link to say as such.

  At this point in my internal conversation with Adam, mother began tapping on my left shoulder before asking of me, “Are you okay sweety? You have been awfully quite for a while now.”

  Putting on smile and pulling my thoughts away from my internal conversation with Adam, I replied, “Yeah… I’m fine… I was just thinking about what I was going to do today after breakfast.”

  Nodding her head in acceptance, mother walked back over to the stove to continue cooking while I assisted prepping the food before handing it off to her.

  After breakfast father asked if I wanted to have another sparring session this morning. I politely declined and explained that I was going to the Adventurers Guild today to do some research. It was not the first time I had done something like this, so it was not a surprise to either mother or father and they both agreed without any resistance.

  As mother went to her workshop to begin her work for the day and father left the house to report to the City Watch, I quickly went to my room to grab my cloak and bag that contained a notebook and writing instrument before then making my way to the front of the house.

  As I walked towards the store area, I noticed mother already hard at work in her workshop just off to the side before entering the main store area. She was stirring a blueish green mixture which I had some inclination as to what kind of potion she was preparing. I Stopped for a brief second to watch the process before then continuing to the store proper.

  I pulled the curtain aside that separated the workshop and house from the store and then proceeded to make my way around the store counter. In front of me stretched a few shelves stocked with more common potions and products that did everything from heal small abrasions, to special herb mixtures one could make a tea out of to help them sleep at night.

  Behind the counter and in the workshop were the more valuable concoctions. Mana potions and High Healing potions; both of which were extremely difficult to produce and thus too risky to leave within reach of the customers who came in.

  As I made my way to the front door of the shop, I could hear my mother yell from within her workshop, “Callum, on your way out could you please unlock the storefront and put the open sign out in front of the steps? Thank you.”

  Not even thinking about the tasks mother asked of me, I unlocked the store and grabbed the A-frame open sign from next to the front door. And as I opened the door a small bell over it could be heard chiming in response to the movement. Exiting the store, I then descended the stairs out front before placing the sign off to the side of the entranceway so as not to obstruct it.

  With the chore finished I repositioned my bag over my shoulder and began to walk down the cobblestone street towards the Adventurers Guild.