"Spirit magic huh… never heard of it, I did attempt to dabble in magic back when I started adventuring but it was a pain in the ass, it takes a long time to learn or create a spell and even then, they take ages to cast due to the chants, so I never liked them, it's easier to just charge in and stab something to death"
Seth sat on a large rock outside the felled church, since he didn't feel too rushed, and he had been traveling for days on end he decided to try figure out what the title gave him before moving on.
'Maybe I can get more information from the system? If I focus on the term in the title description…'
[Spirit Magic – A unique type of magic that allows one to witness and manipulate the spirit of the world and other beings]
"Bingo!"
'But that does sound interesting, from what I know of magic it's channelling the worlds mana through your body to create or manipulate the surrounding elements, considering I was granted this from a title given by the statue maybe this is vastly different?'
'For magic the first thing you'd need to do is sense the mana itself, mana exists everywhere, and your body passively absorbs it then gives it your own energy signature so you can use it, I already have [Mana Vision] so I can see if I focus just a little'
His mind went tranquil as he felt a switch turned on in his mind, his vision washed with multiple shades of transparent blue, the air itself was slightly tinted and the rocks, debris and small amounts of vegetation let off a tiny glow, when he took a look at himself a blue flare surrounded his body gently flickering.
'Just as I remembered, now for 'Spirit Magic' I guess I would need to sense the worlds 'Spirit' though I have no idea what that means, is it something like a soul?'
He crossed his legs and placed his hands lax on his exposed kneecaps like a sage so he could focus.
'For mana it was like trying to feel the wind crossing over your skin, hm? Yeah, this feels weird, my mana is flaring up from my core rather than my entire body back when I was human, now that I think about it maybe I should take a closer look'
"It should be like this…"
He manipulated the flare surrounding his body and formed it into a circular ball that floated in his hand.
[Skill Learned – Far-Sight]
[Far Sight – Creates an oculus linked with the user's mana granting an external source of vision]
"Great! I couldn't do it when I was human but now that I use mana for sight in the first place, I felt like I could do it, since its part of my innate abilities it doesn't need chanting either!"
'Now let's take a look'
The small oculus floated and positioned itself inside his ribcage giving Seth a good view of his mana core.
'Wow, I could barely see it from above, but this certainly looks interesting, unlike other cores I've seen which are usually a monotone colour mine is almost pure white with multiple colours swirling inside, it almost looks like a gem'
…
"It really is weird…"
'Seeing this core, it's my entire self the skeleton is just what holds it and is manipulated by it I wonder If I can learn about spirit from observing it'
His mind went solely to focusing on his core, his body completely unmoving, if not for the flickering light in his eyes and the glow from his chest he could easily be mistaken for another corpse on the side of the road.
Time went by, seconds, minutes, hours and when nearly a days' worth of silence went movement was seen.
"There!"
He saw it, as his conscious grasped on to that tiny thread it soon spread and all of a sudden, his view was turned a bright silver as he witnessed 'spirit' for the first time.
[Skill Learned – Spirit Sense]
While the message went off in his head, Seth couldn't help but be mesmerised by the sight he was seeing, his body was seemingly coated in a silver film that steadily pulsed and shifted, he was looking at his life itself; His gaze ran over his surroundings and saw something much different from mana vision, silver strands floated through the air seemingly following a route before sinking in to the ground in an ever lasting pattern while all the vegetation was also covered in a much more transparent membrane.
'This is spirit? How beautiful, it resembles a pure silver version of the northern lights an aura that flows with grace throughout the world, the strands, are they the planets spirit?'
"But… what do I do with it?"
He tried to focus on the silver aura covering him and move it, but it didn't budge a single inch.
'Hmm, for magic, sensing mana was just the first step, you needed to visualise the feat you wanted to perform and you would construct a magic circle based on that sense, the most basic magic would use a single layered circle and performed one action, for example creating fire would be considered tier 1, each tier of magic adds another circle and another action, for example turning fire in to a firebolt spell you'd need to add directional motion to the fire resulting in a tier 2 spell, one circle creating the fire another adding the motion'
'Chants were used in this process to help the user visualise the outcome, one verse for each tier, but some more advance mages could short or straight out omit them'
'But for spirit magic…'
"What should I do?"
He stared at the hand coated in the aura for a while thinking in his head at what he could achieve with it, he thought back to the words that were said to him when he obtained the title.
"I think it was 'it's useful for interacting with the spirits of others and by extension the world of spirits', right? Interacting with the spirits of others… I don't really know what that could achieve since I don't get what spirit is really in the first place, but the world of spirits? Is that some sort of parallel world or some shit? Or is it just a name for something else…"
As he pondered suddenly his eyes lit up as if he had an epiphany, however it wasn't a conscious action as he hands reached out and the aura on it steadily fluctuated, as he did some of the silver strands that danced through the air suddenly but gently wrapped itself around his hand gently caressing it before merging with it.
He felt as he became one with the world, as if having a pleasant conversation with everything around him; Seth felt full of energy and incredibly lightheaded as the wisps of light conveyed everything and more to him.
He could follow the stream and under the ground getting a true sense of his surroundings, he flew along without a care in the world traversing more of the ravine than he did in the last few days but he didn't care, he saw everything, further where he was going was a decrepit castle but he didn't care, he flew along the river of light all the way to the other end to see a dark aura engulfing something, again he overlooked that and just wanted to go higher, experience everything and enjoy this euphoric feeling, he could just live like this forever-
"-FUCK ME"
He woke up from the stupor in a panicked rage, sitting up he felt like he was covered in two tonnes of sweat.
His will had resisted it, if he hadn't his spirit would have been swept up in the worlds flow eventually becoming nothing.
'That's the last time I follow my instincts like that! I could have been killed; I definitely won't be doing that again unless I can control it somehow'
As his conscious calmed down some more messages sounded.
[Skill Learned – Spirit Merge]
[Skill Learned – Spirit Communication]
[Skill Learned – Spiritual Contract]
But he wasn't surprised in the least, these skills were what he had learned through his little 'experiment', as if the world had taught him, he knew exactly what each of them did.
"Spirit is the blood of the soul, without spirit the soul cannot connect to the physical world"
'And the world isn't an exception… except it doesn't have a mere soul, it has an entire world made of spirit'
'Why the hell did I get given something like this?! One wrong move and I'd be a goner!'
"Sigh… well what's done is done, what I'm more interested in now is the other two skills"
[Spirit Communication – Allows one to commune with the world of spirits calling upon kindred souls]
[Spiritual Contract – Creates a conditional bond between two beings' spirits]
He couldn't help but smile a little seeing them, they may not be the same, but they sound remarkably similar to summoning magic and pact magic, but the difference is unknown to him.
"Guess I'll give them a try!"
Without a second of doubt, he focused on his mind and his spiritual aura spiked, unlike the merge before as the silver strands passed over his body, they didn't merge but merely created a link, a link to the world of spirits, he felt an almost unlimited number of beings surrounding his conscious however soon they faded hundreds at a time until a single one remained.
"If it's like summoning magic then the summon should be compatible with the summoner, they don't have undead dragons or something in the spirit world, do they? I hope something cool pops up"