It took about another half hour to reach the exit of the cavern once more, as he did, he saw a familiar silver animal floating in the air patiently, it wasn't long before their eyes locked, and the spirit came flying over to Seth.
("So, you're fine! I knew you were alive since I'm still here but since that black aura receded, I couldn't help but worry")
"Yeah, sorry, everything went flop sided before I even did anything, so it was out of my control"
("What happened? I couldn't enter earlier because of the corruption but it probably could have after the aura disappeared, I was going to follow but then a large pressure descended on me, and I couldn't move and inch for days! Followed by tremors and all the sorts…")
"Wait, did you just say days? I was in there for days? How many?!" Seth was slightly surprised, he only felt he was gone for a little more than an hour max.
("I think it was about 3 or 4? It's hard to keep track of time when there's no day or night") Silva scratched his head with his tiny paw, Spirits usually don't keep track of time, but Silva has started to once more after being summoned since it can be useful.
"To think it was that long…" He thought about it for a second and concluded a lot of time must have passed whilst he was having that 'vision'.
("So, what happened?") Silva was rather eager to hear, the black aura was somewhat of an enigma to him so although he held a lot of worry about it, he was also interested.
"Honestly, I'm not too clear for myself" Seth said before he gave Silva an overview of what happened, he vividly described the room with the sword and pillars, the vision he had along with the evolution and changes that occurred with them.
Silva listened attentively but even his facial expression experienced a range of changes when he was doing so.
("Good god what have you gotten yourself in to? Based on the description of that place it was obviously some sort of sealing shrine, and based on the scale it was either placed by a large-scale organisation or even something greater")
"Yeah, I figured the same, but I really didn't expect for it to collapse from me touching it"
("It's likely that it was long corroded or such by the thing inside and when you touched it, it used you as a catalyst as a chance to break out; As for the vision you saw it's certainly interesting, but I can't really say much about it without understanding what the black thing was")
"That's right, I wanted to ask you something since you'll probably know more about it; Both my blessings changed slightly and I even got a description that mentioned something like they're 'fragments', do you know what it means?"
Hearing this Silva's eyes narrowed before he breathed out in a long sigh, Seth knew that the spirit knew something from this gesture, but he still waited for the spirit to speak.
"I do have a good idea, but I will not tell you"
"Why?" 'If he knows why not tell him, it's not like the world will collapse if he did right?' Seth thought.
("There are a few reasons but the main one is simple; you don't need to know")
"But-"
("No "Buts", It's something you don't need any knowledge about right now and even if you did there's nothing you could do with it, it would just cause you to have needless thoughts") Silva interrupted and shot him down before he could argue.
Although Seth was slightly ticked off, he felt that Silva wouldn't relent and gave up with a "Fine, whatever then"
"Anyway, the main problem has been dealt with, the corruption to the ley-lines is gone so we should return" Seth said, changing the topic.
("Very true, one more thing; You evolved, correct? Have you used spirit vision to give yourself a good look?")
"Huh? No… I haven't really had the time with everything else to think about that"
("You should do so; you'll see something interesting")
Seth activated spirit vision and took a good look at his body, he immediately noticed a difference although it was minute, his silver energy still flowed like calm river yet at the edges where it peaked or such it seemed to come alive and spike outwards as if trying to grasp something, the change bewildered Seth because of his little knowledge about spirit energy.
("You really should learn to have spirit vision active at all times, it's useful for a lot of things; Anyway, your flow of spirit energy has changed due to your undergoing of an evolution")
"What does it mean though?"
("The spirit exists between body and soul, it also exists as a representation of both, normally humans spirit flow will remain the standard calm flow type throughout their lives, but strong warriors or people extremely skilled in their crafts can experience a change that will visually link them to their skills, when this happens a qualitive change is formed and the energy becomes more inclined towards that type of action")
'I honestly have no idea what he's talking about, qualitive change?'
"So like, what kind of changes?" Seth questioned, completely lost.
("Hm, well this is a little early but since you're a monster you have the advantage of experiencing this much faster than a human would, at least we have an example to use, it's the [Spirit Sword] ability")
The spirit sword was something Seth only learned recently, its display of killing an enemy when completely ignoring their armour showed its worth ignoring its other effects.
("Your aura is showing a change that includes sharp extremities, this signifies your flow is edging more on the offensive side thus when using spirit skills, the power of offensive skills, more inclined towards blades or spikes in your case, will be amplified")
"Isn't that great?" Seth was happy about that, he only used it once yet if it was stronger, it would become an unstoppable asset, but then he thought of the caveat of the increase and his excitement dropped.
("Seems you've realised it, good you're learning already; More power means more of a cost! Your evolution has progressed your spirit flows growth, yet the vessel hasn't grown anywhere near as much, your soul and body need to grow, increasing the capacity of spirit energy or you'll run dry after using it once at this rate.")
"The evolution didn't help at all?" Seth gave a pained look with his glowing eyes and his shoulder bones dropped.
("It did, but it wasn't enough, normally a monster wouldn't grow this fast, and they'd built up more of a foundation to support their flow change, the same with humans they would have spent a lot of time training which exists as their own foundation")
"So, I just need to eat a lot of strong cores? Levelling up as well but it would be a disaster if I evolved again, right?"
("Much more so than you could imagine, I guess you're thinking you'd just be stuck without spirit skills even longer if that happened right? Wrong, your flow is a river while your body is the container while the soul is the source, while strengthening your soul will increase the flow, if the body isn't strong enough it will shatter, ruining the balance and outright killing you!")
Seth imitated sucking in cold air as he felt his core tighten in fear, the situation was much worse than he thought, and he immediately put thoughts of levelling even more out of the way if he could avoid it.
("Now you know, you need to act with caution and strengthen the trinity together")
Seth had to think hard to make a plan of action now; From what he's concluded vitality is equivalent to strengthening the spirit, but from what he just learned it wasn't as straightforward as that, most likely vitality was equivalent to the strength of ones soul, so strengthening that would be a good step forward, the only problem was body, at first he would link that also to vitality, but that would be too easy; Strength would be his next guess but it didn't feel that it would align properly.
'It must be stamina!' He concluded, Stamina is a vague stat, yet it also signifies the limit of the body's activity, that would tie in directly with the concept of a 'vessel' he was just taught about.
[User cognitive change recognised – Updating interface]
"Oh god, now what?"
Seth felt a sense of defeat with this system, it wasn't as straightforward as a game system would be rather it was vague and kept changing at moment's notice, he really didn't feel it was reliable.
He brought up his stats and noticed the change immediately.
[ Name – Seth
Race – Undead [Skeletal Ravager]
Level – 25 (18 points)
Health – 100%
Mana – 100%
Stamina – 100% (29)
Current Status - Normal
Titles: Missionary
Stats:
Strength – 45
Perception – 20
Intelligence – 25
Soul Strength - 32
Agility – 21
Dexterity – 27
Mana – 93 (??)
"Well at least I have an actual quantity of stamina now…"
'But vitality directly changed to soul strength? I thought they were linked, not exactly the same thing, weird'
At the very least his answers to the body and soul seemed to be given to him for now.