«Soul Info»
Aight, so first, I shall delve into some information about the soul, it's relation to mana, emotions, experience, memories, etc. I figured I'd do this before we start kicking off with the quest so the flow wouldn't be interrupted since Cain's next batch of experiments focus around the soul.
If I had waited until after Cain's experiments, most readers would be confused since he only grasps at bits and fragments at a time, not to mention the complexity of this subject. Also, you need about a chapter's worth of brain cells to process this boi. If you've read the discussion on the discord, just skim through this boi for parts I added.
Now for the details…
The Creator, basically the Christian God that yeeted everything into existence, made a bunch of souls then gave very few higher gods the ability to do the same.
Brief overview of the gods/desses:
They are split into lower, higher, and then the Creator that made them. There are some fake gods that are born from belief and not from the Creator, basically the ones from myths. The fake gods' powers rely on how many people believe in them, if everyone forgets them, they disappear. Because of this, there are only a few fake gods or goddesses that are higher gods in terms of power.
For the numbers, higher gods have a soul power of about a trillion on average. Lower gods have everything from 500 million up to there, demigods are from about 100 mill to 500 mill. There's a complicated process that needs to be done in order to become a demigod and promote from demigod to lower god other than just increasing soul power.
Back to the soul…
Experience is recorded in the soul, emotions are formed with the aid of this experience and a sliver of the will of said soul, and these two impact and evolve the will of the soul. W/o the soul, there's not many ways for the will to evolve. Mana is controlled with the will, and the amount is determined by the strength of the soul and will.
Usually the soul and the will are the same strength, because they grow alongside each other. In cases where one is stronger than the other, the strongest side can be consumed to make up for the lacking bits of the weaker side. It'll result in slight injury of the strongest side.
Think of it as consuming muscles or fat due to starvation to produce energy. The fat or muscles are consumed, yet energy is produced. If you want it back, you've got to put the effort to get it back (although fat is the exception unless you feel like becoming a ball).
For soulless creatures and their existence…
There are soulless creatures out there. Unless they're possessed by something (demon or angel) then they'll behave just like a normal boi of their species. Except there is no afterlife for them and they can't feel emotions. The soul also records memory (think about reincarnation w/memories intact) but it's almost always wiped before reincarnation and the memories stored are buried deeper than a repressed memory.
And they won't really have much of a will (thus easy possession).
Think of the emotion and soul correlation like this:
Without the soul, emotions will just remain as chemical reactions and won't really impact much. W/ the soul, they change the person's mindset, thus influencing their will, which either tempers it or destroys it.
Technical version:
The soul is the medium the emotions use to cross the meta-physical boundary and influence other meta-physical attributes like the will. Without it, emotions will just remain physical, i.e. chemical reactions.
Now for what happens to souls after death…
First, what happens to them if the body is revived? (e.g. Cain blowing up Hunter's head and restoring it)
It depends if it's done fast enough before it gets yeeted by the reapers, or in other words, dissipates. There's also the matter of if it's their time or not (i.e. written in the book of life and death). There are also some cases where a god/goddess can directly snatch a soul even if the body is perfectly fine. (can only be done if it experiences near death though).
Basically if the soul dissipates for some reason before the biological vessel is fixed, then it won't go back. Any damage to the vessel weakens the bond between it and the soul, but nothing truly major will happen until the near death point.
Whether or not it is their time, dictates how fast the reapers are sent. It's like expecting a crime and lying in wait vs reacting to a spontaneous one.
…that should be all. I'll answer any questions about this outside of the event, in other words, they won't count towards it and I'll answer them immediately.
Small tidbit: You don't have to worry about this turning into a cliche cultivation thing where the mc just starts killing gods for no reason. Nah, our boi actually brefriends one, makes one unable to stop using her powers of foresight to read next chapter, and gives internet access to another. She ends up becoming a shut-in because of it.
It's not really a spoiler because by the time we get there, there's a good chance you'll forget I even said this. Heck, I might even forget I wrote it here.
«Announcement»
Unfortunately I must take tomorrow and next week off to get ready to move and settled in my job. Chances are, the week after will also need to be taken off to get used to my job and new time schedule. I'll update you guys on the release time after I come back from my break, expect it to be 2 weeks, but hope for 1.
Good news though, I'll be using my free time to draw the sexy Dresil that was voted on in the discord. It'll be on both sites and in the discord for easy access.
«Event»
Aight, so now the event. Comment whatever questions you guys have, and I'll answer the most liked one on each paragraph (designated below). Please refrain from posting your question on more than 2 out of the 3 slots to give others a chance.
The questions can be anything about the story, from the next plot, to the new waifu's description, to what Cain's neighbors were doing on his 11th day there. They could also be about future characters, a person's likes or dislikes, or even inspiration/motivation of the boi. Literally anything.
I'll check the bois after a month as of this release date then answer them in the chapter at that time (with screenshots of the questions) and in the discord. I'll also post the other site's questions and comments when I answer this one.
Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot 3