For the first day after my meeting with the two elves, I holed up in my room, only coming out for meals and hygiene.

  By the second day, I convinced myself that I was overreacting to the situation. Dragons weren't on the hunt for me, there was no alien parasite in the city, and there were no humans in the town who knew me and wanted me dead for insulting the crown or some other equally unlikely reason. I walked out of the inn, the hood on my cloak covering my face, and made my way to the market....until I made awkward eye contact with a random beastkin and both of us held our gaze long enough for me to see that their pupils dilated, at which point I speed-walked back to the inn, taking numerous side roads and alleys on the way, before I locked myself in my room and retreated into my space.

  ...It's possible that I have a paranoia problem.

  Maybe it was for the best that I just waited patiently in my room until the date of the meetup arrived. I got out of my space once I remembered the tracking bracelet Malin had given me, not wanting it to go haywire or malfunction as a result of being in my space, and landed in my room once more. I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes, letting my mind wander to try and distract myself. Some light meditation got me into the right mindset and I relaxed, thinking about everything and nothing. It took me some time to realize, but I had to make a major decision with regards to my life.

  How did I want to live it?

  Taming, controlling, and conquering everything and everyone I could that acted against me? Honestly...that wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. At least, once I had the power to back it up. I had no doubt that the Deity of Control was a formidable figure in his day, and he must have been capable of much more than simple taming.

  Or alternatively, I could use my growing Control abilities as an auxiliary tool, supporting and enhancing my magical skills. Even now, I could feel my essence-baptized body and my core were fully within my control. My body was responsive like never before, and I would go as far as to say that I was at peak physical performance. The only cloud in this silver lining was the prospect of one day having to form a mana-enhanced physique, something that, according to the Trove, would be a rigorous and delicate process.

  Speaking of the Trove, perhaps there were some things that I could learn now that I found myself with some free time? I would have to be cautious and keep my practice limited to my space, but simply learning about new possible techniques could expand my horizons, as they say. My mind dove into the Trove, the ocean of rudimentary information in the Seed hiding in my soul, and began perusing.

  The most common affinities of mana and 50 basic spell models for each one? That seemed worth checking out, as I could see how official spells should look compared to the academy's and my self-created versions.

  How to prevent unwanted, deliberate, or targeted teleportation? Apparently, I had to anchor my soul to the dimensional fabric of reality and...oh, it needed a spatial affinity to work, of course.

  The most dangerous organizations and gods in the cosmos? Hmm....I would need to read that eventually, but it wasn't exactly urgent.

  Necromancy! Oh, this looked promising! Spiritual containment field, mhm, death affinity helpful but not necessary, of course...hey! It actually used principles of domination instead of taming? Interesting, I should give that a try on the next vorander or parasite I come across.

  Introductory Exercises on Soul Strengthening? Oh yes, this was it. Maybe I could finally learn to make my soul impervious to pain one day.

  Learn to sense your soul. If one wishes to shed their mortal shell and achieve divinity, knowledge of the soul will be immensely useful. Each and every soul is unique, and while the callous merely see souls as expendable sources of energy, those with true vision know that souls are capable of far more than that.

  The first step to sensing your soul is to breathe in mana. Those with mana cores will find it easier, but all mana is stored in the soul even if it does pass through the body on its way in and out. Focus on the sensation of mana (for those starting out, using your natural affinities is recommended, or mana stones of the necessary element) entering through your body and settling in your soul. Repeat the process until the path, direction, and speed become familiar to you. By now, you should have a faint understanding of the size of your soul.

  After completing 100 initial repetitions, attempt to pull in mana using inlets besides your primary channel. As every person is unique, the number of openings differs, but you should attempt to do so using at least 10 different secondary openings, as it will increase your familiarity with your physical form. The more repetitions that are performed, the more your soul will be strengthened, although using the same opening or pathway for too long will give diminishing returns. For best results, associate each opening with a pathway and alternate between them after 20 repetitions.

  ...yeah, I got this.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Given what I knew about the similarities between essence and mana, there shouldn't have been any issues doing the exercise with essence, but out of caution, I limited my first attempt to the barest wisp of essence I could isolate, barely inhaling and feeling it enter my nose and travel down my throat, ignoring all my body's bones, muscles, and arteries to fall directly towards my core, where it promptly disappeared, absorbed by my core before I could sense any reaction from my soul.

  Trying again with a larger sample yielded much more clear results, as I sensed the essence enter my core, slightly filling it but with plenty of space left before the next step could be taken. I furrowed my brows, as my soul wasn't involved in the process at all. I tried again, using three different sizes of essence I could before arriving at a hard truth:

  Essence was incapable of strengthening my soul.

  Forget strengthening it, essence could barely enter it, which made no sense, as I had used it in my soul space to control the alien parasite that attacked me. Was essence just inherently worse compared to mana in this regard? I kept repeating the exercise with different variations until I fell asleep, but my efforts proved useless, as my soul remained in the same state it was in initially.

  After waking up and trying again for half the day, I had to give up on it and accept that this method of soul strengthening didn't work, or it wasn't compatible with essence. Regardless of which it was, I moved on and set about improving my newest affinities, referencing the articles in the Trove as I worked on basic spells for each one.

  When it came to the four basic elements, they each had their own unique quirks due to their nature, but I managed to form half-decent spells for each of them, though there were some exceptions. Fire Ball, Water Ball, and Earth Ball were simple enough, although wind required too much essence, compression, and time to form a ball. It just wasn't worth the hassle. In the same vein, Wind Blades and Water Blades, crescent moons of their element, were easy to form, while Fire Blades lost their cohesion after being launched, and earth resisted the shape of the spell altogether, reverting to a loose ball most of the time. Making a wall of each element was easy, and even usable in combat, as I had reduced the time to make them to one second. With a ball, wall, and blade form for each element, I moved on to my next element: lightning.

  Its projectile form of a bolt was more in line with its nature than a ball or blade, so I stuck with the Lightning Bolt as the main ranged attack. And though I practiced making a Lightning Wall, I couldn't foresee any use for it, unless I wanted to be safe from mosquitoes or other pesky insects. After playing around with raw lightning, limited to a few sparks in my hand, I remembered that, according to a decent amount of fictional works, lightning could be used as both a powerful offensive element, or as a utility and control type, paralyzing enemies with high voltages. So far I had only been using lightning offensively, so I began making progress on its other uses.

  I obviously couldn't train spells with such destructive potential in the close quarters of my inn room, so at night I went into my space to train, leaving my tracking bracelet on the bed as I did so. Every morning when I woke up, I put it on before cleaning up, just to get into the routine of it so I used up less time actively thinking about it.

  Finally, the expected day arrived, and a knock on the door, as well as my blood sense, alerted me to the presence of my...employers? Bosses? Coworkers? Well, whatever our relationship was, it was starting today. Malin and Elovere looked the same as they had a week ago, though Elovere had traded her travel-worn cloak and loose pants for something more form-fitting and...elegant.

  "Good morning...Rhaaj. It's good to see you again."

  "Likewise, my lady." I replied, exchanging head nods with Malin afterwards.

  "No please, none of that here, I beg you! You have no idea how stifling it is maintaining decorum and propriety all the time back home, especially when I have to attend court! This is one of the few times in my life I don't have to be so proper, and I want to make the most of it!"

  "Aren't we leaving today?" I asked bluntly.

  "Don't remind me. We still have to endure the ceremony with the two chiefs of this town before we can depart, and then my vacation will be over. And who knows when Father will let me have another one!"

  "Ahem, as entertaining as this little chat is, we should probably get moving young miss," Malin gently urged.

  "Yes! Right! Are you ready to leave?" She asked me.

  "Whenever you are."

  "Good! Even though we know our ship is due today, the exact time is still a bit subject to change, sea travel being what it is. We figured that rather than knocking on your door and dragging you aboard when the ship came, it would be prudent for you to stay with us for the day. I hope you don't mind," Elovere said, the tone and tenor of her voice making it quite clear that it was a request.

  "I don't mind at all. Lead the way."

  On my way out of the inn, I offered some beastkin products in my space to the owner, thanking him for letting me stay. He insisted that such payment was too much, while I insisted he take it for putting up with me. We danced around the issue back and forth until he finally gave in, and I waved farewell to him, the elves flanking me as I followed Elovere to their place...the inn across the street.

  Thankfully, there was no awkwardness involved as the owners of the two inns were relatives by marriage, a story I had to endure as the elves left me in the common room before tidying up their room, or so they claimed. I had some food while I waited, and the owner of this inn, a chatty grey-furred wolfkin told me about his wife's genius strategy to place two inns next to each other. I silently wondered if they were beginning to discover the concept of monopoly as the owner waxed about his wife and brother-in-law's intelligence when thankfully Malin rescued me from having to feign polite interest anymore.

  Their room was on the ground floor, though it seemed to have been rarely used, judging by how pristine it looked. Beside one of the beds was a wooden door that swung upwards, revealing a set of soft stone stairs that led underground. In what had to be unbeknownst to the owner, they had softened the earth and created a sizable underground room containing two rows of twenty beds each. If this room were on the surface, it would take up at least three buildings' worth of space. Twinkling lights were suspended in the corners and ceiling of the room, while tiny plant sprouts were budding from cracks in the walls, adding a touch of color to the otherwise drab bunker.

  "If we're leaving soon, where is everyone?" I asked, the room void of anyone save my two escorts and myself. I was ignoring the obvious questions, such as why they felt the need to create an enormous subterranean bunker, or why the beds had no pillows, or where the beds and mattresses came from, in favor of focusing on what was relevant to me.

  "Finishing up whatever business they need to, though a few are on the docks keeping an eye out for-"

  Malin was cut off as he turned around, staring at an elf that had just arrived, who completely ignored my presence and saluted him before reporting. "Father, we've made contact. They say they're four hours out."

  "Excellent. And our comrades?"

  "Already on their way back."

  Malin turned to me, a wide smile plastered on his face. "Looks like you're in luck, kiddo. Just a couple hours and then you'll never have to see this place again."