Chapter 37: Chapter Thirty-Five: Art of the Soul

“Where are we going?!” I asked Master as she sped down the hallway.

“I’ll explain when we get there, so just hold tight for now,” she responded.

Trusting her, I leaned into her embrace and allowed her to take me where she pleased.

After a couple of minutes, she set me down. 

Looking at my surroundings, I immediately recognized the training area from the tour that Mayari took me on.

Master quickly headed towards the control box which regulated the instances of the training area.

After fidgeting with it for a couple of seconds, she made her way back to me, letting out a sigh.

“Phew, we should be safe now.”

“Safe from…what exactly?” I asked. “I thought we were doing Soulia training? Is that dangerous or something?”

“No, Soulia training is harmless for the most part, especially in the training area. What we actually avoid was Kna’Ve’s lectures,” the golden dragonoid replied with a shudder.

“Are they really that bad?”

“I love that girl to death, but her lectures have shaved years off my life. Imagine someone talking to you about something for hours using words that you don’t know, and expect you to pay attention and be able to utilize the information.”

“Sounds like…school. In other words, torture. That’s a no for me.”

“School, huh?” Master parroted. “That’s not a bad comparison at all. But anyway, now that I put us in an instance, we should be good for a little while. At least enough time for me to explain everything.”

She tapped her forehead in thought.

“How should I start this off…ah! Do you know what an art gallery is?”

I nod my head in confirmation.

“Okay, great. So like I said before, Soulia is the life energy of all beings on Fanalaau, as well as the source of the Soul powers. Remember that?”

“Yes.”

“Good, good. Now the amount of Soulia that someone’s soul can contain is based on their Soul Realm or Soul Level. The name is pretty interchangeable. You can think of that as our art gallery. The higher it is, the bigger your ‘art gallery’ is.”

“Ooh. That’s interesting. What’s your Soul Level, Master? And would you happen to know mine?”

“My Soul Realm is a fifteen last time I check, and yours is a…zero.” Her voice trailed off at the end.

“A what? I couldn’t hear the last bit. And is fifteen high?”

“...a zero. And yes, fifteen is pretty high. The average is around a five.”

I looked Master in the eyes.

“A zero? Wait, doesn’t that mean that my art gallery isn’t even open for business?”

Master diverted her eyes, refusing to look back at me.

“Yes, the minimum Soul Level is one. You’re the first case of a Soul Realm of zero, ever. At least as far as I’m aware.”

“So I have no chance of using Soulia.” I slumped. 

“Whoa! Chin up my cute pupil,” Master said, pushing my face. “You shouldn’t jump to conclusions so quickly.”

“Huh?”

“Fufufu,” She laughed, pushing up a pair of imaginary glasses. "In general, the Soul Realm is an arbitrary metric. One person’s realm at level four can just as useful as someone’s level ten. It just depends on the person and how they use it.”

“Then why did you-”

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“I just wanted to tease you a bit. I didn’t expect you to get so crestfallen. In any case, it's still possible for you to increase the level of your soul realm but we’ll get back to that.”

“Huh? Well okay.”

Master held up six fingers.

“Moving forward, do you remember the six primordial elements that we talked about during the story?”

“Yeah, they were…Light, Darkness, Fire…Earth, Water, and Air, right?”

She snapped her fingers and a golden flame appeared above them.

“Yep. That’s it. Those are how people generally use Soulia. They generally match the general personality of the person. Like a hothead will probably end up with fire, an innocent person with Light, et cetera.  Going back to the art gallery analogy, they would be our canvases. Before you ask, I have three, Fire, Earth, and Water. You have four, Light, Darkness, Fire, and Water. We’re both abnormal in this case because it’s rare to have more than two. And even more for them to be conflicting.”

‘Wow, sounds like I’m pretty special.’

“From there we have something we call concepts. It’s how someone utilizes their Soulia and elements. Concepts are kind of wacky, they tend to affect people in different ways based on what the concept is. In my case, it’s gold. It generally just makes everything I create a golden luster, but there’s more to it sometimes. In our Soul Realm Art gallery, we can think of elements as the mediums.”

“And my concept is…?” I asked nervously. 

“Mold, like the fungi. But don’t feel down. I think that it might actually be really good?”

“How so?”

“Well, mold can release gasses that are highly flammable? That could make your Fire element expression stronger than it might be.”

“So that’s how concepts work?”

“Well, that’s just a guess, but yeah. They’re pretty weird,” she said with a grin. “Luckily for you, if Mold completely sucks, you’re not stuck with one concept. Having two concepts is completely unheard of, at least until you appeared.”

‘I’m sounding more and more like an anomaly with everything she says….’

“What’s my second concept?”

“I haven’t the slightest clue.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“Okay, now we have our art gallery, some canvas, and some mediums. Now what’s left is to make some artwork. In other words, techniques. Techniques are the expression of your Soulia, through your concept and your element.”

“They typically follow a theme, for most people, it’s just the element they fall under, but more advanced users may have a theme within a theme. Using a technique may require chanting. Once again falling back onto the art gallery analogy, you can think of chanting as the directions to the artwork.”

“Chanting? That sounds pretty cringy, Master.”

“I know, but it’s not that bad. Now for the most important part. Remember I said that you can raise your soul realm?”

I nodded.

“Well, the truth is not only can you raise your Soul Level, but you can also do things like gain a new element, strengthen your techniques, expand your concept, or even undergo a species evolution. All this and more is possible through one method.”

“Whoa, that sounds awesome. What’s this super method?”

She extended her hand to me.

“Simply learning about yourself and accepting what you find within. Taking a look into the abyss that is your soul is enough. It might sound easy, but honestly, it’s anything but. I know I sound like a broken record player, but don’t worry. Whatever you find within yourself, just know you have people that will always accept you. So, let’s give this a shot, hmm?”

I froze taking in her words.

‘This feels so nice, so warm, so nostalgic.’

A smile bloomed on my face, as I finally took her hand.

“Yes, Master!”