Chapter 39
The Abnormality of the Soul
When Matthew returned to his dormitory, it was already completely dark.
He slowly pushed open the door, and a strong magical energy rushed towards him, but he felt no joy at the moment.
When the little elf saw Matthew return, it flapped its wings excitedly and rushed towards him.
It perched on Matthew's shoulder and nuzzled his chin with its little head, but seeing that Matthew remained unmoved...
It seemed to sense Matthew's emotions; it crossed its arms, stomped its feet, and wisely flew away, no longer bothering him.
Matthew sat on the bed, lost in thought.
"Mold, Death Mission, Improved Witchcraft, Advancement to Intermediate Apprentice..."
He already had many things to deal with, and now he has to deal with Angela as well.
So what should we do next?
"Meditation time keeps decreasing...the soul withers until death..."
"First, let's rule out physical damage, since it's at the soul level."
"Methods that can affect the soul..."
Matthew desperately wants to know what's wrong with his soul right now.
However, due to a lack of relevant knowledge, he became confused.
At that moment, he recalled what Angela had said.
"The soul is malleable and can bear magic..."
"Simply strengthening the soul cannot resolve the aftereffects..."
"That sounds like a curse."
"It would be great if the soul could be detected by the system like the body, so that we could check the situation above."
Thinking about this, Matthew suddenly realized, "Maybe I can give it a try."
Without hesitation, he closed his eyes, sat cross-legged, and focused his mind.
He immersed himself in his own spiritual world, where he found his soul.
It is not seen through the eyes, but perceived through consciousness.
At the center of his soul was a single point of light, surrounded by a hazy, gray glow.
The gray light sometimes drifted away, sometimes converged towards the center, like the rhythm of breathing.
Matthew carefully sensed his soul, but he found nothing unusual about it.
That's why he hadn't noticed anything unusual about his soul until now. If it weren't for Angela's words, he would never have known that there was something wrong with his soul.
Without much thought, Matthew activated the system using his mind.
【Name: Soul】
[Note: The human soul...]
[Cannot be refined.]
"really……"
Matthew was just trying it out casually, never expecting that his soul could also be detected by the system. This was a direction he had never considered before.
"It seems there are still many functions of the system that have not been developed. We should try more in the future."
At this point, a prompt appears in the system.
[Warning: The soul is slightly eroded and will gradually weaken over time until it perishes...]
"It turns out my soul wasn't cursed, but rather corrupted."
"No wonder Angela said my soul would eventually wither away until I died!"
"Fortunately, the soul was only slightly corroded." Matthew breathed a sigh of relief; the system's prompts had undoubtedly pointed him in the right direction.
"Knowing the reason makes the problem much easier to solve."
Matthew's lips curled up slightly, revealing a soft smile. "If Angela hadn't revealed so much information, I wouldn't have been able to find a solution to the aftereffects so quickly."
"All that's left is to find a way to stop the soul corruption!"
But... Matthew searched through his entire memory but couldn't find a solution.
However, given the current rate at which meditation time is decreasing, it will be a long time before we can meditate at all.
Matthew temporarily put the matter out of his mind, glanced at the sky outside the window, and took a deep breath.
"It's getting late, I should meditate first..."
He closed his eyes and slowly sketched the irregular shape of the Forgotten Diagram in his mind. However, since he had already been able to completely meditate on one side of the diagram before, this time he chose to meditate on the adjacent side.
……
The night sky is as dark as the deep sea.
In a dormitory room of the Tidal School...
Angela picked up a small, dark green pot made of an unknown material and walked over to a culture tank.
"Splash—", she raised her hand and tilted the small pot, some transparent liquid flowed out of the pot and poured in.
Next to the aquarium, some mushrooms with dark red spots absorbed the liquid, and their skins began to dry out, quickly shriveling up as if deflated. Then they regained their vitality and quickly recovered to their original state.
The mushroom spots have deepened in color, with the dark red spots turning towards purple.
The giant black rock python writhed and slowly approached Angela's feet.
It raised its thick body, revealed its tongue, and licked her face.
Seeing the changes in the mushroom, Angela nodded in satisfaction. She put away the small pot and asked the giant python beside her.
"How is he?" she asked gently, as if seeking advice.
The Black Rock Python raised its head slightly, its voice hoarse, "That little guy seems to have fused with the bloodline of some powerful magical beast."
Its tongue flicked slightly, as if savoring something. "Judging from the taste, it should be some kind of dragon bloodline."
Although Angela had also sensed the changes in Matthew, who was completely different from when he was in the Winter Realm, she did not expect that Matthew had actually fused with the bloodline of a dragon.
Even for advanced apprentices, dragons are a precious material, yet Matthew, a mere novice apprentice, managed to obtain one, and in a place like the Frosty Realm.
Angela was somewhat surprised, her pupils contracting slightly. "How did he manage that in that godforsaken place?"
"How interesting... The soul is malleable. It seems that his soul has been reshaped after he returned from the Winter Realm."
The giant python flicked its tongue, then grinned, revealing a human-like chuckle. "Isn't that perfect? These strange and unusual souls are what make them interesting!"
Angela reached into the culture tank, picked a few ripe mushrooms, and slowly walked to the innermost room in the dormitory, with the Black Rock Python wriggling behind her.
The room was quite spacious, several times the size of the junior apprentices' dormitory.
Dozens of tombstones stand upright among them, but these tombstones do not bury corpses; instead, they are imprisoned souls.
These souls had no independent consciousness; some wailed, some hissed, and most wandered aimlessly around the room with unfocused eyes. Angela ignored the floating souls and walked around dozens of tombstones to the very center.
This is a huge, openwork crystal, upon which lies a woman with red, wavy hair, a beautiful face, and wearing a black dress.
However, the only flaw was that her exposed skin was sickly pale and covered with wrinkles, like the bark of an old tree.
Angela bent down and placed a few freshly picked mushrooms into the crystal.
The giant python lowered its massive, raised body and lay prone on the crystal coffin, its forked tongue gently licking the red-haired woman's cheek. "The research will be completed soon."