Chapter 37 - Dead Ends & New Paths

After his short conversation with Kyren, Arthur took out his research journal to clear his head. The familiar English words filled his sight as he read over his notes.

Arthur's journal was written in English since he was the language's sole proprietor on Nithe. His choice to use English for his notes added an extra layer of difficulty if someone attempted to gain insight from his journal.

Of course, the spellwork was still written in plain Aetherin. There was nothing he could do about that other than inserting some English words here and there to make anyone deciphering the spell a bit more frustrated.

Encrypting his spell work was a non-option for him, at least as far as his research journal was concerned. The necromancy spell was complex enough without Arthur deciphering it every time he needed to check his notes. As he told Kyren, he was just a regular guy, and that level of intelligence was beyond him.

The words the stranger mentioned about Arthur having a broken soul still rattled in his mind as he contemplated a solution to capturing a spirit. If he assumed his belief that the soul was what allowed the spirit to control a physical body was correct, then it may be possible for Kyren to simply hop into the mana core and bind his consciousness to it without Arthur's help.

However, Arthur didn't intend to test his hypothesis. There was no way of knowing its effects on Kyren should it succeed. He may even become trapped within the mana core, and Arthur would lose his boisterous guardian angel as a result.

Instead, Arthur needed to find another test subject to experiment on. Unfortunately, Kyren was the only ghost he had met, which meant he'd have to find a way to break a soul and free the bound spirit to which it was attached.

He'd also need to find a way to control said spirit or a method to capture them, as the unwilling volunteers likely wouldn't want to follow the commands of the boy who killed them. But, luckily for the people of Nithe, and perhaps unluckily for the animals, his experiments wouldn't require a human spirit. At least not yet.

Arthur looked up from his journal toward Kyren floating around nearby and attempted to use telekinesis on him.

Kyren's face distorted. "The shit you doing, kid?"

When his telekinesis had no effect, Arthur sighed. "Of course, it couldn't be that simple... Have you ever been affected by any spells since you became like this?"

Kyren looked up and thought for a moment. "...Not that I can remember. It's not like I was hanging around battlefields, though. I hung around libraries, remember? Not many spells being shot around in libraries."

Arthur hoped that maybe a spell existed somewhere on Nithe that accidentally included some sort of astral interference without the creator realizing it. Otherwise, finding the correct assortment of letters in Aetherin would be like finding a needle in a stack of needles.

"What about any spell having to do with breaking a soul? Since the soul-severing poison exists surely, there must be something else that has a similar effect."

"I didn't even know something like the soul-severing poison existed until you told me about it, kid. Besides, I doubt anyone would waste their time on a spell like that since spells that directly attack a mage are useless."

Arthur was aware of that fact. Mages naturally released a small amount of mana at all times, which acted like an aura. It had no effect on a spell that was launched toward them like a fireball, but it prevented an enemy's magic from forming directly on or inside their bodies.

As a result, a spell to stop an enemy's heart at a distance would be useless against a mage as the magic would be unable to form within their chests. Telekinesis had a similar limitation in that it couldn't be used to directly interfere with another mage. So Arthur would never be able to toss another mage around in a similar fashion to his hidden blades.

Of course, a normal person without mana was fair game regarding targeted spells and telekinesis. The same could be said if a mage completely exhausted their mana. However, battles between high-level battlemages rarely lasted long enough for one to run out of mana, so targeted spells were often ignored on Nithe.

"If I could get my hands on the production method for the soul-severing poison, I wouldn't need to design a spell to shatter the soul... Assuming it works as I believe it does..." Arthur grumbled.

"Heh." Kyren smiled. "Don't even think about it, kid. I don't know much about Ollerin's nobility, but I imagine a ducal family has plenty of guards running about their estate. You'd be captured the moment your stumpy little legs stepped inside."

Arthur waved his hand dismissively. "Bah! I'm not stupid. I have no intention of handing myself over to the Yor family on a silver platter... I just have no idea where to start with this spell, and the soul-severing poison would be an easy workaround if I could produce it in large quantities."

"Why are you even trying to make a spell to break souls? Isn't the mana soul supposed to imitate a real soul? How's that gonna help me get a body?"

"Because unless you want to be my test subject, I need more disembodied spirits to play with. And before you foolishly volunteer, it wouldn't surprise me if the spirits I experiment on got destroyed or worse while I figure out how to bind them to a mana soul. So don't try and volunteer."

Kyren went quiet for a moment as he rubbed his chin. "There was a spell I saw back in the day... I think it was during the Nami rebellion some twenty years back in southern Sparnia... Anyway, the spell caused my buddy's squad to suddenly fall to the ground.

I thought they were dead, but after a few seconds, they got back up and kept fighting. When I asked him about it after the battle, he said it felt like he lost control of his body for a few seconds, but he was still aware of everything that was happening. Could that be something helpful?"

"Maybe? There's no way to be sure if the spell affected their spirits or just paralyzed their bodies in some way. I'd need to see the spell's code to find that out. I don't suppose you found the research relating to it and memorized the Aetherin within, did you?"

Kyren laughed. "Course not. But since the spell exists, then shouldn't the Mage's Union have some record of it?"

"It's possible, but it'll be years before I have the opportunity to go to the Mage's Union. Even if the Bernish war only takes a year or two, I'll need to get Helagaust under control before I can safely leave the territory without risking a rebellion breaking out. That'll likely take even longer than the war..."

Arthur felt like his progress was stalled, which left him frustrated. After years of work, he had finally completed the mana soul, but he wasn't sure where his next step should be. Every choice felt like it would take years before he'd even have a chance to work on the problems facing them.

Of course, he could blindly smash Aetherin characters together for the next few years in hopes of stumbling onto the right combination, but with so many characters in the language, he'd have a better probability of walking through a random doorway and ending up back on Earth. It was an improbable scenario for both and felt like a foolish use of his time.

"Should I just attempt a rudimentary AI?" Arthur mumbled.

He at least had a general idea of how to proceed on that front. It would be difficult, and he didn't know how to attach it to a mana soul, but he could at least get a theoretical framework down and complete it when he learned more.

Of course, not being able to attach the AI to a mana soul meant he wouldn't be able to test it, but at least it was something to work towards rather than hoping for answers that may not come.

The AI he intended to create would be a blank slate. Meaning it would need to learn on its own how to function as whatever being it was placed within. It came with the apparent downside of requiring time to mature before becoming a helpful tool, but Arthur already had a countermeasure thought up.

If he could somehow copy or split the AI into multiple bodies, then it would only have to mature once. There was also the option of creating a central AI to store what the others learned and distributing that information amongst the other AI.

No matter his route, it made his scalp tingle just thinking about the challenges he would face. However, it needed to be done if he wanted useful undead following behind him in the future.

Feeling somewhat overwhelmed, Arthur rubbed his eyes and grabbed a quill before turning to a fresh page in his research journal.

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