Thirteen_Life_Legion
A note to all readers. The publishing schedule of the free chapters of Shadow of the Soul King has been changed so there will only be posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Unless something changes, I will start having to look for a job and thus won't be able to write full time like I have been. I still love this story, however, and I am very excited for the next arc, so please look forward to it.
Mila
“Does it contain the version of the Twelve Element Primal Code for the path of the Heavenly Spark as well?”
The yellow and red eyes of Lord Epecteos Ka’Dravone widened as she asked the question, his aura showing surprise, and he was a bit slow to answer. “Yes. The first, second, third, fifth, and seventh levels are all undamaged.”
Mila took a deep breath. Just from this one cracked orb, she had everything Aalam would need at F rank other than the fourth and sixth levels. Having the first three levels already would help give her a little extra time to find the missing pieces, as Aalam could practice them immediately after balancing all his Law Larvae at high grade, but it would only be a few weeks at most, even with Aalam likely having to clean his resource channels a lot more than when she’d started cultivating the mixed version of Yin Yang Cosmology.
The bigger win was that she might be able to get the other two levels from another damaged copy of the cultivation technique, which might be a lot easier to find.
“Would you tell me about the other copies of the Twelve Element Primal Code you know about?”
Epecteos just looked at her for several seconds. Then he asked, “Your partner is following the path of the Heavenly Spark?”
Mila shook her head side to side, the sign of assent in the predominant culture of Epecteos’s Toril planet. “Yes.”
“You mentioned a high grade D rank System boon, and it sounded like you believed it was a sure thing. I was assuming that would be based on taking an apprentice and helping him or her rise to C rank, but, from what I know, only one person has ever risen to C rank following the path of the Heavenly Spark.” Mila could see the confusion in the man’s aura as, even with her own power suppressed, her Aura becoming more easily readable, it didn’t take away from her ability to read the aura of others, and his effective Aura stat was less than 2,000.
“That’s what I’ve heard as well, but you don’t have to worry.” Mila smiled at him. “The offer isn’t for you to take my partner as your apprentice.”
Mila had lowered her stats to the normal amount one would expect of a level 33 cultivator with a Rare grade class by creating what was called a soul shackle, a basic technique for those in the universe with contract creation powers. It involved making a contract with herself and then breaking it, with the punishment for the contract being the actual goal. In her case, for example, the punishment lowered her stats to the values she wanted and she could disable or reenable the reduction at any time she wanted.
Normally, soul shackles were quite easy to spot, but, as she’d furthered her mastery of her Trickster’s Guise skill, she’d figured out how to use all three of her resources to disguise the nature of her soul, helping her disguise herself as pretty much any humanoid race and making the soul shackles nearly impossible to passively spot.
Certain types of cultivators would be able to see through the disguise easily, just like how Isaiah’s detection skill was the bane of stealth abilities, but those types of cultivators were quite rare and, given the triple boost her Trickster’s Guise skill was getting from her class and her Master of Disguise racial ability, they would need to be at least E rank or incredibly specialized.
“The offer is for you to take one of his subordinates as an apprentice, a young balance dragon spearman.”
Epecteos’s aura showed surprise again, just as Mila expected. She already had a pretty good idea of the man’s personality. He was a talent limited by the circumstances of his birth who had already gotten past the anger phase of realizing he probably wouldn’t be able to advance again, so mostly he was just bored. The possibility of advancing would entice him, but he wouldn’t trust it coming from an F rank, thus the best way to get him on her side and motivate him to help her was to get him excited.
Knowing she had him hooked, she then pressed forward before he could start asking more questions. “I can explain more once we have a contract, but could you please first give me a brief overview of the copies of the Twelve Element Primal Code you know about. You don’t have to go into specifics.”
Epecteos took a deep breath and calmed himself down. “I sadly don’t know of any damaged copies like the one I was sold. An E rank found it in an old ruin and then deliberately searched me out knowing I would be willing to pay for it and likely wouldn’t kill him.”
“I do, however, know of four copies. The first two are held by A rank forces. There are likely other A rank forces out there with the Twelve Element Primal Code, but I only know of the two. Both are quite insular, however, and are unlikely to ever sell the technique to outsiders. There is also an information house that is rumored to be in almost every galaxy cluster in the universe which sells cultivation techniques, but it only sells the techniques one level at a time and the cost is exorbitant, each level measured in A rank universal credits. Then, finally, there is a local B rank force I know has at least the first ten levels, but they’re also unlikely to sell it to outsiders.”
Mila thought about it for a few seconds. The information house was out. According to Nana Xara, stores like that which span the entire universe almost always had gods behind them, and Mila didn’t want to risk having a paper trail when it came to buying Aalam’s cultivation technique if possible, not to mention she had no way to afford the price. It was possible the B rank force or one of the two A rank forces might have need of some of the items she’d bought from the Trial Tower or one Nana Xara could make a quest to give her, though, so those might be possibilities.
Given she had a time limit, however, the best choice was probably to join one of the forces herself and see if she could pretend to have a relationship with Epecteos to get someone in the force to give her the technique as a gift.
“Alright. Let’s make a contract.”
* * *
Epecteos
Shadow has sent you a contract request.
Terms:
You may not reveal any secrets about the Heavenly Spark Soul King or any of his subordinates to anyone for any reason without explicit permission from the Heavenly Spark Soul King or Shadow You may not take any actions with the intention to harm the Heavenly Spark Soul King or any of his subordinates without explicit permission from the Heavenly Spark Soul King or Shadow You must do your reasonable best to help acquire the first 8 levels of the Heavenly Spark version of the Twelve Element Primal Code for the Heavenly Spark Soul King within 3 standard years If item 3 is accomplished, Shadow must do her reasonable best to help you advance to C rank before your death Reasonable in this contract is held to the following definition: taking all actions which do not require a sacrifice of one’s own future potential nor a higher than 30% chance of death for one’s self or those one cares about
Punishment:
Never-ending Pain
Do you accept?
Yes/No
The contract seemed reasonable, but the title Heavenly Spark Soul King really got Epecteos’s interest. He was pretty sure the title of king was only given to monsters who gained a high grade Law Egg before leaving their tutorial, while the term soul likely meant the man had been reborn with a race that emphasized the Soul stat. Having the term heavenly spark in a System generated title, however, was something he’d never heard of.
Had the partner this Shadow was talking about actually left his monster tutorial with 36 high grade Law Eggs, or was the woman messing with the names in the contract like she’d shown she could do before? Also, for that matter, was the woman in front of him a monster? She’d mentioned there was an extra layer of disguise he hadn’t been able to see through.
Curious, and again not really having much better to do in his old age, Epecteos accepted.
“Now, would you tell me about those four copies of the Twelve Element Primal Code and those forces which hold them? I would like to start making plans.”
From the woman’s demeanor and the fact she’d set a 3 year time limit, Epecteos could tell she was in a rush for some reason, but he figured he could ask later. “First, the information house is called Voidwalker’s Heavenly Secrets. I believe the fourth, sixth, and eighth levels together would cost 5,184 A rank universal credits.
“Next, the two A rank forces are an undead empire from one of the universe’s central galaxy clusters, having taken it when they destroyed another A rank force about a thousand years ago, and the Vin Clan, the royal family of the largest elven empire in the universe. Both are quite insular, and it is unlikely we could ever make a deal with the undead, but the Vin Clan has a reputation of being honest in trades, so it might be possible to make a deal with them if we somehow got our hands on something they want.
“Finally, then, is the Violet Mountain Sect, the highest force in the Carium Galaxy Cluster. It is an upper B rank force, with its chief elder at the peak of B rank, and the eighteen kingdoms of the Carium Galaxy Cluster are each ruled by the families of one of its eighteen C rank elders, including the Hewin Kingdom which I am technically subordinate to.”
Please only read at https://www.scribblehub.com/series/461729/shadow-of-the-soul-king/. It is free and anywhere else this story has been stolen.
A special thank you to Shadow of the Soul King's patrons:
[Patron list pulled the on the Sunday before this chapter was posted]
Trolling Mentor:
NA
Insane Crafter:
SpoilerEvilSmirk , Brad , Cullen Humphries , Eb , Dirkk Diggler , saganatsu , MiniCreeper , James Ryan , Blake Hudson , luke , Jordan joyce , NeonRaven94 , Louisthau , Turtle , William , Wunder , Rachel Entezari , Random Guy , Eric Spence , Nanooki12 , MightyMac , Lazerus56 , kelland harrison , Simon Preiß , Dakenrool , Nicholas Thomas , Alexander Gleeson , zachary gafken , Timothy Burago , Andrew Knox , archkeas , H.A.L. Tiebosch , Aracnos , SideraX , Gabriel Boudreau , Tre Everett , David Schleimer , Kirk Morgan , patrick seim , Orion Fritz , Lonny , Ryan Landry , Benjamin Nuyens , Michael Castelli , Lyrad Fer , Poldarn , Pierre Come , Eguonoghene Efekemo , Christophe Schmitz , Silberwolf325 , Alex R , Phillip Schneider , James Short , Mikkel , Kallor , Frogspoison , Eivind , Clément Fournet , Alex Hammond , John McDaniel , Mārcis , sata , Nagrael , Felix Chin , Thomasaurus Rex , JB Smoove , Abdiaziz Ali , Hellnhavoc , James Dean , Kaiedi , Archie , Christian Sving , Sebin Paul , Alexander Aitken , BtBurns , Alzein , Dameon Cornish , Devon Bolwaire , Justin Firestone , Derrick McDowell , Christian Mordal , Ricky Wilmot , Death2moo , Michael Presley , Garasou , Brian Barrett , Sam Rusch , Tuqueque , Henry Braeske , Odunski , Matthew McRoyall , Jacob , Benoît Dufort , Lemon , Nathan Camussi , nugitoBambino , confusion , Redacted , Stephan , Bret , Hampus Carlsson , kyle ryan , Håkan Olofsson , Starter_guy , Joshua , Starfall20 , Darcy Lessard-Patola , Yrom , LastinLine , Harrison Brown , Armand Sellier , Jon Jackson , Kai , Posta Csanád , Chris , Vincent Emil , Roman Obrenovic , Chris M , Cardean Nasdre , Siphor , WithoutContext , Joseph Catanzaro , Kemizle
[collapse]Contract Lawyer:
SpoilerAnonymous , terrence L mccall , Talespinner Lore
[collapse]Logical Summoner:
SpoilerPawaidan , FuriousDee , Nevinna
[collapse]
Thirteen_Life_Legion
A note to all readers. The publishing schedule of the free chapters of Shadow of the Soul King has been changed so there will only be posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Unless something changes, I will start having to look for a job and thus won't be able to write full time like I have been. I still love this story, however, and I am very excited for the next arc, so please look forward to it.
Mila
“Does it contain the version of the Twelve Element Primal Code for the path of the Heavenly Spark as well?”
The yellow and red eyes of Lord Epecteos Ka’Dravone widened as she asked the question, his aura showing surprise, and he was a bit slow to answer. “Yes. The first, second, third, fifth, and seventh levels are all undamaged.”
Mila took a deep breath. Just from this one cracked orb, she had everything Aalam would need at F rank other than the fourth and sixth levels. Having the first three levels already would help give her a little extra time to find the missing pieces, as Aalam could practice them immediately after balancing all his Law Larvae at high grade, but it would only be a few weeks at most, even with Aalam likely having to clean his resource channels a lot more than when she’d started cultivating the mixed version of Yin Yang Cosmology.
The bigger win was that she might be able to get the other two levels from another damaged copy of the cultivation technique, which might be a lot easier to find.
“Would you tell me about the other copies of the Twelve Element Primal Code you know about?”
Epecteos just looked at her for several seconds. Then he asked, “Your partner is following the path of the Heavenly Spark?”
Mila shook her head side to side, the sign of assent in the predominant culture of Epecteos’s Toril planet. “Yes.”
“You mentioned a high grade D rank System boon, and it sounded like you believed it was a sure thing. I was assuming that would be based on taking an apprentice and helping him or her rise to C rank, but, from what I know, only one person has ever risen to C rank following the path of the Heavenly Spark.” Mila could see the confusion in the man’s aura as, even with her own power suppressed, her Aura becoming more easily readable, it didn’t take away from her ability to read the aura of others, and his effective Aura stat was less than 2,000.
“That’s what I’ve heard as well, but you don’t have to worry.” Mila smiled at him. “The offer isn’t for you to take my partner as your apprentice.”
Mila had lowered her stats to the normal amount one would expect of a level 33 cultivator with a Rare grade class by creating what was called a soul shackle, a basic technique for those in the universe with contract creation powers. It involved making a contract with herself and then breaking it, with the punishment for the contract being the actual goal. In her case, for example, the punishment lowered her stats to the values she wanted and she could disable or reenable the reduction at any time she wanted.
Normally, soul shackles were quite easy to spot, but, as she’d furthered her mastery of her Trickster’s Guise skill, she’d figured out how to use all three of her resources to disguise the nature of her soul, helping her disguise herself as pretty much any humanoid race and making the soul shackles nearly impossible to passively spot.
Certain types of cultivators would be able to see through the disguise easily, just like how Isaiah’s detection skill was the bane of stealth abilities, but those types of cultivators were quite rare and, given the triple boost her Trickster’s Guise skill was getting from her class and her Master of Disguise racial ability, they would need to be at least E rank or incredibly specialized.
“The offer is for you to take one of his subordinates as an apprentice, a young balance dragon spearman.”
Epecteos’s aura showed surprise again, just as Mila expected. She already had a pretty good idea of the man’s personality. He was a talent limited by the circumstances of his birth who had already gotten past the anger phase of realizing he probably wouldn’t be able to advance again, so mostly he was just bored. The possibility of advancing would entice him, but he wouldn’t trust it coming from an F rank, thus the best way to get him on her side and motivate him to help her was to get him excited.
Knowing she had him hooked, she then pressed forward before he could start asking more questions. “I can explain more once we have a contract, but could you please first give me a brief overview of the copies of the Twelve Element Primal Code you know about. You don’t have to go into specifics.”
Epecteos took a deep breath and calmed himself down. “I sadly don’t know of any damaged copies like the one I was sold. An E rank found it in an old ruin and then deliberately searched me out knowing I would be willing to pay for it and likely wouldn’t kill him.”
“I do, however, know of four copies. The first two are held by A rank forces. There are likely other A rank forces out there with the Twelve Element Primal Code, but I only know of the two. Both are quite insular, however, and are unlikely to ever sell the technique to outsiders. There is also an information house that is rumored to be in almost every galaxy cluster in the universe which sells cultivation techniques, but it only sells the techniques one level at a time and the cost is exorbitant, each level measured in A rank universal credits. Then, finally, there is a local B rank force I know has at least the first ten levels, but they’re also unlikely to sell it to outsiders.”
Mila thought about it for a few seconds. The information house was out. According to Nana Xara, stores like that which span the entire universe almost always had gods behind them, and Mila didn’t want to risk having a paper trail when it came to buying Aalam’s cultivation technique if possible, not to mention she had no way to afford the price. It was possible the B rank force or one of the two A rank forces might have need of some of the items she’d bought from the Trial Tower or one Nana Xara could make a quest to give her, though, so those might be possibilities.
Given she had a time limit, however, the best choice was probably to join one of the forces herself and see if she could pretend to have a relationship with Epecteos to get someone in the force to give her the technique as a gift.
“Alright. Let’s make a contract.”
* * *
Epecteos
Shadow has sent you a contract request.
Terms:
You may not reveal any secrets about the Heavenly Spark Soul King or any of his subordinates to anyone for any reason without explicit permission from the Heavenly Spark Soul King or Shadow You may not take any actions with the intention to harm the Heavenly Spark Soul King or any of his subordinates without explicit permission from the Heavenly Spark Soul King or Shadow You must do your reasonable best to help acquire the first 8 levels of the Heavenly Spark version of the Twelve Element Primal Code for the Heavenly Spark Soul King within 3 standard years If item 3 is accomplished, Shadow must do her reasonable best to help you advance to C rank before your death Reasonable in this contract is held to the following definition: taking all actions which do not require a sacrifice of one’s own future potential nor a higher than 30% chance of death for one’s self or those one cares about
Punishment:
Never-ending Pain
Do you accept?
Yes/No
The contract seemed reasonable, but the title Heavenly Spark Soul King really got Epecteos’s interest. He was pretty sure the title of king was only given to monsters who gained a high grade Law Egg before leaving their tutorial, while the term soul likely meant the man had been reborn with a race that emphasized the Soul stat. Having the term heavenly spark in a System generated title, however, was something he’d never heard of.
Had the partner this Shadow was talking about actually left his monster tutorial with 36 high grade Law Eggs, or was the woman messing with the names in the contract like she’d shown she could do before? Also, for that matter, was the woman in front of him a monster? She’d mentioned there was an extra layer of disguise he hadn’t been able to see through.
Curious, and again not really having much better to do in his old age, Epecteos accepted.
“Now, would you tell me about those four copies of the Twelve Element Primal Code and those forces which hold them? I would like to start making plans.”
From the woman’s demeanor and the fact she’d set a 3 year time limit, Epecteos could tell she was in a rush for some reason, but he figured he could ask later. “First, the information house is called Voidwalker’s Heavenly Secrets. I believe the fourth, sixth, and eighth levels together would cost 5,184 A rank universal credits.
“Next, the two A rank forces are an undead empire from one of the universe’s central galaxy clusters, having taken it when they destroyed another A rank force about a thousand years ago, and the Vin Clan, the royal family of the largest elven empire in the universe. Both are quite insular, and it is unlikely we could ever make a deal with the undead, but the Vin Clan has a reputation of being honest in trades, so it might be possible to make a deal with them if we somehow got our hands on something they want.
“Finally, then, is the Violet Mountain Sect, the highest force in the Carium Galaxy Cluster. It is an upper B rank force, with its chief elder at the peak of B rank, and the eighteen kingdoms of the Carium Galaxy Cluster are each ruled by the families of one of its eighteen C rank elders, including the Hewin Kingdom which I am technically subordinate to.”
Please only read at https://www.scribblehub.com/series/461729/shadow-of-the-soul-king/. It is free and anywhere else this story has been stolen.
A special thank you to Shadow of the Soul King's patrons:
[Patron list pulled the on the Sunday before this chapter was posted]
Trolling Mentor:
NA
Insane Crafter:
SpoilerEvilSmirk , Brad , Cullen Humphries , Eb , Dirkk Diggler , saganatsu , MiniCreeper , James Ryan , Blake Hudson , luke , Jordan joyce , NeonRaven94 , Louisthau , Turtle , William , Wunder , Rachel Entezari , Random Guy , Eric Spence , Nanooki12 , MightyMac , Lazerus56 , kelland harrison , Simon Preiß , Dakenrool , Nicholas Thomas , Alexander Gleeson , zachary gafken , Timothy Burago , Andrew Knox , archkeas , H.A.L. Tiebosch , Aracnos , SideraX , Gabriel Boudreau , Tre Everett , David Schleimer , Kirk Morgan , patrick seim , Orion Fritz , Lonny , Ryan Landry , Benjamin Nuyens , Michael Castelli , Lyrad Fer , Poldarn , Pierre Come , Eguonoghene Efekemo , Christophe Schmitz , Silberwolf325 , Alex R , Phillip Schneider , James Short , Mikkel , Kallor , Frogspoison , Eivind , Clément Fournet , Alex Hammond , John McDaniel , Mārcis , sata , Nagrael , Felix Chin , Thomasaurus Rex , JB Smoove , Abdiaziz Ali , Hellnhavoc , James Dean , Kaiedi , Archie , Christian Sving , Sebin Paul , Alexander Aitken , BtBurns , Alzein , Dameon Cornish , Devon Bolwaire , Justin Firestone , Derrick McDowell , Christian Mordal , Ricky Wilmot , Death2moo , Michael Presley , Garasou , Brian Barrett , Sam Rusch , Tuqueque , Henry Braeske , Odunski , Matthew McRoyall , Jacob , Benoît Dufort , Lemon , Nathan Camussi , nugitoBambino , confusion , Redacted , Stephan , Bret , Hampus Carlsson , kyle ryan , Håkan Olofsson , Starter_guy , Joshua , Starfall20 , Darcy Lessard-Patola , Yrom , LastinLine , Harrison Brown , Armand Sellier , Jon Jackson , Kai , Posta Csanád , Chris , Vincent Emil , Roman Obrenovic , Chris M , Cardean Nasdre , Siphor , WithoutContext , Joseph Catanzaro , Kemizle
[collapse]Contract Lawyer:
SpoilerAnonymous , terrence L mccall , Talespinner Lore
[collapse]Logical Summoner:
SpoilerPawaidan , FuriousDee , Nevinna
[collapse]