Chapter 18

  Theo was wracked with pain, soul deep, as the banshee slowly floated towards him. Theo acknowledged the pain of the soul attack and let it flow through him; by not fixating on the pain, he was able to move, biding his time. He kept this fact from the banshee. The banshee got right up on him and was about to grab him. Theo lashed out with his cane, imbued with Cleanse. As the pink energy came into contact with the black silhouette of the banshee, it was as if the pink energy became a flame and engulfed the banshee in seconds. It thrashed and wailed in response; it was incapable of stopping the pink energy. Each time it wailed, Theo was hit with a wave of metaphysical energy that attacked his soul. Gritting his teeth, Theo stood there and took each blow of the wail, focusing on trying to heal his body to no effect; the pain was still excruciating. As 10 seconds went by, the banshee was gone. Theo stood there, using Healer's Intuition for the first time, looking deep inside himself to try to heal himself. Theo noticed that there was an ethereal outline of himself within his body, and his physical body showed no damage. Still, the metaphysical aspect was shredded in multiple places, and the healing magic did not affect this metaphysical form of himself.

  Ding

  Soul Resistance, Common, Journeyman 0 to 3

  "How in the hell am I supposed to heal this?" Theo thought, deciding to go back to the inn to talk to the host about it.

  "Good morning, Theo. I see you have dealt with a soul attack. I’m guessing you’re here to ask how to heal it?" the host said.

  "Yes, I am. I’m guessing you can see souls a lot easier since you are a spirit yourself,” Theo said.

  "Got it in one. So, there are a few ways that a person can heal their soul. For you, having a healer hybrid class, you have more ways to heal your soul. The first is natural; your soul is resilient and will heal on its own. You can get the Soul Resistance skill, and that will speed it up somewhat, making your soul even more sturdy. Another way, since you have magic, is that you can learn how to Meditate to speed up the healing. For being a healer and understanding how to heal the physical body, you can try to learn and use mana to heal your metaphysical body, and from there, you can also learn some soul magic. But keep in mind, internal soul magic is fine, but if you get caught with any skill with external soul magic that affects another person, most societies frown upon that, and you’ll be executed on the spot,” the host said.

  "Why is internal fine, why is it not taboo all the way around to use soul magic?" Theo asked.

  “Because internal mostly deals with strengthening your soul and Soul Resistance from people messing with your soul, external soul magic means you’re the one who’s messing about with other people's souls, and many gods and other beings frowned upon that; therefore, rules and laws were created to make that not happen.” The host said

  “I understand. After that one experience with the banshee, that reminds me that you said that the physical body is not harmed, only the soul. When I got attacked, my whole entire body felt like it was on fire. Why is that?” Theo said

  That is because your soul and body are connected. Even though your physical body is fine, because of the metaphysical connection between body and soul means you will still feel it anyway, and there are few ways to mitigate soul damage. In many cases, the soul damage becomes permanent or takes years to heal from. It’s one of the reasons why soul attacks are frowned upon. And before you ask, this obviously is a scenario sanctioned by the system, and any other place with monsters that can affect the soul usually gets dealt with pretty quickly,” the host said.

  “Thank you for the information. I guess I’ll go out there and do something that can be extremely painful,” Theo said with a sigh.

  “I recommend you take a couple of hours to learn the skill meditate, and rest. The host said

  “I’ll take you up on that,” Theo said

  Theo headed up to his room on the third floor. Climbing onto the bed, Theo got into a lotus position, closed his eyes, and focused on his breathing, recalling a meditation video he had watched on YouTube a long time ago. One of the first steps of meditation is to let the mind flow and acknowledge each stray thought, because if you do try to ignore them, you’ll become more distracted. Time floated as his mind drifted through many thoughts. Then, without warning, he felt mana all around him and saw his frayed metaphysical body losing focus in his inner eye. He opened his eyes and saw that he had a notification.

  Ding.

  You have learned the skill of Meditation.

  In meditation, the focus is on your inner self. You can see the flow of mana through your body and the outside, helping to strengthen your connection between the metaphysical and physical by allowing you to observe the process of recirculating mana within your body.

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  Theo tried again, and getting into that mindset was much easier this time. After a while, he felt his body and soul were back in equilibrium, using the skill Healer's Intuition to confirm. Upon examining his body, everything appeared normal.

  Ding.

  Meditation Common, Novice 0 to 1

  Theo decided to go out once more today. As he was walking out of the inn, Theo said goodbye to the host, and he walked out and headed left, finding the nearest banshee. He caused a little bit of noise by hitting the sword cane and its sheath together, and it slowly turned towards Theo, looking about the same except for where the veins were on the brown, hole-ridden cloak. Theo felt both of the chains off his legs fall to the floor, backpedaling a little bit, giving him some space between the chains and the banshee. As he was doing that, the banshee wailed. Theo was stunned, but he soon broke out of it. In the meantime, the banshee began to get closer. Theo felt the mind-numbing pain, but through the pain, he directed the chains to wrap around the banshee. As the chains started to coil around the waist of the banshee, the other end of the chain that was not connected to the banshee stabbed itself into the dirt of the courtyard of the castle.

  Theo took a chair out of his storage ring. He sat there, just letting the banshee hit him constantly with its screeching. Theo let it happen five times, and he felt drained; his body felt like it was ablaze. He decided to call it a day. Theo got up from his chair, stored it back in the ring, imbued his sword with Cleanse, and poked it into the banshee. The banshee burst into pink flames. With a mental command, Theo wrapped the two chains around his legs again, and then he returned to the inn, looking at his notifications.

  Ding.

  Soul Resistance, Common, Journeyman 3 to 5

  Mental Resistance, Common, Journeyman 0 to 2

  Meditation Common, Novice 1 to 2

  “Good afternoon, Theo, your soul looks like a freight doll,” the host said

  “I feel like it, too,” Theo said

  After having another delicious meal, Theo went up to his room, meditated, and after a little while, he went to bed. The next day, after having breakfast, Theo went to the left again, exploring the courtyard. After a while, Theo ran into another banshee doing the same thing he had done the day before. He pulled out his chair from the storage ring and let the banshee yell at him. Theo started to meditate after being hit with these sorrowful whales for the second time that day. It was slow going at first, trying to focus through the blazing hot pain coursing through his body was hard, but after a while, he began to Meditate. He was able to withstand six soul attacks in a row this time and decided to go back to the inn again to Meditate in his room. While walking back, he looked at his notifications.

  Ding.

  Soul Resistance, Common, Journeyman 5 to 7

  Mental Resistance, Common, Journeyman 2 to 5

  Meditation Common, Novice 2 to 9

  After spending a couple of days doing this routine, Theo got another notification.

  Ding.

  Soul Resistance, Common, Journeyman 7 to master 0

  Mental Resistance, Common, Journeyman 5 to master 0

  Meditation Common, novice 9 to Journeyman 3

  Theo was walking with his sword cane on the right side of the castle when he heard another wail of the banshee and headed off in that direction. Theo imbued his cane sword with Cleanse without fanfare or ceremony, cutting down the middle of the banshee. The pink tendrils of the magic devoured the ghost. Theo spent the day going around the courtyard, defeating the banshees. As the haze dissipated slightly as he walked through it, Theo saw a building in the courtyard and headed towards it. It was a rundown stable that looked exactly like the one in the first district.

  Walking in, there were rusted stacks of supplies for caring for horses. Looking around, Theo felt another wail coming from one of the stalls. The wail did not affect him, as he had raised his Soul's Resistance. Wrapping around one of his chains around the banshee and imbuing it with Cleanse, the wails from the banshee turned into screams, and less than a minute later, it turned into pink smoke. Theo got a notification, and he decided to look at it.

  Ding

  Battle Healer Lv. 22 to 23

  You have two free stat points to assign.

  “Finally,” Theo thought.

  He decided again to allocate his free stat points to perception, as it was lagging behind the other stats, and then he reviewed his status sheet.

  Theodore Thompson

  Race: Human F-Grade Lv. 23

  Class: Battle Healer Lv. 22

  Profession: Warden Lv. 25

  Health: 690/690

  Mana: 860/860

  Stamina: 680/680

  Stats:

  Vitality: 71

  Strength: 66

  Endurance: 72

  Agility: 68

  Intelligence: 90

  Wisdom: 80

  Willpower: 101

  Perception: 55

  Free Points: 0

  Class Skills:

  Healing Touch, Common, master 1

  Cleanse, Common, Master 1

  Target Healing, Common, Journeyman 6

  Healers Intuition, Common, Novice 0

  Clean Common, novice 1

  Sword Mastery, Common, master 1

  Club Mastery, Common, Journeyman 2

  profession skills

  Warden’s Knowledge, N/A: Warden Site, Common, Novice 0: Universal translator, N/A: Spectral Guard, Journeyman 6: Warden’s suggestion, Journeyman 4, Novice 9: Warden's Command, Common, Novice 4: Warden’s Key, Common, Novice 0: Summon Handcuffs, Common, Novice 7

  General Skills:

  Inspect, Common, Novice 1

  Meditation Common, Journeyman 3

  Bonded Skills:

  Respond and Chains of Gehenna

  Titles: Warden of Gehenna

  Bloodline Skills:

  Mental Resistance, Common, Master 0

  Physical Resistance, Common, Master 7

  Soul Resistance, Common, Master 0

  Bloodline: Fortitude

  Bonds:

  Galaxy Trade Store tablet, Chains of Gehenna, the Prison Gehenna, Sword Cane Rare

  “Well, I’ve gotten all I can out of the banshees. I think it’s time to go into the castle.” Theo thought.

  Theo headed towards the castle, and he was on the right side of the castle. He got closer to the castle wall so he could see through the haze. If he cannot find a side passage, he would go towards the castle's main gate. Luckily, a couple of feet away from him was an entrance. Theo opened the door and saw a hallway. The floor was made of cracked marble stone, and there were bloodstains on the walls. He blinked his eyes. The hallway transformed, and it was now a luxurious, clean, blood-stain-free hallway.

  “Did I imagine that?” Theo thought

  Rubbing his eyes, Theo wanted to see what was in the castle, so he walked into the hallway.

  Spectral Guard, and saw a creature similar to the Host. It was transparent; it was black instead of a blue hue around its body. It was a female; her face was pale, a contrast to the black hue that came off her, and her eyes, which were solid white, and she had jagged, elongated set of teeth that caused her jaw to be unhinged, and her hair flowed like it was underwater. She wore a cloak over her body. The cloak itself was ratty, dark brown, and looked like oily black veins were crawling all over the ratty cloak. It turned towards Theo; the Banshee had long serrated claws for hands. Theo used the skill Identify on it.