Stray Soul

The turtle started to rise off of the ground while chunks of dirt and grass slid off of its shell and fell to the ground.

And while that was happening, I was just trying to not fall and tumble down myself because, contrary to what the internet has led me to believe, this turtle, tortoise, or whatever the fuck it is, is very quick, and continues to unearth itself very quickly!

And what is this with all theses animals with gigantism and living underground?! Can’t a man just see the things interested in killing him from far away? Can’t I rest for but a moment?

But, seemingly wanting to flip a middle finger at me, the turtle continued to rise while I tried to not fall of off it, which was pretty hard when the earth under your feet was literally slipping away.

But after a few tense minutes, the shaking under my hooves stopped, and I had the chance to finally observe the monstrosity I had awoken and... it just looked like an oversized turtle.

Not even skin made of rock, or gems for eyes, a total let down in my humble, and very correct, opinion, but not that I complain because I could really use not having to fight against a magically charged turtle or a golem in the shape of a turtle.

But now that I am now looking at this turtle... it’s really large, and though I cannot give exact measurements... its back must be at least 5 meters wide, or something around that and when it rose up fully, it basically doubled my height so it must be around or larger than 130 cm, which is what I assume to be my height.

As I was admiring the sheer size of the turtle, I realized that it was side eyeing me, and we started having a short staring contest which... didn’t really lead to anything.

I am sure that this turtle can’t harm me, because it just doesn’t have a limb long enough to go back to its back, and attack me, and it knows this, and other than knowing that it cannot attack me, it probably also knows that I can’t attack it, or harm it by myself because of its... probably very thick shell, and the fact that it can just retract any and all of its limbs back into its shell whenever it wants.

So... we are just at a standstill because, even though I’d love to scamper out of here and never meet any member of this species of turtle again, I cannot do that because this thing is at least a rank higher than me, and would absolutely wreck me if I even attempted to land on somewhere near it, and even if I was able to jump a few meters away from it, which I am very confident in doing, it’d just charge at me, like what the bear did yesterday... which I am not very keen on repeating as there is no conveniently placed bee hives nearby... or at least I don’t think so?

Maybe the god of luck will smile upon me and grant me a beehive in the direction I run at but... luck is a bitch, so I am not too keen on trusting it either so... I guess I am just stuck here for now, aren’t I?

So, I just... continued my little staring contest with the... weirdly bored and sleepy looking turtle, who knew reptiles could be this expressive?

But after only a minute or so, the turtle retracted its head and other limbs back, and I felt its shell hit the ground with a small thumb.

“It’s... going back to hibernation or whatever it was doing?” I asked, unsure of what was happening, not that I complained though as I was more than happy to let the bygones be bygones and move away from our unfortunate encounter.

So, I let myself get to the backseat, and let my lesser souls actually take care of the areas I assigned them... but, to my dismay, instead of the turtle just standing there and going back to sleep or whatever, it started tilting from one side to the other, very quickly.

And as quickly as it started tilting to the sides, probably trying to either throw me or slide me off of its shell, did I start controlling my body and, for the dear life of me, tried to stand upon the shell of the turtle, not wanting to get thrown off and be potentially chomped off by the turtle as I had seen enough videos of tortoises eating strawberries to know that those jaws worked!

And let me tell you, they worked very, very well!

But, probably offended by me calling him a bitch, luck decided to make me get thrown off of the turtle... while also not making the turtle flip?

I am not so sure about the psychics of that one but... not that I have the time to contemplate over it as I am kinda flying through the air and... is that a tre—?

“UGH!!” I grunted when I hit the tree, not from the pain, mind you, as I didn’t really feel pain anymore, but from the seer surprize I experienced when I hit the tree because... who the fuck expects to be thrown at a tree by an oversized turtle?

And if you do... what is wrong with you? Please, get some help.

Wait! This is not the time to get distracted... it’s the time to dip!

And then, dip I did.

I started dumbing mana into my legs, not caring if I spent 50 or 100, or for the damaged bones and the fallen off plates on my body, as I really needed to get away from the turtle before it realized that it succeeded in throwing me off and decided to take a bite out of me... though I don’t know if turtles eat meat... not that I am trying to find out though.

And as I was running away, I watched what the turtle was doing from the eye at the back of my head and after coming out of its shell it looked at me and... then started digging?

Wait... w—was this fucker seriously going to go back into hibernation or whatever after breaking my bones?!

Which is... fair but, seriously? If you were not going to chase me, you could’ve at least given me the decency of keeping my body undamaged!

Ugh... whatever... maybe I shouldn’t’ve used that much mana to get a head start then... how much do I even have left now? System, you know what to do!

Name: William Race: Stray Soul (Vine Deer)

Level: 10 Exp: 2/20 Rank: H

Health Points: 0/103 Mana Points: 123/402

Strength: 0 (13)

Vitality: 0 (10)

Agility: 0 (15)

Intelligence: 21 (19)

Wisdom: 19 (14)

Charisma: 0 (16)

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills: Ethereal Body (S), Mana Sense (Z), Bind (Z), Soul Sense (Z), Soul Manipulation (Z), Mana Control (Z), Mana Strengthening (Z) + (Sprint, Dash, Harden)

Titles: Reincarnator (S), Otherworlder (A)

Quests: Meddling with the Unknown (S)

Ouch... 123 out of 402... I need to rest here for a few hours now, don’t I?

Actually, how much how much do I need to rest for... fuck, I will need to rest for most if not all of the day now... this is why I keep stopping every hour or so to rest up... what a pain in the ass... I wonder though, was there a way for me to not use 100 mana at the same time there?

...No, there is no point in lamenting my past decisions as it was the only thing that made sense for me to do at the moment, I mean, it was either get chomped by a turtle, or lose a lot of mana, and I chose to lose a lot of mana instead getting a part of me chomped off, which was the only sensible choice as far as I am aware.

Hmm... well, if I was better at mana strengthening, I could’ve always just lost less mana for more speed, but I am not at that level yet, so was there even a way to lose less mana there... or is there a way to lose less mana in the future in a situation like that?

...I mean... more agility? But I need to get a stronger corpse for better agility, don’t I?

“...Wait, that’s not necessarily the case now, is it?” I said looking at my Brain Bagtm, which increased my intelligence and wisdom thanks to do brain in it so, while I was pretty sure I couldn’t get more speed by having a Flesh Bagtm, I should be able to get more agility if I had another pair or 2 of legs now, shouldn’t I?

But the question is not how I will get a leg, which is obviously to kill another vine deer, or a normal deer as deer are the only animals with legs as long as mine... I think?

Anyways, I will get new legs from other deer, or deer related species, but the question is... how do I graft legs to my body?

I can’t exactly manipulate singular strands of muscle as I do with plants, not sure why, but I cannot do it, maybe I will be able to do it in the future, but not now.

So, that leaves me with 2 options I can see, first one is to just stab the flesh of a leg with a lot of branches, and keep it locked to my body like that or, keep a bit more than the legs themselves so I can put the bones that connect them to the rest of their... previous body, and just put those bones inside me, or like before, lock them in place with vines or branches.

But... are there any deer that I can kill?

I mean, yeah, I could probably kill most deer I encounter, if I wanted to that is, but the problem is... I don’t have that much mana, and I want to jump on any deer that is neither pregnant, nor a female, nor young and capable of fighting back, so preferably an old, and maybe sick, male deer, because I am pretty sure we are either in mid or mid-late spring, which should be the breeding season for most animals, and I don’t want to damage a population like I said before and the reason as to why I want to jump any deer that meet my criteria is that... I don’t know if I’ll meet many that fit it, so I need to grasp at any chance I get...

“Not that I am just going to see a deer that perfectly meet my criteria, passing in front of me now, will?” I said to myself, lamenting the fact that I needed to stay here because of a gigantic turtle, who shall remain unnamed, decided to throw me at a tree!

... I am definitely coming back here and killing that turtle in the future, just you wait you reptilian looking ass!

But, as I continued to lament my situation, I saw the perfect deer passing a bit further from me, it seemed to be old, or at least I assumed it to be old because of its sagging skin, it also was a male, from its antlers, and it... seemed weak, I could practically see its ribs from even here!

“That’s... awfully convenient...” I said to myself, getting up, and preparing to ambush the creature which seemed... to be in pain.

So, I was kinda doing it a service by killing it? I mean... it probably wants to continue living... but I am going to tell myself that it’d want to die... not that I particularly care if my prey wants to live on or not though.

But I have to be careful with this one, not because of any moral conundrums but, because I didn’t have any time to recover mana... eh, damn the consequences!

I’ll get like a dozen intelligence and wisdom, other than 2 new pairs of legs to booth!

This deer is basically a candy shop to me, so if I am quick in killing it, I should be fine and dandy!

Then, I slowly moved behind the deer, taking care to not make any noise, and prepared my horns... and realized I had lost a bit more plates than I would’ve liked but, I don’t plan on giving the deer a chance to attack back so... who cares?

Taking my position, and preparing to charge at the deer, I pushed some mana to my legs, and charged out of my cover, and while the old deer realized where I was in the last moment, it was futile because I was basically on it and soon sunk a few horns into it, causing it to start bleeding and run, though I wasn’t too worried about the deer escaping as, like I said, the horns I stabbed into it caused it to bleed so it’d die soon, or at least slow down enough for me to kill it.

So, I started fallowing the trail of blood left on the forest floor which... would attract a few predators... maybe I’ll go near the turtle after taking the legs, the brain and... maybe the eyes of the deer? You know, for detection? And totally not because I have weird attraction to eyes...

Look! I am slowly becoming an eldritch abomination, okay? So, it’s only natural that I’d want more eyes! It’s basically what eldritch abominations live for!

But before I could finalize my decision of what to take and what to leave behind on the deer, I heard a loud thud noise coming from in front of me, but because I didn’t get the system message, I just assumed that it collapsed, and started advancing towards it quickly, hoping to end the creatures suffering as quickly as possible.

I wasn’t a sadist after all... and, I am saying this again, I am still not the masochist protagonist that constantly hurts themselves or others in their bid to attain power, me not being a sadist doesn’t mean I am a masochist, and I don’t plan on being such a dumbass, ever... not the masochist, part, I mean no, I don’t plan on being a masochist, not because bdsm is wrong but... eh, fuck it, you get what I mean.

But as I started seeing the nearly dead deer, I also saw... wait, are those fucking goblins?!

Yeah, I swear those are fucking goblins!

Short, green, large ears, and the loincloth that is mandatory for any and all versions of goblins, its just a part of their brand, you know? There cannot be no goblin without a loincloth!

And they even have 2 stone spears to booth! And no, I am not jealous of the fact that these little shits that are described as the literal definition of an imbecile in most stories found flint before I did... I said I am not jealous! SHUT UP!!!

But... instead of being ugly, these ones just look like children... and their big eyes and ears even gives them the vibes of being a cute animal... well, a cute animal that was about to stab a deer in the head with a spear... yes, that is quite gory but... they still look kinda cute, okay?

But why are they not doing anything... oh! They must be scared of the fact that they are getting stared down on by a creature straight out of hell that has 4 eyes, black chitinous plates covering its body, vines that hold horns made of black chitin, and a clearly rotten looking body... yeah... I wonder why they are frozen in place like a deer about to get hit by a car... can’t guess why though.

Must be one of the seven mysteries of our time!

But anyways, why are they even trying to kill the deer?

It can’t be for meat now, can it? No creature, even the creature that is the literal definition of an imbecile, can be stupid enough to eat a creature that is clearly diseased, no?

Hmm... then they must be after the exp then, right?

Now, do I care about the exp that I’ll get from the deer... yes, yes, I do, what a stupid question is that?

But do I want it enough to potentially leave 2... maybe children, maybe adult goblins scarred for life?

No, not really. I think I am just going to leave them be as I am more interested in the corpse of the deer, than the deer itself.

Deciding that I didn’t want to scar the... weirdly quite cute and endearing looking goblins, I started to slowly walk away from them, and I could practically see the life return to their eyes as I walked away, and after nearing where the turtle was, which was honestly not that far away from where the deer died, I finally got the system notification for the deer’s death.

Congratulations! You have defeated Deer (H) Level 12!

As Deer (H) is weakened by external factors, your exp gain will be reduced.

As Goblin (H) has contributed to the defeat of Deer (H), your exp gain will be reduced.

24> 12 exp

... Eh, exp is exp.