A wizened professor stands before a group of young Challenger Guild initiates within the confines of his mobile classroom, or otherwise known as a fancy tent."Inorder to start todays lecture I must ask. What is a soul? What is a body, and a mind? You in the back. What do you think they are."
The young elf freezes, for a moment before answering." One's soul houses ones foundation, which is governed by the mind and expressed through the body. While everything is powered by an individual's core."
"That is a good explanation of how your aspects function together and shows you are quite well studied, but such an answer does not match my question, what are they."
This time an Ork girl speaks up." Your body is all the meat you're made of…your mind is you, everything that makes you, unique. While you're soul is your truest self, that which give out last."
"That's asinine!" Scoffs an Avian man.
"Yet it's close enough, I'm quite glad to see that the ork hordes have such an enlightened view of the fundamental aspects. Though with the question of what is one's body, mind and soul answered. We must ask ourselves what is Spi, Spirit, and Faith." The professor looks to the class eagerly this time.
An older looking goblin answers for no other reason than to break the uncomfortable silence." There what's leftover when you're aspects mingle, that's why people often called them the three impurities. Astral taint, Fundamental gaps, and Heart demons have been the down fall of many aspiring ascendents in my clan."
"They are often viewed as impurities…but they are also sources of power…no what they truly are is natures attempt to create a core, or rather circumvent creating one! After all without a core tieing your fundamental aspects together it's only thanks to these lesser mixed aspects that you can live at all. In the absence of a core you need Spirit for your Soul and Body to communicate, Spi for your Body and Mind, then Faith for your Soul and Mind."
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A rather serious human woman slides into the classroom/tent as the wizened professor watches his students leave."So esstemed professor…how are the new recruits coming along?"
"We have a few with promising individuals… but not as many as you want, and even less than I hoped for. I swear the clans are intentionally filling there kids heads with false information and bad habits! Who's bright idea was it to create a cultivation manual that consumes the users Spi?" The professor shakes his head with profound disappointment.
"The System has only otherized low G grade ascendants into the newest partial realm. We need theses kids ready to leave camp yesterday, so how much longer will there education take?"
"Another week at least, mostly because the elves have already mostly destroyed their Asrtal body's and need direct guidance to fix the damage…."
Suddenly the Professors eyes open wide as a subtle but noticeable fluctuation emerges from the portal at the center of the Guilds base camp.
Noticing the look in the old man's eyes the woman immediately grabs his arm." What did you sense! Do we need to evacuate!"
"Heavens no! We need to move out now an Edge Walker has been born in that Realm! We can't lose another to corruption!" The old man tries to extract himself from the woman's grip but as the leader of this expedition she naturally able to restrain her subordinates ability's.
"Tell me which kids are ready to leave, I'll send them after the new Edge Walker immediately, but I won't let you violate a System edict… our Guild Branch is still on thin ice from the last integration we botched…" the old man looks at the expedition leader like she's insane, but still slowly moves to do as she says. Going through his notes he selects the best 3 students to send to the realm early, he can only hope that the Edge Walker hasn't made any enemies yet! Though historically the odds aren't in the Guilds favor.
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Fragment watch's as an outsider while his physical body gradually grows distant. His Soul sinking deeper into himself while a gate rip's open within his chest engulfing his soul. Suddenly the difference between his physical and Astral bodies shifts becoming even more blurry as the gates in his neck, wrist, and ankles expand outward froming thin bands of mist around his limbs. With a final internal twist the immutable barrier that once protected his soul from the Astral plane rips apart. Letting Force flow naturally between both bodies and be drawn in by both bodies.
After regaining his ability to move Fragment releases a pained grunt as his bones pop from having been laying parlized for so long and pulls himself out of a puddle of his own drool . "There's no way that was the normal intended effect from eating that barry." Fragment blinks confused as he sees the familiar cuffs on his wrists. Cuffs he last saw in the Astral plane?With an unconscious flex he sends a Pulse of Astral mass though out both versions of his body despite the skills protests, and gets a general feel for his alterd state. "Odd.I don't feel that different over all.hmmm." Sitting back down he pulls out his status book and tries to find some answers.
Name-Fragment \_0C |<
Race-Human
•Body-H
•Mind-H
•Soul-H
•Core-N/A
Level-o[5%]*
Class-N/A
Job-N/A
•Affinity-[Spirit(H)]
•Traits-[Astral Vessel*]
•Abilities-[Cleave]
•Skills-[Bind-Lv:3][Pulse-Lv:1]
•Shards-[Astral][Survival][Survival][Soul]
Health-[65%]
Force-[99%]
Conditions-[Auto Possession] [2rd degree burns]
•Constitution-[5+1]
-Strength-[3
-Durability-[9
-Vitality-[4
•Awareness-[3]
-Wisdom-[9
-Dexterity-[3
-Agility-[3
•Will-[10+1]
-Intelligent-[5
-Refinment-[15*]
-Power-[12
•Charisma-[4]
-Presences-[4
-Attraction-[5
-Aura-[3
•Luck-[1]
"A new shard has appeared amung the others housed in my core, said core is now barely large enough to hold them now as well. So I'll have to hold off on accepting improvements for a while…why is refinment closed now?" He tries using Pulse but the skill seems to requires an at least metaphorical touch of some sort, so every time he uses the skill on his stat book all he hears is A Status Book- Book-Book-a Real Book!
"That's not very useful. What am I even supposed to poke to learn more about a trait called Astral Vessal? Yes its probably similar to Willfull Vessal just, now properly integrating the gates I accidentally made but still… what if there's other important things it lets me do?" So Fragment spends the next few hours waiting for Ghost to wake up from her nap exploring the limits of his altered composition. He quickly finds his Force regeneration has almost doubled, much to his Spirit wepons joy. His control over astral mass and Force has greatly improved though that might be because of how Refinement has grown beyond 10 points. Finally Force can now freely pass into his Astral body directly after leaving his soul and leave out any of his five gates without any strain or extra. The engery actually moves faster passing through his Astral body now than it does within his physical one. Over all, Fragment can't help but feel satisfied with having received an improved trait and core refinement. Rather than having gained as many raw attributes as Ghost did from eating her Mind Fruit.