Shepherd Wizard

Chapter 125

Translator: Pai_

Those who begin to think with their true self and open their spiritual eyes are able to see a new world.

Turan, who had opened the third eye located somewhere inside the skull, between the brain, could now understand the meaning of those words.

In the spiritual world, things did not appear in the same colors as in reality.

A pitch-black sky, a land in deep gray, and various non-living objects.

Finally, all living creatures visible within his field of vision squirmed in a mixture of red, blue, and yellow hues.

After a moment, Turan’s gaze turned toward himself.

If it were a physical eye, such a thing would be impossible, but with this spiritual eye, he was able to look within himself.

A tiny lump located deep inside the brain.

It was far too small to be considered the medium controlling this vast body, yet that tiny lump was his spiritual body, his true self.

‘I thought I was all healed, but seeing it like this, there are still quite a few cracks. Maybe it’ll take a little longer to recover.’

Just like a newborn baby, a freshly awakened spiritual body was typically in a state where it was difficult to exert any proper strength.

It was no surprise that this much damage had occurred, considering he had used such a spiritual body as an anchor to forcibly restore a broken physical body.

Rather, he should be grateful that it was in this good a condition.

Fortunately, he could sense that these hairline cracks were not permanent damage and could heal with sufficient rest.

As he looked a little more closely, he could see four symbols inside the cracked spiritual body.

Lightning and clouds, darkness and eye.

They were the powers of Aravion and Zahar that dwelled within him.

‘Touching those... it’s probably better to wait until I’m more used to this.’

Unlike before, when he could only observe the Mimic Relic, he now felt that he could reach out to those symbols.

Perhaps the reason gods were able to handle mysterious powers by blending various symbols was also based on this spiritual ability.

However, Turan did not rush to attempt it.

Just as the book repeatedly warned, dealing with the spiritual world required the utmost caution.

All the more so in a vulnerable state like this.

“Hoo...”

“What is it, why the sigh? You feeling sick?”

“Just.”

As his head throbbed and he deactivated his spiritual perception, letting out a sigh, Solif, who had approached at some point, spoke up.

Judging by the tiny Bije hanging on to his side, it seemed they had gone out to the city together, but for some reason, she was stabbing at Solif’s neck repeatedly, clearly furious.

"What's wrong now?"

-That idiot stole and ate all my jerky again!

"Did you eat her jerky?"

“Just a bit on the way back. It was good.”

Solif answered nonchalantly, as if daring her to peck all she wanted, then walked into the house.

Maybe feeling deflated by that response, Bije sulkily slipped into Turan’s body.

-I really hate him. Punish him for me!

“Go easy on him. You’re the great and mighty Magical Beast King, Bije.”

-But even a king gets hungry.

“I’ll make you more jerky. Let me check if we’ve got any leftover spices.”

A short while later, Turan flew up into the sky with Bije.

Unlike usual, when her small size meant he had to hang onto her legs, she had now grown large enough that he could ride on her back.

Judging from the feeling conveyed through their Soul Bond, Bije seemed rather proud of that fact.

-Found a rabbit!

-Let’s go down.

The fact that they could now communicate telepathically while using Concealment magic was also a major gain.

Normally, communication was impossible while concealed.

After sweeping through several dozen kilometers nearby, they caught three or four rabbits. Turan then dismembered them, sprinkled spices, marinated the meat, and used Magic to extract the moisture and dry it.

In no time, some decent-looking jerky was ready.

“There. Satisfied?”

-Yes!

Fortunately, the mighty Magical Beast King Bije seemed to be quite pleased with the humble offering of jerky.

For some reason, she preferred eating dried meat like this over fresh meat.

Of course, her absolute favorite was freshly caught mackerels.

After preparing Bije’s snack, they stopped by a small nearby village.

People going about their everyday lives as usual.

When he activated his spiritual perception, he could observe a sight quite different from the quiet hideout that had remained untouched by human presence.

From the ghost of an old man who seemed to have died not long ago sitting dejectedly, to the ghost of a newborn baby who died from illness, to a blood-covered boy ghost who might have been killed by some wild animal.

Translucent figures of the dead were wandering all throughout the village.

As Turan watched them, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he sent a thought to Bije, who was beside him.

-Bije, could you deactivate your Concealment for a moment? Not completely, just enough so you’re invisible to the eye.

-Okay!

Even with spiritual perception, it was impossible to see a creature using complete Concealment, but if it was just regular invisibility where the eyes couldn’t see, it was possible.

Turan looked at Bije’s spiritual body revealed through his spiritual eyes.

Unlike with other humans, whose interiors he could not see, inside her, he saw four holes.

They were shaped similarly to the four bloodlines Turan possessed.

Most likely, those were the factors that allowed Bije to borrow Turan’s bloodline abilities and what made them a compatible match.

‘It’d be great if I could find more magical beasts like this.’

A magical beast capable of wielding the same bloodline ability as Solif would make for the perfect vanguard, and one who could borrow Meisa’s bloodline ability would be a huge help in making magic artifacts.

When Turan returned to the hideout after his outing, Meisa happened to be basking in the sun in the garden, looking drowsy as if she had just finished making a magic artifact.

“Where did you go? You’re still not fully well.”

“Just a light walk. Got some food for Bije too. I’m almost all better now, so don’t worry.”

-I’m rich with jerky now!

Unfortunately, Bije’s voice could only be heard by Turan, but just from the way she proudly tapped the jerky pouch hanging from her chest, it wasn’t hard to notice how pleased she was.

Watching the two of them, Meisa smiled warmly and began rummaging through her pouch.

“Here, try this on.”

“Isn’t that pushing it a bit?”

“Oh, come on. It’s nothing.”

What Meisa handed over was clothes similar to those gifted by Ashiz, which Turan used to like but with designs that reflected Meisa’s personal taste.

Like Ashiz’s gift, they were equipped with basic features like self-repair and self-cleaning, and on top of that, they had added functions that boosted defense, created by borrowing Solif’s power.

“How is it?”

“Looks good on me.”

As Turan tried on the full set, a smile appeared on Meisa’s face.

*

A few days later, Turan, feeling that his spiritual body had recovered more completely, began the process of awakening the spiritual perception of Solif and Meisa in earnest.

It was similar to the way one helps a baby bird break out of its egg.

If the inside wasn’t sufficiently matured and too much external force was applied, they would be brought into the world in an immature state.

To ensure their spiritual bodies wouldn’t be damaged, Turan made gentle, precise contact from the outside to guide their awakening.

Fortunately, as written in the Soul Magic Book, under the guidance of a forerunner, awakening one’s soul was relatively easier.

Meisa, who had been progressing faster to begin with, succeeded in a week.

Even Solif, who was a bit slower, managed to open his soul’s eye like Turan within ten days.

“So this is what it meant when it said having someone to guide you is important.”

“If Turan hadn’t awakened first, I think it would’ve taken us ages to do this on our own.”

Solif said as he massaged his temples, clearly feeling some strain.

Unlike Turan, the spiritual bodies of the two were still extremely immature.

They had to struggle hard to fully open their spiritual vision and couldn’t maintain the state for long.

From what Turan could guess, his spiritual body had likely become stronger than theirs during the process of being damaged and then recovering.

Like how muscles grow stronger after being torn and rebuilt.

It was quite fitting to compare it to muscles, as the achievement of soul magic worked similarly.

Just as sore muscles come from hard training, maintaining spiritual perception longer became possible through cycles of spiritual body damage and recovery.

At first, they struggled to maintain spiritual perception for even ten seconds, but with steady practice, their skills gradually improved.

Once they were able to maintain spiritual perception for over a minute, they began practicing basic techniques like clairvoyance, which allowed them to move their spiritual body to see distant objects, and remote touch, which let them feel the texture of objects they hadn’t physically touched.

Of course, during that time, Turan had already taken a step ahead, training and mastering additional techniques.

He was learning how to handle the spiritual body by summoning the Librarian from the jewel box and making direct contact.

“How does it feel, elder?”

“Strange. A bit... creepy.”

The Librarian, who had never directly touched another spiritual body before and was now holding hands for the first time since its creation, grimaced.

Of course, Turan could sense that this was just its way of expressing awkwardness.

After all, the Librarian had gone on to ask for several more handshakes.

After learning how to interact with spirits, Turan took out soul fragments that had been slumbering in the Jewel Box and practiced handling them.

Though he wasn’t yet capable of advanced operations like the Librarian, who could dig into them and analyze their internal information, he could see a few faint and vague remnants.

[...I... beauti...]

[Sudden... thank...!]

The world shown through the remnants of the soul fragments displayed scenes Turan had never seen in his life.

Skyscrapers towering into the sky, thick dust clouds darkening the air until the sky was no longer visible, multicolored beams of light illuminating the night.

These landscapes, which he had no idea where in this world he might find, were likely remnants of the old empire where the gods had once lived.

Having reached that level of progress, Turan then tried a few more things while waiting for his companions to catch up.

For example, he attempted a technique from the Soul Magic Book considered heretical, which involved suppressing and controlling the soul of a living being, but that nearly got him killed again, earning him a lecture. Or he tested whether the bloodline specialized in melee combat or the one specialized in ranged combat was better at handling souls by switching the bloodline of his Mimic Relic.

During this time, he made another surprising discovery.

“How is it?”

"I'm certain. When the Nagin bloodline is activated, the strength of the spiritual body seems to increase significantly.”

In the past, Turan had absorbed the power of the Nagin bloodline from Renaud, Meisa’s brother and the vessel of the fallen god Ymir, by killing him.

That bloodline held the power to dominate living beings and bind the souls of humans and magical beasts together.

Since he hadn’t found much use for it, it was originally the first one he had planned to discard once he secured a better bloodline.

But surprisingly, when the Nagin bloodline was activated, the spiritual body became stronger and easier to handle.

It seemed that the power to dominate souls was being enhanced.

"Come to think of it, we did talk about that before. That with the power of the Ruler bloodline, you might be able to command spirits."

“I never imagined it would work like this, though.”

“Maybe soul manipulation is actually connected to life-dominating magic.”

If that were the case, then it was no coincidence that Turan, who was most skilled at life domination magic, was also proficient in handling souls.

And perhaps that’s also why the Nagin family chose to be bound with the seemingly inefficient combination of the Ruler and Tamer bloodlines.

By then, Meisa and Solif had caught up to Turan’s level fairly well, so the three of them would leave the hideout each night to visit the cemeteries of distant villages.

The training they were undertaking this time was to make contact with ghosts.

“Uh, hello there? Sir?”

[Hrrrnnnghhh-]

“Doesn’t seem like he’s in a good mood.”

After addressing an old man’s ghost and receiving only a groan, who knows if it was a response or not, Solif shrugged his shoulders.

These types of ghosts, perceivable through spiritual perception, were unlike any spiritual entities in existing necromantic systems.

Since they weren’t alive, they weren’t living spirits; and since they hadn’t been revived through magic power, they weren’t undead spirits; nor were they spirits in any other sense.

[Ughhh......cry......aaaaahhh......]

Some ghosts could speak, but even they couldn’t carry out meaningful conversations. At best, they would endlessly spew out a few intense emotions from their lifetime.

It was truly a shame.

“Actually, maybe it’s a good thing.”

“Huh?”

"Nothing, just talking to myself."

Turan shook his head in response to Solif’s question and recalled what had happened not long ago.

When he confirmed that he could see ghosts through spiritual perception, he had secretly visited both the sheep ranch and his mother’s grave.

But at neither location did the ghost of Bizella appear.

‘Normally, ghosts only appear within about three or four years after death.’

Though there were personal differences, that was the general rule.

According to the magic book, it varied depending on factors like the lingering resentment during life or one’s spiritual aptitude.

If that was the case, then there was a high chance that Bizella’s soul had already long since vanished.

Considering that ghosts were essentially nothing more than the remnants of life, and that the way she looked right before death had been far from pleasant, maybe it was a good thing he didn’t meet her again.

Still, Turan wanted to see his mother once more.

Regardless of how others revered him as an object of awe, he was still only a young man of twenty-one.

*

About a month later, the three of them had finally reached the stage that had originally been their goal.

It was the ability to move their inner symbols and make them interact.

"Is it going well?"

“Not at all. I don’t even have a clue. How the hell are the sun and shield supposed to combine?”

“Don’t ask me.”

At least Meisa had a direction to follow, imitating the presumed Thunder Lord, the head of House Aravion, whom Turan had seen in the past.

She hadn’t yet produced a result, but her path forward was clear.

The problem was with Turan and Solif.

Neither of them had any sense of how to make their own symbols interact.

On top of that, even moving the symbols was no easy task, so it was difficult to get in much practice each day.

“Hmm...”

“Maybe try putting the sun inside the shield?”

“Then wouldn’t the person holding the shield get burned? Isn’t it better if sunlight radiates outward from the shield?”

As they exchanged thoughts like this, Turan suddenly sensed something and raised his hand upward.

Bije, who had appeared from somewhere, skillfully landed on it.

"You're back already?"

-Yes!

“Ashiz gave you something tasty again today?”

Now that she was smaller and capable of using Concealment, Bije could move in and out of House Berk even more easily than before.

About once every few weeks, she visited to exchange letters, and each time she returned with a stuffed belly, making it clear how much she had eaten.

-No, this time he just told me to go. And he said to deliver it as quickly as possible. So I came without sleeping.

Bije spoke in a slightly sulky tone as she handed over the letter tied to her ankle.

Come to think of it, her belly did look rather flat today.

What in the world could have been so urgent that he didn’t even feed her properly before sending her off?

“Let’s see...”

Turan barely had read the letter before a low groan escaped his lips as he read.

“Looks like it’s about time for us to leave.”

“Why?”

“Ashiz’s older brother has been kidnapped.”

At those words, the expressions on Solif and Meisa’s faces hardened.

In particular, Meisa’s reaction was more intense, given that she was a relative of Ashiz and cherished him deeply.

“...Who did it?”

Though her voice was as high and thin as always, it carried a chilling killing intent that would unsettle anyone who heard it.

Turan lightly tapped the table a few times with his finger, waiting for her to calm down, before speaking.

“Apparently, even Ashiz isn’t exactly sure. He only heard that it happened on the way back from delivering goods to the Aravion main house.”

“Then...”

“Well, there are plenty of suspects. House Aravion, who resents House Berk because of Meisa’s escape and the internal whistleblowing. House Carmine, who might want to cut off the supply of magic artifacts before the war. Or even House Zahar, who could’ve been involved as mercenaries for either side...”

Of course, whoever the culprit was didn’t make much difference.

House Berk was a friend of Turan, and whoever targeted them would now have to face his wrath.

*****

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