A path to ascention. Soul lords trials.

It had been a couple of weeks since Rex returned from the dungeon dive, the inspiration from encountering the cradle of growth and evolution still fresh and doing wonders for him. He was spending the nights with his ladies, ensuring tha teach and every one of them was sattisfied in more ways than one, but the rest of his time was single handedly spent focusing on comprehending even deeper misteries of the soul and blood in extention. He had gone so far, as to abbandon any other paralel project he had been runing in his mind, focusing only on soul.

As the two weeks passed by, he understood more and more, feeling the aproach of an eppifany. He could feel himself being at a bottleneck, just a small push was all he needed to realize the next step he had to take, to transcend the limits of a mortal. While he no longer had to worry about aging, an issue that had been solved a long time ago for both himself and his ladies, he was well aware that there was something missing before he could call himself transcendant. He was now well aware that most would break said shackles by absorbing a spark, a revelation he came upon when being in the presence of the dungeon core with a vessel of a spark still developing within it.

Yet, at the same time, his mind had came to a question that he was now wrking on answering. Sparks are a fragment of the laws of the world, so naturally, there must be some, who have comprehended said lawas without absornign any sparks. Such beings should be in a league of their own, should they not? And so, his current plan had hathched. He would focus solely on the path of the soul, something that resonated greatly with his bloodline, and then use said resonance to push his understanding further, to the point where he could step into the realm of transcendent beings.

It was at the end of the second week, mere month before the start of the second grand auction of Blythe that Rex finally broke past the bottleneck, entering a state that could not be explained with words. He was and was not at the same time, seeing the world through his soul for the briefest of moments, and yet, that moment, for it was nothing more to the rest of his ladies and servants, was so much more to Rex.

"Fascinating." he spoke once he came out of the mistical state he was in. "So thats how it is. No wonder."

'Omnipresence.' he thought, not willing to speak of his findings, for what he had comprehended was so far beyond the realms of gods, or so he reasoned. He was not aware of a single piece of lore in this world speaking of a soul lord, a god governing over the concept of souls, and now he could guess why. But at the same time, his path forward was also clear.

'I have to walk the path. And there is no better way than to live multiple lives, embracing the branching ability of ones soul, creating embers and stretching out, being in multiple places at the same time, yet always me, and no one else. omnipresence, yet limited in scale and scope. Just you wait, O benefactor of mine, I shall entertain you allright. Await the greatest suprise of all time.' He grinned as he looked up, his thoughts running through his mind at unprecedented speeds to create the proper spell for what he had in mind.

A day later, he sat alone on a remote hilltop, his spell formulated and ready. He once again looked up, a savage grinn adorning his face.

"A suprise and a gift for you. I dont know how soon you will be able to recieve and unwrap it, but I hope it brings you a jolt of excitement once you do!" With those words he activated the spell, a blindingly bright light flashed, followed by all consuming darkness that lasted for just a moment, and then it dissapeared, leaving the place just as how it was before, only Rex's smirk was even more wide now.

"Success."

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Somewhere, in the middle of a forest, in front of a lake with quite murky waters sat a young man, with rather lean, but musculed body. The young man was around the age of eighteen, his hands were quite rough and caloused, clearly used to hard work with quite crude and heavy tools. Dark brown, few centimeter long hair covered his head and the slightest stubble was covering the youths chin and upper lip. A clear indication of an overeager facial hair desiring to reaffirm the youths manliness. Dark brwon eyes, glazed over were looking off into the distance, no longer paying any attention to the line that was cast into the waters.

A while later, the glazed over eyes regained their light, a large smirk developing on the youths face.

"Success" he spoke in a low, but sure voice. Moments later he was looking at his own reflection, inspecting it quite well.

"Hmm, was expecting better, though it is me, through and through, even if a bit more rugged and rough around the edges." Even with the somewhat murhy water, he coul still see his own reflection well enough. Upon noticing a long departed companion, he slid a hand over his chin, sensing the roughness of the stubble.

"Hello, my old friend. He, he he he, how I missed you." Quite pleased with the discovery, but not so distracted that he did not notice the now slowly bobbing float, he switched his attention over to it, deciding to deal with the matter of dinner first, then organize the knowledge that he had just gone through during his motionless and glazed over state. he waited patiently for a while longer, then, with a rather sharp movement he pulled, hooking the fish and spending a few moemnts to reel it in. It was nothing impressive. The fish weighted a few hundred grams at most and as he inspected his catch, he recognized it as a lake nibbler. A common species around here, as well a decent source of protein.

Trowing it in the bucket, making the total increase to five lake nibblers, a number sufficient for his needs, he tidied up his place and left the lake, he would need around thirty minutes to reach his shack at the outer edges of the village. As he made his way home, he quickly went over the memories his shell of a body had of his life so far. The magic spell he had cast worked in quite simple manner. He took a miniscule spark of his soul, and it was sent through void to create him. A vessel to be precise, that was just as much him, as the current main body that had cast the spell. The body, along with the soul spark would develop and grow, untill his souls would wake up, revealing his true self. Who wants to go through life as a useless baby, incapable of controlling ones own bodily functions and other unpleasantless of childhood?

What did came as a suprise thought was something else. His life here was as mundane as one would guess from a rural village. He grew up an orphan, named Rat, as all aorphans were named after a creature utill their twentieth birthday where they went on a hunt and earned themselves a new name. The better the prey you brought back, the better name you could take. Theoretically, the sky was the limit, but taking down a bear or something better was a task too tall for most youngsters, even if it was allowed to form groups during the hunt. Such things were just too risky.

No, he was suprised for two reasons. First, he had just learned that by sending out these soul sparks, he gains access to memories of other lives he had lived before, and if the information he gained from this spark was the average, a drop in the ocan contained hundreds of years of experience. A cultivator from a murim world in this particular case. Though that was not the most peculiar thing right now. The second thing, and the more confusing matter at hand was that he could not feel the origin body, or the other few soul sparks he had sent out. Quite alarming, sure, but he supposed that it was one of a few possibilities. Either his connection had a limited range, and this soul spark had drifted out of it, or, just as likely, this soul spark was in a different world, making the connection impossible to establish.

Either way, there was quite a simple solution for either of the cases. All he would have to do, was to drain his way to the peak of mortal realm and the connection should be established. Regardless, Rex was still Rex, blood mage extraordinaire, and the descendant of a variant soul dragon. His path to power will be quick and bloody, just like last time. Well, similarily. This time he was well aware that this was real, not a game or a lucid dream, and with all the dark shit out of his system, as well as not having the signature eyes of archons, he could limit his bloodlust to monsters, both in the beast and human form. 'What, I aint no herbivore, nor am I a saint to let' monsters live. He thought to himself as the ridiculous idea of being a pacifist crossed his mind.

On his way home, as luck would have it, Rex ran into a couple of goblins, a staple nuisance around these parts, and a reliable sourse of copper coins for anyone willing to deal with the annoying little shits. Like any person would tell you, a couple goblins are just a nuisance, a couple dozens a threat to a small groups, and a couple hundred a plague that will do unspeakable things to any poor woman that happens to fall in their sights.

"Itadakimaasu". Rex smiled as he took the crude spear in one of his hands, placed his fishing gear on the ground and dashed towards the two goblins. 'Damn, I am slow.' he thought as he closed in onthe duo, both baring their teeth and screeching at Rex in their nonsensical growls. While incomparably slower than what his soul dragon body could do, this soul spark was used to it, and thus he had immaculate controll over his own body, even if the technique and skills he could use, thanks to his preivious experience both as Rex, and as the cultivator, was heavens above what this body had used while his soul was autopiloting through his early years.

Still, since only two goblins were of no true issue, not to a fully grown man such as himself, it took only a single stab through the eye to end the first one, and one strike of the spears shaft to the torso, followed by another stab into the second goblin to end the encounter.

'Easy peazy.' Thought Rex as he pulled out his knife and cut the left ear of both goblins, the proof of his kills. He had noticed that a miniscule amount of energy entered his body with each kill, but it was so negligable that he did not pay much attention to it as he prepeared to drain the two bodies. "Now, for the dessert" he touched the first goblin, remembering the good old days when he first drained his kill.

'Drain' he though in his head, activatin his signature skill, only for nothin to happen.

"Nani??" Rex exclaimed in confusion, not expecting such an outcome.

"Houston, I think we have a problem." Thinking for a moment longer, he came to a rather reasonable explanation.

'Ookay, so if we asume that I did not spend enough time to trully reawaken my soul, imprinting every ability of the main body, it would make sense that the full extent of the abilities do not show either. That would also explain why I have a passive drain, even if only a miniscule fraction of the original. That still means I dont have the upper limit, like most mortals, only I will probably have to spend a lot more time getting there.'

Thinking over the implications and complications, he came to a rather pleasant conclusion. 'Wait, doesnt that mean I can actually slwoly enjoy growing and developing in this life, while still having the chance to grind? have I done something incredible subconsciously? Hell, guess I am a genious.' Rex could not help but break out in a boisterous laughter, quite happy of the accident that had developed, writing it all off as 'Keikaku doori.'