Sylver Seeker

Sylver’s new body was nearly impossible to poison.

For starters, anything that entered his mouth and traveled down his throat was essentially incinerated. To be specific it was magically disassembled into its base components which would then be used to heal or build his flesh and muscle.

And aside from a small handful of poisons, that for reasons even Sylver didn’t understand affected undead, Sylver had purposely retained his liver’s functionality in the nameless organ that he had replaced it with.

It was roughly the size of Sylver’s fist, and handled everything blood-related, from oxygenating it, to filtering it, to producing the various hormones and chemicals he needed to maintain his body’s current appearance. Teeth, hair, fingernails, even scabs and scars were handled by this little ball of condensed flesh.

This meant that when Sylver opened his eyes and should have felt as if someone had bashed his head in from how terrible his hangover was, he instead woke up feeling refreshed, and not even a little thirsty.

“So you learned how to heal,” Sylver said.

Sylver straightened out his body and rose to his feet the way someone would push a tipped-over statue upright. He opened his eyes just to make things easier for the people who needed to use their eyes to see to have something to focus on when talking to him.

Yeva was standing near the couch in the corner and was very gently healing Ciege’s and Salgok’s hangover away. Murdok was nowhere to be seen.

“You barely got a word in last night. How’s life been treating you Yeva?” Sylver asked as he walked over to the couch Spring was laying on.

Sylver grabbed the back of the passed-out shade’s head and purged the alcohol sloshing around inside of his shadowy body. Spring burped out a small cloud of steam before he sat up and made enough room for Sylver to sit down next to him.

“Other than Ben making everything around him float, I genuinely have nothing to complain about. The monster outbreak was terrifying and devastating, but Salgok and Murdok kept us safe,” Yeva said.

Sylver solidified his shadow in front of him and kicked his legs onto it. He then widened it, so Spring could do the same.

“Lola mentioned that yeah. From the way she described it, it was very fortunate Murdok was here,” Sylver said.

Murdok, Salgok’s elder brother, had coincidentally decided to visit the ex-innkeeper, and just so happened to be helping the dwarf in the smithy when the first wave of monsters broke through the walls and barrier and laid waste to the city.

There were a lot of such coincidences.

That all seemed to coincidentally occur to the people Sylver cared about.

Sylver had left out a couple of details when he was telling his tale last night, primarily how he found a way into another realm, and how he managed to return. He also refrained from explaining that he had gone into the other realm with a purpose, and instead made it sound as if he had simply slipped and miraculously fell into a functional portal.

He told them he was heading to the city near the Schlagen mountains but skipped out on telling them why. Murdok was the only one in the group that didn’t immediately grasp the unspoken rule not to try to force information out of Sylver, but he caught on quickly enough.

Apart from his accent being so thick when speaking Eirish that Sylver had to concentrate to understand him, Sylver liked the dwarf.

“From what I’ve been told, the monster outbreak occurred at the best time possible. If it was a week earlier, or later, there would have been casualties. Arda got lucky in the fact that there were 5 S rank parties inside the city at the same time, they alone wiped out half the invading monsters,” Yeva said, and even though her back was towards Sylver, he could hear the raised eyebrow in her voice.

“Did you find a tutor for Benjamin yet? The sooner he starts the better,” Sylver asked.

Yeva turned her head to look at him, and she had an expression on her face that Sylver chose to ignore.

“I would offer to teach him, but my magic isn’t exactly compatible. Seeing that you’re able to animate golems and whatever that keycard thing enchantment was, you’ve perfected the exercises I gave you?” Sylver asked, and doubled down on changing the subject.

Yeva just stared at him, and waited, while she continued to heal the two passed-out men.

Soul magic was not exactly something the Ibis considered to be “magic.” Which in Sylver’s opinion was wrong, and the fact that he would have been considered the arch-soulmancer if they changed their classification, had nothing to do with it.

But, in the Ibis’ defense, soul magic was just a bit too “unique” to be considered magic.

Sylver’s method of controlling and casting with his soul couldn’t be more different from Aether’s, Oska’s, or Helca’s.

Oska couldn’t beat Sylver in a soul fight even if he was blindfolded and had both hands tied behind his back. But even with Sylver’s soul being significantly larger and stronger than Helca’s, she could outmaneuver him and hit him in a blind spot he didn’t even know about.

It was hard to explain, but the way a person wields a sword is different from the way they wield a warhammer or a shield.

Sylver had seen it mentioned in a grimoire he once found, that souls could be broken down into categories. And using a series of tests a soulmancer’s soul could be categorized as a sword, shield, battering ram, polearm, lance, spear, bow, hammer, and so on and so forth.

If the tests Sylver had performed on himself were to be believed, and assuming he hadn’t fucked them up, then his soul was a small blade, either a dagger and more fittingly, a scalpel. Nyx on the other hand was a two-handed battle-ax. Oska was an arrow, and Aether was an “unknown.”

To be more accurate, Aether failed 3 tests, and by the grimoire’s definition couldn’t be considered a mage capable of manipulating his soul.

Going by the way Sylver could feel Yeva had shaped her soul to heal her husband and Salgok, hers was some kind of armor piece, but Sylver couldn’t remember that section of the grimoire to be any more specific than that.

Certain types of death magic, those that targeted the soul directly, wouldn’t work on Yeva. If Sylver wanted to kill her, he would need to rely on physical attacks, crushing her heart, freezing her blood, heating her brainstem, that kind of thing.

“What were we talking about?” Sylver asked.

Yeva hadn’t said a word during Sylver’s silent trip down memory lane.

“You asked if she was done with the soul training exercises you left her,” Spring reminded.

“You said to stop if they started to hurt,” Yeva answered, as she stopped looking over her shoulder and turned her head back towards Ciege.

“Did they start to hurt?” Sylver asked.

“I couldn’t walk for a few minutes, lost all feeling in my legs. I gave Ms. Lola the book for safekeeping, and have been focusing on figuring out how to do it myself since then,” Yeva explained, as she finished healing the two, and stood up

“You’ve done well. Those golems outside, marvelous work. I think even I would struggle against them. Who built them?” Sylver asked.

“Murdok… Kind of. He’s a [War Smith], he designed two empty suits of armor, and I managed to stuff enough monster souls inside to bring them to life. One of Ms. Lola’s enchanters helped modify them. They both have a strength equivalent to a level 300 warrior. And with Salgok’s rune enchanted weapons, they’re quite formidable, even against higher leveled foes,” Yeva explained.

Sylver stood up from his seat and walked over to where Salgok and Ciege were sleeping. He placed a hand on both men’s foreheads and clicked his tongue. Yeva had done a great job healing their hangover, but they weren't going to be waking up any time soon.

“I need to get going, but I’ll be back again, I need Salgok to build something for me. What about Ciege, everything all right with him?” Sylver asked, and Yeva made a very strange face.

Not quite a frown, but not quite a smile either.

“Ms. Lola has been pressuring him into accepting a title of nobility. But even though we’ve explained to her that we’re very comfortable where we are, she keeps coming over to talk about all the ways it would benefit Ben, or how much safer we would be if we weren’t living in a house surrounded by people,” Yeva explained, and Sylver vaguely remember Lola mentioning this.

Ciege too, last night, now that he thought about it.

“What are you doing for Ben’s higher education? I don’t mean to offend, but if he’s already formed a stable enough mana core for unconscious levitation, then it would be a waste to-”

“We’re very comfortable where we are,” Yeva said, politely, but at the same time, somewhat viciously.

“I see…” Sylver said.

During the silence, Yeva sat down near Ciege’s head and started to run her hand through his hair.

“I know you both mean well. But all we’ve ever wanted was a small and simple life. All of-” Yeva gestured around the large office with her hand, “-this, isn’t us,” Yeva said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy and grateful for everything you’ve done for us, but I want Ben to grow up to be a silversmith, maybe a scholar. Shera thought her son was dead for 2 years, I don’t want to sit around worried that my son died on some adventure, or worse, got kidnapped for ransom because his parents are nobles,” Yeva said.

“In my personal opinion, you’re making a mistake,” Sylver offered.

Yeva didn’t outright tell him to fuck off, but her polite smile said as much.

“But I understand where you’re coming from, so I’ll talk to Lola,” Sylver said, as he walked over to Spring, and helped the shade remove his left foot’s shoe.

“There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to have to spend every waking moment afraid of some grand conspiracy coming after you and your child,” Yeva said.

“I didn’t say there was… Look, Lola is an elf, their mannerism and expressions don’t translate well to humans like you. And given the fact that she’s using something to guard her soul, you tried to use the fact that you could read her to your advantage, right?” Sylver asked.

“No, but I nearly did. I gave it to her as a gift, so I didn’t feel tempted,” Yeva corrected.

Sylver couldn’t help but smile. He had been worried Lola had gotten the thing because of him.

“Either way, I know she can sound callous and uncaring, especially if you don’t know to look for the subtle signs. As far as elves go, Lola is quite emotive. Their faces aren’t as expressive as you’re used to, dwarves just straight up can’t even tell if they’re happy or sad unless they’re actively laughing or crying. Anyway, you made a decision, I don’t like it, but it’s your decision to make…” Sylver said, and tried not to sound defensive.

He took Spring’s sock off and summoned a small scalpel into his hand from his [Bound Bones] storage.

“I didn’t mean-”

“Everything is fine Yeva, I know what you meant. While I’m here, could I ask for a favor?” Sylver asked as he remembered an idea he had thought of last night and had nearly completely forgotten.

“As long as it doesn’t involve becoming nobility or moving house, anything,” Yeva said.

“There’s a girl living in my house. Chrysanthemum, Chrys for short. She’s… what’s a polite way of putting it… I’d like it if you went to check up on her every now and then so that if she ever has… womanly questions, she can ask you. Misha and Masha aren’t exactly “standard” human women, and while Maul and the other female rabbits are there, I’d like it if she had someone of her own race to talk to,” Sylver explained.

There was a pause. During which Sylver made a tiny incision underneath the toenail on Spring’s left foot’s big toe.

“She’s the one you rescued from that laboratory, and then somehow gave her a brand new body, right? I thought she was an elf?” Yeva asked.

“No, they called themselves elves, but they weren’t. She’s human, at least physically, with her being a clairvoyant, I can’t exactly speak to her mental state. She might not even need any advice, but I would feel better if she had that option,” Sylver said.

Yeva turned her head to look at Spring, who made a noise as he deflated, and left behind a loose pile of skin and clothing.

“I uh… Yes. Of course, I’ll take Ciege with me, we’ll introduce her to Ben. I’ve been meaning to ask Maul for her carrot bread recipe anyway,” Yeva said, as Sylver stored Spring’s skin suit away, and stood up from his crouch.

“Great, thank you. I’m going to take care of some business, and I’ll likely spend the rest of the day and night at Bruno’s in case anyone needs me,” Sylver explained, as he ran his hand down the edge of his robe to straighten it out, and then held out his hand for Yeva to teleport him out of the office.

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