I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 124: Manifestation

Within the Area 52 Inheritance.

“The mechanics of the third trial is simple. The inheritor must manifest their soul strength into a tangible object and use it to hit the stone plate as hard as possible. With that, the soul strength of the inheritor shall be measured. A soul strength value of 10 is enough to pass, and a soul strength value of 50 is enough to fully reap the rewards of the third trial,” the monotonous voice from the inheritance resounded throughout the large stone room Aurus was in. As Aurus listened to the instructions of the monotonous voice, he could not help but look at the tower of stone that transformed in front his very sense of vision.

This stone tower looked like a simple tower at first, but its base extended towards where Aurus was, creating a thin plate out of stone. As for the main portion of the tower, modestly sized cavities started to form along the bottom up to the top of the tower, being filled with a dim sort of light instead.

Once he got a clear look at the finished tower, as well as cross-reference it with the instructions given by the monotonous voice, Aurus finally knew what it looked like.

“How did a machine from the fucking carnival get here?” Aurus could not help but curse as he let out a sigh, coming closer to the stone plate.

Of course, he was not unfamiliar with the mechanics of these types of machines. In his previous life, these things were strength measuring machines in a way as it measured how much force you can output. Normally, the ones in charge of the machine would make sure you would deal the least amount of force as possible in order to earn a buck, but in this world, there was no such thing it seemed.

“So I have to manifest my soul strength and use it to hit the stone plate?” Aurus muttered to himself and pondered for a bit. He thought about thinking very hard of an object that dealt a lot of force, but he felt that imagination was different from manifestation…or so he thought.

“In order to manifest soul strength, one must visualize their own soul leaving the body, creating a vessel of its own to shield itself from the world around it. Once it has created its own vessel, one can now use said vessel and transform it into any shape one likes.” As if the monotonous voice was reading his mind, it resounded throughout the room, telling Aurus how to manifest his soul strength.

“Please do note that the inheritor has three tries in this trial. Only the highest value recorded would be the basis for the inheritor’s reward,” the monotonous voice continued. Rather than giving Aurus tension, it instead gave him a sense of relief as he knew that he didn’t just have a single shot on this trial.

“Whew.” Aurus let out a breath of relief as he decided to fly a modest distance away from the tower, wanting to practice his manifestation of soul strength first.

“This area seems to be good.” After hovering for a few dozen meters, Aurus looked at his surroundings and nodded to himself. It was just the right amount of empty. “And so, let us start manifesting!”

At the very next instant, Aurus closed his sense of vision, trying to connect with his soul. Well…gain greater control of his soul anyway. He was the pilot of the soul, and he was the soul at the same time, but he can only control a small amount subconsciously at a given time.

Nonetheless, with arduous effort, he was able to fully grasp his soul, urging it to leave his body and form a vessel that could withstand the harsh outside surroundings.

Whoosh!

Like a gust of wind, Aurus’ soul became visible to the naked eye, giving off a faint light that was spherical in shape. It was not even corporeal in the slightest, but it was a start.

While still controlling his soul, Aurus noticed that he couldn’t move his body due to the fact his whole soul was removed from his body. He beckoned a small part of the soul to come back to his body and connect with the greater portion, allowing him to move his body and his soul vessel at the same time.

He then started to gradually get closer to the stone tower, getting a feel for how solid his soul vessel was. While doing so, he could not help but sigh. “Although I’m able to make my soul leave my body, I can’t really make it take a corporeal form.”

A few seconds later, Aurus was already in front of the stone tower, with a large white orb hovering over his body. He could not help but look at the stone tower with slight nervousness. He did not know why, but the stone tower somewhat intimidated him.

Eventually, he was able to calm himself down, staring at the soul vessel he made and the stone plate interchangeably. After a few seconds of doing such, Aurus shouted, “Ah, fuck it!” and urged the large white orb to slam onto the stone plate.

Wham!

Contrary to his expectations, the large white orb was actually able to output a decent amount of force on the stone plate, making it dip down as a few cavities of light radiated a brighter light.

This situation somewhat shocked Aurus as he knew that his vessel was not very sturdy at all. He then pondered over the reason for a bit and asked himself, “Is it because of my Soul Power?”

Thinking about it more and more, he could only conclude that that was the case, deciding to not pursue it any further as he was not an expert in the topic of souls.

Ding!

A few seconds later, the monotonous voice resounded throughout the room, letting Aurus know about the results of his first test on the stone plate.

“The inheritor has hit the stone plate for the first time. The inheritor has achieved a soul strength of 57. The inheritor still has two more tries.”

“57?” Aurus could not help but click his tongue…well, nonexistent tongue. A soul strength of 57 was basically one-third of his full soul power, which was 188. If he could only use that much soul power when his soul was outside, wouldn’t it become a disadvantage for him in the long run?

And so, Aurus tried again. This time, he willed the soul vessel to condense itself, making the white orb shrink a few degrees, while its light intensified by a few degrees as well. At this point, Aurus felt that the white orb he made had a bit of substance and heft into it, giving him a bit more confidence in his second trial.

Wham!

As he willed the white orb to hit the stone plate this time, a crashing sound resounded throughout the room, albeit very faint. Nonetheless, that made the tower light up more cavities of light than before, seemingly doubling compared to his first try.

A few seconds later, the monotonous voice resounded once more.

“The inheritor has hit the stone plate for the second time. The inheritor has achieved a soul strength of 135. The inheritor still has one more try.”

Seeing a great improvement as to how much soul strength he could exert in the real world, Aurus was somewhat excited. He looked at the shape of the soul vessel for a bit and thought that a ball hitting a flat surface like a stone plate would be detrimental to his final score.

Hence, with the feeling he got as he condensed the white orb into a denser white orb, he willed the soul vessel to change its shape, turning from an orb into a white pillar of sorts. To be honest, it could be described as a glistening white pestle rather than a white pillar.

Nonetheless, it would allow Aurus’ soul strength to come out more in hitting the stone plate. Raising the white pestle up high with his command, he urged the pestle to slam on the stone plate very hard, causing a rumble to occur.

Rumble…

Crash!

As that happened, the stone plate started to crack a bit, but was able to withstand the force hidden behind the white pestle, making almost every cavity of light intensify in its radiance afterwards.

Of course, without missing a beat, the monotonous voice of the inheritance resounded once more, revealing Aurus’ final result.

“The inheritor has hit the stone plate for the third time. The inheritor has achieved a soul strength of 211. The inheritor has cleared the third trial without any hiccups.”

“211…” After hearing this number come from the monotonous voice, Aurus felt intense shock course through his body as he thought up of a possible conclusion as to why the value exceeded his current soul power.

“That’s impossible. Perhaps 2 points of soul strength is equal to 1 point of soul power,” Aurus tried to calm himself down as he thought of this conclusion. Although he was very excited for the reward, the shock of achieving a number greater than his current soul power somewhat befuddled his mind. Around 30 seconds later, he was back to his rational and calm self, sighing as he muttered, “If that were the case, I have only exerted over 100 points of soul power. Then again, that’s enough to clear the trial but…”

At this moment in time, Aurus had ideas of using his soul as a supportive attack, or even a main attack that could allow him to fight while conjuring his spells. With this thought in mind, he decided that he would make soul attacks a low priority for now, he still had to level up his skills, raise his level to max level, raise his allies to max level, as well as work on the three other systems he had. Oh wait, he was already max level after all the killing he had done.

“I’ll just devise a plan regarding my methods of getting stronger after I leave the inheritance,” Aurus said to himself as the monotonous voice resounded for the very last time.

“The inheritor has cleared the third trial, the Trial of Soul Strength, with flying colors, exceeding the amount needed to fully reap the rewards by a few times. Due to this, the reward and the key given to the inheritor shall be boosted in order to be equivalent to the effort shown by the inheritor.”

“Oh? So the key isn’t the only reward?” Aurus asked himself. No matter what reward it was, it was better than only getting the key from the inheritance.

“The inheritor’s reward for the final trial shall be a great skill book regarding the manipulation of the wielder’s soul, as well as a Gold grade key of the inheritance, deeming the inheritor as a 1st Class Ruler Candidate.”

“Not only that, after taking every trial cleared by the inheritor into consideration, the inheritor shall also receive…”

“A Comprehension Leaf of the Transcending grade.”

Hearing the rewards that he would get for clearing the trial made Aurus at a loss for words. But when he heard about the Comprehension Leaf being mentioned, he could not help but say, “Ah.”

“I totally forgot about the Comprehension Leaf.”