Ashen Ascension: The Divided Flame-Chapter 74: Another Use Of Soul Sense

As the afternoon approached, Ivor attacked five more times. He avoided noisy fights or large groups. He targeted distracted pairs or careless singles, always aiming for a quick end. He took out fourteen boys and girls on the first level and three skeletons for convenience. His fights were fast and quiet, which was his goal.

He had stopped worrying about right and wrong or perhaps he had never truly thought about it from the beginning, ever since he realized the crystals were not easily found. He didn’t finish off the people he defeated, remembering Nara’s warning. Killing was an option, but it also drew unwanted attention outside the Scar.

After the last attack, Ivor turned and went back. He was cautious, checking smells and sounds, and only briefly used his "Soul Sense" because keeping it on tired him out. He climbed the tree where he had hidden the large bag Nara gave him, grabbed it, slung it over his shoulder, and then headed toward his other hidden items.

He took longer to reach the second spot because he avoided direct routes.

The area he’d just left still had too many people, and those he had robbed would soon wake up and look for him. He wanted to be far away from them. He found the tree with his own bag, got it, and climbed high into the branches, finding a thick one that hid him from the ground. Only once both bags were with him did he finally relax.

He unfolded the map, which was already wrinkled. He smoothed it on his lap and traced his routes, comparing them to Nara’s markings.

He had traveled farther than expected, but had missed a lot of the first layer. He marked his farthest point. He was just past the halfway point of the first layer. He was close enough to start making informed decisions, but still didn’t fully understand the Scar.

He rolled the map back up and set it aside, then closed his eyes and checked himself.

His mana was almost gone, his mana core barely pulsing. His soul energy was very low, too, and the Ember Seed’s heat was weak. The constant energy from the Primordial Source kept him from collapsing, but it didn’t instantly recharge him.

He exhaled slowly. He had pushed hard today. The results sat in the bags, but the cost sat in his circuits.

Ivor took two rough, low-quality mana crystals from the loot. Nara had told him not to use this kind, but his core was empty. Moving on empty would lead to a fatal mistake. He disliked the choice, but he knew he had to use them.

He held one crystal in each palm and began drawing.

The mana was slow and difficult to draw at first, thick and rough. He carefully drew it into his core, controlling the speed. He avoided pulling too fast, which would bring in the worst impurities. He kept his breathing steady, taking cleaner streams of mana to prevent carelessness. Still, impurities tried to stick to the edges of his energy path, like smoke clinging to fabric.

He endured it because he had to. He rested as time passed, only stopping when the crystals were nearly empty. His mana core felt heavier, no longer empty, which made his body feel stronger.

Surprisingly, his soul energy also recovered passively. The Ember Seed seemed brighter, suggesting that using mana made the Seed draw more energy to meet the demand.

He decided not to use another crystal, hoping to find a different way to gain power without taking in more bad energy.

Instead, he sat quietly and tried to pull mana from the air around him, something he hadn’t done since he arrived. He closed his eyes and focused outward, trying to draw the ambient mana into himself. At first, nothing. He calmed his breathing and thoughts, and tried again. This time, he felt a faint presence, like the humidity before a storm.

He pulled carefully. A thin thread responded, and his core accepted it.

After fifteen minutes, he opened his eyes, confused. The mana absorption was faster than before, but he didn’t know why. It could be because the Scar was denser with mana, his core was reacting differently with one node attuned, or his awakened soul was helping his focus. He disliked not knowing the reason.

Thinking of his soul brought a sharper idea.

He activated Soul Sense.

His awareness sharpened, giving him a clear map of movement around him. He then focused on the air and noticed faint, translucent ’Mana’ moving like smoke. He hadn’t seen this before, but once he did, he realized he could interact with it.

He nudged it toward himself with a focused thought.

The smoke shifted.

Ivor’s eyes widened, and he immediately focused, testing the response again. He tried to push the drifting mana toward his core more directly. It resisted at first, like something indifferent. He kept guiding it, not forcing it, the same way he guided mana from a crystal. The smoke drifted closer slowly.

He felt it touch his core’s pull and get accepted.

He was surprised, which almost made him lose focus. He kept going, pushing harder. The effort of using "Soul Sense" and this new skill together gave him a bad headache. It was hard, like holding two heavy things at once, but the outcome was too important to stop.

The speed slowly picked up. The faint smoke started to stream directly towards him, and his body accepted it more easily than it accepted raw crystals. The mana felt cleaner than what came from skeletons. This difference was enough to make him smile.

He pushed harder despite his headache. The flow of power increased, and his breathing became deeper. Sweat beaded on his forehead from the strain. The air within his Soul Sense changed as he drew in more surrounding energy. Unlike absorbing mana from crystals, which felt dirty, this was like drawing clean water from a spring through focused effort.

The headache got worse as he focused, but he kept going. He saw the pain as necessary for his discovery and used the Ember Seed’s soul energy to stay stable while he absorbed the world’s mana.

Time passed without him noticing. He just felt his mana core steadily filling, smoothing out into a stable pressure when it was full, and then returning to its normal rhythm. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Only then did he release the pull.

He stopped and immediately felt the cost: his soul energy was almost gone. The Ember Seed was barely glowing. A terrible headache pounded behind his eyes, forcing him to sit and steady himself.

He breathed slower, and the normal forest sounds came back. The wind blew. Leaves made soft sounds. A faint, faraway bone clatter was heard and then stopped.

He clearly understood the choice.

Using Soul Sense like this allowed him to gather mana from the environment more quickly, intensely, and purely. However, it used up soul energy. He could fill his core without using crystals, but it would drain his soul circuit and cause mental strain. It’s a valuable option to use when necessary.

He was fine with that.

A known tradeoff was better than an unknown risk.

Once his pain lessened, Ivor pulled seven skill scrolls from Nara’s bag. He had resources, a map, and a way to gain mana without being corrupted, though it cost him soul energy.