“The things I want to show you, well, I can make the same point here.” Elaya sighed as she used magic to fix her wet clothing.
Selena was sitting next to me still rubbing against me affectionately, but I at least was able to get her into clothing at least. I realized that I should have been giving her more attention. I stroked her head as I sat there on the grassy shore of the pond, the estate that Fifi was working at a distance behind us.
“What is it that you needed to show me?” I asked.
Elaya pointed at Selena. “Her evolution? What did it tell you?”
“Ah… well, there was talk before about naming monsters. A named monster is more powerful than an unnamed monster. I once predicted that when it came to dungeons, the first boss in the dungeon was named, reflecting a character from the lore. If someone defeated that boss, they would receive additional first-time awards. However, once the boss was defeated, it’d be replaced by an unnamed boss, which would ultimately be a pale reflection of the original boss.
“However, as I progressed, I found that this didn’t seem to be quite right. I’ve seen unnamed bosses that have never been defeated before, and named bosses return that should have been dead. That’s when I started to hypothesize that whether a boss was named or not had to do with how long the boss existed. When a boss dies, its power disperses into the dungeon, and then the dungeon reforges that boss. Over time, it slowly absorbs mana, growing in strength, and also intelligence.
“As a boss gains intelligence, it begins to fill in pieces of the person it was supposed to represent. Although, I’ve had a feeling that this isn’t quite right either.”
“Do you know what the difference between a real person and a doppelganger is?” Elaya suddenly asked, rather than confirming any of my own thoughts.
“Um… one of them has the original mana soul, while the other only has a fake karmic soul. In essence, a doppelganger is only a strong will that has infected a body and then became compelled to act.”
“And, what is a soul?”
“A soul…” I frowned, getting a little annoyed at the continued questions without answers. “It’s a conduit for mana. A person is made up of a body, a soul, and mana. The body is our physical presence. The soul is our metaphysical presence. Mana is the energy that drives and merges the physical and metaphysical.”
I’d like to say that all of this was based on my own observations, but the truth was that I read a lot of this. Whenever we reached a new city, I’d check out books on dungeons, jobs, skills, and mana. Particularly, when I was looking for other forms of solid mana like fairy dust and spirit fire, I found such a description.
“What if I were to tell you that a soul is lore.”
“Mm…” She nodded. “In a way, a soul isn’t much different than a dungeon. Those blessings bound to you are fragments of souls, which have merged with your soul, and become an extension of your existence!”