A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 336 On the Nature of the Soul

Rorschach began reading Humboldt's explanation of the next step.

A portion of the "soul" is separated and placed into a previously unconscious substitute, granting it some of the original's abilities, knowledge, and skills.

However, the user's abilities, skills, and knowledge will not be reduced.

This is quite interesting. At least the existence of this spell proves that in this world, copying all of a person's memories cannot create an exactly identical will. To put it more bluntly, the physical morphology and connection of neurons, as well as the transmission and secretion of hormones and pheromones, cannot completely determine a person's thoughts.

In this step of the [Descent Summoning Technique], the memories can be shared by the original body and the clone, as if a copy has been made, but the original body must give up something called "soul".

This characteristic is both good and bad for Rorschach. It means that he can retain the knowledge taught to him by the ancient sorcerers, but his extremely long memory will also remain. The only thing that can be solved is the soul created by the ancient sorcerers.

He was startled, recalling the necromancy sixth-ring spell, [Enlightenment], which summons tangible white light that infuses the dead with a similar level of intelligence.

When Rorschach was split in two, could the ancient sorcerer have used the same spell on both half-dead "Rorschach"s?

The soul, which elves call "spirit," is something that has been the subject of much speculation. Because it is elusive and necromancy was once considered taboo, discussions about it have been mostly metaphysical.

Master Humboldt believed that understanding the mechanisms of the soul would be beneficial for Rorschach in mastering the most difficult step of magic, so he devoted considerable space in his explanation to introducing Rorschach to the relevant knowledge:

Necromantic magic remains a gray area today. In principle, related research needs to be reviewed by the Arcane Senate, and proof is required when the results are made public. The living subjects of the spells must be voluntary, and the remains of intelligent races used in the experiments should be donated by their original owners through a voluntary donation agreement signed with the spellcaster.

Even in countries where slavery has not been abolished, spellcasters using their own slaves for experiments must utilize their remains only after the slaves have died naturally, from illness, or from overwork. Those who violate these rules, especially in serious cases, will be deemed evil sorcerers by the Senate and the Owl Tribunal.

Getting back to the main topic, regarding the nature of the "soul," the "propagation-reception hypothesis" is more widely accepted in the Buddhist community. This hypothesis is the "soul dlc" of the "Primordial Migration Theory," which posits that the soul, like other matter, emanates from the primordial source into the world it created.

During the "transfer" process, the heaviest part first degenerates into matter. Next, some are in an intermediate state of degeneration—magic, life force, and other energies that have not been completely materialized.

The "soul" can also fall into corruption. Its level is higher than the heaviest matter and semi-matter. Its way of falling into corruption is quite special. It takes a matter that has been organized in a certain form as a suitable container and then controls it. That is, the will of intelligent beings controls the body.

Just as formless water takes shape once it enters a container, a transcendent, light, and infinite soul, once it enters a body, will degenerate into a tangible, limited, and destructible existence, and will interact with the body.

The transcendent status of the "soul" also means that, in addition to controlling its own material container, a sufficiently powerful or special soul will be qualified to become a spellcaster or a recipient of divine favor; in essence, it is the soul's control over magic.

Based on what Rorschach learned in his previous life, this "container" can be more accurately described as the brain.

The process of soul degeneration is the sublimation of wisdom. In the language of Rorschach's past life in science and engineering, the "brain" is the receiver of the "soul" broadcast by the organism. Just as a radio needs to be tuned, intelligent beings need to receive environmental stimuli to align the construction and activity order of neurons with the original broadcast signal, and then receive the soul.

This is a slow process. The signals in the environment, such as sound, light, and smell, are too complex for most organisms to "tune" due to their physical structure or the signals they receive.

Therefore, most animals only have weak consciousness, which manifests as the instinct for survival. At this time, in the interaction between the weak "soul" and "body", the body and its genetic material even take the lead, causing the soul to serve the continuation of the genetic material.

Intelligent beings communicate through language and writing, which greatly accelerates the frequency tuning process with more concentrated information, enabling the container to accept more and higher-quality "souls" and carry out concentrated "frequency tuning," or "education," during the stage when the container is more malleable.

There are also some life forms that, because their composition is more chaotic and their degree of corruption is less than that of the material world, have a stronger ability to receive souls and can generate intelligence without passing down "frequency tuning technology" through generations, such as elemental life forms and some monsters.

Spells like [Enlightenment Spell] and [Summoning Spell] use magic to transcend physical matter and receive souls, forcibly confining them to containers unsuitable for them. Their efficiency and power far surpass those of "environmental stimulation" and "education."

"In other words, these spells are essentially forcibly stuffing the soul into a 'container'," Rorschach understood their principle, and Master Humboldt also wrote:

"In fact, the brains of the lowest animals are more complex than the internal structures of the most sophisticated constructs, far exceeding the substitutes in this spell."

"I also believe that the feasibility of these spells bringing souls to the surface lies in the fact that the brain's delicate, energy-efficient, and fragile structure also serves to control the body's rhythms and movements."

"Magical creations do not need to operate these life instincts; they can simply be pure soul containers. After being modified and activated by magic, they are more likely to exhibit a certain degree of intelligence."

This theory would explain the following magic that Rorschach has recently encountered:

The necromancer version of [Enlightenment] uses magic to modify the brain of a dead creature, transforming it into a better receiver, and then forces the soul to become corrupted and enter it.

The ninth ring's [Construct Enlightenment Spell] does not have a receiver based on a biological brain. The hardware is poor and the frequency tuning is more difficult, so the spell is also more difficult.

The "Truth Machine" uses a general-purpose computing core as a receiver, giving it specialization in computing compared to ordinary constructs.

The [Summoning Spell] that the Forest Tower gave to Roscia was named after its form of expression. If named after its principle, it should be called [Summoning Clone Spell]. The structure of the earth/wood substitute is too simple and crude. Originally, it was not even qualified to be a receiver. However, it was constructed through magic into a non-permanent "virtual container" supported by magic power. It cannot receive the original soul. Instead, the caster must transfer a part of his own soul.

"The way to separate the soul is to stimulate a strong emotion, or to visualize the soul leaving the body through meditation. The soul that has separated from the body will enter a new container through a bridge constructed by two magic arrays."

Intense emotions? But the impurities were sculpted by the hands of ancient sorcerers; they lacked emotion, while I myself possessed it.

If my original will is pumped into a Stand, leaving a formless, artificial soul within me, wouldn't I become a Stand myself?!

(End of this chapter)