Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG)
Chapter 312: Planning

When I came to, I was floating in a sea of darkness and souls. A golden lasso of energy appeared, and began dragging me forward. I spent a few moments adjusting to my situation, before I checked my surroundings. To my left were three other golden lassos. I relaxed. We were returning to the Market again.

But this time, there was something different about our journey. The journey back to the Market was usually quiet and depressing. We couldn't communicate, because we had no mouths. We were silver blobs of mana with no way to interact with our surroundings. This made each return trip to the Market quite dull. This time would have been no different… if we didn’t have the communication bracelets.

<This is the second time I’ve seen it, but the ocean of possibilities is quite strange, isn’t it?> Said Anise, as another patch of distorted scenery whizzed by. <I can feel the laws of reality and physics breaking as we move through the ocean. But I can’t understand how anything changes. It’s like staring at a color that my eyes can't process.> Anise paused, as if she was thinking about her words. <I wonder if there's some way to use this as inspiration for forming new spells in the future. It's at a much higher level than I'm currently at, but the idea is exciting.>

<There almost certainly is. The market itself seems to be built upon the foundation of manipulating the laws of reality. I doubt that Eluxia just dreamed up the Market from thin air when she created it. She must have taken inspiration from the way laws change from one dimension to another.> Felix sighed. <Well, it's quite far away from us now. We should focus on more immediate goals. What do we need to do when we return to the Market?>

<The first thing I want is to get a better understanding of how souls and bodies connect to each other. I also need detailed information about how to heal souls,> I said. <I was trying to do some research projects during our downtime last life, but… I didn’t have a good way to proceed. The only ability I’ve managed to develop that affects souls is soul-clamp. I want to learn how to develop my skills further, but I just can't find the right direction. I have decided something, though. I want to evolve my alteration ability to make it better at interacting with souls. As a member of the Market, soul manipulation is always going to be relevant. I want to specialize in that, so that we always have a soul specialist in our group. But I need a research direction first. Trying to find it on my own was a total failure.>

<That’s a good idea, although it might be difficult,> said Sallia. <After all, we haven’t found too much information in the Market about soul manipulation.>

<But that information has to exist in the Market.> said Felix. <Soul manipulation is the core identity of the Market. It's the foundation the entire thing is built off of. Hmm... Do you guys remember how the Market cities are divided into districts?>

<Yeah. Why?> said Anise.

<Sallia did bring up a good point. We haven't found much info on souls yet. Maybe all that information is stored in one of the inner districts of the city,> said Felix.

I thought about Felix’s words. They made sense. But that also posed a new problem. The one time we had gotten near one of the ‘inner districts’ of the Market, it had been very dangerous. Were we strong enough to mess with the dangerous side of the Market right now?

<I have a rough idea for how we try exploring the inner districts,> said Felix. <Miria's new ability should give us a safer way to explore dangerous regions. We need to make our purchases first, of course. Miria doesn't have enough Glut Penalty to grab her new Keyword ability yet. But once she has it, we could finally start scouting and exploring.>

<That makes sense to me,> I said. <I was already hoping to scout out whatever defends the life-purchasing area. The inner areas of the Market could help us get stronger on the way there.>

<Yup,> said Felix. <I'm also really glad that you got that keyword ability, Miria. We only have two lives left. In three lives, we haven’t even found the building where we can buy lives yet. We also haven't explored any of the real ‘mysteries’ of the Market. We’ve only scratched the surface. Each life is spent the moment we die, thus returning us to the Market… so in total, we have two more worlds after this. Then, we either buy lives, or die permanently. Our situation is dire. We need to start learning more, and growing faster. If possible, we need to spend more time in the Market, too. It should be possible to spend more than a few months in the Market. We just haven't found the method to do so yet.> Felix paused for a moment, before I felt a wave of excitement flood the communication bracelet. <I also remember there being some sort of shop that could modify skills, or even remove skills. There are a lot of other things that should exist in the Market, but that we haven't encountered yet. I bet all of them are in the inner districts.>

At Felix’s words, I started to feel a twinge of excitement as well. There were numerous things I wanted in the Market, but had yet to see. With any luck, we could find them this time. On top of that, I also faintly remembered an advertisement from the first time I had returned to the Market. There, I had seen ads for bodies that we could rent or buy… which should let us stay in the Market for longer. The Market was a goldmine of Achievement, but one that we could only stay in for a few months before things got dangerous. If we could find a way to extend this time, that might provide us with a critical edge in our fight for survival. I couldn’t help but think about the other things Felix had mentioned. Skill modification shops. Soul manipulation shops. Bodies. Lives. Information about evolving my abilities the way I wanted to develop them. All things that should exist in the Market, but that we hadn’t come across yet. I hoped Felix was right, and that we would find them in the inner districts of the Market. If so… as long as we could raid the inner districts of the Market, we could grow exponentially faster after this.

<I like the idea,> said Sallia. <Let’s do it. First, we should buy stats, then buy abilities, and then we’ll charge at the inner districts.> Then, she paused, and I felt a twinge of embarrassment flow through the communication bracelet. <Well, first, we need to spend a few hours getting reacquainted with having physical bodies. I'm pretty rusty after all these years.>

<Don’t worry, I need some time to adjust to having a body again too,> said Felix. <We should set aside a few hours to get used to our new bodies. Then we should be ready to start?>

<I wouldn’t mind some time to get used to our new bodies as well,> I said. <I was over sixty when I died. When we get to the Market, my body is going to be much younger and stronger. I'll need time to adjust to my new physical abilities.>

<So we have a plan,> said Felix. <We all agree to get reacquainted with our bodies, then buy skills and achievements, then charge at the inner districts?>

<Let's do it,> said Anise.

The four of us continued talking about what information we needed, what opportunities we wanted to capitalize on, and so on. It was a far cry from the lonely, silent voyages to the market that I had endured the past few deaths. And as we continued making plans, I felt that we were moving forward. Our first few explorations of the Market had been incomplete. We had barely known what we were doing, or what we needed. We had been grasping at straws as we tried to search for a way to survive. Now, we had a plan. It was risky, and it might lead us into trouble... but I felt like things were finally moving in the right direction.

I couldn’t help but wish I had a mouth to smile with as we voyaged through the ocean of souls.

Time passed. Finally, a giant, seventeenth-century pirate ship came into view. As we got closer, it grew larger and larger, until it was clear that the ship was the size of the galaxy. Perched upon the deck and railings of the ship were various ruined cities. I felt a stirring of both excitement and anxiety as we drew closer.

We had returned to the Market.

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