13 Ariel, Soul Network

The next morning, Aura and Lydian continued with their training routine, doing their best to level up their monsters and getting used to commanding them in battle. They were chatting while waiting for their mana to recover when Lydian's phone rang. She went to answer it and came back a while later.

"It was Ariel. I told her I had become a monster trainer and she was very interested. She just called to ask some questions," Lydian explained.

"She's a friend in your class, right? Why don't we invite her over?" If Aura remembered correctly, Ariel specialized in healing and water monsters and had some talent in alchemy. Having someone like that in their team would be beneficial.

"I'm sure she'd be glad to." Lydian sent her a message. "She said she'll be here soon."

A few minutes later, a spectacled teenager wearing a light blue dress walked into their backyard.

"Hi Lydian! And Aura!" she said cheerfully as she walked towards them.

"Long time no see! Look, this is Lyn, I'll be able to get it to level 4 today!" Lydian showed off her monster as the Crystal Horse ran up and greeted her.

"Nice to see you, Ariel. I heard you have some questions regarding monster trainers," Aura said. "Why don't we talk inside?"

The three entered the house and Ariel started talking. "I've always wanted to be a doctor and help people. I still do, but with the appearance of monsters, being a monster trainer seems to be something with unlimited potential. With all their mysterious abilities that people previously would mock as nonsense, I see myself being able to more than with just science and medicine."

"You have excellent foresight. It's true, monster training will become incredibly important, perhaps even surpassing your expectations for it. There are many with healing abilities that you might be interested in, able to cure many conditions that are currently not treatable."

"So do you have any advice for me? My parents have agreed to support me, but it would be nice to have a starting point."

"Actually, I'm thinking of starting an organization. One for monster trainers. I wonder if you would be interested?"

"Brother, why didn't you tell me anything about this?" Lydian complained.

"I've had this thought for a long time now. With just the two of us, we are too limited and lack manpower. With Ariel coming over, this is an excellent opportunity to lay out the framework."

"Can you explain what I would have to do?" asked Ariel.

"I would like you to join our team. Having someone with recovery abilities is necessary for a well rounded team, especially when in the wild for long periods of time. Also, we would have control over the medicines you produce. In exchange, I can provide you with information regarding monster trainers, such as locations where they appear and their skills, as well as information regarding spiritual materials, their uses, and alchemy. We will be going to special danger areas, so you will have the ability to contract monsters that other people don't have the ability to contact. And I can provide a certain amount of spirit jade."

"That," Ariel paused, thinking, "sounds good, as long as the information is satisfactory."

"Then we should start by building a soul network." A soul network was an advanced usage of the soul, developed very late in Aura's previous life. It involved engraving a rune in one's soul that allowed those with the same rune to be connected and transmit messages to each other. This was extremely useful as messages could be sent instantly, all that was required was the thought and a small amount of mana. It could send anything in one's mind, including memories, what one was currently seeing, and thoughts. As long as the other side was alive, even if they were in a spacial realm, they could access the network.

Aura explained what a soul network was to the two girls, created the parent rune, then described to them the steps to creating the daughter rune and what it should look like.

"I did it! Can you guys hear me?" Lydian sent over the network.

"Ah! It costs so much mana to use," she said out loud.

"Yes, we could hear you. And as you have discovered, using it requires a lot of mana so it should only be used for things that are important or urgent."

Ariel widened her eyes. "This is amazing! I have no idea how it works, but now I can contact you guys whenever I want."

"It will be even more useful in the future when more people are added. Helpful information from all over the world can be shared, and it is secure, there is no way for other people to access it. Ariel, I'll send you some of the intelligence that you had requested."

A moment later, Ariel accepted a large amount of knowledge into her head. It ranged from different types of support monsters to the basics of alchemy.

"You can go over it on your own, it will probably take you some time. When the quality of our monsters has improved, we can go out together and explore a nearby spacial realm."