Nameless Wandering Soul

Standing by the pond, barefoot, I gazed into its clear water trying to see if anything was hiding under its tranquility. So far the purple alignment markers of my skill had not been triggered meaning nothing was living in the pond. 

Yes, the information provided by Astral Hack on the pond did not say there was any monster in it but I could not completely rely on my skills and let my guard down. It would not hurt for me to be cautious. After all, the information on the dungeon did not say anything about the dungeon pond having water mana stones at its bottom. 

I wondered why was that. Maybe the water mana stones were not supposed to be a part of the dungeon loot. Seeing how the water mana stones were needed to turn the water of the fountain fit for drinking and agriculture use and along with the fact that water in the pond was too clear without any mud, I began to consider if the water mana stone was required for the pond to continue to exist. These were just my speculations but regardless whatever the reason was I wasn't planning on leaving those water mana stones as they would solve the water problem of my domain. 

Now that I had made sure that there wasn't any unwanted surprise inside the pond and that there weren't any Horned Joey monsters in the pond's immediate surroundings I decided to step into the pond and dig out mana stones. Still, I carried the horn knife with me because one could never be cautious enough. 

Entering the pond I found that it wasn't deep, and the water level only reached my chest. Taking a deep breath, I dove into the water and began to search the bottom of the floor for the water mana stones. I didn't have to search them for long because soon I found a few bead-size shimmering aquamarine gemstones. When the purple alignment markers appeared on them I was sure they were water mana stores that I was looking for still to be a hundred percent sure I used my astral hack skill on one of them. Once the purple digital distortion and glitches vanished, I received a system conformation: 

[System notification: 

 > Hack successful! You have used Astral Hack to hack into the 0-grade water mana stones.

> You have triggered the maximum crit rate on the unit.

> You can now access the unit's entire information.

<Unit name: Water Mana stone< p>

 Unit grade: 0

 Unit effect: A concentrated mass of water mana. 

i) When placed in a body of water of similar grade it will purify the water in it and make them fit for consumption. ii) With proper technique one can use it to recover or cultivate mana. Especially Water attribute mana. 

 Unit insider: 

i) Grind it in fine powder and directly consume it in small quantities over a prolonged period to awaken water attribute mana. 

ii) Consuming it with holy water can increase the chances of gaining water attribute mana. 

iii) If you already have a water attribute, consuming it with holy water will increase its grade> ]

After thoroughly searching the bottom of the pond, I managed to find seven water mana stones. That was not a bad haul. Getting out of the pond while I stored the playing marble-sized water mana stones in one of the pouches I noticed that the pond was no longer clear and it was starting to turn muddy like a rainwater puddle. It seems my guess that the water mana stones were maintaining the pond was correct. 

Then, wearing my fur shoes and collecting my belongings, I decided to exit the dungeon to dry myself and my clothes. Leveling up and clearing the dungeon took priority, but I was worried I might catch a fever if I were to continue monster hunting drenched. If I were to fall sick then it was game over for me. Understanding that I could not afford to be sick, I decided on exiting the dungeon thinking it was better to be safe than sorry. 

On my way to the dungeon exit, I chose to stay clear of monsters making use of the dungeon map. Making it safely to the safe zone, I took one last look at the dungeon field and exited without hesitation. 

Arriving on the stone stage, I looked at my domain, the magnificent astral beacon at the center of the grass field, and then the fountain— glancing at the fountain I was shocked as I found a humanoid apparition standing before it and gazing at the water jet spouting water in the air and the water descending back into the fountain pool. How did it enter my domain? Didn't the angel say I would be safe under the protection of domain barrier for next 30 days.

Soon a purple alignment marker appeared on the apparition, however, before I could use my astral hack skill on the apparition, the head of the apparition twisted at an inhuman angle to face me. Our eyes meet, but thanks to my title 'The First Murderer' I remained unfazed and stared into the apparition's eyes. It appeared to be a human apparition, but I could not tell if it was a male or female as a dark shade covered most of its features.

Just then a thought crossed my mind, I wondered if the apparition was one of those memoryless wandering souls the system had notified me about. If that were the case then I had nothing to worry about. However, when I blinked I found that the apparition had vanished from the fountain and appeared by the dungeon gate stage. It appeared that the wandering souls not only looked like ghosts but had similar abilities. 

Now that I had a rough idea of what I was dealing with here I decided to use my astral hack skill to confirm my suspicion. When I was about to do that, a system prompt popped up informing me: 

[System notification: 

> A nameless wandering soul has taken an interest in your domain and is asking for your permission to join your domain as your subject.

> Will you take the nameless wandering soul as your subject? (Y/N)

Note: 

i) Lords are advised to be careful when choosing their subjects because they will be held responsible for the well-being of their subjects using hidden karmic stats.

ii) Wandering souls will be wary of Lords with low karmic stats.

iii) Low karmic stats will affect Lord's luck negatively.

 iv) Low karmic stats will reduce the subject's loyalty toward the Lord]