Autophagy

After his balance finally stopped decreasing, the system notified him of the completion of the transaction. Seeing this, Song Lei put his hand into the system panel. After feeling a piece of paper under his hand, Song Lei grabbed it and pulled it out.

In his hand were two pieces of paper. On them were a lot of explanation and scribbles, drawn in purple color.

'Let's study a little bit...' He muttered as he sat down and started reading calmly.

[Claim Flags are essential for a faction. Their best and most useful function is that they act as a tracker.

The faction leader can feel who enters and leaves the officially occupied territories, all the while keeping track of the entities that are inside it.

Claim Flags also produce a repellant barrier that can disturb blacklisted entities from entering. This scales according to the strength of the flag. An average Claim Flag can't, and will never repel a blacklisted entity totally. They will just disturb their souls and cause them to not want to enter the claimed territory.]

[Other than a faction leader, no one can produce a Claim Flag. Now that we have established this rule, let's produce one shall we?]

After reading the first few paragraphs on the paper, Song Lei sat straight and put more attention into what was written.

[First of all, you need to have a faction symbol. Faction symbols aren't just symbols to represent your faction. They're the essentials of a faction's soul. A faction is similar to a human. They have their own bodies, minds, and souls. If there is inharmony in between, it cannot function.]

[A faction's name and symbol are what guards the harmony of a faction. These two are absolutely sacred for any kind of faction and mustn't be insulted.]

[At the same time, you should choose a color of your own. It, again, gives your faction an identity. However, unlike faction symbols, two factions can have the same colors.]

[Anyways! Let's say that you have finished preparing your symbol...]

"That's enough for now..." Song Lei muttered as he put the papers aside. After taking a blank paper into his hands alongside a pencil, he started sketching his ideas for a symbol. Without preparing it, he wouldn't be able to continue.

'I need to make something that's easily reproducible. It should also be something that finds its place in people's minds. And it should also represent The Limbo...' He thought. Scratching the back of his head confusedly, Song Lei frowned. 'This is going to be hard...'

After drawing countless different symbols, Song Lei decided what to use as a symbol.

'I hope it isn't used by another faction...' Song Lei muttered inwardly as he looked at the symbol in the middle of the paper, drawn much bigger compared to the others.

His symbol of choice was a yellow triquetra. The triquetra represented the emphasis The Limbo put on its harmony. Within Song Lei's faction, beings from polar opposites worked together. Without absolute unity, it would crumble under its own weight.

The triquetra also represented life, death, and rebirth, which was very important for Song Lei who was a transmigrator.

After he decided on his choice of symbol, Song Lei picked up the instruction papers again and found where he had left. Just as he was about to pick up the piece of paper, he was met with a system notification.

[You've chosen a symbol for your faction! To officialize it and gain the bonuses given by it, you have to use it to create a Claim Flag!]

'Huh...' Song Lei murmured as he looked at the notification. 'So my symbol gives me certain bonuses on what it is? That's great actually.'

After reading the notification, he dismissed it and turned back to reading.

[Anyways! Let's say that you have finished preparing your symbol! Great job as that's a hard thing to do. Now you have to prepare the necessary things. You'll need a great craftsman as you have to embroil your symbol onto the flag perfectly. The frame of the banner flag has to be made from gold and the material of the flag should be silk. You also have to make the flag from the color of your faction! It's a good idea to pick a color that can make your symbol stand out...]

'Huh... The materials aren't a problem but I don't know how to sew things. Maybe Isabel or Aston can deal with that.'

[Let's assume that you have also finished preparing your flag. After all, it is just a normal miniature banner flag physically. You now have to inject it with your spiritual power in a very intricate way. This is also another reason why no one other than a faction leader can create a Claim Flag. As every person's soul and soul energy are unique, the one who does it can't be any other than the faction leader.]

[First of all, you need to start running your soul energy throughout your body, into your hands. Don't forget to grasp the flag with your hands as having it as close as possible to your body increases the chances of succeeding.]

[After you feel yourself to be ready, start slowly releasing the soul energy out of your hands into the flag. Because of its shape and the spirituality of the symbol on top of it, the energy will start following a peculiar pathway. After you insert the initial patch of soul energy into it, it will start pulling it out on its own.]

[Beware! If you don't have enough soul energy, you won't be able to create the Claim Flag! If you fail, the flag will take all of your energy and crumble. If you lose all of your soul energy, it will take a few days for it to recover.]

'Shit. I think I have enough but I might just be overestimating myself. If I try to compare myself to the likes of the leader of the Heaven Alliance, I'll fall short,' Song Lei thought. 'At least it doesn't hurt me even if I fail. At most, I'll have to sleep for a few days.'

[Assuming that you have enough soul energy, let's continue! The flag will absorb your soul energy. You will be able to follow where it is going as it runs through the gold frame.]

[However, the hard part comes after it leaves the gold frame. If the frame of the flag is like a highway that you can easily find your way, the flag on its own would be like a vast desert. You have to find your way and fill it to the brim with your energy to turn it into a beautiful sea of soul energy.]

[And this isn't even the last step! You still have to imprint your faction's symbol into the spirituality of the flag. After you have finished filling up the sea of the flag, you have to find its center. Then you have to raise a small island from that sea you created and change the island's shape into your faction's symbol's outline.]

[After you are done drawing the outline, start carving the fine details of your faction's symbol. For this reason, it's great to not choose an overly complicated symbol. The simpler it is, the better the quality of your soul imprint.]

Feeling that he had dodged a bullet by not picking a complicated symbol, Song Lei wiped a drop of sweat that was rolling off of his forehead.

[Funny part is, this single step takes more soul energy than every other step combined! And this step where you draw the symbol of your faction decides the quality of your Claim Flag. So it is incredibly important to do it as best as you can. The clearer and better drawn your symbol is, the higher quality for the flag.]

[The quality of the Claim Flag changes things like the strength of its repellant blacklist barrier. It also changes the range it can occupy. And it also gains further improvements and features as its quality goes up.]

[So? 'How to raise the quality of my symbol imprint?' You ask?]

[There are two ways to go with this.]

[As mentioned in this paper before, the symbol imprint takes a lot, and I mean a LOT of soul energy.]

[The way to improve the quality of your Claim Flags comes from this principle.]

[The first way is more of a brute force way. The reason why symbol imprint takes such an amount of energy is caused by the fact that it's incredibly hard to imprint symbols to the spirituality of a tool. While doing so, anyone will make lots of mistakes. Both making and correcting those mistakes will be done by spending even more soul energy.]

[As a simple approach, you can raise your maximum amount of soul energy and make corrections as much as you want. Remember! There is no perfect symbol imprint! So the more soul energy you have, the better it is!]

[The second approach is that of an artisan. As you might have guessed, this one helps you achieve much higher levels of quality with a lower amount of energy spent.]

[With this approach, you have to raise your control over your soul and soul energy by leaps and bounds. With their 3D brains, it is really hard for humans to comprehend such an abstract concept that is called the soul. However, if you manage to increase your control over it enough, you'll be able to approach perfection much more easily!]

[That's it for this guide! Hope you manage to create the best Claim Flag!]

"Umm... Thanks, I guess?" Song Lei muttered as he read the last line.

'Anyways, let's ask Isabel and Aston how to deal with this flag thingie....'