What to do with one million souls

First time posting here (hi!) long time fan of the game and its predecessor. Anyway, I recently started a name on Dark Souls and I wanted to try invading someone to test my skills, and I died. However, after I died I went back to the spot of my death and recovered over million souls even though I was not the victor?!? I presume that this is some sort of glitch, so I'm loath to spend these souls because it feels like cheating, and it takes the fun out of me legitimately leveling up, purchasing items, upgrades, and just progressing in the game without an unfair advantage. I suppose the dilemma I'm facing then is this: do I spend the souls on leveling up and buying equipment, or do I just let myself die to lose the souls and continue on like I was before?

P.S. I am still fairly early in the game I think (level 44),I have only rung one bell in the undead parish, I have not defeated Sif, I have not completed Blighttown, New Londo Ruins, Skeleton area (can't remember the name), Valley of the Drakes, etc.

Buy a bunch of prism stones and paint an entire area with them. Beat skare's record

If you are a low level than i would suggest leveling up. If you are using a low level build than you might want to upgrade weapons or buy different equipment or consumables.

I would suggest using those souls on equipment or gaining a few levels and not using it for leveling up to an incredibely high level.

I think the only real reason it would be an unwise idea dying with that many souls is the fact that there is the possibility of those souls creating a vagrant in another player's world. That is unless if you were to do it offline.

What exactly do you mean by "creating a vagrant?" I'm still fairly new to the online play on Dark Souls as I've only recently started playing the game. The other problem is this though: I do not have a lot of merchants to purchase goods from, and it would be risky to venture too far onward to find more merchants because then I risk losing a great deal of souls; furthermore, I do not have a lot of stones to upgrade with aside from the basic titanite shards, so upgrades will only be the basic plus 5. I am seriously just considering killing myself and being done with this decision because I do not want to reap the benefits from a glitch. It's just too many souls too fast, and it would take the fun/challenge out of the game because I would destroy every enemy with ease from now on.

Vagrants from what I have learned are creatures that spawn into other player's worlds if another player were to die with a lot of souls. They are rare for a player to come across, but at the same time 1 million souls is also a bit of a rarity in this game. They can be a bit of a pain if they are to spawn in another player's world too. Again this is just a bit of advice I would go on Dark Souls offline then die with those souls and then log back on.

Here are some pictures of them and were they spawn http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Vagrants

Buy what you can and autobots roll out. If you're not worried about using them don't worry about losing them.

You could beat my record with prism stones too. Although I only hold the unassisted record. I've been beaten by a trio but that didn't end well

Yeah, I guess I've already answered my own question then. I feel like this will take the fun out of me actually grinding it out for the levels and gear since I did not earn these souls. Thanks for the input guys, and I will make sure to kill myself in a glorious fashion offline (any suggestions?). Cheers, and hope to see you all online.

some times the host dies soon after you do and you get the souls... also was he fighting another phantom or may have been fighting one as you were spawning?

So im correct in saying this is your first playthrough? If so, based on what you have said (meaning our heads are in the same place as far as being legit on your first playthrough) I suggest this: Buy all weapons etc that you can and dont already have. Buy 2 (different upgrade paths if you want). Upgrade your SL some, but not too much. Upgrade some, but again not too much. For your first playthrough you dont want to make it tooo easy, have to grind it out some. Buy alot of items, max out on all the items you can buy. This way you dont waste the souls, but dont lose the thrill of your first playthrough. Just my suggestion.

It seemed like the host was spawning phantoms and the phantoms (the red ones) were fighting each other. I was killed by a red colored phantom? Then I went back to the spot and found just over one million souls. Yes this is my first playthrough, so I decided to do what you just suggested rooster! :p I thought about killing myself, but I felt like I should at least upgrade some weapons; so I went around and hit the few merchants that I have available right now (smith before darkroot garden, velka, female undead in the lower undead burg, the first douchey merchant that sells chain mail, the fat miracles guy, the vinhelm sorcerer guy). I do not have any of the stones necessary for magic upgrades yet, so I might just start playing tomorrow and try to get to Shiva to buy a few more weapons so that I can have them, because having more weapons to choose from and upgrade doesn't feel as wrong as doubling my level from 44 to 88 in just a few minutes.

Don't forget to get a pyro flame and upgrade that with quelana!

Thats the way to go . Get as many different weapons as possible, try the ones out you want to. Its pretty much more important to be good with your weapon than have a good weapon. All weapons can be good if used right. Just finding the one your comfortable with thats a pain, so these souls will def help you do that! And as suggested above me, save Laurentius from the depths and speak to qualeena while in blighttown, upgrading your pyro hand some cant hurt

Give 'em to me!

You can always give them to me, I need more souls

I would not upgrade or use them on the first walkthrough mate, will make the game boring and feel as though you have cheated and lose what makes this game so unique and incredible..

I suggest just using them to buy Shards from Andre' and the crest of astoria for 20k and only use it once you have made it passed all the things area's in the Darkroot area

then I would buy a lot of Homeward bones/Transicent curse to help you through the game just a little..

go and buy rings from Oswald as well and a few things like purging stones etc..

what I would do is not use them at all for my first play through, however, i never play online and you did try and invade which was brave, so maybe you deserve using a little as described above

1,000,000 Souls

99x Green Blossom Grass - 99,000 Souls
99x Cracked Red Eye Orb - 297,000
999x Poison Arrows - 99,900
999x Feather Arrows - 99,900
99x titanite Shard - 79,200
99x Large titanite Shard - 376,200

Comes out just over 1,000,000 by about 50k souls. If you're looking to PvP all of these are really useful. The cracked orbs and green blossom especially. The arrows are also great for me because I love to run a compound bow in one of my slots usually.