Viers had first glimpsed the Arte about one moon past.
The fact that days, months, and years worked the same in this world even though this world was far bigger than Earth and there were two satellites orbiting the planet, remained a matter of bemusement for him.
A lot of time had passed since Benjamin became the very first occupant of his Soul Prison, merely seconds after his power up into a soul Pathseeker last winter. One might have thought Viers had drained all the secrets and knowledge inside the old cultist’s head by now but Viers had not.
Benjamin was a former Level 3 and he was a fellow soul Pathseeker. No matter how paltry his soul ability was, one was better than zero and he had decades of experience. It allowed him to resist Viers’ soul search.
Benjamin’s effort was commendable but Viers’ Level rose while his Level was stagnant; Viers was also getting better at soul search thanks to the abundance of practice. It was only a matter of time until the former head-cultist of the Luxore town branch was under his boot.
When he got the Myriad Souls in One Arte, Viers was ecstatic. He wanted this, he needed this.
But Viers was playing it safe. Viers did not blindly use a tool he got from strangers, let alone an Arte from a man that killed his own flesh and blood for power. All this time Viers had been conducting examinations and experiments to make sure the Arte was completely safe to use, without hidden dangers. Just in case Benjamin was plotting against him.
The Myriad Souls in One Arte was a very dark technique, to strengthen one's own soul by consuming the soul of others. Viers was very wary of using a technique straight up used by dark lords in fictions.
Even if Benjamin did not lay a trap and the Arte was legit, Viers had to be certain that his soul wouldn't become an amalgamation of hundreds of different people. Viers had no interest in making his soul have chimeric traits and losing himself. Viers would reach the top of cultivation as himself or not at all.
Apologies, Strange Supreme. I have no intention of following in your footsteps.
What was the use of having role models without learning from their mistakes? Those dark lords would have wished they knew what Viers knew before they got vanquished by the hero or blew themselves up because of their folly.
After some slight modifications, Viers finally had the confidence to use the soul-tempering Arte.
But what was the benefit of having a strong soul? Just until recently, even Viers himself wasn't clear, at least not in this world’s standard. According to what Benjamin knew, the soul was the foundation of soul Pathseekers’ powers. Just like how physical Artes would be stronger when used by someone physically robust, having a strong soul improved all manner of soul Artes.
Every living being had a trinity of mind, body, and soul. They were all connected with each other and complement one another. Among the three, the mind and the soul were harder to strengthen than the body. It was not like one could tell their mind to do push-ups to have more muscles. Normally, building up the inner qualities required discipline, wisdom, enlightenment and so on over a long period of time.
Supporting Artes such as Myriad Souls in One would reduce that said time drastically.
Along with Myriad Souls in One Arte, Viers also received information about soul cultivation information from Benjamin.
According to this world’s classification, there were stages called Mortal Soul, Grand Soul, and Hallow Soul, depending on how strong a soul was.
Naturally, the majority of people in this world only had Mortal Soul. The purpose of Myriad Souls in One Arte was to raise his soul into Grand Soul stage then Hallow Soul stage after that.
It seemed there were even higher stages after Hallow Soul but Benjamin didn't know any details and it was still too far beyond anyway so Viers didn't sweat it.
To become a Level 4 Pathseeker, one must have a certain degree of foundation on their soul. Clarissa the former Level 5 also confirmed this info. It wasn't only human, even the other races were the same; although the soul didn't need strengthening to the degree of Grand Soul.
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That was why Level 4s could have some manner of soul ability such as the soul mark Viers encountered before. However, because the majority of them weren't soul Pathseekers, their soul mastery was meager at best. Level 4s couldn't even sense souls that well, let alone those below Level 4.
The lamia princess added that to become a Level 6, Grand Soul was the minimum.
As for Viers, he didn't want to wait so long to reach the Grand Soul stage; he wanted to reach it as soon as possible… By eating other souls and then fusing them with his own using the Myriad Souls in One Arte.
“Hm?”
After Viers just ate his first soul, new information suddenly appeared in Viers' mind. He fell into deep contemplation, ignoring the inquiry from the girls.
What a horrible Arte...
The Arte gave a unique way of measurement of soul strengthening. Pathseeker’s soul in different Levels gave a different amount of power.
Level 0 - 1
Level 1 - 10
Level 2 - 100
Level 3 - 1,000
Level 4 - 10,000
Level 5 - 100,000
To reach Grand Soul stage, Viers would need to have 1,000,000 Soul Power or SP for short. That meant consuming ten Level 5 Pathseekers or a hundred of Level 4s. Since Viers was a human, he needed human Pathseekers' souls or the Arte won’t work.
As for the amount of SP needed to become Hallow Soul, it was staggering. Viers shuddered on the many zeros’ that represent human lives. He decided to not think about it for now, for his sanity.
Power comes with a price… I can either go full-on crazy and do multiple mass-genocides on the magnitude of World War II or I treat human Level 4s and 5s as food from now on. No wonder so many villains are insane…
This morning, Viers was troubled by having too many souls and now Viers realized he needed to have seas’ worth of souls.
He also couldn't simply dump all of those humans he killed into his gullet. He needed to soul search them for important information and some might be more useful left unconsumed, such as how he used Alan’s soul to hold Izabella by the neck.
I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, just one step at a time. One soul at a time.
Viers put a couple of more souls that he’d already scoured clean for anything of value. Among them, there was Demetrus. The guy from the Assassins’ Guild, old adversaries that should have gone for his head. His disciple, Tarakai was already subject to a soul extermination experiment a while back.
God, it seems so long ago now… I’ve come so far.
Viers gave him a good amount of extra chewing. The screams were heart-piercing but Viers had no sympathy to give to his enemies. He did try to kill him in that blizzard-covered shack after all.
If Demetrus had gone for his head instead of the heart, Viers might have died instantly. Viers only survived because he burned 70% of his lifespan to bolster his Water Regen Hyper Arte and healing factor to the max to survive the fatal blow. That was why after his encounter with Freya, Viers only had two years left of lifespan.
He had centuries of lifespan before that because he ate the flesh of a demi-god bull.
After Viers ate the souls again, he breathed out blue smoke with the faces of the souls he just ate this time too. This was the result of his modification on the Myriad Souls in One Arte, to filter out the… indigestible part.
Every time Viers tried to destroy a soul, some part of it remained unscathed and went away beyond his reach. Viers suspected that was the very, very core of the soul. The original version of Myriad Soul in One Arte swallowed that part too but it remained inside the depths of the consumer’s soul, indestructible and unchanging.
In a sense, Viers ate the flesh but not the bones. What was the point of having dregs in the depths of his soul? Viers treated them as pollution. Viers didn't want such impurities inside him so he spat ‘them’ out.
That core of the soul -the ‘existence’ that was once living- would then go to whatever afterlife in this world. Viers didn't know where but he hoped to pay a visit someday.
Although Viers let the core of the soul go, most of its parts were taken by Viers, becoming his SP. Viers also made absolutely sure that the core of the soul was a blank slate, with neither ego nor memories.
It wouldn't do if they somehow revived and plotted revenge against Viers, after all. Viers was paranoid that way.
Lastly, only those with soul affinity would be able to use Myriad Soul in One Arte. Therefore even if Viers shared the Arte with Boram, he wouldn't be able to use this method to strengthen his soul.
After consuming a few souls, he felt full. Similar to bodily training, soul strengthening wasn't a one-day process. Viers stopped and examined his soul.
Even though my soul remained a Mortal Soul, it is stronger now because of the many Soul Power from the other souls. When I reach 100 SP, I wonder how much stronger my soul Artes will become? How exciting!
Viers had tens of Level 3s in his Soul Prison, mostly from the death squad under Irkun’s charge. It was enough to push his SP past the 10,000 mark. But Viers didn't want to rush it. He wanted to cultivate his soul with the proper foundation.
Viers’ concentration was broken as he felt a surge of power.
Boram has broke through to Level 2. Viers smiled.