Lanek looked over the bodies of the gaunts and the loot left behind by the dungeon’s wights, setting aside several pieces of gear and another six wight cores. As for the gaunts, he found nothing aside from their bodies, as was normal for them.
He decided to check out his weapons, attempting to figure out why his combat capabilities had increased so much. In the end, it turned out that he had been correct, the vessels had evolved with their residents.
Sanguineus’ Vessel [Unique][Growth]
This weapon is the result of experimentation during the Age of Devastation. On the brink of extinction, the creators of this chain whip imbued Sanguineus with the ability to drain blood from those it slew while channeling the vitality into its wielder. However, instead of bolstering and healing its wielder, Sanguineus retained the vitality and mana of its victims.
With the aid of the Void and the Primordial of the Wild, this chain whip has gone from a cursed prison to a vessel for the Blood Wolf, Sanguineus. When Sanguineus is not present within the vessel, it will function as a simple weapon. However, when Sanguineus returns to his vessel, the weapon will be imbued with a life-draining effect that will drain the blood of its foes to provide a regeneration effect to its wielder.
Void Runner Evolution: Your attack speed and reaction times increase when not in direct sunlight.
Kazuma’s Vessel [Unique] [Growth]
This sabre is the finest creation of the master smith, Darius Bladeshaper. The blade is of the finest quality, being both lighter and stronger than a common sabre and is crafted from an unknown metal that Darius refused to identify when asked. This sabre was intended to be passed on to an enchanter to complete the weapon for Darius’ client, but the client fell in battle before the enchanter received the blade. Rather than pay for the sabre enchantments out of his own pocket and unwilling to sell the blade, Darius set the sabre upon the wall of his smithy to show prospective clients what he was capable of creating.
Kazuma’s Vessel will become stronger and develop new abilities as Kazuma grows and evolves. When Kazuma resides in the sabre, a fine mist will enshroud both the blade and wielder, obscuring the wielder’s movements and attacks.
Cloud Hunter Evolution: Mist can now be pushed out to cover a 5 meter radius around you.
So, that’s what happened. The cloud hunter evolutions mist cover took me out of direct sunlight and triggered the void runner evolutions speed boosts.
Lanek also took a moment to check out his notifications, smiling in satisfaction at the increase of his chain whip proficiency to 10 and his sword proficiency to 9. Even better, his Soulbinder level had reached 30. It looked like his subclasses had leveled up as well.
Name Lanek Solvinsson Species Human (Transmigrated) Class Soulbinder (Mythical) lvl 30 Subclass Shinobi (Rare) lvl 4, Ranger (Uncommon) lvl 4 Titles Disciple of the Void, Ally of the Wild HP 670/670 MP 190/190
Attributes
STR 29 CON 134 DEX 187 PER 74 RES 144 SPI 38
While his strength left a lot to be desired, at least his gaunt hunting had paid off. With his current SPI, he could launch seven projectiles with [Ethereal Salvo] twice before needing to replenish his mana. However, what thrilled him more than anything had absolutely nothing to do with his combat abilities.
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Your soul has become stronger. New [Soul Contract] slot has been awarded.
Another companion? Hell. Yes. Lanek’s mind raced with the possibilities of a new companion and how that would boost his strength and capabilities.
That would need to wait, however. Lanek was on a mission and had his companions help him stash the loot they had acquired into a nearby house. There was no way he would be able to carry it all back in a single trip. Man, I wish I had some kind of spatial storage. I should ask Caelis about that. Or maybe my next contract should be with a pack horse or mule! Lanek laughed at the absurdity of the thought.
After storing the loot, Lanek continued on to the equipment shops. The battle must have attracted all of the creatures in the area as he and his companions did not encounter any more monsters on their way to the shops.
Within the shops he found a number of pieces of heavy armor and larger weaponry. The only items that he felt the need to loot were several unstrung bows of varying sizes and as many arrows as he could find. He wasn’t even all that sure which bow would be most suitable for him as he had only ever fired the bow that the Night Arrows had used to train him.
Lanek returned to the monastery with his new items and sought Caelis out immediately, looking for a bit of information and advice. He found the spirit, unsurprisingly, in the library.
“Caelis! I have some news. I can make another soul contract!” he said excitedly, telling her about the recent battle.
“That’s great news, Lanek. How do you plan to use it?” she asked, infected by his excitement.
“I was hoping that you would consider accepting the contract.”
Caelis smiled, but he could see a bit of sadness in her eyes as she replied. “I don’t think that is a good idea. Thank you so much for the offer, and I would love to have my body back if it would even work on me, but I think I can be of more use to you as I am. At least, for now.”
“What do you mean?” Lanek asked.
“I’ve been doing some thinking and planning of my own since you brought me here. I think I have an idea that would let me exert more power and influence over the monastery once we get the crystals powered.” she explained.
“How so?”
“Well, I noticed a few training rooms covered in sigils. Those sigils are designed to focus mana to aid in cultivation. If we were to recover and transfer more of my nodes to this place and install them in those rooms, I should be able to use those sigils to feed that mana directly to me. With enough of them in place, I would be able to manipulate the glyphs and manage the monastery. I would even be able to manifest within these walls to protect the place if needed.” the spirit stated.
“But you would still be trapped in the monastery, right?”
Caelis nodded, “Yes, but I will be stronger than I’ve been since the city fell. In turn, I can protect you and this place, giving me a purpose beyond simply giving advice. I think I need this. Please.”
“Okay, I’ll help get this going, you’ll just have to tell me what to do and where to go. But, I need you to remember that I’m always open to attempting a contract with you if you change your mind, okay?”
“Agreed. And thank you. I will provide you with a list of locations where you can get the necessary node crystals.” she said with a warm smile on her face.
“Well, with that decided, I have a few questions about monster cores.”
“Cores? I should be able to help with that.” Caelis said.
“Great. First, do all monsters have cores? I have noticed a fair bit of difference between how often I get them. For example, when fighting ash goblins I only got the cores from a small percentage of them while I got one for every ash wight I killed. Second, since monster cores provide mana recovery if absorbed, can we use them to power the glyphs?”
“Ah, easy enough to answer. Yes, all dungeon monsters have cores. Natural ones that you find out in the wild do not, which is yet another reason dungeons are such a valuable resource. The disparity in drop rates has to do with a combination of luck and your skills. There were adventurers with harvesting skills that would prevent the corpses of dungeon monsters from dissipating until the core was cut out. This gave a one hundred percent chance of acquiring the core if it was not destroyed during combat. Without that harvesting skill, you have to rely on luck to get a core to drop when killing a monster. Needless to say, harvesters were just as essential as healers when it came to dungeon expeditions.” she said patiently.
“Do you know where I can learn that skill?”
“Unfortunately, I have no idea. I didn’t have it and I never looked into it when I was alive or before the city fell. If you needed a harvester, it was easy enough to simply hire one to accompany you. The harvesters weren’t especially uncommon, so I would not be surprised if you could find information about it in the Order’s library or, more likely, in the adventurer’s guild. Now, for your second question, you should be able to use the cores to transfer mana into the glyphs, but are you sure you want to? They were never used like that in the past due to their value for crafting, evolving, and cultivation.” she said.
“Yeah, might as well. I only have one other idea as to how to fill those storage crystals and power the glyphs by myself, and I’m pretty sure you won’t like it.” At her questioning glance, he explained nervously, “Soulbinder lets me absorb souls. If I assimilate a soul once harvested, it will increase my SPI and replenish my MP. If I don’t assimilate it, it heals me.”
After a moment of horrified silence that stretched out for far too long, Caelis said, “Let’s not resort to powering our home with harvested souls.”
As Lanek made his way to the glyph room with the monster cores, he couldn’t help but feel Caelis’ eyes following him and possibly judging him. He couldn’t say that he blamed her, even he was concerned about how comfortable he had gotten with utilizing souls as a resource.
Is this how the Soulbinders of old became corrupted?