Perhaps because of the system’s role or a natural part of the Soul Predator ritual, Novus felt no significant difficulties in attempting to activate the new skill. In fact, the skill felt intuitive, like Novus had practiced it many times already.
Novus closed his eyes and searched inside his body for Mino’s soul. Then, gradually shifting through what felt like layers of differing gravities, Novus felt the pang of a connection to another space at the crown of his head.
Had Novus been looking at his body from the outside, he would have noticed the brief activation of a glowing tattoo of an ornamental black prism beetle hidden underneath his curls of crimson hair.
Even in the soul world, Mino took his spot on Novus' head.
Time passed as Novus slowly followed the string-like feeling, and suddenly, Novus felt his consciousness being pulled out of control into the floor of a cozily small cave. Novus could move from one side to the next within seconds. However, it was the perfect size for the small black beetle snoozing inside a fuzzy, crimson bed made of unknown material.
Pesnooze. Pesnooze.
Pew…
Pew!
Rolling from one side to the next, an excited Mino raced into the air and onto Novus’ soul-formed hand. Mino fluttered its wings as if it was ready to play after dying of boredom in the small cave. Novus chuckled and spoke to Mino.
“Yes, yes, I’m happy to see you too, little guy. I’m testing something out, and then I’ll let you roam free outside again. Got it?”
PEW!!
An exhilarated sound left Mino as it rapidly calmed down and waited on Novus’ hand with anticipation.
“All right, I require your power, Mino.”
At Novus’ words, the white lines arcing around Mino’s body let out a dull shine as they contrasted against Mino’s black shell. Eventually, Mino’s body followed suit and disappeared as twinkling lights into Novus’ soul form.
Novus opened his eyes again in the real world as he sensed the changes that Mino’s power gave him. Had Novus been looking in a mirror, he would have noticed streaks of black inside his golden irises.
As Novus breathed in, the ambient, atmospheric mana gathered towards him and entered his body unconsciously. Unfortunately, that brought great pain as the mana aggravated his ragged mana vessels. However, Novus bared through the immense pain as he sensed the mana appear at his mana core area.
In the hopeless fight against Mercury, Novus had nearly burned his entire mana core to unleash the Iron Rank Spell, Fireball. All that was left in his mana core area was a husk of his previous mana core that Novus would have to rebuild if he ever wanted to cast spells in this lifetime.
Despite the immense pain, Novus’ senses remained sharp as he noticed something revolutionary. The mana entering into his mana core area was turning into a black colour that reminded Novus of Mino’s shell. Further, the black mana gently gnawed at the mana core husk as it grew bigger. Unmatched excitement began to grow inside Novus.
There’s no way, right!?
Novus painfully swirled the mana into his hands as he condensed a minor incantation. A pained expression crossed Novus' face, but his efforts coalesced into his hand.
Poof!
Novus’ eyes flickered alongside the flame dancing alongside his palm. That flame weaved and flowed as it turned colourless and spun as droplets floating in the air. Soon after, the spinning water droplets dissipated into a formless air that brushed against his palm, and soon after, gentle earthen flakes layered on Novus’ hand.
“Prism Mana!”
Novus’ eyes glimmered at the revelation of Mino’s power.
With the increased speed of gathering mana and the ability to convert my mana to Mino’s black prism mana, I should be able to cast iron rank spells of any element in no time! The best part is that I won't have to rely on ambient mana for spells. I could cast fire magic underwater just as easily as water magic! Not only that, but the spells will likely be far more potent than regular spells of the same level!
Novus had picked up the perfect mana steroid. But, before Novus could try anything else, he heard Mino’s voice in his mind.
PEwww!
The voice sounded tired after an initial burst of energy. Then, Novus felt Mino’s black hole-like power gradually fade from his body and return to the soul space at the crown of his head.
The skill Soul Partner Channelling has been forcefully cancelled by your Soul Partner Mino.
“Ah. This is unexpected.”
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However, after some thought, Novus found it to be reasonable.
“It’s more like I’m borrowing Mino’s soul power to enhance my own, so there is likely a sort of strain for how long I can use it before Mino is drained. Of course, Mino can take back that power at his own will. I suppose that’s why they are called Soul Partners instead of the trained pets like some other summoner-type mages.”
Novus’ soul senses returned to the crown area of his head as he attempted to activate the other of his two new Soul Trainer skills: Soul Partner Summoning.
With a glow of the ornamental beetle tattoo, a snoozing Mino appeared and nestled into Novus’ head of curly crimson hair.
Pesnooze. Pesnooze.
Novus’ finger scratched his cheek as he felt the wooziness of drained soul power. The feeling quickly fled, and Novus resumed his normal pondering state.
Will he always appear up there?
Novus gently scooped up the resting Mino as he analyzed Mino’s body.
There don’t appear to be any imperfections in appearance. It’s a complete physical appearance through soul power alone. Does my soul power act as a tunnel for Mino to appear? Or is it a body made of soul power?
Novus lightly poked Mino’s shell, and Mino rolled onto his back as his legs occasionally walked in the air.
Whatever the case, it’s a beautiful start. But, I’ve got a long way to go.
Placing Mino back on his head, Novus was interrupted by a system message that appeared before his eyes.
You’ve received new messages from Percival.
Novus opened his messages and felt all sorts of emotions.
New Message from Percival: Hey! :Waving Emoji: Are you asleep!? I’m beginning to get bored out here, tempering myself around the island. Let me know when you see this. So we can get back to dungeon runs before the tournament ship gets here.
New Message from Percival: Hey! Change of plans, Goibhniu and Circe gave me a bunch of training quests. Though they're a bit strange, they give some good EXP and decent items. Let me know if you want to help, and we can quest together.
New Message from Percival: Hey. Respond already. We need to talk.
Novus found it hard to reply immediately, especially when Percival’s tone shifted with the most recent message. He almost seemed... angry. Novus thought back to how he had acted on the group's trip to the goblin settlement and couldn't help but frown, mostly out of bitterness for his actions.
Ultimately, Novus shifted the message aside. He would deal with it when he could meet Percival in person, not over a text conversation. But, unfortunately, that left another blinking message icon for Novus to read.
Message to Adrianne: Hey! Let me know when you can respond.
However, a system window would appear each time he tried to send a message like this to Adrianne.
The player, Adrianne, is in an area where she cannot receive messages. Please try again when they have left this area.
“Stupid system…”
Shaking his head, Novus tapped his thighs and flipped to his feet. Novus walked over, and upon opening the backdoor to the house, Edna's smiling face scared Novus half to death.
Gasp.
Was she waiting there for me this entire time?
“Ah. My beautiful disciple has finally woken up! Come here. Let’s see what kind of skills the ritual gave you.”
However, Novus quickly shut the door and retreated upon seeing Edna’s caring expression.
I’m still dreaming. But, heh, what a potent magic ritual. It even affected my mind—a smiling Edna, what a surreal dream.
Novus began to walk to the front door to escape the dream somehow, but he was fated to be interrupted by the eerie screech of the backdoor opening.
“Novus~ didn’t you want to get stronger? Come here; I even scrounged up something for you! It'll help you train faster.~"
Novus’ pace quickened as his hands fumbled with the front door knob. The dream was quickly becoming a nightmare, and Novus didn't like it one bit.
Click!
The front door swayed open, and Novus made to join the cacophony of beetles playing among the various treasured plants. Unfortunately, a lithe hand on Novus’ shoulder kept him from moving forward, despite running with his legs as hard as he could.
“Now, now, it’s rude to walk away when someone is talking to you. Especially when they’re giving you such a precious gift.”
Click!
Soon, under Novus’ futile escape efforts and a wave of Edna's hand, the soft click of the front door sealed Novus’ fate. As for what that fate was, Novus would soon find out with harsh, harsh care.