It took a while until the Primal Soul Lord’s knowledge settled in Zayn’s mind. He had to organize the pieces of information that had poured into his mind and digest them slowly. The process was tedious, but the result was far better than expected.
His understanding of the newly acquired Class Cards skyrocketed immediately. Several notifications confirmed that.
[Proficiency of Soul Sense reached 100%. Level 1 → Level 50]
Soul Sense advanced to Level 10. +5 Soul Essence.
Soul Sense advanced to Level 25. +10 Soul Essence.
Soul Sense advanced to Level 50. +20 Soul Essence.
[Proficiency of Soul Link reached 100%. Level 1 → Level 50]
Soul Link advanced to Level 10. +5 Soul Essence.
Soul Link advanced to Level 25. +10 Soul Essence.
Soul Link advanced to Level 50. +20 Soul Essence.
“Amazing,” He murmured as the Cards leveled up.
The Primal Soul Lord’s knowledge told Zayn enough about his Class Path to understand what his Class Cards were capable of, but the massive level-up of his Cards made it easier to grasp the knowledge.
Zayn instinctively knew that Soul Sense allowed him to sense and touch the Souls of the monsters he’d killed. Meanwhile, Soul Link made it possible to link the Souls to him, granting them temporary access to the ability to create a semi-physical body, which could be used for miscellaneous tasks, battle, or transportation.
Both Class Cards were useless if used alone, but combined, they transformed into extraordinary Cards that could change the tide of any battle, even more so when combined with the three Spirit Cards that rested in Zayn’s Heart Deck.
Spirit Souls – Souls that gained a spiritual body – used their Soul Power to maintain their semi-physical body. Under normal circumstances, their Soul Power would be used up in 24 to 48 hours. However, Zayn’s Spirit Cards could reset the timer and ensure the Spirit Souls wouldn’t disperse.
‘As long as I use my Class Cards properly, I shouldn’t have an issue filling the Empty Spirit Cards with powerful Spirit Souls. That’s like having three powerful Summons, except I don’t have to use my energy to summon and control them. The Lord Rune will amplify the Spirit Souls’ prowess even further. The Lord Rune is quite powerful in the first place. A boost in my Foundation that can be nourished further and the ability to create more Spirit Cards. How am I going to utilize this in the best possible way?’
Zayn had only three Spirit Cards for now, but that was already a lot. Soul Link didn’t mention how many Souls he could link to him, transforming them into Spirit Souls. Zayn could create a small army of temporary warriors if the number was not restricted. He wouldn’t have to fight alone anymore.
A foolish grin blossomed on his face.
**
Even though Zayn didn’t feel like wasting his time by staying in the inn, he couldn’t ignore the Primal Soul Lord’s information that continued flashing through his head. They had been freshly engraved in his mind. Zayn could remember almost everything he’d just gotten to know, but he didn’t know how long the information and knowledge would remain fresh.
It was painful and anything but pleasant, but Zayn decided to spend the next three days in seclusion to write down the Primal Soul Lord’s knowledge to find out more about the first Soul Lord, his powers, and everything else that may come in handy.
Zayn hoped to procure useful information about World Bridges and Dimensional Anchors, and he did exactly that.
He learned some basic information about World Bridges, the Primordial Pantheon, the other factions of Gods, and various other valuable pieces of information. Unfortunately, much of the information he’d learned was in snippets. He made notes of them and chose to research them later, but Zayn felt that it would be pretty difficult to find out more about the Primordial Pantheon and the weakness of the Gods than he’d just gotten to know.
Zayn learned that the Gods were not invincible. Of course, he’d been aware of that fact since he defeated a Minor God, but he learned why most Gods didn’t dare to descend upon Earth before.
Gods were only as strong as the faith reaching their Divinity. If the faith of their followers was too weak or the distance too big, the Divinity wouldn’t be able to unleash its full potential. That was also why most Gods had been desperate to merge their domain into Earth. Since the distance of their domain would be too far from them if it remained unmoving, the Gods decided to merge their domains into Earth where their Followers’ faith could reach them easily.
However, since the integration of the domains was slow progress, only one Minor God descended.
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‘Doesn’t that mean I only managed to kill a God because he was at a disadvantage? He had some subordinates on Earth, but we killed all of them before dealing with the Minor God. His Followers were dead long before we clashed. His Divinity wasn’t even empowered when he fought…’
Zayn shuddered at the thought. If a Minor God without the might of his Divinity was already strong enough to obliterate the strongest Card Holders of mankind, what would happen to Earth once the domains fully merged with it?
‘If I cannot stop the World Bridges and Dimensional Anchors, I should probably focus on destroying the Gods’ domains. But there are innocent people in the domains as well. It’s not their fault for being devout believers. They might not even know how terrifying their Gods truly are.’
Zayn grit his teeth and sighed deeply. He was on the verge of tearing apart the paper stashes before him. Three neatly stashed piles of paper filled with information Zayn had procured from the Primal Soul Lord’s knowledge. Zayn didn’t even write down everything he’d learned. Many semi-important pieces of information were still tightly locked in his mind. He was unwilling to write them down, though. His head was already smoking, and his eyes ached. He was done with the piles of information.
Nothing good came out of it, either way.
Well. That wasn’t entirely true. Intel was power, and Zayn was quite powerful right now. He had still several months before the first World Bridges would open. It was possible that he could destroy the World Bridges before they opened. Of course, that depended on a few factors – including his progress in the next few months.
He learned a few techniques that may or may not be helpful in closing World Bridges and how to cut down Dimensional Anchors. Unfortunately, Zayn couldn’t be sure whether they would work properly. The Primal Soul Lord’s knowledge didn’t show him that much.
However, it showed him something far more interesting. The Primal Soul Lord’s knowledge showed him how he, a mere mortal, transformed into a God after killing several Gods with a wide variety and his unique abilities as the reign of all Souls.
He created his own Divinity and defeated the Old Gods of the ancient time.
**
After days in self-proclaimed seclusion, Zayn was tired of doing nothing but cleaning his newly procured knowledge. He was tired of this room, the stashes of paper, and sitting around.
Thus, he stored everything in his spatial ring and went for a bit of adventure. It was time to test his new powers!
Zayn left Spyro quickly and emerged from the sentient volcano in no time as well. Before starting the short journey to the underground cavern system, he checked the surroundings. The Magma Goblins would make good Spirit Souls with their high combat affinity and great spatial awareness.
He was curious how their spatial awareness and combat affinity would be affected as Spirit Souls. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to the underground cavern system without any obstacles. Zayn ran into a lone Hellhound.
His eyes narrowed as he inspected the monster from far away. It was larger than its kind by more than half a meter and had a large scar stretched across its face. The Hellhound’s vibrant red fur flared up as bursts of heat poured out of its body.
It sniffed in the air and noticed a subtle change. There was barely anything. but the Hellhound was not only agile and strong but also very perceptive. It spun around and discovered Zayn right away. There was no hesitation in its actions as it howled aloud before charging Zayn with quick strides.
The surrounding heat was sucked toward the Hellhound’s muzzle, where searing-hot flames formed. The Hellhound spit a searing hot flame toward Zayn, who used Blink once before adjusting his Foundation Orbit. He didn’t use his Soul Essences because he wanted to experiment. Unfortunately, it looked like Zayn would have to wait with that.
Integrate 61 Soul Essences into the Star of Agility
100/1000 →161/1000
Integrate 70 Soul Essences into the Star of Spirit.
240/1000 →310/1000
Integrating one Soul Essence into the Star of Spirit was equivalent to enhancing three Foundations simultaneously. It was the most efficient to focus on the Star of Spirit. In the first place, Zayn had been focusing on his Perception, Wisdom, and Energy Foundation Stars since he was thrown back in time.
Now that he had the Star of Spirit at his disposal, Zayn could finally unleash more power.
When the Soul Essences entered the Star of Spirit, his perception of the surroundings skyrocketed. His energy pool expanded rapidly, and his mind began processing everything around him much faster than before.
Zayn swallowed hard. He’d forgotten how addictive it was to grow stronger in massive bursts.
“You’re going to be a nice mount!” Zayn smiled devilishly as a surge of power swept through him. He kicked the ground and charged the Hellhound while retrieving the Verdant Saber. His eyes burned fiercely as he struck the monster. It tried to retreat, but Zayn blinked behind it.
Simultaneously, dozens of thick roots burst out of the ground as Zayn activated Root Strike and Florakinesis several times in a row. He also created a single fully-empowered Aegis Natura in the Hellhound’s path of retreat, forcefully slowing the monster.
Poison Augment was added to the Verdant Saber’s Enhanced Poison, but Zayn was not done. He added Draining Touch and Double Impact right before the blade cut through the lone Hellhound’s thick fur. Zayn had yet to bind any new general Cards to his Heart Deck, but his combat prowess had skyrocketed since he surpassed the Foundation Limit of a Classless entity.
The sudden boost in the Star of Spirit and his Agility allowed him to move much faster than before and perceive everything in the finest detail. His entire being was overflowing with Energy, and his mind processed everything incredibly fast. Not the faintest detail in his sight escaped Zayn.
Zany retracted the Verdant Saber after inflicting a minor injury. He cut the monster and blinked to another spot, where he used his remaining momentum to inflict another wound.
Once more, Zayn blinked to a different location where another cut was inflicted.
He repeated the process several times while always maintaining Posion Augment, Enhanced Poison, Draining Touch, and Double Impact on the Verdant Saber.
The Hellhound tried to block Zayn’s attacks at first. It tried to retaliate against him, evade his attacks, and fight back, but Zayn disappeared whenever the Hellhound got close to it. He appeared in its dead angle at the worst possible moment, wounded the monster, and blinked away when the monster spun around.
It looked like Zayn was playing with the large Hellhound and he couldn’t deny the accusation. He was playing with the Hellhound, but it was just too interesting to see how helpless a monster with an equally high Foundation was against him now that he was at the 1st Tier.