Zayn was exhausted but satisfied. The heavy weight he shouldered felt lighter than it used to. His situation kept improving since he advanced to Tier-1 with the Soul Lord Class Path. The Soul Lord Class Path was much better than Zayn had hoped for.
The Origin Swordsman Class Path was a speck of dust compared to the greatness of the Soul Lord Class Path. No matter how Zayn looked at the current situation, everything progressed faster than he’d planned. It took longer to pick his Class Path than he had accounted for, but his current progress was several times faster now that he was the Soul Lord.
It was only obvious, but his progress wouldn’t slow down now that he was getting started for real, especially with the Soul Lord’s Class Cards. They were too useful to be left in the dust.
[Rune Engraving succeeded. Congratulations. +10 Soul Essences.]
The 4th Spirit Card had formed. That was perfect. He stored one Hobgoblin Warrior Spirit and two Assassin Spirits in the empty Spirit Cards and checked the information displayed to the Champion Spirit with a smile.
—-
Spirit Soul – Magma Goblin Champion
Superior – Tier-1
Evolution Path - 0
Foundation Orbit – 1101/1824 (Expand)
Expand.
[Foundation Orbit] – 1101/1824 [+2%]
[Star of Vitality – Novice 291/414][+2%]
[Star of Strength– Basic 269/449][+2%]
[Star of Agility – Basic 196/351][+2%]
[Star of Dexterity – Basic 149/195][+2%]
[Star of Perception – Basic 106/214][+2%]
[Star of Energy – Novice 59/102][+2%]
[Star of Wisdom– Novice 31/99][+2%]
“So, you can reach Tier-2. That’s neat,” Zayn whistled.
Maybe the Goblin Lair could help him obtain a few more powerful Spirit Souls. How strong would the other Goblins be if the Goblin Champion was already this powerful?
Zayn couldn’t quite remember what awaited him in the deeper parts of the Goblin Lair, but he recalled faintly that the monsters down there were either at the Peak of Tier-1 or already Goblins who’d managed to reach Tier-2. One way or another, the monsters that could be found in the depths of the Goblin Lair were powerful. That was exactly what he was hoping for. He was in dire need of powerful Spirit Souls, after all!
Zayn chose to look at the information on the Hobgoblin Warrior Spirit and the Assassin Spirits, but they were far less interesting.
Spirit Soul – Magma Hobgoblin Warrior – 715/1061 [+2%]
Spirit Soul – Magma Hobgoblin Assassin – 721/1098 [+2%]
Spirit Soul – Magma Hobgoblin Assassin – 685/1127 [+2%]
Their Foundation wasn’t low, but it wasn’t high enough to rival the Champion Spirit. Even Zayn’s Foundation paled in comparison to the Champion Spirit. If one looked merely at the numerical value, that is. At the end of the day, Zayn’s Foundation wasn’t the same as others. He had a lower numerical value than many monsters but wouldn’t lose out to them.
That came in quite handy. He was fairly sure that the system didn’t consider the Spirit Star as something special. It didn’t consider that the Star of Spirit was created by fusing three Foundation Stars. He gained a lot more rewards from hunting powerful monsters than others.
Zayn considered pushing deeper into the Goblin Lair without a break, but he was still dead-tired. He thought about summoning the Champion Spirit to train it a little bit. It was rebellious and was in dire need of some aggressive lectures. But before Zayn could start lecturing the Champion Spirit, his eyes fell upon the Goblin Champion’s Onyx War Axe.
“What rank are you, my little darling,” Zayn murmured, grasping the Onyx War Axe. He picked it up or tried to, only to realize that the War Axe was huge and far heavier than expected.
A Champion’s True Weapon
Tier-2 – Rare -
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Enchantments – [Auto Repair] - [Blood Sharpened]
‘Huh?’ Zayn’s eyes narrowed to slits.
It wasn’t the first time he saw a Ranked Weapon like this, but he hardly ever encountered a monster wielding a Ranked Armament of a higher Tier. Even Players had difficulties controlling Ranked Armaments of a higher Tier because the enchantments greatly affected the wielder if used incorrectly.
Of course, using a Ranked Armament of a higher Tier properly was possible without using their Enchantments, but that would be restrictive. Zayn could have used a Tier-2 Ranked Armament, but using the Verdant Saber efficiently was easier. It was more useful to him than most Tier-2 Ranked Weapons, especially since he lacked the materials and connections to create a proper High Ranked Weapon.
‘A Champion’s True Weapon’ was a little bit different. Both Auto Repair and Blood Sharpened were passive enchantments. The Goblin Champion didn’t have to use the enchantments to activate them. That was the only way to use a higher-ranked weapon without suffering from using it improperly…you just had to find a Ranked Weapon that didn’t have any active enchantments.
Zayn scoffed, shaking his head as he read both enchantments' descriptions.
[Auto Repair – Absorbs the surrounding energy to mend the armament’s damages over time. Can only mend minor/mild damages.]
[Blood Sharpened – This blade will never get dull or break as long as you quench its’ thirst for blood.]
The weapon was perfect for the Goblin Champion. It was no wonder that the Goblin Champion cut through the Spirit Souls so effortlessly.
‘I wonder how you’ll fight your enemies now, Champion.’
Zayn continued smiling, his eyes twinkling brightly. He was ready to wreak havoc with the Champion Spirit by his side. It had massive soul power, couldn’t feel any pain, and was incredibly hard to kill.
But he had to rest a little longer before Zayn could move out again. He was still exhausted from continuously fighting for hours and collecting a bunch of Soul Wisps.
The training hall didn’t have any special areas to rest, and even if it did have some resting areas, they wouldn’t be usable anymore. Everything was covered in blood, guts, body parts, and corpses. Zayn had to create his own resting area. He retrieved a foldable chair from his storage ring, unfolded it before him, and sat down.
Zayn leaned back while calling upon the Spirit Cards to summon the Hobgoblin Spirits alongside the Champion Spirit. Champion was still a little bit rebellious, but Zayn wasn’t afraid. He ordered the other Spirit Souls to cleanse the surrounding, collect all Armaments – whether they were Ranked or unranked –, and harvest the ears and tusks of all Goblins and Hobgoblins.
In the meantime, Champion was given precise commands to force him into submission. The process would be rather slow, and it was probably more efficient to invest the Soul Essences he’d procured into the Star of Spirit to dominate Champion, but Zayn had other plans with the Soul Essences.
It was time to upgrade the Foundation Stars of Vitality, Strength, and Dexterity.
Integrate 1 Soul Essence in the Star of Vitality.
99/100 → 100/100
Requirements to upgrade the Star of Vitality have been met. Please seek a safe place before the upgrade will commence.
Star of Vitaliy [Novice] has advanced to the [Basic] rank. Congratulations.
Zayn expected a tidal wave of pain to sweep through his entire body, but that wasn’t the case. On the contrary, warmth filled every corner of his body as the Foundation Star of Vitality upgraded to the Basic Rank. The warmth embraced him. It flooded his entire being and held him tightly like it wouldn’t let him go again – never again. The cells in his body were reinvigorated, and Zayn could clearly feel his stamina replenishing.
The exhaustion was washed away, leaving Zayn overflowing with energy and ready to get moving once again. However, at the same time, Zayn felt something deep in his heart reawaken. Others would feel something blossom in their hearts—if they were very perceptive of their emotions and desires—but Zayn was already very familiar with this sensation: the desire to grow stronger…the addiction to power.
He wasn’t unfamiliar with that, but Zayn didn’t expect the addictive sensation to come this early. Zayn recalled that this sensation came to him only a few years into the domain’s descent.
‘It’s not like this will change anything.’ Zayn thought. Since he was already familiar with this feeling, he also knew how to suppress it.
“Get going!” He shouted to himself, smirking while ordering the Champion Spirit to do a handstand. Champion growled but obeyed after a root struck the Spirit Soul’s back of the head.
Integrate 1 Soul Essence in the Star of Strength.
99/100 → 100/100
Requirements to upgrade the Star of Strength have been met. Please seek a safe place before the upgrade will commence.
Star of Strength [Novice] has advanced to the [Basic] rank. Congratulations.
Integrate 1 Soul Essence in the Star of Dexterity.
99/100 → 100/100
Requirements to upgrade the Star of Dexterity have been met. Please seek a safe place before the upgrade will commence.
Star of Dexterity [Novice] has advanced to the [Basic] rank. Congratulations.
Zayn could tell that his body and Foundation Orbit were getting used to his Foundation Stars reaching the next rank. Upgrading the Star of Dexterity and Star of Strength didn’t hurt as much. However, the upgrades of three Foundation Stars put a heavy toll on his body – even if he was merely ingame.
Forgotten Lands was a perfect replica and demonstrated clearly how the situation would be in the future. When Zayn thought about the future outside Forgotten Lands, he recalled something.
‘What if the upgrades of my Foundation Stars didn’t hurt because my real body is nothing like it used to be in the past? It used to be painful to upgrade the Foundation Stars, but it would make sense because my physique was too weak then.’ Zayn thought, slapping his forehead.
“I’m so stupid. How could I not know that?” He snorted, wondering how he’d managed to become one of the last survivors in the last cycle.
“I killed a God, yet I’m still as stupid as ever,” Zayn laughed to himself, his Spirit Souls staring blankly at him.
This cycle was going to be fun, probably.
Or everyone was going to die.
One way or another, Zayn had a bunch of Goblins to slay and enslave.