Although still fully confident he could trust Pupach, Mike quickly dug them out of the small burrow and untied their limbs, remaining vigilant all the while to a surprise attack. Thankfully none came and he was able to keep his new friend. Neither of them had any delusions about the situation: Mike was far stronger and had many more skills at his disposal. He didn’t know if Pupach could see energy signatures, but Mike’s core was clearly several steps above his own, although both were in the pumpkin–Tier 2 stage. It is going to take some getting used to not calling the core sizes by their vegetable comparables. He mused.
“So how do I go about identifying monsters that can attack my soul without actually allowing it to attack my soul?”
“You mean sacred beasts? Only barbarians use the term monster in the multiverse. And there isn’t a good way. That would take the ability to see another creature’s channels and skill fractals and know what a soul attack fractal looks like, both of which are way beyond our capacity.”
Mike took the correction in stride, it was always good to be polite, plus he was more focused on the news that seeing other’s channels was rare. “I can see channels, but I unfortunately don’t know what the skill fractal looks like.”
Pupach’s downturned head shot upwards at the information, before they exclaimed, “You have Energy Sense at that high of a level?! No wonder they are willing to go through the headache of harvesting you!”
Mike was still processing how to feel about the last statement as Pupach continued, “Luckily for you, you don’t actually need to find such a creature, because members of the Hive are all trained in attacking and defending the soul. It is at the heart of the System after all, and it is what allows the faction to flourish.
“You should know however that I will only be able to teach you the basics–enough that you can recognize when you are being attacked. You will need to find stronger attackers before you are ready to face the System though.”
Mike looked suspiciously at the squid-man. It sounded like the perfect way for a prisoner to surprise their unknowing jailor, but eventually decided it was the most sensible path forward. More importantly, it was a show of good-faith for the friendship.
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Strike Leader, no Pupach as they needed to refer to themselves now, had at first been very wary of the anomaly, Mike, and they still were if they were being honest with themselves. The native was absurdly powerful for his level of cultivation, and yet completely clueless. However, because of his relative power, Pupach realized that maybe Mike was the right being to tie their cultivation chariot to.
They had meant what they said earlier, there was no going back for them. Sector Assimilator would kill them on sight and if anyone ever found out about their betrayal to an anomaly, they would never be welcomed back into the Hive. They had hit rock bottom and were stranded in some unknown part of the multiverse. They might be able to survive by themselves for a time, but so much of their power was propped up by the System augments that they wore, that they would inevitably perish. Pupach didn’t know if Mike could actually overcome the integration, it was highly unlikely at the very least. But it seemed like the only way out of their current situation. So they offered to help.
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Mike didn’t know what he had been expecting when he heard the term soul attack, but he was surprised when it felt very similar to his previous experience of kicking the Energy Sucking symbol from his soul space. All of a sudden an unknown symbol appeared and began attempting to suck the energy straight from his channels, causing him to feel a wave of panic. After only a few moments, however, it became apparent that the attack was much weaker than the System’s.
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Pupach had instructed him to fight back, and just as he had done with the System he managed it almost instinctively, willing the tides of his consciousness and the power of his channels to rise up and fight against the symbol. Within a matter of moments, it was completely overwhelmed, and he opened his eyes to see Pupach eyeing him with an unreadable expression.
“That was very good.” Pupach said at length, “I thought you said you hadn’t done this before.”
“I didn’t actually know what a soul intrusion constituted. As it turns out, I have done this many times with the System when I first learned to level my skills. Until one day it stopped happening.”
“Interesting…” Pupach mused while stroking his facial tentacles. The gesture looked so human that Mike had a hard time not laughing. “They turned off energy recuperation. I wonder why that is…. Well, it probably doesn’t matter too much. Let’s keep practicing. You aren’t lacking in power, but your response time needs to be faster.
“Also, have you only ever defended against energy consumption techniques, or have you battled energy influx techniques as well?”
“I am not sure what an influx technique is, but I’m guessing that it is where someone pushes cosmic energy into another?”
“Exactly, they are trickier to defend against, although usually they require less energy to fight.”
“I don’t understand, why would someone want to push energy into me? Wouldn’t that just make me stronger?”
“Ah, well the key is that they push more than just energy into you. Hidden in the cosmic energy can be a myriad of different effects. Small sigils designed to destroy your channels or sigils that would change your physical body. Think germs but on a much higher level of power.”
The discussion continued followed by more training. In this manner, the next couple of weeks flew by. In only a couple of days, Mike was able to easily brush off Pupach’s attacks almost instantly. He insisted that Pupach make sneak attacks whenever possible to help him be ready to defend against a true attack.
When Pupach was no longer strong enough to present a challenge, they went in search of a creature to fit their needs. This was an awkward process. Mike could very easily see energy pathways in others, but seeing as all of the creatures were grouped together, it was like trying to follow a single strand of Christmas lights in a forest full of Christmas trees, it wasn’t possible at a distance.
Instead, they took to the process of working their way up the line one by one. Of course, any creature near the back of the line was unwilling to attack, so they had to start their inspection far enough up the chain that the beast would be willing to fight. Once a place in line was secured, Mike would inspect the creature in front of him. This could often take hours as energy pathways perpetually increase in complexity as a beast gets higher tiered.
Once he verified whether or not a creature had the appropriate symbol, his next action was always the same, cut in front of the creature and fight once more. If they didn’t have the symbol, he was just moving up his place one position so he could inspect the energy channels of the next creature, but if they did, he could get some practice in. The vast majority of the time, the process resulted in him simply fighting with his skills, but every once in a while he got lucky.
His first exposure to energy influx happened just two days into the process, and boy was he glad Pupach had prepared him. He almost reflexively began circulating the extra energy when it entered his channels, and it was only through the preparation that he knew instead to surround the intruding energy with his own energy before hurling it at the invading symbol–at least, that's the way he thought about it. It was hard to describe the process, like explaining the color orange to someone who had only ever seen in black and white.
In addition to gaining experience in his soul defending capabilities, he was able to gain two more sizes to his core from the constant fighting and the subsequent hugging of his slain foes–a process which was much more embarrassing with Pupach watching than it had been when he was alone. The levels had been gained without the use of cosmic water, as he was saving that to add to his channels, a discussion that was ongoing.
He learned a lot about sacred symbols by studying the pathways of others, and had at first been tempted to simply add on a few new sigils from what he saw. That is until Pupach pointed out that he had no idea how accurate the symbol was. It was better to wait for a true cultivation opportunity that would lead to long-term strength than wasting his precious resource on something where the outcome was unknown.
Finally, in addition to all of his personal growth, Mike felt that he and Pupach had grown as a team. A weird team, yes. One where neither fully trusted the other. But a team nonetheless. It felt good to have someone to talk to, especially someone who had much more knowledge than himself. His only complaint was that Pupach never joined him for dinner, even though he did his best to have meat each night–not because either needed to eat much at their current stage of cultivation, but because food was good.