Jean walked into the Arena and checked her CAS.
The number was impressive.
A good number, but Jean hardly had any references, which was why the next place she went to was somewhere she has been neglecting for a long time: The Challenger Tower.
The Challenger Tower, according to Welch, was somewhere that Voyagers could fight different bosses and both practice their skills and earn some reward for the initial kills. It was meant to make the Voyagers stronger. Since everything was simulated, Jean didn't need to worry about getting hurt or losing anything. It was the perfect place for her to learn new powers.
She had access to it since a long time ago, but she only had the opportunity to come here now.
Jean started at the first level.
Level One
Opponents: 1 Special Forces soldier (Peak human capabilities)
CAS: 3
Reward: 5 coins.
Jean didn't care about winning or the tiny reward. She wanted to try out her powers, so she unloaded a single Swordguard and restrained the simulated opponent before closing her eyes and channeling her power.
It took her a while, but eventually, she grew a grasp on how the Power of Death worked.
The Power of Death was like electricity. It was a power source. Just like electricity could be used to power a car, fire a railgun, or light a lightbulb, the Power of Death could be used to do a lot of things. To spiritual entities like wraiths, a fragment of the Power of Death could make them survive longer or be more aggressive. It could be the difference between not being able to touch a thing in the material world and killing hundreds with a single thought. The Power of Death could also destroy wraiths, causing them to forever disappear from the surface of the planet.
In extreme cases, the Power of Death could be used to change things from “living” to “dead”. For machines, it meant corroding its metal body. For bullets, it meant melting its exterior. For energy blasts, it meant erasing the very energy that powered them.
In essence, anything can die. Even worlds will meet an end at some point in time.
Of course, the exact influence of certain abilities depended on how strong Jean’s Power of Death was. Just like a watch battery can’t power a Tesla car, right now Jean couldn’t just “die” an entire dimension.
Jean wasn’t quite sure how she could enhance her Power of Death, but she was certain there would be a way.
Now, back to the experiments.
The blackness in Jean’s eyes was almost overflowing as she, for the first time, reached out her Power of Death toward that simulated soldier. The soldier resisted, and Jean suddenly recalled the Swordguard so the soldier could come at her.
The soldier made it two steps before he suddenly collapsed, lifeless. His soul was stripped from his body without any resistance. He might be physically capable, but his soul was as defenseless as a newborn child.
Jean looked at the black cloud of soul floating in front of her. She paused for a second before picking up the cloud with two fingers and tossing it at her Soulbringer halberd. The soul melted into the weapon. When Jean looked at the halberd again, she could faintly see a face carved on it.
Level 1 was passed easily.
The 5 coins were added to a counter. They would be given to Jean after she exits the simulation.
Enter level 2.
Level Two
Opponents: 12 Special Forces soldier (Peak human capabilities)
Individual CAS: 3
Reward: 20 coins.
12 Special Forces soldiers appeared in front of Jean. They were identical to the one Jean killed just moments ago.
Jean raised her Soulbringer and pointed it at the squad of soldiers. She channeled the Power of Death into the single soul trapped in the weapon. She could hear the soul screeching. Suddenly, to Jean’s surprise. it exploded.
There was a limitation to the endurance of a regular human soul. If a person eats too much, he dies from overconsumption. The Power of Death was the ultimate enhancement for souls, but if a soul gets more than it could handle, then the power would turn from enhancement to poison.
Well, that’s why Jean’s experiencing with this now.
She waved her hand again, and eleven Swordguards appeared and held 11 of the 12 opponents in place. She tapped her weapon and stripped the last soldier’s soul out of his body.
This time, she was more cautious. The Power of Death flowed into that soul slowly and peacefully. She only stopped when she couldn’t pump any more energy in safely.
At this point, that soul was no longer the soft entity that looked like a strong gust of wind could blow it over. Its form looked almost solid. Its eyes were pale black.
The energy against all life coursed through its body.
Jean waved her hand, and that soul, under her full control, dashed toward the 11 immobilized hostiles. It first flew through one of the soldiers. The soldier’s body wasn’t affected, but Jean could see a translucent version of him being pulled out of his body. The wraith grabbed onto the soul and starting biting down on it. Piece by piece, the defenseless soul was devoured. Against the enhanced wraith, the soul could do nothing but scream in a noise only a selected few could hear.
Jean was one of the selected few, but her expression was cold, and her heart was merciless.
The wraith’s form solidified even more. While Jean’s Power of Death was like feeding the wraith, then devouring other souls made the wraith’s stomach larger, thus making its power ceiling higher.
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That wraith chewed through the other ten opponents with absolute ease.
Level 3 to level 10 were all opponents with physical weapons. Soldiers. Walkers. Even fighters. The opponent in level 10 was a terminator-like robot, but Jean was able to corrode its AI and take it down.
At level 11, things started to change.
“Ling Bing Dou Zhe Jie Shu Zu Qian Xing.”
Four entities in full golden armor appeared in front of Jean. They carried giant blades. Everything about them shined in golden light. Jean tried to extract their souls. She didn't find any.
“What the...”
Jean has never seen anything like this before.
Level Eleven
Opponents: Taoist Sorcerer
Individual CAS: 30
Reward: 200 coins.
The first golden construct charged forward. Jean deflected its sword strike with her halberd. The construct took a step back, ready for another go, but at the point of contact on his sword, a dot of black appeared and quickly spread across the construct. The parts covered by the blackness quickly corroded into dust.
The three other constructs moved forward. They lacked the intelligence to make tactical changes based on the situation. This meant they quickly suffered the same fate. Jean’s halberd couldn’t kill them with brute force, but the volatile energy on it easily melted away those constructs.
As the four summoned fell, the summoner was revealed. It was an old man with a huge white beard and scattered spots of white hair. He wasn’t fazed by the loss of his constructs. They were merely buying time, and they have succeeded in their goal.
He suddenly waved his hand, and out of the sky purple lightning struck down. Jean subconsciously raised her halberd and tried to deflect it.
Zap!
Jean took a few steps back. The lightning the sorcerer spent so long creating was useless. Well, not exactly useless. Jean could sense the wraith on her halberd was evaporated. It could devour an army of elite soldiers, but under the piercing power of the blast from the heavens, something as dark and evil as the wraith didn't stand a chance.
She turned her glance at the sorcerer. The old man seemed to be working to cast another spell, but it was too late. Ultimately, as a sorcerer, he wasn’t the strongest or the fastest combatant. Jean quickly approached him and started stripping his soul. Unlike the constructs, the sorcerer was still a human being.
The process was more difficult than what Jean did to the soldiers, and it wasn’t surprising. Sorcerers’ powers depend on the strength of their souls. Still, the difference in power was too much. Jean might be an amateur in this field, but she was learning quickly. Power of Death was so much more dangerous than Taoist mana. Under the constant pouring of the black energy, the sorcerer’s body quickly went cold.
Jean approached the next level as she enhanced the enslaved sorcerer’s soul. It would be a powerful weapon against her enemies.
The next levels weren’t that different. They were all sorcerers from different fields. An Onmyoji sent a dozen screeching wraiths at Jean. They ended up switching side when Jean’s Power of Death engulfed them. Without hesitation, they turned around and devoured their previous owner.
A vampire tried to manipulate Jean’s blood and rip her apart from the inside. Good idea. Terrible execution. That plan turned into a joke when the vampire’s Blood Power crept into Jean’s body and was instantly reduced to nothingness. As a Reapress, Jean’s every cell was filled with the Power of Death.
One of the more creative opponents was a serpent. Of course, with a CAS of 200, it was nothing like a normal serpent. Its speed was enough to outmaneuver Jean easily. Unfortunately, it made a mistake when it dug its fang into Jean’s arm. The venom meant to kill Jean did absolutely nothing. Not only so, the Power of Death corroded his fang off him. Jean extracted his soul the very next moment.
In addition to 500 coins, Jean also got a dagger. Crafted from the fang of the dead serpent, it could kill an elephant in three seconds with the slightest scratch.
Jean had no need for it. She would probably just give them to Blink when she meets her again.
It was during her twentieth mission that Jean finally encountered a worthy opponent.
Level Twenty
Opponents: The Ice Wolf
Individual CAS: 300
Reward: 1,000 coins. The Mask of the Ice Wolf
Great. Another beast. Jean quickly spread the Power of Death out to the surrounding. She learnt from experience that for her, the most dangerous thing would be if the opponent went straight for her body with full speed and strength. She needed a while to extract the soul. The Power of Death could scorch away any external threat inside her body, but it couldn’t heal wounds. This wolf was even more powerful than the serpent, judging from its CAS count. It might be able to take her out before she corrodes it.
Except she made all the wrong preparations.
Suddenly, Jean felt as if a needle has been stuck into her brain. A surge of psychic power, with unwavering decisiveness, slammed into her mind. The pain was intensifying as if someone was taking a hammer and beating the needle deeper into her body.
She realized her mistake.
The Ice Wolf, the two meter long blue beast standing a safe distance away, was a psychic. Its weapons were not its claws and its teeth, but rather its mind.
Jean bit her teeth tight, trying to use the physical pain to divert herself from the mental one. The salty feeling of blood in her mouth gave her a little more control. She quickly converged all the Power of Death in her control onto the psychic spike.
The spike was powerful, but eventually, it was worn out. As it was held in place, Jean waved the halberd and sent all the captured souls from the previous missions toward the spike. These souls hatched onto the invisible attack, biting it down and turning them to a part of themselves.
As the attack failed, the Ice Wolf tried to flee, but Jean was already taking the fight to him. A swarm of wraiths penetrated the Ice Wolf’s body again and again. Every time, a part of the wolf’s soul is ripped out. But the Ice Wolf was resisting more than any enemy Jean has faced before. No single wraith could destroy it in one shot.
But against the storm of wraiths, he wasn’t strong enough. Finally, Jean watched as the Ice Wolf’s body slowly went cold.
At this stage, Jean probably could’ve continued pushing through the Challenger Tower, but she decided it was about time. Her next mission was soon. She needed to go back to her home dimension and check out how her forces were doing.
Plus, she had something to consult Welch.
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As Jean exited the Challenger Tower, all the wraiths she collected from the twenty levels she passed disappeared. After all, they were simulations. But Jean still got a lot out of the fighting. Her control of the Power of Death went from 0 to, well, certainly not a hundred, but at least in the fifties. At least she could use them in combat effectively now.
The reward from the Challenger Tower added up to some 3,000 coins, as well as the dagger from the Serpent and the mask from the wolf. The dagger was as disappointing as Jean expected, but the mask wasn’t.
The Mask of the Ice Wolf
Cost: 1,000 coins
Description: A mask forged by the essence of the psychic Ice Wolf. Amplifies the psychic power of the user. Effect is inversely proportional to the user’s power level.
Jean turned the mask around in her hand. It was a furry half-face mask that could cover her eyes and the upper-half of her face. It looked like something that belonged in a dance party than on a battlefield. She put the mask on, and immediately felt her power amplifying.
Her Power of Death was based on her soul, and psychic power was a demonstration of the soul’s influence on reality.
She went for another CAS evaluation. Her power went from 760 to 800. Not a small boost, but the enhancement would no doubt decrease as her base CAS grew.
With this in place, her chances to survive her next mission was amplified. Jean toyed with the idea of going through more levels in the Challenger Tower and see what else it had to offer, but in the end she decided not to.
The first gadget was for an assassin. The second was for a psychic. At this rate, the next group of gadgets should be for other majors. Jean didn't want to spend her precious time betting on the fact that she would find a piece of gadget useful to her.
She had more important things to attend to.