Chapter 289 Soul Vessels [Part 2]
Finally, there was the answer to the question he had always asked himself.
Do monsters have talents?
Apparently, according to what he saw of Koll's profile information, he now knew—monsters have talents too.
'Of course they do, else it wouldn't make sense how I'm able to absorb talent fragments.'
Which meant the only reason why he didn't see it in lower-rank monsters was because their talents were not yet fully formed.
The different case was if the monster had a True Name.
Northern believed that a True Name gave a monster a more definite essence, hence their talents could manifest, but not to the extent of a fully formed talent.
Another question that now bugged him was how does he copy monsters' talents?
Because he was sure he fought Koll and gained nothing from it.
Or maybe throughout their fight, the Castle Lord didn't use his talent abilities at all.
The only way was to inspect the information of the talent abilities.
Veil Of Darkness: [A shroud of darkness envelops your entire being, an ultimate defensive veil. Attacks cannot penetrate you in this form, even if they do, they are lost in the darkness.]
Red Lance: [You can manifest crimson lances carrying an attack weight equal to your resolve.]
'Oh, I know Veil of Darkness.'
Undoubtedly, this was the cloak of darkness the Castle Lord always wore. Sadly, he took it off willingly when they were about to get serious.
'I wonder what would have happened if he didn't.'
With the level of strength Northern was seeing from Koll, he continually felt like he and Night Terror probably just had an easy win.
He sighed.
'I guess I am not able to copy monster talents the way I can copy humans'.'
If he could, everything would have seemed too easy.
Now, there was nothing wrong with things being easy, but 'easy' didn't have deep enough roots to withstand the fiery test of time.
Sometimes, hardship is endured not for the result but for the process of building one's resolve, mindset, and fortitude.
Northern decided to let it rest for now; he would keep an introspective mindset and figure out how to copy monster talents later on.
He was sure that would be a great addition.
But right now, he had to focus on what he could control: using all available resources to grow stronger.
His eyes glided towards the bottom of the floating panel, where he saw:
Additional Information: [When Monsters are slain, Soul Fragments are gained which contribute to the growth of the Void Summon and not the Soul Summon.]
Which meant that Koll as a Soul would not be getting any stronger, just like Night Terror didn't.
However, Pangu would grow stronger and possibly even evolve in rank as a Void Summon.
Another downside was that he couldn't have Pangu harvest Talent fragments for him because kills were converted into Soul Fragments.
'So, in the end, I have to use my clones...'
But at the very least, he could have allies that would help him grow stronger in the meantime while he focused on at least becoming a Master before spending any precious talent fragments on evolving talents.
'As a Master, by my calculations, I will have ten talents, both owned and copied.'
Northern giggled internally.
Ten talents!
He was sure as a Master, he'd be able to defeat Helena EASILY.
A wry grin spread across his lips as he thought about it, but that was enough of that.
'Onto the next... let's save the savory for when it comes to fruition.'
"Merge Corpse Eater with Lamla."
[Merging soul Corpse Eater with Void Summon Lamla]
[Merging Complete]
Name: Lamla(Corpse Eater)
True Name: nil
Danger Level: [Apex]
Void Rank: [Echo]
Void Ability: [Soul Vessel]
Soul Fragments: [0/1000]
Name: [Corpse Eater]
True Name: nil
Attribute: [Ravage Hunger], [Kin Of Darkness]
Attribute Ability:
Danger Level: [Abysmal]
Soul Rank: [Savage]
Soul Fragments: [0/300]
Talent: nil
Talent Class: nil
Talent Abilities: nil
Northern smiled, content with what he saw.
He would have loved to summon both material bodies to this reality but stood the risk of being seen.
He didn't want to believe the White Walkers didn't have one or two on his trail.
So he decided to just do the next thing on his agenda until Ulzred arrived.
Northern materialized the Soul Eater, then pushed forward a leg.
Then, absorbing himself into the moment, he began swinging his sword hand forward. With every swing, he slid his leg a step.
Honestly, he didn't know what he was doing; however, what he hoped to achieve was a familiarity of some sort - familiarity with the sword and the Chaos footwork.
And so he continued like that...
...a couple of hours later, Northern's face was dripping with cold sweat.
He had not taken a single break and had continually moved both his legs and sword simultaneously while absorbing his senses into each moment.
He felt his muscles ache, but he also knew he could keep going. It would be laziness to stop just because of a few aches.
So Northern continued despite the pain in his joints and muscles. However, he suddenly heard a voice.
"You are doing it wrongly," the voice said.
He paused and looked around him; there was no one...clearly.
Not minding what he had just heard, he faced front and continued swinging.
"Oh? You are just going to outrightly ignore me because you can't see me? How rude."
Northern paused and stood straight this time.
There was a thick sourness to the voice, so he could deduce the speaker was probably male.
"Why hide and talk to me?"
"Hide? I'm not hiding. To show myself, I'd have to travel over a thousand kilometers - that's a lot of walking, even for a youngster like me. You want to learn, or do you want to talk?"
'Strange...'
It was really strange, but Northern wanted to learn, even though he felt very stupid talking to a voice without a face.
"I want to learn..."
"Good, I like your humility... let's start with how to swing a sword properly."