NOVEL NEXT Bodily Harmony (218)
The act of repairing his soul was one that Kai wasn't all that familair with, he had only done it once after all.
To be honest, if he had to pick a way to describe it, he would say that it was sort of like welding.
He would trace a finger over a crack, and it would slowly heal and become whole once more, only it took a little while to do so.
With the help of his Bloodline, Kai was able to tell which cracks would cause the most problems if not tended to, so those were the ones he focused on first.
Hours passed, in which Kai meticulously and carefully repaired his soul. It was a long process, one that was nowhere near done by the time he felt too tired to continue.
Kai had managed to repair the worst of the cracks though, meaning the repair process would go easier as time went on, even though it would take a few days until it was fully repaired.
Still, a few days of fixing his soul was much better than waiting for it to heal naturally for a month.
Actually, now that Kai thought about it, Cecilia had said that any sort of injury to the soul could be crippling, but the system said just refrain from using any soul based skill for a month, so did his soul posses some internal repair system?
Maybe it was part of his Bloodline or something. Kai didn't really mind though, it wasn't a bad thing after all.
Sighing softly, Kai opened his eyes and realised that Cecilia had been sitting in front of him, watching him intently. He wasn't sure how long she had been doing so, but it wasn't a bad guess to say from the very beginning.
Realising that Kai had opened his eyes, Cecilia blinked and blushed slightly before asking:
"Is... your soul repaired?"
Kai sighed again and shook his head. By now, the pain in his body had lessened a little so he could perform that small action without much effort.
"It will take me a few days to fully fix it, but I've gotten rid of the worst cracks for now."
Cecilia smiled softly.
"That's good..."
Then, Kai sighed and pointed at the spatial storage ring on Cecilia's finger.
"I'm sure that there's a candle in there somewhere, so take one out."
Cecilia blinked, confused.
"Why-"
Kai sighed again.
"Just do it."
Doing as she was told and not asking anything else as she summoned a small, unlit candle into the tent.
Picking up the candle, Kai took a deep breath and softly touched the wick.
Curiously, Cecilia watched, curious about what was going to happen. Kai had already said that he couldn't use a soul based skill because his soul was broken, so what was-
She instantly began panicking when the wick of the candle became encased in a light green flame.
"Sir! What are you-"
"It's fine." Kai said as he flashed her a pained smile.
Turns out, he had been right.
Since he had repaired the worst of the cracks in his soul, he could make use of Soul Flame.
Although his limit was a tiny flame on a candle with about half the power the skill usually had. It also made Kai's soul throb with pain just using that skill a tiny bit, but it was worth it.
At least Cecilia wouldn't be as cold now.
Kai handed the candle back to the Queen, who gratefully accepted it. The green light reflected off her cheeks, making Kai smile softly.
"Sorry, but that's all I can do for now."
Which was true, considering his soul had gone back to feeling like shit. There wasn't any new cracks though, it was just that it was hurting.
A strange smile crept it's way onto Cecilia's face.
"Thank you..."
Throughout all of this, Petunia, Umbra and Remy had yet to wake up, so Kai had a little more time to go through all of his gains from the recent ordeal. He had already gone through all the backlashes, so that meant it could only get better from here.
So, looking at the next notification in the list, Kai couldn't help but grin.
Stored Soul Acquired
Oh Esurient, you beautiful sweet blade.
In all honesty, Kai hadn't even thought of this. He just wanted Esurient to steal the kill, but they had gone one step further.
They had stolen the kill by stabbing Ezekial in the soul.
So that meant two of the three stored soul slots were taken up. Kai wasn't upset that Ezekial had been taken as one, they surely had to have a useful ability. But it also meant that he would have to be more careful in the future, he had no idea if or when he would be able to obtain more stored soul slots, so he had to be careful with killing any creatures with a stab to the soul.
However, just before Kai had a look at the stored soul, he cast a glance at Esurient's description and frowned slightly.
Had they... improved?
Grants the wielder +250 Strength, +200 Will and +150 Stamina. This blade also gives the wielder a 25% boost to their Mana circulation and a 10% boost to their Mana recovery.
Kai wasn't seeing things, the stats Esurient gave had increased after killing Ezekial. He got an extra 50 Strength, an extra 25 Will and an extra 50 Stamina.
Is this what the old description of Esurient meant when it said it would absorb the life of those it kills?
So that meant that whenever Esurient either killed an extremely high leveled opponent or killed an enemy by stabbing their soul they got more stats?
It was probably the former as Esurient hadn't gained any extra stats after killing that Veiled of the Dark Side.
But Esurient also wasn't awakened at that time, so that could explain that.
That was another thing for Kai to figure out, but there was no rush to do so. He had to be careful about stabbing monsters souls and he would much rather not fight a high leveled opponent while being crippled.
Still, he was happy, more stats was always a good thing, and now it was time to have a look at his new stored soul.
Disharmonied Sword Saint Ezekial (B)
B Rank? A big increase.
The stored soul of the Veiled of the Dark Side was only D Rank and it was already incredibly useful, so Kai was curious to see what a B Rank stored soul would be like.
Under an eternal blizzard, a Sword Saint lost control and ended up becoming a Disharmonied during a duel with the progenitor of Statshifitng. By infusing your Mana with this blade, the user will be able to make use of a Sword Style. While wielding this blade and infusing it with Mana, the user will be able to use Bodily Harmony, a Sword Style which makes use of the user's entire body. The user will also be able to unleash an Equilibrium once per week. However, if all of the user's stats are not equal, they themselves will become a Disharmonied if they attempt to use this ability.
Kai stared blankly at the description, a small grin creeping onto his face.
First of all, the system had addressed him as the progenitor of Statshifting, was that his title now? It didn't sound so bad if it was, it honestly sounded better than his Master's 'The Shifter'.
But the main thing Kai was focused on was the fact that he had obtained a Sword Style.
Ezekial had mentioned these to Kai in a passing conversation, explaining that there was many of them and they took years to practice and yada yada yada.
Meanwhile Kai got one for killing the swordsman himself.
How great.
Still, the part at the end about Kai becoming a Disharmonied if he tried to use it while his stats were not equal was a little worrying. He hadn't seen the end of what Ezekial's transformation looked like, but he was sure that he wouldn't want that to happen to him.
But it was still a great ability nonetheless.
So after killing Ezekial, Esurient had gained another massive upgrade, even more stats and another overpowered ability.
In all honesty, it was looking like Esurient was going to overtake Umbra in terms of power, if they hadn't already.
Especially since Esurient was sentient, he could channel his Mana into the blade, send it off while invisible and have it attack someone using Equilibrium, doing massive damage to them before they could even realise what was happening.
So Kai was sure that he would have to focus on Umbra for a while, she was able to level up herself after all while Esurient couldn't.
Plus, Kai had an idea of how to upgrade their fusion...
But now, it was time for something Kai wasn't looking forward to.
It was time to look at whatever the notification he received after killing Annie was.