NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39: Souls
Mila
Mila tried to look on the bright side of Aalam getting himself captured. At least the two in front of him were very, very horny for each other. Aalam couldn’t see it, both because he couldn’t understand their language and because he was generally oblivious, but he and Mila had started sharing their senses with each other over their bond and Mila was nowhere near as dense.
Aalam had also managed to kill seemingly every undead other than the generals and two dogs, so that was also good.
Congratulations!
Your Law Egg of Calm has advanced to high grade.
Your soul is affected by your understanding of Laws.
Spirit +16, Soul +8
Mila’s intensive use of the Law over the last several minutes had finally led to a breakthrough, allowing her to calm her thoughts enough to not worry about Aalam dying from blood loss with all his limbs held in the jaws of Shadow Wolves.
She was then able to shift to her Law Egg of Obfuscation and get within five meters of the Nightwalker mage heading to wherever their boss was located, and, just as the Nightwalker was about to notice her, she flared her aura to surround his and created a hologram of herself attacking him from the other direction.
In the split second he was confused, she dropped her use of the Law Egg of Obfuscation and transformed the Twin Dragons into its spear form. Then she stabbed the man in his unbeating heart with an attack empowered by the Law Egg of The Reaper and her Artifact Enhancement skill.
He didn’t die from that, but it became difficult for him to move and she was right behind him, so she transformed the Twin Dragons into its sword form and decapitated him, this time ending his life.
She wasn’t sure exactly where the undead leader was, but she was pretty sure he’d be notified about his general’s death. The System didn’t care about the troops an invasion came with, but the generals held an important position in the planet conquering game that was an apocalypse style integration, so the leader would get a System message about one’s death. The other generals, however, wouldn’t.
“Mila,” Aalam sent over their bond, “Did you kill the mage guy?”
“Yes.” Mila knew the mage had done something to Aalam, and that effect had likely disappeared with the mage’s death.
“Now that the spell is gone, I think I know what the mage did to my main mental forge. I think his skill was designed to make me unable to move my resources and my body, only it overlapped with the knight’s skill, so it was hard to tell. Given the mage added his skill on top, however, I think it likely the knight’s binding on me won’t last that much longer.
“As I had unaffected mental forges, even without you, I could have escaped on my own.”
Aalam sounded pleased with himself, the enemies not knowing about his Multi-Mind skill and thus incorrectly binding him, but he’d forgotten a few things and Mila felt obliged to point them out. “Aalam, are you or are you not currently in the jaws of two two-headed wolves?”
“I am.” His mental voice sounded less sure of himself.
“Do you or do you not currently have a magic sword poking into one of your kidneys?”
“I do.”
“Are you or are you not in considerable pain?”
“I am.”
“Are there or are there not two powerful enemies right in front of you?”
“There are.”
“Have they or have they not taken your weapon?”
“They have.”
“Then Aalam, as someone with ample combat experience, trust me when I say you are not in a position where you could escape on your own.”
“Okay.” Aalam sounded somewhat dejected, but at least the overconfidence which had gotten him into this state in the first place wouldn’t grow.
Mila waited for a full ten minutes near the general’s body, but the leader of the undead never showed up, and, through her link with Aalam, she learned a possible reason why.
“What do you think is taking so long?” the woman asked and, as had been happening the entire time, she seemed fidgety and kept looking at Aalam’s lower half.
“He’s probably near a breakthrough from the effects of that cave.” The knight had taken his helmet off by this point, it now hanging from his belt, and he kept looking at the woman’s lips and chest.
Nightwalkers, as a species, were generally turned on by death, and Aalam’s state of undress was heightening the effect, Mila having yet to find clothes which would fit his new taller body. Aalam’s Aura and Spirit were also quite a bit higher than the two Nightwalkers and, as an Incubus, he ever so slightly boosted the lust of everyone around him.
“You don’t think Prince Morin was attacked when we were, do you?” the knight asked, sounding like a man who was normally very concerned about duty but was currently extremely distracted.
“This bastard is an Incubus, almost certainly from a monster tutorial.” The woman flicked her sword, still stabbed into Aalam’s kidney, and Aalam screamed, causing the woman to smile with even more lust at the knight. “Given how powerful he is, there’s no way he was spawned with others, so his only backup could be some kind of lover, yet no lover would be able to leave him like this, so she doesn't exist.”
Mila considered if she was disregarding Aalam’s pain a bit too much as she moved back toward the undead’s main camp. Sure, he’d put himself in the situation; sure, it was a good learning experience which would hopefully cause him to plan more in the future; and, sure, he hadn’t actually asked her to save him, seeming to prefer her plan of ambushing the undead powers one by one if possible, but he was in immense pain and, if he were in his right mind, he’d be screaming for her.
Still, though, what she was doing, while cold, was more likely to keep him alive.
Congratulations!
Your Law Egg of The Reaper has advanced to high grade.
Your soul is affected by your understanding of Laws.
Base Stats +2, Soul + 6
Mila made it to the area where Aalam was held within a minute, being as quiet as possible, but there wasn’t much foliage to hide behind and the two two-headed wolves likely had excellent hearing, so she didn’t get close.
Instead, she waited for Aalam to give the signal he was free to move again and only then did she attack.
From her hidden vantage point about twenty meters away, she used Artifact Enhancement to pour over half of her mana and qi into the Twin Dragon’s gun forms, aimed at the two generals, and then, using her Law Egg of Obfuscation to hide the blasts, she fired.
The two shots hit the now making out generals in their heads, killing them, and Mila ran forward. At the same time, Aalam used all his strength to slam his back into the two two-headed wolves holding him. Mila then shot each of them, already injured from Aalam freezing them earlier, six times each and they went down, thankfully not taking any of Aalam’s limbs with them.
Aalam began trying to take the sword out from his kidney, but Mila quickly stopped him, instead having him sit down crosslegged and focus on healing. He was bleeding from four sets of bite marks and had been stabbed, so it was not smart for him to move around at all.
Instead of immediately helping him with healing, though, Mila checked the souls of the generals and the two wolves, surprised to find them all filled with lust. Then she felt her own self unconsciously staring at Aalam’s lower region and realized something more must be going on than she understood.
“First,” Nana Xara sent over their bond, “while Aalam’s aura has only half the strength of yours and his control over it is abysmal, he has 36 Law Eggs, 12 of which are peak grade. When it comes to aura being able to affect the souls of others, he’s got you beat.
“Second, and magically more important, he’s been bleeding a lot and Incubus blood is a strong aphrodisiac, even just being smelled. Aalam has maximized the stats for his race, so racial effects like that are also strengthened quite a bit.”
As Nana Xara explained, Mila touched the two wolves and used her control over her aura to absorb the power of their souls into herself. Invisible energy flowed out of them and entered into her body using her aura as a conduit, the process almost as natural as breathing, and Mila felt satiated.
Then she sent that power over her bond with Aalam and helped him pull out the sword, the energy from the Shadow Wolves’ souls helping Aalam heal at a visible rate.
Mila then pulled out the souls of the two generals as well and she realized their souls held significantly more energy than the wolves had, over three dozen wolves not being able to match one Nightwalker.
You have met the criteria to advance your race to F rank
You have the following three options:
Succubus (F-Uncommon)
The weakest variety of an incarnation of Lust, but an incarnation of Lust nonetheless, one which eats souls.
Racial Abilities: 2
No limits, but a higher chance for charm and disguise related abilities
Max stats:
Strength: 1728
Agility: 1728
Endurance: 1944
Toughness: 1728
Vitality: 1944
Perception: 2160
Magic: 2304
Spirit: 2592
Soul: 3024
Aura: 2304
Attunement: 2304
Luck: 2160
Stat Growth Per Level:
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Endurance: 4
Toughness: 2
Vitality: 4
Perception: 6
Magic: 7
Spirit: 8
Soul: 10
Aura: 0
Attunement: 0
Luck: 0
Advancement Criteria:
Eat an E rank or higher soul of a sentient creature consumed by lust at the time of death.
Requirements:
Current race is Succubus (G-Uncommon)
Shadow Succubus (F-Rare)
An incarnation of lust born from shadows, one which eats souls.
Racial Abilities: 2
No limits, but a higher chance for charm, disguise, and shadow related abilities
Max stats:
Strength: 2160
Agility: 2592
Endurance: 2376
Toughness: 1944
Vitality: 2376
Perception: 2592
Magic: 2736
Spirit: 3024
Soul: 3240
Aura: 2736
Attunement: 2736
Luck: 2592
Stat Growth Per Level:
Strength: 3
Agility: 6
Endurance: 4
Toughness: 3
Vitality: 4
Perception: 6
Magic: 8
Spirit: 9
Soul: 11
Aura: 0
Attunement: 0
Luck: 0
Advancement Criteria:
Kill 3 E rank beings without them ever realizing they are in danger.
Eat an E rank or higher soul of a sentient creature consumed by lust at the time of death.
Requirements:
Current race is Succubus (G-Uncommon), has killed at least 3 F rank beings without them ever realizing they were in danger
Diabolic Succubus (F-Rare)
An incarnation of lust and a natural born devil, one which eats souls.
Racial Abilities: 2
No limits, but a higher chance for charm, disguise, and contract related abilities
Max stats:
Strength: 2016
Agility: 2016
Endurance: 2232
Toughness: 2016
Vitality: 2232
Perception: 2448
Magic: 2880
Spirit: 3384
Soul: 3816
Aura: 2736
Attunement: 2736
Luck: 2592
Stat Growth Per Level:
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Endurance: 4
Toughness: 2
Vitality: 4
Perception: 6
Magic: 9
Spirit: 10
Soul: 15
Aura: 0
Attunement: 0
Luck: 0
Advancement Criteria:
Destroy the souls of 3 E rank beings through them breaking the terms of a contract.
Eat an E rank or higher soul of a sentient creature consumed by lust at the time of death.
Requirements:
Current race is Succubus (G-Uncommon), has destroyed the souls of at least 3 F rank beings through them breaking the terms of a contract
Will you advance to a Succubus (F-Uncommon), a Shadow Succubus (F-Rare), or a Diabolic Succubus (F-Rare)?
