Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

After baiting the mud beast, Murasaki Ayame did not make any unnecessary move. Kenji and Shion are going to fight the mud beasts and six-legged crocodile beast groups a few hundred meters away from the campsite, so she was planning to watch them.

On top of an elevated peak, an active optical camouflage stealth field hides her presence. Within the coverage of the stealth field, there are sixteen holographic screens, each showing a different scene. The visual feeds are fed by multiple spider-shaped robotic drones not larger than the size of a finger’s distal phalange, they are spread around the area the moment she left Shion and Kenji’s periphery.

While laying flat on her belly, her eyes are glued to her trusty sniper-type heavy railgun, [Ayame-no-Kaminari Mk.1]’s scope. Her attention is not on the sixteen holographic monitors, but she wasn’t worried about not watching her surroundings.

< Operator Murasaki Ayame has entered Stealth Observation mode. Elevating environmental observation to level 2. Pre-rendering defensive information-path magic spell, [Vector Distortion] and [Pixel Guard]... Two defensive magic spells have been pre-rendered, ready for delayed instant activation. Compiling optimal escape routes. Optimizing escape routes... >

Ayame heard the sound of her Artificial Intelligence assisting her in various spectra. She didn’t mind her AI’s independent action as it allowed her to put her mind on the things that interest her.

“Record the combat data of Shion and Kenji. I want to analyze them later.”

< Affirmative. Recording Shion and Kenji’s combat data. >

“Now, please show me what you’ve got, big sister.”

…

At the same time.

< The two will enter combat with the crocodiles and mud beasts soon. I want you to observe them. The more combat data you can collects, the better. >

A telepathic message was sent from Sumire towards Alanis through [Mind Chat].

< Acknowledged. > 

Sumire received a reply instantly. Then, she could sense Alanis’s presence disappeared from her senses.

…. 

 

Boom! A mud beast with the form of a 3-meter-tall Ork wielding a rock hammer exploded into soft mud gore. It’s earth-path lifeforce has been depleted, and so its mud body crumbles as it can reassemble no longer. 

“Damn it boss, that was your 31st. How the fuck did you kill them so quickly?” Kenji complained as he used [Ground Shaker] at a mud beast who took the form of a giant lizard. The mud beast is currently tangled up with a giant crocodile, but the number of mud beasts is more than ten times of the crocodiles, so the two assisted the beast so that the crocodiles could act as cannon fodders. 

[Ground Shaker] is a strength-path martial art which distributes raw power through the ground and then explodes from beneath, typically used to disorient foes or to make an opening. It was usually activated through a blunt-type martial weapon such as warhammer so it can showcase its maximum effect. However, Since Kenji’s warhammer had been melted and refined into a compound bow, he couldn’t use his bow to hit the ground. 

That would be an insult to the archer class, and Shion would bonk him real hard. 

Since Kenji is capable of using Ground Shaker without a weapon, it means his strength-path attainment isn’t low.

Splat! The lizard-shaped mud beast he’s fighting immediately melted into mud gore. Although the mud corpse isn’t as soft as Shion’s, it was still a one-hit kill. All that raw power is distributed on a mud beast, not the earth, the damage potential is really high.

 “Oh?” Shion spared him a gaze as she muttered in amazement. “You’ve incorporated atmospheric strength profundity in that attack… you are actually a master in strength-path?” 

Kenji blushed in shame, but he didn’t say anything. His secret was seen immediately the moment he tried to show off.

‘Boss' is a sound-path antimage. She is also a Hunter-killer specialized in dealing with other humans or hunters, so it isn’t weird for her to see through my concealment. But how can she consistently one-hit kill mud beasts? What is the source of her power?’ 

While fighting, Kenji secretly paid great attention to how Shion moved while also deducting the profundity of each of her every move. Shion’s movement is very efficient. No, it was too efficient to the point of mechanical. It was like she was highly trained to the point of killing has become an everyday chore.

Like breathing, or blinking.

‘Just how many lives did she take to reach this point?’

Kenji broke down the factors that allow Shion to have her martial prowess.

Is it because of her cultivation base?

Apparently, Shion told him that she has 4 transparent star cultivation base. She also told him that she used to have a higher cultivation base but she cultivates in an unorthodox cultivation method. Some of her special ninjutsu cost her cultivation foundation to activate, so it isn’t her second nor the third time being in the mid-stage of rank 0. She could somehow recover her cultivation level by killing.

Though, this was a secret that Shion sternly warned him not to tell others.

If that is so, then it's understandable why Kenji lost in terms of combat experience. This is why he listens closely when Shion explains combat theory. He wanted to incorporate them into his combat style but he was smart enough not to be too obvious in front of Sumire’s faction because they are technically two teams allied together.

Just because they allied with each other, it doesn't mean the Twin Helix two faction’s relationship is eternal. It’s not good if he exposes too many things, especially since Sumire is already familiar with his old combat methods.

Then, he moved on towards the next aspect: body runes.

He quickly reviewed all the body runes engraved on his flesh. Since he’s an Ascetic Monk, all of his body runes are strength-path ones. Thanks to his great strength and body’s durability, he could endure more body runes compared to others. This could mean he can engrave more or choose the ones that took significantly more rune slots than others.

In his left arm, there’s [Pulling Flame] while on his right, [Pushing River]. It allows him to use atmospheric strength methods that up to a certain point, produce the effect of fire-path and water-path respectively.

In his legs, there‘s [Ingurgitate Earth] body rune. It allows him to produce the effect of earth-path through atmospheric strength methods. [Ingurgitate Earth] is the source of his ridiculous ‘naked armor’ and recovery ability as he could recuperate energy as long as his feet touched the earth. Also, this is why he didn’t bother to wear shoes.

In his torso, he has [Regeneration Factor] and [Blooming Exuberance] body rune which uses the energy that [Ingurgitate Earth] provide to amplify his recovery rate and, there’s also his beast strength methods that allow him to breathe directly through his chest, allowing him to be more efficient in taking in oxygen and thus allowed him to suppress lactic acid buildup during intense exercise. 

His back is engraved with [Heavy Potential] and [Shocking Might]. The former allows him to use atmospheric strength that imitates the effect of metal-path while the latter, lightning-path. 

As for the body runes in his head, it was merely engraved with one body rune that took all of his head-slots.

[Muscle Brain].

It has two simple effects: augment his brain so that his natural computational power twice of the original and mutates some of his muscle tissue so that it may produce telepathic thoughts. 

Basically, his muscles grew some brain tissue. 

As he got more powerful, these mutated muscle tissues slowly evolved into computation cores smaller than a grain of wheat. Indeed, [Muscle Brain] is similar to the most popular strength-path body rune, [Regeneration Factor]. It can be refined continuously as long as the user has the proper methods and resources. 

As of now, he had reached the fifth out of ten stages of [Muscle Brain]. The effects are great, with each stage, it allows his augmented brain to connect with the mutated muscle tissue so that the computation cores could house his secondary mind! Compared to his real brain, each of these computational cores could merely reproduce 1% of his brain’s computational ability.

However, his whole body housed 50 of these computational cores. They are spread within all over his limbs, torso, or even his knees.

Thanks to these computation cores working with each other in tandem, Kenji has a second mind that has half of his current computational ability.

Because of this, although he plays himself like a foolish brute, he was actually very smart. And as his [Muscle Brain] nurtured into the next stage, it would eventually allow his secondary mind to have the same processing power as his true brain while his true brain would be able to match 3 or 4 of his non-augmented self.

After all, great strength alone couldn’t make him the first amongst the first year students.

In a battle, his second mind is used to assist in calculating combat variables. Now that he learnt foundational natural science from Shion, his calculation has become optimized. Thanks to that knowledge, Kenji’s advantage of having a second mind could reach a qualitative change. Kenji himself is confident that he could defeat 2 to 3 of his past self. 

That being said, Kenji’s body runes are without a doubt, a top tier amongst top tiers. It could be considered as quasi-supreme-grade as it couldn’t be bought with money and connection alone.

Because atmospheric strength body runes simply do not exist on the market. Even if there are, it uses a chunk of body rune slots. Just because you have them, doesn’t mean your body could endure the load of having them engraved on your body.

Kenji was lucky because it was a part of the inheritance he received from the beggar. When used properly, his body runes can resonate with his martial arts and produce the effect of 1+1>4. Thus, it was the secret that allowed him to be the first amongst other 2nd gen nobilities.   

That being the case, he could somehow feel that his body runes are lacking when compared to Shion. With the exception of [Muscle Brain], all of his body runes can be replaced when he outgrow their uses. They are merely allowing him to use the atmospheric strength method earlier than he should. 

Because true atmospheric strength methods can only be used by rank 1 cultivators… with spiritual force.

And Spiritual Force is the attribute of a mage, not a martial artist. Since Kenji could use them as he sees fit, then his greatest secret is not [Muscle Brain] body rune, but the fact that he meditated every night and cultivated his Spiritual Force. 

‘Since she saw me through, then my Spiritual Force cultivation should be known to her. But, the real question is how did she achieve it?’

While his primary mind controlled his body by cracking the head of a crocodile, his second mind was distracted. He was trying to understand his captain’s breath and depth because he got a feeling that it would allow him to achieve foundational growth in his combat system if he understood her.

‘Is it bloodline? Her clan isn’t particularly known for their exploits of bloodline powers because they are infamous for being secluded, all their secrets are well protected…’ 

However, not being known for having a bloodline power doesn’t mean she has no bloodline at all. ‘Hers should be related to concealment and stealth, but all this time, her combat style is more befitting a warrior instead of assassin. Of course, there’s also the fact that she admits her bloodline power is the reason why she’s immune to detection, but that's just dog shit.’

‘This just doesn’t make any sense. Unless… she has yet to be pushed into the brink. Most likely, she’s like me, just showing off the most useless and common combat methods so that she could conceal her real trump cards.’

Kenji could feel the invisible pressure that Shion emits. He was a rare genius, that’s for sure. Whenever he faced difficulty, he ‘brute forced’ them through, not because of recklessness but because he was confident enough thanks to his wisdom. He relies more on his smarts than muscle, but sometimes, his muscle could simplify things so he started to use them to his advantage in concealing his true strength.

He continues to fight against the six-legged crocodiles as his feet constantly absorb earth elemental particles and convert them into useful nutrients that his [Blooming Exuberance] could use to recover energy. 

If anyone paid great attention towards his movement, the ground he stepped on would experience a slight loss of moisture and some of its fertility. However, in the southern continent where heavy downpour is extremely common, his traces are always wiped away. 

‘Other than those two aspects, the only thing I am obviously lacking is… that Soul Armament of hers.’

Kenji’s fighting style was engineered so that he has the chance of getting a glimpse of Shion’s movement through his peripheral vision. He wanted to analyze what is the limit of that Soul Armament. 

Although it is known that Metal Slime is one of the most flexible antimage weapon in the land of sand and fire, isn’t her usage is a bit too flexible? Armor and weapons, Shion had mastered her Soul Armament’s usage so that it can smoothly transition between the two. In fact, her current form is actually a mix of both, how can Kenji not feel jealous?

‘All the artifacts I have are the compound bow and my ten rings. Half of the rings are investigative in nature, two are offensive, one defensive, and the last two are supportive. But it seems like those artifacts are worthless in front of Shion’s Soul Armament…’

‘Wait, why am I comparing things again? Comparison is useless, it can only cause mental pain towards myself, I shouldn’t be distracted with this.’ 

As time progressed, the two slaughtered hundreds of mud beasts and a dozen of crocodiles in this rainy environment. Thanks to the two minds working together in tandem, Kenji has already mastered the art of killing mud beasts. He refined a fitting method in killing them.

First, he used his investigative method to determine the target’s strength. Then, his secondary mind computes the necessary force he should generate to kill them. After that, his primary mind used the calculation result provided by the secondary mind to achieve a one-hit kill. 

Of course, as an elemental lifeform, having their body physically destroyed is not an issue. As long as its elemental lifeforce still remains, it can reconstruct their physique. That’s why he has to incorporate his body rune, [Ingurgitate Earth], into his move. Every attack is imbued with the ability to absorb it’s elemental lifeforce, recovering Kenji and killing the mud beast at the same time.   

The process is seamless and he had already begun streamlining the process further.

Splat! With a flick of her combat glove-covered finger laced with ninjutsu, Shion killed the last mud beast standing. At the same moment, Kenji also murdered the last crocodile in the area. 

At this moment, the battle has been going on for two hours. There are almost twenty crocodile corpses while the mud beast corpses are slowly being washed away by the rain.

Both fighters are gasping hard for air, their stamina has almost been depleted. In fact, Shion was forced to activate her core reactor so that her energy reserve does not fall below a certain level. Her thermal signature is very noticeable even from afar, she was like a lighthouse in a dark starless night. 

Kenji raised his eyebrows, “So not only when she receives sufficient damage, but also when her stamina is low? Is that body rune the type that allows for rapid recovery but produces a large amount of heat in exchange?” He made an inquiry towards himself regarding Shion’s condition in a very low voice.

“Kenji, quickly gather up our spoils of war, I can use them to refine some useful resources for us.” Shion ordered with a rush. The mud beast’s corpses are… literally mud but they are different from natural mud. The concentration of earth elemental particles in those muds are significantly higher and naturally have more uses than common mud.

“I can use them to make rank 0 dense clay, which was the primary material to refine ceramite. Ceramite is a very beneficial earth-path advance material, it has strong anti-shock and temperature-resistant properties, even in it’s rank 0 version. It’ll be useful for refining ceramite weapons or armor as long as we can get the supporting materials.”

Kenji nodded in acknowledgement, “Okay, boss!” He quickly used his methods to gather them. The corpse of crocodiles requires less effort than the mud beasts, but the progress is slow because they are still recovering from the fight. It took them almost an hour under this downpour to collect less than 10% of the mud beast corpses, but most of them already mixed with rain water and turned the area into mud lake. 

If left alone, the mud lake would be rich in earth-path small lifeforms such as dirt shrimp, mud crabs or crap catfish.

The method Shion uses to collect mud beast’s corpses is unique. She uses a micro soundfield to ‘enlarge’ her hands, and then squeeze the water dry out of the mud. The result was a thick, viscous mud which was the early-form of dense clay. As long as she could compress the mud beast’s corpse into a certain level of concentration, it can be refined into a real dense clay.

As for Kenji, he tried his best with his physical body but he couldn’t imitate Shion. Of course, Shion had to glare at him and put a silent pressure on him to use his atmospheric strength method so that he could be useful. 

He activates the body rune on his arm, [Pushing Water], to create a water repulsive force field like how the Brute Lupines create theirs. However, he was more adept than the beasts, he could freely shape the forcefield as he wished. Thus, he was actually capable of creating an ‘enlarged’ hand that repels water. Only then was he useful for Shion.

However, inwardly he wanted to cry.

‘This is an atmospheric strength method, you know? At least act a bit surprised….’ 

Not only he had to show his secret technique, but it was also used to gather mud. The grievances in his heart were truly shown on his face. He wore an expression as if he’s chewing human feces.

Still, he knew that he couldn’t fight against Shion’s order. Her sound-path methods is too queer. It should be a minor path that has little combat potential but in her hands, it became an amazing tool. Furthermore, her attainment seems to be incredibly high.

‘At the very least, she possesses [Master] level attainment in sound-path, just like me in strength-path.’ 

Attainment is one’s mastery, understanding or comprehension upon a certain path.

Typically, rank 0 apprentices have [Ordinary] attainment because they have just started their cultivation journey. 

[Ordinary] means one can use the methods of the said path with 100% chance of success. This matters a lot because the majority of talentless cultivators can only achieve this when they reach the late-stage of rank 0. If a cultivator couldn’t activate their methods with 100% success rate under ideal conditions, then their attainment is less than ordinary.   

They are no different compared to mortals with a cultivation base. 

Then, the next tier of attainment is [Master]. 

[Master] attainment level means the cultivator has become skillful in their respective path, allowing them to use their methods skillfully, to the point of being able to modify or bypass certain limitations.

Unlike Sumire who threaded several paths, Kenji delved into pure strength-path. This coupled with the inheritance he received allowed him to have a deeper attainment, Master, which is a level that’s required for one to advance into the ‘official’ rank 1.

That’s right, the attainment level of [Master] is one of the prerequisites to advance, which means Kenji have fulfilled one of the three requirements. 

‘Strength-path depends on one’s physical body while elemental paths utilize the natural elements in the environment to do one’s bidding. Then, sound-path should be related to the usage of musical instruments to produce sounds, yet the fact that she could activate sound-path methods with her own body is the best proof of her profound attainment...’

Still, Kenji believed she wouldn’t be that simple. 

‘Sound… the practical application of vibration is too frightening in her hands.’