Soul energy could be “borrowed”??
Before Angor could consider the possibility of the matter, Ness yelled out his complaint, “You let me down, Sunders. You’re asking for energy from an old friend just to help your student? I’m sad, man.”
“Don’t you want to see what the gray fog is?” Sunders crossed his arms and put on his nonchalant attitude on display again.
“I do. But let’s not push it. We can wait for Angor to grow stronger, and everything will show itself.”
Formal wizards all had long lifespans, and Ness would not mind for another decade or two. It would probably take him such a long time to finish his current subject on human genders, and he could wait for Angor’s “maturity” while at it.
Sunders had been Ness’ friend for nearly a century now. They might not be the best of friends despite how Ness always called Sunders a “dear old friend”, but Sunders could still figure out what the old man was planning.
“Do you believe that student of yours can wait that long before going for Angor’s life?”
Ness frowned. Yeah, before Angor’s soul could reach its top condition, Saka probably had already claimed Angor for himself.
“It won’t matter. I can still borrow the soul from Saka.”
Sunders sneered, “I did say that when it happens, I’ll take Angor’s soul away. You think you can borrow his soul from me instead?”
“Yes, I can! By paying you an ugly sum of money!” Ness complained in his mind.
“And let’s assume that your student didn’t kill Angor by then,” Sunders continued. “Angor should be a formal wizard by the time his soul matured. By then, he will know the nature of the gray fog himself. Why would he ask for your help?”
Ness was getting convinced a little.
Sunders pushed further. “Suppose I can still allow you to do the experiment, we shall talk about the equivalent exchange rule. Exposing his soul to you means Angor trusts his own life to you. So, what can you give him in return?”
Ness frowned harder. Sunders was right. Now was the easiest chance for the old man to do the test on Angor. If he missed today, he would have to pay a great price to look into Angor’s soul again.
However… if he insisted on doing it now, he had to give Angor some soul energy. To ensure a fluent process, he also needed to use his purest energy in order not to get repelled. This meant spending Ness’ own strength to help cultivate Angor’s soul.
Using his own strength right now, or paying an unknown price to do the test in the future… Ness struggled between the two choices.
Angor, on the other hand, grew a bit frustrated. He felt like he was used as a bargaining chip.
Ness hesitated for some time and finally made up his mind. “Alright. I’ll lend him my soul energy, for a time.” Ness turned to Angor and said, “You lucked out, kid. I’ll need to transfer at least two years of my own strength to you. The energy will also make your soul purer… You really have a good teacher, boy.”
Sunders chuckled. “Not really. Knowing the nature of the fog also means a lot to you, no? As a soul master, maybe you can find something valuable in it and learn another powerful soul spell. Don’t pretend that it’s a great favor. The boy owes you nothing.”
Ness mentioned the “damage” he would receive and how it benefited Angor, just so he could earn something back from the boy. Angor was too weak to provide anything now, but no one knew what could happen in the future.
Ness did not look offended when Sunders ruined his plan. What mattered was whether Angor would remember the favor, and Sunders could not decide for Angor. Ness already gave Angor the big idea. The rest depended on Angor’s sense of value.
“Humans all have different attributes in their souls. Your soul will reject foreign energy, so I can only give you the purest, ‘attributeless’ soul energy,” Ness explained while preparing to refine his own energy. “Remember, when the energy is enough to trigger that gray fog, get away from me at once. The energy is not yours. Too much of it will only harm you.”
Ness walked to Sunders. “I guess you have to take care of my body in the meantime.”
Ness sat down and cast a Soul Coupling spell. His soul slowly emerged from his body.
Angor was surprised to see that Ness’ soul looked a lot different than the other souls he saw before. Ness’ soul had a clearer and more solid look. Actually, his soul looked just like a human being. Angor would certainly mistake it as Ness himself if the boy did not see Ness’ body sitting right next to it.
Ness’ soul floated to Angor.
“I’m starting. When you receive my soul energy, keep trying to move the fog.”
“Understood!”
A number of shiny light spots appeared around Ness’ soul like fireflies. These contained Ness’ purest soul energy.
“Absorb them until you have enough to control the fog!” Ness ordered.
Absorbing the spots was not hard. Angor only needed to move closer to the spots, and his soul would begin drawing them in on its own.
As he absorbed more energy, Angor felt as if a giant furnace had appeared in the depth of his soul, warming him up. Further energy spots caused the flame of the furnace to burn hot like pumping oxygen into the fire.
Usually, soul energy should be something calm and inactive. At this moment, Angor’s energy began to run wild. He felt like boiling water which kept releasing bubbles and scorching steam.
The burning and overflowing energy gave Angor a terrible feeling. He followed Ness’ order and began to move the gray fog hidden in the depth of his soul while trying to ignore the pain.
As he received more energy, controlling the fog became quite easy.
Previously, Angor could only shift the fog just a bit. Now, he easily moved a small part of the fog away from its original spot.
A minute or two later, his soul was filled up with energy, and the “temperature” in his soul had reached its peak. Angor felt extremely energized now. The gray fog was fully released from his soul under Angor’s control.
At the same time, Angor had the feeling that he could not take it anymore, so he immediately left the light spots, away from Ness.
Ness noticed Angor’s movement and took the remaining spots back into his soul.
The old man’s soul now looked a bit blurry compared to before. It was not obvious, but someone could still tell his soul from a real human body when he observed carefully enough.
Ness returned to his body. His face was a little pale, and he did not look as spirited as before.
“Blast it. The kid’s soul is better than I expected. He even got a soul furnace! I lost at least five years of my strength!” Ness bellowed toward Sunders. “I ask again, you sure he’s not a Soul Manipulator?? His soul is too good for a Nightmare Form!”
“Nightmare Forms come in different levels,” said Sunders. He pointed at Angor. “And he has a higher level than me.”
“Nightmare Forms have different levels?” Ness did not really know anything about this concept since it was created by Sunders. “And he’s not talented to be a soul wizard? I summoned my soul furnace when I was a level-2 apprentice. This little bastard can do it when he never even received any soul training?!”
“No. His talent is in Illusion.”
Despite his firm answer, Sunders was not so sure. During Angor’s talent test, the Tree Spirit mentioned that Angor had another Occult talent other than his Illusionist talent. However, the Tree Spirit did not look into it because of Angor’s spirit defense.
“Maybe this ‘second talent’ is something related to souls?” Sunders pondered.
Nevertheless, Sunders did not intend to say anything about it before Angor became a wizard. Going for a second subject during apprenticeship could be a reckless decision for Angor.
“One’s talent cannot determine his future achievement. I do believe Angor can study soul spells just fine,” Ness commented.
“Perhaps.” Sunders was plain as ever. “You’re not going to check his soul now?”
“Of course I am!” Ness grew angry again. “I didn’t lie! Five years of my strength! It would take the kid tens years or so to acquire the same amount! From today, no other apprentice can beat him when it comes to soul quality.”
Sunders chuckled. “Think this way. When those people from Moonfrost Union see your current condition, they won’t ask you to join the front line again.”
“Moonfrost Union…” Ness sneered and did not say anything further.
Ness led Angor into the depth of the cave where Ness did the testing of his spells. It was a room fully encased in metal and came with the protection of a magic array.
Ness asked Angor to stand in the center of the room. Then he pointed at the various alchemy items at Angor. These tools would help record various data of Angor’s fog.
“You should have enough energy to cast a soul spell now. Let me see what that fog really is, right now,” said Ness. His eyes were literally shining. “At least I can learn something good out of it.”
Angor already felt terrible because of the overflowing energy. When he heard Ness, he was glad he could finally let the energy out.
Angor released all the extra energy he gained from Ness in one go. The gray fog in him flowed outward like crazy.
As the fog left Angor’s soul, the underground room was shrouded in a strange aura.
When the fog slowly covered the area, they all sensed a type of heavy and sturdy energy pressed against their bodies.
“This is—” Ness widened his eyes in shock. “I see it now. I knew something felt familiar! This is the fuc*ing rhythm of law we saw that day!”
Ness gave Sunders an angry glare. “Damn it! Sunders, you ass! You fooled me again!”
Sunders got a good feeling about the familiar aura in the room and nodded. “My assumption was right… This is the sequence of gravity.”