Chapter 90: The Struggle

Ace conducted a mental perception check and found that his mental power had reached around 8 Mental Power Units, an increase of two units.

Over 90% of the atomized mental power had successfully converted—the experiment was a great success!

Ace looked at all this without emotion. The Monster remnants had all dissolved into contaminated blood.

Accompanied by the invisible whispering of the unknowable presence, Ace’s eyes glowed red. His entire body showed signs of pain and struggle as he said:

“Rest in peace, Monster souls. As for the Shamans, I will spare your lives. Although you have lost most of your memories, at least you have saved your lives.”

After cleaning up all the traces, Ace placed the Shamans near the entrance of a barbarian tribe, taking the Sacred Items he had seized from them, and left the area.

After performing the blessing ritual multiple times, with minimal resulting enhancement, Ace, enduring the cold wind, reached a peak near a wind tunnel.

The strange wind tunnel formed naturally in the middle of the Larr Mountains was the primary cause of the perpetual snow and ice in the Larr Mountains and the entire Northern March. Legend says this wind tunnel connects to an unknowable space outside the Kaya world, the rumored source of all cold winds.

He was here because few Monsters or barbarians dared to approach the wind tunnel. It was the perfect place for Ace to organize his situation and experiment with the changes in his Soul Sanctuary space.

Ace tunneled through the peak, entering the interior of the mountain. He constructed simple warning, suggestion, and defensive rune arrays on the mountain walls. He then built a constant temperature and constant light rune array inside the mountain to maintain a suitable environment.

Subsequently, Ace began to dedicate himself to researching the Soul Sanctuary space.

He successfully replicated the newly acquired Wind Element-related runes and the runes related to the Soul Pulverization spell. Group after group of runes successfully entered the Soul Sanctuary space, quietly floating in the lower layer.

“It seems that the number of Soul Runes at the Advanced Wizard Apprentice level is limited and must be chosen carefully. Unlike the Lesser and Mid-level Apprentice stages, comprehensive knowledge is impossible. The limitation on the number of Soul Runes dictates that I must specialize in one or two fields.”

“I need to dissolve some of the Spell Models and Soul Runes in the Soul Sanctuary to determine my specialization.

First, mental or soul-related spells are my strongest and must be preserved as much as possible.

Second, the Air Pressure Rail Inferno Spell, composed of Fire and Wind Element Runes, is my strongest physical attack spell and must also be preserved.

Third, transformation-related spells are extremely useful and must be preserved.

Since Fuwa (the Spirit of the Book) is with me, I can temporarily dissolve spells that mimic his abilities, such as Comprehend Languages, Knowledge Infusion, and Deduction. I will only retain the Perception Retrieval spell. I need to deduce the higher-level rune of the Lesser Sound Rune to integrate ultrasound into my Perception Spell.

Flash Teleportation must be preserved. It is a life-saving spell.

I will leave some empty Soul Rune slots to deduce the Soul Rune version of the simulation rune array as soon as possible, after synchronizing with the mirror image in the Northern March, to enhance my flexible response capabilities.”

After formulating his plan, Ace began to dissolve the Soul Runes and related Spell Models within the Soul Sanctuary space.

This was an extremely painful process. Ace slowly began by attempting to dismantle the Spell Models.

The first step in dismantling a Spell Model is to deconstruct it, reversing the construction process to collapse the model piece by piece. As the Spell Model collapsed, the entire Soul Sanctuary space violently shook, a cataclysm within the space.

Ace immediately spat out blood, feeling dizzy and disoriented.

He steadied his mind. After dissolving the scattered replicated runes, he began to meditate to recover.

Meditation was effective for restoring Mana and alleviating soul fatigue, but it only increased his mental power minimally.

At his current 9 Mental Power Units, it might take decades of meditation to reach 10 Mental Power Units.

Ace shook his head. He ignored the problem of meditation for now and concentrated on dissolving the Soul Runes.

Dissolving the Soul Runes in the lower layer was far more painful than dissolving the Spell Models in the upper layer. It felt as if something imprinted on his very soul was being brutally extracted.

It took almost a month for the pale-faced Ace to successfully organize his Soul Sanctuary space.

Based on the attribute panel in the Grimoire, Ace’s status was as follows:

【Strength 6, Constitution 6, Agility 7, Mental Power 9, Perception 9, Inherent Mana 36, Siphoned Mana 135】

【Wizard Level: Advanced Wizard Apprentice】

【Soul Spell List:

General Spells: Advanced Apprentice Meditation, Spell Hand, Magic Missile, Mana Crystal Shaping, Mana-Crystal Protection Membrane

Movement Spell: Flash Teleportation

Special Spells: (Localized) Transformation Spell, Imperfect Transformation Spell, Permanent Transformation Spell

Elemental Spells: Controllable Light Orb (Purification), Burning Hand, Fire Missile, Potent Wind Blade, Air Pressure Rail Inferno Spell

Illusion Spells: Illusion Barrier, Potent Stun, Hammer of Oblivion, Eye of Emotion, Suggestion, Charm Human/Charm Monster

Mental (Soul) Spells: Mechanized Mind, Mental Shockwave, Soul Pulverization】

Twenty-three Soul Spells. While it might seem numerous, it was not many compared to the nearly 70 Soul Runes he possessed.

Ace left some space in the Soul Rune section for the future simulation rune array.

The supernatural language and incantation spells were one of Ace’s research priorities. This was a universal spell with great development value. Its maximum potential was the cap of the spell’s own level. The endless variation of quasi-spell effects was the spell’s greatest charm.

In the future, a Wizard might specialize entirely in incantations, traveling the world with just one Spell Model.

In addition to the Spell Models, he also retained the Enchanted Martial Arts learned from Daina, which was now more powerful than Daina’s own.

Ace, upon activating the Enchanted state, possessed doubled overall physical attributes. The only thing he lacked was the martial skill to match this Hero-level physique.

It could be said that Ace, or rather the Advanced Wizard Apprentice, was the most formidable of the Pseudo-Hero level beings. With proper planning, he could even easily kill a Hero.

After all, even a Hero would find it difficult to withstand the power of over a dozen consecutive Air Pressure Rail Inferno Spells.

After thoroughly organizing his own condition, Ace began inspecting the Sacred Items he had seized from the Shamans.

There were three Sacred Items in total, representing the hundreds of years of accumulated knowledge of the barbarian tribes in the Larr Mountains.

First this stomach of an Unknown Monster. It possesses three effects whic was seamless expansion, item miniaturization, and 70% weight reduction.

Second is a strange map of the larr mountains. It has several active points and a large ‘X’. When one focuses their vision on an active point, the map displays the name of that point.

Ace carefully observed it. The red active points displayed presences of Hero-level or mid-level Monster equivalent beings. The ‘X’ marked “Ancestral Land” in the barbarian tongue.

As far as Ace knew, the Monsters active in the Larr Mountains were mostly powerful low-level Monsters and mid-level Monsters. Advanced Monsters, whose strength was comparable to a Great Hero, were virtually nonexistent. It seemed this map marked Hero-level beings in the entire Larr Mountains area using some unknown method.

the third item is an old piece of paper: The peculiar craftsmanship surprised Ace. The smoothness and texture of the paper seemed impossible to achieve manually.

He opened it. It was surrounded by beautiful coats of arms, an exceptionally intricate and complex design blueprint.

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