It took them days to find sothing useful. Most of the texts they discovered were about soul cultivation, which was much harder here than it had been back in the tutorial. Back then, he had basically purchased a manual that implanted all the knowledge and so of the skills directly into his mind.
One other thing he realized was that his soul body was not composed of ordinary mana. He had always assud otherwise, since that was how he had constructed the soul body. The process was similar to his body-tempering techniques, where he infused darkness into his skin and waited for it to fuse and harmonize. Thalion had done the sa with his mana and soul, but that process transford the mana into a different type of energy, which the book referred to as soul energy. He had suspected for so ti that it was different but had never been certain until now.
One fortunate discovery was a book containing runes that could trap a soul or even capture one when it was unbound from a body. Thalion learned the eight runes required to craft a soulcatcher and hoped to find a smithy he could use. Otherwise, he would have to place Rylak in a bed or a chair. Since there was still plenty of ti, he decided to continue reading and training. At the mont, he was completely engrossed in a book about watersnakes.
Tides of Serpentia: The Evolutionary Rise of Watersnakes
This book chronicles the deep and winding history of watersnakes, from their humble beginnings in murky riverbeds to their evolution into powerful apex predators of the ocean depths. Exploring adaptations like camouflage, venom potency, and intelligence, Tides of Serpentia unveils how these serpents conquered diverse aquatic realms. Special attention is given to their elental affinity with water currents, allowing rare species to achieve extraordinary speeds.
The book reaffird to Thalion that he was on the right path with the tidecaller snake. Its ultimate evolution was a creature called Thalassaryn, the Tide Sovereign. A being potentially stronger than true dragons or primordial elentals, judging by its rarity. According to the book, Thalassaryn had only been docunted twice in history.
Thalion also learned that he should have swallowed the pearl Eddie found. The tidecaller serpent’s body was highly adept at absorbing and integrating natural treasures, enhancing its power. The book ntioned that at the celestial level, which Thalion estimated to be equivalent to C-grade. These serpents could contain entire oceans within their bodies. This ability allowed them to travel imnse distances, even through space, using the water as a jetstream. While the idea sounded strange, Thalion decided to trust the process and assud it would make more sense when the ti was right.
The first month passed without much of note beyond Thalion attending smithing classes. The smiths here were on an entirely different level, teaching him new techniques to refine materials and enhance items. These lessons sparked an idea. He owned the Amulet of the Soulwarden, a powerful item capable of capturing his soul if his body was destroyed. But what if he modified it?
Instead of capturing his own soul, he envisioned feeding the amulet with the souls of his fallen enemies. These captured souls could act as batteries, empowering both the amulet and himself. Currently, souls lingered only briefly before dispersing after death. Why let such a resource go to waste?
Determined to test his idea, Thalion began working on amulets, incorporating the new feature with the smiths’ guidance. At the sa ti, he prepared an amulet for Rylak’s soul to be used before their union test.
Thalion learned more from the smiths than from his sword training. Their expertise inspired nurous ideas for improving his sword, armor, and even the crown he had taken from the madman. He decided to fuse the crown with his mask, creating a single, powerful artifact. Additionally, he learned how to inscribe runes on his robe and mask for greater effect. With better runes now at his disposal, he envisioned significant upgrades to his equipnt.
Lucan, the master smith, was going to love all the work Thalion had planned for him, once Thalion dealt with the intruders currently making their way into his tower.
Three months passed, and while Thalion made significant progress, he began to doubt whether taking so much ti to train was the right decision. Everything was ready for the ritual, but what if the crystal’s mories were wrong? What if he didn’t have over a year, as he had thought?
The doubts gnawed at him, but for now, he resolved to trust in his preparations and continue moving forward.
Thalion asked the kind man who was teleporting him whether it had ever happened that soone sacrificed themselves to enhance the soul of a loved one. He hoped to gather information about the Guardian's Remnant title—perhaps he could even train it.
There was one thing he wondered about. What were titles in this plane of existence? Stats like stamina, health, and strength were pretty clear, but how did concepts like fate or titles fit in?
The Guardian's Remnant title was so rare that there were only two books about it—both diaries, written by the two surviving individuals who had been granted the skill. The first was a woman, and the second, a young boy. To Thalion’s dismay, both had died relatively soon after receiving the title.
Neither had been able to progress much. The woman was killed, while the boy died of old age, about a hundred years after gaining the skill. Both had experienced an initial boost and developed so ability to interpret the feelings associated with the title, but it wasn’t enough to overco the negative side effects.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
This was bad news for Thalion. The boy, however, had managed to truly grasp the title, establishing a deep connection with it. In the book, the title wasn’t referred to as a "title" but as the Gift of Love. Thalion found it strange, recalling the deep emotional connection he had felt with the ant queens.
The boy had achieved a stronger connection with the universe through deep ditation, described as "becoming one with everything." This vastly increased the abilities granted by the Gift of Love, which was exactly what Thalion needed. Unfortunately, the book didn’t provide much detail about the ditation or how the boy had deepened his connection.
Thalion knew it was ti for experints. He could already feel more attuned to the world. The flow of mana and life, as well as a foreboding sense of impending doom when sothing bad was about to happen. He decided to start with that feeling.
Sitting on the ground, Thalion ditated while one of the smiths threw stones at the back of his head. His goal was to sense the danger and dodge at the last mont. The first two stones he dodged successfully, but the third one knocked him out cold. Not the best start to his training session.
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