Krysta
“Hmm.” Joma looked at Krysta and then back to Ms. Li, her face showing the same type of expression she’d get whenever she came up with a new epiphany regarding one of the alchemy recipes she was always working on. “And that’s also why the two of you have such stupidly high grade classes. Aalam, from everything I’ve heard, sounds like he’s god touched, so a berserker state which takes away his inhibitions would work differently than what one would normally expect.
“And, if the Yin Yang Sage was smart enough to provide him a boon of information early on, of course he’d aim for something ridiculous. And his talent, combined with your training and complimentary skill set along with the Yin Yang Sage’s plague creation recipes, would potentially enable you to succeed in that ridiculous aim, which would explain your bloodline and how you could have the exact same soulstructures as him to make your Essence Chamberlain class work.
“And that same skillset would work well in the Trial Tower as well, likely awarding you such a ridiculous amount of points that you earned resources well beyond what any F rank could normally get their hands on.” A big smile spread across Joma’s face. “And with your skillset, you could probably trick the System into thinking you were a cultivator of any planet you ended up on, enabling you to get the Trial Tower token of that planet—Thinking about it, probably the one called Hira, given how things on that planet ended so mysteriously. And the artifact allowing you to curse the entire Violet Mountain Blessed Land was probably the Altar of Sacrifice reportedly in the inheritance of the C rank called the Shadow Thief. The timing works for the Trial Tower where you met Krysta.
“And, from that Trial Tower, along with the Yin Yang Sage’s connection to Diana Alvaro back on Earth, you’d have everything you’d need to get back to your home planet, which fits the timeline of things on Earth as well. Then with that token, and Diana Alvaro’s lord line skill, you’d be able to participate, along with your ability to share your senses and energies with Aalam, so you probably earned ridiculous resources not once, but twice.”
Ms. Li just quietly stared at Joma for a few seconds. Then she turned to look at Krysta. “Does she occasionally get an idea and then walk off to test it without properly communicating as well?”
“No.” Krysta almost laughed, realizing from what little interactions she’d had with Aalam Alvaro that Ms. Li was almost certainly seeing a resemblance between him and her mother. “She always communicates first.”
“Ah, that would be so nice.”
Joma looked at Ms. Li, then at Krysta, and then back at Ms. Li. “I’m assuming Mr. Alvaro entered into the Id state when Epecteos was killed and that he then killed all the Violet Mountain Sect to feed the curse so it would work against Zev Andar?”
Ms. Li nodded once. “Yes.”
“And he also had plagues, so he should have been able to drain Zev Andar’s energy completely within a year or two, killing him that way. But, even with Id empowering his Spirit, it would be nearly impossible to put a scratch on a B rank warrior, let alone kill a powerful one like Zev Andar.”
“He destroyed the Altar of Sacrifice to increase the power of the curse, placed a spatial storage device directly on the Violet Mountain Lord’s leg, and then had it release antimatter directly into the Violet Mountain Lord’s flesh, creating a wound.
“Then he stabbed him in that wound with a sword he made which my master said could have killed her in her prime.”
Krysta sort of got the implications of what Ms. Li had just said, but, seeing her mother’s expression of utter shock, she realized she hadn’t quite grasped the sheer ridiculousness of what Ms. Li had just said.
“An E rank made a weapon wieldable by himself which could kill the Yin Yang Sage?” Joma asked slowly.
“If it somehow managed to cut her, yeah.” Ms. Li took out a large violet sword from the spatial storage ring on her left hand and telekinetically tossed it to Joma. “At the time, it would release a curse which could automatically trigger the punishment conditions of contracts made by B rank level skills or lower.”
“It’s a sin blade.” Joma looked over the sword carefully. “But it’s lost its sin and is now primed to be transformed into a sword of virtue.”
Joma looked back up at Ms. Li. “You’re a sin eater, so he felt comfortable making such a weapon even though its curse would eat away at his soul if left untreated?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.” Joma took another minute or two to inspect the blade. “Even the ability to shape such a metal at E rank is impressive. And the crafting skill shown is exquisite for that rank, though obviously lacking in several easily fixed ways, showing the absence of a true teacher.
“Most impressive though are the runes, which seem to be newly created combinations of some of Alashan’s work, and the idea of the weapon itself, which I’m guessing was inspired by the way you tend to kill your enemies.”
She tossed the weapon back to Ms. Li and Ms. Li telekinetically caught it before putting it back in her spatial storage ring.
“Honestly, I’m leaning toward taking Aalam on as an apprentice. But I have a few more questions before I make my decision.”
A slight smile appeared on Ms. Li’s face. “Okay.”
“First, what do you think his chances would be of making it to D rank without my help?”
“100%.”
Joma and Krysta both looked at her doubtfully, the difficulty of advancing while following the path of the Heavenly Spark famous, so Ms. Li elaborated.
“Of his 36 Laws, 20 are early grade Law Pupae and the remaining 16 are middle grade Law Pupae, so he’s already met the Law requirements. And he created Epecteos’s Vengeance, an extremely powerful Fabled grade E rank artifact, so he’s already met the most difficult extra requirement for advancing his classes as well. As for creating new runes or rune sets, you just commented on the seven different varieties in Epecteos’s Vengeance alone.
“Sure, he needs to merge a never before seen skill and then create a method to integrate that skill with his cultivation technique, but that’s just a matter of time and effort.”
Ms. Li smirked slightly as Joma opened and closed her mouth a few times, but then she returned to a more neutral expression as Krysta’s mother burst out laughing.
“He didn’t take any harmful shortcuts, right?”
“No.” Ms. Li shook her head. “He did spend some time studying a Stone of Primal Beginning, which greatly sped up his progress, but, according to my teacher, studying Laws in their primal state was beneficial for his future development, not neutral like for everyone else.”
“Okay, just out with it.” Joma waved her hand in seeming defeat. “The race you two share is obviously ridiculous. And I’m guessing his bloodline, racial abilities, and soulstructures will leave me jealous as well. What type of hardware would I be dealing with?”
“His race is a sublime soul variant, heading down the path of a Soul Lord, and sublime soul is what the System calls the step higher than strong soul. It allows for complete dual classes instead of advanced dual classes, and its affect on our souls has several pleasant side effects as well. These include the natural state of our auras being completely unnoticeable, greatly increased base affinities with all Laws, and extremely high resistance to impurities staining our souls.”
Joma nodded. “Very unfair. And I’ll have to buy more information about that variant type from you in the future.”
Ms. Li then continued. “Aalam’s bloodline is Genetic Thief, which has enabled him to guide his racial advancements and the choices for his racial abilities, so all his racial abilities are quite rare and at minimum Heroic grade. They are Minor Soul Lord Battle Armor, Monster Prince, Advanced Soul Laboratory, Heavenly Spark Pure Soul, and Nascent Energy Constructor.”
Krysta wasn’t sure what Advanced Soul Laboratory and Minor Soul Lord Battle Armor did, but Nascent Energy Constructor and Monster Prince were both from two of the most desired ability lines she knew about, and they worked well together, while, from her mother’s expression as each ability was mentioned, Advanced Soul Laboratory and Minor Soul Lord Battle Armor were likely on their same level.
“As for his soulstructures, they’re less impressive. He has a huge core container, twelve medium and one large mana wells, seven huge mental forges, and a medium advanced soul laboratory.”
Joma just stared at Ms. Li for a few seconds. Then she asked, “Elevated Multi-Mind?”
“Yes.”
“Got it.” Joma nodded slowly. “Really advanced hardware that is extremely expensive to advance.”
She shook her head a few times, seemingly trying to clear her mind. Then she asked, “I’ve never heard of anyone with the Id uniqueness surviving past F rank. Any luck figuring out how to advance it?”
“Having multiple mental forges seems to help. Since the start of Earth’s integration, Aalam has only entered into the Id state three times, and the second was back when we first met Krysta in the F rank Trial Tower, about a dozen years ago. So, currently, Id seems to require some pretty intense emotions to activate and, even when it does, it’s nowhere as extreme as it was the first time before Aalam gained the Multi-Mind skill at G rank.
“His other uniqueness, however, will likely advance by the time he wakes up.”
“Oh.” Joma sounded somewhat deflated. “And that explains the amount of Territory he can own and why you’d risk his monster name being exposed. He’s somehow a royal, isn’t he? And the skill he’s trying to merge from Sensory Domain is meant to allow him to access the power of his Territory anywhere he goes.”
Ms. Li smiled slightly again as she nodded.
“And, from what you just said and the size of the Territory you recently gained, he likely awakened to Prince rather than one of the lesser versions of that uniqueness line, which will be King by the time I would meet him and will advance again to Emperor in a few dozen years so long as he stays at E rank and doesn’t lose any Territory.”
“That is correct.”
Joma deliberately took a deep breath. “Alright. So, in an emotional state, he’ll have the ability to multiply his base Spirit stat by 60. And that already insane multiplier will rise even more in the future, hopefully more than doubling during his time at D rank, and then even further every rank in the future, likely allowing him to fight lower tier gods as a B rank.
“His only real weakness is the path he’s on might get him stuck in his study of Laws.” Joma’s eyes then grew wide with shock. “But that won’t be as much of an issue as I’d expect as his current Attunement multiplier is probably more than 10, and will increase at the same rate.
“His limiting factor won’t be Laws, but stats, as a good portion of the multiplier is Monster Prince increasing the max amount of stats he can have at each rank. But his race, insane cultivation technique, and Nascent Energy Constructor racial ability would work together to allow him to eat as many natural treasures as he’d need, so the limiting factor wouldn’t actually be stats, but natural treasures.”
Joma looked at Krysta and then back at Ms. Li. “You want me to be his master less so that I could teach him and more so I would provide him pills.”
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Krysta
“Hmm.” Joma looked at Krysta and then back to Ms. Li, her face showing the same type of expression she’d get whenever she came up with a new epiphany regarding one of the alchemy recipes she was always working on. “And that’s also why the two of you have such stupidly high grade classes. Aalam, from everything I’ve heard, sounds like he’s god touched, so a berserker state which takes away his inhibitions would work differently than what one would normally expect.
“And, if the Yin Yang Sage was smart enough to provide him a boon of information early on, of course he’d aim for something ridiculous. And his talent, combined with your training and complimentary skill set along with the Yin Yang Sage’s plague creation recipes, would potentially enable you to succeed in that ridiculous aim, which would explain your bloodline and how you could have the exact same soulstructures as him to make your Essence Chamberlain class work.
“And that same skillset would work well in the Trial Tower as well, likely awarding you such a ridiculous amount of points that you earned resources well beyond what any F rank could normally get their hands on.” A big smile spread across Joma’s face. “And with your skillset, you could probably trick the System into thinking you were a cultivator of any planet you ended up on, enabling you to get the Trial Tower token of that planet—Thinking about it, probably the one called Hira, given how things on that planet ended so mysteriously. And the artifact allowing you to curse the entire Violet Mountain Blessed Land was probably the Altar of Sacrifice reportedly in the inheritance of the C rank called the Shadow Thief. The timing works for the Trial Tower where you met Krysta.
“And, from that Trial Tower, along with the Yin Yang Sage’s connection to Diana Alvaro back on Earth, you’d have everything you’d need to get back to your home planet, which fits the timeline of things on Earth as well. Then with that token, and Diana Alvaro’s lord line skill, you’d be able to participate, along with your ability to share your senses and energies with Aalam, so you probably earned ridiculous resources not once, but twice.”
Ms. Li just quietly stared at Joma for a few seconds. Then she turned to look at Krysta. “Does she occasionally get an idea and then walk off to test it without properly communicating as well?”
“No.” Krysta almost laughed, realizing from what little interactions she’d had with Aalam Alvaro that Ms. Li was almost certainly seeing a resemblance between him and her mother. “She always communicates first.”
“Ah, that would be so nice.”
Joma looked at Ms. Li, then at Krysta, and then back at Ms. Li. “I’m assuming Mr. Alvaro entered into the Id state when Epecteos was killed and that he then killed all the Violet Mountain Sect to feed the curse so it would work against Zev Andar?”
Ms. Li nodded once. “Yes.”
“And he also had plagues, so he should have been able to drain Zev Andar’s energy completely within a year or two, killing him that way. But, even with Id empowering his Spirit, it would be nearly impossible to put a scratch on a B rank warrior, let alone kill a powerful one like Zev Andar.”
“He destroyed the Altar of Sacrifice to increase the power of the curse, placed a spatial storage device directly on the Violet Mountain Lord’s leg, and then had it release antimatter directly into the Violet Mountain Lord’s flesh, creating a wound.
“Then he stabbed him in that wound with a sword he made which my master said could have killed her in her prime.”
Krysta sort of got the implications of what Ms. Li had just said, but, seeing her mother’s expression of utter shock, she realized she hadn’t quite grasped the sheer ridiculousness of what Ms. Li had just said.
“An E rank made a weapon wieldable by himself which could kill the Yin Yang Sage?” Joma asked slowly.
“If it somehow managed to cut her, yeah.” Ms. Li took out a large violet sword from the spatial storage ring on her left hand and telekinetically tossed it to Joma. “At the time, it would release a curse which could automatically trigger the punishment conditions of contracts made by B rank level skills or lower.”
“It’s a sin blade.” Joma looked over the sword carefully. “But it’s lost its sin and is now primed to be transformed into a sword of virtue.”
Joma looked back up at Ms. Li. “You’re a sin eater, so he felt comfortable making such a weapon even though its curse would eat away at his soul if left untreated?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.” Joma took another minute or two to inspect the blade. “Even the ability to shape such a metal at E rank is impressive. And the crafting skill shown is exquisite for that rank, though obviously lacking in several easily fixed ways, showing the absence of a true teacher.
“Most impressive though are the runes, which seem to be newly created combinations of some of Alashan’s work, and the idea of the weapon itself, which I’m guessing was inspired by the way you tend to kill your enemies.”
She tossed the weapon back to Ms. Li and Ms. Li telekinetically caught it before putting it back in her spatial storage ring.
“Honestly, I’m leaning toward taking Aalam on as an apprentice. But I have a few more questions before I make my decision.”
A slight smile appeared on Ms. Li’s face. “Okay.”
“First, what do you think his chances would be of making it to D rank without my help?”
“100%.”
Joma and Krysta both looked at her doubtfully, the difficulty of advancing while following the path of the Heavenly Spark famous, so Ms. Li elaborated.
“Of his 36 Laws, 20 are early grade Law Pupae and the remaining 16 are middle grade Law Pupae, so he’s already met the Law requirements. And he created Epecteos’s Vengeance, an extremely powerful Fabled grade E rank artifact, so he’s already met the most difficult extra requirement for advancing his classes as well. As for creating new runes or rune sets, you just commented on the seven different varieties in Epecteos’s Vengeance alone.
“Sure, he needs to merge a never before seen skill and then create a method to integrate that skill with his cultivation technique, but that’s just a matter of time and effort.”
Ms. Li smirked slightly as Joma opened and closed her mouth a few times, but then she returned to a more neutral expression as Krysta’s mother burst out laughing.
“He didn’t take any harmful shortcuts, right?”
“No.” Ms. Li shook her head. “He did spend some time studying a Stone of Primal Beginning, which greatly sped up his progress, but, according to my teacher, studying Laws in their primal state was beneficial for his future development, not neutral like for everyone else.”
“Okay, just out with it.” Joma waved her hand in seeming defeat. “The race you two share is obviously ridiculous. And I’m guessing his bloodline, racial abilities, and soulstructures will leave me jealous as well. What type of hardware would I be dealing with?”
“His race is a sublime soul variant, heading down the path of a Soul Lord, and sublime soul is what the System calls the step higher than strong soul. It allows for complete dual classes instead of advanced dual classes, and its affect on our souls has several pleasant side effects as well. These include the natural state of our auras being completely unnoticeable, greatly increased base affinities with all Laws, and extremely high resistance to impurities staining our souls.”
Joma nodded. “Very unfair. And I’ll have to buy more information about that variant type from you in the future.”
Ms. Li then continued. “Aalam’s bloodline is Genetic Thief, which has enabled him to guide his racial advancements and the choices for his racial abilities, so all his racial abilities are quite rare and at minimum Heroic grade. They are Minor Soul Lord Battle Armor, Monster Prince, Advanced Soul Laboratory, Heavenly Spark Pure Soul, and Nascent Energy Constructor.”
Krysta wasn’t sure what Advanced Soul Laboratory and Minor Soul Lord Battle Armor did, but Nascent Energy Constructor and Monster Prince were both from two of the most desired ability lines she knew about, and they worked well together, while, from her mother’s expression as each ability was mentioned, Advanced Soul Laboratory and Minor Soul Lord Battle Armor were likely on their same level.
“As for his soulstructures, they’re less impressive. He has a huge core container, twelve medium and one large mana wells, seven huge mental forges, and a medium advanced soul laboratory.”
Joma just stared at Ms. Li for a few seconds. Then she asked, “Elevated Multi-Mind?”
“Yes.”
“Got it.” Joma nodded slowly. “Really advanced hardware that is extremely expensive to advance.”
She shook her head a few times, seemingly trying to clear her mind. Then she asked, “I’ve never heard of anyone with the Id uniqueness surviving past F rank. Any luck figuring out how to advance it?”
“Having multiple mental forges seems to help. Since the start of Earth’s integration, Aalam has only entered into the Id state three times, and the second was back when we first met Krysta in the F rank Trial Tower, about a dozen years ago. So, currently, Id seems to require some pretty intense emotions to activate and, even when it does, it’s nowhere as extreme as it was the first time before Aalam gained the Multi-Mind skill at G rank.
“His other uniqueness, however, will likely advance by the time he wakes up.”
“Oh.” Joma sounded somewhat deflated. “And that explains the amount of Territory he can own and why you’d risk his monster name being exposed. He’s somehow a royal, isn’t he? And the skill he’s trying to merge from Sensory Domain is meant to allow him to access the power of his Territory anywhere he goes.”
Ms. Li smiled slightly again as she nodded.
“And, from what you just said and the size of the Territory you recently gained, he likely awakened to Prince rather than one of the lesser versions of that uniqueness line, which will be King by the time I would meet him and will advance again to Emperor in a few dozen years so long as he stays at E rank and doesn’t lose any Territory.”
“That is correct.”
Joma deliberately took a deep breath. “Alright. So, in an emotional state, he’ll have the ability to multiply his base Spirit stat by 60. And that already insane multiplier will rise even more in the future, hopefully more than doubling during his time at D rank, and then even further every rank in the future, likely allowing him to fight lower tier gods as a B rank.
“His only real weakness is the path he’s on might get him stuck in his study of Laws.” Joma’s eyes then grew wide with shock. “But that won’t be as much of an issue as I’d expect as his current Attunement multiplier is probably more than 10, and will increase at the same rate.
“His limiting factor won’t be Laws, but stats, as a good portion of the multiplier is Monster Prince increasing the max amount of stats he can have at each rank. But his race, insane cultivation technique, and Nascent Energy Constructor racial ability would work together to allow him to eat as many natural treasures as he’d need, so the limiting factor wouldn’t actually be stats, but natural treasures.”
Joma looked at Krysta and then back at Ms. Li. “You want me to be his master less so that I could teach him and more so I would provide him pills.”
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thirteenlifelegion
Vote for SotSK on TopWebFiction! http://topwebfiction.com/listings/shadow-of-the-soul-king/
And a special thank you to Shadow of the Soul King's patrons, who get to read over thirty chapters ahead as well as the work I'm preparing for traditional publishing.
