Merchant Of Yliaster

It took some time for the angry Rodrick to calm down and come off his adrenaline-filled state, but the man wasn't a veteran for nothing. After he was convinced that the main enemy was dead and the others were unconscious, he took command of his own, quickly catching up to the situation.

This, of course, didn't make the situation any more believable. Any person strong enough to reach the level he was in the span of time they had since the initiation had enough awareness to understand that the enemy they faced was ridiculously strong.

Devon didn't even have time to use any of his trump cards before he was whisked away by the man's skill, and it was truly a humiliation he would never forget. Now, though, he could see that the culprit fared no better against someone he had drunk with nonchalantly over the recent days.

The said man was now gazing at him with disgust, and he couldn't blame him. Of all the places he could end up, he ended up in the sewers. In his anger, he didn't really think about it then, and he didn't plan on trying to remember what swimming in shit felt like.

Under his gaze, Maxwell waved his hand, and he watched the filth on his body slowly turn to dust. Immediately after, he waved his hand once more, and the dust blasted off his body due to a low-powered blast of mana.

"Much better," Maxwell said, smiling contentedly. Devon wouldn't try to understand how the man did what he did, but he was in no place to complain.

Devon bowed and spoke. "We will forever be in your debt. After hearing the extent of your abilities, I find that paying back our debt in any meaningful way will be hard, but we will try nonetheless. I will inform the main house of your deeds, and I will make sure that no one will cause problems for you in the kingdom," he said in a single breath. His gratitude could be felt in his voice.

Maxwell was a bit taken aback by the formal way the usually relaxed man spoke, but he smiled nonetheless. "I can't really watch as people intrude on a place I like, can't I? I can't refuse the privilege, though. Being able to move through the kingdom would really help," he said.

He was not sure if he was breaking the rules of etiquette or something, but he couldn't really care. Never mind the planet, this wouldn't be the first planet he would visit, and Maxwell could imagine himself going crazy if he tried to adapt to the traditions everywhere he went. The system would probably give him a skill for it if he tried though.

Devon just nodded before moving towards his men, who were tying up the unconscious bodies of the intruders. The exclusive floor of the Nest was pretty much ruined, and the walls were filled with holes. Maxwell was pretty impressed by the structure still standing.

"Thank you," Maxwell heard from the side, Nesha speaking softly after the eventful night. The woman felt sincere, lacking the formal tone of his brother, but this was much better for Maxwell. He was not very used to people thanking him while actually meaning it in formal settings. Especially considering personal matters.

"No problem," Maxwell said, but he continued with telepathy, as he was puzzled by something. "I apologize if it's rude to ask, but isn't your mind stat very high?" he asked, and the woman jumped faintly due to an unexpected telepathic message. She quickly composed herself, albeit looking a bit puzzled.

"It's my main stat, so yes. I don't see the point, though," she answered, making Maxwell smile. From what he saw, Nesha's telekinesis was not that powerful, as it was more about controlling many things at once with intricacy rather than power. Her telepathy, on the other hand, should be the same as the telepathy Maxwell got at the start, and Maxwell would never forget how he knocked Bob out in their first conversation.

"You know you can just knock people out by sending them overwhelming telepathic messages, right?" he said, and watched as the woman's eyes widened with possibilities. He couldn't blame her, as mastering this would give the woman a means for protection that wasn't connected to outside means.

"What would I send though, I can't exactly think faster at them right?" she said, making Maxwell feel a bit confused. The thing he did when knocking people out was pretty much that, as he would just send his thoughts in a smaller time frame. In his first encounter with Bob, for example, he just sent his thoughts in their natural form, but they were already too fast for the boy's undeveloped mind.

Maybe other people have more distinct limits? He theorized. He was not sure why he didn't if that was the case though. Etherium was becoming a bullshit excuse for everything he couldn't explain. He really hoped that the days when he could explain things properly would come soon. For now, though, he still had an idea how Nesha could use the same method with some modification.

"You probably think when you are cooking things right? I assume that's why you have the mind stat as your main stat. Most of the physical part of telekinesis would use your spirituality, and your mind would make you able to actually do the things you were doing," he asked, and it didn't take long for the woman to catch up to his idea.

"You want me to send people moments of me cooking really hard?" she said, and Maxwell couldn't help but laugh as he felt the incredulity of the woman flowing through their connection.

"Exactly," he sent back, still smiling. "You can try it on me if you want to," he added, watching the woman's expression morphed into disbelief.

A moment later, Nesha's face scrunched up with concentration, and Maxwell could suddenly feel memories flow into his mind. With his level of skill, he could definitely choose to discard the messages without actually letting his brain compute them, but that would hardly be of any use.

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He let the telepathic packet in, and suddenly he could see through Nesha's eyes as she cooked. He was surprised that the woman did a lot more than he initially realized when she was cooking. She adjusted the heat of several ovens with different telekinetic streams, she prepared numerous ingredients with different processes, and she even received and gave out orders for the customers as she did all that.

Does she have a skill similar to parallel thoughts? He thought. Even with his skill, which was level 100 and waiting for advancement at the moment due to his experiments in the night, the things Nesha did still covered a great portion of the skill's capabilities.

Of course, the level and stat difference was way too much for the memory to be any strain to him, but he could see how devastating this would be for other people. Even from his previous life, he knew how memories could be devastating.

Memories didn't care whether you had the skills needed to process them. If a part of your brain were underdeveloped, and you tried to watch a highly skilled person's memory with complete realism, the only thing you would get out of the experience would be epileptic shock. At least, that was the case in Zephyr.

Right now, Maxwell was pretty sure that his soul was much less reliant on his brain's pathways. It was also much more flexible, as he had no problem understanding what Nesha was doing as he watched the memory.

"That would be able to knock out most people. You might face some problems when you try it on people who don't really use their minds to fight, though. They can still fight in autopilot," Maxwell sent, trying to be helpful. Not seeing everything as a way of commerce was something new to him, but he found that he enjoyed it.

Seeing the shocked look on the woman's face, he found the experience especially rewarding. Going from helpless to strong in a single conversation was not something most would experience in their lifetimes.

"Would it work on…" Nesha sent, but stopped, glancing at the dead body of the space mage on the floor. Maxwell was not sure of the level of the guy, so he summoned his notifications to check. There was a lot, as he was working on magic all night.

Sense Of The Shattered Reality* Leveled Up 1→6

Everchanging Soul Constructs* Leveled Up 1→12

Soul Dominion* Leveled Up 44→50

Elementary Soul Energy Manipulation Leveled Up 73→85

Runic Formations Leveled Up 58→70

Soul Over Matter* Leveled Up 13→18

Mind Of The Merchant Leveled Up 40→43

Soul Imbuement Leveled Up 32→60

Records Of Curiosity Leveled Up 1→2

Parallel Thoughts Leveled Up 97→100

Natural Sciences Leveled Up 40→52

There were a lot of level-ups, and Soul Imbuement certainly was the winner this time. Maxwell used the skill in tandem with mostly tier 2 skills, and this caused it to take a great leap, as if it were trying to catch up to others.

Construct Recorded in Records Of Curiosity.

Construct 01: The Last Flash

Maxwell was surprised that the skill gave a name to the construct he created, but he found the name an apt description. Even he was quite surprised by the construct's speed, as if he didn't know where it was going, even he wouldn't be able to control it. If it didn't give a very obvious flash before the attack, the skill would probably be the ultimate assassination attack.

Leroy Dare - Bender Of Space - Level 43 killed. Experience awarded.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't receive any levels from the encounter, but it was nice knowing that humanity still had many people with pretty high levels. He turned to Nesha once more, who was waiting for his answer in a uncharacteristic surge of anticipation. The woman was probably excited due to finally having a means to defend herself.

"It's hard to say, his level was 43, and I wouldn't assume that a mage would be deficient in mind attribute. Still, you would probably be able to confuse him for some time, as I don't think he would be used to thinking so many things at once," he said honestly. He didn't want to falsely encourage the woman to use her ability on overly strong opponents despite her apparent excitement.

Nesha deflated visibly after receiving his message, but she still looked excited by the prospect. One shouldn't forget that the system was really flexible. Nesha would probably get an advancement encompassing this new method, and Maxwell was pretty curious what kind of a class woman would have in tier 3.

As he thought, though, something he didn't expect happened. For a moment, the world flickered, completely covered by darkness, and everything returned as if nothing had happened, making Maxwell stumble, leaving a deep sense of wrongness in his soul.

"Sorry, I should probably get some sleep. It's been a long night," Maxwell said, trying to sound normal, but he was checking his soul space with urgency. There was something more to the darkness just now, and he had a very fitting culprit in his soul space.

He dove into his room in a hurry, before entering his soul space, looking at Drakhabgar with suspicion. Immediately, he could see that something was fusing into the figure of the god. Just looking at the phenomenon made his mind ache, similar to the times when he tried to see soul manipulation without any mind skills.

Now, though, some pain wouldn't make him stop, as this was his own soul. He focused, and his dominion shrank back into his body. He focused the skill in his own soul, completely cutting off the outside world.

Sense Of The Shattered Reality was activated, and Maxwell carelessly activated the skill in its full form, immediately getting assaulted by an unbelievable pain in his mind. This, though, seemed to have done the trick, as the figure of Drakhabgar became clear for the first time.

For a moment, he could see a dimension overlapping with the world around him, and in it, he saw a man with a sleek black suit made from darkness. The mask on his face betrayed his identity, but he could see that he was getting fainter, as his form dissolved into the form of Drakhabgar in his soul.

The energy that made the soul before him was something more, something completely foreign to him. It was not pure soul energy, or any energy he knew. The only word he could describe it would be divine, and it was not in the puny way of Shergoth and others. Even he felt small before the energy despite being able to feel that it was not that powerful right now. Somehow, he got the feeling that the energy was shackled by the world itself.

Maxwell couldn't understand how he could tell, but his senses whispered into his mind the reality. Whatever he did with Zeylin unquestionably gave this god a much greater power than he had previously. Still, he could feel instinctively that there would be no problems. The world itself assured that.

To his surprise, the masked man turned to him and, with an unnatural expression, smiled. Immediately after, his figure completely disappeared.

Maxwell kept the skill on for an agonizing second, trying to see if anything changed, but things were still the same as far as he could see. The only difference was that the figure of the god was now completely repaired, but it was still unresponsive.

That was the last thing he saw before his mind finally gave up, as darkness consumed him.