Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell was just finishing carving something in the cave when he received an interesting notification.

Title "Beast Tamer" Updated to "Master of Monsters"

Master of Monsters: You call your pets cute, while for many people, they are the last thing they see.

What did they do? Maxwell asked in confusion. He could understand how Blueberry could be the culprit, but the title definitely included Felix, too.

The dog was with Nesha in the Nest, so it made no sense that he would get such a title. I guess I can ask him when I see him, but he doesn't really reply back..

Blueberry was almost as smart as a regular human, while Maxwell doubted that Felix would be inferior when he grew up, the dog was still a puppy, so he usually just stared at him excitedly when he asked something.

He took a deep breath, clearing his mind. He would think about that later. Since he entered this cave to get the cores, he had an idea, and he was working on it when he got the weird notification.

In front of him, two big ant bodies could be seen, cleanly carved from the surrounding tier 2 rock. Maxwell figured that using a material coming from the ants themselves would be more compatible with what he had in mind.

On both of the statues, Maxwell tried to mimic the joints of the ants using the numerous carcasses as a model in these last two hours. He was not exactly satisfied with the end result, as he hardly had anything to use as cartilage or tissue, but still, he managed to make the joints able to move, albeit a bit awkwardly.

On both of the ant's trunks, there was a small compartment. He took these out, and there could be seen a groove in both, just in the shape of the beast cores he had harvested from the bodies of the ants.

Maxwell had long realized that beast cores were not exactly made of pure energy. While not having a complete soul, they still housed a trace of a soul of the beasts they came from.

Maxwell hoped that with some support from the system and with his new imbuement skill, he could use this fact to his advantage. The stone he used was now even better than before, as he infused it with mana on top of its already present durability.

He supposed there would be a better way to create what he was trying to, using runic formations, but he really didn't want to wait that much to try his new skill.

He placed the cores where they belonged and focused on his creations using his dominion and prima sense. He could feel that the mana signature on the core and his statues were pretty close, and he tried to shift the remaining distance using the guide mana. He wasn't sure if he could do something like that, but both mana types belonged to the same affinity, so he tried nonetheless.

Skill "Mana Synchronicity" acquired.

Mana Synchronicity:

Even the mana of the same type is subtly different according to its source.

You can synchronize the mana of the same type, making their effects much more efficient as mana works in harmony.

Skill "Guide Mana" is absorbing the skill.

Guide Mana(93)-->Guide Mana(85)

That's one problem solved. Maxwell was always a bit concerned that his guiding skill remained pure, meaning that it was not as broad as it could be. After this, he would at least know that it wasn't the worst-case scenario anymore.

He refocused on his task, and with the new skill added, it didn't take long for the mana types to synchronize. He was not sure how the construct would use the core, but he didn't have any complicated way to connect everything together for now.

When mana felt homogenous all over the construct, he activated soul imbuement for the first time, and he suddenly felt incredibly weird.

He opened his eyes, yet they were already open. He was suddenly in his soul space, and there was something different about the space.

From the liquid green walls, some of the eerie matter was flowing inside, floating in the air. Many thin streams of energy were connected to two balls before Maxwell, flowing into them.

Maxwell watched as the orbs got bigger, and he felt that his strength was draining in a fundamental way. So I use my own soul to form these? That sounds really safe. He thought as he watched the streams separate from the balls, indicating that they were ready.

He wasn't sure how he would direct the walls, but that problem fixed itself quickly, as the balls were made of his own soul energy. As soon as he thought about moving them to the constructs, the orbs shot out from his soul, and Maxwell was pulled back to the real world.

Green orbs, looking much smaller in reality, shot from his eyes, looking like a streak of light due to their speed, before they plunged into the bodies of the constructs.

The effect was immediate. Previously, Maxwell could only detect a faint soul energy from the cores and none from the stone parts. Now, the soul trace inside the core was increased immensely, while the body of the constructs also had a trace of soul energy flowing through them.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Maxwell was relieved to see that mana inside the core was getting pulled out by the inferior soul he created. This meant that even a soul he created by primitive means was capable of utilizing the mana, making his job much easier.

He was startled when one of the ants' jaws suddenly twitched, and before he could understand what was happening, mana exploded from them, indicating the birth of two new creatures.

Notifications bombarded his mind, and the ants' bodies started to change as mana slowly changed their bodies as their soul dictated, the green light of Etherium giving the whole scene an otherworldly glow. He could see that they were gaining more and more qualities he had never carved into the models. They were covered with chitin, and their eyes gained a glassy look, filled with thousands of spots.

The transformation ended, and mana flowed back into the creations, plunging the cave into silence.

Maxwell stared at the constructs, waiting for them to move, but they kept staring at him silently. Maxwell was starting to think that he had a curse of creating creepy things. Whatever he touched looked like someone's nightmare. The last title he got actually summed up everything pretty well. He observed the ants.

Ant King - Construct - Level 20

Ant Queen - Construct - Level 20

Considering their level before dying, Maxwell felt that the levels of the constructs were pretty low, but this was a success nonetheless. He instinctively knew that these constructs wouldn't be able to level up, but he also felt that he could upgrade them himself.

Maybe, one day, he would be able to give them real souls like Pax had. Actually, if he knew more about runic formations, he might not even need to do that, as it was unnatural that he even managed to create something like this without using them.

He managed to glimpse some complicated artifacts over the last few days, and he could see there was a depth to the art. The problem was that the users mostly used it through the system.

Maxwell was pretty sure that even the crafters across the city didn't know anything about how runic formations worked. They just used their system-granted skills, and the system did the rest for them, leaving them completely ignorant of their own craft.

While Maxwell envied the ease of the method, he wouldn't choose to have something like that even if he could. It was not hard to see that this would limit the potential of the people pretty soon.

He turned his attention back to the ants. The reason he created the ants was not limited to his curiosity. He could accept that most of the reason was just that, but part of it came from the fact that he thought having a tunnel system under the city would be useful after seeing the ant nest.

Having to traverse using his own identity made him realize that this would be pretty useful. Also, having your own cave system was cool, and Maxwell definitely wanted one if he could get it.

He connected to ants and sent them a visualization of a tunnel. He kept it simple, not including any divergence. Even this was probably a lot of work for just two ants.

Although they did not have much intelligence, the ants started to move immediately. They showed absolutely no emotion as they started to take big bites out of the wall to Maxwell's right. Maxwell watched the ants in silence for a couple of seconds before he sighed. I'd better create something better-looking soon. These ants looked exceedingly creepy even by his standards.

He finally summoned his notifications. He postponed the empowerment, as he didn't want to trap himself underground if the way skill worked changed suddenly. He would proceed with that on the surface.

Title: Soul Puppeteer acquired.

Soul Puppeteer:

Your creations move, gaining a semblance of life through the energy of your own etherium soul.

May your puppets one day attain true life.

The part of the explanation about etherium made Maxwell come to a realization. His own body was only

partly physical, and Blueberry could even turn herself completely immaterial due to the influence of Etherium.

Considering these, it made sense for the etherium to give some semblance of real material quality to the ant puppets, as they were literally created from his own soul energy.

He was not sure how etherium did what it did, but everything had its own time. Even the system was confused by the material, so he didn't feel pressured to understand it immediately.

Guide Mana Leveled Up 85→90

Prima Sense Leveled Up 86→88

Magic Theory Leveled Up 86→92

Soul's Dominion* Leveled Up 3→7

Mana Infusion Leveled Up 85→90

Magic Carving Leveled Up 74→83

Window Of The Soul Leveled Up 64→67

Soul Imbuement Leveled Up 1→21

Parallel Thoughts Leveled Up 55→57

Visualization Leveled Up 83→87

The biggest increase was unsurprisingly Soul Imbuement, as it was the main skill he used to achieve this. It also helped that it was a low-level skill. Guide mana reached almost its previous level, and magic carving seemed to have gotten a substantial bump. Some skills reached level 90, but Maxwell honestly couldn't think of any way to improve them before their inevitable advancement. Some of his skills, being tier one, didn't make sense in the first place, a great example being mana infusion.

Skill "Biology" acquired.

Biology:

You try to understand how organic life works, and sometimes even succeed.

Biology Leveled Up 1→5

I suppose I got this from examining ant carcasses? He thought.

The necessary number of skills and levels acquired for fusion.

Proceeding with the fusion of the following skills:

Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology.

Y / N

Maxwell was startled for a second. So increasing Mathematics was worth it after all, he smiled. Mathematics was one of his highest skills, now standing on level 94, and Maxwell was feeling that it wouldn't reach tier two without something else. Maybe this should eventually be that something. He selected yes, as he couldn't see any reason to deny.

Skills are being fused.

Skill "Natural Sciences(27)" created.

Natural Sciences:

You try to understand the world, not limiting yourself to any branch of science.

Your knowledge spans from the deep trenches to the outer limits of the cosmos. Be careful not to be crushed by the immense weight of the unknown.

For a mundane skill, the explanation was definitely too grand, but Maxwell felt really satisfied with the skill. He could feel his mind suddenly connecting all of his knowledge to one whole, interconnecting everything he knew that could be included in the skill. Old scientists would sacrifice an arm and a leg for this skill, he was sure.

He was still not done, though, and summoned one more notification window.

Extraordinary Feat Performed. Experience granted.

Level Up! Stats distributed.

The notification was a pleasant surprise. It turned out that sometimes, giving life was more rewarding than taking it.