Merchant Of Yliaster

Skill "Window of the Soul" is being readjusted.

Error.

The skill tier cannot contain the readjustment.

Initiating tier advancement.

Maxwell stared at the notification, not really surprised by it. After forcing the skill to work at a level that it was not intended for, Maxwell expected it to level up greatly, and advancing a tier was a welcome surprise. This was a surefire way to be sure that you weren't any potential. Soon, more prompts started to come.

Skill "Athletics" is getting absorbed.

Commencing advancement.

Advancement complete

Window Of The Soul → Soul Over Matter*

Soul Over Matter*:

Matter is just a tool for the soul to express itself. You are aware.

Maxwell suddenly felt an immense surge of detachment rush into his mind. He was standing, but the location seemed wrong. Wasn't he in his spaceship just now? Was this the afterlife? He could see someone sitting beside the wall to his left.

Who is this? He thought dazedly, looking at the person sitting beside the wall. It was wearing a black mask and didn't look like someone you would get close to with your own free will.

For some reason, though, he was feeling really close to this person. Instinctively, he tried to use telepathy, but found the person was completely devoid of any mental presence. Is he dead? No… He was confused. What was this sense of familiarity? And the mask.. It felt familiar too, but in a different way. He was almost sure that he had seen it before.

The answer came to his mind a moment later. Yes, it was the mask of an ancient cult he had read about when he was a child, when the world was not yet broken, at least not to this degree. Was this even his world? Everything seemed wrong. "What was the name of the cult?" he mumbled. "Cult of Drakhabgar?" he said, unsure, and suddenly, the darkness around the room started to move.

He was startled for a second, but he would not get scared so easily; he was a man who decided for billions, a little light play wouldn't scare him so easily. "Drakhabgar!" he shouted, testing the effect.

The shadows moved even more intensely now, and to his surprise, he saw them coalesce toward the body sitting beside the wall. They got thicker around the person, completely covering him in shadows. A level 2 otherworldly beast? No.. maybe even 3. Maxwell took a few cautious steps back. There had been beasts before with humanoid shapes, but this was his first time seeing one resembling a human this much. He still couldn't understand why it was so similar, though.

The man, or the beast, started to move, and Maxwell now could see that someone else was in the narrow tunnel with them. The man seemed startled due to the shadows and the sudden movement, as he was staring at them like he had seen a nightmare. Maxwell just shook his head in disappointment. This man wouldn't make a good soldier if he freaked out immediately after seeing such things.

The man covered in shadows gave him a side eye, and the man simply fainted, shadows around the tunnel getting a bit thicker, and the light the weird mushrooms gave got dimmer. The mask turned to him, and Maxwell made eye contact with the creature.

He could immediately feel that there was something more to this creature other than being a simple level 3 otherworldly beast. The feeling Maxwell got from it was simply too strong. He felt his mental shields, which he built over a life of hardship, get annihilated one by one, as more and more darkness appeared in his mind.

He was not panicking, though. He was not sure why he was here, but he had been prepared to die just a minute ago. If this was a hallucination he was seeing in his last moments, he would not disgrace himself.

He stood proud, taking on the attack as he concentrated on his mental shields. They once called him the greatest telepath among other things, and he wouldn't fall without fighting back. He quickly isolated the darkness, feeling its immense strength compared to his mental power, and focused his mentality in a corner of his mind, making it thicker in a way.

The darkness in his mind immediately covered the new ground he left unoccupied, but Maxwell smiled, as now, its density was way less than before. With a mental effort, he used most of his energy to form a projection. A mental spear of all his pain, one could say. His losses were still fresh, and he would use them too, if it meant that he could take this abomination with him.

No beast dared to attack a Zephyrian in a mental battle, and he would show this creature why that was the case, for it could be stronger than him, but it would still lose. The spear moved and immediately pierced through the darkness, making Maxwell relive all the painful moments in his life as he concentrated on it.

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More and more memories of loss appeared, the years he wasted with ambition flowed, and the memories ended with the people he sent away to live a better life. He smiled. Maybe he wouldn't see them again, but he was happy that all this ambition, in the end, could be used for something good. He added the happiness to the stream, pushed the spear further, and watched in apathy as the man wearing the mask screeched like the beast it was.

It stumbled back, looking at him in disbelief. The mask he was wearing was surprisingly good at showing emotion. Maxwell gave a tired smile. "So my pain is not enough for a level 3? Okay then." He said, standing before the abomination and waiting for death to finally claim him.

The darkness moved once more, this time being visibly weaker, but Maxwell had nothing left. He watched in acceptance as it closed in on him, the man with the mask staring at him hungrily. In the next moment, the darkness around the cave suddenly moved towards him with immense speed, and there was a crash.

Maxwell thought he was dead for a moment, but he figured he was feeling too normal to have died. Around him, a dark green mass quite similar to darkness wriggled, and Maxwell got the same familiar feeling from this mass, too. Despite it looking so gruesome, Maxwell found himself feeling.. Love?

The man with the mask just stared at the mass, watching his darkness getting eaten by it like it was a delicious snack. Tentacles made of filaments latched to darkness before consuming it like it was something physical. The mask once again made eye contact with Maxwell, and he was surprised that he could feel only a simple emotion from it. It was pure amusement.

"Maxwell Aurelius, it seems you were always an abomination. Now, end this farce," a voice making Maxwell shiver said, before the darkness stilled, and the man immediately dropped to the ground like a doll with its strings cut.

Maxwell stared at the man for a moment before turning his attention back to the still wriggling mass. It was now condensing, and Maxwell could see that it was forming a shape. Soon, the mass took the shape of a dog, a completely unassuming golden dog, and it was staring at him like he expected some kind of praise.

He couldn't hold back a laugh and bent down to pet the dog. "Good job, Felix," he said, freezing before his hand touched the dog. Where did that name come from? He glanced back at the man lying on the ground. He walked to him, kneeling before him. He took the man's mask off, the mask feeling weightless in his hand.

He stared at the young face behind it. Who was this? He felt like this young man was connected to him in a fundamental way, but he couldn't understand how. Just now, where did that name come from? Why was this guy so familiar? He touched the man's neck to see if he was alive, but immediately after touching the body, he felt himself slowly fading. For some reason, though, it felt like this was meant to be.

Maxwell touched his face with his hand as his body got fainter and fainter. To think that I was so old once.. He thought in amusement, and he was gone.

On the ground, a sudden wheezing sound came, and Maxwell Aurelius breathed in a hungry breath. He started coughing; his body felt like he hadn't taken in a breath for a long time. Maybe that was actually the case. His mind was still confused, and he couldn't even remember where he was for a moment.

After he could breathe properly, he pulled himself to a sitting position. His mind was better, and he could actually remember who he was now. He took his attention away from it, and immediately his breathing stopped. Ugh, this will be bothersome. He quickly created a stream of thought that would be responsible for bodily functions. If he didn't have this skill, his life from now on would be torturous, he was sure.

The whole experience before was so surreal that he couldn't completely grasp it. Once again, being himself before he transmigrated had been an eye-opener, as he never realized how much he had changed since he passed over.

Old him, saw everything as a tool for war, but knowing that he was free of his responsibilities made Maxwell much more relaxed in these last weeks. He didn't even think about fighting and power most of the time. He was just enjoying things like a normal human being. He was aware of this already, but feeling it with such a contrast was still an interesting experience.

Drakhabgar, though, proved that he was truly a wild card. If he was not strong enough to stall until Felix came, Maxwell was sure that he would be dead now for real. Or, maybe etherium would still block the vestige, but Maxwell couldn't be so sure about that.

Remembering the vestige's voice, Maxwell shuddered. The voice had a quality that would make you shudder no matter what. It was not even fear that he was feeling; it felt more like a natural response to something. It was the adrenaline rushing in as you faced the darkness of the night.

He summoned the skill that was the cause of all these problems, as Felix tried to jump on him excitedly. He grabbed the dog with his free hand, petting it affectionately. An extended explanation appeared before his mind.

Soul Over Matter*:

Your soul reigns supreme, as your physical body remains just a convenient reflection of something more real.

You can control all of your bodily functions, as they are tied directly to your soul. No physical damage can immediately kill you, giving you a very limited window of time to repair the damage done to your body or find a suitable host.

May you one day break out of your physical shell.

A suitable host? That part of the explanation really surprised Maxwell, as this meant that he could actually possess people. The skill, though, also said that his time would be very limited, so he doubted that this function would be very useful.

Controlling all his bodily functions would mean that he could push his body a lot further than before, meaning that his physical stats would have a stronger translation into physical power now. Others would maybe be concerned about damage due to overexertion, but Maxwell was mostly made of mana anyway. He could also infuse himself with blood mana to repair the damage as long as it wasn't very severe.

Partial Ethereal Body Ratio Updated

New Ratio: 7.5 : 2.5

Now, it's even more doable, he thought. It was interesting, really. He was sure that this trait wouldn't make any sense without etherium. He was curious about what the system thought about it, but he supposed that would be asking too much.

He dived into his soul space, as he had a theory to prove. In his soul space, he had his previous body before, and he was pretty sure that was the reason why the skill did what it did now. His body didn't match his soul shape, so he was pushed out. Probably, the only reason he was not dead was the system taking it as a part of the skill advancement, as the time he spent outside his body had not been very limited, as the skill said.

Hmm, what he found didn't surprise him, as he truly had his younger body in his soul space now. What made him confused was something different. In his soul space, he could see The Dark Mask of Drakhabgar, as the mask returned to his soul space when he was not using it.

There was a simple problem, though, as the mask had a body attached to it.