Merchant Of Yliaster

Darkness flowed down from the mask, forming a humanoid body in a standing position. The mask was staring at him with a blank expression. Maxwell could detect no danger from the mask, but it was still an unexpected scene.

All around the shadowy body, Maxwell could actually see green cracks. It looked like it could fall apart anytime. So he was truly injured? Maxwell commented as he examined the body, which he assumed belonged to the vestige of Drakhabgar. The body seemed simple, as it was made purely from darkness, and Maxwell could see that it was wriggling over the cracks, trying to fix itself. It seemed that he truly gave the vestige something to think about.

Seeing his past self use telepathy made him realize that he had been neglecting it for a while now. In theory, he would be able to beat everything he has faced until now just by using telepathy if he had just used it like he did in his past life. Maybe that tiger with savagery affinity would pose some problems, though, even if he used his telepathy with skill. In the end, he was happy that he chose to develop other things, as putting all your eggs in one basket was never a good idea.

The reason why he didn't really consider using telepathy in battle before was simple. In Zephyr, they could overcharge the ability with incredible amounts of etherium. Here, though, Maxwell didn't have access to the material, so if he formed his fighting style on top of telepathy, he figured he would die if he ever faced something particularly resilient against it. That would probably be the case against his fight against the tiger.

He approached the dark figure, examining it, and he was disturbed when he felt that the mask was watching him. It was apparent that the vestige was more aware compared to before, as it even talked before it was pushed back, but now, it seemed unable to communicate once more. Still, it was a lot more expressive compared to before.

"Well, if you hadn't attacked me, maybe we could have a proper talk now," he said to the mask as he grabbed the mask from its face. The mask showed a faint trace of resistance, but Maxwell could easily ignore it and take the mask away. Immediately after he touched it, the mask appeared in the real world, immediately covering his face.

The dark figure, though, remained in his soul space. Where the mask was before, the same shape could be seen, this time made of pure darkness. The vestige seemed to refuse to be maskless even if he couldn't prevent Maxwell from taking it.

In the outside world, Maxwell observed the mask. He could feel that the mask was stronger compared to before, as it literally radiated darkness now, but he was not sure by how much. Also, the mask was still giving him the feeling that it would be something unique he could use with his trait. Still, that seemed like a bad idea. It was a bit paradoxical that whenever he found something that was unique enough for his trait, the thing was unique enough not to be wasted.

The Dark Mask Of Drakhabgar - Tier 3

A mask created by the Merchant in the shape of the Ancient God Drakhabgar. It was infused with darkness mana in its creation, and later it was purified until it was pure darkness by the vestige of the god.

The vestige was subdued for the second time, this time under even more unfair conditions for the Merchant. Drakhabgar deems the Merchant worthy of his legacy. As the vestige gets stronger, the tier of the artifact will increase.

The Merchant's identity is hidden up to a tier above.

Darkness obeys The Merchant.

The mask is only loyal to The Merchant himself.

Divine influences of the same tier are blocked.

There were subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the description. For once, it seemed like the vestige would stop trying to hurt him whenever he had a moment of weakness now, as it deemed him worthy. The explanation was also a lot clearer when it came to Drakhabgar being an ancient god, and it didn't beat around the bush as it usually did.

Other than that, there were changes in the traits of the mask, too. The obvious addition seemed a bit pointless, as Maxwell had never seen a proper divine influence in this world, but he supposed that the God of the Heavenly Kingdom was creepy enough that it would warrant some protection. He had nothing against Neivor, but his god was weird.

Maxwell could see two subtle changes to the mask. Firstly, he didn't seem like he would need to wear the mask to get its benefits anymore, as the description said nothing about wearing it. Secondly, "the user can control the darkness" was replaced by "Darkness obeys The Merchant". This was probably the mask responding to his way of manipulating mana, as he was more used to guiding rather than controlling.

All in all, this was his first tier 3 artifact, and he was quite happy about the upgrade. He also had some notifications that were still pending, so he summoned them too.

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Soul's Dominion Leveled Up 18→20

Mind Of the Merchant Leveled Up 25→30

Title Acquired: Perfect Control

Perfect Control:

You can control all parts of your body with uncanny precision. This title is usually attained with rigorous practice, but you have found another way.

Title Acquired: Anomaly

Anomaly:

Even through the eyes of an Ancient God, you are seen as an anomaly. Tiers and levels are just numbers for you, as you keep breaking the scale.

I wish I could give titles to people just by insulting them. Maxwell thought as he read the second title. Drakhabgar called him an anomaly, and the system immediately followed the vestige along and gave him a corresponding title.

He got up from where he was sitting and glanced around him. The tunnel was surprisingly intact, as Drakhabgar seemed to have focused on him exclusively when he was attacking. The mushrooms still seemed a bit dimmer, but Maxwell could see that was due to the reduced mana inside them.

Darve was on the ground a couple of meters away, but Maxwell had already checked him with his senses a minute ago, and the man was just sleeping. He was not very unhappy about that, as he was a bit undecided about how he would get rid of the man. This certainly proved to be a way. He wasn't sure if the man would remember the last few minutes, though.

He knelt before the man and grabbed him by the arm. With his new skill that couldn't be called meditation anymore, he isolated everything but the man's soul. He figured he could use his trait to remove the memories from the man, but he wanted to try to do it himself for once.

He still couldn't create proper soul energy threads, so he needed to grab the man. After grabbing, he willed the soul energy inside the man to move towards him. Immediately, a great resistance welcomed him, but it was still a lot weaker compared to the pressures Maxwell's mind faced on a daily basis.

After a few minutes of concentration, Maxwell managed to absorb a bit of soul energy from the man. Comparing the amount with the amount the system absorbed, he guessed that the man would lose around 10 minutes of memories. It was a bit hard to pinpoint how much, though, as everyone's soul had different amounts of energy.

He half expected the system to give him a skill for this, but he received something else instead.

Elementary Soul Energy Manipulation Leveled Up 53→59

That's a lot of levels. He thought, smiling. Maxwell couldn't deny that he was feeling happy. This was his first time actually managing to manipulate soul energy properly, albeit it was a very simple application.

He got up, cracking his neck. The hard part was hopefully over now. He stared at Felix for a few seconds intently. "Blueberry, can you come out?" he said. He was a bit confused at first when he felt two souls inside Felix's body.

"Chirp!" the bird chirped, as he shot out from Felix and landed on his head. "Of course, I can sense you," Maxwell replied, petting the bird with his finger. He observed the duo, curious about their levels.

Blueberry - Etheric Sialia - Level 35

Felix - Dog - Level 39

What the... Maxwell couldn't understand what he was seeing for a second before he remembered the moment Felix entered the cave. "Did you guys kill everything on your path?" he said, not knowing how he should feel about the possibility.

"Chirp!" Blueberry responded, and Maxwell glanced at her disbelievingly. "He was hungry?" he asked.

"No hungry, fish good," Felix responded through the three-way connection, momentarily stunning them with his unexpected articulation. Both Maxwell and Blueberry were now staring at the dog, which was definitely not a puppy anymore. If anything, he was way too big for a normal dog.

Maxwell stretched his dominion to see the way Felix came from, but as he guessed, the way was already filled with sand. There was no proper way to assess the damage from here. If there was a will to this planet, Maxwell was pretty sure that it would hate them from now on. He doubted that Felix only ate the high-level fish after all. Actually, he was pretty sure that he ate all the sand, too.

"Can you bring me one of the fish outside? We should probably take him back to somewhere safe if things turn bad." Maxwell said. He still didn't want to return, but he would need a fast way to send darve away if a particularly strong creature appeared.

It didn't take Blueberry long to possess something outside, and Maxwell was surprised to see that the bird possessed an eel instead of the trapfishes he saw while coming here. Now that he considered it, there was an octopus, too, so it made sense for many creatures to exist in the desert. What a weird place, he thought. Sarah would certainly like this place too, he smiled sadly. Momentarily being his old self made him a bit nostalgic.

"Just follow us along the tunnels," he sent to Blueberry. While he would be happy to have the bird on his head, this would be much easier. He also pushed Darve into the mouth of the eel, as he didn't want to carry the man around.

Felix was a bit bummed out that he couldn't sit on Maxwell's hand anymore with his new size anymore, and Maxwell pet the animal, consoling him. The animal, though, seemed to be far from convinced, as his form started to wriggle before getting smaller. Soon, Maxwell was dumbfounded to see Felix standing before him like he had first met the dog. He was once again a little bigger than his hand, and he smugly hopped to his arm like this place belonged to him.

Okay… Maxwell just accepted the new reality. Felix's intelligence was improving at a frightening rate after the dog was changed by the etherium. He was starting to wonder what The Traveller would say if they saw their child right now.

Soon, Maxwell was once more walking towards the core region of the tunnels. This time, though, he wouldn't need to hold back if things escalated.