The 2nd day after Shion declared the 7-day limit.

Rank 0 mages expend their spell resources rapidly as their spell storage ability is very low. Depending on their spell costs, most can only cast 3 to 5 spells before having to replenish their spell resources. For streamlined spells such as [Fireball] and its variations, it might be duplicated with metaspell templates so that it can be used several more times, but rank 0 mages can’t store spells in the shape of runes by too many times unless mage staves or artifact with the same function are used in the equation.

Thus, the high-tech training room also provides a refinement workshop in one corner, allowing mages to refine some spell resources themselves.

Most mages wouldn’t want to reveal their spell resource refinement method because that would indirectly reveal how to prepare a countermeasure for it, so they wouldn’t normally use them in the presence of others.

However, the two who are working on the said workshop are not mages.

They were Shion and Yamamura, the captain of Twin Helix’s Shion faction and a member of Sumire faction who’s adept at refining poison. From Sumire’s faction, he was the closest to being a hunter-killer compared to others due to his combat styles.

Back during the fight against Nyx in his bone power armor, his internal organs were ruptured after an effort in launching a surprise attack with an explosive potion which was his trump card. Since then, he had become low-key and well-behaved. His rotten personality seems to have been suppressed. However, only himself knows it was merely concealed.  

Originally, his poison-path attainment wasn’t known to the team, but after Twin Helix decided to depart to Azaria forest, Sumire told him to refine a large amount of poison for the mission.

Typically lacing paralytic poison in his blade, he excels in creating liquid poison. Unfortunately, liquid poison is a hassle to administer to a horde of greenskins, while gaseous poison would have less effect on them.

“Thanks to their physiology, the greenskins are inherently resistant to poison.” Shion explained to Yamamura who’s listening closely. “That’s why offensive poison wouldn’t be of much use to them.”

“Is this why you want me to help you refine stimulants instead?” Yamamura, who is an expert of poison, had already known that but he asked to get a chance to talk with Shion. After all, Shion is a beauty and no straight sane male hates beautiful girls.

“Correct. Greenskins are connected to each other by their racial traits, [Greenskin Mental Network] which allows them to freely share telepathic emotion between each other. It is why their shamans could easily tap the horde’s [Greenskins Energy], or in this case, their life-force easily to activate mental buffs. That being the case, it’s not easy to create gaseous poison that would affect them in low-concentration. We have to think from another angle.”

Yamamura pondered, “I have the recipe of stimulant that captain Sumire wanted me to refine, can we start from there?” he handed over a piece of paper, containing the materials and refinement method of said stimulant.

“[Adrenaline Shot], a rank 0 combat drug that would increase adrenaline in the bloodstream, dulling the senses of pain, increasing strength, agility and reaction by 20% up to 2 units, while decreasing perception by 30% up to 3 units…”  Shion muttered as she scrutinized the recipe.

Enslavement-path combat tactic uses enslaved beast to exhaust the enemy combat resources. If one’s enslaved beast lacks the required strength base to act as cannon fodders, there are always various methods to augment them.

One such method is using combat drugs such as [Adrenaline Shot] or others. This wasn’t unique, in fact, true enslavement-path experts possessed special units whose mere presence augments their units. One such example is Lord Mage Mitsubachi’s Booster Wasp in his Wasp Legion. Booster Wasp could excrete a certain type of pheromones into the surrounding, forcing the Soldier Wasps and other wasps to enter an enraged mode.   

Sumire lacks said special units, thus she wanted to achieve the same goal through different methods. “So she wanted to augment her kobolds with [Adrenaline Shots] …” Shion muttered with a low voice as she instantly recognized her source of new knowledge.

‘Either Nyx has been completely subdued by her, his memory completely devoured or he has been refined into her slave…’ Shion pondered.

Nyx was a spectral soul produced from a fragment of Shion’s truesoul. It has strong possession/domination ability and mental contamination property. The fact that Sumire has yet to be converted into Shion’s slave meant Nyx’s truesoul wasn’t used as a soul resource for cultivation. Most probably, he was refined into a type of soul-path slave.

During their first encounter in Thunderpeak Mountain, Kasumi recognized the unique necro-path undulation that Sumire desperately wanted to hide. It was well-hidden with a potent stealth method which came from one of the Devil King’s inheritance. That being said, despite knowing that Sumire had received one of her past self’s Minor Inheritance, Shion isn’t aware which one.

The ‘Devil King’ spread an uncountable number of minor inheritances in all over the five continents.  Just like a mortal who wouldn’t remember the food that they had eaten a week ago, Shion couldn’t identify which inheritance Sumire received. While the higher-ranked inheritances are fewer, the number of rank 1 minor inheritances numbered in the tens of millions. Most are copies, but there are tens of thousands of inheritance templates that her former self left behind.

It sounded a lot, but due to the vastness of Morgen World, it is not easy to receive one. Not only that, the suppression of the Twelve Main Divines through the Sacred Alliance also played a major role in further increasing the difficulty of finding one.

Shion wasn’t aware that Nyx has been refined into a spectral soul, but she could guess that he should’ve been converted by Sumire with her inherited necro-path life-alteration methods. Necro-path and soul-path were incredibly close with each other, just like command-path with enslavement-path or ice and snow-path with water-path.  

There are countless types of soul-path or necro-path lifeform which uses a truesoul as the primary material such as Spectral Hound, Spectral Soul, Artifact Soul, Spectral Observer, Dark Specter, Sentinel Soulguard, Vengeful Spirit or many others. Nyx must’ve been refined into one of those.

That being said, Shion wasn’t too worried about Nyx. He was Shion’s, a former rank 6 Soul Magus’, creation. Like her child, Nyx inherited Mordred’s wisdom and due to his truesoul containing a fragment of Shion’s, he will always be a part of her despite being disconnected from her soul link.   

If Nyx leaked crucial intel, then it means he had considered it would benefit his main soul in some way. Playing dumb to manipulate his host is incredibly easy for Nyx.

That being the case, Shion also slowly deduced what Nyx's goal was. If Nyx didn’t enslave Sumire while being fully capable of doing so after a period of time, then it must mean he possessed a crucial insider intel that Shion didn’t have. Since that was so, Shion should subtly help Nyx in his endeavor as long as it does not hinder her path.

‘If the recipe of [Adrenaline Shot] has been leaked, then what else did Nyx tell her?’ Shion quickly retracted back her thought. She doesn’t have to expend precious processing power to deduct this matter. She put this into her mental note with low priority for deduction. Under the urge of Nyx, Sumire would eventually reveal her desire, Shion can conserve precious telepathic thoughts.

Back on the matter at hands, [Adrenaline Shot] is one of the mildest combat drugs amongst rank 0. There are far more effective drugs, but Shion easily guessed that Sumire wouldn’t want to abuse her kobolds too much.

“Then, let’s start from here. We can design something based on [Adrenaline shot].” Shion proposed.

“Acknowledged. Then, I’ll find other pheromone-based stimulants as reference. If I recall correctly, the greenskins are easily angered…” the two started a discussion.

 

…

 

The 5th day, two days before the agreed time.

“You should’ve announced your visit earlier; I could’ve prepared something better to receive you.” Shion said, wearing her usual faint smile mask.

“Don’t bother.” Sumire replied coldly, her eyes glowed in faint dark purple light.

“Just because my room’s stealth formation is active, doesn’t mean it’s impervious to detections, especially by rank 1s. I didn’t bother tempering it due to the lack of need and necessary skills, but your presence… will attract unwanted attention without fail. Speak of what you need.”

Sumire’s purple eyes squinted, “Your clan… is evil.”

The faint smile in Shion’s eyes curved further upwards. “Are we going to discuss the rhetoric between good and evil? Are you the type who cares about these matters?”

“You know what I mean. The very foundation that your clan stood upon is stained by the blood and soul of the innocent.”

“Please, define the word ‘innocent’, oh ‘Erudite Dominator’ Violet Sumire.” Shion emphasized on her title, implying that she had done sufficient research on Sumire herself.

“Weakness is a sin. Only those who have power can protect themselves, but those who can protect themselves must be infringing on the interest of others, indirectly causing them harm. We all stand above the blood and soul of our predecessors, that’s simply what civilizations are. You have to be specific if you want to accuse me of wrongdoings. Also, I suggest you to stop using wisdom-path methods on me. It is unpleasant as it is ineffective.” Shion added, as liquid metal slowly drips into the floor. Soon, a liquid metal spear was formed.

Sumire blinked her eyes, the glows in her eyes disappeared. “It was a joke.” she said as her lips curved upwards in a faint smile.

But her eyes weren’t.

“Your method of probing is childish.” The liquid metal spear melted back into Shion’s body. “Speak.”

“Heheh, as expected. It’s truly impossible to get any detection working on you. Well then, let’s start. I want half of the soul resources we’ll harvest during our expedition.” Sumire finally revealed her intent.

Shion furrowed her brows, her Crystal Processor churned rapidly to deduct some clues. Shion wasn't aware which intel Nyx leaked, so answering more than needed might be detrimental to her position. The best way to answer her proposal when there’s a severe lack of information was… silence.

“It’s only fair since I’ll be the one who harvest them, is it not?” Sumire felt uncomfortable under Shion’s silent gaze.

“Excessive soul harvesting would lead to Sacred Alliance finding out your activities. Given the circumstances, I might be responsible in eliminating you to cover my own tracks.” Shion coldly replied. It seems that the intel regarding Ninjutsu being a type of soul art has been leaked by Nyx. Since that was so, there’s no need to hide it anymore.

“Please, I am knowledgeable enough to understand certain limits. Of the greenskins or beasts we kill, we can harvest at most 10% of their truesouls. We’ll let the remaining 90% dissipate naturally to hide our tracks. How’s that?” Sumire proposes.

Shion squinted her crimson eyes. “The rate is too high. At most, I can accept 5%, with us getting 2.5% each. Do remember we are within Hartina Kingdom’s territory and our hunting ground is merely a week away from the academy. We are too close to the churches of the Twelve Main Divine.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I have a method to mask our soul harvesting trace. As long as there are no rank 1s directly investigating us with their methods, we can harvest without a hitch.” Sumire addressed Shion’s worries.

“What about storage? Unless you are a necromancer…” Shion trailed her words, implying something else with her words.

Necromancers are the blight of this world and are hunted by the Sacred Alliance, and by extension, the Twelve Main Divines. Fortunately, not everyone shares the same thoughts. On paper, Yukikaze clan of which Shion ‘originated’ from are more tolerant towards necromancers, vampires, and other evil cultivators.

In fact, Hartina Kingdom itself shares the same thoughts. The royals groomed their own necromancers for various purposes. Every high-level ruler is not that retarded to not see the benefit of necro-path.

However, most super-factions in Morgen World couldn’t openly support or harbor necromancers. That would risk the Sacred Alliance using various reasons for a holy crusade.

Thus, Hartina Kingdom only enacted superficial countermeasures and other anti-necromancer policies in their territory, just like Yukikaze clan. As long as they do not infringe on their interest, necromancers are usually left alone if they did not cause a fuss, but if there are necromancers who did things blatantly, then they would be taken care of, righteously.  

“Yes.” Sumire nodded openly, not afraid of being prosecuted. “I possessed a low-grade soul gem which allows me to hold up to 100-man worth of truesouls.”

In any case, Yukikaze clan also have their own secrets of using souls as ninjutsu cultivation resources (which was blatant heresy). They are on the same level, or even more evil than necromancers in terms of karma but they possessed their own Secret Plane to harvest soul resources. Thus, others can only speculate their source of martial might.

Those who knew kept the secret, and those who tried to spread the secret simply hunted to extinction.

“Low-grade soul gem… That’s a rank 1 necro-path artifact… You have good stuff…” Shion praised her.

Actually, it wasn’t a necro-path artifact, but a soul-path one. However, the classification for soul gems is irrelevant. The two paths were closely related, there are certain aspects that overlap with each other.

“Does that mean we have a deal?”

“Not quite yet. I want the priority of choosing greenskin souls in my share.” Shion proposed.

Sumire frowned. As an aspiring necromancer, she knew the properties of souls. Although 1-man worth of beast soul is essentially the same with 1-man worth of human soul, the quality is different.

It was like 1 kilogram of feather had the same weight with 1 kilogram of iron but the material structure was not the same. Souls are like that, the soul substance and soul structure between beast and human are different.

If seen from the point of view of necromancers, the human soul is simply a better soul material compared to beast soul, especially for refining soul-type slaves. Although greenskin have lesser intellectual quality than humans, they are still better than beasts.   

Sumire was planning to refine more spectral souls, and the primary material for it is the truesoul of intellectual race. Lower-quality souls can still be used, but the Spectral Soul produced from it will be lower in quality.

The best example for this is her first spectral soul. It was refined from goblin souls as a replacement for an intellectual race’ soul as the primary material. The flaws are patched up by a part of her truesoul, but it was like making a castle out of pillars of sand and salt. The result was the spectral soul’s inability of speech and various other flaws.

As for her second spectral soul, Nyx… In Sumire’s point of view, since he was refined from the truesoul of a former-rank 3 Legendary high elf, not only can he speak fluently, but he also retains most of his intellectual quality. Even if her Spectral Soul refinement ability is subpar at best, thanks to the great quality of the raw material, she didn’t fail. The flaws Nyx reveals until this moment was very minute, it can be ignored altogether.

It was like making a weapon that should be made out of mortal iron but used adamantium superalloy instead. Even if the blade is dull and crooked, it can still easily be used to kill due to its sheer weight.

Who doesn’t want to have good stuff? Sumire has her own desire, yet she couldn’t force her way through Shion. Not only is this antimage capable of dealing with Arakawa Kenji in a duel, she’s also able of defeat her in terms of intellect. Her mere presence emits an indescribable mental pressure despite not existing in Sumire’s senses other than sight.

This antimage is a true Hunter-killer, it would be difficult to best her as a hunter.

“Can I get half? No, thirty percent. At least give me a share of goblin souls. Beast souls is a material that’s hard to work with, you have to give me some.” Sumire pleaded.

“Alright, but I’ll be taking 80% of the mana pools from any greenskin magic casters, how’s that?” Shion gave a counter proposal.

Sumire reveals a pained expression. It was truly difficult to have a discussion with Shion. She was suppressing her in all aspects. She immediately understood why Kenji willingly served as her subordinate instead of wanting to be captain.

Mana pools is a magical organ which is the primary material for refining Mana Aperture. Rank 0 mana pools are unique as they are not limited by the mage’s cultivation-path. Every rank 0 mana aperture is useful to rank 0 mages of all paths.

As a necromancer herself, Sumire is aware about the types of undead that could cast magic such as Skeletal Mage and others. If the said creature is not supported by a mana aperture, then how can they cast spells?

Without mana apertures, Sumire couldn’t refine undead spellcasters. Even though her range of options were expanded greatly after Nyx had been converted into her Spectral Soul, she couldn’t refine those unique undead that can stay within her shadows…

“Fine.” Sumire relented. “I don’t know what you’re going to use those mana pools for, but I hope you’ll allow me to trade them with other resources.”

“Heheh.” Shion smirked. “Everything is tradable, as long as you have the resources that I wanted.”

Shion touched her chin as she got an idea, “Actually, we can discuss our rate of shares… as long as you can give me…” Shion muttered a bunch of materials. They were mostly lightning-path materials, but there are some metal-path and wind-path resources as well mixed in that list.

As Sumire listened to Shion’s request, she frowned. She wasn’t that innocent to merely listening to Shion’s desire, she was also deducting any information regarding Shion. Unfortunately, the materials she requested are too random, they were uncommon but all of them are not priceless treasures. One thing worth mentioning is that, other than the lightning-path materials she stated, all of them couldn't be found in the academy contribution exchange list.

She has to get them from outside, which means she’ll have to use crystal coins to purchase them.

“And, you expect me to just give you what you want because you said so?”

Shion nodded, “Exactly. I’m sure you’ll be satisfied if our share rate was 40:60, me 40 and you 60, right?”

Sumire actually couldn’t refute her back. The mana pools, the souls… everything Shion offered is extremely useful for her development. She merely needed to pay a price that wasn’t too expensive. Sumire needed to exert a bit of effort to fulfil her request, but it wasn’t that difficult. It was still well above her bottom limit.

In fact, she’s a little bit too generous. Sumire glanced at Shion suspiciously.

“I’ve said this before. I am a reasonable person. As long as you fulfil your part of the bargain, then I will do the same.”

Sumire pondered for a few moments. “Alright. We have a deal.” She extended a hand.

Shion shook her hand, “Perfect. I’ll be waiting for the resources.”

…

 

In the courtyard, Sumire walked away from the female dormitory to fulfil her part of bargain.

“Excellent performance, master. You’ve handled it extremely well.” Sumire received a telepathic thought transmission from her spectral soul, Nyx.

“It went better than your calculation.” Sumire mentally nodded while walking calmly, not revealing her thoughts on her cold face. “Souls are Yukikaze clan’s universal cultivation resources, it’s a miracle that we can get the majority of shares. Then, onto the next matter. What are the chances that she’ll refine a sound-path artifact?”

“Roughly 50%.” Nyx replied instantly. “Some aspects of a path might overlap with other paths, it isn’t strange for metal-path and wind-path to have an overlapping aspect with sound-path. That being the case, we can confirm that her ninjutsu are mainly related to sound-path. Her lightning-path Soul Armament has low compatibility with her combat style despite its high flexibility, I suspect she wanted to commission someone to refine a real sound-path artifact to cover her flaws.”

Sumire wanted to sigh but she refrains herself from doing so. Sound-path was a minor path in Morgen World, the jobs related to it are mostly bards, singers, dancers or their variations. Their combat prowess and functionality are extremely low, especially in higher rank. They are mostly storytellers or comfort crews, yet, there’s actually a sound-path antimage that could defeat an elite strength-path martial artist (Kenji) in a duel.

That being the case, Sumire’s visit wasn’t merely to ask for a future share of souls, but also to gain information. Since she also cultivates in wisdom-path on the side, she desperately needs the foundational data to begin her deduction. Now that she and Nyx had confirmed Shion cultivated in sound-path, she could begin accumulating deduction results to create a countermeasure for her.

“Our understanding of sound-path is too shallow. If my guess is correct… [Silence]-type ninjutsu exist, which means she’s the perfect antimage.” Sumire shuddered at the thought. During spell activation sequence, mages are required to chant in an ancient magical language. In that process, if the spell was disrupted by [Silence], the spell could end up in failure and the mage receive magic recoil.

Depending on the spell’s power and complexity, magic recoil might be fatal. From that alone, mages would be having difficulties in showing off their magic spells in the presence of Shion.

“Master, we need to pool our wisdom together with Sakuya regarding how to deal with antimages. I believe her glove is an artifact specifically made to deal with one.” Nyx proposed.

 

…

 

At the same time, in Shion’s room.

“It is as you’d expected, Kasumi.” Shion exchanges telepathic thoughts with her split soul to discuss Sumire’s sudden visit.

It needs to be said that, despite having the physical body of a metal slime, Kasumi is a full-fledged lightning-path Magus. After multiple upgrades and a long period of spiritual force cultivation, she stopped being an elementary-form of split soul and became a real split soul that could think, move and act by herself.

“Affirmative, main soul. It seems that Nyx sees Sumire as someone worth grooming. We have no conflict of moral and interest with her; she might become an excellent seed in the future when we invite other Magus after breaching this world’s dimensional walls.” Kasumi replied.

“Nyx thinks Sumire can properly reach rank 4?” Shion questioned herself. Dimensional warfare of that level requires rank 4 Paragons to serve as cannon fodders, otherwise they are too weak. “Being a Paragon is not a joke. Mere talent, luck, and accumulation of resources does not guarantee the success of Protogenic Ascension.”

Otherwise, rank 3 wouldn’t be referred to as Legendary.

“We lacked inside intel.” Kasumi voiced her opinion, “Even if she can barely reach rank 4 Paragon in the future, she’ll be a worthy cannon fodder. Leaking a rank 5 Minor Inheritance is not a price we can’t afford. If we put more effort, such as giving her other lucky chances that can guide her cultivation and protect her until she reaches that stage, I believe reaching rank 5 Epic is feasible, even if she’ll be the weakest rank 5 in existence.”

“I see…” Shion received Kasumi’s thoughts on this matter. Despite being a split soul, Kasumi is her own person with personal views on things. It is beneficial for Shion to hear her opinion since Shion didn’t want to waste telepathic thought on this. “Then, if we found something less urgent for us but beneficial to her, we can give her priority shares.” 

“Agreed. Helping her is helping our cause.” Kasumi has the same thought.