After bidding farewell to Flying Brick, Blaze continued his journey toward Balkan City, taking the opportunity to test out his Night Watcher Skills along the way.
"[Soul Capture]!"
The rat Monster, which was crumbling into dust, convulsed as if experiencing a sudden burst of life. The Soul Flame floating above it suddenly swelled in size.
After crushing the larger mass of Soul Flame in his hand, Blaze confirmed the pros and cons of the [Soul Capture] Skill. This Skill was originally intended for capturing wandering souls attempting to Escape. However, on second thought, Blaze realized that since a Blessed grew stronger by absorbing portions of the souls of defeated Monsters, using [Soul Capture] to pull out and absorb the entire soul at once might yield a higher Experience Value.
The facts proved that this was feasible.
[Hybrid Rat Level 1]
[After secretly consuming the Evil God’s Blood, its overly lowly soul was crushed, turning it into a walking corpse that spreads the Evil God’s Faith.]
The Experience Value provided by the lowest Level Monsters was extremely limited, which paradoxically made it easier to clearly feel the Transformation in quantity after using [Soul Capture]. However, Blaze was still a little worried about potential side effects. Souls were far too mysterious.
"You don’t need to worry at all about how absorbing a complete soul will affect your own. The shapes of your souls are completely different." The chicken seemed entirely unconcerned about Blaze’s doubts.
"The soul of a rat is only a rat when it’s in a rat’s vessel. Once it enters another vessel, it loses its sense of self and becomes pure energy. Souls are quite finicky; even the slightest discrepancy will cause them to completely collapse into ordinary energy.
"However, if you use a Skill like Soul Capture to absorb a complete soul, it’s best to avoid absorbing those of the Human Species and Sub-human Species. Souls are like puzzles; there are always pieces that coincidentally overlap with yours. If you absorb too many, you’ll gradually lose yourself."
For some reason, Blaze was reminded of the previous Black Beast Knight. At the time, the man had mentioned "absorbing too many souls." The Soul Fragments of four hundred million Foreigners had caused the Black Beast Knight to lose his own soul. That was why he had wanted to kill Blaze back then—he hoped to regain his sanity by absorbing someone who shared a similar appearance, name, and perhaps even soul.
"You’re actually just reminding me to make sure your new body matches the shape of your soul when I craft it, aren’t you?"
"Exactly. So hurry up and learn the [Skeleton Aesthetics] and [Botany] Skills, and then craft a perfect body for my noble soul."
The chicken squawked incessantly. Because it was in a soul state, the noisy clucking echoed directly in Blaze’s mind.
[Botany] was acceptable enough. It was equivalent to a basic botanical encyclopedia, and medical or farming Professions would all have this Skill. Furthermore, a Night Watcher could treat wandering souls as plant seeds, allowing them to Cultivate souls in the same way one would Cultivate plants.
[Skeleton Aesthetics], on the other hand, was somewhat laughable. The Skill description explicitly stated that it improved one’s ability to appreciate bones. At higher Levels, one could even appreciate bones through skin and muscle. Once learned, there was a chance the user would develop a lust for bones.
"I only get 2 Skill Points for gaining one Level." Blaze looked at his 5 remaining Skill Points with some heartache. The amount of Experience Value he needed to reach the next Level wouldn’t decrease just because his Level had dropped.
"Alright, now you can use the materials you have on hand to prepare my body." The chicken proudly raised its head and began picking through the materials Blaze had laid out on the ground.
"The teeth and claws of a Nemean Lion? If forged into weapons, they can cause Destruction to the hide of a Nemean Lion of the same Level. They’re just perfect to serve as my claws."
"Oh? These things can Pierce those lions’ skin?"
Blaze pinched a claw and stabbed it into his palm, but it failed to Pierce the soft material of his palm that was part of his Armor set.
"Your Armor is very strange. The special ability of a Nemean Lion’s teeth and claws is that they can easily execute Piercing against [Defensive Gear]."
"Because even though this Armor has the Defense Power a piece of Defensive Gear should have, it isn’t actually [Defensive Gear]."
Blaze glanced at his equipment menu. The slots for his head, chest, Waist, and legs all displayed as empty. He had two theories. The first was that it would only appear in his equipment menu after he broke the Armor’s Curse and learned its true name.
The second was that this Armor was a special status effect brought about by an extremely rare Profession’s Skill, allowing him to overlay a layer of Armor even while wearing other equipment. A [Holy Knight], for example, could overlay a layer of Illusion Armor on themselves through their unique Skill. Judging from his Profession of [Soul Suppressing Knight Level 5], it was most likely the result of a unique Profession Skill.
"If I forge them into weapons, they should be able to deal slashing or Piercing damage to the Nemean Lions, right?"
Although his fists could also deal damage to the Nemean Lions, who would willingly give up their biggest trump card, [Lethal Execution], for no reason?
"To use materials of this Level in weapon forging while retaining their desired traits isn’t something a third-rate Blacksmith can achieve." The chicken crossed its wings, mimicking a human putting their hands on their hips. "It requires an extremely high Level of skill. At the very least, you need to find a [Master Blacksmith]."
"This..."
Blaze looked troubled. Blacksmiths were incredibly rare in this world because the apex of the Blacksmith Profession, [Divine Craftsman], had lost its Leveling pathway due to the Dwarf’s Curse. To become a [Divine Craftsman], having Dwarf blood wasn’t necessary, but possessing Skills unique to Dwarfs, such as [Dwarf Forging Technique] and [Eye of Fire Gaze], was mandatory. However, because the Dwarfs had lost their Wisdom, there was no longer any way to obtain these essential Skills.
Even the Foreigners, who had repeatedly created miracles, hadn’t been able to break through this Blacksmith bottleneck.
"Do I have no choice but to give up?"
Blaze regretfully set down the tooth. If he could mass-produce weapons made from the lions’ teeth and claws, they would undoubtedly be of great use when fighting the Nemean Lion pride.
After whittling down the bones of a Cannibal Sheep against the Twisted Greatsword planted nearby, he arranged the tiny pieces of bone on a smooth stone.
These were bones that could be pieced together to form a complete chick skeleton. Honestly, not too long ago, Blaze wouldn’t have even been able to tell a left leg bone from a right one. But after learning the [Skeleton Aesthetics] Skill, he could actually find beauty in the bones.
The existence of [Skills] was truly horrifyingly powerful.
"Next is the seed. Just find a random seed using the [Botany] Skill, then use the [Soul Seed] Skill to place me inside it. Finally, put the seed in the position of this skeleton’s heart, and we’ll be done."
"It definitely shouldn’t be an ordinary seed, right?"
Blaze looked around. The [Botany] Skill enhanced his Blessing’s ability to identify plants, but everything within his line of sight was just an ordinary seed.
A seed wasn’t something like a physical body that could be replaced at any time; it was the true dwelling place of the soul. Once chosen, it couldn’t be easily swapped. The chicken had spoken quite casually on purpose, constantly emphasizing a noble physical body. It likely did this to avoid placing an extra burden on him, intending to bear the toll an ordinary seed would take on its own soul.
"Ah, it looks like that one might work."