Chapter 150 - Soul Reconnaissance (1/2)

”Hmm…” Aurus could not help but ponder as to what trump cards he could make with the skills he had at hand. While he was pondering over what skills to use, he could not help but recall the skills that already had plans to be made into trump cards.

”First off, I can mass produce equipment using [Ancient Modular Flux Equipment Fabrication], allowing the other alliance members to at least have a boost in survivability and combat power,” he started to mutter away to himself as thoughts formed in his mind, clashing with one another as the thoughts gave birth to more thoughts, with the intent of finding a good skill to turn into a trump card.

”As for [Nine Realms' Myriad Spellswords], it has four incredibly offensive moves. In other words, under the right circumstances, they're pretty much four trump cards that's just waiting to be used.” At this point in time, the thoughts in his mind had a general idea on what trump card he wants made, but he had no idea where to start.

”[Lesser Portal Creation] would allow me to transport a great number of the alliance members towards one spot, buffing them up at the same time. Even if the enemies cross through the portal to fight against us in an ambush, it would still allow us to have an edge since they're going to be debuffed. That's also a trump card I can use.” Not long after, the thoughts condensed into one giant thought, which had a solid form, but had no idea how to make it work.

”Now that I think about it, I don't have any defensive trump cards at hand,” Aurus muttered as the giant thought veered off to the side of his mind, a new thought forming regarding the defensive trump card he was thinking about. Thankfully, this thought lasted for a while as it exploded into intangible particles as he said, ”With Mythic level equipment, the Barrier skill I have, as well as [Darkflame Manipulation], that would probably be enough for me to withstand a lot of hits.”

”I'd have to be careful around Pseudo-Inanimates and Animates though,” Aurus added as the original thought in his mind started to grow larger and larger, as if it was just waiting for that critical element to burst into multiple intangible particles that would allow him to finally make the trump card.

”Speaking of which, [Omnipresence] would also help in defending myself as that would put me far away from the sidelines,” he muttered after a moment of realization. Not long after, he could not help but lightly chuckle. ”Then again, it would be stupid for a mage to be in the frontlines.”

”Hmm…I've basically gone over all of the trump cards I've made so far, what else am I lacking…” It was then that the thought in his mind grew at an incredibly fast rate, his sense of vision affixed to the list of skills in front of him. By the time his eyes landed on one of the skills on his skill list, the thought bubble exploded into an array of colors as tons of inspiration started to fill his mind.

”Ah! Reconnaissance trump cards!” Aurus said as the thought bubble had finally burst. Although it did not seem like it, reconnaissance in the midst of war was still a crucial element in order for one side to win in the end. With his vision affixed towards one of the skills he had, he could not help but say, ”[Nine Worlds Soul Morphosis]…would creating a soul vessel allow me to do such a thing?”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

With that hypothesis in mind, he started to manipulate his soul in order for it to form a soul vessel outside his body. Due to the grade of the skill being greatly improved when compared to before, the speed at which Aurus formed his soul vessel was more or less near instantaneous, only taking around a second or so for it to be formed.

He could not help but look at the soul vessel, which was hovering in front of him, as the gears in his mind turned. He was thinking up of a way to make this soul vessel in front of him a trump card for reconnaissance. Although it took around half an hour for the idea to pop up in his mind, Aurus could not help but want to try it out as he willed the soul vessel in front of him…

To be split in two.

Swish!

At the very instant he was finished manipulating the soul vessel, two smaller versions of the original soul vessel appeared in front of Aurus' field of vision. Seeing that this was the case, he tried to move the soul vessels according to his wishes. He noticed that he had no problem controlling the two soul vessels if they were moving at the same pattern, but felt a small burden on his mind when he willed the two soul vessels to move their own paths, allowing his soul vessels to cover more ground.

Nonetheless, realizing that the burden on his mind was more or less negligible, he decided to split the soul vessels into two once more, giving him a total of four soul vessels. At this point, even when he was doing nothing, he felt the same level of burden he felt while controlling two soul vessels independently. Of course, that meant that the burden for controlling all four at once to move at various directions had increased by a few notches, slightly hampering his thinking process.

Did he stop here? Surprisingly, he did not as he thought that reconnaissance trump cards should cover a lot of ground at once if they wanted to be obtain as much information as possible at once. Of course, he did think that one soul vessel was enough for reconnaissance, but as he split up the soul vessels into smaller and smaller partitions, he could not help but think of another purpose for this trump card.

And that was to attack the enemies from behind.

He split up the four soul vessels into eight, the burden on his mind naturally stepping up as he felt that he was nearing the limit of what his mind can handle. He also tested moving the eight soul vessels independently, which brought his mind to a state where he could only maintain a basic form of protection around him. Then again, for someone like him that wasn't in the front lines in the upcoming war, a basic form of protection would more or less be enough.

He then arranged the eight soul vessels in a line in front of him, with each being one-eighth the volume of the original soul vessel. He then commanded the system to identify one of the soul vessels, wondering if the thought of using these soul vessels offensively could be executed.

Ding!

________

[Aurus' Soul Vessel]

Grade: Unknown

Soul Strength: 47