Luckily, Percy’s soul was several times sturdier than the last time he’d absorbed a fiend. If not, having so many of them wreaking havoc inside his channels could have been an issue. Pushing six of the creatures out of his pores, he allowed his mana to incinerate them completely, keeping only the last one inside his body.

‘Be gentler with it, or you won’t be able to absorb it.’ Zoris advised.

Percy nodded. He had already discovered how destructive his mana could be to the fiends while he used his boosting art at full strength. If it hadn’t been for that, he and Sol would have probably absorbed a whole bunch of fiends by accident while fighting atop the Mirror Lake. After all, they’d burned scores of them with the silver wisps, before circulating the same mana through their souls.

And since both their channels and the wisps temporarily functioned as extensions of their cores with the Dance active, it was entirely possible for them to inadvertently acquire a lot of traits they couldn’t handle. Fortunately, it appeared the fiends couldn’t pass their traits if they were damaged too thoroughly.

Deactivating the Carnival, Percy then dragged the captured creature to his sternum, trapping it inside his core. Only then did he get the chance to examine it more carefully. Unlike the spider-like Argalios he had absorbed before, this one vaguely resembled a moth. It was covered in long fur… No. It was more accurate to call it fluff. Not the kind of thing one would expect to see on an insect. Then again, these weren’t insects, were they?

‘At least it’s a different one…’ he exhaled in relief.

That was by far the most important thing. As long as he didn’t get Weaving again, he was sure he’d find a use for it.

‘A Nyctovios… That’s the same fiend your Yellow-born friend has absorbed.’ Zoris explained.

Percy raised an eyebrow.

‘Latt?’ he asked, getting a mental nod back.

His heart skipped a beat. It was among those he had hoped for the most, along with Rei’s Composing trait. It sounded like a broadly useful one. That said, Percy had liked pretty much every trait he had ever heard of, so he knew he would have been just as excited about anything else…

Grinding the fiend down, he watched it squirm as chunks flaked off its body, the steady flow of mana soon disseminating its essence through Percy’s soul. This instantly gave him an itch from head to toe, as if somebody had emptied several buckets of ants inside his soul channels. It was accompanied by a wave of weakness, just like the last time. It didn’t hurt though – it was just a little uncomfortable – so he pressed on.

At least, that was the case at first…

‘I suggest you brace yourself.’ Zoris said once Percy was about 30% done. ‘Things are about to get nasty.’

Percy didn’t even get the chance to ask the god what he meant, when something changed. Numerous long hairs sprouted all over his soul, covering him in a layer of fluff only visible through Soul Vision. Seeing this, Percy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. This was new. It hadn’t affected him much yet, other than intensifying the itching sensation slightly. But the god’s warning gave him a bad premonition.

Sure enough, a second change occurred just seconds later.

This time, a series of thin, spider-like legs grew among the hairs, flailing erratically in all sorts of directions. The two features appeared to coexist peacefully for the briefest of instants, but that didn’t last. With little to no warning, the legs bent almost all the way, pointing at the roots of the hairs. Then, they plunged into Percy’s soul, violently trying to dig their competition out. Seemingly in response to that, the hairs wrapped themselves around the appendices too, trying to pull them apart.

‘Ugh! What the hell is going on?!’ Percy cursed, falling to his knees.

It hurt even more than when he created his clones or used his boosting art. It felt like every inch of his soul was trying to eat itself.

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‘Keep grinding away at the fiend! If you don’t complete the process, the Argalios will win out, and you’ll have to start over later!’

Percy grimaced.

‘You know, you could have warned me about this…’

Gritting his teeth, he fought through the pain, resuming his work. It was hard to focus on just his core when his whole soul was crumbling from within, but he understood he didn’t have a choice. It didn’t help that the more he empowered the new trait, the more violently it fought against the old one.

At some point, Percy briefly registered that his companions had surrounded him, their blurry silhouettes standing by the corner of his eyes as their worried voices sounded muffled in his ears. He didn’t have the mental capacity to spare them any attention, however, busy as he was trying not to waste his previous efforts.

It felt like hours had passed by the time he was done, though he knew from experience it shouldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Even after he finished absorbing the fiend, the two traits continued to fight for a while longer, this time on equal grounds.

The conflict died down gradually, the two armies slowly accepting that neither of them would be claiming victory today. It wasn’t until both the fluff and the spider-like appendices had fully receded that Percy allowed himself to heave a sigh of relief.

His soul was in tatters, and he really didn’t feel like relying on his boosting art to heal himself any faster. Given the state he was currently in, the spell might even hurt more than it helped. Luckily, some soul mana soon gushed through the cord in his sternum, flooding his injuries. Micky had clearly found something to munch on.

‘Thanks for the help.’

Opening his eyes, he saw Elaine and Nesha standing over him, their faces pale. Though some colour returned to them once the girls realized he was okay. Along with their relief, Percy spotted some unconcealed irritation, however, Elaine giving him a semi-playful kick to his side.

“And here I thought you were done pulling stunts like that!” she said.

Percy chuckled bitterly.

“Sorry for worrying you again. I promise I’ll only do this one more time,” he said, earning himself a few more kicks – this time Nesha joining too.

Outwardly, he was playing it cool, but he shuddered internally upon imagining how much worse it would be with three traits fighting inside his soul.

‘No wonder you aren’t supposed to try this without the blessing…’

‘I suggest you wait a while before doing this again. Technically, it should be safe for you a couple months from now, but I recommend you give it a lot longer than that – just in case.’ Zoris said.

Percy nodded. He was still a little mad at the god for not giving him a proper heads up, but he also understood Zoris didn’t owe him anything. All the help the old deity had given him was kindness he had yet to earn.

Shaking the distracting thoughts out of his head, he then pulled up his Status, checking up on his new trait.

Spectral traits:

* [Weaving] – Boosts one’s proclivity in manipulating one-dimensional structures.

* [Insomnia] – Eliminates the need for sleep.

And there it was. For somebody who worked as hard as Percy, this was among the best traits he could have received. He would be able to sneak so much more training each day, and he wouldn’t even need someone to protect him every night.

Even better, if this was anything like Weaving, he should be able to pass the ability on to all his clones – at least temporarily, while he inhabited their bodies – which made it that much more valuable. He was tempted to replace the clones in Nesha and Micky’s bodies already, though he ultimately decided to wait a few days for his soul to heal some more.

‘Not to sound too ungrateful – since I know how much this will help me down the line – but I think I’ll miss sleeping every now and then.’

‘You can actually learn to bypass the trait with some practice if you want.’ Zoris said, getting his hopes up. ‘But most people don’t bother. You only think you enjoy sleeping because you are used to it. You’ve learned to appreciate the relief it grants you every night. This tends to go away pretty quickly for people with the Insomnia trait.’

Percy nodded, thinking this made sense. But the god wasn’t done, asking him something else, seemingly out of the blue.

‘Percy… why are you working so hard? Everything I’ve seen from you is more than impressive, but I can’t help but wonder what your goal is…’

He frowned, not having expected Zoris to ask him that after all this time. The old god had given him the impression he didn’t care. That said, he didn’t mind answering – it wasn’t exactly a secret anyway.

‘Would you laugh at me if I said I want to become a god?’

‘I probably would have, if you’d told me this before… But a Red-born becoming a god sounds easier to me than a ring rebuilding its body… If I were to laugh at you now, I might as well give up.’

Percy chuckled, feeling some gratification. His companions supported him because they cared about him, but this was the first time an outsider as knowledgeable as Zoris – a former god – listened to his dream without dismissing it. It gave him hope it might not be as impossible as everyone said.

Zoris continued, however.

‘To be honest, I’m not sure if any Red-born can become a god, but I can tell you one thing after having watched you all these months…’

‘What is it?’

‘…if it’s possible, I can’t think of anyone better to pull it off.’