A great thing that had come with Elaine’s advancement a few months back, was the same privilege Acton and his men had enjoyed for so long. The girl’s Blue core served as quite the deterrent, ensuring that no beasts ever attacked the group of their own volition. Of course, it wouldn’t have been hard for them to deal with even the strongest creatures in the Valley, but it was nice they didn’t get their training constantly interrupted.

Suffice to say, it was with great peace of mind that Percy was currently preparing his soul clones, shoving them one after the other into the Yellow beasts Micky delivered him. He’d grown much better at this over the years, due to his experience, his sturdier soul and his ever-increasing mana regeneration. Right now, each attempt only took him a few minutes, though he wanted to get even faster at it, considering how frequently he would be creating his clones now.

As for how many he could have at once?

Well, Percy had already made three more – in addition to the ones still inside Micky and Nesha – bringing the total number of cords to six. And he had yet to hit his limit. He was currently getting ready to shove the fourth into a half-dead leopard his familiar was holding down in front of him.

Activating his bloodline, he watched the ghostly claw tear a chunk off his shoulder – he had to fashion the clones out of random spots by now – letting the dull grey wisp seep into the feline’s injuries.

Sadly, things didn’t go as smoothly this time.

The moment the seventh piece got severed off his soul, a wave of vertigo slammed into his brain, as he felt his consciousness sink into the cords. Only this time, there were several of them attached to him, and they were all currently near him – well within his communication range – so things got quite chaotic.

A flurry of different sensations rushed at him all at once, as he clicked Micky’s beak in annoyance, while struggling to hold his footing in the stag’s body, feeling Nesha’s chuckle in his throat as his girlfriend laughed at his cousin’s joke. At the same time, a bunch of complaints rang through his soul, his other clones clearly experiencing similar issues.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ ‘Call one of us back already!’ ‘It’s too many!’

Sighing, he navigated the network of cords, forcing his consciousness back to his main body. He turned back to the leopard by his feet.

‘You… The new guy… Drop the body. It appears six is our current limit.’

It wasn’t until a few seconds later that one of the wisps returned, slipping back into his shoulder. Only then did his soul stabilize again, allowing him to relax. Next, his lips curled up. He’d be lying if he said he wouldn’t have loved another slot or ten, but this was already more than he had expected. Going into the experiment, he had prepared himself to only get one more cord. As it turned out, the blessing had actually doubled his capacity!

Of course, one would still be permanently occupied by his familiar, but that still meant he could have five clones out at the same time! Before his advancement, he’d been stuck with one!

‘Like this, it won’t even matter that much that I lost a bit over a decade inside the Valley…’

If he could keep sending so many clones over the following centuries or even millennia, the few adventures he had missed out on would barely be a drop in the bucket. Granted, not all his slots would always be available. For instance, he planned to keep a clone in Micky for the foreseeable future, to practice their collaboration some more. He would inevitably have to tie up another into his wasp familiar, assuming he managed to create one. And that didn’t even account for whatever other things might come up.

On the flipside, it also meant he would likely get two new slots each time both of his cords advanced, rather than one. At Blue, he would have ten! It was still a mere fraction of what his grandpa had, but for Percy? This was an immeasurably valuable resource!

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‘Alright, come back everybody. The party’s over,’ he told the clones still occupying the beasts.

He’d kept them all nearby while he explored his new limits, so that he could retrieve them at a moment’s notice in case something went wrong. But it seemed he might be able to send a few outside the Valley anyway, after all.

Over the next few minutes, he patched up his injuries, allowing two of his clones to shoot off toward the stars. He kept the last slot available, however. Based on what Nesha and Elaine were discussing, it appeared the sixth cord might be needed on Remior soon.

But that was for later.

Right now, there was one more thing he wanted to do. Percy wasn’t planning to waste a single day before absorbing his second fiend! And he was a lot more confident about it too, compared to his previous attempt.

Last time, he had struggled to amass enough soul mana to attract a fiend all the way to Remior. He’d been forced to preserve several Orange and Yellow souls over a long period of time, having his familiar consume them all at once – along with a freshly killed Green, to supplement his own reserves. He’d even converted his pure mana, to give himself another edge. Despite his preparations, he had barely made it.

But a lot had changed since then.

Most importantly, Percy was currently inside the Thirsty Valley, so time flowed twenty times faster for him than it did for the rest of the universe. That alone should be more than enough to seal the deal. In addition, he had also advanced, and even upgraded his boosting art. The Ring of Sacrilege… or the blessing… or perhaps both… appeared to be irresistible to the creatures too. More so than regular soul mana, at least. Finally, Micky could get him a lot more soul mana from the Green beasts around the Valley.

‘Actually, it might be a good idea to hold back a little. I’d rather not attract a whole swarm of them…’

Pushing his boosting art to its limits, he spent some time healing all of his injuries, before inflicting a series of precise incisions along his soul. Next, he allowed the mana to spill out of the wounds, lacing it with all sorts of negative emotions such as pain and fear, making himself appear like an injured soul on the verge of death.

A grey mist permeated the area around him, drawing his companions’ attention. Though they didn’t say anything. Nesha and Micky had already seen him do something similar before, and they had his clones with them to explain what was going on.

Excited as he was to get another trait, Percy couldn’t help but turn to the wise god resting on his finger once more, asking him a few more questions about it as they waited for the fiend to take the bait.

‘By the way, Sol told me the type of fiend each person can get is fixed. I’m guessing you know some way to control it?’

‘The girl was right. Even if you forcefully absorb something you’re incompatible with, you’ll just end up with some debilitating injuries. If you’re lucky, that is.’

Percy frowned, having expected the god to know of some way to bypass that limitation. If this was the case, it raised a new problem.

‘Wait, so does that mean I’ll just attract another Argalios – or whatever it’s called? How would that even work? Is there any point to stacking the same trait three times?’

‘You’re unlikely to get the same fiend twice.’ Zoris explained. ‘Not necessarily impossible, mind you. I’ve seen it happen. But it’s extremely rare. The way it works, each soul is compatible with exactly one type of fiend at any given time. However, absorbing a trait alters your soul at a fundamental level, which makes you compatible with a different one. As for what you get? It’s up to luck. I’ve never heard of a way to change it.’

Hearing the god’s words, Percy exhaled in relief. Though he was still a little scared he might draw the short end of the stick through some cosmic level of bad luck. Regardless, Zoris’s explanation only made him more curious.

‘Then what about Sol? If absorbing fiends is so peculiar, then how did she manage to get a trait from my clone?’

A wave of irritation soon flooded his soul. And Percy even sensed some undisguised traces of envy mixed with it.

‘How should I know?! Do you think there’s anything normal about that bloodline of yours?!’

Percy shrugged. He did have a few more questions for the god, but he didn’t get the chance to voice them.

A bunch of silver objects glinted in the distance, approaching at a ridiculous speed. The globules still messed with regular sight and Mana Sense, but not Soul Vision. Though the grey mist around him obscured everything somewhat. Either way, his new fiend was clearly here. And sure enough, it had brought company this time…

Multiple tiny comets crashed into his soul, burrowing into his injuries. Percy winced as the creatures wormed their way through his wounds, and then his channels, tearing everything in their path.

But he didn’t panic.

Moving his mana around, he clamped down on them, stopping each in their tracks. A whopping seven of them.

And they all looked and acted the same.