"Can I get the Tekur corpses for a while?" Michael asked the leading Warlock Centaur, who'd introduced himself as Zeron Polik after the fierce battle against the Tekur.
"You want the Tekur corpses? Why?" Zeron asked.
"I want to test something with my Soultrait. You know, the Soultrait that allowed me to read the memories of the war criminals? Sometimes, I can still read the memories and thoughts of the dead. I am not too sure how long the duration is, but it should be worth a try, don't you think?"
Zeron frowned deeply. He didn't really want to give Michael the corpses of the Tekur because some of them were the kills of the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs. Michael deserved some of them as his personal trophies, but all?
However, he recalled what Michael had done for their people and their leaders' words as well.
"As long as the merits of killing the Tekur are split fairly according to everyone's contribution I…we will be fine." Zeron answered, only for a Berserker from the side to add, "You can just return the corpses once you're done with your memory reading session, or whatever magic you're performing."
Michael was quite happy with that. It would be a little bit annoying to use Extraction in front of everyone without making it too obvious but it was not impossible.
He froze the ground around him using Glacicle and let sledges grow from beneath the Tekur. The sledges moved to him with a slight tug of origin energy.
"I will need full focus to complete my experiment. Please disturb me only if we're about to be attacked."
Once the corpses were handed over to him, Michael created a thick dome of Glacicle around him. The dome was thick enough to obstruct the curious mind from spying inside. Michael released the Dome of Extraction thereafter.
He began extracting the Memory Orbs, the treasures stored within their War Rune, their Artifacts, a large stash of SoulStar Fragments and two Soultrait Symbols. One of the Soultrait Symbols belonged to the Tekur with the mysterious staff whereas the other Soultrait was from the physically-enhanced Tekur.
The latter interested Michael quite a bit. However, he didn't even consider creating another soul socket in the Sphere of Light. The Soultraits were stored in the emerald box which disappeared in his War Rune alongside the other loot. Among the loot were Inferior Energy Stones and various other goods that none other than Michael could retrieve from dead Lords.
3100 SoulStar Fragments entered his consciousness where they were immediately used up to empower Spirit Gaze. Soon Spirit Gaze would advance to 6-Star!
Michael consumed the Memory Orbs he'd extracted from the Tekur, retrieved the Dome of Extraction, and shattered the dome of ice around him. He walked over to Zeron and handed over two Artifacts and the bodies of the Tekur they killed.
"I am done. Though I might need a few hours to rest. My mind is fuzzy and my energy storage hit rock bottom," Michael said, issuing a small lie.
His energy storage was not a problem. If anything, his mind was the issue. His mind was assaulted by a torrent of memories which Michael had to digest slowly to study the Tekur's Soul Technique training method.
Three hours passed in the blink of an eye until Michael got up with a heavy sigh.
"Can I use the Compact Light Soul Technique with Glacicle?" Michael wondered.
He had a good understanding of the Compact Light Soul Technique and even received the tome to Compact Light to study it properly. He had yet to use Extraction on the tome because he didn't want to destroy the Soul Technique. The tome might come in handy. But then again, Michael figured that he could just insert his knowledge into Memory Crystals if he wanted to share his understanding and knowledge of Soul Techniques.
He erupted the Dome of Glacicle around him once again and retrieved all Soul Technique tomes that he had extracted since the start of the Interdimensional Flag War. Michael didn't hesitate anymore. He unleashed Extraction and retrieved a Wisp of Knowledge from every Tome. The Wisps of Knowledge were pulled inside his mind where the information, knowledge, and comprehension of the Soul Techniques impacted like a weird mixture of all possible natural disasters at once.
Michael felt like he was slowly turning into a masochist given that he tormented his brain so continuously these days. Unfortunately, there was no way that he could allow his mind to take rest now. He could rest once the Flag War was over…or once he was dead.
'I saw everyone using their Soul Techniques clearly. Their energy circulation and the powers of their energy circulations are clearly etched in my mind. I can do it. I should be able to use Compact Light to turn it into a Compact Glacicle…or something along those lines!'
Michael licked his dry lips recalling how the Tekur had used his Light Sphere Soultrait to create bullets made from compressed light. That was the basic concept- Compress a Light Sphere into bullets using the Soul Power stored within the Soultrait.
The energy circulation of Compact Light allowed the Tekur to tap into the Soultrait Symbol of Light Sphere and intertwine Soul Power into his energy. The energy was then utilized to activate a Light Sphere and initiate the whole process.
All Soul Techniques started in a similar fashion. They tapped into the Soul Power stored in their Soultrait Symbols, channeled their energy through the Soul Power to intertwine some of it and circulate everything through the body in a specific order to fuse Soul Power and Origin Energy. Once fused, Soul Energy was created which could then be used to activate and overclock their Soultraits.
After that the last steps of the Soul Techniques would be followed with great precision and the attacks were released, wreaking havoc on their enemies.
'All Soul Techniques require a different amount of soul energy. It is very specific so I will have to test around a lot using Glacicle instead of Light Spheres. It should be fine after a while, but I don't even know how much stronger Glacicle will become once used with a Soul Technique, or how long I need to replenish my used up Soul Power.'
'Can I use the Soul Power of Extraction, or Roc Eyes to fabricate Soul Energy and activate Glacicle with that Soul Energy as well? Or is it necessary to use the Soultrait specific Soul Power? Can I strengthen Soul Techniques by using other Soul Power, or create new hybrid techniques? What about unleashing stronger attacks? Most Common Class Soul Techniques have only one or two utilities that require a very specific amount of Soul Power to be used. There is almost no way to create variations…'
Variations would be harder to control. Therefore, the Tekur Soldiers didn't learn them just yet. They were mere Soldiers and already had difficulties unleashing the Common Class Soul Techniques mid-battle. Their age and absence of talent was a clear testament to their lacking experience.
Meanwhile, Michael had loads of experience. It wasn't exactly his own experience, but he saw a lot, witnessed even more, and he got the feeling that it was worth trying out everything little by little.
Maybe he could overpower the Tekur in the next battle using a self-made, or altered Soul Technique?
But before Michael could do various tests using Glacicles, he had to learn how to fabricate Soul Energy. At first, it would be fine if the Soul Energy inside his body was produced slowly but to utilize Soul Techniques mid-battle, he had to learn how to create them in an instant without getting distracted.
Fortunately, the principle of producing Soul Energy was already engraved on his mind. He saw it often mid-battle with Roc Eyes and experienced the Tekur creating their own Soul Energy through their memories as well.
The Wisps of Knowledge and underlying comprehension Michael had absorbed from the Soul Technique tomes created another pillar of support.
Michael used Leviathan Diffusion to circulate origin energy through his body and channeled it straight into his Sphere of Light. The Sphere of Light was easy to target. It was much bigger and accumulated some of the excessive Soul Power his Soultrait Symbols released every now and then. Michael decided not to tap into Glacicle's Soul Power but to intertwine the Soul Power of the Sphere of Light with his Origin Energy.
The origin energy and Soul Power collided and clashed at first. That was normal and it was quickly resolved as Michael took control of both origin energy and Soul Power. He intertwined the two powers slowly and began to circulate them through his body using Leviathan Diffusion. His Enlightenment Mastery of Leviathan Diffusion was exceptionally helpful. It accelerated the fusion process and created the first bits of Soul Energy in no more than five minutes.
That was not enough to use it in battle, but Michael was satisfied. It was a pretty good starting line.
Michael continued to practice the production of Soul Energy. He didn't rush anything and fused more Soul power with Origin Energy within the next hour. As he got more adept at the most basic production method of Soul Energy, creating more Soul Energy became easier. It required less focus to fabricate Soul Energy and he could do other things simultaneously as well.
However, instead of multi-tasking, Michael's entire focus remained on Soul Energy Production. At least, until he'd accumulated enough Soul Energy to initiate experimenting with the Common Class Soul Technique aka Compact Light – just a bit altered.
One of the issues Michael had to pay attention to was Glacicle's characteristics. Every Soultrait had different characteristics. Light Spheres materialized spheres that dazzled like the sun. It could be morphed into any shape of his liking and wouldn't break easily either. Evidently light was very flexible. The same couldn't be said about Glacicle.
Glacicle was rather fragile and couldn't be shaped as Michael pleased. It had one particular shape and all Michael could do with it was to alter the size, length, and girth of that one standard shape. It was an Icicle whether compressed, elongated, or expanded to make it seem like a humongous wall.
The shape was a huge downside, which was also why Michael hoped to replace Glacicle somewhen. However, its strongest point made up for the downside of its singular shape. Glacicle could turn into freezing mist on command and revert back into Glacicles just as fast. The freezing effect and the freezing mist were what made Glacicle so special.
Michael believed that he could examine a lot with Glacicle and Compact Light Soul Technique, but he was not sure how long it would seize before he would locate acceptable results.
It was a gamble to experiment with Glacicle and possible incompatible Soul Techniques, but Michael was willing to seize the gamble if it could expand his strength significantly.
