“Sel-sis, what’s wrong?” Cecilia Ross hurriedly helped Selim Nutrisk up.
Selim weakly waved her hand, signaling that she was fine.
She panted heavily, spitting out the monster soul she had just forcefully swallowed.
『Soul Devour』 was even more formidable than she had imagined—no wonder it was a class only non-human beings could take.
Not only could it absorb souls to restore herself, it could even read memories from the souls of others.
Just now, she had tried to follow the memories of the one-eyed frog monster to gather some information.
Instead, she experienced firsthand the monster’s way of thinking, even its memories of devouring humans.
Those inhuman memories made her physically nauseous and she retched.
Still, it wasn’t without gain.
Within the fragments of the monster’s memories, she clearly saw a segment of ominous Green Finger Bone floating above an altar built of stacked, gleaming white bones.
As expected, the appearance of these monsters was undoubtedly connected to that Green Finger Bone.
If she reported this information up the chain, would that mean they could finish this Trial?
To test that idea, they would need to return to the Town first.
Seeing Cecilia’s still-worried expression beside her, Selim took a deep breath and said, “It’s nothing, just a side effect of one of my abilities.”
“That’s good, I thought that monster hadn’t finished with you yet.”
Hearing Selim’s response, Cecilia finally relaxed.
Selim held the monster’s soul in her hand, her face showing a hint of frustration.
She’d hoped to use 『Soul Devour』 to get more benefits, but reality proved she had been too optimistic.
A Moonlight Level soul… is not something you can just get your hands on.
Thinking this, Selim couldn’t help feeling it was a pity, but compared to the mental pollution caused by the mixed fragments of souls on the battlefield, a complete soul felt no different than being forcibly possessed by someone.
If I carelessly devour whole souls, I’ll probably go mad first.
Forget it. As a veteran Player of this game, she had other ways to gain power—there was no need to insist on such a shortcut with such a heavy side effect.
If I can’t obtain it, I’ll destroy it.
Selim began to squeeze the soul in her hand, planning to completely destroy the monster’s soul and salvage a bit of soul residue as nutrients.
“Special condition met. Extracting power to award to target.”
Just as she was about to act, an emotionless mechanical voice sounded in the air, just like the prompt when entering this world.
“Cecilia, did you hear that?” Selim immediately looked at her companion with alertness.
“Yeah, I heard it. Is it giving us a reward?”
“Yeah, I heard it. Is this giving us a reward?” Cecilia was both surprised and uncertain. “But Father and Teacher never mentioned a reward settlement in the middle of the Trial.”
Cecilia’s confusion was exactly what Selim was feeling now.
Normally, only by excelling in the challenge would one get extra rewards—there would never be a settlement in the middle.
It was almost like the start of phase two of a quest.
Suspicious by nature, Selim even wondered if this was someone’s scheme, just like when she was mistakenly sent into the Luminous Level Transcendent world for her assessment.
The background voice didn’t stop because of their questions.
Soon, two rays of light shone around them.
“Reward extraction in progress… Extraction complete.”
On Selim’s status panel, the skill icon for 『Soul Devour』 suddenly turned into a question mark. After a moment, 『Soul Devour』 reappeared before her in a new form.
『Soul Devour: Allows you to devour any form of soul and draw nourishment from it to strengthen yourself.』
That’s what the old 『Soul Devour』 was like. But the new one had a small line added at the end.
[New] Allows you to draw power from other souls and temporarily solidify it as part of your own strength (0/1).
Selim had just been vexed about the Moonlight Level monster soul, and now she had the means to handle it.
It was all too coincidental, as if someone had deliberately arranged everything.
This made Selim hesitate.
Fortunately, she wasn’t the only one who’d received an upgrade—she could compare with Cecilia.
“Little Cecilia, can you tell me what reward you got?”
Just regaining her senses from the light, Cecilia giggled mischievously and said to Selim, “Sel-sis, attack me with your tentacles once and you’ll know.”
“With my tentacles? Attack you?” Selim raised an eyebrow—this was the first time she’d heard such a strange request.
“Mhm.”
Since the other party insisted, Selim didn’t hold back—she couldn’t disappoint her companion.
A few translucent soul-tentacles quietly emerged like vines from beneath Cecilia’s feet, winding up along her skin.
In the next instant, the tentacles tightened, and Cecilia was hung upside-down by Selim’s control.
“Ah! Not like that, Sel-sis!”
Fighting the sensation of the tentacles squeezing her skin, Cecilia flailed to hold down her fluttering skirt, cheeks flushed red as she tried to maintain her ladylike dignity.
“Sel-sis, stop bullying me! Put me down!”
Seeing her companion’s disheveled appearance, Selim clicked her tongue with some reluctance and released the tentacles. Cecilia landed lightly on the ground.
“Sel-sis, you meanie.” Just after landing, Cecilia looked slightly aggrieved.
“Who uses tentacles like that?”
“Huh? They don’t? In my homeland, that’s exactly how we use them—I learned it from Boss Maple Commander.” Selim met Cecilia’s gaze, showing not a shred of guilt.
“Right now, in this body, it won’t work…” Cecilia muttered so quietly that only she could hear.
“Hm? Did you just say something?”
“N-no, nothing.” Cecilia quickly waved her hands. “I was saying, Sel-sis, try whipping me with your tentacle like a whip!”
“What if it hurts you, little Cecilia? I’d feel bad, you know.” Selim threw in some timely concern.
“Trust me, Sel-sis!”
“Alright, but be careful.”
Selim whipped a soul-tentacle at her, hard.
Pa!
The tentacle seemed to hit an invisible spring wall and was forcefully bounced away.
A layer of faint blue diamond-shaped shield flashed in front of Cecilia and vanished.
“Sel-sis, look! Isn’t it awesome?” Cecilia jumped up proudly. “This new talent is called 『Mana Aegis』. It’ll automatically use mana to deflect attacks when I’m completely off-guard!”
Seeing this, Selim nodded in approval.
“Not bad at all. This talent is huge for you—it’ll cover your defensive weakness.”
In her memory as a Player fighting against **Cecilia Ross, she’d never seen this ability before.
Looks like the wings of this butterfly—that is, herself—had stirred up some change.
Since there was no problem with the ability itself, there was no need to let go of this prize right in front of her.
『Soul Devour』 activated—she intended to solidify one of the monster’s abilities.
『Soul Devour complete.』
『Would you like to solidify ability: Soulwhistle Arcane Shot』
Selim selected yes, and the skill slot beneath 『Soul Devour』 was filled with Soulwhistle Arcane Shot.
She eagerly clicked open the skill description.
『Soulwhistle Arcane Shot: Condense a ball of energy imbued with explosive and armor-piercing effects. Can consume extra soul force to boost damage; the increase depends on the amount of soul force spent.』
Selim suddenly realized—wasn’t this the move that just blew her to bits earlier?
Now, this power was hers. It would definitely become a nasty surprise for her enemies.
Selim couldn’t help but feel delighted inside.
“Sel-sis,” Cecilia tugged at her sleeve, eyes full of curiosity, “now it’s your turn—what reward did you get?”
Revealing her cards wasn’t Selim’s favorite thing, but faced with Cecilia’s clear, expectant eyes, her guard softened.
In her heart, she already regarded Cecilia as a trustworthy companion.
A ball of eerie green energy silently gathered and spun in her palm, radiating a sense of danger.
“Look, this is my new ability.” Selim held the energy orb out to Cecilia.
“Sel-sis, this thing…”
“It looks like what that big frog spat out of its mouth…” As if afraid her words would upset Selim, Cecilia spoke rather cautiously.
“That’s right, it’s that ability.”
“There’s no good or bad to a power—if it ends up in my hands, it’ll naturally be used differently.” Selim was not the type to abandon power just because its source was unsavory.
Otherwise, she’d never be able to devour souls so casually.
“Mhm mhm!” Cecilia nodded vigorously, then her unusual train of thought took over again. “Then Sel-sis, try hitting me with it? Let’s see if I can block it!”
Selim couldn’t help but laugh, at a loss for this silly girl’s offbeat requests.
Boom—
With a flick of her wrist, Selim tossed the Soulwhistle Arcane Shot to a patch of empty ground. It exploded in a cloud of dust, and at the same time, she flicked Cecilia’s smooth forehead with her finger.
“Don’t even think about that again. After all…” Watching Cecilia squat down holding her forehead, Selim continued, “Hurting little Cecilia is something I could never do.”
“Liar…” Cecilia grumbled, rubbing her forehead. “If you flick again, I’ll really get dumber, you know.”
Selim held her hand out in front of Cecilia.
“If you get dumber, then let me take care of you.”
“But for now, let’s have our big hero Cecilia return to her loyal Town to greet the cheers of the crowd.”
Cecilia unhesitatingly placed her hand into Selim’s palm, gripping it tightly, and corrected, “We’ll go greet the cheers of the crowd together.”
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