Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

Mordred sat in a lotus position while his room was filled with multicolored telepathic thoughts colliding with each other.

According to his quasi-transcendental attainment in refinement-path, he could refine the seism iron ore in his possession to evolve Kasumi further, but knowing how to refine a material and actually refining it was a completely different matter.

In Holy Terra, there was no such thing as refinement-path. Refinement was just one aspect of a path, just like offensive, defensive, healing, et cetera. Therefore, Mordred’s original foundation in refinement-path was heavily influenced by his origin.

For example, [Micro-Soundfield Forge] utilizes vibration to produce heat to smelt materials. It was a sound-path method that covered the aspect of refinement.

On the contrary, Morgen world’s natives possessed a somewhat different refinement-path inheritance. One of the most obvious differences is that due to its maturity, refinement has become a true path. Refining material does not depend on melting or alchemical processes following a certain path, one could use myriad types of the naturally existing elemental particles and other magical phenomena in the world to help during the process.

In a sense, Morgen World and Holy Terra simply delved into a different path of civilization. One matures refinement into a brand new path, while the other deepens a path to cover the aspect of refinement.

The seism iron ore in his hand was the target of refinement, and as of now, Mordred does not have the capacity to refine it for Kasumi. One of the properties of seism iron was its ability to resonate with vibration. If Mordred uses his sound-path methods to produce the effect of refinement-path, the seism iron would quickly synchronize with the vibration, which only expends his energy while not giving any worthwhile result.

Simply, his methods are incompatible with the material.

However, it was only his sound-path method. There are myriad ways of refining a material not relying on his sound-path methods.

“[Hundred Lightning Strikes Refinement Array] has the highest success rate amongst other refinement techniques…” He deducted. “But I have to attract lightning strikes without protection, it’s too risky...”

Refinement-path of Morgen World was split into two major schools of thought, nature refinement and artificial refinement. Natural refinement was the utilization of natural phenomena to aid or even to fully complete the refinement process, whereas the artificial was completely the opposite, which uses the full effort of the refiners.

In his previous life, Mordred delved in artificial refinement due to his nature as a Magus. It's advantage was its utmost secrecy, there was little to zero exposure to the external world that would leave traces. During that time, he could endure the high resource expenditure to trade that information advantage.

Now, he has no other choice than to use natural refinement due to his lack of facilities.

According to his deduction, his enemies wouldn’t be able to relate his current figure to his former demigod true body. His true body’s self-detonation ensured the brave’s energy and effort would be funneled into containing the fallout and trying their best to collect inheritances what they can from the leftover corpse.

In addition, the true body’s time-path countermeasure could not be easily resolved by the wounded braves.  

With that being said, the risk of getting found out was mitigated for a few years, perhaps decades. The moment he was found out by the gods, the Sacred Alliance would definitely come to claim his head, but he would already be prepared for that inevitable day.

“I need to use all the mortal iron for the lightning attractor and forge some mortal steel for a special conductor and container for lightning elemental particles. Perhaps, I can also use this chance to lay down an evolutionary foundation for Kasumi…” his thoughts resume activity as more telepathic thoughts collide incessantly.

“Is it worth it to decrease the collective power of the kobold hunters for Kasumi?” a thought appeared in his mind.

…

Thunderpeak mountain is an enormous mountain that boasts a peak that pierces the clouds. During the downtime, no lighting strikes would occur, the clouds would be pure white with the occasional grey hue. At that moment, clouds move with torrential force around the upper stratum of the mountain, never leaving the periphery like soldiers guarding its king.

No sane beasts whatsoever, flying or grounded, would try their luck in hiking the steep peak that pierces the greyish clouds. Not only are the winds extremely fierce, capable of removing flesh from bones through sheer rotational force, the constant heavy downpour also reduces visibility and mobility. In addition, the exorbitant amount of lightning elemental particles in the clouds is highly unstable, capable of turning the fierce winds into localized lightning storms.

While gazing upon the dark clouds that rumble with thunderous sounds, Mordred was awed by the magnificence.

“Only rank 2 existences are capable of enduring the might of nature at this scale…”

Thunderpeak mountain could be separated into three main zones depending on its height. The lower stratum includes the foot of the mountain and has relatively flat elevating lands with a large amount of rocky hills decorating it. The middle stratum is mostly of rocky hills and elevated rock spurs, containing less amount of caves compared to lower stratum, but every caves that exist there would be deeper and bigger.

Mordred’s cave is located on the middle stratum near the boundary of the lower stratum. There are many flat lands, but most of them are rocky with the occasional trees.

As for the upper stratum, it was covered with the lightning storms, concealing anything past it. The lightning storms are too powerful, capable of interfering with all investigative methods Mordred has in his current state. Enslaved bats would be torn asunder by the thunder; it would be even more impossible for them to survive lightning strikes.  

The clouds that border the upper stratum and the middle stratum would only rain a drizzle during the storm’s downtime, but it would be an unceasing heavy downpour the moment the storms hit. The water that failed to be absorbed by the rocky soil would gather and form a natural water channel, becoming a network of small rivers.

At the end of the main river originating from Thunderpeak mountain was the wetland where the Bone Tusk lizardmen tribe lives.    

On the opposite side of the Thunderpeak mountain that faced towards the great forest, there was a pale white mountain with countless jagged bone spurs coming out of the ground which gives the name of the mountain, White Bone Mountain. The Bone Tusk lizardmen tribe was outcasts originated from that particular mountain. Needless to say, the mountain was a bone-path resource point. Ranging from milk tea fountain, colorful bone dust, bone particle soil, earth bone weed, bone teeth fruit and many other bone-path materials could be found there.

Mordred was not greedy after knowing the existence of White Bone Mountain. Bone-path was an unpopular cultivation path due to its restrictive nature. Despite his physical body being all bones, it wouldn’t be for long, his interest on White Bone Mountain was because bone-path material can be used in certain necro-path rituals in exchange of corpses, but he didn’t give much thought on it since he could produce necro-path resources himself by killing some kobold or goblin.  

“The universal elemental particle saturation is significantly less than what I remembered.” He performed a simple sound-path investigative method towards the air. “If my deduction is correct, then my current location is not within the central continent… that’s even better than I’d expected.”

In his lair, the main elemental particles that exist were earth and darkness. It was difficult to determine the true universal elemental particle saturation when the area is filled with mostly two elements. Only after he went out and examined the surface world’s elemental particle saturation level did he make an intelligent guess of his location.

The elemental energy level of the central continent is significantly higher than other areas, but so does the risk of his resurrection. The benefit was less than the risk because he did not cultivate elemental energy in the same sense like other cultivators. His elemental methods were merely mimicries through the use of refinement-path methods or artifacts personally refined by him. Without his artifacts, he mainly uses sound-path or soul-path methods.

His gaze shifted to a clearing. Kobolds were working during the unceasing downpour without a care of thunder strikes. The area was protected by multiple iron spikes connected to a special box through metal wires.

To make this quasi-magitek artifact, Mordred sacrificed almost all the non-essential metal tools in his lair. The craftsmanship was limited to the materials, but Mordred managed to produce the items he required, even if they barely fulfil his needs.

“Lord Nyx, the iron net is complete.” Grem reported, his body drenched.

Mordred nodded, “Get into position, the refinement process will begin soon. The storms will intensify in a few minutes.”

Every kobold present soon received Grem’s order, they went scurrying about towards the designated covers. The wires that tied around the iron poles were weaved into a net, not enough to cover the whole area but sufficient to link the 100 lightning attractors made out of mortal iron.

As if following Mordred’s deduction, the downpour was intensifying like flash flood, countless lightning snakes struck down the area.

“Every single one of these strikes could kill me outright, I need to start the refinement before the iron net melts…” he took the central position of the array swiftly.

The core of the array was six pillars covered by wires, the inhabitants of Holy Terra would call the core of this refinement array Tesla Coils. Surrounded by these tesla coils, Mordred puts the prized seism iron ore on top of a special pedestal. Soon, the lightning strikes began to assault his iron net.

With every lightning snake that strikes the iron net, the tesla coil-like artifact’s lightning elemental particle reserve was increasing.

Boom! One of the hundred iron poles broke down due to the intense current, but Mordred ignored it.

“Lightning elemental particle saturation barely reached 21% but the mortal iron is starting to break!”     

Thunderous rumbles reverberated from the storm-covered Thunderpeak mountain’s upper stratum. The decibels were so high that if a mortal was saturated without protection, not only their eardrums would burst but their heartbeat could also explode. Thankfully, the kobolds were hiding behind Mordred’s iron net; it was specially designed by Mordred to dampen sounds. The hazard from thunder was reduced significantly.

As more lightning strikes struck down, the iron net melts in various areas. Water droplets cooled down the iron net, but it instantly evaporated which increased the amount of water vapor. Water vapor is basically condensed water elemental particles; it has great amplification capability when paired with lightning. The synergy between the two made the thunder strikes becoming increasingly more powerful.

“Lightning Elemental Particle reserve is 72%, it’s less than I’ve planned but my array wouldn’t take it anymore, Kasumi, you have to go now.”

With a mental jolt, Kasumi slithered from Mordred’s skeletal body towards the pedestal. The seism iron ore was scorching hot due to the electric current, but it hasn’t reached melting point yet.

“Metallic Instrument Body Transformation 2nd form, [Voltaic Reverberation Metalmorphosis]!”

Liquid steel enveloped the scorching hot seism iron in a flash. The lightning elemental particles were used as materials to lay out the foundation for refining Kasumi’s slime core into lightning core. The white metallic core was slowly gaining blue hue around the edges, while her white body rose in temperature following the seism iron.

Through the follow ups by Mordred who activates [Micro-Soundfield Forge], Kasumi’s liquid steel body slowly assimilated the now-melting seism iron. In its ore form, seism iron has strong resonance capability, but now that it was consumed by Kasumi, not only did she gain resonant properties, the lightning elemental particles were infused in her body allowing her metal body to conduct electric current better.

“The base of the lightning core is in its early form, in the future, lightning-path materials can be assimilated into Kasumi…”

Boom! The lightning strikes lessened after the climax, most of the lightning attractor were melting, bent, or broken due to metal fatigue, whereas the iron net used to connect the iron poles had melted completely.

“Refinement process completed, the weather cleared out just as you predicted, Lord Nyx.” Grem reported in high spirit. The success of his master also grants him a sense of accomplishment. These feelings gushed forth from the bottom of his heart after two weeks of delay.

“Couldn’t have done it without your men.” Mordred answered while Kasumi slithered back into his body as if she was afraid of being exposed. “With this, we can begin the hunt, but first, recover your energy.”

“By your command.”

…    

Three days later.

Beasts and dangerous plants thrive in places where humans could not, this place was not an exception. From vines that resist lightning strikes, flowers that absorb lightning elemental particles passively all year long, or the powerful Twin-Horned Mountain Goat, every single one of them were powerful enough to inhabit the hostile environment. Yet, all of these are not the creatures that live on the peak of the mountain.

They were merely icing on the cake.

But, this icing was Mordred’s goal. The resources located on the peak of the mountain couldn’t be exploited without sufficient strength, even a mortal understands this simple logic.

A group of Twin-Horned Mountain Goats was roaming the rocky hills. Like any other beasts, twin-horned mountain goats possessed their own diet, they mainly ate current grass that absorbed lightning elemental particles passively. Thunderpeak mountain’s environment was rich in water and lightning elemental particles, the greenish-blue grass shone in faint electric hue.

During the night like these, the current grass field turned the boring darkness into a picturesque spectacle with its colorful bioluminescence light.

“Compared to the metal cities of Holy Terra, this world is incomparably more beautiful… but I need to find a way home.” Mordred suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia, but he discarded such irrelevant thoughts.

Myriad lifeforms lived in this area, not just the twin-horned mountain goat or the current grass. There are also flashfly that emit faint blue light, cyan current cicadas, echoing bald crow and many others. Fortunately, they were mostly herbivores, the meat eaters are currently absent in around the periphery that Mordred scouted.

Without the need to worry about other carnivores, the hunting difficulty will decrease significantly.

Especially with the evolved Kasumi.

“Lord Nyx, the hunters found a wounded adult as you instructed.” Grem reported with a low voice.

The current grass was tall enough to hide the two of them, but touching it electrocuted them lightly. That being the case, Mordred should be experiencing a painful sensation all over his body and soul but little did Grem know, Kasumi was accumulating electric current.

“Good.”

Grem hesitated, “My lord, are we really going to hunt the beast with just the support staff?”

He harbored the doubt for a long time after the Mordred refined Kasumi. The final plan to hunt a twin-horned mountain goat differed greatly from his expectation. The biggest disappointment was the lack of hunters in the front line. Almost all the retrieval team took the main role while the hunters are set way behind the combat area.

“It’s good that you have your own question, I’ll take this chance to nurture you in command-path. What do you think is the most important quality from an army?”

Grem took his time to ponder, “Strength?” he quickly denied himself, “It is important, but during my time in Magnur city, the kobolds have greater strength than the duergar, but it’s not enough to gain independence from them, nor to defeat the mineral-eating beasts.”

“Excellent thought process, you’re getting there.”

“Then, is it agility? An army has to possess a certain amount of swiftness to get where they need to be… but my previous experience in attacking lord Nyx was a failure. We possessed numbers and agility, but in the end, it was your supreme intelligence in defending that bent our knees. My lord, the most important quality of an army is wisdom!” He found enlightenment.

If Mordred has facial muscle, he will smirk. “Wisdom of a strategist is crucial, yes. But do you think discipline of an army is less influential in a massive battle?” He asked.

Grem recalled the military training he received and compared it to the time where the goblin army held out way longer than expected during his attack on Mordred’s lair. The goblins were indeed a bit stronger than kobolds but the overwhelming number advantage could not be ignored. The fact that the goblin army could defend from such an onslaught was a miracle, at least in his point of view.   

“Think of this matter from another angle. You must consider all aspects of an army. Let’s discuss two armies of similar quality engaging in a war with each other. Army A entered a battle with army B, they possessed the same number of soldiers, the same quality of top-tier expert, having equal level of strategist, their equipment quality had no noticeable difference and having an equivalent terrain advantage. Which one do you think will win in a direct engagement?” Mordred’s voice was like a doting father teaching his son.

As if already knows Grem’s inability to ponder this kind of deep and complex matter, Mordred produced a purple telepathic thought and sent it to Grem’s sea of consciousness.

“Rank 0 wisdom-path soul art, [Wisdom Amplification: Deduction Will].”

The moment Grem received it, his thinking process was amplified greatly.

“It’s hard to say which one will win. If their overall power was about the same, then… I don’t know. Please enlighten me, my lord.”

Despite the accelerated thought process, Grem was unable to get a clear answer. He lacked the fundamental military officer training that Mordred wanted, but he wanted to fill that aspect.

“If the power of two armies are equal, the one who wins the war is the army who possesses better logistics.” He explained. “Without supplies, an army could not function normally. That’s why in advanced empires, wars are fought not only by armies clashing against each other, but they will also try to sabotage their enemy's supply line.”

Grem took his word to heart, paying deep attention to every single one of his words.

“Imagine a 10.000 army that could only feed a tenth of its members. What do you think will happen?”

“Famine?” Grem was inexperienced in leading more than several hundred underlings, but he realized the severity of the problem.

“Correct. First, hunger. Morale will gradually fall as more members will desert. An army without discipline is a useless army. Soldiers will revolt, chaos will ensue, and an opening will be made. If utilized properly, their enemies could get them in one swoop. The fall of an army’s supply lines is the start of its downfall.

Of course, you can also ponder the possibility of an army exhausted the method to maintain their equipment, the result won’t be too far off. In the future, I want you to keep these ideas in mind: how to generate, stretch, protect, and attack opposing party’s supply lines are the most important quality for an undefeated army.”

“Especially in extraplanar invasion… but that’s a lesson I’ll teach you in the far future if you become a rank 1.” He whispered to himself expectantly.

Mordred continued mentoring Grem. “Now back to your first question, I did not put the lives of the support staff in danger. I wanted to teach you how modern warfare is fought. When supply lines are well defined and defended, an army’s capability will soar through various methods.”

At this time, Kasumi sent a telepathic message to Mordred. “Perfect, my preparation is ready. Tell the men to get into position, after that, stay beside me. I wanted to open your eyes to the vastness of the world.”

“Understood!” Grem faithfully did the tasks.

Soon, the hunter groups get into their designated location. The support staff with their ropes, nets, and dismantling knives were prepared but confusion and doubt plastered upon their faces. Every single one of these support staff received minimal combat training, their combat effectiveness was extremely low, especially with the tools in their hands. However, none were complaining or fighting against Grem’s order.

Back in the backline, Grem’s eyes shone in questionable light. He was wondering why Mordred took a prone position.

“My lord, the old and wounded beast is protected by the young and healthy ones. I don’t think it’s possible to attack them with our support staff.” He voiced his opinion.

Mordred did not answer. Sending a mental command to Kasumi, she slithered out of his body and performed a transformation-path method. Soon, the liquid steel slowly turned into a 4-meter long staff.

“[Magitek Transformation: Misaka Mikoto]” a cold and feminine yet artificial voice resounded from the liquid steel.

The steel staff slowly turns into something that does not resemble a staff. At first, two smaller sticks protruded from the middle part of the staff, piercing the ground to stabilize itself. The staff split into two smaller staff that were connected with each other through multi-layered rings. On Mordred’s part of the staff, myriad complicated parts started to morph.

In the end, Grem failed to recognize what the previous liquid steel had turned into. At first glance, it appears to be something which has a similar shape to the gun devices that the Duergar have forged, but the craftsmanship and refinement style was too different compared to the duergars.  

“Misaka Mikoto, reporting for duty.” A voice reverberated once again from the now-transformed Kasumi.

“Begin charging, load Heavy Concussive Sonicround. Activate aim-support. Synchronize our senses.” Mordred held Misaka Mikoto in his arms, while a scope was in line with his empty eye socket.  

“Command confirm. Accumulating electric charges.” Misaka Mikoto shone in a faint blue hue as electric current ran through her body.

“Rendering [Heavy Concussive Sonicround] spell formation… Activating sniper-pattern lens… Rendering visual data to host... Calibrating atmospheric pressure, wind speed, and auxiliary environmental data.”  Misaka Mikoto reported with a calm mechanical tone.

Mordred senses were refreshed, filled with true visual information instead of relying on his hearing. Large amount of data was gathered and processed by Misaka Mikoto, conserving Mordred’s thought expenditure in exchange of her own. The wandering twin-horned mountain goats under the night sky, the countless small water droplets falling from the sky, greenish-blue electric light coming out of the current grass, and many others, all laid bare in his sight.

“Proceed according to the plan, bait our hunting target.” Mordred ordered confidently.

Discipline has drilled Grem into moving according to his orders. With a whistle, the kobold support staff threw the bait to the target location. The lure was a wrinkled clothes covering a mixture of current grass and other constituents that aroused the goat’s appetite. The beasts were naïve and possessed no resistance due to their lack of experience in encountering lures, they were led to a clearing.

“Air resistance… minimal. Gravity and earth curvature deviation… minimal. Auto-correction enabled, target acquired. Electric charge, full. [Heavy Concussive Sonicround] spell formation… render completed. Preliminary target analysis… analysis completed. Comparing information to databases… Warning: estimated damage potential is less than target defensive capability, unable to terminate target. Activating Voltaic Resonance… Voltaic Resonance activated. Potential damage amplified. Calculating new data… calculation completed. Warning: estimated damage potential is less than target defensive capability.” Misaka Mikoto reported coldly.

“The amount of seism iron and lightning elemental particle charge is less than I’m comfortable with.” Mordred muttered with a matter-of-fact tone. The structural integrity of Misaka Mikoto would not be able to support more than one shot in a short period of time. “That’s why I have to be present and amplify the damage potential for a one-hit kill. [Quadruple Maximize: Overlapping Resonance], [Quadruple Break: Sound Barrier], [Quadruple Acceleration: Supersonic].”

Multiple soul art formations rapidly formed within Kasumi’s body. “External soul art amplification detected, compiling amplification spell sequence… compiling completed. Inputting new environmental data… input completed. Calculating potential damage… Damage potential exceeds target defensive capability. Warning: spell activation compromises weapon durability.”

Mordred’s eyes were locked at the unsuspecting beast. The goat’s horns were glowing with blue electric charge, trying to feed upon the lures.

“Grem, let me show you the weapons of the civilized.” As Mordred pulled the trigger, a Heavy Concussive Sonicround was released by the body of Misaka Mikoto that went through multiple amplification. The sound-path spell was amplified both by her own resonant ability and Mordred’s auxiliary spells.

The sound barrier was broken; a burst of vapor was released by Misaka Mikoto, followed by her solid body exploding into countless metal fragments.

Sonicround surpass the speed of sound on air, the beast could not predict that it was aimed by a lethal spell. In a split second, the magic projectile reached its target. The twin-horned mountain goat’s head suddenly shook as its eyes explodes and ejected brain matter. The skull of the beast was intact, but the concussive force of the spell liquefied its brain, killing the beast near instantly.

“The sound of my shot will alert other beasts. Collect our prey and retreat.” Mordred ordered as he picked off some of the metal fragments stuck on his skull.

The kobold hunters were shocked, but seeing the dead beast, the retrieval team moved automatically without waiting for orders.        

Grem was still shocked at the power of Mordred’s method. It has to be said that even rank 1 kobold from Magnur city couldn’t kill a late-stage rank 0 beast like the twin-horned mountain goat in one hit. However, after seeing the price to pay it, Grem sighed. It took a significant amount of resources to refine Mordred’s weapon, yet it was gone after one shot.

“Did you think Kasumi was that weak?” Mordred chuckled when he heard Grem sighed. As if to mock Grem, the metal parts that went scattered everywhere began to melt in an eerie way. Then, the liquid metal slowly slithered towards Mordred. “Let’s return, our job here is finished.”