Chapter 103: A Huge Harvest

If David had not been so dazzling during the insectoid invasion, Kush would never have begun to suspect an ordinary student.

At first, the man he suspected was Hans, along with the network of connections behind him. By Kush's judgment, the greater likelihood was that Galen's underlings had been the ones to act.

But once David's true sniping ability was revealed, Kush immediately sensed how important David was to the whole affair.

To be frank, although David believed he had handled everything perfectly at the scene, he was still no professional, and many details had escaped his notice.

Under the meticulous scrutiny of someone like Kush, how could there possibly be no clues at all?

The further Kush investigated, the more certain he became that he was on the right track.

So he decided to seize David and interrogate him. He believed that with his interrogation skills, David would have no way to keep anything hidden.

If David had been an ordinary student, then even without the insectoid invasion, Kush could have used the authority in his hands to bring him to the police station and question him there.

But things were different now. David had slain three second-tier insectoids and dozens of first-tier insectoids, practically saving Peran City single-handedly. The news had swept through the city like wildfire.

The military had no intention of covering it up. It was a tribute to a hero, the honor David deserved.

If Kush dared to bring David to the police station now without proper cause, he would face the fury of the city's citizens. Even his fellow officers and the Department of Justice would stop him.

He had only just arrived in Peran City. His footing was not yet secure, and he had no means of moving against David.

"Maybe I should find some help," Kush murmured.

He entered an address into his personal terminal. After several verifications, he gained access to the Bedrock Star Cybernet Interstellar Mercenary Job Board.

Officer Bob was also in the police station, and his mood was far from good. It was not because of the insectoid invasion. A matter of such magnitude had no direct bearing on a police officer like him, whose duty was to preserve the city's security.

Anyone who had been told, just before a promotion, that the position had been taken by a parachuted-in newcomer would feel terribly frustrated.

Kush was the one who had taken his chance at advancement. Bob had worked hard at the lowest levels for years, accumulating a great many merits before finally earning this promotion opportunity.

But now all of that was no longer his. Kush's arrival had shattered his chance, and the next time such an opportunity came along, there would be even more rivals within the police station. Whether it would ever be his turn again was anyone's guess.

Officer Bob cast a covert glance toward the office of the senior officer. Kush had just arrived and was already working overtime, apparently eager to make an impression. Bob could not help thinking this with a trace of malice.

He looked over the cases in his hands. None of them were important. Perhaps he could keep a closer eye on Kush and find some petty way to undermine him.

On the mercenary job board of Bedrock Star, a kidnapping contract had appeared. If not for the fact that the price was as high as five hundred thousand credit points, almost no mercenary would have taken such a job.

Mercenaries came in many varieties. Interstellar mercenaries, with their own attack ships and formidable combat power, were only a small minority among them.

Most mercenaries worked as private bodyguards, guarded and escorted goods, or even helped with surveillance photography and tracking down lost pets. Their lives were hardly glamorous.

Of course, mercenaries did not take only lawful jobs. They also accepted gray-market work, but with a kidnapping contract like this, most of them would still need to think twice.

Five hundred thousand credit points, however, was enough to make some mercenaries set aside their misgivings. There were plenty of greedy souls among them, and Kush knew exactly how to tempt them.

David slept soundly through the night. When he got up at six in the morning, he felt refreshed and clear-headed.

The stiffness that had lingered in his body was gone, and every part of him was brimming with vitality. The injuries he had suffered in yesterday's battle had healed completely.

He went to the underground gym and began practicing the Eighteen Forms of Combat Arts, one form at a time with great care. Although he had not trained the night before, his brush with death seemed to have given him new insights into the practice.

The power within his body was gradually becoming more unified. At his present state, it would probably not be long before he broke through the shackles of his strength.

"Shadow Attendant, come here," he commanded in his heart.

The Shadow Attendant drifted over from the side. Excited and agitated, David reached out and pressed his hand against its shoulder.

He clearly remembered how many souls the Shadow Attendant had absorbed during yesterday's battle.

Two first-tier insectoids, the Rift Flyers; two second-tier insectoids, the Armored Rockworms; one second-tier insectoid, the Bewitching Mindworm; and the souls of thirty-five civilian soldiers.

The other dead insectoids and soldiers had been too far away for it to absorb their souls.

But even these were already a tremendous harvest.

"Shadow Attendant, open the status panel," he commanded again the instant he felt a warm current entering his soul.

By his previous reckoning, each civilian soldier contributed 0.1 spirit, so thirty-five of them would amount to 3.5 spirit.

Added to that were two first-tier insectoids and three second-tier insectoids, not to mention the unique abilities each of the thirty-five civilian soldiers had possessed.

David could hardly wait to see what this harvest had brought him.

A thread of warm energy flowed into his soul, and the spirit attribute on the status panel climbed visibly before his eyes.

3.73, 3.74, 3.75. The numbers kept rolling upward, and David felt his mind growing ever clearer.

Soon, his spirit reached 4.99. Like a bottleneck had been struck, it stopped increasing there.

But the soul energy absorbed this time by the Shadow Attendant was far too great, and the feedback to David was even more substantial.

Ever since he had obtained the spiritual seed of Mental Piercing, he had been able to perceive his own soul clearly. Now that perception had become even sharper.

His soul, which had once seemed like a stretch of emptiness containing only a single sprout, now had a brick appear within it.

It was a brick the color of the stone unique to Bedrock Star. Perhaps in David's subconscious, only the stone native to Bedrock Star was truly the hardest of all, and a brick made from it would be the hardest brick of all.

The warm energy that continued to pour in first formed a single brick, then a second, then a third.

These bricks were not shaped by David's conscious control. Instead, they formed automatically according to what he had seen and heard, following the safest architectural pattern his mind could devise.

David did not know what was happening. He did not know how much time had passed before a structure appeared in his soul: a building entirely made of gray-white bricks, its outward form resembling a military fortress.

In the depths of his subconscious, this style of construction represented safety itself.

Meanwhile, the sprout was sheltered within the brick fortress. The instant the fortress was completed, the void-like, infinitely vast soul rapidly contracted and all of it flowed into the fortress of bricks.

After that, David's perception of his soul entered the fortress as well. From the outside, the fortress did not seem large, but once his awareness went inside, he sensed an extreme vastness.

It was a strange feeling. He could clearly see the walls, the roof, and the floor all around him, yet the space inside did not feel limited by what he saw. Instead, it gave the impression of being boundless.

As the last trace of soul energy entered the fortress, the spirit value on his status panel changed from 4.99 to 5.0, then to 5.01, and finally settled on that number.

This value was a far cry from the spirit level he had imagined. His soul had automatically transformed a vast amount of soul energy into a fortress.

David opened his eyes. He could feel that his vision and sense of smell, which had already surpassed those of ordinary people, had been enhanced once again, and his hearing had sharpened as well.

He was sitting in the underground gym, which should have been a very quiet place, yet he could hear the footsteps of passersby on the street outside the house, the movement of hovercars, and even the sound of the wind.

His sense of touch had also changed. When his fingers lightly touched the clothes on his body, the fine fabric of his home wear revealed itself in exacting detail under his perception. He could clearly feel the lines of warp and weft, and even discern the subtle difference in thickness between the threads.

It could be said that the world he now perceived was utterly different from the one he had seen before.

"So this is the benefit of a powerful spirit?" David murmured.