Chapter 105: Mental Slumber

David looked at the pile of knowledge orbs and suddenly noticed something: not one of the thirty-five armored warriors had contributed even a single physical technique knowledge orb.

Could it be because they were civilian armored warriors, or because physical technique proficiency was the hardest of all to improve?

He had considerable doubts, but there was no one who could answer him right now. He had many questions, yet because he feared exposing the Shadow Servant's special abilities, he didn't dare ask others too much.

David was somewhat eager to enter Naan University—the best university on Bedrock Star, where one could be taught all kinds of knowledge regarding armored warriors. There, he should be able to find the answers he sought.

He shook his head and concentrated once more. He needed to truly begin fusing the knowledge orbs. He felt that now that his spirit had exceeded 5 points, he could fuse many more orbs at once.

In particular, those two previous knowledge orbs weren't knowledge-type orbs at all. If they were to be given an accurate name, they should be called attribute orbs, or talent orbs.

What he chose was, of course, the Bewitching Brainworm's Spirit Slumber ability. He commanded the Shadow Servant to channel Spirit Slumber (99% Mastery) into his body.

This time, before he could think about anything else, he was pulled into the illusion.

Within the illusion, he had an enormous head and a body utterly disproportionate to it—this was exactly the Bewitching Brainworm's body.

Beside the Bewitching Brainworm stood a human, staring blankly.

As before, David could perceive everything the Bewitching Brainworm sensed, but he could not control the worm's body.

The Bewitching Brainworm's spirit transformed into a strange pattern in the air. This pattern was completely invisible to the naked eye, yet through his connection to the Brainworm's senses, and the corresponding knowledge transmitted to him, David could clearly understand all the information related to this pattern.

This strange pattern was extremely complex—not as simple as it seemed to the senses. Although it appeared to be a single large, bizarre pattern, it was in fact composed of countless smaller, distinct patterns.

To convert one's spirit into so many patterns in an instant was an exceedingly difficult feat.

Not to mention the countless fine patterns—even someone naturally gifted with a powerful spirit would find it extremely hard to manifest even a single pattern. A powerful spirit and mastery over that spirit were two entirely different things.

The Bewitching Brainworm was a genius of spiritual mastery and soul domination. In its presence, even the elite armored warriors of the army had no power to resist.

The strange pattern flew into the human's body. David sensed the soul belonging to that human—it was a void, almost without resistance. Without taking any time at all, the pattern entered this empty soul.

According to the knowledge the Bewitching Brainworm transmitted, the general meaning of this strange pattern was the Slumber Pattern. David couldn't give a more precise interpretation, because the Brainworm taught him through fusing knowledge directly into his soul.

The language, understood through the insect race's way of thinking, was very difficult to translate accurately.

The Slumber Pattern dissolved into countless tiny patterns. These patterns seemed to come alive, absorbing the human's soul force and transforming it into another pattern. This was the Bewitching Brainworm's greatest ability: the Bewitching Pattern.

Once the Bewitching Pattern was formed, David sensed a thread of connection between himself and the human. He could directly control the other's movements, or issue a command—naturally, the command had to be something within the human's capabilities—and the human would then act according to it.

This was the secret behind the Bewitching Brainworm's ability to control other lifeforms. Precise spiritual control, combined with a mysterious inheritance, produced a terrifying effect.

David perceived the Bewitching Brainworm controlling the human through various actions, and finally even making the human commit suicide right before him.

Although he knew full well that this human was merely part of the illusion, David still felt a pang of sorrow. If not for his Shadow Servant, he would have ended up just like the human in the illusion.

After that human died, two more humans appeared beside the Bewitching Brainworm. This time, it demonstrated how to control two humans at once.

Then more and more humans appeared, and the Brainworm controlled them just as effortlessly.

Before long, an armored warrior wearing exoskeleton armor appeared beside the Brainworm, radiating fierce killing intent. Though he didn't attack, David could tell this was a peak-level armored warrior with an extremely formidable will.

Sure enough, when the Slumber Pattern entered his body this time, David sensed a soul unlike the previous ones. Within the warrior's soul void was something the other humans lacked: a wind—a wind composed of unyielding will and killing intent.

The Slumber Pattern's aggressive intent was not obvious, making it all the easier for the armored warrior to fail to resist. But once it transformed into the Bewitching Pattern, it met with fierce resistance from the warrior's soul.

The Bewitching Brainworm was in no hurry. Like a seasoned hunter, it slowly wore away the armored warrior's soul force. As time passed bit by bit, the wind of will and killing intent within his soul grew weaker and weaker.

Of course, during this process, the Brainworm was also expending its spirit. It was merely that the Brainworm's spirit was so powerful that even a peak-level armored warrior couldn't drain much of it.

At last, the armored warrior fell. He became the Brainworm's puppet, performing various combat movements.

Then more armored warriors appeared, and the same process repeated. The more warriors there were, the more the Brainworm consumed.

David didn't know how much time had passed—he could hardly perceive the flow of time, because most of the illusion was spent in conflict within various souls.

When David finally woke from the illusion, he wanted to try drawing the Slumber Pattern himself.

With that thought, his soul instinctively manipulated his spirit. The spirit transformed into countless tiny fundamental patterns, which then combined into a single Slumber Pattern. The process took David five seconds.

Although that was far slower than the Brainworm's almost instant activation, the result was already more than satisfactory to David.

In fact, while drawing the Slumber Pattern, he had already noticed the enormous gap between himself and the Bewitching Brainworm.

After drawing one Slumber Pattern, his spirit was somewhat depleted. If he dared to forcibly draw a second, what awaited him was an immediate loss of consciousness.

In other words, although he had mastered the ability of Spirit Slumber, he could only put a single enemy to sleep—he couldn't proceed to the subsequent bewitching control.

"Perhaps this is why the Shadow Servant named it Spirit Slumber rather than Spirit Bewitchment," David thought to himself.

This ability required his spirit to have reached 5.01. If anyone else whose spirit hadn't reached 5 points had learned it, they still wouldn't be able to activate it.

After all, to break through the shackle of 5 points for his spirit, he had consumed the soul energy of thirty-five armored warriors, two first-rank insectoids, and three second-rank insectoids—among them the Bewitching Brainworm, an insectoid with a powerful soul ability that should have provided far more soul energy than other insectoids.

It was only with that much soul energy that he had barely managed to break through the limit. He simply couldn't imagine what kind of encounters others would need to break through the spiritual shackle.

David stood up. Although using Spirit Slumber once had left his spirit listless, the lightness of his body and the sharpening of all his senses made him feel better than he ever had before.

He checked the time—it was already 7:30, time for breakfast.

He went from the basement to the dining room and sat down at the table. The intelligent butler Emma was busy preparing his breakfast.

David idly looked at the tabletop. His eyes could make out tiny specks of dust on the seemingly clean surface—though this required him to focus his spirit to accomplish.

Instinctively, he reached out to brush away the dust. But just before his hand touched it, he seemed to see the dust shift slightly.

In the past, he would never have noticed such a thing. But now, with his focus, he could perceive even smaller objects, and any subtle anomaly would immediately catch his attention.

"Must have seen wrong!" David felt a flicker of doubt. Then he guessed, "Or was it the wind from my hand?"

He reached out again, this time moving more slowly. Just as he focused his spirit on brushing the dust away, the dust shifted once more.