Guild Wars

Chapter 1289: Mind Force

AN: Smallwood cheese, don't think I can't see you there! You can't hide from this father forever!! Come and let me lick your boots!!

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Draco's reaction was quick, roaring in his fury as he released a wave of Mind Force indiscriminately from his crystal, consuming about 1% of the energy within. He did not do this intentionally, but it was more of an instinctive reaction for defense.

"Ahhh!"

"Guuh!"

Two screams were heard as the bearers of those cries were blasted backward powerfully, digging two trenches into the ground of this wasteland planet. Their forms were revealed to be Shuangtian and Eva, naturally the two connected to Draco, and could sense his breakthrough in real-time.

The two beauties, who usually looked pristine and untouched by the mortal world, were now bedraggled and resembled paupers by the roadside, their clothes ripped into rags.

Eva was completely beaten down, her body cracked in several places just like Draco had once been, while Shuangtian struggled to push herself into a sitting position, about to speak when a mouthful of blood came spurting out.

"Holy shit!!"

Draco jumped in shock, never intending to harm his own soulmates so severely.

Whether it was their attack or his retaliation, it was their usual roughhousing and way to spice up their life. Eva and Shuangtian would pretend to rebel and cause trouble, where he would initially succumb, then suppress them before a threesome of debauchery would occur.

That was why he had only used 1% of his Mind Force and not more of it. It was supposed to gently push them back, and they left their defenses open, all to facilitate the play.

Who would have thought this would be the outcome?

Draco quickly rushed over to the duo and unleashed the full extent of his bloodline power to heal the two of them as he cradled them in his arms with a worried expression. Shuangtian was the first to recover as she closed her eyes and channeled her own Titan Goddess branch, which was the former Undying King Inheritance that made even low-purity bloodline members be like weakened wolverines.

Her regeneration was fast since the attack Draco released was not yet on the level of Origin Laws that could pervade and cause lingering harm. By the time Shuangtian opened her eyes, Eva's cracked body was mostly restored, and she seemed to be coming to as well.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked with worry, making Shuangtian smile.

"Not bad. I haven't taken such damage head-on in a long time. This Mind Force is truly marvelous!" Shuangtian exclaimed, not caring about the harm she took, being a true power-hungry maniac.

Draco then turned to Eva, who had opened her eyes, looking bleary like a person who had been rudely awakened from a long nap.

"Ughh, say that for yourself. My physical defenses are not as strong as yours…" Eva complained as she clutched her forehead, as if she was having a headache.

With her awake now, she also channeled her Creation Branch and almost instantly restored herself back to perfection, sighing with lingering fear. She then nodded in agreement with Shuangtian, her eyes gleaming sharply.

"Mind Force… an apt name, Draco. This power is essentially a condensed form of mental power that was previously dispersed and chaotic. It is clean, systematic, and can grow further!" Eva exclaimed with excitement.

Seeing that both were fine, Draco was relieved. He chastised himself and made sure not to use untested powers on people until he got a full grasp of the mechanics and rules behind it.

With his mind clear, he could inspect the Mind Force crystal deeper and noticed many things about it. He and his two beauties, still lying in his arms, connected their minds together to observe and test this new power.

After countless hours of testing, using various methods and using their bloodlines to poke and prod in order to see the depths of this power, they came to a preliminary understanding.

Mind Force.

This was the name given to this power, which was a perfect condensation of loose mental power into a solid form.

Mental power had been touched on, but inspecting Mind Force made the Evil Trio tremble as they realized that their understanding had previously been too shallow, limited by their lack of information. It was akin to a farmer boy setting out on a journey while already having power akin to the Demon Lord.

The more he progressed, the more he learned about his own power.

Likewise here, Draco had initially had a correct idea. Mental power was coalesced from the cumulative mental power of any sentient being. However, one thing he had not understood was that mental power greatly varied, far more than he previously thought.

The mental power of the Evil Trio was plentiful, sourced from their rebuilt bodies, their two lifetimes of memories, their strong souls, their psychic ability, Control, and their various bloodline branches that boosted mental ability.

Why this was important was the fact that it must be mentioned that when Draco first introspected and saw his mental power, he saw it as a plentiful gaseous fog that was stationary, like a sea of clouds.

This was NOT how it worked for other beings!!

This is very important to note!!

First of all, not everyone could introspect mental power. You needed to have a certain level of power, at least being Rank 4 or 5 in terms of overall power or have some sort of mental talent like psychic ability or mind power like what conjurers possessed.

Second of all, even if you could introspect, you would enter to see that your mind power was probably a scattered bunch of loose threads spread haphazardly over the place. Your first hurdle was not even condensing or refining it like Draco did, it was to gather it into one central location before moving forward.

This was the state of mental power for a normal person.

Then came the most important hurdle, which had stumped Norma for many years during her mortal stage, significantly expending her lifespan, which was to increase the total amount of mental power. This was what troubled all people who walked the path of Mind Force in the Eternal World, unbeknownst to the Evil Trio.

The demand on the quantity of mental power for condensation into Mind Force was extremely high. Most spent their time practicing meditation, eating special foods, or using treasures and tough training methods to increase their total mental power.

Knowing this, the absurdity of the Evil Trio was clear, wasn't it?

They had never introspected before when they easily could have, only caring about mental power recently when Draco found that he needed it for Refinement's perfect ascension rather than relying on shortcuts.

When Draco did see his mental space, not only was all his mental power neatly concentrated in one area, it was so plentiful that what should have been mere tiny threads formed a sea of clouds, so thick that even some Origin Gods of mind-related laws would be left envious.

So he directly eliminated three introductory steps, which were Introspection, Concentration, and Cultivation. He jumped right to Refining, turning his vast mental power into Mind Force bit by bit.

Or did he?

We all know Draco's aim was not to make any Mind Force, but to simply turn the gaseous cloud into liquid then upgrade Refinement. It was completely unintentional that he would hit some sort of barrier and breakthrough, causing a reverse reaction where his liquefied mental power became the solid Mind Force.

It was akin to a Foundation Establishment cultivator who had no idea about the Golden Core realm, persistently increasing his magic power day and night until one day, his dantian couldn't help but complain and transform into a core, elevating him to the next life level.

The credit for this went to Refinement.

When normal practitioners cultivated mental power, they would condense liquid right away, then accumulate to a certain point before undergoing practiced methods to turn it into a solid form. One's mental power only existed in a gas-like state when they first began.

So Draco, who had a sea of unrefined gas mental power, used the tyrannical Refinement method to refine his mental power, a byproduct of his practice, into liquid. When that liquid reached a quantity that was far too much, far beyond what a person needed to condense Mind Power naturally, the laws of reality had to literally step in and force it.

Hmm…

TL;DR: You could take it as the difference between a skinny person and a fat person trying to become muscular. The skinny person's main trouble was building up meat and then training that meat into muscle. The fat person already had the meat, so when they started training, they would inevitably gain the muscle once the fat was lost.

But that referred to the base talent. Experience tales with мѵʟ

As said before, Refinement was the MVP here, not the sea of mental power. There were actually a lot of creatures in the universe that were born with crazy amounts of mental power. Look at the Devil Race of Boundless, for example. The kind of mental power Zaine or Loki had might not be as plentiful as the Evil Trio's, but it was definitely not small.

However, what all of them lacked was a way to turn that mental power into liquid at a fast pace. Many techniques exist to not only generate mental power but to refine it into Mind Force, but none of them were nearly as fast or effective as Refinement.

If the best technique accessible to other Mind Force practitioners in the vast universe were to be seen as F-class, then Refinement is SS class!

If you showed a genuine Eternal who had condensed the Seed of Law to become the Eternal Talent of Mind Force Draco's gas-like mental power, they would exclaim that he was a talent not seen in a million years, feeling deeply amazed.

However, that would be it. Their reaction would be of pleasant surprise and envy, with some wishing to nurture the next generation.

However, if you showed them Draco's Refinement of his mental power while practicing Refinement, they would stand up in shock and roar that it was impossible! Any benevolence would disappear as they would rush to snatch the technique from Draco, employing any means necessary to seize it!

Refinement was a big reason why Draco, without actually trying or using proper techniques, could still turn mental power into Mind Force. If just polishing one's mental power could elevate them like this, then who in the eastern fantasy world would need a cultivation technique, for example?

Just absorb spiritual energy endlessly and watch yourself break through to become an Immortal Emperor!

So that was the origin and growth of Mind Force accounted for. Now, the more important question was the features and characteristics of Mind Force that separated it from others, and what it could be used for.

Well, through the testing so far, the first use they had discovered was something that shook them greatly, making the Evil Trio breathe heavily.

Mind Force was actually able to replace willpower and mental force!

What does this mean?

It meant that, forget the Spirit state, forget State of Being, with enough Mind Force, you can do all that it could do and far better! Going based on their own Semi-Eternal stats, just 1% of Draco's current Mind Force could replace the effect of 100,000 Spirit and be stronger than the Legendary Rank equivalent of the State of Being of a top 10 race in the main plane!!

Spirit was crucial to players because the human state of being was ironically tied to Control. This was why Draco could affect Worldly, Aetheric, or Divine energy with his Control as early as the first few moments after his regression.

Since most players did not have Control, they needed to use their Spirit stat to communicate with the world. Mages needed it to turn Worldly Energy into mana, which affected their MP Regen the higher the stat was. Melee players needed it to use special techniques that required external energy infusion.

The game's stat allocation was not nearly enough for players to enjoy, so Spirit was something always in high demand. And yet, just having a smidgen of Mind Force was enough to surpass some True Gods of non-top 10 races in terms of external energy control?