Even without the Celestial Planetarium, Kain's spiritual power still increases by around 5 points every night if he puts in the work, making it currently at 912 SP.
However, since he'd left the wilderness, Bea's spiritual power has not increased at all.
Bea's ability to absorb spiritual power directly from brains has allowed for them both to make rapid progress. Now Kain's SP is far higher than most of his peers who formed a contract days before him.
But, once there are no suitable targets around to hunt, the speed of Bea's growth greatly decreases.
Kain started to think back on all of the times he was in the wilderness, the fights he had, as well as even some of the relevant info in his textbooks to see if there was anything he was missing that could help Bea.
That's when he suddenly had a crazy idea.
However, it can be said that there is a fine line between genius and crazy.
When Kain had first bound to Bea, she already had some spiritual power, indicating that she had to have already infected multiple living things…such as the mercenary that first made him go looking for her…and himself.
He also happened to just receive a new method of increasing his own spiritual power absorption quickly.
He was confident that Bea would be able to absorb spiritual power from human brains, he's just not sure if the contract would prevent her from doing so, as it would be harmful to her contractor.
However, he still had some reservations. If Bea would end up causing long-term damage to his mental strength so close to the exams, it'd be too late to regret his decision after not being admitted to his school of choice.
"Although…if this plan works and I can get Bea to red-grade spiritual power. That would accomplish one of my missions and I can afford to buy the temporary boost for mental strength."
"System, could you help me assess this plan's feasibility?" He asked now that he had some insurance in place.
He crossed his fingers that this analysis was not beyond the AI's capabilities or that another system upgrade was needed to unlock such help.
*Answering Host. Prior to binding, the Brain-Eating Amoeba did absorb the Host's spiritual power. However, the contract's effect on this ability would need to be assessed by the Host himself*
Kain nodded and communicated his idea with Bea.
At first, Bea seemed hesitant. However, given her simple intelligence, she quickly followed her instincts once given permission and infected Kain.
Kain laid down in his bed to avoid injuring himself from falling and closed his eyes.
Within 30 seconds he felt a dull ache behind his eyes.
'This is uncomfortable but not as bad I thought…'
However, this idea quickly changed as that dull ache grew to what felt like dozens of nails being hammered into his head
"Argh!" Kain quickly bit onto his pillow to avoid making more noise and worrying the others in the orphanage.
'Kain, make sure you have those reports on my desk by next morning'
'The guy next door is an idiot! How could you break a $300,000 machine?! That's why no lab should hire undergrads'
"Mmmm…. Go away…I know none of you were real"
He covered his ears to block out the hallucinations with voices from his past life as a college student, but it was useless.
By the five minute mark, he didn't think he could remain conscious. The fact that he could even last this long was likely due to some resistance being provided to him via the contract.
*ALARM! IT IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED THAT THE HOST IMMEDIATELY STOP HIS CURRENT ACTIONS*
*IT IS SENSED THAT THE HOST'S CONSCIOUSNESS IS FADING. ACTIVATING FORCED RECALL OF CONTRACT*
The System's alarmed voice was the last thing that Kain heard before losing consciousness.